A collection of wise sayings, thoughts and wisdom of Sadhu Vaswani.
True renunciation is not reached by a sudden wrench of the will, but by progressive surrender of the self or the ego at the feet of God. It is the ego, the personal self, which is the seat of desire and attachment. This personal self is an ever changing flux of experience: it is a whirlpool, and must go! It must be totally eliminated, annihilated.
True renunciation is not reached by a sudden wrench of the will, but by progressive surrender of the self or the ego at the feet of God. It is the ego, the personal self, which is the seat of desire and attachment. This personal self is an ever changing flux of experience: it is a whirlpool, and must go! It must be totally eliminated, annihilated.
The mind and the senses must be purged of likes and dislikes, must be cured of all impurities and longing for enjoyment, before the man is prepared to tread the path of knowledge or wisdom.
Wisdom may lead to rigid isolation in a cave or forest, when what is needed is not outer but inner detachment from the maya of life, the shadow-shapes of things which come and go. This inner attachment is his who does not run away from life but girds himself for the battle of life, for work, for action.
The quantity of food you take should fit in with requirements of your health and your power of digestion.
The food you eat should be such as has been obtained by fair and honest means.
Excessive fasting too must be avoided. Fasting does good both to physical and spiritual life but only when it is regulated.
He who would attain to meditation walks the middle path. He is a man of divine discipline, and so takes the mean between indulgence and asceticism. He maintains moderation in eating and recreation, in sleeping and walking, in exertions of actions, in speech and silence, in labor and rest. His day-to-day life shows the absence of excitement and nervousness, of indiscretion and idle talk, of indulgence and self-torture. He knows no excess in action.
Even the good things of life, friends, loved ones, riches, health, knowledge are but flowers and fruits: he receives them as gifts from the Purushottama to strengthen him in his pilgrimage: but he does not forget that his goal is God. Even the most precious things of the world have to be passed by, left behind to reach the Home. He is a vairagi. All things perish: but Krishna is Eternal. Such a man does his daily work, but he had gone beyond “duty” to Nirvana, the Great Mystery of Illusion and adoration.
The divine men are fundamentally spiritual. They are jivas who, living in this world, are not swayed by maya. They remember the pledge of purity they took in their true, their spiritual Home. And in this world they show, in their thoughts, aspirations and actions, that desire (trishna) does not dominate them. They walk the way of yoga, keeping themselves detached from bhoga. They show, from their very birth, tendencies of the dive way of life. They are gifted jivas: they bring with themselves gifts divine. These they express on the plane of maya. They manifest the glory of the divine life.
Do thy duty without attachment. So mayst thou reach the Ultimate Truth, the Supreme. Work without anxiety about results. Emancipated souls do not shirk work. They do not insist on not performing action. They do whatever comes to them. Unattached work is not a cause of bondage.
The truly wise man should do his duty in a spirit of detachment, making work as an offering to the Lord, and so let the unenlightened see how work may be transformed into the joy of self offering to God.
Don’t disturb the beliefs of men. Don’t try to unsettle their minds. Remember that true conversion is of the heart. And se to others the example of doing duties allotted to you in a spirit of dedication to the Divine Will.
True emancipation, is not through a forced isolation from life, but through inner detachment from the lower impulses and appetites, from trishnas and carvings of ego.
The mind is, so often, united to the senses. The mind must transcend the senses and be united with the buddhi.
Mind should be purified through selfless action and through inner detachment.
Sadhu Vaswani
The mark of a truly spiritual man is tranquility – Sadhu Vaswani
Much of the this life, as lived by many, has little meaning. It is pursuit of the petty, the passing. It is machine-like. Let it obey the Spirit, be an instrument of the Atman, and it will glow with a divine meaning.
The problem of life is the problem of Ascent. How to rise from the empirical to the Divine?
The way to light is the way of detachment and dispassion. It is true sanyasa.
Transcend forms or appearances. The only real life is the life of the spirit. The “empirical” has its value only in the measure in which it reflects the Atmic life.
In meditation the aspiration must be firmly directed to the One Lord, otherwise the practice of meditation will give rise to visions and psychic illusions. It is the knowledge of atman alone that is important.
Union with God is never achieved by the unaided personal will of the jiva. God must come to the help of man before man can attain to Nirvana. Yes, you must practice concentration. Yes, you must still the mind by will power. But something more is necessary. You must surrender yourself completely, absolutely to the Atman, and God’s grace must descend upon you before you are blended with the Self. This blending is moksha or liberation.
The man of meditation attains to self-restraint and so knows no pain produced by actions of the uncontrolled, pain due to restlessness, discontent, self-reproach, grief, anger and fear.
Freedom from all attachments is essential for union with God. The jiva must renounce attachment to money, possession, property, attachment to house, family, country, must renounce all earthly affection.
Private affections and preferences imprison the jiva.
Not merely must we resist running after vishayas, sense objects: we must have no relish for them. The will-to-live in God means the will to possess nothing, to have nothing, to be nothing. In being nothing, is the greatest blessing of the jiva.
Detachment is a sacrificial act: detachment means surrender of the little self. You may renounce wealth and comfort: but you do not practice detachment until you renounce the “ego.”
Renunciation of obligatory works and daily duties is improper. Dana, tapas, and yagna are prescribed duties. They are not a source of bondage for they purify. They must not be renounced. Such renunciation springs from delusion.
Tyaga is threefold – tamasic, rajasic and sattvic.
True tyaga is sattvic, it is tyaga of attachment and fruit.
In Tamasic tyaga, the man is dominated by moha, delusion, ignorance and attachment.
Tamasic tyaga is of the dark type.
Rajasic tyaga does not lead to liberation, for in this tyaga you give up to avoid pain or trouble or strain.
In true tyaga you take up what duty bids you do. You perform actions but unmoved by gain, you act impersonally.
Doubt blots out the guiding stars. Doubt fills the soul with despair. Doubt obscures the light which guides.
The essential thing is faith. Faith is Shraddha not blind belief in a creed or sect, but firm aspiration to gain wisdom.
And in addition to faith, you must have mastery over your senses. Master your senses: let them not carry you away. Let the sails of aspiration bear you swiftly to the deathless.
All bondage is sin. Not only bondage of unrighteousness but, also, the bondage of self righteousness, of conscious virtue, of ahankara which says “I am virtuous! I am good! I am Pure!
Sadhu Vaswani
The mark of a truly spiritual man is tranquility – Sadhu Vaswani
Perfection is Siddhi. And Siddhi is not attained through external sanyasa (renunciation). By going away from the world to a forest or a mountain peak, you will not get siddhi.
Tranquility of mind is the secret of Siddhi. The test of a man of siddhi is two-fold
- He is a man of great discipline of tapasya, self-control; he has controlled his tastes and appetites.
- He has reached a state of self-annihilation, fanna. He has learnt the science of “killing the ego.”
Two of the ways to attain siddhi are:
- Negate the mind
- Negate the world
To lay the mind in tranquility, it is necessary to negate the world. A man of meditation should say to himself: Money, house, family, wife, sons, daughters, position, influence, honor, all these belong to maya, are impermanent: alone the Atman abides! This conviction should sink into the mind.
The man of meditation should see that he does not feel perturbed by the stream or currents of conflicting thoughts which pass through his mind. He should be like a sportsman and take things not too seriously. True meditation should make one joyous and radiant, vibrant and vital.
Negative thoughts are not helpful. However, to negate the world and the mind is a positive act of energy.
The mark of a truly spiritual man is tranquility, deep profound tranquility in mind. A truly spiritual man is undisturbed by events of life.
Source – The Bhagavad Gita: The Song of Life – Sadhu Vaswani – Page 121 and 122 – an explanation to Gita Chapter 3 verse 4.
Sadhu Vaswani on Sattvic Eating Ideal for Spiritual Life
Excessive eating must be avoided. It is a wrong conception that the more you eat, the stronger you grow. Over-eating is devitalizing and it disturbs the proper circulation of breathing. Over-eating is one of the surest means of breaking brahmacharya. Over-eating interferes with one-pointedness of your inner consciousness.
The quantity of food you take should fit in with requirements of your health and your power of digestion. And the food you eat should be such as has been obtained by fair and honest means, not purchased with corrupt money, nor secured by causing pain to God’s creatures. The food should be sattvic and pure.
Excessive fasting, too, must be avoided. Fasting does good both to physical and spiritual life, but only when it is regulated.
So, too, recreation, should be regulated. It should be indulged in only to the extent it is necessary to refresh you, and it should be innocent in character.