A collection of thoughts of motivational speaker and philosopher Swami Sukhabodhananda
At the end of one of my programmes, a lady danced for three hours in sheer celebration. Then she came and sat next to me and told me how happy she was. As she was drinking coffee, the beverage spilt on her beautiful saree. Immediately, she screamed, saying her joy from the three-hour dance was gone.
Looking at this incident, I learnt that three hours of happiness was invalidated by a sorrow lasting for a few seconds. If our mind can work like this, the reverse is also possible. The three hours of sorrow can be invalidated by a few seconds of joy.
Looking at this incident, I learnt that three hours of happiness was invalidated by a sorrow lasting for a few seconds. If our mind can work like this, the reverse is also possible. The three hours of sorrow can be invalidated by a few seconds of joy.
Life has all the ingredients. Be creative. Don't let yourself feel victimized. You might think that what is easy is beautiful; that what is easy is joy. You are a victim of such illusions. Difficulty has such a joy. Discovery has such a joy. Seeking out has such a joy.
You have to change the notion that difficulty is pain. In exercise, there is difficulty but also joy. In sports, there is difficulty but there is joy. In your relationships, when there is difficulty, treat it as joy. Just reprogram your mind.
You have to change the notion that difficulty is pain. In exercise, there is difficulty but also joy. In sports, there is difficulty but there is joy. In your relationships, when there is difficulty, treat it as joy. Just reprogram your mind.
If one interprets difficulties as pain one experiences them as pain. If one interprets difficulties as opportunities to grow, one will experience a great power within.
When God gives us problems, it is to humble us and not to tumble us.
Fear of loss exists in one who has not seen the joy of what one has.
Contentment in life does not depend on great wealth but in living wisely.
The future is an illusion and the past a history. To be alive and grateful to the present is wise contentment.
Often, we are unhappy not because life is causing unhappiness but because of our opinion of how life should be.
We touch the earth using the physical foot, we touch life using the psychological foot.
A life lived as a slave to mind is a life in hell.
Trust that when one door closes, another opens. This optimistic outlook takes the worry out of the sight of a closed door.
Swami Sukhabodhananda Thoughts on the Ego
There was an egoistic king. Once when he went to the forest to hunt, he met a sage. The sage was deeply engrossed with his eyes closed. The king said, ‘I have fought so many great emperors, won over many lands and have annexed them to my kingdom.
My treasury overflows with riches that I have brought from various places. In my palace, there are many wonderful and pretty women from different regions, at my beck and call, ready to please me. Yet I am not happy. When will I become happy?’
The sage, opening his eyes, screamed at him, ‘You will be happy only when I die!’ and went back to meditation. In a rage, the king drew out his sword to kill him, saying, ‘I am a great king! How dare you insult me thus?’
The sage opened his eyes again and said, ‘You fool! I did not mean myself when I said ‘
Hindu scriptures mention God as ‘Ananda’ meaning ‘joy.’ The word ego could be expanded thus – Edging God Out – that means, moving God or joy away from us is the state of ego.
In Hindu tradition, people break coconuts in front of God to symbolize breaking of ego. While breaking the coconut, we indirectly signify to ourselves, ‘Oh, God! I am breaking my ego – ‘I’, in front of you!’
Just as sweet water comes out of the broken coconut, so does joy emerge when one surrenders his ego.
In Hindu tradition, people break coconuts in front of God to symbolize breaking of ego. While breaking the coconut, we indirectly signify to ourselves, ‘Oh, God! I am breaking my ego – ‘I’, in front of you!’
Just as sweet water comes out of the broken coconut, so does joy emerge when one surrenders his ego.
Swami Sukhabodhananda
Swami Sukhabodhananda Thoughts On Prayer
In prayer you don't have to do anything; just be available to God's grace. Prayer is a deep readiness to receive God's flow. It is passive alertness. Go deep and you discover your original mind... it is deep passiveness.Swami Sukhabodhananda On Passion
Live your life with passion. Edmund Hillary, the first to climb Mount Everest with Tenzing Norgay, had faced failure thrice, earlier.
Later at a party hosted in his honour in
Our lower self is jeevatma and the higher self is Paramatma. One can operate from either level. Operating from the higher self consistently generates enthusiasm.
Any situation viewed as threat is an example of one involving the lower self that operates as an obstructing thought. The higher self operates as a supporting thought.
When our psychological immune system is weak, we are prone to perceive external situations as dangerous or as obstruction. It only calls for strengthening the psychological immune system so as to be powerful individuals.
How do you make it powerful? Just like how we make the physical body powerful by right exercise and diet, so too, the psychological immune system can be made powerful by not allowing the lower self in us to operate...instead we should encourage the higher centre to operate in our daily lives.
Swami Sukhabodhananda Thoughts on the Bhagavad Gita
The whole message of the Gita is remove your “Shoka,” your sorrow, and the message is that the sorrow is eliminated if you remove the cause of the sorrow. What is the cause of the sorrow? – The cause of your sorrow is delusion and therefore the essence of the Gita is eliminate your sorrow by removing the cause which is delusion. When delusion is eliminated sorrow is eliminated.
The verses of the Gita are not only concepts – they are great words but unless you convert them into your experience, it is not going to help.
One of the biggest symbols of the Gita is of a person, who is in deep sleep, and the trumpets are blowing and the drums are beating and still this man is snoring. And there is a divine ladder from the earth to heaven that can be climbed, so trumpets and drums are playing loudly to wake up the sleeper but he is sleeping. The teaching of this symbol is that we are all asleep, and the Gita is like a divine ladder, which tells you climb from worldly living to divine living.
Swami Sukhabodhananda
Source – Book – Personal Excellence Through The Bhagavad Gita By Swami Sukhabodhananda