A collection of quotes and teachings of Swami Hariharananda. Source - Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali by Swami Hariharananda Aranya
How easily we forget that we live in the Divine Presence. Our existence, power, desires, thoughts and actions are rooted in this presence. How many of us are aware of this truth, this knowledge?
We have a personal library within. All we have to do is go inside and help will come.
Meditation teaches you how to return to the central consciousness from where all wisdom flows.
Meditation does more than clean the mind; it purifies your cells.
A blind man cannot give instructions regarding anything
concerning the visual properties of objects, so the teachings of a person who
has not himself realized truth, cannot relate to any realizable principle.
Men with minds dominated by the principle of Tamas, lack the
ability of discrimination between right and wrong and engage in vicious act or
acts which cause great unhappiness. They are deluded and have wrong knowledge
about the nature of ultimate reality.
What is a clod of earth today becomes a pot tomorrow. In the
pot the earth is not destroyed; only the earth has changed form and is existing
in the form of a pot.
Happiness or sorrow cannot be controlled by itself; it is to
be eliminated by shutting out valid cognition etc. which give rise to them.
Swami Hariharananda Teachings on Meditation
In
India I have noticed that the traffic policeman stands in the middle of the crossroad. He signals to the moving cars, trucks, and all the other vehicles, keeping order in the moving traffic. He never cares whether a black car, a red care, a white car, a German or Italian truck, a limousine or a jeep passes by. He signals where they want to go.
So be a policeman and start watching your thoughts coming and going. As you stay centered and watch over your moving thoughts, a certain space will clear between you and them. Learn to expand that space or that gap between your thoughts. That is meditation, nothing else. Only you can expand that gap and free your mind.
The situation comes when you yourself will observe your body. You will ask, who is thinking? You will notice that your watchfulness in now paying off. You are becoming the Seer of your body and mind.
Release all your possessiveness just as a snake sheds its skin, never to return. The body is no longer a burden. Freedom is then around the corner. One day you will be fully free from this body.