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Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals :Ch-6. Part -4.

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Chapter-6. Lord Sri Krishna – The Purna-Avataram Part-4. On the other hand, the birth of the Atman is a deathblow to the senses, and the slumbering of the prison guards at the time of the advent of the Lord may be, in a way, compared to the death of the senses at the time of the birth of Divinity. Kamsa represents the ego and all his menials the represent the senses. All these were put to rest at the time of birth of Lord Krishna. Hence, the Bhagavadgita says, "Ya nisa sarvabhutanam tasyam jagarti samyami, yasyam jagrati bhutani sa nisa pasyato muneh": The night of the ignorant is day for the sage, and vice versa, the night of the sage is day for the ignorant. The Atman is something quite different from what we regard as very dear to us, notwithstanding the fact that we have been told, again and again, that It is the deepest Reality in our personality. All this teaching has remained only a theory for us. We have always been pampering the senses and fo

Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals :Ch-6. Part -3.

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Chapter-6. Lord Sri Krishna – The Purna-Avataram Part-3. Bhagavan Sri Krishna, the full Avatara, the complete manifestation of God, is the object of our worship, prayer and meditation on this day. This has a very special relevance to our own personal lives, and its meaning for us is naturally the meaning that is implied in our relationship with God. We have heard from narrations recorded in the scriptures like the Srimad Bhagavata, that Bhagavan Sri Krishna was born at midnight. The darkest part of the night is midnight, and that was the hour of the birth of the Lord. This divine advent took place not at the commencement or at the fag end of the night, but in the thick of the night, midnight, which from the point of view of our own personal Sadhana-life is reminiscent of the conditions under which God would reveal Himself in our own lives. God did not reveal Himself in daylight, but in the dead of night. The spiritual connotation of this, from the point of view

Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals :Ch-6. Part -2.

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Chapter-6. Lord Sri Krishnan – The Purna-Avataram Part-2. We only express a little of our thought, a little fraction of our understanding and a partial form of our energy as would be necessitated by the nature of the particular context. Likewise, God never manifests Himself wholly unless the occasion is of such an intensified character as to call for such a manifestation. Historically speaking, the circumstances at the time of the advent of Bhagavan Sri Krishna were such that a complete manifestation of the Divine Energy was called for. We have an idea of what God is and what His total energy would be like, from the point of view of our own humble imaginations, which is, of course, comparable to the idea that a frog in a well may be entertaining in its mind in regard to the Pacific Ocean. That may be the idea we may have in our minds of the total energy of God. Nobody can say what it is. Anyhow, we can understand what 'totality' means, at least in a gra

Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals :Ch-6. Part -1.

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Chapter-6. Lord Sri Krishnan – The Purna-Avataram Part-1. The Jayanti of Bhagavan Sri Krishnan, also known as Sri Krishna Janmashtami, falls on the eighth day in the dark fortnight of the month of Bhadrapada (August-September). The observance of this holy day and the performance of this sacred worship to the great Incarnation is a symbol of an intensification of our soul's yearning to come nearer to God as much as possible. Bhagavan Sri Krishnan is regarded as Purna-Avataram, which means the full Incarnation. Avataram is 'Incarnation', and Purnam is 'the full'. He is considered to be a complete manifestation of God, not a partial expression of the power and the glory of God. The power of God is never fully manifest anywhere in the world. It is always manifest or expressed in some percentage as the occasion demands, even as we ourselves, in our own individual capacities, for instance, do not put forth our total energy at any time of the day.

Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals :Ch-5. Part -18.

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Swami Sivananda Chapter 5: Sivananda – The Fire of Sannyasa Part-18. To him we pay our obeisance by directing our thoughts and contemplating on these eternal values, and by proclaiming once again, in the same tone and intensity of feeling and fervour, that the goal of life is God-realisation. Everything else follows in the wake of this acceptance, as a shadow follows the substance or, as they say, the tail follows the dog. One need not separately tell the tail to follow. All the things of the world and all values that are regarded as covetable in life will come in abundance and in plenty, if we accept from the bottom of our hearts that the goal of life is God-realisation, for which ideal Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj lived and sacrificed all his life. Such is his Sanyasa, such is his Vedanta, and such is his teaching for our practice. May his Grace be upon us all! END. Next : Chapter-6. Sri Krishna – The Purna-Avataram Swami Krishnananda To be continued  .

Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals :Ch-5. Part -17.

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Swami Sivananda Chapter 5: Sivananda – The Fire of Sannyasa Part-17. The Isavasya Upanishad adds: “Ma gridhah kasya svid-dhanam.” Covet not the things of the world. Do not ask for things which do not really belong to you. The things of the world do not belong to you, because they are unreal. How can unreality belong to you? Therefore, do not ask for the things of the world, which are untrue. Renounce all false values with this awareness that God indwells all creation, both movable and immovable. This is, in some way, the quintessence of the gospel of Divine Life which inspired the teachings and the writings of Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj. Swami Krishnananda To be continued  ....

Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals :Ch-5. Part -16.

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Swami Sivananda Chapter 5: Sivananda – The Fire of Sannyasa Part-16. When our substance or being commingles with our consciousness, there is a manifestation of delight, ananda. But, in possessing things, in grabbing objects and in coming in contact with the temporary, fleeting values of the world, we do not come in contact with Reality, rather we flee from Reality. The more we believe in the reality of objects, the farther we are from Truth or Reality. The more we come in contact with things, the more also are we unwittingly running away from the Reality of God. The more we ask for pleasure from the objects of the world by sensory contact, the more is the pain that we invite from them, because all sensory contacts are sources of pain, for they have a beginning and an end. Contact with objects is the opposite of contact with Reality because while objects are external, Reality is Universal. So the more is the contact with objects, the lesser is the contact with Real

Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals :Ch-5. Part -15.

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Swami Sivananda Chapter 5: Sivananda – The Fire of Sannyasa Part-15. The Isavasya Upanishad says, “Isavasyamidam sarvam, yat kincha jagatyam jagat.”— Whatever is moving or unmoving, sthavara or jangama, whatever is visible or invisible, all this is indwelt by the Supreme Being of God. The Upanishad also says, “Tena tyaktena bhunjithah.”—Here is the seed of vairagya and sannyasa at the very commencement of the Isavasya Upanishad. It says, “Renounce and enjoy.” Enjoy by renunciation, not by possession. The enjoyment that comes by renunciation is more intense than the enjoyment that comes by possession of the things of the world. That satisfaction or pleasure or enjoyment which seems to come to us by the acquisition of the objects of sense is a pain that comes to us in the guise of satisfaction. But that joy which comes to us by renunciation is a real and permanent joy. Why is it so? It is because renunciation is the relinquishment of false values, the abandonment of