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Sri Swami Sivananda
Born on the 8 th September 1887, in the illustrious family of Sage Appayya Dikshita and several other renowned saints and savants, Sri Swami Sivan
anda had a natural flair for a life devoted to the study and practice of Vedanta. Added to this was an inborn eagerness to serve all and an innate feeling of unity with all mankind. Though born in an orthodox family, Swamiji was broadminded and catholic, pious and devout.
His passion for service drew him to the medical career; and soon he gravitated to where he thought his service was most needed. Malaya claimed him. He had earlier been editing a Health Journal and wrote extensively on health problems. He discovered that people needed right knowledge most of all: dissemination of that knowledge he espoused as his own mission.
It was divine dispensation and the blessing of God upon mankind that the doctor of body and mind renounced his career and took to a life of renunciation to qualify himself for ministering to the soul of man. He settled down at Rishikesh in 1924, practised intense austerities and shone as a great Yogi, saint, sage and Jivanmuktha.
In 1932 he started the Sivanandashram. In 1936 was born the Divine Life Society. In 1948 the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy was organised. Dissemination of spiritual knowledge and training of people in Yoga and Vedanta were their aim and object. In 1950 he undertook a lightning tour of India and Ceylon. In 1953 he convened a World Parliament of Religions. He is the author of over 300 volumes and has disciples all over the world, belonging to all nationalities, religions and creeds. To read his works is to drink at the fountain of wisdom and grow spiritually.
The Three R’s of Sivananda Yoga, viz.,
- Righteousness.
- Renunciation.
- Realisation.
.…are dealt with in sparkling detail in this volume.
A FOUNTAIN OF SIVANANDA YOGA
FROM SIVANANDA JNANA-GANGOTRI
Swami Venkatesananda
A day with Gurudev Sivananda is better spent than a year in the study of scriptures or a life-time in a library. A word—always appropriate to the occasion, and to the person addressed—a look, a smile, an action seemingly trivial—all these are (and only they truly are) ‘Living Scriptures’. The inner truth which scriptures often hide from the gaze of the immature: the easy path to God-realisation which the complicated mind of the ‘modern’ man, fails to see: the fountain of wisdom which the educated man’s vision, blinded by the cataract of faithlessness, fails to perceive—are revealed like the apple on one’s palm, by a simple word from the Sacred Lips.
For a period of just over two years, Gurudev had granted me the boon of gathering these pearls of wisdom, as they fell from his lips. Those were the years of hectic divine life activity at the Ashram, too. They were the years during which the Ashram and the Divine Life Society had just emerged from their ‘teething troubles’ and the Mission began to take shape. Gurudev’s pronouncements of this period, therefore, assume the importance of a divine gospel. With open eyes and ears and with the mouth shut,—Oh, it was a joy, a privilege, an unrivalled education to hear him, to hear more, and to hear nothing else. One who heard him, one who saw him, one who had spent an hour with him, would exclaim with Sage Alavandar ….
Tava-Amritasyandini Pada Pankaje
Niveshitaatmaa Katham-Anyadichchati
Sthitheravinde Makarandanirbhare
Madhuvrato Nekshurakam Hi Veekshate
(How shall my mind, which has entered the sweet arbour of thy lotus feet, wish for anything else?)
I offer that undiluted nectar at the feet of my Gurudev, enshrined in the heart of millions of seekers after Truth, all over the world. I have in my own humble capacity endeavoured to give the reader a pen-picture of the setting: in order that he may ‘live at Gurudev’s feet’ while reading these talks. Cold print misses something very vital—the gestures, etc., which often convey a lot. In such instances, I have taken the liberty of explaining a Talk. To those who have had his Darshan, this will call up the indelible picture of Ananda Kutir: if you have not yet had that good fortune, please have it now. Words cannot equal the Presence!
These inspiring talks have been recorded then and there, and published now as they were recorded, chronologically. They are not to be read as a textbook is read: but they are to be resorted to as a fountain—to quench the spiritual thirst. Any page and every page is laden with inspiration: and the usual ‘contents’ have been omitted in this volume, as it was felt that that would be confusing and cumbersome.
This book has been completed by the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy press in record time! To all those who made this possible, my spiritual brothers Swamis Amaranandaji (the Manager) and Jnananandaji (on whose patient shoulders feel the selfless job of proof-reading), Sri Vasudev, Sri Chary, Sri Sevakram, and Sri Buddhi—my grateful thanks.
May Sri Gurudev live forever and guide us along the path of divine life.
-Venkatesananda
Gangotri is the sacred origin of the Holy river Ganga; Jnana-Ganotri is the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy Press, from which issues the perennial sacred River of wisdom (Jnana Ganga).
