Gregg Hill's Reflexology and Japanese Massage Institute presents:

DAILY MEDITATIONS
BY SWAMI SIVANANDA

MEDITATIONS FOR

SEPTEMBER
 Gregg Hill's Reflexology and Japanese Massage Institute presents:
DAILY MEDITATIONS
BY SWAMI SIVANANDA

THE PUNDIT AND THE SAGE – 1

The foolish man identifies himself with a mass of flesh, fat, skin, bones and filth,
while the man of discrimination knows that his higher Self is distinct from his perishable
body. The stupid man thinks that he is the body.
The learned pundit, who has read some religious books, identifies himself with a
mixture of body and soul, while the liberated sage regards the eternal, unchanging Atman
as his Self. So long as the pundit does not abandon his erroneous identification with this
unreal, perishable body, there is no hope of salvation for him.

THE FIVE SHEATHS ARE N OT THE SELF – 2

Illusion arises in man because of ignorance or the absence of the faculty which
discriminates between the eternal Atman and the five illusory sheaths which are falsely
superimposed upon the Atman.
The five sheaths are creations of the mind on account of ignorance. They cannot be
the pure, self-existent, sell-luminous Atman. The Srutis declare that the eternal Atman is
bodiless. Tile changes that occur in the five sheaths do not affect their seer and
proprietor, the Atman.

THE SELF IS DEAREST--3

Man loves his wealth immensely, but a son is dearer than his wealth. The body is
dearer than the son; the father may even sell his son during a famine, for the sake of
protecting his own body. The senses are dearer than the body, because man instinctively
tries to protect his eyes, ears and nose when another comes to attack him.
Life is dearer than the senses. If the king orders the death of a criminal, the latter
prefers to have one of his senses removed rather than give up his life. The Atman is
dearer than life, because It is an embodiment of bliss.

THE ROOT C AUSE OF BONDAGE – 4

"I am the body". This false notion arises by force of the connection between the
Atman and egoism. Worldly life, which is the giver of pain and pleasure, has for its root
this notion of “I” in the body. On account of this identification of the Atman with the ego
the soul acts and is forcibly bound by results.
"I have done much good through my sacrifice, gifts and other charitable acts and shall
therefore go to heaven." This is a false notion. A soul enjoys celestial happiness in
heaven only for some time and comes back to earth as soon as the results of its
meritorious deeds are exhausted.
 Gregg Hill's Reflexology and Japanese Massage Institute presents:
DAILY MEDITATIONS
BY SWAMI SIVANANDA

RISE ABOVE EGOISM – 5

So long as there is connection with the principle of egoism and the rest, with the body
and the sense-organs, there is pleasure, pain and transmigratory existence for the
individual soul.
Egoism is the notion of' “I” and "mine" in the gross and subtle bodies. The ignorant
ones are attached to the body. They cannot rise above the sense of “I” and mine in the
gross body. The discriminating few rise above it through knowledge.

L O OK WITHIN – 7
Within you is the hidden God. Within you is the pure immortal Soul. Within you is
the inexhaustible spiritual treasure. Within you is the ocean of bliss.
Look within for the happiness which you have sought for in vain in perishable,
sensual objects. Rest peacefully in your own Self.
Surrender everything unto Him. Place your ego at His feet and be at ease. Give up all
worry, fear, anxiety and tension, He will take complete charge of you. He will do
everything for you. Practice. Feel. Assert. Enjoy the Supreme.

UNIVERSAL DISS OLUTION – 7

Even when there is the cosmic dissolution there is no destruction of the individual
soul. It remains in a latent form in the Mula Prakriti or Avyaktam, which is the condition
when all the three Gunas – Rajas, Tamas and Sattwa – are in equilibrium.
At the time of creation the individual soul is born again together with the latent
desires born of the mind. In this way it is forced to go round and round like the wheel
used for drawing water.

B ORN SIDDHAS – 8
To a liberated sage who beholds the immortal, all-pervading, self-luminous Atman
everywhere, there remains nothing more to be attained or known. He has attained
perfection, highest bliss and highest knowledge. He is master of all worlds.
Some are born with all the requisites for attaining God on account of the discipline of
their past lives. Such people are born Siddhas.

BE PRACTICAL AND REALIZE – 9

An ounce of spiritual experience is better than tons of theory and study of spiritual
books. A single glimpse of Brahman will bestow on you illumination and remove the
worldly intoxication of delusion, pride, pain and grief.
 Gregg Hill's Reflexology and Japanese Massage Institute presents:
DAILY MEDITATIONS
BY SWAMI SIVANANDA

Spiritual vision will then stand out like a beacon light to you. Learn the principles of
divine life and apply them in your daily activity. Become a practical man on the spiritual
path.

CULTIVATE ADAPTABILITY – 10
Never grumble when you do service to others. Take delight in service. Watch for
opportunities to serve. Work is worship of the Lord.
Have an amiable, loving, sociable nature, have sympathy, adaptability, self-restraint,
tolerance, love and mercy. Adjust yourself to the ways and habits of others. Be balanced
even when you are insulted, when others use harsh words against you. Have a balanced
mind in pleasure and pain, in heat and cold.
Karma Yoga prepares the mind the reception of light and knowledge. It expands the
heart and breaks all barriers that stand in the way of oneness or unity. Karma Yoga is an
effective Sadhana for the attainment of purity of heart, therefore, do selfless service
constantly.

W ORLDLINESS OR S AMSARA – 11
Vasana is a subtle form of desire. It is hidden desire and assumes a gross form later
on. Trishna is intense craving or hankering after sensual objects. Vasana is intermingled
with mental impressions.
Vasarias produce mental impressions and these in turn generate Vasanas. The
rotation of this never-ending wheel of Vasanas and mental impressions constitutes the
wheel of worldliness which causes births and deaths.

KARMA – CAUSE OF J OY AND GRIEF – 12

Friends, who is the cause of whose sorrow or whose happiness? One's own Karma
done in past lives and in tile present is the cause of happiness or grief There is no other
giver of happiness or pain. "He gives me pain" – this is the attitude of a fool. "I am the
doer" – this is the erroneous and fruitless notion of an ignorant man.
Each individual is bound by the cord of his past Karma. Happiness and sorrow come
to you as a result of your Karma. Therefore, bear in a spirit of resignation what comes
and remain at ease.

BE BALANCED IN PLEASURE AND PAIN – 13

Sorrow follows happiness and happiness follows sorrow. Like day and night both are
unavoidable by embodied creatures. There is pleasure in the midst of pain and pain in the
midst of pleasure. Both are said to be attached to each other like mud and water.
Therefore, the wise do not show joy on occasions of joy, nor sorrow on occasions of
sorrow. They are indifferent to both pleasure and pain, happiness and joy, sorrow and
 Gregg Hill's Reflexology and Japanese Massage Institute presents:
DAILY MEDITATIONS
BY SWAMI SIVANANDA

misery. Knowing all to be Maya, they are not deluded. Pleasure and pain are in the mind
only. They are subjective.

GRIEVE N OT AT DEATH – 14
Do not grieve for the departed soul. The Atman is eternal, changeless, birthless,
deathless and pure. The body is non-intelligent, liable to death, impure and destructible.
Thinking thus, there is no occasion at all for any sorrow. That which is born is sure to
perish.
If a father or son comes under the sway of death it is the foolish who grieve. In this
world, which is devoid of substance, separation from an object of desire is a source of
non-attachment and bestower of peace and happiness for the wise.

THOU ART IMMORTAL – 15

You have attained this physical body through actions done in past lives. You will
attain another body through actions done in this body in this life. Just as one leaves an old
house and goes to live in a new one, even so, you never die but discard an old body and
enter into a new one. The all-pervading Atman never dies nor is It born. It is not subject
to increase or decrease, decay or modification. It is ever pure, homogeneous and
limitless, an embodiment of bliss and knowledge. It is immobile, motionless anti stable.

THE PROCESS OF MEDITATION – 16

Sit in a quiet place in an easy posture. Renounce mentally all attachments and objects
of the senses. Gradually draw your senses within. Reflect upon thyself as distinct from
nature. All this mobile or immobile world, the body, intellect and the rest, all that is seen
or heard, is called Prakriti. It is also called Maya. It is the cause of the creation,
preservation and destruction of the world. It always creates Rajasic, Sattwic and Tamasic
tendencies m beings.

W ORLD – A JUGGLER' S TRICK – 17

This world is a play of colors and sounds. This sense-universe is a play of the nerves.
It is a false show kept up by the jugglery of Maya, mind and senses. You enjoy sensual
pleasures for a period of twenty years when the senses are still strong and vigorous. What
is this short evanescent period of twenty years in eternity? What is this despicable,
jarring, monotonous sensual life when compared to the eternal and peaceful life in the
Self within?

YET Y OU ARE PROUD – 18

You are helpless when you are a little baby. You are helpless when you are seriously
 Gregg Hill's Reflexology and Japanese Massage Institute presents:
DAILY MEDITATIONS
BY SWAMI SIVANANDA

ailing. You are helpless when you become aged. Why then do you boast of your ability,
capacity, independence and freedom? Why are you arrogant, proud and egoistic?
Transcend your body and mind and realize the immortal Self.
Only when you realize the Self can you be really strong, independent and flee. Rise
above delusion and illusion through discrimination or self-analysis and enquiry of "who
am I?"

W ORRY N OT – 19
Worry kills a man. It destroys his joys of life. It is a canker that slowly eats away a
man. It wears him out. Do not worry over what is gone. Forget it. No one has yet been
able to claim any good by worrying. Do not worry about things which are likely to
happen; so very often they do not happen. "Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof". The
best and surest antidote or penicillin injection for worry is to keep oneself fully occupied.
Always be doing something useful. Do your best and leave the rest to God. Do not
worry. You will be indeed blessed then. Hard work with a peaceful, harmonious mind
never kills anyone. It builds up the system and prolongs life. But worry kills a man; it
shortens life.

I S THIS HAPPINESS ? – 20
Do you not see clearly that this world is a mere play of the nerves? Do you not
understand that this world of opposites is illusory? You have to depend upon the nerves
and senses for your happiness. If they go out of order, you become miserable even though
you possess enormous wealth and palatial buildings. Can you call this little illusion
pleasure, which depends upon the play of the nerves, real, lasting happiness.? It is merely
the itching of the nerves, which only tickles those deluded souls who have completely
lost their power of discrimination and understanding.

THE MOTHER OF EVIL – 21

Even an iota of greed is quite sufficient to destroy the spotless reputation of a person
of admirable qualities. It is like a small patch of leucoderma on the face that destroys the
graceful features of a man or woman.
Theft, injury, untruth, hypocrisy, arrogance, lust, anger, pride; enmity, distrust, rivalry
– all these are the outcome of wealth. Therefore, he who wishes to attain the final
beatitude should shun ruthlessly the evil known as wealth. Money is the abode of evil.

MIND – THE CAUSE OF PAIN AND J OY – 22

Neither this body nor the Atman nor the gods nor the planets nor work nor time cause
pain or pleasure. It is this wretched mind that causes pleasure and pain and creates this
worldliness.
 Gregg Hill's Reflexology and Japanese Massage Institute presents:
DAILY MEDITATIONS
BY SWAMI SIVANANDA

This terrible mind generates thoughts, cravings, egoism, desires and likes and
dislikes. Man then does various actions with egoism and expectation of fruit. Therefore,
he has to take birth again and again in accordance with the nature of actions.

THE SUPREME WITNESS – 23

The silent witness, the Supreme Self, looks from above at the activities of the mind of
the individual soul. It looks like a spectator, free and unattached. It is quite indifferent
and unconcerned. It is perfectly unaffected, like water on a lotus leaf. The individual soul
identifies itself with the body and mind. It works and enjoys sensual objects with avidity,
cupidity and stupidity and is bound thereby.

AIDS TO C ONTROL OF THE MIND – 24

Control of the mind is the highest Yoga practice. Acts of charity, selfless service,
vows, fire-worship and other works, hearing of the Srutis, Pranayama, Japa, meditation,
enquiry, of "who am l?" – all these culminate in control of the mind. He who has con-
trolled the mind is really the God of gods. He is fit to be adored.
This filthy body is a phantom of the mind. Foolish people take it as the Self and say,
"This is my body, this is the real Self." They think erroneously and roam about in
ignorance.

ATMAN IS UNAFFECTED – 25
If the body is the cause of pleasure or pain, the Atman has nothing to do with it,
because pleasure and pain pertain to the gross and subtle bodies which are the products of
nature. The Atman is the silent witness or spectator of the activities of nature. If you bite
your tongue, with whom will you get angry for causing the pain?

W ORSHIP THE SELF – 26

If time be the cause of pleasure and pain, how can it affect the immortal and eternal
Atman? The Atman is one with time. Certainly a flame is not affected by fire, nor a
hailstone by cold. This Atman, which is beyond duality, can never be affected by the
pairs of opposites. Therefore, with whom should you get angry?
You should practice devotion to the highest Self, worship the feet of the Lord and
thereby cross the ocean of worldliness. Thus will you attain immortality and everlasting
bliss.

THE REMEDY FOR MISERIES – 27

This world, which contains friends, neutrals and enemies, which affects a man with
heat and cold, hunger and thirst, pleasure and pain, censure and praise, honour and
 Gregg Hill's Reflexology and Japanese Massage Institute presents:
DAILY MEDITATIONS
BY SWAMI SIVANANDA

dishonour, gain and loss, success and failure, sorrow and joy, happiness and misery, is a
creation of your own mind due to ignorance.
Therefore, renounce wealth, as it is a source of all evils. Renounce attachment to
wealth. Renounce the desire for wealth. Cultivate dispassion, the remedy for all human
sufferings.

PRAYER TO SIVA – 28
The leaves of life are failing off. Youth is fading. Days are rolling on. Time, the
destroyer, lays his hands on the whole world. Our existence in this world is as momentary
as a bubble or like a flash of lightning. O Lord Siva, protect me.
O Lord Siva, who holds the begging-bowl of the skull of Brahma, control this
monkey-mind, which jumps about at its sweet will on the branches of desires in the forest
of lust. Keep it with Thee forever.

W ORSHIP N OT THIS B ODY – 29

The physical body will surely be destroyed. Then, what is the use of decorating it
with ornaments and silk clothes and partaking of many kinds of palatable dishes? The
Atman alone is indestructible. Therefore, exert to realize the Atman.
Do you not know that this physical body, which at present rolls on a bed of fragrant
flowers, will one day be burnt on logs of wood?
The wise, who know the Self as knowledge, bliss and existence, and also the physical
body, which is full of blood, bones and flesh, will never take this filthy leather-bag as
their true Self.
The body is the house, the intellect is the wife, the thoughts are the sons, the sixfold
virtues are the friends, the senses are the servants. He is worldly who is attached to this
house and has forgotten the abode of eternal bliss.

BEWARE OF FRIENDS – 30
This worldly existence is coated with the mud of ignorance. It is without essence and
worthless. If you reflect deeply you will discover that it is full of miseries and is attended
with birth, death, disease and old age. Cut this knot of ignorance with the sword of divine
knowledge.
Man's sufferings cannot be described. Mental worry, disease, the pain caused by
separation from friends and dear relatives, danger caused to the body, enmity, poverty,
the pangs of death and the rounds of births and deaths – all these afflict him at every step.
So long as he earns money, all will love and hold him in esteem. But when he becomes
old and useless none will care for him.