Return to Observances for the Month Go to Top of Page Return to Home Page

Birthday of Sri Swami Sivananda

September 8

[Asanas... pranayama]

Valentina: ...Now it is Gurudev Sivananda's Birthday... Half of this day I was so preoccupied with the relief of the sufferers [Referring to the destruction caused by the recent hurricane in the islands to the south] that I did not celebrate the Birthday of Gurudev. But because His very motto was giving as much as you can of yourself, I just apologized to Him for not meditating upon Him, and He sort of reassured me that it is okay, that so long as we are not thinking of ourselves, even if we are torn to pieces by the things which definitely take us away from spiritual practices, we are not on the wrong side. The point is that we have to really dissolve our ego in giving of every bit of our nervous system when we are trying to relieve something, when we are trying to be the channel of help. You cannot help anybody, but you can become a channel for the Divine to help through you. It wears you out, definitely, as far as your body and nerves are concerned, and as far as your time is concerned, which you would like to dedicate to your inner practices, but it is a very marvelous drill, for it makes you completely dissolve your personality, your egoity, rather, not personality. Personality can be very brilliant, beautiful and helpful, but ego of this personality is always a dire enemy.

So I did not even think about Him half of the day, but He thought about me all the time. That s what is very beautiful... thought all the time about me. And, that I realized, when I started to recite from His thoughts. At first, as you probably noticed, my voice was tired, for I suffer very much when somebody suffers... I suffer, I suffer. I cannot really take the privileges of this country and of my particularly very beautiful life, extremely beautiful, - what can I say?!, - when there is such horrible disaster just next door, and when miraculously this place was spared. If I would be in power, I would shake the whole empire, never mind just Florida and the islands, in order to alleviate the suffering. Stu even called the President, [Smiling] because I told him to do that! But the President plays golf on Saturday, so we could not have an interview...

Well... Gurudev Sivananda... so at first when I was reciting from His thoughts, my voice was tired, and I even told Stu to erase it, because, I said, it is not sounding the way I usually sound. But later on, when I revived my forces, I started to talk rightly, that is to say, - I became the right channel for Him. And particularly I acquired my Sakti completely when He was talking about Life... yes, about Life. You probably remember, or else I shall remind you about it, that He makes great difference between Life Spiritual and life mundane. When He started to eulogize life, I bet everybody thought that Gurudev means "have a good time!" [Laughter] But it is not what He means by "Beauties of Life."

He stresses that life is a journey, that it takes you from inferior position to superior. And again, from worldly point of view, inferior position is when you do not get enough salary, when your status is small, when you do not have a good car and a good apartment, etc. From the point of view of a sage, inferior position is when you are not pure, when you are not kind, when you are not strong, when you are not cheerful, when you are not thankful, when you are not aspiring. That s inferior state of life. So from the point of view of the sage (and this is the only point which we should consider), life is a journey which takes you from minor position to superior, if you are a fighter, if you fight. He also stressed that life is a battle and you have to win it, but then you cannot win it if you are all the time preoccupied only with the mundane survival and with the mundane success. Life becomes victorious only when you establish yourself in the inner values of the Spirit. What is costly for the Spirit should preoccupy you That was the gist of His talk on Life.

And I especially was thrilled when He said that the Life Spiritual imparts the Glory to your human life. How true this is. Our glory really is not from our talents, from our bright personality, from our status in life, from our privileges, - that is not our glory. That s just a good Karma to our human being. But our glory is when we all the time remember the values which perish not, the Immortality, the life which is praise to the Supreme Power, when we believe in this Supreme Power, when we live only for Its realization. Well, this is the glory and this definitely affects our human personality and our human surroundings. This is what makes us. It is not our human achievements which make us, but it is our spiritual achievements which make our human life glorious... [Vividly] Gurudev!... Om Sakti...

Let s now pray together. Let s pray for more understanding of the Truth; for more dedication to the Truth; for more inner silence; for less gregarious, cocky attitude towards life, because man is to such an extent plastered by the false personality that he completely forgets the real values. Let s pray that we may never forget... [Silence]

[As Holy Mother prepares to leave Her platform, She bathes Her face in the enormously long white carnation and rose garland which lies at Her feet, then placing it around Her shoulders, She walks to the Altar beneath the orchid tree and places the garland on the statue of the "Mother of the World"]

***

Return to Observances for the Month Go to Top of Page Return to Home Page