Develop Atma Vichar Sakti. Identify not with the mind, senses and intellect or with any of the
other modifications of the mind. Always be engaging yourself in the thought of the Divine.
Have no thought of yourself or the surrounding world. Be absolutely indifferent to yourself, as
you ought to be towards the surroundings, the various daily happenings and the worldly
repercussions. Knowledge of the Self, when once attained, absolves one of all mental
disruptions and psychic derangements. Where there is firm-grounded knowledge of the Self in
the spiritual seeker, where there is the consciousness in him that “all indeed is Brahman, Sarvam
Khalvidam Brahma” and that he is none other than that Supreme Brahman, and where he
understands that all happenings¾good, bad or mixed¾are but passing phases on the screen of
the world, there can never be any ill-balanced mental life.
It is the mind that is the sole cause for bondage or Moksha. The mind is the substratum
behind pleasure or pain, happiness or misery, success or defeat. Rise above the pairs of opposites
by resorting to a Guru and his instructions. Study the lives of saints who underwent various trials
and the books by realized souls. Develop the spirit of true surrender wherein you have no
thought of body or bodily needs or self-protection even in the slightest degree and wherein you
forget the idea of life and death altogether. Serenity is merely mental. Therefore, cultivate
mental equipoise by gaining spiritual knowledge.
From "May I answer that" by Swami Sivananda (1987-1963). More Informations on Swami Sivananda: on the Website of Divine Life Society, Photographs of Swami Sivananda, German Pages on Swami Sivananda
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