Autobiography: Autobiographical Glimpses of Swami Chidananda
A Love-offering for His Birthday
24th September 2015
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Book Code: EC20
Hardcover: 67 pages
ISBN: NA
Book Dimensions: 10.2 x 9.2 x 0.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 650 grams
Table of Contents
| Inside Front Cover | |
| Inside Back Cover | |
| Publishers’ Note | |
| Prayer | 1 |
| Meeting | 3 |
| Autobiography | 5 |
| Swamiji and Gurudev | 22 |
| Excelsior | 33 |
| Letters and Excerpts | 39 |
| Swamiji Remembering Shirdi | 51 |
| Chidananda ‘Hoon’ — I am Consciousness – Bliss | 55 |
Inner Front Cover
O Adorable Lord of Mercy and Love !
Salutations and prostrations unto Thee.
Thou art Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Omniscient.
Thou art SatChidAnanda (Existence-Consciousness-Bliss Absolute).
Thou art the Indweller of all beings.
Grant us an understanding heart,
Equal vision, balanced mind,
Faith, devotion and wisdom.
Grant us inner spiritual strength
To resist temptation and to control the mind.
Free us from egoism, lust, greed, hatred, anger and jealousy.
Fill our hearts with divine virtues.
Let us behold Thee in all these names and forms.
Let us serve Thee in all these names and forms.
Let us ever remember Thee.
Let us ever sing Thy glories.
Let Thy Name be ever on our lips.
Let us abide in Thee for ever and ever.
Swami Sivananda
Inner Back Cover
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace!
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light, and
Where there is sadness, joy!
Oh Divine Master, grant that I may not
so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand; to be loved
as to love; for it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
St. Francis
Publishers’ Note
Swami Chidananda never wrote an Autobiography, because he was too busy caring for others. Also he didn’t consider himself as a personality who has a biography. So these are only ‘Biographical Glimpses’ of a great Being.
They give us an insight into how early and how intensely he was drawn to the spiritual life and how great the sacrifice of his heart’s deepest longing was. His surrender to God and his Master was total – so that there was nothing left but Consciousness Bliss – Chidananda
The Divine Life Society
Prayer
Homage unto the Supreme Cosmic Spirit Divine! Reverential prostrations to the Guru who is the representative on earth of the Supreme Being or God. Loving adorations to the holy saints of Bharatvarsha, our spiritual motherland which has brought into being countess saints, sages, seers and Brahma-Jnanis and such towering personalities like Maharshi Vyasa, Vasishta, Yagnyavalkya and others of yore. These Great Ones, having attained the highest experience of the Absolute Transcendental Reality or the Eternal Truth, lived to distribute the spiritual light of their Jnana and the indescribable Ananda of their God-experience through Bhakti to all their fellow beings of their contemporary times. May their blessings be upon all.
Meeting
Meeting between two individuals in this world is always brought about by the Prarabdha Karma of both concerned. Having met once, the continuity of their relationship in the Vyavaharic world is also the resultant outcome of the Prarabdha Karma of both concerned. This has been clearly stated in the Sanatana Dharma or Vaidic Dharma, popularly referred to as Hinduism. Such a meeting between two Jivatmas born as human individuals in this world, comes about in various ways — sometimes in a very peculiar and curious manner as well. I will relate here the way in which life brought me into contact with the exalted blissful personality whom the whole world knows as Papa Ramdas before ending my spiritual journey at the feet of Gurudev Sri Sivanandaji Maharaj.
Letters and Excerpts
TO DEVOTEES:
You are never alone when you have Japa with you. Know this for certain, the Mantra is God. And God Himself IS the Mantra. May the Mantra ever dwell within you. Be sustained by it.
ॐ ॐ ॐ
Cheer up. Be bold. I am by your side; I dwell within you as a part of the eternal Antaryamin, the supreme Indweller, with whom I am ever one in spirit and in truth. All your despair and misery is the function of the mind-nature. Even at the moment when the mind is thus plunged in forgetful grief and lamentation, at the very same moment you are full of unutterable peace and Self-Bliss in your true inner nature. That is an unchangeable fact, ever present within the true YOU. Turn within to this “I” beyond, just beyond the fretting mind. This moment you rest in the peace. Cling to It, you are ever one with It. Do not allow the mind to deceive you and deprive you of that which is ever yours.
ॐ ॐ ॐ
I wished I could be personally there to lift you out of this despondency. But it is not human wish alone that ordains the course of life. There is above human wishing the Divine Will, which prevails above all in our affairs. The Power is grand, all-knowing, just, wise, all-love, compassionate and goodness Itself! But so great, so immediate, that its mystery and paradox is so little understood. It is the only good thing in this entire universe. Nothing can approach the all perfect goodness and love of the divine will. To it you are as important as the greatest Saint or Angel or Deva. No one is too little or insignificant or unimportant to THAT. Right at this moment when you are allowing yourself to plunge into depths of despair and disappointment, even now the Divine enfolds you and silently waits for your recognition of Its Presence! Seek to recognise, feel and experience IT! Without and within, It dwells as the very support, source and essence of your very being. Will you turn to it? You will not have to struggle for IT in the seeking! Know that the very clamour and commotion of your incessant thoughts, imaginations and memories serve as the main barrier to the contact with this ever present Divine. You are never for a moment apart from the Divine.
ॐ ॐ ॐ
A sweet calmness of the mind, a gentle stilling of the thoughts is the requisite to gain this Awareness. Not a battle with mind and thoughts, not a frantic struggle, or a desperate tug of war; no! Such restlessness defeats your very purpose. STOP the anxiety and SMILE gently unto yourself. Understand that YOU are beyond disappointment, frustration, disillusionment and despair. Snap out of it with the bold new vision of your Swaroopa, your real Self. Joy and laughter is your birthright. Weeping and gloom are self-created, trickery of the mind.