Sometimes I was asked to clean the library and while dusting I would see the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda and the Sama Veda there. This was a great temptation. The Upanishads and other texts used to tempt me.
I said to Swamiji, "There are so many books. Can I take a few?" He replied, "Satyananda, you are talking of infection, you should talk of education. Infection is when knowledge comes in from outside. When inner knowledge is revealed outside, that is called education. All knowledge is within you. The knowledge of the four Vedas is within you. The human being is all knowledgeable. Atma, your spirit, is omniscient." He used to say that every creature, not only mankind but every creature, basically, fundamentally is God. There is that seed within it which is called atma and paramatma.
I am repeating the same thing in a different way. Knowledge is within us. What will you achieve by reading the Vedas? I kept working for twelve years and after that I was told to teach yoga. Believe it or not, I have never read a book on yoga. I have written them, but I have never read any books on yoga. I have just turned the pages of a few like the Yajnavalkya Samhita, Gorakh Samhita, Gherand Samhita and Swatmarama's Hatha Yoga Pradipika. I have seen them all, but I have not read any because I was convinced by Swami Sivananda that it is all within me.
30 November 2000