Swami Sivananda is one of the main personalities who has not spoken about all the grandiose experiences you can have, but who has made you aware of the pitfalls along the path. Every personality in the world speaks of the grandiose experiences that you can have and nobody speaks of the pitfalls, the things that you have to watch out for. Nobody speaks of things that you can develop to ease your journey in spiritual life. Swami Sivananda did.
For me, his teachings are jnana yoga. Each sentence that he has spoken, forces me to look at myself. For example, the Song of Eighteen ITIES. If you just think of a single word, serenity, and if you have it, what will be your answer? Can you cultivate serenity? To cultivate serenity, you have to be the observer of your own self and your own mind, to see where the disturbance is happening and why it is happening. It is natural pratyahara, natural antar mouna, for you to see yourself and to struggle with your mind to develop serenity.
That awareness – how am I, who am I, how am I responding, how am I behaving, is it tamasic, is it sattwic, is it positive, is it negative? That realization and recognition to know is jnana yoga. Jnana means ‘to know’. We have to begin knowing by observing ourselves. The Song of Eighteen ITIES is just one among many other songs in which Swami Sivananda says, ‘Be careful of this pitfall and that pitfall, this problem, that difficulty, like acidity, avidity and neurocity. Even if you are neurotic, observe your neuroticism. Neurotic people have to have that level of awareness to recognize that they are neurotic and that they are observing themselves. That is jnana. If a neurotic person thinks, ‘I am not neurotic,’ then that is ajnana, no knowledge.
These little things that Swami Sivananda has spoken of represent for me the ultimate ideas and points of jnana yoga. What do I discover about myself when I say, ‘I am the immortal soul’? I do not discover anything. If you focus on regularity for example, you will know the difficulties you face every day in being regular. Can you change that, can you alter that to make yourself more regular? For me, everything that Swami Sivanandaji has said represents the process and the path of jnana yoga.
Also the SWAN principle that we work with is the starting point of self-knowledge. Who am I? Right now, we are all our ambitions. We are not Holy Spirits. We are ambitions. Each one is an ambition sitting here. Can you recognize that? Can you kill this little ‘i’ and die to live and to lead the divine life? This little ‘i’ is not the ego principle but all the obstacles that you face in the process of your growth. You identify more with the obstacles and less with your intention to pass those obstacles and continue with your journey.
The SWAN principle and the teachings of Swami Sivananda help us look at our own selves in a different light and connect with ourselves in a different manner with ourselves. The latest brain research of 2023 states that by thinking positively, new connections are made in the brain. When you think negatively, connections are destroyed in the brain. In 2023, researchers are saying, ‘Always be positive.’ It seems like a simple statement, yet it has a deep meaning and influence on the human mind, brain and behaviour. Spiritual life is an expression of positivity. In that positivity comes all the nomenclatures that you use like kindness, compassion, love, sympathy, everything we use as different words to represent the connection with positivity.
In the lives of spiritual saints throughout the world, we always find that their behaviour reflected a positive nature which indicated the level of their spiritual attainment. If you want to know how spiritual you are, look at your own positive nature as a milestone. This is one way to observe. Another way to look at the spiritual development is the reduction of desires. Reduction of desire will only happen if you are positive, for in positivity, there is contentment and in contentment there is no craving. If there is no contentment, the craving will be there and desires will increase.
Yogis, people like Swami Sivananda and others before him, had a vision of human nature. The human personality is evolving as destined by the cosmic powers and should not become stagnated in the rut of negativity, which seems to be the natural human tendency. Therefore, since time immemorial, spiritual beings have advocated goodness in life – the expression and attainment of goodness. Goodness is part of human life’s expression and that has to be cultivated. Swami Sivanandaji would say, ‘Be good. Do good.’ So when goodness sets in, the inner being is purified, as there is no taint of anything. When the inner being is purified, you can meditate and you can realize.
20 November 2023, Kriya Yoga-Jnana Yoga Training, Ganga Darshan, Munger