Readings on the Spiritual Teachings of Swami Brahmananda
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
READINGS ON SWAMI BRAHMANANDA’S SPIRITUAL TEACHINGS by Swami Yatiswarananda Reference is to: SPIRITUAL TEACHINGS OF SWAMI BRAHMANANDA (with a foreword by Sister Devamata) 1931, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Madras Republished 1978, under title of THE ETERNAL COMPANION SPIRITUAL TEACHINGS OF SWAMI BRAHMANANDA [Including the biographical material of Swami Prabhavananda’s 1944 ETERNAL COMPANION] Offered to: The Participants, EUROPEAN VEDANTA CONFERENCE Brabant, Holland 1993 Published by: John Manetta Beles 28 (Koukaki) GR 117 41 Athens, Greece Phone +30 210 923 4682 e-mail: [email protected] Printed in Athens, Greece April, 1993 Printed to CD August 2004 Processed with: Ventura Publisher Typeset in Helvetica 10/12 PUBLISHER’S NOTE Dear Friends, We are happy to share with you, in the original format, the complete text of Swami Yatiswarananda’s READINGS ON SWAMI BRAHMAN- ANDA’S SPIRITUAL TEACHINGS, as delivered from November 21st, 1933 through January 7th, 1934, at Wiesbaden, Germany, to an intimate group of European students he had begun intensively training. These READINGS in English—the first of a series, copies of which were preserved by Vedanta devotees in Germany, have never been pub- lished in their entirety. Apart from a few extracts which appeared in VEDANTA FOR EAST & WEST (Bourne End’s magazine), only READ- INGS 1 through 17 (out of 48) were appended in French to Jean Herbert’s translation of the original SPIRITUAL TEACHINGS OF SWAMI BRAHM- ANANDA1 — first published in 1949 by Editions Derain, Lyons, France, under the title of: ‘Swami Brahmananda: DISCIPLINE MONASTIQUE’. We are grateful to Kurt Friedrichs of Hamburg, a disciple of the Swami, for sharing his copy of these READINGS with us. Vedanta students, of course, already know of MEDITATION AND SPIRITUAL LIFE, the extensive selection of Swami Yatiswarananda’s writings and talks. The present READINGS, naturally, duplicate the ideas and some sections in the aforementioned book. However, repetition is welcome to the earnest seeker, and it will be especially interesting for Eu- ropeans to identify with the actual format of how Vedanta was pioneered in the Europe of 60 years ago! Romain Rolland mentions Swami Yatiswarananda in his diary under date of May 1st, 1935, when the Swami visited Rolland in Switzerland to- gether with Paul Geheeb. The Swami had already been moving — since November 1933 — mainly in Germany and Switzerland [Wiesbaden, Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich, Campfer, St.Moritz, etc.], and occasionally also to London and the Hague. He also visited France several times be- tween 1933 and 1938, and represented the Order at the 1936 Rama- krishna Centenary celebrations at the Sorbonne, in Paris. Jean Herbert, in his preface to DISCIPLINE MONASTIQUE, says the Swami often used the SPIRITUAL TEACHINGS OF SWAMI BRAHMANANDA as a basis for his talks to European Vedanta groups. It is indeed a great good fortune that the Swami had the foresight to edit and give a permanent form to these READINGS, so that they can be con- sulted by us today. We are sure you will find them both inspiring, and chal- lenging... The ADDENDUM addresses the disciple-Guru relationship. PUBLISHER 1. Original 1931 edition, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Madras, with a foreword by Sister Devamata — republished in 1978, including the biographical portions from Swami Prabhavananda’s 1944 ETERNAL COMPANION. Contents 5 CONTENTS 1 -- Wiesbaden, November 21st, 1933 Spiritual life should begin early ...........................................................13 Divine Grace .......................................................................................13 Divide mind between Divine and world ...............................................14 No need shake hands with the tiger ....................................................14 2 -- Wiesbaden, November 22nd, 1933 Ideal must be fixed and clear...............................................................14 3 -- Wiesbaden, November 23rd, 1933 Learn to redirect mind.........................................................................16 Right imagination ................................................................................16 Meditation on Light .............................................................................16 Control of Food ...................................................................................17 Banish all worldly thoughts .................................................................17 Never associate too freely with people ...............................................18 Activity and self-surrender ..................................................................18 Brahmacharya.....................................................................................19 4 -- Wiesbaden, November 24th, 1933 The benefit of proper study .................................................................19 Overcoming the Passions...................................................................20 Beyond rituals .....................................................................................21 Buddha’s mission................................................................................21 5 -- Wiesbaden, November 25th, 1933 Form and Formless--the wave and the ocean.....................................23 Individualized state -- our second nature ............................................24 The touch of the Great Ones ...............................................................25 Develop great intensity, and get a first Glimpse of Truth.....................26 Purification of mind .............................................................................26 Cosmic Mind .......................................................................................27 6 -- Wiesbaden, November 26th, 1933 Religion is for the chosen few..............................................................27 How to know Him? ..............................................................................28 7 -- Wiesbaden, November 27th, 1933 How to know the Truth?.......................................................................30 Hints re Japam and meditation............................................................31 Prayers................................................................................................33 Transcend the relative ........................................................................34 The sound-symbol ..............................................................................34 8 -- Wiesbaden, November 28th, 1933 The parrot............................................................................................35 Japam .................................................................................................35 Same-sightedness ..............................................................................36 Controlling a turbulent mind................................................................36 Hunger of the soul...............................................................................37 Japam .................................................................................................37 6 Contents Clear thinking, clear feeling and clear definite action..........................38 Our task today.....................................................................................38 Maya....................................................................................................38 Maya -- good and evil ..........................................................................39 Vedantasara........................................................................................40 There are no shortcuts........................................................................41 Where does the man of realization abide? .........................................41 Path can never be learned from books................................................41 Hindu scriptures not speculations ......................................................41 Purity ...................................................................................................41 9 -- Wiesbaden, November 29th, 1933 Sin and morality ..................................................................................42 Our centre of Consciousness .............................................................43 Cleaning the mirror .............................................................................44 The spiritual evolution of man .............................................................44 The trap of sickly sentimentalism ........................................................44 Trials ...................................................................................................48 The condition of the worldly.................................................................48 The Song of the Sannyasin .................................................................49 A Benediction......................................................................................51 Requiescat in Pace.............................................................................52 Nirvana-shatakam...............................................................................52 The price for spiritual life .....................................................................53 Divine Grace .......................................................................................54 Dealing with obstacles........................................................................54 10 -- Wiesbaden, November 30th, 1933 The two