Author: Swami Yatiswarananda
Publisher: Sri Ramakrishna Math
Year: 2000
Language: English
Pages: 294
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8171204732
Description
A book that makes life meaningful.
This volume carries 19 chapters and were originally lectures delivered in Philadelphia and Bangalore. Titles of the talks are:
1 Harmony and Universalism in True religious life
2. The Adventures of Spiritual Seekers
3. The Pursuit and Attainment of Happiness
4. The Type of Salvation We Want
5. The Control of the Subconscious Mind
6. Indian Yoga and Western Psychology
7. Destiny, Human Effort and Divine Grace
8. The Hygiene of a Peaceful Mind
9. Overcoming Obstacles in Religious Life Section 1 / Section 2
10. The Significance of Religious Symbols
11. The Secret Stairs to Super consciousness
12. How to De-Hypnotize Ourselves
13 The Mystery of Religious Experience
14. The Power of Spiritual Vibration
15. The Realty Beyond Time and Space
16 God and the Problem of Evil
17 God in Everything
18. How illumined Soul Live in the World
19. Bibliography / Glossary / Index -Stories, Parables and Incidents appearing in the book / Index 2 Psychological cases referred to in the book / Index 3 General
Contents
The Author's Preface
Introduction
CHAPTER I
HARMONY AND UNIVERSALISM IN TRUE RELIGIOUS LIFE;
Can Religion bring harmony?
The unique universalism of India
The refuge for victims of religious persecution
Religious harmony, the keynote
The impact of Christianity
Militant Islam tones down
Essential unity and harmony of different religions
Experience unites, dogma divides
Phase in religious history
Attitude of acceptance as voiced by Mahatma Gandhi
Comparative religion widens mental horizon
The frog-of-the-well mentality
Vivekananda's message of universalism
Spiritual experience
The test of true religion
CHAPTER II
THE ADVENTURES OF SPIRITUAL SEEKERS:
A hero's job
The nature of Reality
Appearance and Reality
What it means to be a real mystic
obstacles and pitfalls stages of consciousness
Temptations
Further warnings
Qualifications necessary for spiritual attainment
The testimony of the mystics
Practice of meditation
The mystics' realizations
The simple secret
CHAPTER III
THE PURSUIT AND ATTAINMENT OF HAPPINESS:
What is happiness?
The supreme happiness
Various conceptions of happiness
Three kinds of happiness
All religions promise happiness
Is happiness an end in itself?
Types of happiness
Attainment of happiness through desirelessness
Happiness according to teachers of Vedanta
Where to find happiness
CHAPTER IV
THE TYPE OF SALVATION WE WANT
An Upanishadic anecdote
No lasting satisfaction possible on the sense plane
No security in the world of fancy
Self-forgetfulness no solution
Salvation according to various religions
Non dualistic path to salvation
Salvation: partial and complete
Means to attain salvation
Attaining salvation in this very life
CHAPTER V
THE CONTROL OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
The spiritual birth
Instinct, the memory of our past experiences
Past impressions can be controlled
Ancient spiritual synthesis and Modern Psycho-Analysis
Man, a mixture of good and evil
The importance of Religion
Three kinds of troubles in life
Control through spiritual practice
Meditation, a great aid
CHAPTER VI
INDIAN YOGA AND WESTERN PSYCHOLOGY
The system of Yoga
Our true Self
The achievement of Western Psychology
Sublimation
Western Psychology and Toga
Western Psychology and Religion
Illness due to suppression of religious emotion
The paths of Yoga
Swami Vivekananda's ideal of integrated Yoga
Yoga showing the way to infinite bliss
CHAPTER VII
DESTINY, HUMAN EFFORT AND DIVINE GRACE
Are we at the mercy of Destiny?
The importance of self-effort
Fate and free-will
The idea of sin
Predestination
Determinism and Libertarianism
The nature of man
Reincarnation
The highest goal of human life
Karma
The need for grace
Persistent striving
Suffering and spiritual yearning
Divine realization
CHAPTER VIII
THE HYGIEN OF A PEACEFUL MIND
Increasing mental tension: a danger-signal of the day
Want of proper knowledge, a potent cause
Instructions for quieting the mind
What is the mind?
Think for yourself and be cured
Spiritual of character, the basic need
Hindu view of mind and its control
Stop wasting mental energy
Rowing the anchored boat
The true peace we should seek
CHAPTER IX
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES IN RELIGIOUS LIFE - (I)
What are the 'obstacles'?
Obstacles are inevitable but can be overcome
Co-existence of obstacles and helps
Conditions for spiritual unfoldment
Divine Grace and self-effort
Spiritual life, the preparation for receiving Divine Grace
Divine Grace, the touchstone
CHAPTER X
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES IN RELIGIOUS LIFE - (II):
Peculiar obstacles of our age
The need for perfect sublimation
We are our own greatest obstacles
obstacles, lower and higher
Constant struggle, the only way to overcome obstacles
The way shown by Patanjali
Japa and meditation, the best means
CHAPTER XI
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS
Methods of worship
Different stages of spiritual evolution
Visions
Dualism and non-Dualism
Conceptions of the Godhead
God is both with form and without form
Choose the ideal that helps you most
Meaning of symbols
The necessity of images
Swami Vivekananda on Image-worship
Symbols for different seekers
Light, the best symbols
The highest spiritual experiences
CHAPTER XII
THE SECRET STAIRS TO SUPERCONSCIOUSNESS
Sri Ramakrishna's experiences
Views on Super-conscious experience, Eastern and Western
'Chakras' in 'Sushumna', the secret stairs
Rousing spiritual consciousness
Microcosm and Macrocosm built on the same plan
Mind and body inter-related
Human moods and centers of consciousness
Purity essential
Japa, the infallible means
The soul's union with the Oversoul
CHAPTER XIII
HOW TO BE-HYPNOTIZE OURSELVES
De-hypnotization
Means for de-hypnotization
Who is hypnotized and who is de-hypontized?
Different grades of Reality
What is real and what is unreal?
States of consciousness
Experiences of Mystics
Discrimination, the way to de-hypontization
The process of hypnotization and de-hypnotization
CHAPTER XIV
THE MYSTERY OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
Religion is realisation
Pseudo-religious experiences
Purity, the essential need
Genuine mystic experiences
What is spiritual realization?
From shadow to Reality
Mighty experiences of the Mighty
Shallow emotionalism vs. basic transformation of character
CHAPTER XV
THE POWER OF SPIRITUAL VIBRATION
Universe, its basic materials
Control of Prana
The meaning of vibration
Expreiments of Prof. J.C. Bose
The three Gunas of cosmic forces
Plato and the Gunas
How to realize the Spirit which is beyond Gunas
Vibrations, good and bad
Illumined souls transform
Spiritualizing our emotions
CHAPTER XVI
THE REALITY BEYOND TIME AND SPACE
Discourse of an Ancient Sage
Reality, Time and Space
Cosmic Ignorance and Creation of Phenomena
Kant and Sankara compared
Conceptions of Space and Time
The Individual and the Universal
Three kinds of Akasa or Space
The Ultimate Reality beyond the Phenomenon
The Absolute and Neo-Platonism
The Absolute described in Negative terms
Realizations of Sri Ramakrishna
CHAPTER XVII
GOD AND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL
Aspects of God 's Creation
Various conceptions of Good and Evil
Empedocles
Heraclitus
The Sophists
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
Philo
Zoroaster
Christianity
Danger of new-fangled monism
Good and evil: correlative
The Vedantic view of good and evil
"Vidya Maya" and "Avidya Maya"
Spiritual life
The enlightened soul
CHAPTER XVIII
GOD IN EVERYTHING
God has become everything
God in Evil
One power with two-fold manifestations
Divine Light hidden in everything
Supersensuous experiences
Spiritual experiences, personal and impersonal
Mystical realization with and without form
Illustrations from Christian mystics
Experiences of Sri Ramakrishna
Seeing God in Man
Seeing God in everything
CHAPTER XIX
HOW ILLUMINED SOULS LIVE IN THE WORLD
Erudition and Illumination
The active and quit types of illumined souls
Lao Tze and Confucius
The Buddha and the ideal of perfection in Buddhism
Christ and the Christian ideal
Mohammed and the Islamic ideal
The Vedantic idea
Sankara and Ramanuja
Pavahari Baba, the silent contemplative
Sri Ramakrishna
Sri Sarada Devi
Swami Vivekananda
Bibliography
Glossary
Index - I (Stories, Parables and Incidents appearing in the book)
Index - II (Psychological cases referred to in the book).
Index - III (General).