Author: Madan Mohan Varma
Editor(s): Sudhakar Dikshit
Publisher: Chetana Publications
Year: 1983
Language: English
Pages: 174
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8185300224
Description
A Saint’s call to mankind is not one of those usual calls that have been made by saints and sages over the centuries through their philosophical dissertations and discourses.
This book is indeed not so much a call as an invitation. For it invites the reader to a higher life, while leading his normal worldly existence. It is a practical guide for the seeker who has lost his way in the vast maze of do’s and don’ts which forms the basis of most spiritual teaching. It is a sort of route-map showing the path by which the author himself traveled to reach the supreme destination. And having arrived, he invites all seekers to take to this path.
A saint’s call to mankind elucidates difficult philosophical concepts in simple lucid language. Here are a few examples:
Viveka is not a matter of practice; it is the fruit of all practices. Vairagya means the raising of the value of the enjoyer above the transitory objects of enjoyment. Pravritti is like a river whose flow takes one to the ocean of the world. Niruritti takes one to the source of the river and raises him above the world of appearances. There is a distinction between karma and kriya.
What is not done but takes place is kriya; what is done with a motive (good or bad) is karma. The pith of action is love. Action devoid of love is barren. Self-purification is an essential pre-requisite of self-realisation. Self-realisation is never partial; what is partial is not self-realization. We suffer more by the desire for things than by a lack of things themselves.
Contents
AUTHOR’S PREFACE
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
You are not the Body
Desire is Bondage
Still Mind is the Free Mind
Rise above Circumstances
Pure Service Dissolves the Ego
Love Generates Happiness
Self-perfection and Self-realisation
Make Life Itself a Sadhana
Nothing is Yours, really
Universe is One and Indivisible
Living in the Present
Virtue and Vice
God, the Supreme Giver
Self-surrender
Sparks of Wisdom
Lights on Sadhana
Mook Satsang: Silent communion
Some Questions Answered
GLOSSARY