Author: Swami Sambuddhananda
Publisher: Ramakrishna Math
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 146
ISBN/UPC (if available): N/A
Description
Vedanta which literally means self-realization or fulfillment is not merely an abstract philosophy belonging to the realm of speculation and divorced from the actual mode of life. It has an intensely practical side also. As one of its greatest exponents Swami Vivekananda said, the ideal of Vedanta lived by the recluse outside the pale of society can be practiced even from hearth and home and applied to all daily schemes of life.
Whatever may be the avocation of man, he can follow its fundamental principle which means service of man, knowing him to be the manifestation of God. It also teaches men to have faith in themselves and imbibe the virtues of courage and optimism as opposed to cowardice and pessimism. Finally, Vedanta as a religion does not tolerate bigotries, narrow prejudices and religious conflicts.
Contents
CHAPTER I : SELF ANALYSIS
SECTION I : Ways of the World
Publisher’s Note
Preface
Foreword
Introduction
1. Buddha and his disciples
2. Callous son
3. Shake before use
4. Adoption of a son
5. A problem child – Cleverer than I
6. Unpractical intellectuality
7. Incurable habit
8. Prayer with a reservation
9. Indiscriminate charity
10. The dishonest miser
11. Self-defeating worldly hopes
12. Why worldly people cannot attain God-realization
13. The Ideal and the real
14. Friend in prosperity
15. The danger of flattery
16. Foolish courtesy
SECTION II: Ways of Self-Study.
17. If 52 why not 53?
18. The case of misunderstanding
19. Sree Rama and Hanuman
20. Non-violence in practice
21. Ambition and renunciation
22. Apparent and real
23. The King’s brother-in-law
24. The consequence of attachment
25. Indra and the gardener
26. Education of a prince
27. The butcher and the cow
28. Angles of vision
29. Mere learning is not enough
30. Dependence upon God
31. The world but a dream
32. Shedding of egoism
33. How illusion works
34. A crow and its child
35. Polite retort
36. The greatest of the organs of sense
37. pride and its fall
38. What you seek is within you
39. Limitations of experience
40. Limitations of earthly possessions
41. How the self vanishes before the Supreme
42. Good and evil
43. Pleasure and pain
44. The attainment of peace
45. The greater sacrifice
46. The three robbers
47. Flee not, but face the trouble
48. Svetaketu
49. The story of Ratnakar
50. The story of Ekalavya
51. The perils of uncontrolled thought
CHAPTER II : SELF – UNFOLDMENT
1. World is like a dog’s tail
2. Shiva and Parvati
3. Differential treatment
4. Two gardeners
5. Lead us not into temptation
6. The way of selflessness
7. Workings of Karma
8. Good cometh out of evil
9. If anybody steals your shirt give him the cloak also
10. The working of Maya (1)
11. The working of Maya (2)
12. The way of Maya
13. The story of Satyakama
14. Sri Ramakrishna and Girish Chandra
15. The straight and the crooker ways
16. The lion’s cub disillusioned
17. Worldly attachment
18. To each according to his worth
19. True understanding
20. The virtue of perseverance
21. Beyond the realm of reason
22. Self-sacrifice
23. Shiva’s self-sacrifice
24. The power of faith
25. The Holly of unbelief
26. The force of faith
27. The folly of reprobating other faiths
28. The body politic
29. The end of all knowledge
30. The wife’s choice
31. The worth of semblance
32. Queen Madalasa
33. To friends, out of sight is not out of mind
34. Lessons of experience
35. The physician and the patient
36. An ideal householder
37. The Supreme Truth (I)
38. Wonder of wonders
39. Practice of concentration
40. Immutable nature
41. Unconquerable Nature
42. Narayana in both the Mahout and the Elephant
CHAPTER III : SELF-FULFILMENT
1. Highest sacrifice
2. Each in his place is great
3. The world is a caravansary
4. Ghantakarna
5. Inevitable Karma
6. The ways of a saint
7. Faith can work miracles
8. The biggest thing of all
9. Image worship
10. The end of rituals
11. The untouchable soul
12. The story of Dhruva
13. The quality of aspiration
14. Realisation of Brahman (I)
15. Realisation of Brahman (II)
16. Two birds sitting on a tree. (Jivatma & Paramatma). (Ref. Mundakopanishad)
17. The eye of faith
18. The story of Nachiketa (Ref. Kathopanishad)
19. The pride of learning
20. Vanity of scholarship
21. Reconciliation of Contradictions
22. The worth of the Lord’s name
23. The Spirit of receiving a gift
24. Power of concentration
25. The Source of power. (Ref. Kenopanishad)
26. Seek and ye shall find
27. Futile disappearance
28. Perfect disciple
29. He sings for the Lord
30. The unfolding of enlightenment
31. Miracles: Occult powers, No. I
32. Miracles: Occult powers, No. II
33. Incarnation of God
34. Appearance and reality
35. Forms of God
36. Secret of resignation
37. The story of ten men
38. Interpretation follows nature
39. The highest knowledge
40. The Supreme Truth (II)
41. Fruit of self-surrender
42. Different conceptions of God
43. Proof of the existence of God
44. The unity of God
45. Where all religions meet
46. Universal consciousness
47. The universal consciousness
48. The universal Self
49. The nature of the Supreme Self
50. Pippalada and his disciples
51. Bhrigu and Varuna