Blessed Atma Swaroopa!
Beloved Seeker of Truth,

Om Namo Narayanaya. Namaskars.

Om Sri Ram. Sri Ram. Sri Ram. Sri Ram.

This is a great and glorious month. It is verily a month full of rare blessedness and sanctity. For, this month we have the precious occasion and opportunity of offering our adorations to the grand ideal of our Nation, the supreme divine Person who stands for us all, as the greatest model of Perfection in life, nature, conduct and character, namely, the most blessed “LORD RAMA”. The entire Nation will celebrate the divine Jayanthi or holy Birthday anniversary of Rama upon the 20th April: Bhagwan Ramchandra Maryada-Purushottama, who embodies in Himself and expresses through every movement of His life the highest exemplary behaviour in all fields of human relationship. The story of Rama's divine life is the story of sublime Idealism in actual practice. Its inspiration is perennial. Its appeal is Universal. Its wonderful power to elevate and to transform is unfailing. Its sublimity is unequalled. Ramayana is a treasure of Indian Culture, and National Heritage of utmost importance and significance of the very survival of our noble expiration and aims. To worship in RAMA is to reassert our unshakable faith in Idealism in life and to pledge a new our loyalty to the concept of Dharma and Adhyatma-lakshya in life. Rama is the life-breath of India's moral life and ethical structure. Without Rama there is no Dharma and without Dharma there will be no India!

We shall try in this letter to receive some Light from the glorious RAMAYANA. May you all prepare yourself to worship the Divine Rama upon the approaching sacred anniversary. Purify your heart with humility, devotion and worshipfulness of spirit. Repeat His DIVINE NAME with great feeling and intense reverence. Ram-Nam is India's great Mantra of this age. It alone can make your life meaningful and purposeful in a world where the true meaning of life is lost in Hedonism and this disillusionment and frustration has overcome the majority of human beings.

Your life here is a means to the attainment of a glorious purpose. The aim of life is the attainment of the Divine Perfection. This earthly life is full of miseries, sorrows, defects imperfections and limitations. To overcome all limitations, to cross beyond sorrow and pain and to attain Immortality and Divine Bliss is the goal of life. By realising God one reaches this goal and becomes internally free.

Such realization and freedom is achieved by living an ideal life, by practising self-control and by worshipping God. Purity, self-restraint and worship constitutes the essence of Spiritual Life. Every Divine Incarnation comes to give this message of God-attainment, to remind mankind of its importance and glory, and to disclose the inner secrets of Spiritual Life and attainment, by the lofty examples of His own ideal life and conduct. In the Divine Leela of Rama's Avatara, we get much light and guidance and derive great inspiration upon the inner part of spiritual attainment. Different ideal personalities in the Nara-Leela of this great Avatara exemplify the different factors that characterize your ideal approach unto the Divine. Bharata, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman are the personified expressions of the different factors that make up or constitute our ideal approach unto the Divine.

Uninterrupted, continuous worship of God is the very essence of Spirituality. Worship that is characterised by the total absorption in the object of worship ultimately leads to Realization. Worship to be effective and fruitful must become gradually so intense that yourself is completely forgotten and God alone fills your concentrated and one-pointed mind. There must be no thought of self. The mind must be filled with God. The only meaning in one's life must be the love of God. Worship should become a positive passion and must be felt as more important than anything else in this world. You must understand that life itself is a worship. Life is meant primarily to be lived as an active worship of Divine, as a glorification of the Lord. Such worship has the power to awaken the Divinity that is dormant within every human soul. It will transform you into a Divine being. The ideal prince Bharatha verily made himself the very embodiment of such passionate, continuous, all-absorbing worship of Sri Rama. He forgot the world, he forgot himself and he forgot everything in his whole-souled devotion and adoration of the Lord Rama through Rama's sacred Padukas. Day and night, Bharatha was seen absorbed in the divine contemplation of Rama. Rama pined to see him. The moment His mission at Lanka was over, he sent Hanuman in great haste to go in advance to meet Bharata and announce his arrival to him. By true worship such as was demonstrated by Bharata, one powerfully draws the Lord to himself and makes the Divine one's own. The bliss of this spiritual union with the Divine is the fruit of such worship. It is indescribable. Remembrance of Bharata, contemplation on his personality will create in you the Bhava of such worship. Meditate upon the moving and inspiring life of this great prince among Bhaktas. You will imbibe the spirit of his deep devotion and passionate adoration of the Divine Lord Rama. Such devotion is the real wealth of wealths and the greatest pleasure in your life. Acquire this and attain immortality and bliss.

Self-restraint is the key to mind-control. The outgoing tendencies of the senses and their constant movement towards the fulfilment of the senses make the mind restless and agitated. Such a mind does not turn to God. Such a mind finds it impossible to worship with one-pointedness. Practice of self-control, checks the outward tendencies of the senses and helps you to attain calmness of mind. Self-control is distasteful and painful in the beginning. It becomes interesting, pleasant and joyful at a latter stage. Practice of self-control should be a daily discipline willingly imposed upon themselves. It is a sign of our superior human nature. You will reap benefits in every way, physical, mental, moral and spiritual, by the practice of rational self-restraint. A self-restrained man alone can do effective service to his fellow-beings. Self-controlled person alone can truly worship God. Otherwise, with the thoughts scattered over innumerable objects and a mind distracted by various desires, you cannot truly worship or effectively serve the Society. The quality of service of a concentrated mind of a self-controlled person is bound to be ten times superior to the indifferent service that is done by a person who is himself a slave of his desires, cravings, personal ambition and secret passion. Service demands sincerity of purpose, earnestness and dedication. It demands readiness to sacrifice and willingness to bear and undergo troubles and difficulties with equanimity of mind. Nowhere in the annals of our Spiritual history do we find a more shining example of such a perfect self-control, immense self-sacrifice and unrelenting and unremitting service than in the amazing personality of the great heroic Lakshmana. Moderation, abstinence, the balanced life guided by the principles are all essential parts to self-control. Self-control implies Self-mastery. It is the bed-rock of all achievements, secular or spiritual. To the man of religion it must be the very life-breath. Without self-control there is no Sadhana. Without Sadhana there is no Self-realization. Without Self-realization you can neither have peace nor bliss nor freedom. He who wishes to be with the Lord must willingly part with the little self. He must be prepared to discard all thoughts of petty happiness and self-satisfaction upon the lower plane. The princely Lakshmana turning away from the comforts of Palace, pomp and royal living, chose to follow his Divine brother and voluntarily accepted the hardship of the severe discipline and self-denial. Thus he attained the unique and incomparable blessedness of continued Divine presence of Bhagwan Ramchandra.

The approach to the Divine experience is an ascent into purity. Spiritual life is a gradual but unceasing growth into the perfection of purity, Atman, all the absolute Divine essences variously spoken of as Amala, Vimala, Nirmala, Nitya, Shudha and Niranjana. Spiritual growth and progress implies a process of transforming yourself from the impure into the absolutely pure. He who approaches the Divine should go into the Divine Nature. The pure alone can have access in the realm of Divine Experience. Blessed are they that strive to be pure in thought, word and deed and make their life an embodiment of Purity. The Divine Sita and the great Hanuman stand as resplendent exemplars of this sublime ideal. Noble Sita was a blazing fire of Purity. She stands as the loftiest example of shining Purity in all the annals of Indian tradition towering high above all personalities and forever a source of living inspiration in the Hindu Society. Even amidst the severest of tests, trials and tribulations Sita adhered to the ideals without swerving even by a hair's breadth. No harm dared approach this fire of Chastity, Purity and highest Virtue. Equalling her in this rare virtue, shining as a symbol of supreme Purity, the heroic Hanuman strides across the sacred pages of the holy Ramayana. Hanuman is the Brahmacharin par excellence of Indian religious history. He is the object of worship and Ishta Devata of all those who aspire after life of perfect purity, continence and self-control. Personalities of Hanuman and the Divine Sita give unto us the secret key to success in this life of Purity. Ceaseless service and total dedication sum up this Spiritual secret. To Mother Janaki nothing existed in the world except her Rama. Hers was a life totally dedicated to her Lord ever since the moment her hand was placed in Rama's palm by her sage father King Janaka. Rama was her life's breath. There existed no other thought in her mind except Rama. No other place in her heart except for her Rama. Being absorbed thus in Ram, day and night dwelling in thought and feeling upon Him, Sita was filled with the Divine Fire which no impurity could dare to approach. And Hanuman too was similarly absorbed in Rama's thought, in His dedication to Rama Seva. Ceaseless service of his Divine Master because the passion of his life ever since their first meeting in the hallowed ground at Kishkindha. Dedicated selfless service transmuted the energy of Hanuman into pure Daivee Shakti. The impossible became possible to the power of purity of this great Brahmacharin. Service of Lord Rama was the sole passion of Anjaneya's exalted life. This obtained for him the unique and coveted blessedness of an eternal place at the Divine Lotus Feet of Bhagavan Ramachandra. Purity, dedication and devotion of this mighty servant made him one of the dearest objects of the Divine Lord Bhagavan Ramachandra. Where this total dedication for spiritual ideals is, there the seekers shine with Purity. O my beloved friends, become absorbed in unceasing selfless service of saints, holy people, elders and of all. Be totally dedicated to the glorious spiritual ideals. You will rise to the highest purity and come face to face with God.

Lead the Divine Life. Live up to your ideals. Grow in Purity. Practise self-control. Dedicate yourself to the regular worship of the Divine. This sublime way of life unfolds itself before the votary of the holy Ramayana. Bharata, Lakshmana, Sita and Hanuman give you a dazzling revelation of this radiant path into perfection, Purity, self-restraint and dedication unto worship are ideals to be ever pursued with unabated zeal and earnestness. There are those who would say that ideals are impracticable. I say unto all such that it were far better to be impractical idealists than to successfully be practical bests. Without Idealism humanity is savage. Take away idealism, then the jungle will invade the most urbane society. Ideals need not be totally and entirely realised in practical life. Nevertheless, without them we shall perish as a civilisation and a culture. Ideals should ever be pursued. No matter how difficult of attainment they may seem, yet in constantly striving to approach them, lies the true greatness of a people. Such ideals impart the quality to our life and give it the correct direction. What our life is, depend upon what our ideals are. To move constantly towards definite, lofty ideals is the greatest blessedness in the life of any individual. Ideals are important not because they are immediately and fully practicable, but because they impart the right pattern to the practical living of our lives, individually as well as collectively, here and now. Ideals come foremost. Then follows the practice. And to one who is truly earnest nothing is impracticable. The practice may not be easy but to strive your best to practise, is your duty. Trust in Lord Rama, take His Divine Name and start to lead a sublime life of noblest idealism. You will triumph over all obstacles and shine resplendent as a true child of Bharatavarsha.

Om Sri Ramaya Namah! God be with you!

- Swami Chidananda
1st April 1966

Sivanandashram Letter No. VIII