Short Reading: ”Claim Your Birthright Now” by Swami Sivananda Saraswati

A short exert from "Sadhana, a Textbook of the Psychology and Practice of the Techniques to Spiritual Perfection", pg 365-367 by His Holiness Gurudev Swami Sivananda Saraswati (1887-1963), read by Rev. Dr. Swami Bhajanananda Saraswati. 

 

"Why should you prolong your bondage unnecessarily? Why should you not claim your birthright right now? Do it now. Stand up. Gird your loins. Do rigorous and vigorous sadhana and attain freedom, immortality and eternal bliss. Make the lower nature the servant of the higher through discipline, tapas, self-restraint and meditation. This is the beginning of your freedom. Build your character. Purify the heart. Develop divine virtues. Eradicate evil traits. Conquer all that is base within you. Endeavor to attain all that is worthy and noble. Only when you have purified the heart, silenced the mind, stilled the thoughts and surging emotions, withdrawn the outgoing senses, thinned out the vasanas, can you behold the glorious Atman during deep meditation. Even a ray of inner light during meditation will lighten your path. It will give you you encouragement and inner strength. It will goad you to do more sadhana. You will experience this ray of light when the meditation becomes deeper and when you rise above body-consciousness. Meditation and worship are the means of evolving your potentialities and seeking a higher level of consciousness. Life is the unfolding of the latent capacities of the soul. Lead the divine life. Generate sublime divine thoughts through meditation, japa, kirtan and study of sacred scriptures. Bask the body in physical sunlight. Bask the soul in the sunlight of the Eternal. You will have good health and everlasting life. Sit down with a compose mind. Assert your mastery over body and mind. Plunge deep into the chambers of the heart and enter into the stupendous ocean of silence. Listen to the voice which is soundless. Build your spiritual life upon a sure foundation, upon the rock of divine grace and strength of character. Take refuge in the Lord and His law. There is no power in heaven or on earth that can bar your march now. Success in Self-realization is certain. There is light on your path. All is brilliant."