Thanks, Rick.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> 30 Quotations attributed to Shankaracharya Swami Brahmanand Saraswati
>
>
> 'So long passion for attaining God is not firm you shall fly hither
> and thither, without knowing, like a kite.'
>
> 'Be a worldly man through body and wealth and contemplate Him
> (Paramatma) in your heart. Thus you shall shine in the world and
> attain summum bonum as well.'
>
> 'The God is Almighty. If you attain power through worshipping the
> Almighty, in accordance with scriptures, there would be nothing
> impossible in the world.'
>
> 'He alone is the Adored One who does not let any evil take place. He
> alone can make one free from all evils, for He alone is Almighty.'
>
> 'He is perfect in the entire creation. He saves those from every evil
> who depend wholeheartedly upon Him.'
>
> 'Keep in mind the instance of Prahlad. Wherever Prahlad was taken to
> he was saved by his Adored One. Hence make yourself immune from every
> evil by making Him your Adored One.'
>
> 'Lord Vishnu, Shankar, Devi, Surya and Ganesh, each of these five
> deities, are equally capable of doing good to their devotees. One
> should make one of them one's favourite and should visualize him
> pervading throughout the creation.'
>
> 'He alone is the best devotee who sees his Adored One everywhere. For
> the devotee of Vishnu the Lord is omnipresent. He should see Lord
> Vishnu even in the images of Shankar, Devi, Ganesh and Surya etc.
> Likewise a devotee of Shankar, Devi etc. should visualize his Adored
> One omnipresent.'
>
> 'If a worshipper of Devi does not see her in the images of Vishnu and
> Shankar etc. this would imply that he is doubting the omnipresence of
> his Adored One. Such a devotee who sees his Adored One partially
> remains imperfect.'
>
> 'He who causes strife and envy among different schools and
> philosophies is but an outcome of not seeing his Adored One
> omnipresent.'
>
> 'Only through karma worship and enlightenment, as put in the Vedas --
> His Canons -- can one have welfare in this and other world.'
>
> 'Deeds done with right, propriety, and God-given wisdom are powerful.
> Laws of karma are to be learned from the Vedas and religious preachers.'
>
> 'The world has to undergo disquietitude, maladministration, and
> natural calamities when deeds forbidden in scriptures take place and
> the subjects are afflicted.'
>
> 'By not observing duty toward one's self one is afflicted by the
> advent of such internal enemies as lust, anger, greed, arrogance and
> ignorance etc.'
>
> 'Pure satwik diet develops mind and controls the senses. He who has
> won his senses there is nothing impossible in the world.'
>
> 'Progress of a nation is possible only by righteous persons
> possessing God-given endowments.'
>
> 'The divine strength is to be accomplished to make a nation powerful.
> Subtle divine authority is the regulator of the concrete universe.
> Without its help neither can a nation become powerful nor peace and
> prosperity can be felt.'
>
> 'One should always keep one's glory shining and should elevate one's
> thought and make it generous in accordance with the scriptures. One
> should see one's Adored One omnipresent and perfect.
> The devotee remains incomplete if he sees his Adored One in
> unentirety with sectarian view.'
>
> 'One should be happy when seeing reverence evoking feeling in gurus,
> compassion toward afflicted and rise of others and having mutual
> goodwill one should devote oneself whole-heartedly toward universal
> welfare by being sincere to one's self.'
>
> 'If you devote yourself contemplating, worshipping and singing in
> praise of your Adored One you ought to feel something or other and
> your desire ought to be more steady. If it is not so, be sure your
> devotion is not of right kind.'
>
> 'There are classes of devotion, too. As the syllabi of pupils in
> schools become subtle gradually, likewise the path of devotion unto
> the ultimate end becomes continuously subtler.'
>
> 'As the devotee makes progress in devotion [the] need of subtler
> devices increases and a veteran guru alone can show the real path.
> If fortunately one gets a noble guru well versed in the Vedas and
> having deep knowledge of Brahmanand receives his cooperation till
> [the] end, [then] only one guru makes one's life meaningful.
> Otherwise so long [as] the devotee does not attain God he should
> gradually go in the protection of great gurus. One must revere
> previous gurus, but if they are not helping in spiritual attainment
> [then] wasting life by depending upon them out of hesitation is a
> grave error.'
>
> 'Perceiving omnipresence of the Adored One alone can eliminate the
> discord of all opposing feelings. This very thing is the firm basis
> of permanent formation. And this also is the means of permanent peace
> in this world and the other.'
>
> 'Pleasure and pain are results of one's own deeds. One should bear
> them calmly for they are one's own belongings. One has to welcome
> one's relatives even if he is wicked.'
>
> 'If sorrow comes take lesson from it and be cautious in future, so as
> not to perform any forbidden deed which may cause suffering.'
>
> 'There is a tenet of Ayurveda that sins of previous life appear in
> the shape of different afflictions, i.e. physical diseases. They are
> cured by medicine, chanting of some particular mantra, havana and
> worshipping Him. Hence when a disease is not cured by medicine other
> remedies, too, should be tried.'
>
> 'Learning the kind of worship from a deserving veteran guru one
> should devote one self to one's Adored One while performing the
> duties of one's caste and age.'
>
> 'Devotional song is sung in four voices namely baikhari, madyama,
> pashyanti and para. These days devotional songs are sung in baikhari
> voice with the help of playing kartal (small cymbals or wooden
> clappers) and sistrum (resonant percussive device).
> Singers of such songs should not spend their whole life in singing in
> baikhari voice. They should try to produce the other three kinds of
> voices with the help of veteran gurus.
> The same applies to chanting of mantras too. Chanting of mantras has
> several stages. Contemplation too are of many kinds such as internal-
> external, concrete, subtle and ultra subtle. Hence devotee should
> keep searching great veteran gurus."
>
> 'Noble gurus determine the kind of worship for the pupil keeping in
> view place, time, condition, strength, temperament and circumstance
> etc. and he enables him to proceed further on the path of devotion.'
>
> 'Human body is attained with great difficulties.
> Being born in human species is the only way out of the prison of
> birth and death. If one misses this opportunity out of negligence,
> lethargy and hesitation one is bound to undergo, forever, the plight
> of birth and death.
> Hence rise, awake, attain eternal peace and bliss by being in contact
> with the best of mankind.'
>
