
Yogaswami Sri Lanka (1872 - 1964) The Words of the Master Collected by His four disciples: Markandu Swami A. Chellathurai Sandaswami M. Sri Khanta
Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia

Yogaswami

Sri Lanka
(1872 - 1964)
The Words of the Master

Collected by
His four disciples:
Markandu Swami
A. Chellathurai
Sandaswami
M. Sri Khanta

Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia

[Introduction & Acknowledgements] [Part 1 of 3] [Part 2 of 3] [Part 3 of 3]

Part One of Three ...

You must remain like the mariner's compass.
You are your own friend and your own enemy.
You must work, but remain as if you have done no work.
You must have good control over prana.
Happiness and sorrow are twins.
Brahmacharya is a very great thing.
Meditate in the mornings and evenings.
Everything should be done in moderation.
You must make the mind, which runs after outward things, to merge in the atma.
Yoga is detached action. That is also sannyasa.
Don't allow the mind to wander here and there, but see everything as Brahman.
(When you cook) prepare everything as for God - and then put it in the homa fire! (i.e. the belly)
Every man is a God. Prakriti is Sakti.
Let happiness and sorrow come and go like the clouds.
One must be self-controlled.
You must be balanced.
Do not think of what things you may need tomorrow.
Even the kanchiram (nux vomica) has it's uses. Similarly all are good.
First step - selfless action. Second step - tranquility.
Third step - remaining in nishdai, or service to humanity, according to your will.
Learn how to remain always happy.
Do not allow the mind to run in different directions.
You must make it become one-pointed.
Have no hatred in your heart.
You must move in the world as one who walks with the support of a' Kiluvai' stick
(i.e. a stick that breaks under the slightest pressure).
God will tell us everything. Let us not worry about anything.
As a dog, let loose after being tied up for some time, is energetic and active,
so one, who learns to remain summa, gets increased energy which can be put to good use.
You must not come to the conclusion that there are no stars,
because you are unable to see stars in the daytime.
If we remove the darkness that is in us, we can see that God is.
Use the body like a sandal.
Just as a man will use a staff to climb a mountain, so should virtue be used in life.
What is the use of going on pilgrimage if you do not improve yourself?
There is one thing God cannot do - He cannot separate Himself from the soul.
I am the ruler of the body. I must see that no other wicked king usurps my throne.
Can you measure the soul?
You lack nothing. The only thing you lack is that you do not know who you are.
It is not possible to straighten the kink in a dog's tail.
Let us improve ourselves instead of trying to improve the world.
You must be very careful - even in the small things that you do.
All work must be done with the aim of reaching God.
Beware of bad qualities.
Man can know his past and future births.
But by getting rid of desire he can put an end to birth altogether.
After spending ten hours of the day in your employment, use your leisure hours well.
God has rescued the soul, which is like Valliamma trapped by the hunters,
and taken it under His protection.
Let purification and atma darsana come slowly.
Enough of learning!
Singing Tevaram is one method of controlling the wandering mind.
If you remain in nirvikalpa samadhi, the body will be free of disease.
Of what use is garb or outward show?
If the chimney is black with smoke, you cannot see the light; similarily, maya obscures the atma.
One must know one's own measure.
Remain separate like the five fingers.
But when there is work to do, co-operate in doing it like the hand.
Even meditation is work. Practise remaining summa for ten minutes.
Man can remain always doing work, but he must not worry about it after it is finished.
Without being content with what we have, we always want more and therefore suffer.
Just as a surveyor is trained to use a theodolite with ease,
so must we learn to train our minds and bodily organs to carry out our service.
Everything will turn out successfully, when the mind is not agitated.
No need to control the breath; no need to do tapas,
if you can see yourself everywhere. That is the secret of secrets.
That man (i.e. another devotee) does what I think immediately. So powerful is the mind.
One mechanism everywhere. The secret of secrets!
How foolish it is to judge a man by one bad quality, ignoring all his other good qualities.
We sang Tevaram to while away the time, but time has not gone. We are also eternal.
When you have a small job, you want a big job.
When you get a big job, you want a large salary.
When you get a large salary, you are anxious for the welfare of your children.
If everything continues like that, where is the end?
What are you going to do with the money you accumulate?
Can you increase your life-span even for a day?
Give generously when you can.
In someone you consider bad there may be qualities greater than those that Mahatma Gandhi had.
When the mind is pure no harm will befall you, even if you strike a man.
Behave well, move tactfully.
When are you going to put an end to this stomach-filling job?
God and you are inseparable.
As you close the windows and doors of a room,
so you must control the five senses and do meditation.
If the chimney is full of smoke, how can the light be seen?
If the mind is full of dirt, how can the soul shine?
Gold is in the earth. In order to obtain it, you must collect earth and purify it.
So it is with atma sakti (the power of the soul).
Lord Buddha taught by example. You can see how widely his light has spread.
Employment and everything else must be used by us with the aim of seeing God.
One who lives with this aim will be content with any kind of work.
The sannyasi's life and the householder's life are both good.
Whatever work you have to do, do it well. That in itself is yoga.
Wisdom will come, if you do your duty well.
The patrimony which I am going to give you is that you must always think that God is always with you.
Having the profit of the soul as their aim, many devotees of Siva are able to obtain many things from the Lord.
However great a man may be, he cannot see in the night without a lamp; but sometimes there is light.
The heart must be pure. There is nothing more to say.
More often than not, I think that I am in the presence of God. This is a good way to remain pure.
He (God) must be the judge in our hearts. We can do anything.
We can send a man to the gallows or to prison and so on, but our minds must not be agitated.
(To some one who asked - 'People say you get angry.)
Is not a big fire necessary to burn rubbish?
Because of worldliness the light in the faces of the young has become less bright nowadays.
Provided we don't think of flying in the air, we can attain whatever we desire.
You must work hard. A few will realize the truth. The rest will merely follow them.
We must not think that, if such and such a thing happens, it is good;
or, if some other thing doesn't happen, it is bad.
Provide for your wife and children. Don't worry about your grand-children.
You can bluff others, but you cannot bluff yourself.
If you behave according to your conscience, everything will come right.
Lord Jesus Christ has said:
Don't suffer for my sake. Work hard for your own emancipation;
Without improving yourself, what is the use of doing service to me?
If you are a king, will you have contentment?
If you are a beggar, will you have contentment?
Whatever your walk in life may be,
you will only have contentment through knowing yourself by yourself.
Without remaining summa, the mind is running here and there.
That is its nature. What does that matter?
You must observe right conduct and make your mind to become fused with the atma.
If you misbehave, the mind will try to harm you.
If you want to commit suicide, one pin is sufficient.
Similarly, in order to improve oneself, much study is not necessary.
As one brings up one's children well so one must train the mind to behave well.
Mind is our best friend and our worst enemy.
At the top of the mountain you find it very cool.
There will be none of the dissimilarity that you can see at the bottom of the path.
The fundamental principles of all religions are one.
When a surveyor goes to the country places, he can teach the villagers healthy habits
and learn to love them as his own children.
There is no difference between Sinhalese, Tamils, or Burghers.
They all have the same limbs and parts of the body as we have.
As you clear the forest when you make a survey, so must our inner obstacles be cleared.
We must improve ourselves; we should not look for the help of others for our own improvement.
All the good done by charity and alms-giving in the name of the dead will reach them.
And they will also help you. They will come and help you in dreams.
If we think of someone who is distant from here, he can be aware of it.
The same mechanism is everywhere.
Who can be a better friend to us than God?
When drinking honey, a bee will remain silent. Similarly, some muktars will not speak.
But others will give advice to the world.
Instead of thinking that we are all servants of God and that all is His action,
we make resolves and plans and thus create a world within ourselves, and suffer out of it.
Get rid of like and dislike, and laziness and activity,
and open the house of liberation by means of the key of Sivadhyana, and see!
There, there is neither 'you' nor 'I', neither 'he' nor 'she'.
The more you learn, the more will the mind become expanded and diffused.
Directing the mind inwards will give you peace.
You must be very careful even about small things.
Without the small axle-pin the whole car will collapse.
You can go to the top by climbing up step by step.
But exceptionally there are some who, with the help of Sruitis, the guru,
and their own understanding and experience, can fly like birds.
Ninety-nine per cent of human beings are atheists.
I am talking to gods! Some gods want fruit; some want fish and meat; some want toddy and arrack!
It will not be an over-statement, if I say that man is God.
If you think that you want to control the mind, that is also the dispersion of the mind (pravritti).
If you fuse the mind with the atma, all your thoughts and plans will then cease to be the activity of the mind.
If you take hold of the cat's tail, it will bite you.
In like manner you must live in the world like water on a lotus leaf.
What does a man lack if he surrenders himself to the Lord, saying that all is His action?
He will get everything he needs. But that does not mean that if he wants to fly in the air, he will be able to do so.
If I wish my friend well, he will actually be benefitted. Diseases are cured by sound.
The Swami at Mannarkudi knew only one decad (i.e. ten verses) from Tevaram.
Because he concentrated with faith on that, he was able to cure many diseases through that Tevaram alone.
Water flows to the lowest place and stays there. Similarly you also remain humble.
This world is a training college. Some are in the kindergarten. Some are in the B.A. class.
Surely those in the B.A. class will never look down upon those in the kindergarten?
The subject of the lecture is All is God's action.
But in the mind (of the lecturer) the disease of 'I'-ness remains.
Because God is with us, we see, we hear, we talk and do everything. The scientists say that even plants talk.
Everyone must find out the path that suits him. The train can only run on rails.
If you press the switch there will be light. Similarly God is in the heart of us like the power-station.
Don't wander about saying, Don't drink! Don't commit adultery! Don't do this and don't do that!
Let God look after those things. Who can improve the world?
If there is a desire that our children must get religious knowledge, it will come.
Don't do things in order to please others.
Remaining summa is the best exercise.
Great men have given us many stories to help us grasp the truth.
There is no necessity to do Pranayama by holding the breath.
Everything (mind control, etc.) will come by itself if you do Sivadhyanam.
You must not be indifferent to work because your salary is poor.
We must demolish the fortress that we ourselves have built.
The great say that we should remain without like or dislike.
Many have spoken about the One in many ways.
If you study all these the mind will be dispersed and will not become calm.
You will have peace only when your mind is not agitated.
From Cypher (i.e. zero) everything came.
All men are beautiful walking flowers.
Instead of remaining as a witness and enjoying all this,
man suffers through being possessed by the disease of 'I' and 'mine'.
The disease that matters is in the antakarana.
We need many M.O.'s to cure this! One or two is not enough.
We are all the same. Difference is only in degree.
Like a lamp with two chimneys, the mind has the body as its chimney
and the atma has the mind. The light is always burning.
But if the chimneys are covered with smoke they will not shine.
As we kiss our children every day before going to work, so must we daily love the Lord.
Work is play; work is rest.
If we put into practice the little we know, that is enough. We will come to know everything in that way.
As a man at the helm of a ship attends to other things, while holding the rudder,
and yet brings the ship safely into harbour, so the desire for self-knowledge (atma jnanam) is enough.
Like the rudder, the desire for self-knowledge will keep you on the right course and take you to your goal.
You don't need to worry about acquiring 'this' or getting rid of 'that'.
If you lead a natural life without overstepping the limits, everything will come to you.
You think that you are the doer and fall into the trap of bondage.
But everything was accomplished long ago.
How many births and deaths have come and gone? What good is there in this?
What harm? What knowledge? What ignorance? Remain a witness always.
Don't run down anyone. That habit will give you mental worry.
One must get rid of bad habits as a result of experience.
Beginning with the excuse that it is only a medicine,
people take alcohol and then become drunkards.
Instead of spending time in book-reading,
it is better to spend it in studying yourself.
Study is also a kind of yoga.
Nowadays the easiest method is to do Sivadhyanam.
You must not worship God with the aim of obtaining some profit.
You must not worship even with the desire for liberation.
We are the atma. You must become clearly convinced of this.
This hand (Swami held in front of his face) hides us from each other.
If it is removed we can see one another. Man must realize this.
The railway engine pulls many coaches. Can it do so if it runs off the track?
No. Great people have shown the path. We must follow it.
When you see the mountain you do not see the trees. When you see the trees you do not see the mountain.
The way is very long. You must go forward slowly,
keeping to the path and not walking on the thorns by its sides.
(A letter from Poona) - No other news except that God is always with you.
You will not attain jnanam (wisdom) even if you read a thousand Kurals. You must know yourself by yourself.
Tiruvasakam can be studied for the sake of concentration.
God, soul, and the world - in the end the world also will become God.
Why do you want to open the outside door when there is an inside door? Everything is within.
The atma is the result of God's Grace.
One must study for the sake of others.
If you struggle hard and arrive at a certain level, then It will pull you up.
One God; one religion; one man !
All are looking in the same glass.
Very few have understood the teachings of Buddha.
You must go deep within.
If you take hold of one link you can pull the whole chain.
Now all of us are doing yoga.
Karma Yoga is selfless action. Siva Yoga is action for the Lord.
Yoga means concentration of mind.
By doing Bhakti Yoga all the other three Yogas will come.
When you worship God, you must not ask for anything.
You must worship for the sake of love.
Afterwards you can ask for your requirements.
Having reached the house of a rich man is it good to ask for one or two annas ?
Try to remain without taking any further births.
The Grace of Siva (Sivapackiam) is with everyone.
God sees. God hears. God talks. He remains without being separated from us.
Love others as you love me.
Don't run to Kataragama or Chidambaram in search of God.
There is no necessity for you to study. But even study is yoga. Study Tirukkural well !
We must taste God just as we taste sugar-candy.
Whatever it may be, true knowledge is to discover the essential truth within it. (Kural).
Buddha preached, so he had desire. Desire can be reduced, but it cannot be entirely eliminated.
We must accept what our experience tells us is right and reasonable and discard everything else.
What is Saivaism? We are devotees of Lord Siva and we are doing Sivathondu - that is Saivaism.
On the highest level you do not have to control even the mind,
because to control the mind, there must be a second.
There will come a time when the mind becomes quiet by itself.
What is there to study? Man is mad.
We have to laugh at the weakness of our mind and body.
How can sorrow affect the atma?
If you stand on the top of a mountain you can see all as one (uniform expanse).
You will see no differences. There are no differences as between Englishmen, Americans, etc.
It is God who sees as the eye behind our eye. Brahman fills us entirely.
Just as the raw fruit follows the flower and the ripe fruit the raw fruit,
so let realization come gradually.
The lotus is highly esteemed, even though it grows out of mud.
Similarly, knowers of the Self can be found anywhere.
On the highest level, where is the guru? Where is the disciple? Everything is Brahman.
With one hand you must take hold of God, with the other you must hold on to the world.
For one's living money is needed; therefore the desire for money will be there.
If you are detached, it does not matter how much wealth you may have.
Can we eat all that we need (for a life-time) in a day?
With one cut you can make two pieces. (Tamil proverb). So it is with happiness and sorrow.
You won't be happy till 'I' die.
As the growth of a lotus depends on the level of the water in the tank,
so by knowledge (jnana) virtue is developed.
And equally through virtue wisdom will be gained.
Peace, self-searching and the company of devotees give happiness.
Learn to remain summa. If you try to stop, it will only become more active.
It is not necessary to stop it. You must ask it - Where are you going?
But see that you do not leave your seat.
Till you get perfect knowledge, try to remain like one who is blind, deaf, and dumb. Mounam.
You must know the Self by the self. Concentration of mind is required for this.
Speak what comes from within. Otherwise don't speak.
Tapas is not idleness. It is constant vigilance.
Do not be in a hurry. Do not be agitated.
Live for the sake of the world.
Many siddhis (powers) will come. Let them come and go.
If you worship God with the love of a child, then all that you have lost will be given to you.
(A near-by temple bell was ringing and Swami said:) Ring the bell, ring the bell saying - I am He
(Then the bell was rung a second time and he said:) Ring the bell, saying -I am the atma.
(Pointing to his body) This is Nallur.
The book is within you. Turn over the leaves and study.
Even in small things, you must act with care and see everything in relation to everything else.
From a distance you can see, hear and smell things that are far away from you.
First one small circle; then a larger circle; then the whole universe!
The bee first flies around the flower. Then it drinks the honey without making any sound.
When it flies away after taking the honey, it appears golden.
See the Supreme in the body. See the Supreme in the mind.
Weakness belongs to the body and mind. The atma is always full of strength.
Debate and argument are not necessary.
Now we don't control the mind. We remain summa with a controlled mind.
All are His actions.
Don't pour nectar into the drain.
All thoughts must die. Alas! How difficult that is!
First obey; then command.
Just as this farmer has prepared his soil well, so everyone must try to keep his heart pure.
Man is beyond death.
Nothing is lost, nothing is gained!
Man is man, whether he is in hell or heaven.
The atma is summa. Movement is for the body and mind.
(To someone who was cleaning the garden) When you clean the garden, you also clean your mind.
The secret of 'summa iru ' is you. The secret of 'summa iru ' is I. The secret of ' summa iru ' is all.
Bring up God as you bring up a child.
If one knows oneself, there is nothing beyond that.
Sivadhyanam will come by itself from living in the company of great souls.
One must not go against one's conscience.
One can do meditation with the eyes closed or with the eyes open.
Our real father is God.
If you remove illusion, you will see that Siva pervades everything.
One method is to stop all thoughts.
Another method is to remain simply as a witness, allowing thoughts to come and go.
As one becomes more and more mature in this Sadhana, thoughts will begin to come from mounam.
Be very attentive to those thoughts.
Be like the swan and not like the palmyrah strainer.
Be alone. Be alert. Be like a fisherman watching his bait.
We can give initiation by thought to people in Singapore while remaining here.
The inner voice will be heard from mounam.
Always follow the light. Doubt is darkness.
You must listen to words of justice, even if they come from a child.
You must not allow the light to be blown out by the wind.
Lack of faith, doubt, and worldly desire - these are the wind.
Janaka and others ruled the world after realizing the Truth.
What is the use of building temples? One must know the Self.
Worldly attachment is the obstacle to knowledge of Truth.
To reach the Holy Feet it is enough if you have a pure mind.
Mantrams, Tantrams, yoga, etc. are not necessary.
You must know knowledge by knowlegde.
Our gurunathan made me to know myself by myself. He flows like a river. He shines as everything.
If you remain summa (i.e. idle) without working, the mind will become impure. But the summa of jnanis is different.
The wife will say that this man is not her husband, that man is not her husband, but when the husband comes she is silent.
Book-knowledge is sillusilluppu. Knowing the self is panikaram.
Remain alone and see within.
No kind of impurity can bind the atma.
When worldly attachment and impurity of the mind disappear, then there is atma-darshan.
Stand on your own legs.
He who does right need not fear anybody.
You and I are one. Eternal bliss is already acquired.
It is a Tamil custom that a wife never utters her husband's name.
Panikaram is a kind of cake or pastry; Sillusilluppu is the bubbling noise made by the boiling fat used in producing it.
Be alone; be alert; be happy; be strong!
The company of great souls is necessary.
It must come from within. Don't rely on book-knowledge. Trust the self alone.
Differences are outside. The eye sees, the ear hears, etc.
Grow yourself in the hearts of others. In the grass, in the creepers, in the goats, in the cattle - grow yourself.
There is nothing strange here. Don't be enamoured of anything.
The water in the tank and the water outside are all one.
Even formlessness is a form.
All the three actions (i.e. creation, preservation, and destruction) are going on simultaneously.
Great souls will try their utmost to do good to others.
Remain as you are.
If you know yourself, you will see that all others are like you.
Whether you lie down and see, or whether you sit down and see, Truth is one.
Don't be a slave.
Don't assert yourself and strive to see God. He is everywhere. He is with us.
Only if He is in the second or third person, can you strive to see him.
Set God in your heart and bring Him up!
See everything you see as Siva. Do everything you do as Sivathondu. Give up this 'I' and 'mine'.
Kill yourself. Then you will obtain eternal life.
Speak the Truth.
By remaining in the madams of Brahmacharya, Grhastha, Vanaprastha, and Sannyasa, we can complete the pilrimage.
Don't relinquish the faith that there is God.
X (another devotee) is also like me. There is no difference. But he does not know that.
The seer, the thing seen, and seeing are all dreams.
By creating the first person, second person, and third person, man weakens himself.
Attachments tell on the body and mind, but nothing can affect the atma.
What is the use of studying what is left as excreta by others?
One must learn that which comes from within oneself.
What is written by others is only what is spat out.
Sacred is secret. Secret is sacred.
Let happiness and sorrow come and go like day and night. Don't fear!
God is within you. He has no eyes, no ears, and so on.
But we place Him outside and worship Him.
God has become father, mother and guru. He has become this mango tree also.
He has become you and he has become I.
Buddha, Christ, you, I are all like bubbles in the ocean.
We do not need a certificate from anyone to know that we are eternal!
(Pointing to his body.) This is the car.
(Someone brought plantains.) We thought of plantain god and now plantain god has come.
Because he (another devotee) is unable to remain summa, he is walking to Kataragama.
Remain alone and see the world and the other worlds.
Whether you take a pair of sandals and worship them, or whether you take a buffalo and worship it,
He will appear in the form in which you think of Him.
You can bring down rain when you want it.
(Pointing to an oil lamp.) As this lamp is shining so all of you must light the lamp within you.
You are Siva. I am Siva. All are Siva. Remaining summa is also Siva.
Declare that we are everything.
Don't think of the past.
(Swami sang:) Bliss, bliss, nothing but bliss! I am here, I am there, I am everywhere!
He is the clever man who sees God both inside and outside.
Burn up Kaman and kick Yaman!
The God within you will reveal to you everything that you need.
There is no need to ask anything from others.
We were also living at the time of Krishna.
Who has improved the world? People have improved themselves and then gone.
Man is living in God.
The same One is in the sage and in the insect.
There is nothing wonderful in the whole world.
(In a car.) The car driver is my guru, because I cannot do his work.
Both, your Pillaiyar and I, are the same age. This you don't know.
The delusion of learning and the delusion of popularity.
I worship you all, because God is within you all. I do not worship the body.
You and I are one. I and you are one. That One is sustaining everything.
He (another devotee) is wandering about here and there without knowing the secret of how to remain summa.
The message we can give to him is: Thereis no 'you,' no 'I'.
(There were four people in the room.) How many are here?
(Someone said: 'Four'.) No. Only one is here, like four people.
Now I am sitting here. I am in England also. I am also in America.
(Another name for Ganesha. The devotee addressed here must have been a worshipper of Ganesha.)
Remain doing atma-puja.
Electric waves are nothing compared with thought waves. The thoughts of others come and dash against me.
Wherever you look, you see God. I was ruining myself by not seeing this.
Bliss will come, if you remain summa. Why then do you want this illusory world?
If you remain at the top you will see no difference.
You can preach dharma only when you come down.
If you remain at the top and see, everything will appear as one.
That 'One' always remains pure. Nothing can pollute it.
The world is always pure.
When you look outwards, you see the dog, the cat, 'good' and 'bad', 'great' and 'small'.
The world is sacred and secret.
If you remain summa, the sound of voices outside will not reach you. When you come down, you can see the world.
(Swami sang:) Dance O peacock, saying Jiva is Siva. Dance O peacock, and say that Truth is ripening.
If you think of the state of Siva, which is beyond all attributes, it won't come.
It will come by itself.
One day, when I was in that state, a bird came and sat on my head.
Even yogis and jnanis can't understand that state.
This tree is God, this knife is God, this stone is God. Arrack is God. Give worship to all these gods!
You sing and learn, because you are unable to remain summa.
God is with us, but He is worrying us, making us to go to Kasi and Kailas.
See the God in your body by seeing, hearing, dressing and eating. See Him in your heart.
Do worship and know Him who is within you. Do you require any God other than Him to protect you?
To speak the truth, X (another devotee) and I are one. But outwardly we seem to be two.
As age advances and knowledge increases, go up and up. If you look down you will see only 'name' and 'form'.
Make the prana to rise. Enough of reading!
Why do you want to write down Natchintanai and study them? You are Natchintanai.
Then what must be done? You must come to know the Self by the self.
Meditate daily: 'I am Siva .'
Keep the antakaranas free from sickness, and be careful, be awake, be alert, be vigilant, and become omnipresent.
God is with all of us. Then why should we become masters of others.
It is not necessary to break your head over building temples and schools.
You can experience bliss by remaining summa,
like the top which finally comes to rest after spinning round and round.
The top will go on spinning as long as the force is there.
It is not a question of knowing yourself through yourself. You must see yourself through yourself.
Whom are you worshipping? Not me but the guru.
If the mind remains pure, that is equal to all yoga asanas.
It is mere illusion to speak of 'far' and 'near'.
Atma darshan will arise, when there is a yearning desire to know the Self,
and when attachment to the possessions of others entirely disappears.
You must press hard within yourself.
If you do that, you will have the desire for scripture knowledge.
You must squeeze the sugar-cane to extract the juice.
Remain summa for the sake of all!
(You) must struggle for it.
Feel sorry for yourself, thinking that you have not yet realized.
You are always in him and He is always in you. You lack nothing.
It does not matter whether you are a brahmachari or a householder - you must know the truth.
It will speak everywhere.
(To the latrine coolie who was cleaning the lavatory outside.)
O Ramaswamy! Are you doing Sivapuja (divine worship) out there?
One day when I was in the hospital I saw a different world.
He who has nothing steals. Whom are we to blame?
When you have entirely surrendered, everything you do will be meditation.
Who takes birth? Who dies?
(Pointing to a fisherman carrying a basket of fish.) His feet are Tiruvadi. Why? Because Lord Siva is within him.
Virtue is important. It is the sign of good breeding and confers pre-eminence.
Honour your parents. Respect your elders. Love all as yourself.
Liberation is within you.
The world is eternally contracting and expanding.
God exists as earth, water, fire, air, ether, and all else.
The whole world functions in perfect order.
You will only realize the Truth, when you understand that not an atom moves without His will.
If you remain yourself, everything will be all right.
You can make God your servant.
There is nothing to know. Remain summa.
As houses are useful for a man to live in, so religions are useful steps in his growth.
See God in everything. You are in God. God is in you.
There is no need to run after others.
The distinction between so-called 'great' and 'small' does not exist.
All are various forms of the One Reality.
God and I are inseparable. Therefore it is necessary to keep pure this body, which is His temple.
Those who remain summa are the real benefactors of humanity.
Only he who works is a constant worshipper of God.
Ignorance remains until you come to realize that God is within you.
The legs cannot do the work of the hand; the mouth cannot do the work of the legs.
Then which can be called 'great' and which 'small'? All are indispensable.
As there is one soul in a man's body which makes it walk and eat and sleep,
so all movements in the world are simply the play of the Lord.
To realize the supreme Being within you, you must have a strong body and a pure mind.
Nothing is lost, nothing is gained.
The body is your dwelling-place and you are the dwelling-place of the Lord.
Don't wander about. Learn to remain calm and patient.
Be true to yourself. Don't alter your behaviour simply to please others.
Death is also a game.
Illness is a blessing.
Virtue is more important than life itself.
You can only reap the fruit of your own actions. You cannot act for another.
If you say 'God exists', it is wrong, and if you say 'God does not exist', it is also wrong.
We are That. It is not a case of becoming That.
Don't beg from anyone.
There is no guru and no disciple. All are That.
Joy and sorrow only exist in the mind.
Man must suffer; suffering is the greatest medicine.
Simply laugh, if any disaster comes to you. Grief and happiness concern the body.
Little by little control the mind. Direct the mind towards God and practise meditation.
I have no like or dislike for anything.
Look on praise and blame alike.

[Introduction & Acknowledgements] [Part 1 of 3] [Part 2 of 3] [Part 3 of 3]

Yogaswami

Sri Lanka(1872 - 1964) The Words of the Master

Collected by His four disciples: Markandu Swami A. Chellathurai Sandaswami M. Sri Khanta

Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia

Part One of Three ...

Yogaswami

Sri Lanka(1872 - 1964) The Words of the Master

Collected by His four disciples: Markandu Swami A. Chellathurai Sandaswami M. Sri Khanta

Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia

Sri Lanka
(1872 - 1964)
The Words of the Master

Collected by
His four disciples:
Markandu Swami
A. Chellathurai
Sandaswami
M. Sri Khanta

Sri Lanka
(1872 - 1964)
The Words of the Master

Collected by
His four disciples:
Markandu Swami
A. Chellathurai
Sandaswami
M. Sri Khanta