The Golden Present: Daily Inspirational Readings - by Sri Swami Satchidananda

A book of daily inspirational readings taken from 25 years of lectures to spiritual seekers, expressed with the simplicity and authority of one who speaks from his own experience. For each day of the year there is a new message to offer spiritual guidance for that day.

Paperback, 416 pages

These daily inspirational readings contain Swami Satchidanandas teachings on the spiritual life How to serve others and realize peace, truth and union with the divine. Culled from years of lectures to spiritual seekers in the West and the East, they are expressed with the simplicity and authority of one who speaks from his own experience.What is purity of heart? A heart full of tranquility, full of peace. Having a steady mind, a balanced mind, is what you call purity of heart. Being well-balanced between the dualities the ups and the downs, the pleasure and pain, the profit and loss. If the mind is free from turbulence, then the seer can see its own nature. If your heart is pure and steady, you can see God reflected in that steady heart.

Excerpted from The Golden Present by Swami Satchidananda. Copyright (c) 1987 by Satchidananda Ashram - Yogaville. All rights reserved

The following is the daily reading for February 7 from The Golden Present.

Let us talk a little bit about samadhi.

In the yogic sense, we are talking about the transcendental state of enlightenment. But in India, normally if you say "he has attained samadhi", that means he has died and is buried. That is the normal connotation for that term. In a way, samadhi is like that. You are dead, yet you are alive.

My Master, Sri Swami Sivanandaji, used to sing this song: "When shall I see thee? When "I" ceases to be."

He was asking this question of the Lord. "Lord, when can I see You? I know that will be when "I" ceases to be." That means that if the ego or "I" dies, you can truly live. If the egoistic "I" goes away from you, you are free from the ego. You are clean, pure. At that stage you are fit to go to heaven, to experience the highest knowledge or the highest truth. That is what we call samadhi.

This is the essence of all spiritual teachings and practices, no matter what the label. One can be a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, a Hindu, Buddhist, Moslem, or of any religion. Even if you don't have any faith at all or don't believe in any organized religion, it doesn't matter. That is not the criterion to have this realization. All you have to accomplish is to see that all selfishness goes away. Where does the "I" dwell? In ego. Where does the ego live? In the mind. The ego is, in a way, the very source of mind. All the expressions of the ego, thinking, feeling, willing, could be put together under one term, "mind." If the mind gets completely purified, then it's no longer an obstruction to your experience of the Truth. When it is clean and clear, the mind doesn't color the appearance of the pure Self. It becomes a pure reflector of the Self to see its own true nature. that is the essence of spirituality.