Inspiring Stories

by Sivananda Saraswati

Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj,as an exemplary Sannyasin,was one of the stalwarts in the spiritual field who considered the spirit of renunciation in a world of phantasmal presentations as of paramount importance.One would find that in all his writings there is an undercurrent of renunciation.Though he has tirelesly attempted in his various writings to present even to the novitate the true meaning of this supremely requisite qualification,namely,renunciation,one can safely conclude that there is no feature of spiritual life more misunderstood and misinterpreted than the demand for renunciation as a response to the call of the higher life.The illusion before the eyes of the man is so inscrutably constructed that not even the wisest of people have found it easy to extricate themselves from it's powerful cluthches penetrating into the vey vitals of one's being.This insistence on an interesting and improving factor in the leading of the truly spiritual life is to be considered the explanation for this book commencing at the outset with a not-much-known but awakening message through the first story.

269 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Swami Sivananda Saraswati (September 8, 1887—July 14, 1963) was a Hindu spiritual teacher and a well known proponent of Sivananda Yoga and Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He studied medicine and served in Malaya as a physician for several years before taking up monasticism. He lived most of the later part of his life near Muni Ki Reti, Rishikesh.

He is the founder of The Divine Life Society (1936), Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy (1948) and author of over 200 books on yoga, vedanta and a variety of other subjects. He established Sivananda Ashram, the location of the headquarters of The Divine Life Society (DLS), on the bank of the Ganges at Shivanandanagar, at a distance of 3 kilometres from Rishikesh.

Sivananda Yoga, the yoga form propagated by him, are now spread in many parts of the world through Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres, but these centres are not affiliated with Swami Sivananda's original ashrams which are run by the Divine Life Society.