Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals - Swami Krishnananda

SPIRITUAL IMPORT OF RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS

SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The Divine Life Society Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India Website: swami-

ABOUT THIS EDITION

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CONTENTS About this Edition .....................................................................................2 Publisher's Note To The Third Edition.............................................5 Preface ...........................................................................................................7 Introduction ................................................................................................. 8 What is Religion? .................................................................................... 17 Sun--The Eye of the World................................................................ 27 Siva--The Mystic Night........................................................................ 37 Rama--The Apotheosis of Human Perfection............................ 55 Sankara--The Genius ........................................................................... 71 Sivananda--The Fire of Sannyasa ........................................92 Knowledge as Means to Freedom................................................. 104 Veda Vyasa--The Paragon of Power and Wisdom ................ 117 Saint--A Blend of Righteousness and Godliness.................... 129 Sri Krishna--The Purna-Avatara .................................................. 135 Lord Ganesa--The Remover of Obstacles................................. 143 Sri Radha--The Divine Mystery .................................................... 154 Gurudev Sivananda--Physician of the Soul ............................. 159 The Esoteric Significance of the Devi-Mahatmya..................... 168 The Sport of the Infinite.................................................................... 183 Yajna--Quintessence of the Culture of India ........................... 195 Lord Skanda--The Concentrated Divine Energy ................... 206 The Gospel of the Bhagavadgita .................................................... 218 Lord Dattatreya--Master par Excellence.................................. 231 Christ-Consciousness......................................................................... 242 The Significance of Ekadasi ............................................................. 257

APPENDIX............................................................................................... 264 The Awakening Message ........................................................... 264 The Purpose of Philosophy....................................................... 273 To Thine Own Self Be True ....................................................... 281 Philosopher and Administrator............................................. 290

PUBLISHER'S NOTE TO THE THIRD EDITION

As time passes, contexts change and the relevance of a book written many years ago gains new significance. So it is with The Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals.

In this 21st century, as people have fully merged into consumerism, the intention and drive behind celebrating festivals has completely been erased, making them yet another occasion for celebration in the secular sense, an occasion to indulge in more clothes, more food, more adornments, filling the moment which was intended for spiritual ascent with noise and material--both antithetical to the original intention.

This book is intended for anyone who wants to go deeper into why festivals came to be, their historical origin and, critically, their spiritual significance. Those who are already on the path spiritual will find terrific acceleration to their endeavors, enhanced meaning to their understanding thus far, and a new spirit to their pace. Others will find a clarification for why they need to alter their approach to `celebrating' these moments in history that repeat year after year. It is very striking, even if obvious, that these events repeat year after year as if God Himself is giving us yet another chance to renew our relationship with life.

This book is a compilation of the lectures on religious festivals, delivered by Swami Krishnananda on different occasions. Swamiji has only briefly hinted at the `story' behind the festival while his effort has been entirely to stress the significance of the rituals of a festival for the spiritual ascension of man. As the Publisher's Note to the second edition rightly observed, "There is a meaning behind every act, or ritual, in the religious field, even as

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