Sivananda Daily Reading for 21 October

SIVANANDA DAILY READING FOR 21 OCTOBER
PERFECTION

The essential qualification for a sadhu (man of renunciation) is that
he should adapt himself to all conditions and circumstances, causing
no inconvenience to others. His is the duty to serve -­ not to worry
others. Very few sadhus know what they are and what they should be.

This morning an old sadhu from Swarg Ashram came here. He was there
when I was there, too. He is aged 80 now. Today they did not prepare
roti here. There was only rice and curry. But, the sadhu would not
take. He wanted only roti (bread). It seems rice will produce wind.
If you allow him, he will lecture to you for half an hour on the evil
effects of rice-­eating. But he will refuse to be reminded that a very
large population in India and the world lives on rice alone.

This is all that he has understood of sadhana (spiritual practice)
during all these thirty years of sadhu life: "Rice should not be
taken; roti alone is good for health and meditation." All their life
these people will waste on this one thought of the right food and the
wrong food. What is there if one day you do not get your food to your
own liking. Even your own wife will not tolerate you for a day if you
are so particular about what food you should have.

It is the special duty of a sadhu not to cause any inconvenience to
householders. We are not to be a burden on householders, but to be of
some service to them. When will the sadhu understand this. Some
sadhakas (seekers) here also have that impression that they are
living in an asrama and that one consideration ought to be sufficient
to open out the gates of Kaivalya (liberation) to them. I assure you:
even if they live many hundreds of their lives near the greatest
saint in the world, they will not improve even a bit. They must
themselves exert. Each one must think for himself, act for himself.
There have been some sadhakas here whom I myself trust and put in
charge of the affairs of the asrama -­ then I myself used to dread to
approach them. If, for instance, I go to them and ask them to prepare
a little more of what they give me for my food in order that I may
give the extra quantity to someone else, I would be refused. What I
do on those occasions is to reduce my own consumption and distribute
this to the others.

If a sadhaka gets real samadhi (superconsciousness ) in a hundred
births, that is a very great achievement. God is perfect; and unless
and until all the evil qualities are eradicated and divine qualities
acquired to the degree of perfection, there will be no samadhi.

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