Essays in Philosophy

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Sri Swami Sivananda

Born on the 8th September, 1887, in the illustrious family of Sage Appayya Dikshitar and several other renowned saints and savants, Sri Swami Sivananda had a natural flair or a life devoted to the study and practice of Vedanta. Added to this was an inborn eagerness to serve all and an innate feeling of unity with all mankind.

His passion for service drew him to the medical career; and soon he gravitated to where he thought that his service was most needed. Malaya claimed him. He had earlier been editing a health journal and wrote extensively on health problems. He discovered that people needed right knowledge most of all, dissemination of that knowledge he espoused as his own mission.

It was divine dispensation and the blessing of God upon mankind that the doctor of body and mind renounced his career and took to a life of renunciation to quality for ministering to the soul of man. He settled down at Rishikesh in 1924, practised intense austerities and shone as a great Yogi, saint, sage and Jivanmukta.

In 1932 Swami Sivananda started Sivanandashram. In 1936 was born The Divine Life Society. In 1948 the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy was organized. Dissemination of spiritual knowledge and training of people in Yoga and Vedanta were their aim and object. In 1950 Swamiji undertook a lightning tour of India and Ceylon. In 1953 Swamiji convened a 'World Parliament of Religions.' Swamiji is the author of over 300 volumes and has disciples all over the world, belonging to all nationalities, religions and creeds. To read Swamiji's works is to drink at the Fountain of Wisdom Supreme. On 14th July, 1963 Swamiji entered Mahasamadhi.

About this Book

This illuminating volume has been specially written for those who are soaked in Western philosophic thought and the scientific method of arriving at conclusions. These Essays in Philosophy are not based on mere belief or superstition, not on mere scriptural injunctions and declarations, but on good reason backed by the personal experiences of a living Sage of Self-realisation. As such, they are bound to appeal to, and transform, people of all shades of thought and opinion.

These essays were first serially published in the monthly Journal of the Durban Branch of the Divine Life Society, THE PATH TO GOD-REALISATION, and have had a very good reception in South Africa, especially in view of the fact that the use of Sanskrit technical terms, inevitable in most dissertations based on Oriental Scriptures, has been kept to the barest minimum.

We do hope that this presentation will appeal to the mind and the heart of modern English educated youth of all nations.