Sivaya Subramuniyaswami Quotes

Karma literally means “deed” or “act” and more broadly names the universal principle of cause and effect, action and reaction which governs all life. Karma is a natural law of the mind, just as gravity is a law of matter.

Even harsh karma, when faced in wisdom, can be the greatest catalyst for spiritual unfoldment. Performing daily sādhana, keeping good company, pilgrimaging to holy places, seeing to others’ needs—these evoke the higher energies, direct the mind to useful thoughts and avoid the creation of troublesome new karmas.

We neither fear death nor look forward to it, but revere it as a most exalted experience. Life, death and the afterlife are all part of our path to perfect oneness with God.

Out of the millions and billions of human beings on Earth, there may be ten or twenty or even a hundred liberated souls. But God alone knows how many realized souls exist.

Affectionate detachment is stronger than any attachment could possibly be, because attachment is created through unfulfilled desire, salted and peppered with fear. Fear of loss, fear of the unexpected, fear that life may not have much more to offer than what has already been offered, fear of old age, fear of harm, fear of accident—these are the fears which salt and pepper the unfulfilled desires. This is attachment.

¶If we look at the past and we look at the future as both a series of dreams, and the only thing that we are concerned with is our immediate reactions and what we carry with us now, we see that the past is there to test us and the future is there to challenge us.

We cannot change the past, but we can change how we react to what has happened to us in the past, and we can change the future, anytime we want to.