Meditation & Yoga
Satsang with the Abbot
Questions & Answers about Life, Spiritual Liberty, and the Pursuit of Ultimate Happiness
Some spiritual questions are timeless; others arise from the immediate problems of actually trying to live a spiritual life. Satsang with the Abbot brings both kinds together in more than 350 questions put to Swami Nirmalananda Giri over many years—and his direct, often unexpected answers.
The subjects range widely: meditation and samadhi, karma and reincarnation, death and the afterlife, spiritual evolution, the mind and its control, authentic and false teachers, angels and subtle beings, astrology and psychic phenomena, vegetarianism, the nature of God and the Self, Jesus and Original Christianity, and the lives and teachings of saints and yogis. Yet beneath this extraordinary variety runs a consistent purpose: to help the spiritual seeker distinguish what is useful and true from the confusion, exaggeration, and clichés that so often surround spiritual life.
Swami Nirmalananda answers from an unusual breadth of experience. His perspective was formed through decades of meditation and monastic life, study of the spiritual traditions of East and West, and personal contact with such figures as Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh and Sri Anandamayi Ma. His answers therefore tend to be practical rather than speculative. Again and again he returns the reader to direct experience, spiritual independence, clear thinking, and the actual work required for inner development.
The question-and-answer format gives the book a distinctive immediacy. A profound discussion of Self-realization may be followed by advice for a married person trying to live spiritually, a question about reincarnation or an unusual inner experience, or a sharply humorous observation about some misconception of yoga. The result is less like reading a systematic textbook than sitting through a long-running satsang in which almost any sincere question may be asked.
Satsang with the Abbot can be read straight through, opened for occasional guidance, or returned to as a reference during years of spiritual practice. For readers trying to make sense of the enormous and sometimes contradictory world of yoga, Hinduism, Christianity, meditation, metaphysics, and practical spiritual life, it offers something increasingly valuable: the perspective of a practitioner concerned not merely with what we believe, but with what actually helps us move toward spiritual freedom.
A book to live with
Why Read This Book?
Find practical answers to real spiritual questions—from meditation and family life to karma, reincarnation, death, mystical experience, and Self-realization.
Learn to separate useful spiritual teaching from clichés, exaggerations, psychic distractions, false teachers, and ideas that do not lead toward genuine inner development.
Draw upon a perspective formed by decades of meditation, monastic life, study, and personal contact with saints and yogis of India.
Explore the common spiritual principles underlying yoga, Sanatana Dharma, Original Christianity, Buddhism, and other authentic paths without reducing their distinctive teachings to vague generalities.
Experience the writing
From the Book
From the Book
Going Beyond Samadhi
Question: I am interested in climbing the stairs that may lead to samadhi. Please guide.
Answer: Samadhi is a natural consequence of meditation (in Buddhism profound meditation itself is considered samadhi), and there need be no special attention placed on it. Rather, your attention should be on making sure your practice is correct, of sufficient time and that nothing in your life is working against it.
Swami Vivekananda told M (Mahendranath Gupta) that Sri Ramakrishna once asked him: “What do you want?” He answered, “I want to remain absorbed in samadhi.” Whereupon Sri Ramakrishna responded: “What a poor understanding you have! Get beyond samadhi. Samadhi is a petty thing.”
The ultimate realization that lies beyond samadhi, and to which samadhi leads, should be our desired goal.
From the BookThe Spiritual Life of a Householder+
Question: I am married and have two children. How can I lead a spiritual life in this situation?
Answer: All the Vedic Rishis were married with families, as were all the ancient sages of India including Janaka and even Sri Rama and Sri Krishna. Therefore marriage cannot be an impediment to spiritual life if it is a dharmic marriage. My sannyasa guru, Sri Swami Vidyananda Giri, once said to me: “There are many dharmic households that are more spiritual than some ashrams.” I have lived in such households myself and know that to be true.
Spiritual life is in the heart. Please practice meditation daily. This is the prime necessity. Every day read from the Bhagavad Gita. This is a supreme help in spiritual life.
From the BookA True Teacher Points to the Supreme+
Question: I have a question about gurus and their supposed infallibility. I do not mean to be disrespectful, but guru infallibility is just a mite suspect. Any thoughts that can help me out here?
Answer: If we look at the scriptures which form the basis of Sanatana Dharma—the eleven major Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Yoga Sutras—we do not find the exaggerated view of the guru that has arisen and gripped Hinduism in its degeneracy, and is a major source of its continuing degeneracy. A true teacher is, in the simile of Buddha, a finger pointing to the Supreme. He is of great value and benefit, but he is never the Supreme Itself. The tendency in India for popular gurus to be declared avatars is irresponsible and ultimately destructive.
In the Taittiriya Upanishad (1:2:2) it is said: “Let your mother be a god to you; let your father be a god to you; let your teacher be a god to you; let your guest also be a god to you.” The word here translated “god” is “deva,” which means “a shining one.” A deva is a semi-divine or celestial being with great powers, and therefore a “god”—sometimes called a demigod. (In Christianity they would be called angels.) So we are being told to look upon mother, father, teacher (acharya) and even guests as sacred, as angelic beings worthy of great respect. That is all. They are never God.
To look upon any human being as God or infallible like God is utterly foolish and self-deceiving. (I ought to know; I did it for years.) It is also foolish to consider that the records of their teachings are infallible. That is why we seek within ourselves for the Truth.
The foregoing is not the opinion of most Hindus, but it is consistent with real Dharma. And consistent with good sense.
