How to Cultivate Virtues and Eradicate Vices

by Swami Sivananda

This volume would rank foremost among the works of H.H. Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj. In this he has presented to the men and women of the present-day world a theme that is dearest to his heart and that would transform men into gods and nations into paradise on earth. The keynote of Sri Swamiji's teachings is righteousness in thought, word and deed, the cultivation of a sterling character, and the practice of the Religion of the Heart. In this respect, he is like Lord Buddha, But, like Lord Krishna, Sri Swamiji explicitly declares that righteousness is a means to an end, i.e. Jnana or Self-knowledge. This has a direct appeal to the soul of man.

Every one of Swamiji's books has uniformly stressed this aspect of Sadhana-Cultivation of Virtues and Eradication of Vices. Whenever Swamiji has spoken, at mass meetings or individual conversations, he has thundered: "It is only through righteousness that you can attain the Supreme Reality." In this volume Sri Swamiji Maharaj has given us a sweet garland of all the virtues hat should adorn every earnest Sadhaka: and we offer it to the readers with our sincere prayer that it might ennoble them and divinize them, make them better and more successful men and women who would make the world they live in a vast home of peace and brotherhood.

About the Author:

Sri Swami Sivananda, born on the 8th September, 1887, in the illustrious family of Sage Appayya Dikshita and several other renowned saints and savants, Sri Swami Sivananda had a natural flair for a life devoted to the study and practice of Vedanta.

He was an inborn eagerness to serve all and an innate feeling of unity with all mankind. He is the author of over 300 volumes and has disciples all over the world, belonging to all nationalities, religions and creeds. To read his works is to drink at the Fountain of Wisdom Supreme.