Swami Chidananda Saraswati (1916 – 2008)

Try to evaluate objects as they really are. To lead a proper life one has to assign a limited value to objects. Certain objects are indispensable for the maintenance of life. For that purpose and to that end they should be utilized; but let them not assume an undue prominence. For instead of serving as the proper sustenance, they may become the veritable tyrants, sapping life of all true contentment and satisfaction.

Your happiness may become mortgaged to these objects. No longer of limited utility, they seem to be of utmost importance. Therefore, they come to have a stranglehold upon you and tend to dominate and enslave you. A proper understanding and a right evaluation of objects as they are and for what they are worth, is of prime concern.

“Thus far and no further”—you must say, when they try to invade the interior kingdom of your life.

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Swami Chidananda Saraswati (1916 – 2008) was the president of the Divine Life Society in Rishikesh – associated with the Swami Sivananda Ashram