Drops of Nectar (Timeless Wisdom For Everyday Living)

Touching upon various aspects like meditation prayer and faith Drops of Nectar authored by one of the most revered Indian spiritual masters enriches our life and nourishes our soul. It resonates with the message of peace and helps each of us to find it for ourselves simple and profound the book is a guiding light to lead a more fulfilling and joyful life.

Swami Chidanand Saraswati is the founder and chairman of India Heritage Research foundation and president and spiritual head of parmarth Niketan Rishikesh. He travels across the world spreading the message of peace love and spiritual upliftment. Holding master’s degrees in Sanskrit and philosophy swamiji has been a leader in numerous international inter faith conferences and parliaments.

It is the lord’s grace that you are holding this book in your hands. They say that a true saint is not one who is simply enlightened himself but one who brings enlightenment to others. Pujya Swamiji is therefore one of the truest saints I know. His words his life his message and his satsang carry lakhs of people to directly communicate with god.

Pujya Swamiji is one of those rare souls whose life will have an enormous impact on humanity today tomorrow and in the future. He touches and transforms all those he meets. Yet his divine influence extends infinitely further. He is not content with only serving those who come to him. Rather he works tirelessly yet silently and humbly to serve every individual creature on the planet ranging from cows on the streets to children in schools to spiritual communities across the globe.

There are many saints who can impart divine teachings. But teachings are not enough. In order to truly inspire people to touch and uplift the deepest corners of their soul one must have the divine touch. It is the touch that Pujya Swamiji possesses. So what you have here in this book is not only the word of god it is the touch of god.

Read this book re read it then re read it again. Let its message sink into every corner of your beings. Then if you are open enough to it you will you have been touched by god.

I have been blessed beyond words to spend the last nine years in Rishikesh and working with Pujya Swamiji. During this period I heard many people ask “Isn’t there any published compilation of Pujya Swamiji’s ideas his teachings his wisdom?” The answer much to my dismay was “No” The absence of such a work is grievous for the wisdom that flows forth with his every breath is worthy of being immortalized.

On the auspicious occasion of the Kumbh Mela in 1998 I took the opportunity to bring together as much nectar of wisdom as I could. It is on this occasion that people come from every corner of the earth to bather in the holy waters and imbibe the divine nectar of immortality. Yet what is it that truly uplifts us change us brings us closer to God? For me it has been Pujya Swamiji’s holy presence in my life. But how to encapsulate this divine wisdom and insight in a few pages? The task is almost impossible. Yet while words are a poor substitute for his presence they carry with them the essence of his teaching and his message.

I have therefore compiled as many of his written articles (in English) as I could find. The articles come mainly from magazines which were published in the USA and in Europe for the Indian community living abroad.

In addition to the articles there are stories or rather parables that I have heard Pujya Swamiji narrate. I have frequently been witness to occasions when someone would ask him a question to which he would not directly respond. Rather on these occasions his voice would take on an ethereal tone and his gaze would drift. He would say Let me tell you a story and we all knew something extraordinary was taking place.

Then on such occasions when he had finished the story he would explain its meaning. Hence these stories contain two parts the story itself and the lessons he gave afterwards. To me these parables and lessons are like words spoken by God and which a mere and mortal has attempted to capture on paper.

Therefore the book has two tones one is literary writings which have been published a international magazines and new papers the other is oral words which have been spoken. However while the topics of the articles differ, the underlying essence of Pujya Swamiji’s message remains the same. His message is Go to God.

Go to God be with God is not only the message of his words it is the message of his life. He is not someone who endeavors to connect to god rater is someone whose mere presence carries to God.

To capture that touch of god is nearly impossible in writing for as he always says people need not only divine teaching but they need the Divine touch. That touch is not physical however. It does not depend upon physical contact or even physical presence. Rather the touch is one in which you soul quivers in the way that a seed must as it is about to break forth through its shell and become the sprout of large flowering tree. The touch is not one of a hand to a body out for years and decades and lifetime for solace find it in his presence.

Here in these pages the challenges is to give not only the teachings but also the touch. This is a task which we have realized as impossible for words on a page cannot make a soul quiver and burst into light unless words carry within them the spirit of the master.

We pray that within these words you will find not only the teachings for your minds but the touch for your hearts and your souls. The title of this book is Drops of Nectar. The nectar is a reference to the pot of the nectar of immortality which is the essence of the story of the Maha Kumbha Mela as the first edition of Drops and Nectar was released during the Kumbha Mela of 1998 at Haridwar/ Rishikesh.

However the true nectar is him. The true divine nectar is not simply immortality but rather a connection with he who bestows immortality upon us. To be immortal without him in our lives would be to live eternally yet alone.

For those of us who have been blessed to have Pujya Swamiji in our lives he is that nectar and it is a great joy and honor to share drops of this nectar with all.

I would like to tell a story of my own. My story is not a parable meant to teach a lesson. It is a true accurate picture of the man behind the words in the following pages.