Om Namah Sivaya!

Blessed Yogis & Yoginis,

We conclude another beautiful month in the tropics with many programs, courses and events, and we are already preparing for next season. We're excited to have officially opened up the registration for the Yoga Teacher Training Courses for 2013 and the end of 2012. The wintertime is the perfect time to attend: deepen your Yoga practice, learn how to share the benefits of Yoga with others, and keep warm — all at the same time! Please see our website for dates so you can join us in Paradise this upcoming season! We look forward to greeting you here.

The Yogic Response to Suffering
	Swami Swaroopananda discusses the yogic path to respond to and transform suffering in the world through service.

A Self-Realized Being Never Ceases to Serve
Q & A with Swami Swaroopananda

What happens when a realized person dies? Does he ever choose to come back to help others?

Answer: A Self-realized being does not die, and a Self-realized being never ceases to help others; a Self-realized being always helps others. That's one of the characteristics of a Self-realized being.

A Self-realized being does not die because death is an illusion due to ignorance. He never truly dies because he has conquered death. He has transcended death. You may see that his physical body dies, but this is an illusion, this is not real.

You may remember, in the Bhagavad Gita, that when Arjuna desired to abandon his duty and refrain from battle, Lord Krishna basically said to him, “Look, I don't have any desire to fulfill; there is nothing that should be attained that is not attained by me. And even so, I act.” He points out to Arjuna that everything He does, He does for the welfare of all beings. Like the Lord, the Self-realized person also exists for the welfare of all creatures, of everyone. A Self-realized being never ceases to serve. A Self-realized being is the greatest servant of all. So there is service before Self-realization, and there is service after Self-realization, and although the nature of the service before and of the service after is different, there is a similarity.

The difference is that a Self-realized being has a very great capacity to serve, an extraordinarily great capacity to serve. So a Self-realized being truly can serve to a degree that is beyond our comprehension, and he serves not just generally -- it's not just a general type of serving -- he also serves in a specific way, in a very personal way. There are many many ways in which a Self-realized being serves, many many ways, and he never ceases to serve; he always serves.

Swami Swaroopananda is the Acharya (spiritual director) of Sivananda Yoga Centers and Ashrams on the West Coast of the United States, in the Middle East, and in the Bahamas, and is one of the foremost disciples of Swami Vishnudevananda. This article is from one of his spontaneous question and answer sessions, which he frequently offers at Sivananda centers and ashrams all over the world.