THURSDAY QUOTE

"Religion, mysticism, theology, art, science and psychology give partial truths. Such truths Gaudapada does not altogether reject. They are, to him, stages in the evolution of philosophical thinking, which culiminates in the experience of Ultimate Reality. Sarvam khalvidam Brahman - 'All that exists is Brahman.' Therefore Turiya fulfills the conditions of Reality laid down by Gaudapada, namely, absence of disputes and conflicts, and promotion of the welfare of all beings rather than mere personal satisfaction.

"....Vedanta admits three criteria of truth; scriptural revelation, reflection and experience. Scripture describes Ultimate Reality as revealed to the seers, whose minds were purified and made one-pointed by the practice of self-control and concentration. By means of reflection the pupil tests the validity of what he learns from scripture through a qualified teacher. Through contemplation Reality becomes evident, 'like a fruit in the palm of one's hand.' Experience gives the final stamp of validity. Scripture proposes, but reason and experience dispose. All these three act as mutual checks on one another. When scriptural evidence, reflection, and personal experience point to the same conclusion, one can be sure of having arrived at Truth, which may be further corroborated by the tests mentioned before, namely, it must be free from disputes and conflicts and must promote the welfare of all beings."

-Swami Nikhilananda

Monday Music

Jai Jai Yajamahe!

AAMIR KHAN IN CHICAGO



The great karma yogi and Hindi actor-director-TV producer-host Aamir Khan has been in town for over a month, filming Dhoom 3.

Apparently they were shooting in Lakeview yesterday....

"Chicago is cold...." he says in this Chicago Tonight interview.

"...and it's still not winter."

He also talks about his groundbreaking TV show, which tackles formerly unspeakable issues. He says he is just trying to use his skill set - communication - to change things (and, incidentally, he is succeeding).

One can't help but ask....

What is your skill set?

How are you using it to help others?









Learn more about the filmy shooting below and here.

Thursday Quote

Philosophy Of Flesh

"The Charvakas are atheists who deny the existence of the soul after the death of the body. The materialists who worship the body as the soul and who deny the existence of a soul independent of the body, which is separate from the body, are also atheists. The Charvakas, the Lokayatikas, and the materialists believe that the body only is the soul and the soul does not exist outside the body. They also believe that the soul dies when the body dies.

"They say that the soul is formed by the combination of the five elements, just as the red colour is formed by the combination of betel leaves, nuts and lime; or just as an intoxicating liquor is formed by the combination of some ingredients. Is this not a beautiful philosophy? It is the philosophy of the flesh. It is the philosophy of Virochana and his followers.

"They believe in nothing which cannot be cognised by the senses. They will not admit the existence of anything which lies beyond the reach of their senses. They want ocular proof for everything. They must see the soul with the naked eyes. Then only they will believe in the existence of a soul. They do not know that the soul can be intuitively realised and that it is not an object of perception. Their philosophy is “Eat, drink and be merry. Have sensual enjoyment to the maximum degree. Do not think of the future. If you have no money, beg or borrow it and then eat and drink. Then again drink, because when the body is burnt to ashes, no one will have to be accountable for your actions.” Such philosophers are abundant in every country. Their number is increasing daily. There are many who do not believe at all in the existence of a soul.

"The Charvakas and the materialists do not bother about reincarnation or transmigration of souls, about philosophical questions like “Who am I? Whence and where? Whither? What remains after death? What is life? What is death? What is then on the other side of death? When the body dies what conditions shall man pass into; in which world shall he find himself?” They think that those who make such enquiries are ignorant persons and that they are the only clever and wise persons. No argument can convince them or change their views. They have written volumes after volumes against the existence of the soul. Wonderful people indeed with perverted intellects!"

-Sri Swami Sivananda

Monday Music

(NOTE: images primarily depict Durga/Chamundi)

Thursday Quote

Question: How can one learn not to criticize others - without causing to much strain to a beginner?

Swami Madhavananda: It bespeaks a 'holier than you' attitude, to have this problem at all. Here is one idea: A person's sins are being washed off onto oneself when one criticizes that person. This is an old and familiar way of thinking to us."

Monday Music

Hare Hare!

Thursday Quote

"When you came into this world people laughed while you cried. Live so that when you leave the world laugh you will, but people all around will cry."


-Tulsidas

Monday Music

Wunderbar!

Friday Focus: Mysore Etiquette

Mysore Etiquette by Cara Jepsen / Kali Om, for tomorrow's Mysore 101 workshop at Yoga Now

Mysore Etiquette


You may arrive and leave at any time during the class

Enter and leave quietly. Try to place your mat without too much drama

For best results, come at least three times a week

Let the teacher know about any injury or condition you have

Once you get on your mat, stay. Take care of bathroom duties before class

Stop when/where the teacher asks you to stop

Do not drink water, as this destroys the internal purifying heat. Traditionally, no water is taken 20 minutes before or after practice, either

It’s OK to ask questions or wait for an adjustment. Just try to keep the volume low

Try to use ujjayi breath, dristi (gaze), vinyasa and bandhas as you practice

Do Primary Series the first time you practice in a new place / with a new teacher, or after travel

Traditionally, practice is not done on the new and full moon and ladies do not practice for three days during their cycle

If pressed for time, tell the teacher. In general, the sun salutations, standing poses and closing poses are most important. Do not skip the poses you don’t like.

Learn everything you can about the pose you’re working on, such as its name and meaning. Look up others doing the pose, and try to learn from them. You may do your “nemesis” pose three times in class, or hold it for a long time.

Every pose has a correct vinyasa – a specific way to enter and exit. When in doubt, ask

Those who sweat a lot should bring two towels – one for you and one for the teacher

Practice saucha (cleanliness) on your person and your clothes, mat, towel, etc.

Try not to come to class reeking of garlic, onions or meat. Yogis historically do not consume these items. A sattvic (mild) vegetarian diet is traditional, and yields the best results

Remember the words of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois: “Ashtanga is 99 percent practice, one percent theory” and “Do you practice and all is coming.” And keep in mind that the three greatest obstacles to practice are sleep, laziness and disease.




Text (c) 2012 by Kali Om. Photo (c) 2002 by Cara Jepsen

Thursday Quote

"We spent seemingly endless hours in the offices of doctors and dentists. Once after a two-hour wait in a doctor's office Swami [Madhavananda, ninth president of the Ramakrishna Mission] said to me, 'If we, who come in this train of a divine incarnation and his partners, have it like this, just think of what must be the lot of ordinary people.'

"This gave me considerable food for thought."



-Swami Yogeshananda

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!

Monday Music

Craig Pruess and Ananda - Lalitha Ashtotram (Sacred Chants Of Devi)

Thursday Quote

"In life, whenever one tries to attain something, one encounters obstacles. Personal karma, habits and health problems get in the way. Just like when Moses went to the desert and heard voices that spoke of temptations, the mind devises tricks. If one makes a decision to fast and just read the scriptures for 30 days, the mind will play tricks during that time. The tendency of the mind and senses is to want only pleasure. The mind is so powerful, it will discern a little headache so that one can start to make excuses for not practicing. One might say, 'I'll start in the New Year' over and over. Then the New Year passes, and one is still over-indulging and generally carrying on as before. One feels that one cannot stop and change behavior, and delays the decision until their birthday. In a short time, it's the new millennium. So it goes as you continue to do the things you do not really choose to. One acts automatically due to past habits. Then one day, you are 80 years old and it is too late.

"It's best to make a contractual promise. Write and sign the document, then give the promise to someone in whom you believe to help insure that you stick to your word and follow through with right action."



-Dharma Yoga Life of a Yogi Teacher Training Manual

Monday Music

Thursday Quote

"Vedanta is not a creed, it is, rather, the foundation of all creeds and religions - those not only of India but the world; for it explains in rational terms the eternal laws governing all spiritual life and gives aid to all men and women in the spiritual unfoldment, whatever their individual religious affiliations and beliefs may be. It is, in truth, a Universal Philosophy and REligion, belong to no one race of people, but to mankind as a whole."

-Swami Ashokananda

Mid-Week Video

MONDAY MUSIC

THURSDAY QUOTE

"Like writing on the surface of water, is the anger of a realized soul."

-Hindu saying

Monday Music

Vedanta on TCM

TCM had a Tyrone Power festival yesterday. Among the films they showed was The Razor's Edge.

I'd seen the film a few times, although not in awhile, and each time it makes more sense. *This* time it was clear that Tyrone Power's Indian guru is urging him on the path of Vedanta, or Jnana Yoga, and that Power achieves God-realization before being sent back into the world.

The scene with the guru is loosely based on Somerset Maugham's encounter with the great jnani Ramana Maharshi. Read Maugham's account here.

Click here to learn more about the four main paths of yoga.

Back home, Power's old friends have had their primary attachments ripped away form them, and they're miserable (no backup light!). They find Powers to be content, yet aloof.

Watch the whole film here.

Saturday Snaps

Dharma Yoga Life of a Yogi 800-hour Teacher Training, August 2012

Dharma Mittra Yoga Life of a Yogi 500-hour Teacher Training, May 2008

Dharma Mittra Yoga Life of a Yogi 200-hour Teacher Training, February 2007

Fuzzy Friday

While folks were flocking in droves to the disco and the Sex Pistols were making their first tour of America and Egypt was making peace with Israel at Camp David and Pope John Paul II was being installed and Steve Dahl was debuting in Chicago and Son of Sam was being sentenced in New York....

....they were practicing yoga in Central Park....

What were *you* doing in '78?

Thursday Quote

“The Yogi tries to drive his mind to the goal, as a cowherd drives a bull with a stick, but on this path [of jnana/knowledge or vichara/self-inquiry] the seeker coaxes the bull by holding out a handful of grass!...

..."You have to ask yourself the question, Who am I? This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem, and you will solve all other problems thereby."

-Sri Ramana Maharshi

MID-WEEK VIDEO

Sri Dharma saluting the guru. This video was made last year - shortly after Sri Dharma's own guru, Swami Kailashananda (Yogi Gupta), passed into mahasamadhi.

The subtext is that for most, spiritual progress cannot be made without the help and guidance of a guru - the remover of darkness.

Learn more about the importance of guru here.

Airport Yoga

Nothing passes the time like Dharma Yoga Level IV with pranayama and svadhyaya.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:LaGuardia

Monday Music

Partner Yoga Day

....also pranayama, meditation Satsang, Dharma 4 with Yoshio, Om Japa, graduation requirements, and more Satsang with Srii Dharma.

An easy day.

Plus i accidentally ran into the Indian Independence Day parade during the break.





Jai Hind!

Because without India, where would we be?


. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

"The mind has to be controlled gently."

-Sri Dharma Mittra 8/16/12




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"Thoughts are like your friends. If they knock on your door and you invite them in and give them food, they stay and invite their friends.

"If they come and you ignore them, they stay a little while and then they go."

-Sri Dharma Mittra 8/17/12




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Friday Photo

"When you read scripture, try to understand it without comments. Use your intelligence. When you have some discrimination, you will be able to understand. Until then, the comments are to help you."

-Sri Dharma Mittra, 8/16/12

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thursday Quote

"Prana is not matter, but it is in matter; Prana is not mind, but it makes the mind to think; Prana is not air, but it makes the air to blow; Prana is not breath, but it makes the breath go in and out."

~ Swami Kailashananda








BONUS QUOTE

"Prana is the inseparable power of God."

~ Chandra Om

Mid-Week Video

Janmadina Mubāraka, Hindustan!

Happy 65th Birthday, India!

Where would we be without you?

"Anything that involves 'I' or 'mine' indicates bondage."

-Sri Dharma Mittra


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

"Divine imagination helps the process."

(as do faith, sharpness of mind and enthusiasm)

-Sri Dharma Mittra. 8/13/12


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Monday Music

Sri Ram Jai Ram!

Jai Sri Dharma!

"Do you know what the mind is?

"It is everything that is not the Self."

-Sri Dharma Mittra, 8/12/12

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

BOLLYWOOD PRESS

The great Bollywood actor/director/producer Aamir Khan is in town, filming Dhoom 3.

Actually, he is one of the greatest actors of our time, period.

And he has a huge heart to boot.

Read about the filmy shooting here.

Friday Photo

Thursday Quote

To be childlike is good; but to be childish is not good.

To do simple tapas is good; but to spoil the health by mortification is not good.

To be devotional is good; but to be emotional is not good.

To have vairagya is good; but to expose the body to cold wind is not good.

-Swami Sivananda

MId-Week Video

(best when stopped just after music ends).

Monday Music

Friday Photo

Seven-year-olds in Pascimottanasana at a gymnastics event. *So* cute - and incredibly focused. Yet even at that young age, the bodies are already becoming stiff...

Thursday Quote

Click on image to enlarge text.

Swamiji = Swami Vivekananda

MID-WEEK VIDEO II

Sri Dharma Mittra practicing yoga asana at age 73. He is/was the teacher of David Life, Sharon Gannon, Chandra Om, Andrei Ram, and Kali Om, among others.

Om Namah Shivay!

Mid-Week Video

Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya at age 50, in 1938. He was the teacher of Indra Devi, Sri K. Pattaabhi Jois, BKS Iyengar, TKV Desikachar and Srivatsa Ramaswami, among others.

Monday Music

Swami Vivekananda's Speeches at the 1893 World Parliament of Religion in Chicago

Read the full text here.









Click here to learn more about Swami Vivekananda.

जन्मदिन Janmadina Yatra

Friday Photo

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thursday Quote(s)

[Dharma Mittra] told us about a man who came to him for advice. He had meditated for 30 years but could find no spiritual peace. “It turned out he was eating too much meat,” said Dharma. “He was a butcher. I told him to change his profession immediately.”

“Without the first step--ahimsa (nonviolence)--you gain nothing with meditation,” he reiterated. You get stuck in your chakras “when deep in your heart you know that as a real yogi you should be able to put yourself into someone else’s place. You should be able to put yourself in the place of a cow. Would you like for people to bring you to the slaughterhouse and take meat from you?”

He said that eating meat turns the stomach into a graveyard. “If there’s a nice house with a carcass in it, it turns into a morgue. If Rama and Jesus came and saw this house, they would not go in. They would wait outside.”

“So if you’re not a vegetarian yet, reduce the amount of meat intake,” Dharma encouraged.

As for dealing with unsavory people, he said, “You should love even the bad man. But keep your distance. If you start despising them it bounces back. If you send the negative thoughts out, it flows back to you.”

....Dharma said he suspected many of us half-believed in some things such as reincarnation and karma. “How many of you believe you came here with just a one-way ticket?” he asked. “What if you don’t accomplish what you want in this life, and you’re just a one-way incarnation?”

He said that bad karma does indeed follow one into the next life, and that the aforementioned butcher would face violence in his next incarnation. His guru said that when people help you, they are from your past. “If you died with money in the bank, it’ll be there in your next life--with interest. Everything has reasons from the past.”

After one morning session, some students were talking about Dharma’s hard-line take on vegetarianism. “I understand what he's saying, but I can't give up fish,“ said one. “I mean, I've been a vegetarian for ten years because of yoga, but I just love fish.” That afternoon, after chanting the Govinda mantra, Dharma began his talk by explaining that animals are like children, without hate. Then he discussed how many fish suffer so those humans can eat them. “It takes how many minutes for them to die without water? Animals are made to be loved, not to be eaten.

“If you have to eat meat, wait for one of the great saints to die and feast on his flesh. Then the vibrations will be positive.”



Click here or here to read the rest of this article about Sri Dharma's 2005 weekend workshop in Chicago.

Mid-Week Video

Astanga with a Broken Femur

"Anyone can practice, young man can practice, old man can practice, very old man can practice, man who is sick, he can practice, man who doesn't have strength, he can practice....
...except lazy people, lazy people can't practice."

-R. Sharath

Monday Music

Tom Waits - "Johnsburg, IL"
(c) 1982
music starts at 2:41

Friday Photo

Sri Dharma in San Diego

Thursday Quote

"Three are the gateways of this hell leading to the ruin of the self -- lust, anger and greed. Therefore let man renounce these three."

-Bhagavad Gita XVI.21

Monday Music

Furry Friday

Thursday Quote

"The purification of the heart is the duty of all aspirants, especially of world-renouncing sannyasins, for this is the means of cultivating knowledge which leads to the freedom of the soul. As a mirror stained with impurities cannot reflect an image, so the impure heart cannot reflect Self-Knowledge. The yogi realizes Immortality after having purified the heart by the following means: worship of the spiritual preceptor, inquiry into the Vedas and other scriptures based upon them, performance of righteous actions, the keeping of holy company, the hearing of holy talk, avoidance of the touch and sight of a woman, the seeing of the Self in all beings, non-acceptance of others' property, the wearing of the coarse ochre cloth, withdrawal of the senses from the enjoyment of objects, relinquishment of sleepiness and idleness, investigation into the nature of the physical body, the regarding of selfish action as sinful, control of rajas and tamas and cultivation of sattva, desirelessness, and control of the sense-organs. Study of the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, and other religious treatises, performance of sacrifices, practice of brahmacharya and austerities, control of the senses, faith in the worlds of the teacher and the scriptures, fasting, and non-dependence upon others are also among the means for the attainment of Self-Knowledge."

-Rishi Yajnavalkya

Monday Music

Chidananda Rupa Sivoham Sivoham!

FRIDAY PHOTO

Thursday Quote

[Sri Ramakrishna] used to tell us that the difference between man and God was this: If for 99 days you have served a man well, but on the hundredth you do some wrong to him, he will remember the one bad turn and forget the 99 good turns. But if you abuse God for 99 days and for one day you say something in praise of Him, He will forget the 99 bad days and He will say: 'Ah! today this man has spoke something good of me.' Man forgets the 99 good works and remembers the one bad one. God forgets the 99 bad works and remembers the one good one."

-Swami Ramakrishnananda

Mid-Week Video

A classic.....
Louis CK's new season started last Thursday.

Happy Guru Purnima

Have you made your vow for Chaturmas?


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Monday Music

"Adi Divya" by Sankalpa Band; a contemporary take on an old classic.