Real Joy

 

There is no fire like passion, No crime like hatred,

No sorrow like separation, No sickness like hunger,

And no joy like the joy of freedom.*

--Lord Buddha, the Dhammapada

*from craving

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The Importance of Tapas

 

"Without discipline in spiritual pursuits, the central nervous system doesn't have a chance to adjust and grow with the increased demand. It would be like putting a high voltage into a small bulb—it is bound to explode."

-Swami Radha, author of Time to be Holy

Ram Namavi

 

Happy Ram Namavi -- Lord Ram's Birthday!

Here are some free/inexpensive resources for you:

MS Subbalakshmi singing the Nama Ramayana

Vedanta – River of Wisdom podcast  on the Ramayana

Ramayana read by Ram Dass (an engaging adaptation)

Ramayana by Kamala Subramaniam (condensed print version)

Sita Sings the Blues (feminist animated film)

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The Road to Peace

"In truth, to attain to interior peace, one must be willing to pass through the contrary to peace. Such is the teaching of the Sages."

-Swami Brahmananda

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The Purpose of Yoga

“That is the purpose of yoga – to transcend, as did the saints, the limits of the ‘gross’ physical self and achieve Self-realization through releasing the subtle self.”

 

-Yogi Gupta (Swami Kailashananda), Yoga and Long Life

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Both Bondage and Liberation Occur in the Mind: The Self is Ever-Free

 

अस्तीति प्रत्ययो यश्च यश्च नास्तीति वस्तुनि । 

बुद्धेरेव गुणावेतौ न तु नित्यस्य वस्तुनः ॥ ५७२ ॥ 

astīti pratyayo yaśca yaśca nāstīti vastuni | 
buddhereva guṇāvetau na tu nityasya vastunaḥ || 572 || 

572. The idea that bondage exists, and the idea that it does not, are, with reference to the Reality, both attributes of the Buddhi merely, and never belong to the Eternal Reality, Brahman.

-Adi Shankaracharya, Vivekachudamani (verse 572)

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How to "Be"

 “By injuring another you injure your own self. By serving another you serve your own self. Love all. Serve all. Hate none. Insult none. Injure none, in thought, word or deed.”

 

-Swami Sivananda

It's Not You

Tired? Having trouble concentrating? Depressed? Numb? Do even small tasks seem monumental? It could just be your nervous system's normal response to a year of nonstop stress.

From the latest On Being podcast:

'The light at the end of the COVID tunnel is tenuously appearing — yet many of us feel as exhausted as at any time in the past year. Memory problems; short fuses; fractured productivity; sudden drops into despair. We’re at once excited and unnerved by the prospect of life opening up again. Clinical psychologist Christine Runyan explains the physiological effects of a year of pandemic and social isolation — what’s happened at the level of stress response and nervous system, the literal mind-body connection. And she offers simple strategies to regain our fullest capacities for the world ahead.'

Says Runyan, 'We talk about fight or flight, but there’s also a state of freeze, which can look very much like you’re describing — this state of apathy, of detachment, of even disembodied or dissociative, and numbing, a lot of numbing. And that is a state of physiological high arousal, actually; there’s still a lot happening underneath the skin, in terms of the arousal, but the body has essentially tucked in. And it’s a protective stance. There’s a lot of protection there. And anybody who is at risk of depression, has previous depression, it can be a scary place to be, because it has so many — there’s so much residue there, of, “Oh, this seems familiar — I remember when.” So it can be really scary, because it’s like, oh, is that coming back?'

Listen here.

See the transcript here.

Qualifications of a Fit Teacher

 "...who is well-versed in the scriptures, sinless, unafflicted by desires, a full knower of the Supreme, who has retired into the Supreme, who is as calm as the fire that has burned up its fuel, who is a boundless ocean of mercy that needs no cause for its expression and who is an intimate friend of those who have surrendered unto them."

-Adi Shankaracharya, Vivekachudamani, verse 33

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Obstacles in Meditation

"A seeker (yogi) who has thus controlled his body, mind and intellect, is best fitted for the highest meditation. In fact, all obstacles in meditation are nothing other than the milestones of sensuous appetites, emotional agitations and desire-problems. Once these chains are snapped, he comes to the natural condition of deep meditation, wherein the rediscovery of the Self must be instanteous and complete.

 

"This realization of the Self cannot be partial; it is not realization, if the meditator understands only himself to be Divine. To the realized, Divinity or the Self is Infinite and All-pervading. From the innermost sanctum of the Spirit when he looks out, he realizes nothing but Divinity – everywhere, in everyone, at all times. Therefore, the Lord says, such a person ‘realizes his own Self as the Self in all beings.’

 

"When a wave has realized its true nature to be the ocean, in its true ocean vision, there cannot be any other wave which is other than the ocean-essence."

-Swami Chinmayananda, Bhagawad Geetha, commentary on Chapter 5, verse 7

(He who is devoted to the path-of-action, whose mind is quite pure, who has conquered the self, who has subdued his senses, who realizes his Self as the Self in all beings, though acting, is not tainted)

 

 

Maha Shivaratri - The Great Night of Lord Shiva

“The entire universe, animate and inanimate, comes from me. 
Everything is seen through me. 
Everything comes to rest in me. 
I am no different from it and nothing in this world is different from me.”

—The Shiva Samhita

Thursday 3/11 is Maha Shivaratri -- the Great Night of Lord Shiva, the first yogi. Join us for a special Shivaratri celebration with chanting, stories and meditation Thurs. 7:30-8:30pm CT on Zoom. Email kaliom108@yahoo.com for the link and lyrics.

Lord Shiva, the father of Ganesh and Subramanya, is considered to be the supreme lord of the yogis, who is simultaneously a householder and a celibate renunciate. According to author and yoga scholar David Frawley (Pandit Vamadeva Shastri), Lord Shiva is “the great ascetic and yogi, reflecting the highest self-discipline and inner equipoise. He indicates the power that pervades the universe and allows us to ascend in consciousness to our highest potential, which is that of Self-realization” (vedanet.com).

He continues, “Yoga as a sadhana or spiritual practice rests upon cultivating the Shiva consciousness of the highest awareness and bliss. This reality of Shiva is the power of silence, stillness, and non-doing, not the ordinary power of self-assertion and aggression. It works through inaction, peace and balance, in which one is centered in one’s own being and grasps the entire universe as a manifestation of one’s own thoughts. This power of Shiva is not the outer force that displays itself for personal gain, nor the outer effort to control that makes a show of itself to gain adulation. It is the spiritual force that turns things around, draws things within, and takes them back to their source, in which a deep unity remains. Shiva symbolizes this balancing and calming effect of all Yoga practices.”

Learn more about this special night here:  https://yogachicago.com/…/celebrating-maha-shivaratri-the-…/

Aarogya Mantra

This powerful, healing Aarogya Mantra (rendered by Jagjit Singh) is excerpted from the Shrimad Bhagawatam, in praise of Lord Vishnu and Dhanwantari- the deity of medicine and ayurveda

The Seventh Factor

                                               

I may have all the six ingredients (efforts, initiative, courage, intelligence, resourcefulness, 

and perseverance) for success but still, there may be something that makes the difference 

between success and failure.  By my prayer, I invoke daivam*, the seventh factor, to take 

care of the unknown element.

- Swami Dayananda Saraswati

* the 'unpredictable grace of the Divine

Yoga Sutras Book I, Verse 3

 

3. Then the Seer comes to consciousness in his proper nature.

"Egotism is but the perversion of spiritual being. Ambition is the inversion of spiritual power. Passion is the distortion of love. The mortal is the limitation of the immortal. When these false images give place to true, then the spiritual man stands forth luminous, as the sun, when the clouds disperse."

-The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, translated by Charles Johnston 

Be... a Beacon

"In a world where people have lost their sense of values and ability to recognize what is for their ultimate good, it’s imperative not to take on mass consciousness thought forms, rather to be the beacon that lovingly holds the light of truth for those few who are knowingly or unknowingly looking for the Light. To be the Light and to brighten it further within oneself is the only meaningful purpose for a yogi’s existence."

-Ramana Maharshi

Be Cheerful Always (No Sourpuss Vedantins)

 

“If you want to practise Vedanta or Jnana Yoga smile always, be cheerful always. [S]He who is gloomy, [s]he who is cheerless, [s]he who has a castor-oil face or Sunday-face cannot become a Vedantin. [S]He is not an Adhikari or qualified person for the practice of Vedanta. Such a [wo]man should be shut up in a cell, as [s]he is a source of infection or contamination for others. Shun the company of such a negative person. A [wo]man of Viveka alone is fit for the practice of Vedantic Sadhana and a [wo]man of Viveka is always peaceful and joyful.”

 -Swami Sivananda

All That Happens

 All That Happens

by Suresh Natarajan

All that happens — the good, the bad, the unpleasant

Happens on time as destined

All that happens — the good, the bad, the unpleasant

Vanishes on time as destined

All that happens is perfect

It's clear when we reflect

All that happens is impermanent

Like the clouds seen in the firmament

The intensity at the time of the event

Makes us forget it's all evanescent

Yet when we look back with clear eyes

It's all His passing show in disguise

Each destruction only for the next renewal

And each renewal, next destruction's fuel

Can't wish this movement away

Can't rush the scenes of this play

He unfolds as Time that consumes all

All that appears has one day to fall

Not a wrong note in this symphony

Nothing to judge, it's all in harmony

The only way out is to fully surrender

To accept everything with love tender

The ground on which Time does its dance

Watches it all without even a glance

Surrender takes us out of the scene

From a character to the unmoving screen

The character goes on doing what it's meant

Nothing to be proud, nothing to repent

What remains is unconditional love

Ever peaceful in the eternal now.

Dissolution into the Real

"When the web of thoughts ceases, one’s own natural state is left behind. When the great dissolution is accomplished, the state of non-existence (of objects) is reached, and at the beginning of creation, only stillness remains. The supreme Self (alone) exists – the great Lord, the shining Light which never sets!"

-Concise Yogavasistha, verses 12-13

Commentary by Swami Tejomayananda:

 

"We have seen that the entire universe is created by sankalpa. Sankalpa is the notion that something exists and different from me, has qualities and is capable of giving me joy or sorrow. The projection of such thoughts, entertaining and expanding upon them creates, sustains and expands the universe. When the sankalpa is withdrawn or falsified the universe also dissolves or stands falsified. Such a falsified world loses its sting and is incapable of giving me sorrow. If we have the power to initiate a Sankalp. We also have the power to stop it. In reality, the Sankalp depends on us for its existence. I can exist without a sankalpa, but the sankalpa cannot exist without me. During the deep sleep state there is  no sankalpa, and so there is no experience of the universe. At that time, I exist as pure Being. This deep sleep state, however, is temporary and the universe again comes into existence upon waking to persecute me. But when the sankalpa ceases due to true Knowledge, the universe ceases to exist in its entirety and I alone remain as I was before the creation of the sankalpa. This is called the great dissolution. For one who has realized this, the universe is falsified once nad for all, in spie of its perception.

 

"Peace is my true nature and so it cannot be created. Only agitations are created. When they end, peace alone remains.

 

"The vision of a snake imagined upon a rope is created by the mind. The snake has no actual existence apart from mind. It arises from me and it sustained by brooding over it. When I go to sleep the vision of the snake ceases temporarily. Upon waking, I see the snake vision on the rope again. But when the rope is known as a rope, the snake vision is falsified and disappears along with the snake. The rope alone remains as before. The snake vision can never again appear on that rope.

 

"The Self is described as the light which never sets. The sun rises and sets. The light of knowledge too dawns and wanes. But the Knowledge Principle. The pure Consciousness neither rises nor sets. It is ever existing. The Self is the Supreme and is Lord of all, having the capacity to rule, control, create and destroy all..."

Perseverance

"Everything in the future will improve if you are making a spiritual effort now."

--Sri Yukteswar 

Happy New Year!

"Make yourself a walking church, temple, synagogue or mosque. Make yourself a place of peace, a fountain of compassion. It’s easy to hate, mistrust, or argue. Do the more difficult thing, and love. Love even those who cause you pain. In many cases, they need it more. Love those you don’t know, because in loving them, they become familiar. Love those who are less easy to love, because their resistance keeps love from them. Love our inferior brothers and sisters from the animal kingdom, because they depend on our love and compassion to survive, especially in the world of today.

"Spend some time each day practicing yoga. If you are established in compassion, all the other virtues, the other Yamas, will cling to it. Niyama, the Yogic practices, will help you live as a Yogi. Asana helps us to make the body healthy. Healthy body leads to healthy mind. Then we are able to attain to the higher limbs of yoga. Move the body every day. With a flexible spine, you are ready to conquer anything. Forward bend, back bend and twist every day without fail. Then you will surely attain glowing radiant good health.

"Pranayama, breathing exercises, will help to calm the mind and Asana and Pranayama work together to help move the attention inward. With the attention firm, we learn to sustain concentration. Concentration without interruption is meditation, and this will help us to attain a heart of wisdom, provided we ask the right questions and look without ceasing for the answers.

"Keep always Yama — the ethical rules of yoga. Without Yama, no Kingdom of G-d and no chance to acquire Self Knowledge. Indeed, without Yama, there is no yoga. The secret to success is constant practice. Without fail, practice yoga [in 2021].

-Sri Dharma Mittra, from his 2020 New Year's Message