Nature - a Window to God

 

"Forests! Forests! Forests! Dense and all-inspiring forests! Captivating forests with different trees, plants and creepers decked like chariots with myriads of fully blossomed flowers! Even with the utmost care, the gardens in our cities and towns do not have flowers of such variety and in such abundance as seen in these divine forests, so enchanting with countless blossoms of different varieties of white and red roses etc. How can I describe the trees and creepers of the Himalayas, I who am so totally ignorant of forests? Though I knew nothing of the names and qualities, I walked, enjoying their total beauty… The mountains and forests and trees – the oceans with their playful waves – all of them are bubbles on this ocean of Bliss. Ha ha! In all things we see this Sacchidananda. In the midst of the peaceful Himalayas, as well as in the noisy cities, we see this Paramatman."

-Swami Tapovan Maharaj  

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Viveka: How to Live in the World

“Live in the world like an ant. The world contains a mixture of Truth and untruth, sugar and sand. Be an ant and take the sugar.

“Again, the world is a mixture of milk and water, the bliss of God-Consciousness and the pleasure of sense enjoyment. Be a swan and drink the milk, leaving the water aside.

“Live in the world like a waterfowl. The water clings to the bird, but the bird shakes it off. Live in the world like a mudfish. The fish lives in the mud, but its  skin is always bright and shiny.

“The world is indeed a mixture of truth and make believe. Discard the make-believe and take the Truth.”

-Sri Ramakrishna

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Mithya

 "However strong or beautiful this body may be, its culmination is in those three pounds of ashes. And still people are so attached to it. Glory be to God."

-Sarada Devi

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Real Peace

“Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.

Whoever has God lacks nothing;

God alone suffices.”

-St. Teresa of Avila

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Real Surrender

 “The heat of midnight tears will bring you to God.” 

― Mīrābāī

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All One

 

• “Whether you worship Christ, Krishna, Kali or Allah, you actually worship the one Light that is also in you, since It pervades all things.”

-Anandamayi Ma

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Jai Hind: Helping India

India is the birthplace of yoga, and those of us who benefit from it understand this connection and feel the pain of those who suffering from the current, deadly wave of COVID-19.  There are many ways we can help, including:

-Operation Shanti in Mysore was started by ashtanga students to help street children, and currently serves local children and street moms. The group "Envisions... A world in which the poor are given the opportunity to reach their full potential in life."  Now, they are partnering with Wasatch Ayurveda & Yoga  to help provide Covid relief to those who live in Mysore, India and are being severely affected by thesecond, deadly wave of Covid-19. The money raised goes  directly to trusted people in Mysore via Operation Shanti, and dispersed to individuals they know are suffering now for lack of food and basics. Learn more about Covid Aid for Mysore and donate here.

The  Yoga Alliance also has a couple of recommendations:

American India Foundation, working on health facility, frontline health worker, and community-centered interventions in India.

Global Giving, helping on-the-ground nonprofits  treat COVID-19 patients and more.

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