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

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

Let Go....

"Clear your mind of dogmatic theological debris; let in the fresh, healing waters of direct perception. Attune yourself to the active inner Guidance; the Divine Voice has the answer to every dilemma of life. Though man's ingenuity for getting himself into trouble appears to be endless, the Infinite Succor is no less resourceful."

-Lahiri Mahasaya  

Merry Christmas!

Jesus of Nazareth  (Part One). Franco Zeffirelli's 1977 masterpiece

See Part II here.

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Cause and Effect

 "The Absolute is the original (bimba) and the world is the reflection (pratibimba) just as the moon causes many refection’s in different pools of water and the reflections differ in their clarity according to the degree of cleanliness of the water reflecting it and just as they appear to be stable or moving if the water is stable or moving, similarly, due to the nature of avidya (ignorance), the jivas (living beings) who are the reflections of the infinite, appear to have different forms and types."

-Adi Shankaracharya, commentary on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

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"Due to ignorance, that which belongs to the mind; the agency of actions, etc, is attributed to the Self;  just as attributed to the moon reflected in water  are the trembling, etc, which belong to water."

-Adi Shankaracharya, Atma Bodha, verse 22

Shraddha (faith) and Titiksha (forbearance)

"There are pearls in the deep sea, but one must hazard all to find them. If diving once does not bring you pearls, you need not therefore conclude that the sea is without them. Dive again and again. You are sure to be rewarded in the end. So is it with the finding of the Lord in this world. If your first attempt proves fruitless, do not lose heart. Persevere in your efforts. You are sure to realize Him at last."

-Sri Ramakrishna

See the Self in All

 "This is the gist of all worship — to be pure and to do good to others. He who sees Siva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Siva, and if he sees Siva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary. He who has served and helped one poor man seeing Siva in him, without thinking of his caste, creed, or race, or anything, with him Siva is more pleased than with the man who sees Him only in temples."

-Swami Vivekananda

Morning and Evening Prayer (Gandhi)

Ahimsa, satya, asteya,

Brachmacharya, asangraha,

Sharirashram, aswada,

Sarvatra, bhaya varjana,

Sarva dharma samanatva,

Swadeshi, sparsha bhavana,

Vinamra vrata nishtha se,

Ye ekadash sevya hain. 

 

Nonviolence, truth, nonstealing

Sacred sex, nonconsumerism,

Physical work, avoidance of bad taste,

Fearlessness, respect for all religions

Local economy and respect for all beings. 

These 11 principles 

Should be followed with humility, care, and commitment.

 

-Mahatma Gandhi, morning and evening prayer

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"Prayer does for the purification of the mind, what the bucket and the broom do for the cleaning up of our physical surroundings. And that is why we always commence our proceedings with prayer. No matter whether the prayer we recite is the Hindu prayer or the Muslim or the Parsi, its function is essentially the same, namely, purification of the heart." 

- Mahatma Gandhi

Soham: I Am

Sadhu Om: "To dwell upon ‘I am’ in whatever way is possible is good contemplation (manana). It is the practice that will root out all interest in other things (second and third persons) and make self-abidance easy.

"Good and bad are based on the limiting concept ‘I am the body’. The experience of the jnani is simply ‘I am’. Though it may seem that the jnani sees differences, he never actually experiences any distinctions such as good or bad. He is ever contented with the knowledge ‘I am’. ‘lam’ is both the way and the goal (as Bhagavan teaches us in verse 579 of Guru Vachaka Kovai).

"Bhagavan [Ramana Maharshi] is the greatest siddha. He knows well what work need be done on us and how to do it. Though we do not know it, he is doing his work all the time.

"Erratic behaviour only occurs if a disciple has a profound change of outlook while still retaining some individuality. Bhagavan will always bring about the required change of outlook (the experience of true self-knowledge) together with the loss of individuality, so no outward changes will be seen in those whom he liberates, and no ‘I’ will rise in them to say ‘I have had this change of outlook’, nor will he say anything (that is, he will not say that they have been liberated).

"He used to give the example of a hard-shelled fruit which an elephant swallows whole and excretes unbroken, but when the shell is broken open the contents are found to have been digested. Likewise, when Bhagavan consumes anyone’s ego, they will outwardly appear unchanged. No one can say how many egos Bhagavan has thus consumed‘.

"In one of his verses Muruganar sang to Bhagavan, ‘You have given me sahaja [my natural state] without letting me experience nirvikalpa sama'dhi, close my eyes, or do any sa'dhana’. Such is Bhagavan’s guruship, but if he were asked how he does it, he would say, ‘I don’t know; I just know that I am’.

"There is only a thin line between jnana [knowledge] and ajnana [ignorance or lack of knowledge]. At the right time, a shock may enable one to cross the line and have that small change of outlook.

"'I am’ is neither inside nor outside. Dwell on the fact that ‘lam’ is devoid of limitations. Dwell on the feeling of being. That is self, and it alone exists.

"The karma theory is riddled with loopholes, ambiguities and dubious assumptions. Firstly it presupposes that the ever non-existent ego exists as a doer, and on top of this false assumption it piles up one false assumption over another: the existence of God, a"ga'mya, San‘ciza, pra’rabdha [types of karma], their functions and so on. Do not merely doubt the theory; doubt whether you exist as a doer."

(Recorded by Michael James on 5th December 1977, and appearing in an unpublished work called The Paramount Importance of Self Attention)

How to Meditate

 

"Sitting in a solitary place, freeing the mind from desires and controlling the sense, meditate upon the Atman which is One without a second, with unswerving attention."

-Atma Bodha, verse 38

Happy Diwali!

Diwali or Deepavali - the Festival of Light -- symbolizes the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.

The word Diwali comes from the Sanskrit word deepavali, meaning "rows of lighted lamps". Houses, shops and public places are decorated with small oil lamps called diyas. The Diwali Festival lasts for five days. It starts at the end of the “cropping season” at the new moon and is celebrated as the festival of prosperity, wisdom, and light.  

Diwali is celebrated 20 days after Lord Ram killed the demon Ravana and rescued Sita from captivity in Lanka. The celebration marks the return of Lord Ram to Ayodha after 14 years of exile. Others celebrate the victory of the goddess Durga over the demon Mahishasura. The festival is also celebrated by Sikhs, Jains and some Buddhists.

To prepare, people clean and decorate their homes, and during Diwali they light candles and lamps, offer prayers for prosperity, and exchange gifts and sweets.

For yogis, it symbolizes the victory of Knowledge over ignorance:

Pavamana Mantra (from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad)

Asato Ma Sat Gamaya
Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya
Mrityor Maamritam Gamaya
Om Shanti Shanti Shantih

(Lead us from the unreal to the Real. From darkness to Light. From mortality to Eternity).

Learn more about Diwali here.

Dakshinamurthy Stotram

Click here to see and contemplate translation

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Morning Meditation by Adi Shankaracharya

All of Vedanta is contained in this beautiful morning prayer by Adi Shankaracharya. Apparently it was Swami Vivekananda’s favorite prayer which he used to sing often. Swami Vivekananda was a key person in the introduction of the eastern philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the western world - starting at the 1893 World Parliament of Religion in Chicago.

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(Click here if ^link^ isn't working)

प्रातः स्मरामि हृदि संस्फुरदात्मतत्त्वं

सच्चित्सुखं परमहंसगतिं तुरीयम् ।

यत्स्वप्नजागरसुषुप्तिमवैति नित्यं

तद्ब्रह्म निष्कलमहं न च भूतसङ्घः ॥१॥

Praatah Smaraami Hrdi Samsphurad-Aatma-Tattvam
Sac-Cit-Sukham Parama-Hamsa-Gatim Turiiyam |
Yat-Svapna-Jaagara-Sussuptim-Avaiti Nityam
Tad-Brahma Nisskalam-Aham Na Ca Bhuuta-Sangghah ||1||

Meaning:

In the Early Morning I remember (i.e. meditate on) the Pure Essence of the Atman shining within my Heart, …
Which gives the Bliss of Sacchidananda (Existence-Consciousness-Bliss essence), which is the Supreme Hamsa(symbolically a Pure White Swan floating in Chidakasha) and takes the mind to the state of Turiya (the fourth state, Superconsciousness),
Which knows (as a witness beyond) the three states of Dream, Waking and Deep Sleep, always,

That Brahman which is without any division shines as the I; and not this body which is a collection of Pancha Bhuta(Five Elements).

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