Yoga its various Aspects

 Quote from the True charm and power of Vedanta

 Yoga its various Aspects

With resolute hearts, we adopt some time-tested techniques in our daily life, and through assiduous practice, we ultimately realize the Truth. This realization transoms our life changes our perspective and reveals the profound significance of everything we experience. We will then see one indivisible Light Shining inside and outside ourselves. We become the embodiment of love, peace fearlessness and strength. How to accomplish this journey smoothly with a conservation of time and energy, and with the maximum benefit to oneself and others is the theme of Yoga ,

 

At the outset the aspirant should be definite about what he is looking for in order to lay an unshakable foundation in spiritual life, it is indispensable to have a clear idea of the spiritual ideal, and to base this life on the higher realities experienced in the life of the mystics. These realities are expressed in their teachings and also in other reliable scriptures rooted in eternal verities. Mature reasoning, reflection and mediation on the ideas contained therein strengthen his spiritual life. They stimulate his mind, removed doubts and reinforce convictions a. this reinforcement of beliefs cannot be emphasized enough. For a long time, a firm conviction is one of the main inner supports for the seeker during times of disquietude. This study also protects him from falling into the clutches of “false prophets”, mere social religious and different types of superstitions.

 Meditate, it can make you perpetually happy

By Hasmukh Adhia

 

Happiness is not a state of continuous excitement or rapture. It is a state of absence of sadness. Sleep is the best example of this. We feel happy in sleep because there is no sadness of any kind. A visually impaired person is not blind in sleep. A wounded person is not wounded in sleep. A poor person is not poor in sleep. At the end of the day, we all want to go to bed to feel this absence of sadness for a few hours every day. Even when one is filled with rapturous, joyful events throughout the day, one still has a desire to get sleep. Because sleep is a state of unadulterated bliss.

 

Scriptures say that there is only a single source of happiness, which is Consciousness called Brahman, Atman. Consciousness is the Anand, pure bliss, which is right inside us all the time. During a state of the quietude of the mind and senses, the bliss of consciousness shines fully in us. And so, we become happy. The happiness we get from objects of enjoyment is also coming from the bliss of atman.

 

When we have a desire for objects, our mind becomes restless. We make a lot of effort to achieve those objects. When we get them, our mind is peaceful. In these moments of peace, or absence of restlessness, the bliss of atman reflects on our mind and so we become happy. Since there is no end to our desires, we only get a small interval of happiness between two desires.

 

 

It is the sunlight only which is reflected on the Moon and comes to us as moonlight. But when we see moonlight, we don’t think of it as sunlight only. Every anand is coming from Brahmn, whether in sleep, in enjoyment of objects, meditation, or in knowledge.

 

Any object-borne happiness is an attempt to remove sadness or an inferiority complex, which is the cause of the restlessness of the mind. The main cause of sadness or inferiority is our identification with body and mind, not atman. The body and mind are temporary possessions, but our atman is permanent, free from any defects and a source of infinite bliss. When we focus on atman more than on the body-mind complex, we can free ourselves from an inferiority complex. Spiritual knowledge is the best psychotherapy. It is also a way of getting lasting happiness.

 

The happiness of the world is a mixed bag. It is interspersed with lots of unhappiness. By dropping the world into a deep sleep state every day and still being happy, we can think of the world as an undependable or rather unnecessary instrument of our happiness. When the external entity is dropped in our mind, our inner self, which is pure bliss, shines.

 

One cannot remain in deep sleep for long because our karma, destiny, wakes us up. The karma has to be enjoyed or suffered in the waking state. But one can always enjoy long hours of meditation in a waking state and experience the bliss of Self. That is how once we get into the habit of meditation, we get addicted to this happiness.

 

 The writer is former finance secretary, Government of India

 

IF HE EXIST

 I drive joy there was a doctor in Benaras who spent 7 minutes in the morning and evening for mediation on God. Knowing this, his colleagues and friends laughed at him. One day they argued that he was wasting 7 precious minutes on something, which he had been misled into believing. The doctor replied, “Well, if God does not exist, I agree that I am wasting 7 minutes a day. But, if He exists? I am afraid you are wasting your entire lifetime. I prefer to waste 7 minutes rather than a lifetime. Why should you grudge me the 7minutes joy that I derive 4m.-

 

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Truth and Silence

 Quote from the True charm and power of Vedanta

 

Truth and Silence

 

The word muni is common to both Hindu and Buddhist traditions, but its connotation is not the same to them. The Hindu tradition takes the word to mean one who has conquered his mind and has, in consequence, attained Self-Knowledge and realized Truth. To a Buddhist the word however means one who is “silent”, or ‘Mute’ Why is the silent? He is silent because it is part of his asceticism. Why should he talk? What is there to talk about? And to whom would he talk? Is it not waste of time and energy talking to others? Buddha is often referred to as ‘Shakya Muni’ the mute one of the Shakya clan. This was because. Buddha often gave evasive replies if people asked him about God or the Self. to this day people do not know exactly what Buddha’s stand was on God or the Self  or the Ultimate Reality , Some people say ‘silence had to be his answer. For what he had to say was beyond thought and speech.

           
Buddha did not like to see people arguing about metaphysics. He thought it was waste of time. But the irony is that just because of or in spite of this attitude towards philosophy , much philosophy has grown and is still growing centering round Buddha. Crucial to Buddha’s teachings is nirvana, which he describes as the goal of life. But what is nirvana? The debate about its meaning Is  still going on  . One school of thought explains nirvana as going out, extinction, or dissolution . the meaning is negative Another school holds that nirvana has an affirmative ménage it means infinite bliss. Whether it is extinction or infinite bliss. . it hardly means anything to an ordinary person. Buddha’s silence is understandable under the circumstances.

 

You are complete and perfect in every way

By Swami Krishnananda

 

Here we are, the products, as it were, of this great creative activity of the immeasurable completeness and perfection of the Almighty, the Supreme Being. God is utter perfection, and everything that emanates from Him as His creation has also to be a perfection. An imperfect product does not come out of a perfect cause. Thus, the great, most venerable, infinite Eternal Being, to describe Whom as a perfection would be to say very little, has willed this universe, which also is a perfection. From poorn has come poorn. This poorn, which is the universe, has come from Poorn, the Supreme Being, and we are all a part of this Poorn, the universe. Therefore, we also are representations of that Poorn only, not fragments or shattered personalities.

 

All of us here, and everyone who is in any part of the world or in any other world, all these beings we call living or non-living, moving or non-moving, animate or inanimate, call them by any designation, are also perfections, poorn. Only poorn emanates from poorn, and therefore every one of you is also a poorn … None of us is a fragment. This is very important for us to remember. We are not incomplete in any way.

 

 

Many of us have distracted notions of our own selves – poor, illiterate ideas of our being nothings, nobodies, unfulfilled, incomplete and unfortunate. Nothing of the kind is the case with anyone or with anything because a wretched incomplete wreck cannot be manifest from a perfect being. And if you believe you have come from that One Being, you are not that which you imagine yourselves to be under a false notion of yourself in your artificial adjustments and accommodations with a phenomenon we call human society which, to repeat once again, is also, in its essentiality, a symbol of perfection itself.

 

The whole universe is a radiant manifestation of the Almighty’s perfection. Glory is the name of this world. ‘Yasya nama mahad yasah’, says the Svetasvatara Upanishad. The glory of God is also the glory of this world; it is also the glory of every one of us, every one of you. Each one, even in the littlest of the forms of manifestation, is a completion in itself. Even an atom is a complete manifestation, and is not a little part of something. You do not belong to anyone, and nothing belongs to you. The idea of something belonging to something else is the idea of subservience and fragmentation of personality. A thing that is complete cannot belong to something else, and if everything is complete, nothing can belong to anything. Neither can you belong to anything, nor can anything belong to you, because all these little manifestations of completion, perfection, poornta, belong to the eternal perfection which is the Supreme Being.

 

These ideas, these thoughts, these contemplations even for a few moments will charge your personality with such strength, energy, joy and satisfaction that you may not wish to even open your mouth. You will feel that everything is well.

 

Om purnam adah, purnam idam, purnat purnam udacyate;

purnasya purnam adaya purnam evavasisyate.

 (Courtesy: The Divine Life Trust Society)

 

IF HE EXIST

 I drive joy there was a doctor in Benaras who spent 7 minutes in the morning and evening for mediation on God. Knowing this, his colleagues and friends laughed at him. One day they argued that he was wasting 7 precious minutes on something, which he had been misled into believing. The doctor replied, “Well, if God does not exist, I agree that I am wasting 7 minutes a day. But, if He exists? I am afraid you are wasting your entire lifetime. I prefer to waste 7 minutes rather than a lifetime. Why should you grudge me the 7minutes joy that I derive 4m.-

 

ILLUSTRATED REVIEW : 7th heaven moment of the week Mumbai  7 changte scored  a goal,  

 

Practical Vedanta

 Quote from the True charm and power of Vedanta

 

Practical Vedanta

 

One question is generally asked and it is this that this may lead to a tremendous amount of difficulty. Every one of us will think. I am God and whatever I do or think must be good, for God can do no evil. In the first place, even taking this danger of misinterpretation for granted, can it be proved that on the other side the same danger does not exist? They have been worshipping a God in heaven separate from them, and of whom they are much afraid. They have been born shaking with fear, and all their life they will go on shaking. Has the world been made much better by this? Those who have understood and worshipped a Personal God, and those who have understood and worshipped an Impersonal God, on which side have been the great workers of the world—gigantic workers, gigantic moral powers? Certainly on the Impersonal. How can you expect morality to be developed through fear? It can never be. “Where one sees another, where one hears another, that is Maya , When one does not see another when one does not hear another, when everything has become the Atman, who see whom who perceives whom? It is all He and all I, at the same time. The soul has become pure.  Then and then alone we understand what love is. Love cannot come through fear, its basis is freedom. When we really begin to love the world, then we understand what is meant to brotherhood of mankind and not before.

 

So it is not right to say that the impersonal idea will lead to a tremendous amount of evil in the world as if the other doctrine never lent itself to works of evil , as if it did not lead to sectarianism deluging the world with blood and causing men to tear each other in pieces. “My god is the greatest God, lt us decide it by a free fight. “ that is the outcomes of dualism all over the world. Come out into the broad open light of day come out from the little narrow paths, for how can the infringe soul test content to live and die in small ruts? Come out into the universe of Light. Everything in the universe is yours stretch out your arms and embrace it with love. If you ever felt you wanted to do that, you have felt God

 

Is freedom from karma possible?

By Nayaswami Devi

 

Recently, a friend commented that karma doesn’t always come back to us immediately but hangs around for a while. It isn’t like a credit card company keeping track of charges and payments each month. That’s why we need a ‘Master Card’ to help us work through our karma over many lives. The ‘Master Card’ is the guru: God’s agent acting in this world to guide each soul to freedom.

 

Another friend related a dream he once had. In it, he was walking along a beach with a child’s plastic pail and shovel in his hand. He suddenly came upon a huge mound of tarlike black material, and he knew that this was his past karma that he must remove to be free. He began laboriously to chip away at the sticky mound, filling his little pail only halfway after much effort.

 

He persisted at the task, when, almost at the point of giving up, he heard a loud racket coming from the other side of the tremendous pile before him. Quickly running to see what was making the noise, he saw his guru on a backhoe with a huge bucket, joyfully scooping up vast quantities of the ‘tar-ma’ and throwing it into the sea.

 

 

By our own efforts, the task of removing our past karma seems nearly impossible. Still, we must earnestly do our part.

 

A discouraged disciple once said to Paramhansa Yogananda that working out all our karma seemed hopeless, that “one might as well try calming the waves on the ocean.”

 

Yoganandaji answered: “It is a big job, I grant you. Still, it isn’t nearly so difficult as it looks. What is it that causes the waves on the sea to rise and fall in the first place? It’s the wind. Without wind, the surface grows calm automatically. Similarly, when the storm of delusion abates in the mind, the waves of action and reaction subside automatically. What you must do is still the waves of your mind by deep meditation. Then, in meditation, rid yourself of the consciousness of ego-involvement.”

 

The wind is what keeps the waves crashing. The wind is the breath. In the Bhagwad Gita, Arjun says to Krishn that the mind is restless and more difficult to control than the wind. Krishn replies that it can be controlled by yog practice and mental dispassion. The deeper meaning of this passage is that by calming the breath, through pranayam and meditation, we gain control over our mind and transcend ego-identification. The seeds of our karma can then not find soil in which to take root in our consciousness.

 

Here is a technique for using the breath to overcome past karma:

 

1) Inhale deeply and concentrate all your energy at the point between the eyebrows.

 

2) Feel that you are burning away faults, bad habits, negative thoughts or tendencies — fruits of your past karma.

 

3) Exhale completely. Keep your breath out as long as you can comfortably. Feel completely free within yourself.

 

4) When you breathe in again, think of a positive image or memory, and let it fill your mind.

 

5) Repeat this several times in a row. Practice this daily until you feel a release from some karmic burden.

 

Act with the thought that God is the Doer. Desireless action is the pathway to freedom.

 Krishn tells a reluctant Arjun that he must fight the impending battle of good against evil. He explains that by selfless action we are playing our part in this world and fulfilling our destiny. “Therefore, strive conscientiously during the performance of all actions, whether physical or spiritual, to act without attachment. By activity without self-interest, one attains the Supreme.”

 The grace of the Guru, meditation and breath control, action without attachment to the results — these are the keys to overcoming karma. In these ways we can remove the mound of our past karma and open the doors to soul freedom.

 IF HE EXIST

 I drive joy there was a doctor in Benaras who spent 7 minutes in the morning and evening for mediation on God. Knowing this, his colleagues and friends laughed at him. One day they argued that he was wasting 7 precious minutes on something, which he had been misled into believing. The doctor replied, “Well, if God does not exist, I agree that I am wasting 7 minutes a day. But, if He exists? I am afraid you are wasting your entire lifetime. I prefer to waste 7 minutes rather than a lifetime. Why should you grudge me the 7minutes joy that I derive 4m.-

 

ILLUSTRATED REVIEW : 7th heaven moment of the week Goa no 7 scored  a goal, n Kerala no 77 scored a goal

 

Life is but Thought

 Quote from the True charm and power of Vedanta

 

Life is but Thought

 

In saying this Coleridge is echoing what Indian thinkers have always preached. You are what you think you are. That is t say your own estimate about yourself is largely an index of what you are now and what you want to be in the future. The present is always important because it is the foundation on which the future is built. The present may be clumsy and uncertain but if you are clear in your mind about what you want to be in the future and if you organize yourself accordingly, there is no reason why you will not be what you want to be. Whatever may be your goal, you have to have the requisite will to achieve in and you have also to choose the right path. First ask yourself what you want and then start working to that end. There will be difficulties, but you brace yourself to face them squarely. Be sure you are never cowed by anything. If others have overcome such difficulties you too can overcome them. If you have to from an estimate yourself, you do not form it on the basis of what you are now and what you have so far achieved.

 Look at persons of your caliber and study what they have achieved. It is by comparisons that you learn what you are capable of. You discover to your surprise that most of those who have achieved great things in life are people of average merit and some-perhaps most-of them are markedly inferior to you. How is it that they have done so? By their will by their own efforts. To begin with they never suspected what they were capable of but as they started working hard, they slowly began to discover new sources of strength within themselves and their potential. Once they tasted success they never looked back, they kept pursuing forward from one success to another.

 Turn to the Gita when overwhelmed by doubt

By Jaya Row

 

 
Do you find yourself torn between the devil and the deep blue sea? Are you cruising along and suddenly you get knocked down by a challenge? Do you get overwhelmed by doubt and indecision? The Bhagwad Gita helps resolve the conflict within.

 

Though 5,000 years old, the Gita is timeless. The inner space of uncertainty and indecision, emptiness and unfulfillment that Arjun faced is one we all know. The eternal principles of the Gita have inspired generations of young seekers across the world to gain victory over their own frailties. All challenges are within. You have to gain mastery over yourself to win external problems.

 

Arjun gets pushed into battle and buckles under the challenge. Krishn says there is no place for grief in life. He speaks of joy, cheer and exhilaration. All problems stem from a slight maladjustment within. Correct that and the problems vanish.

 

Dhritrashtra, the blind king and father of the Kauravas, asks Sanjay, the commentator of the battle, what his sons and the sons of Pandu are doing. The root of all conflict and war is a feeling of separateness – mine versus yours – which Dhritrashtra displays. Pandu was his brother. He should have seen Pandu’s sons as his own. But he views them as enemies.

 

Dhritrashtra epitomises the mind, the abode of emotions and feelings. The mind is blind. Gandhari represents the intellect, the domain of judgement and discrimination. The intellect can see. However, when the intellect gets smitten with emotion, it gets blinded too. This is indicated by Gandhari blinding herself after marrying Dhritrashtra. The result is devastation and destruction.

 

 

Sanjay points to Duryodhan’s arrogance. Arrogance blocks the intake of knowledge. Duryodhan disregards the wise counsel of elders like Bhishm and Dronacharya and embarks on this foolhardy battle.

 

Duryodhan’s army is one and a half times that of the Pandavas, and yet he is insecure. Insecurity stems from viciousness, wrongdoing and a feeling of otherness. A warrior’s strength comes from noble ideals. Duryodhan has nothing but his selfishness and foolishness to fall back on.

 

Arjun is battle-ready and asks Krishn to drive him between the two armies so he may see those who have gathered to please Duryodhan. Krishn drives Arjun in front of Bhishm and Drona to show that not everyone is there to pander to Duryodhan. He wants Arjun to follow their example and just do his duty. Arjun, however, succumbs to sentiment. He sees in the enemy lines his beloved patriarch Bhishm who had renounced the kingdom for which they were fighting. He sees his guru Dronacharya who had taught him archery. He sees relatives when he should see warriors. When emotion comes in the way of intellectual conviction he falters and falls. He makes absurd arguments to justify his stand and displays false vairagya, dispassion. Confused and exhausted, he collapses, unable to stand, his mind whirling, mouth dry, body trembling and hair standing on end.

 

Thus, the mighty Arjun breaks down, overcome with frail pity, oblivious of his obligation as a kshatriya, ruler, to uphold dharma, righteousness. When we lack a higher vision, we are weakened by wavering emotions. We get bogged down by irrelevant things. The intellect gets clouded and we embark on a disastrous action plan. This is Arjun’s state.

 

Arjun had not asked for the war. Yet he has to play a central role in it. He has to first resolve the conflict between his head and his heart, both of which are saying different things. The stage is set for Krishn to teach Arjun, and through him, all confused and troubled souls down the ages. Millions of people have turned to the Gita in their hour of crisis and found the light of wisdom, the clear path out of darkness to Truth. And so will we if we listen to Krishn’s advice with an open mind.

 Watch Bhagwad Gita Ch 1 webinars by Jaya Row every Saturday 6-7 pm on YouTube. Register for free: vedantavision.org/gita

 IF HE EXIST

 I drive joy there was a doctor in Benaras who spent 7 minutes in the morning and evening for mediation on God. Knowing this, his colleagues and friends laughed at him. One day they argued that he was wasting 7 precious minutes on something, which he had been misled into believing. The doctor replied, “Well, if God does not exist, I agree that I am wasting 7 minutes a day. But, if He exists? I am afraid you are wasting your entire lifetime. I prefer to waste 7 minutes rather than a lifetime. Why should you grudge me the 7minutes joy that I derive 4m.-

 ILLUSTRATED REVIEW : 7th heaven moment of the week Chhangte no 7 scored a goal, atk kakauo no 7 scored a goal, and wta tennis savalnka no 7 beat swetak in semi,