10/24/11

Hello! How are you..?

Hearty wishes on the occasion of Diwali.

I have been away from you for almost four months now. “I have been away from you” is only physical. The people for whom I have been working, or the people who have been working for the mission of the Parampara, are always dear to me. My heart is always open and when you remember me, a love song starts in me. I am not exaggerating, nor am I interested in taking your emotions off the ground. But I am simply sharing what I have been experiencing.

The experience of life in Western Countries gave me an increased conviction that material wealth is not all that which matters for life. It is the overall well-being that really matters. We seem to live in  shells, though we tend to call ourselves ‘civilized’ or ‘modern’. ‘freedom’ is  misunderstood as carelessness, manipulated, corrupted and cunning display of  minds’ whims.

The life I have seen in western countries further convinced me that Maharshi Patanjali’s yoga sutra, yogah chitta vritti nirodha, should be practiced with increased sincerity. This sutra should be kept as the ground on which we deal with events, relations and oneself. As and when I meet you, I would share with you the relevance of this sutra in the entire world.

I and my wife, Smt.Jyothi, are too eager to come back to our dear work field – seeing our Gurudev, Swami Rama, in you and serving him through you.  I would be landing in Delhi on 8th November and then would be leaving for Bangalore on 9th November.

I have nothing much to say in this column, except to reiterate my increased commitment to travel further on my journey. My journey is only with you. Without you, my journey is incomplete and the journey is not  joyous and purposeful.

Dear friends, can I seek from you an added vigour on your part so that we both travel happily, looking at all directions, treading the path brightly lit by the blessings of the Himalayan Masters? Sadhana is not all that difficult.  ‘Difficulty’ is only a mental make up. In fact if you start looking at the course of life, you would like to enjoy every moment of your living – whether doing a job or not doing any. You would simply be ‘love  personified’.

With yogic fragrance,

Jyoti & Pattabhiram.

Nitya Sadhana - (The Path of Fire & Light)

As Guruji says, the purpose of Nitya Sadhana is for developing all-round goodness. There are three types of fires in all of us -- Jatharagni (gastric fire), Jeevagni (sustains life per se) and Chidagni (sustains the consciousness). Nitya Sadhana starts with Jatharagni. Here is presented the lecture-cum-practice session, which dwells beautifully on this and how to utilize it to keep progressing on the Path of Sadhana.

The practices taught include Diaphragmatic Breating, Agnisara, Kapalbhati & Nadhi Shodhana Pranayama.

Nitya Sadhana - 1 (The Path of Fire & Light)



Nitya Sadhana - 2 (The Path of Fire & Light)


To buy this whole video or to browse other DVD videos brought out by Sadhana Sangama Trust please check out:

http://himalayantradition.blogspot.com/2011/09/yoga-meditation-dvd-now-available.html



Yoga & Married Life



Man is not something separate from the woman. Woman is not something separate from the man. They are one and the same not because they are valued as only one; their aim is one. They are one because their aim is one.

What is their Aim? Their aim is to attain happiness, peace and wisdom. Perfect happiness, perfect peace and perfect wisdom. Now where is that weighing machine or measurement that can tell you that you are perfect or imperfect? When you are happy you do not need any witness to tell you or to convince you that you are happy. You feel it, you understand it, and you know it, but when you are unhappy you also know it. So happiness and unhappiness does not need any evidence, any certification, any confirmation. You are happy, you are happy and when you are happy you are in a state which is called normal state. If you study your own family members, neighbors and society you will find there is a keen competition going on, not for the things in the external world. The urge is internal. What is that urge? One who is considered to be subnormal, he now wants to be a normal person. He does not want to lose his temper. He wants to control his temper. He does not want to attain that emotional state in which emotional is immature. He wants to have emotional maturity, emotional control and show that face with the female sex. When we feel that a subnormal who is below normal person in society is trying or aspiring or wishes or desires or wants to be normal, and those who are normal want to become supernormal. This is the keen competition going on from within without understanding. If you are happy this much, you want to be happy more. If you are happy more, you want to be more happy and then become perfect. The aim seems to be happiness.

What is the definition of happiness? The definition of happiness is a state of freedom from all miseries. Now married life has to go through various channels of experiences. What you consider grief and sorrow, pain and pleasure, happiness and misery that you all experience in your daily life. Here yoga comes and helps you and tells you that you can attain a state of happiness and wisdom if you know the art of living and being. There are various aspects of yoga. All the monks can be happy. One who has taken up monastic life how can he be happy? He cannot be happy by becoming a householder. But if he has not understood why he should become monk or why did he become monk it is better for him to come back and live as a householder. Otherwise he will be miserable there. Yoga tells, instructs certain things to that person who leads a monastic life. But yoga deals more nicely and helps more nicely the people who live in the world. And there is one sentence that explains it beautifully. What is yoga? The definition of yoga means Yogah karmasu kaushalam. To do one’s own action skillfully and finally attain the highest state of peace, happiness and wisdom is called yoga. If we really know how to do our action then there is no problem at all. Nobody can be unhappy around us if we know the art of doing our actions. If we also know why do we do our actions, what is the motivation behind all these actions, why do we live, why do we aspire to live a long time? Why do we want to live for? We want to be a success, we want to be happy, We want to be full of wisdom.

(Contd..)

Antardarshana

Ishvara-pranidhaanat-vaa

“I” is the personal centre. Always we say “I am doing this”,  “Because of me things are moving”, “I am working”, “I am looking after the family”.... Always I. Everything is self-centred. If there is failure, then one says, “I failed miserably”....  I am associating myself with ‘I’, even the effects I am associating with ‘I’. “I did this.” “I succeeded”. But if you understand life with all awareness, then you will realise that this is creating tremendous tension in your inner being.

Even with meticulous planning, accidents take place. Who is accountable for this? Though we have taken all precautions, in spite of that, many unpleasant, undesirable things happen. After getting married, I planned pretty well to have a bright child. I went to the doctor. I took all precautions. Whatever the doctor suggested, I followed strictly. I didn’t see a single horror show on TV. I was so pious. I used to chant mantras. With that preparation, with that meticulous planning, I delivered a child who is mentally retarded, a spastic child! Ask this question: In spite of my effort, in spite of my meticulous planning, why did I get this spastic child?

Sometimes, with a lot of planning, effort, we try to create a very positive environment at home. But somehow, somewhere it misfires. . Have you not experienced all these things? What I expect is not happening. Life is a mystery. So, in this mysterious phenomenon, I have to recognise that there is something beyond me. Something beyond me is operating. There is something unseen that is working with me. So, it is not only me who is designing, there are many unseen factors which are designing my life. So, I am not a completely independent entity. There is something which I have to understand and recognize that is beyond what I know presently as ‘myself’. .

Here, Patanjali introduces that element. Look, there is something beyond you. That beyond is Ishvara. Ishvara Pranidhaanaadva. Bring that Ishvara element. Ishvara is the Lord of Life. Ishvara is the energy which is all-pervading. Ishvara is the energy which is designing. Ishvara is the energy which is behind all activities. Please watch this. Who is making prana enter inside the body? Who is there to digest the food I take? Who is there to make my hands move? Even when I am unconscious, who is there in me, who gives me the prana, maintaining every cell inside my body? During my sleep, who is working inside and setting everything right in me? Please understand this. Who is guiding? Find out. After an action, before an action, during the action, you find out, which is that preraka shakti? Who is inspiring me to do like the way I do? One has to acknowledge that there is something which is beyond my comprehension that is working. When I start understanding I can comprehend that. But at the present, let us say that there is something beyond my logical comprehension. Logic is for the external world. Whatever logical things I am trying to introduce, they belong to the external world. But where is the logic when you start looking at deeper aspects of life?

Take an accident. In the accident, a strong man, who is supposed to survive, dies. A tender child, supposed to die, survives. Who is dictating all these? Ask this question.

So Patanjali says, pranidhana. Now you have taken a stand that ‘I’ is doing everything. Pranidhana is slowing down the speed of I, and recognise that there is something else that is working. That is called Pranidhana. Surrender. samarpana. It is not becoming slavish. That is not samarpana. You are becoming aware. That is samarpana. You are recognising that there is something else which is also working with you.

In the family situation, the partners don’t recognise each other. That is why there are problems. There is no pranidhana. Husband has to have pranidhana with wife. Wife has to have pranidhana with husband. Husband has to completely surrender to wife; wife to husband. That is called pranidhana. Then harmony comes, then duality will not be there. I-you is not there. Dvaita bhava is not there. ‘I did it’ is not there, ‘we did it’ is there. You see, the concept of ‘we’ emerges. Why there is lots of problem at home? Because of the predominant ‘I’ feeling. Everybody wants to maintain his individuality. I have to maintain my individuality, there also she has to maintain her individuality. Two individualities are fighting with each other. Why are they fighting? Because there is no pranidhana, samarpana. There is no recognition.

Yes, I am earning a lot of money. I am supplying money to maintain family. That doesn’t mean my wife must become a slave to me. No. Wife also is having an equal responsibility. If she doesn’t prepare food, I can’t work. So, every aspect of life is very important. If one says, “ Even if I don’t work, nothing will happen”, the entire holistic system collapses. 

The “I” has to lose its rigidity. That is pranidhana. If the ‘I’ doesn’t lose its rigidity on its own, the divine force, the cosmic force, will shatter this ‘I’ again and again. This is what we are seeing. We are getting hurt, we are getting frustrated, we are getting dejected, we become helpless. My hands are tied. I can’t do anything. We are going through such situations in life. Somebody else has done a mistake, the blame is on me. I have to go through this blame. Where is law in the life? To understand this law, we have to recognise that there is something higher. There is something bigger, wider, that is operating. In that bigger, higher, wider dimension, this “I” is working.

What is pranidhana? Prakarshana, means with all intensity, with all feeling. Nidhaana means putting myself in it. This is called Pranidhaana. So Ishvara Pranidhaana, one has to realise that there is something beyond the purview of ‘I’ consciousness, and that is also operating. This is where the individual self starts recognising the universal self. There is something called universal self. That universal self is Ishvara.  Ishvara Pranidhaanadva… 

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