Quantcast
Channel: Life after joining Isha Yoga
Viewing all 151 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

Do we act or react ?

October 12, 2014, 11:16 am
$
0
0
A day of learning

Sadasiva Brahmendra sang," with the folded hand as pillow,with sky as blanket,the bare ground as bed and dispassion as wife, thus sleeps a renunciate in the blessed state of samadhi".

Once he was himself in that blissful pose of sleep on the ground in an open field. A farmer girl who was passing by, remarked to her friend ,with a sarcastic smile " what a sannyasi! He needs a head rest for his head. What type of renunciation is this?". 

This made sadasiva brahmenda think," how come I'm thinking like an ordinary man that the head has to rest above the level of the rest of the body in order to sleep? Unless I get rid of this attachment to the body, my sannyasa is not worth the salt. It is only Mother Goddess who has come in the form of this low caste woman to give me upadesa". Thus thinking, he removed his hand that was used as a head rest and lay on the ground without a head rest.

But the same woman who had commented earlier passed that way again ,saw the change in posture of the sannyasi and again gave a sarcastic laugh followed by an equally sarcastic comment," a sannyasi should know things for himself. Just to keep reacting to comments made by passers by does not speak well of renunciation!".

That was the day when sadasiva became an honest to goodness,non reacting, non acting, non responding inert like entity, sadasiva Brahman!
↧
Search

Fear and Surrender

October 14, 2014, 7:11 am
$
0
0
In Cairo I stayed at the old famous Shepherd Hotel. I spent one day in the museum seeing the Tut Ankh Amon collection, and the second day I rode out by camel to see the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid. 

When I reached the Pyramid it was nearly sunset. There was no one around except my own dragoman and one or two Arabs sleeping against their kneeling camels. I decided to climb to the top of the Pyramid. Although it towered above me, tapering off into the sky, and looked terribly high, I did not realize how high it was until I started climbing. I started out briskly but after a certain distance I grew tired and my pace slackened. The steps of the Pyramid are very narrow and eroded, but I was determined to reach the top.
Thoroughly exhausted, I finally did. The sun had already gone down. I turned and looked down the steep and awesome slope of the Pyramid. Suddenly I was overcome by the most frightful vertigo. My head swam and I felt that I was going to plunge to my death. I crouched on the narrow steps and clung to the top of the Pyramid so fiercely that my nails broke against the stone and my fingers bled. I could not bring myself to look down again. An agonizing fear took hold of me. I felt cold sweat pouring over my face, neck and back. I became hysterical. What was I to do? I knew if I let go I would fall, but I also knew I could not hold on much longer. I closed my eyes. I remembered what the Maharshi said-to dive deep into the Spiritual Heart. I summoned every faculty and all power within me and concentrated on the Heart. Suddenly I saw it, like a great light in my mind's eye. In the center I saw the Maharshi's face smiling at me. Instantly I felt calm. I turned and looked down. Far below I saw a man waving at me. I loosened one hand and held it over my head, then I waved back. The man began calling someone else. Another man ran to him. Swiftly they began to climb. They climbed expertly and fast but it seemed hours to me. Probably it took them about thirty-five minutes to reach me. One man had a rope. He tied it around my waist and gently stroked my face. He mumbled some words that I could not understand, but I knew they were kind words to encourage me. Between them, each one holding the rope as though we were mountain climbing, we began to descend. Eventually we reached the bottom safely. Some time after this I was told by an enlightened person that climbing the Great Pyramid was considered in ancient Egypt one of the "fear tests" which students had to pass in order to be initiated into the great religious mysteries. Aspirants were required to climb to the very top of the Pyramid, and if on reaching the top of it he or she could conquer fear, this particular test was won
↧
↧

For those who are receptive, Grace works. - Sadhguru.

October 14, 2014, 11:51 pm
$
0
0
Sadhguru: Krishna was not present when the Kauravas tried to disrobe Draupadi in public. He was not even aware of the scene because when he was about to go to the Rajasuya Yagna, Shalva, a king who held a grudge against him, came and raided Dwaraka. He and his men killed people and burnt homes, cattle and everything. Those of the Yadavas who managed to escape ran into the forest and hid there. On top of that, Shalva kidnapped Krishna’s father Vasudeva and took him away. By the time Krishna reached Dwaraka, the whole place was burnt and devastated, and the survivors were all in hiding. When they saw him, they came back down. He organized the reestablishment of the community and the reconstruction of the city and sent his son to go and somehow achieve the release of his kidnapped father. Since he was involved in all this, he was not aware of what was going on in Hastinapur.

If Krishna was not even aware of Draupadi’s predicament, how did he reach out to her? How did this miracle happen that she was guarded? This is a question of Grace. People constantly ask me this – some gently, some sarcastically, some in an accusing manner – how does Grace work? For Grace to function, I need not be mentally aware of what is happening to you. Through an initiation into a spiritual process, a certain investment of energy has been made, which functions as Grace. If I wish to be aware of what is happening with someone, I can be aware. But most of the time, I do not wish to be aware because too many things are going on. For those who are receptive, Grace works. For those who are not receptive, Grace does not work.

In a similar vein, Udhava once asked Krishna, “In many situations, I have seen beyond any doubt that you are a divine manifestation. There is so much about you which is beyond man. But then how come people are struggling and you cannot handle their problems with a snap of your fingers?” Krishna smilingly said, “No one can work a miracle unless the recipient is in full faith. Even the great Mahadeva cannot work a miracle unless there is receptivity and faith. When people are not receptive, you cannot expect miracles.”

There is a beautiful story: one day, Krishna was having lunch. Satyabhama was serving him. Halfway through the meal, he got up and said, “One of my devotees is in trouble. I need to go.” He washed his hands and went. Just before the gate, he suddenly stopped, turned around, and came back. Satyabhama asked, “You left midway through lunch, saying your devotee is in trouble, but then you turned back. What happened?” Krishna said, “A devotee of mine was chanting, ‘Krishna, Krishna,’ with eyes closed. A hungry tiger approached him. The man would have gotten killed, so I thought I will reach out and I left. But by the time I was near the gate, the fool had picked up a stone – so I turned back.”

For Grace to function, the person who is the source of that Grace does not need to be mentally aware of the situation. The investment of energy that has been made through the initiation functions by itself. You just have to open up the bounty that has been given to you. Do not think of faith in the sense of how people are talking about miracles – they just lost control over their imagination. In his lifetime, Krishna himself generated faith in lots of people, but still not in adequate measure for who he was. That has always been so – when the greatest ones came, the greatest things did not happen because they were too far ahead. In a way, medium-scale ones did better because they operated on a level that people understand, but they could not take them to the ultimate.

Grace becomes accessible and available to you only when you create the necessary openness within you, which means you have to be willing to keep yourself aside. If you say “Krishna, Krishna” and pick up a stone, it will not work. Similarly, if you say, “Sadhguru, Sadhguru” and pick up a stone, even if I want to, it will not work because Grace is very subtle. And as already said, it is not at all necessary that the one through which Grace functions is mentally aware of what is happening. That is why though Krishna was not aware of Draupadi’s predicament at that moment, still Grace worked for her.

↧

The way to accept impermanance and still relish Life

October 15, 2014, 3:04 am
$
0
0
To contemplate impermanence on its own is not enough: You have to work with it in your life. Let’s try an experiment. Pick up a coin. Imagine that it represents the object at which you are grasping. Hold it tightly clutched in your fist and extend your arm, with the palm of your hand facing the ground. Now if you let go or relax your grip, you will lose what you are clinging to. That’s why you hold on.

But there’s another possibility: You can let go and yet keep hold of it. With your arm still outstretched, turn your hand over so that it faces the sky. Release your hand and the coin still rests on your open palm. You let go. And the coin is still yours, even with all this space around it.

So there is a way in which we can accept impermanence and still relish life, at one and the same time, without grasping.

Sogyal Rinpoche
↧

Conversations on Compassion with Sadhguru

October 19, 2014, 9:34 am
↧
↧

Thunbam illadha nilaiye Shakti

October 21, 2014, 3:32 pm
↧

Naiharawa cover by Sounds Of Isha

October 21, 2014, 3:40 pm
↧

Is the world we see, Real ?

October 24, 2014, 3:55 am
$
0
0
THE REALITY OF THE WORLD

D: I cannot say it is all clear to me. Is the world that is seen, felt and sensed by us in so many ways something like a dream, an illusion?

M: There is no alternative for you but to accept the world as unreal, if you are seeking the Truth and the Truth alone.

D: Why so?

M: For the simple reason that unless you give up the idea that the world is real, your mind will always be after it. If you take the appearance to be real you will never know the Real itself, although it is the Real alone that exists. This point is illustrated by the analogy of the ‘snake in the rope’. As long as you see the snake you cannot see the rope as such. The non-existent snake becomes real to you, while the real rope seems wholly non-existent as such.

D: It is easy to accept tentatively that the world is not ultimately real, but it is hard to have the conviction that it is really unreal.

M: Even so is your dream world real while you are dreaming. So long as the dream lasts, everything you see, feel, etc., therein is real.

D: Is then the world nothing better than a dream?

M: What is wrong with the sense of reality you have while you are dreaming? You may be dreaming of something quite impossible, for instance, of having a happy chat with a dead person. Just for a moment you may doubt in the dream saying to yourself, ‘Was he not dead?’, but somehow your mind reconciles itself to the dream vision, and the person is as good as alive for the purposes of the dream. In other words, the dream as a dream does not permit you to doubt its reality. Even so, you are unable to doubt the reality of the world of your wakeful experience.

How can the mind which has itself created the world accept it as unreal? That is the significance of the comparison made between the world of wakeful experience and the dream world. Both are but creations of the mind and so long as the mind is engrossed in either, it finds itself unable to deny the reality of the dream world while dreaming and of the waking world while awake. If, on the contrary, you withdraw your mind completely from the world and turn it within and abide thus, that is, if you keep awake always to the Self, which is the substratum of all experience, you will find the world, of which alone you are now aware, just as unreal as the world in which you lived in your dream.

- Maharshi’s Gospel
↧
Search

Is Life Predestined by Cosmic Will?

October 24, 2014, 7:04 pm
↧
↧

The master makes the disciple go through numerous tests to mold him or her properly. ~ Amma

October 25, 2014, 10:33 pm
$
0
0
When two disciples make the same mistake, the master may get angry with one of them and be very loving toward the other, acting as though nothing has happened. The master knows the level of mental strength and maturity in each disciple. Because of their ignorance, onlookers may criticize the master. They see only what is happening outwardly. They lack the insight to see the changes taking place in the disciples.

The tree can't emerge until the outer shell of the seed breaks. Similarly, you cannot know the Truth without totally destroying the ego. The master will test the disciple in various ways to ascertain whether he or she has come to the master out of a short-lived surge of enthusiasm or out of love for the spiritual goal. Those tests can be compared to surprise tests in the classroom; there is no advance warning. It is the master's duty to measure how much patience, renunciation, and compassion the disciple has, and to test whether he or she becomes weak when faced with certain situations, or has the strength to overcome them. The disciples are expected to provide the world with leadership in the future. Thousands of people may come to them one day, placing their complete trust in them. The disciples have to possess enough inner strength, maturity, and compassion to live up to that trust. If a disciple goes out into the world without those qualities, and lacks enough inner purity, that will be the greatest type of betrayal. As a result, the one who is supposed to protect the world would become a destructive enemy instead.

The master makes the disciple go through numerous tests to mold him or her properly.
~ Amma
↧

Just Be yourself

October 29, 2014, 8:21 pm
$
0
0
You may wonder how you can function in society and do your work if you're always innocent and childlike. But to be innocent and childlike doesn't mean to be a weakling - far from it! You have to be strong and assertive if the situations so demand. But, still, you should always, as far as possible, be as open and receptive as a child

Everything has its own dharma, and we have to act according to that. If a cow chews up a precious plant, and we politely tell it to move, saying,"My dear cow, would you mind moving?" of course, it's not going to move. On the other hand, if we shout, "Hey cow! Move!" then the cow will go away. We cannot call this action egoistic; it is a role we adopt to correct the ignorance of another being, and theres nothing wrong with that. But we should always have a profound inner attitude of being a beginner, retaining the innocence of a child.

~ Amma
↧

Things, that sadhak have to be aware

October 29, 2014, 8:49 pm
$
0
0
"Do not give negative vibrations a chance to affect your body. A sadhak should not gaze intently at anyone. Don't speak too much. A lot of vital energy is lost through speech. It is very advisable for the sadhak not to associate with others. Even if it is said that all are human beings, are all human beings the same? Some are thieves; some are innocent, while others are compassionate. It is certain it will do harm to the sadhak if he mingles with those who don't have a spiritual culture. If we live in close contact with a leper, won't that disease affect us also?" 

~ Amma
↧

Sadhguru offering training programs Himself in February 2015 for Yoga Teachers and Yogis

October 29, 2014, 10:21 pm
$
0
0
There is a certain trajectory to human development and what will happen to the world in the next few decades. In many ways, you will see that individual human beings will be empowered in ways that were never-before imagined possible, because of certain technological developments that are inevitable. If human beings want to enjoy the fruits of science and technology, it will become of paramount importance that internally they are equipped for it. If people are not internally equipped, this external empowerment will be disastrous.
I thought we must do our bit, because in many ways we are more qualified than most to offer solutions. As part of this, we want to unleash a series of things. As every nation plans to produce a certain number of engineers, doctors, soldiers, businessmen, or athletes, it will become imperative for nations to also produce people who can transmit something for inner wellbeing in a proper, scientific way.

India probably has a bigger responsibility in creating teachers who can do something for inner wellbeing. It is not just necessary that we produce yoga teachers; at some point, we have to produce yogis. We need people with strong inner experience. This is an onerous responsibility. We are very confident and hopeful that the Isha Yoga Center will offer more than its share of teachers and yogis to the planet because we have done enough groundwork.

One aspect of Isha Yoga programs has always been to maintain a certain dimension of aliveness in what is being offered. It is not about a teacher delivering a bundle of information, but bringing a live quality into the process. To experience something far bigger than yourself, happening through you, is a tremendous possibility. A woman will deliver a baby and in her experience it is immense because she cannot create life, but it is happening through her. As a teacher, something even more fundamental than physical life can happen through you, even if you have no idea what it is.

Most people never get to do anything that is befitting of their own stature. Even fewer get to do that which is far bigger than themselves. Becoming a teacher is an opportunity to do something that is far bigger than you. Isha Yoga teachers have this privilege; people are with them for seven days. How they are the first day and how they are when they leave is incomparable. At least 80 percent of the people have tears of love and joy flowing in their eyes. Many have not shed a single tear for many years, but after a few days, they are looking at you with tears of joy and love. No activity on the planet can give you this level of fulfillment.

There are many things we can do to satisfy ourselves. We can pursue professions, conduct businesses or pursue arts. I am not saying yoga is the only or the best thing that you can do in your life, but in terms of fulfillment, if you really give yourself, you do not have to seek fulfillment in your action anymore. That is how life is. Towards this end, we are offering an intensive teacher training program this February. And for the first time in nearly 20 years, I will be conducting the program myself. So please get ready either to become a yoga teacher or a yogi, whichever you choose, because it is no longer a luxury, it is an absolute necessity on this planet.

Love & Grace,
Sadhguru.

↧
↧

You always get, what you want. You've got to watch yourself - Robert Adams.

October 30, 2014, 9:35 am
$
0
0


Robert Adams : I received a call from a lady in Santa Cruse the other day and she started to tell me about her marital problems, so I stopped her. I told her I didn't want to hear anything about any marital problems.

Does she know who she is?

That's all I care about. If she knows who she is, then she goes beyond marital problems. She goes beyond concepts, longings, wants, desires. She'll be safe. For once you lift yourself up nothing can touch you again. The world no longer has any power over you. The world only has power over you when you identify yourself as a body. If you identify yourself as a body, then the world becomes real, objects become real, situations become real, the universe becomes real, God becomes real, everything becomes real and you live in duality. So one day you suffer, the next day you're happy. Happiness leads to suffering, suffering leads to happiness.

Of course, this is human unhappiness I'm talking about, human suffering. But as soon as you learn to go beyond that, and again that happens by living spontaneously, all suffering ceases. After all, for who is the suffering? For the one who identifies with the thoughts.


As an example, somebody gets fired from their job. They start to worry about that and this leads to worrying about the future, because when you worry about the past, getting fired, you're going to start worrying and thinking,
“How will I pay my rent next month?
How will I buy food?”
And your mind loves that. It starts feeding you more. Pretty soon you imagine yourself evicted from your house and you see yourself in welfare lines, and you see yourself become a homeless person, and sure enough you do, because that's what you believe. That's where your mind is leading you.

As long as you feel you know the mind it becomes very, very powerful. Then you can see that thoughts are things, for your thoughts will materialize in this world of effects, with that which you believe is real. Subsequently, if you start worrying about your job, being terminated, and you start worrying about food, and you start worrying about evictions and all that stuff, you're really saying to yourself mentally, “That’s what I want to happen,” and you always get what you want. You've got to watch yourself.

The secret is not to change your thoughts, but to get rid of your thoughts completely. We're not trying to change negative thoughts to positive thoughts, for our positive thoughts lead to negative thoughts, negative thoughts lead to positive thoughts. That's duality. We're trying to transcend the whole ball of wax, to go beyond, and that's what happens when you live spontaneously. It happens by itself.

Living spontaneously is a meditation. Do not concern yourself with the fruits of your efforts. Everything will take care of yourself, of itself. In other words, what I mean by that is, if you're in a job for twenty four years, do not concern yourself if you get terminated or you don't. That's not the point.
The point is who do you think you are?

Do you believe that you're that frail human being that's been terminated, or that frail person who has lots of marital problems, or that frail person who doesn't know if he's going to die or live?

Forget about all these things, go beyond them. Identify with the absolute awareness. Identify with the total reality which you really are. You do not identify with those things by affirming them. You identify with those things by what? By silence. You see the difference? There are many schools that tell you, change the negative into a positive, but that's based on the world of relativity. You'll have to experience both, and there will be no end to it. But when there's silence in the mind, that means you get rid of all concepts, of all desires, of all needs, of all wants, of all hurts. You become oblivious to everything. Then the real self begins to take over, which is you, and you'll automatically do, or gravitate to, the place where you have to be. It will all happen by itself, but don't think of that. Think of nothing. Learn how to quiet your mind. Learn how to make your mind quiescent like a motionless lake. A motionless lake can attract, or image, reflect the sun, the stars, the moon, trees, grass. A lake that is noisy cannot reflect anything.

So, when you learn to quiet your mind you reflect yourself, and yourself is always harmony, always bliss, always sat-chit-ananda, always the absolute reality, always absoluteoneness. That's your real self. That's who you really are. It's all up to you.
↧

What is Devi Bhava? (Amma)

November 2, 2014, 9:35 pm
↧
Search

Guru's Grace and Self-Realization

November 4, 2014, 4:34 am
$
0
0
Sri Totakacharya ~ "Guru - Disciple Relationship"

Sri Sankara, was the greatest expounder of Advaita Vedanta. Totakacharya was a disciple of Sri Sankara. 

When Śaṅkara was at Śṛṅgeri, he met a boy named Giri. Śaṅkara accepted the boy as his disciple. Giri was a hard-working and loyal servant of his Guru, Ādi Śaṅkara, though he did not appear bright to the other disciples. The reverence which he had for his Guru, the great Sankaracharya so completely dominated him that Giri had no other interest in his life except to serve the great Master. Tradition has it that the devotion of Giri to his Master was very profound; but he did not profit much by the teachings. He seems to have felt that a strong personal devotion to the Guru was of far greater importance than a mere intellectual grasp of the teachings. He had neither the learning of other disciples like Sureshwara and Padmapada nor the realisation of Hastamalaka. His co-disciples naturally entertained a lesser idea of his intellect. Even Padmapada was not free from this misconception. 

One day, Giri was washing his Guru's clothes, when Ādi Śaṅkara sat down to begin a lesson on Advaita Vedānta. He however did not start the lesson saying he was waiting for Giri to come back from his chores and singing lessons. At this, Padmapada pointed to a wall and said that it would be the same if Ādi Śaṅkara taught to this dumb wall as he taught to Giri. Sri Shankara naturally did not relish this remark. Ādi Śaṅkara wanted to reward Giri for his loyalty and devotion. Thus Sankara out of compassion mentally granted Giri the complete knowledge of all the śāstras (sciences).

When Giri returned from the river, he was literally in bliss. He addressed the Acharya in a few brilliant stanzas in Totaka metre each verse ending with the refrain, “bhava sankara desika me saranam.”. Since then, known before as Giri, he got the title of Totakacharya. The other disciples were dumb founded by the instant illumination that shone forth in the out pour of devotion coupled with knowledge with all trace of dullness dispelled.
Sri Totakacharya's life is an example that the Guru's Grace alone can carry one over the stormy ocean of worldliness to the safe shores of self realization. The grace of the master alone can illuminate one as even the essential effort needed for spiritual progress can only aid one to a certain extent. The rest that remains which cannot be accessed by the mind, is with the beyond or the Grace that throws opens the portals of enlightenment.
↧

`If I am warm with God's love, how can I feel the cold?'

November 7, 2014, 10:06 pm
$
0
0
I have seen in humble little huts and caves in India men with no food, nothing at all; nor are they beggars. They are richer than the world's millionaire's. Because they are the friends of all, people love them, and love to feed them. In bitingly cold weather, I saw one saint in the Himalayas who had nothing on. `Won't you catch cold?' I said. Sweetly he answered: `If I am warm with God's love, how can I feel the cold?' Saints like him are greater than any crowned king. If without food, without any visible means of security, such men can be like kings, peaceful and without worry, why can't you?

Paramahansa Yogananda, The Divine Romance
↧
↧

The whole cosmos is here. - Sadhguru.

November 17, 2014, 5:41 am
$
0
0
 









Sadhguru : If you want to know for yourself, you must turn inward. Today, people are making serious efforts to know themselves by reading books. I am not against books. If you are reading a book to know about a nation or business or to learn engineering, it is fine. But reading a book to know about yourself is silly.

You are here, alive and kicking!

It is alright if you are reading a book to get inspired to take a step inward, but if you want to know something, you must look inward. You cannot read a book and know about yourself. After you are dead, if you have lived an interesting life, somebody may read about you, but when you are alive, you should not read about yourself. That is not the way to know yourself. Infact, the more learned you become, the more you realize that you actually know nothing. Only a fool who read half a book thinks he knows everything.

Even if you read all the libraries of the world, you will still not know anything.

But if you turn inward for just one moment, everything that is worth knowing in the existence can be known.

There are very beautiful stories in our tradition, in terms of perception and experiencing life. You have heard of the Rig Veda? This is the most ancient book on the planet. It was not written down; it was transmitted verbally from generation to generation. The Rig veda describes certain constellations and arrangement of galaxies in great detail, with proper diagrams and mathematical calculations. These constellations are not visible to the naked eye. Today, scientists are able to view them with very powerful telescopes, but how did they see them thousands of years ago?

They saw, but not with their eyes, because everything that can be perceived in the existence can be grasped in a single moment if you just turn inward. The whole cosmos is here.
↧

There is no meditation in concentration, but there is already concentration in meditation. - Swami Rama

November 18, 2014, 8:29 am
$
0
0
Many teachers these days think meditation can be attained without concentration. That ignorant idea is misleading. The mind as it is in its ordinary nature remains in a dissipated state. Without gathering together and concentrating the energy of mind, the deeper state of meditation is not possible. The student who practices sitting in a quiet and calm place even for a short time can experience a bit of unusual joy, though he is not able to experience the deep joy of the meditative state. Why should one be afraid of concentration? Some say that concentration of mind can bring about strain and stress and thus should not be practiced. They even say that discipline is not needed, and they create simplified methods and call them meditation. Such teachings appear to make difficult sadhana easy, but these methods do not lead one to the higher dimensions of life.
Swami Rama
Perennial Psychology of the Bhagavad Gita commentary, Chapter 6
↧

Can you stay without this temptation, when you meditate ?

November 20, 2014, 4:13 am
$
0
0
If you observe yourself carefully in periods of prayer or meditation,
you will discover that for a great part,
you are allowing your thought to go to the outer and
are thinking in terms of changing the external.

It really is a tremendous discipline to arrive
at that state of consciousness where you...
never look for the crops [fruitage]...
Our entire attention must be on the fact that
unless there is an activity of the spirit within,
there never will be a crop.
 
If I can abide in the remembrance of this invisible substance
that is functioning within me, I will be able to wait for my crop,
whether it is a crop of money, or a crop of health,
or a crop of happiness, or a crop of peace.
It will come if I can keep my mind off the crop, off of the without.

~Joel Goldsmith
↧
Viewing all 151 articles
Browse latest View live
Search