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Under the influence of false ego one thinks himself to be the doer of activities, while in reality all the activities are carried out by nature as natural process.

The moment we put the ego aside, the curtain disappears. God is not hidden, only our eyes are closed. Open your eyes.

Hatha yoga is a preparatory process of yoga. The word “ha” means sun, “tha” means moon. “Hatha” means the yoga to bring balance between the sun and the moon in you, or the Pingala and Ida in you. You can explore Hatha yoga in ways that take you beyond certain limitations, but fundamentally, it is a physical preparation – preparing the body for a higher possibility. If we want to do kriya yoga, we always prepare people with Hatha yoga because without the body being prepared, it will not be able to take higher dimensions of energy. It will break. It is just like if your pipe is not ready and you pump in too much force, something is bound to burst. So Hatha yoga, so to speak, could be taken to be preparation of the pipe.

There are other dimensions to this, but to put it simply, just by observing the way somebody is sitting, you almost know what is happening with them. If you know yourself, if you have observed yourself, if you are angry, you will sit one way; if you are happy, you sit another way; if you are depressed, you sit yet another way. For every different level of consciousness or mental and emotional situation that you go through, your body naturally tends to take certain postures. The converse of this is the science of asanas. If you consciously get your body into different postures, you can also elevate your consciousness.

The practice as you see it currently – the mechanics of it – is simply of the body. You have to breathe life into Hatha Yoga, otherwise it will not become alive. This is why, traditionally, there has been so much stress on a live Guru – to make it come alive.

After twenty years of yoga entering the West and becoming popular, despite it being taught sometimes in ways that leave much to be desired, still, the health benefits of it are undeniable, wherever you live and whatever you do. Right now the number of people practicing yoga is growing in a big way. This could be  simply because the scientific community is slowly beginning to recognise the depth and dimension of what Hatha Yoga is. But if improper, distorted kind of yoga spreads, in fifteen years’ time, scientific studies will clearly come out and tell you in how many ways it is harmful to human beings, and that will be the downfall.

Therefore it is important that we bring back classical yoga as it was. If Hatha Yoga is taught in a proper atmosphere with a certain sense of humility and inclusiveness about the whole process, it is a really fantastic process of shaping your system into a fantastic vessel, a fabulous device to receive the Divine. There are certain dimensions of Hatha yoga which are almost absent in the world today. It is there in some places, but generally in the known places, it is absent. I would like to bring back those dimensions. It is a very powerful way of living. Power, not over somebody else; it’s all about power to access life.

Altering Your Karmic Cycle

"People often expect different results from doing the same actions" – Alcoholics Anonymous

We are slaves of habit. Besides well-ingrained physical habits, we also have deep-rooted mental ones – our attitudes, perceptions and beliefs that involuntarily guide our unique behavior. Our conditioned mental patterns are like our subconscious blueprint and manifest in our life repeatedly. As a result, we are prone to, and despite efforts usually find it hard to shake off, anger, fear, aggression, anxiety, envy or low self-esteem.

The notion of our deep-seated mental beliefs can be better understood by becoming familiar with the concept of karma. It is invaluable to grasp this concept to understand the inner mechanics of our thoughts and actions. Only by choosing to deal with our individualkarma, can we work on creating a new reality for ourselves.

Karma is the notion of a cyclical process where our every action or intention leads to lasting impressions on our psyche, and these impressions in turn impact our future behavior -- comprising fresh intentions and actions -- leading to new lasting impressions being formed. Our actions are called karma and the latent impressions they create are termed samskaras.

According to the law of karma, all our experiences in the present are dictated by our cumulative stored samskaras of past actions and reactions. This cyclical process ofkarma explains why we repeatedly attract similar situations that create conditions for the stored samskaras to manifest, leading to similar karma being created.

Anger leads to creation of unhappiness, frustration and anger in our emotional psyche. These stored unresolved emotions, our samskaras, eventually lead to generation of anger at the slightest provocation in the future. And, the cycle continues.

Unless we consciously choose to deal with our individual karma, it recurs in our life with great alacrity, and unless resolved, restricts us from experiencing real freedom and happiness.

The question is what good is our material progress if we remain ill equipped to reforming our inner being; what’s the merit in our climbing the social, career or financial ladder if we cannot overcome our mental fragility? In the midst of our reckless pursuit of modern life, what’s our real purpose?

The purpose of human life is to work through our personal karma and experience innate happiness, peace and joy in our state of being. The gifted ability to make that conscious choice is what makes the human life so precious compared to other life forms. The only way to create a new reality, of loving relationships, mental peace, inner happiness, deeper fulfillment, and abundance, in your life is to alter this karmic cycle. That’s the path to experience a new reality.

This journey entails learning to be a witness to our own mental and emotional patterns –our dominant beliefs and our recurring and conditioned responses. What makes you angry or fearful or anxious and how often? What beliefs do you have that make you feel that way?

Further, it requires taking personal responsibility of your situation – rather than blame your circumstances, partner or colleague, this is about focusing your attention towards your own conditioned thoughts, beliefs and actions.

Learning to live in the present, where we can consciously bring our subconscious patterns into our active awareness and make fresh choices in how we deal with a given situation helps us move forward. As we make new positive choices, we start to neutralise the hold the old samskaras have on our psyche. The more we stay in the present, the more we can redirect the future and the more empowered we become to experience inner peace and joy.

Home Remedy For Peace By: Aruna Jethwani

You are the cloud, you are the rain,/ You are the healer! You are the pain!

This Vedanta wisdom can apply to our daily life. Most of the physical pain and illness is self-injected. Naturally, the healing has to come from within, from one’s own self. We hurt and harm ourselves with negative thoughts and energy. The cure has to come from within. It has to come from heart and  mind.

Like the garbage at home, the mind, too, accumulates garbage – both kinds,  the stinking wet garbage and the dead, dry garbage. The wet garbage is hate, envy, prejudice and ill feelings. The dry garbage is regrets, hurt, pain and mistakes committed in the past.

The past is dust, for how long will you gather it? The pain may become sores and numb nerves, and for how long will you nurse it? Somewhere you have to de-link yourself from the past, and come back to the present. This you have to do for two reasons: One reason is so that you remain healthy, physically. Writes Hay, a life coach, "All disease comes from the mind. Whenever we are ill, we should check with ourselves who is it that we need to forgive.” And the second reason to get rid of internal garbage is to live in peace mentally. All that grudge, hurt, and pain cause turbulence in the mind leading to anger and frustration. We have to be free from both in order to be in harmony with our surroundings. You may call this goal as happiness.

The easiest way to reach there is to dispose of your mental garbage.

How should I get rid of all the garbage I have accumulated, you may ask. The simplest way to carry out this operation is through practice of forgiveness. It is a tradition among some communities to write every year what they call a Kshama Patra. The Hindi film ‘Dor’ was based on this theme. The written ritual of ‘kshma patra’ is one way of disconnecting ourselves from the past. It purifies the mind, creating space for peace and harmony in the present, while writing the script for the future.

The other way is to sit in silence before a lit lamp and forgive those who have insulted, humiliated, harmed and hurt you. Actually there are three stages in forgiveness. The first is to forgive verbally in a prayer. The second is to think positively about them. Thirdly you should do something that is good for them. Send a gift, or take them out for coffee or simply acknowledge them. Yes, do not forget to forgive yourself. Also you have to seek forgiveness of all the animals, trees, and birds you have harmed or intend to harm.

Forgiveness lifts the burden of the mind and creates space within. It is said that if you want to create your own destiny then you must create space for it by throwing away the emotional garbage in you that leaves little space for anything else. Forgiveness is a way of disposal of unwanted hurts and humiliations. By forgiving one can destroy past evil karmas, and create a clean space to write one’s future destiny.

“How many times should you forgive?” asked Dada J PVaswani, messenger of love, peace and compassion. “Seven times,” I replied confidently.

“No. Not seven times; you should forgive everyone and everything at least 700 times!” he smiled radiantly, echoing the words of Jesus Christ.

We Need To Practise Compassion By: Arup Mitra

Every faith promotes compassion, for once the majority is compassionate, Earth would turn into Heaven indeed. Since today, most societies are dominated by selfish individuals, it is natural for one to dismiss the path of compassion as foolhardiness.

In this situation Swami Vivekananda’s argument appears very convincing. Serving others, if taken by an individual as an opportunity to refine oneself and go a step closer to God, would ensure that one is not bothered by consequences even if he ends up being exploited by others. That is, one begins to feel grateful for having the opportunity to serve another. It would be churlish on my part to think that I am doing good to the poor.  Rather I should be grateful to the poor that their suffering has actually brought me an opportunity to improve myself and thus progress further in the pursuit of higher goals in life.

There are several instances when the benefactor gets hurt by the beneficiary. In fact, that is human natur: once you get served by someone you enjoy the benefit and forget the benefactor and his act of compassion. It hurts your ego to remember that you have taken a favour from someone. So by pretending to be superior or by trying to demean the benefactor we nurture our ego and convince ourselves that we haven’t really been helped by anyone. However, heart of hearts we know that it is not true but by repeating it to ourselves we try to get convinced by what we want to be true.

In such a situation remember the tree. The tree does not judge anyone: its nature is to give and it goes on doing what it is does best -- nurturing.  Even if someone hurts the tree after enjoying the shadow it offers and flowers and fruits, it remains indifferent. It continues its karma of giving always. It does not matter even if an undeserving person has taken full advantage of you and at the end pushed you down. What matters is your state of mind. Who you give to is unimportant; the fact that you could give without any expectation is something that is desirable. Rather, one should be prepared for negative outcomes while serving others. Ishwar Chandra, the educationist from Bengal was once informed by a colleague that someone was abusing him. He quickly asked, “Why so? I don’t remember having done any good to him!”  We often are worried about harm caused or caused to us by others. But if we introspect, then we will find that what can be harmed is temporary and what we belong to is permanent, which cannot be harmed in any manner.

Ramakrishna says, who are you to show mercy to others? The all-merciful has been rather generous to you to give you the ability and a full-fledged opportunity to utilise it selflessly. Hence, it is compassion for others, not mercy that we should be striving to practice. If we start thinking in this manner then the selfish attitude of the rest of society cannot disturb us or de-motivate us from pursuing what we believe in.

Another way of avoiding frustration is to forget completely if we ever did any good to others but remember always what we took from others and try to reciprocate in whatever way we can. Forgetfulness in certain contexts can indeed be bliss.

Meditate without any expectations for a meaningful experience, says OSHO

A seeker asks, “Many years ago, it seems, I used to be able to meditate. A beautiful, silent, transparent state would arrive from somewhere; I presumed this was meditation. Now, nothing comes except a racing mind. What happened?”

You became aware of the unknown. A little taste of meditation, and you became greedy. Your desire and greed spoilt the whole game. Still, everything can be put right. You see the mind continuously racing; let it race - just be a bystander, an observer.

Watch The Mind
Just watching the mind is one of the greatest secrets of life, because it does not show that it works — but it works! Just as you watch, indifferent, uninterested, as if it has nothing to do with you, those thoughts start getting thinner; there is less traffic on the track of the mind.

Slowly there are small gaps, and in those gaps you will have a glimpse of what you used to have. Enjoy it, it will also pass; don’t try to cling to it. Thoughts will start coming again; again a gap will come, a bigger gap. Slowly, slowly bigger gaps will appear and the mind will become empty.

In that empty mind, the beyond can enter into you, but the basic condition is that you should not cling to it. If it comes - good; if it does not - good. Perhaps you are not ripe, perhaps it is not the time - still, be grateful.

I have often told you the story of a Sufi mystic, Junnaid. He was the master of Al Hillaj Mansoor and because of Mansoor, he became very famous. Mansoor was killed by orthodox fanatics, and because of him, Junnaid’s name also became famous.

Be In Gratitude
Junnaid used to go on a pilgrimage with his disciples to Kaaba every year. He was a revolutionary kind of saint. The people in the villages Junnaid had to pass through were very angry with him. They were so angry that they would not give him anything to eat, drink or even allow him to stay there. Yet, in all his five prayers of the day, Junnaid would raise his hands to God and say, “I am so grateful to You. How should I express my gratefulness? You take care of me in every possible way; Your compassion is infinite, your love knows no bounds.”

The disciples were tired of praying five times a day, thanking God for situations in which they did not see any grace of God, for they had not received food or water, nor shelter from the hot desert sun. Once it so happened that for three days at a stretch they were thrown out, stoned, given no food, water or shelter, but Junnaid continued praying the same way.

On the third day, the disciples freaked out. They said, “Enough is enough. For three days we have not eaten a single thing, we are thirsty, we have been sleeping in the desert, shivering in the cold night. For what are you being grateful?”

Junnaid’s answer to his disciples is worth remembering. He said, “Do you think I cannot see that we have not received any food, that we have been thrown out and stoned, that we are thirsty, that for three days we had to remain in the open desert? But this does not mean that He is not taking care of us. Perhaps this is the way He is taking care of us; perhaps this is what we need at this time.”

“It is very easy to thank God when life is comfortable. It means nothing. These three days I have been watching. Slowly, all of you have stopped thanking Him after the prayer; you failed the test. It was a beautiful test. Even if death comes to me, I will die with gratefulness. He gave me life; He took it away. It was His, it is His, it will be His. Who am I to interfere in His affairs?”

So there will be times when you will not find any moment of peace, silence, meditation, love or blissfulness. But do not lose hope. Perhaps those moments are needed to crystallise you, to make you strong. Be grateful not only when things are going good, but be grateful when everything is going wrong.

A man who can be grateful when everything is going wrong is really grateful; he knows the beauty of gratefulness. For him, things can go wrong forever, but his gratefulness is such a transforming force, it is going to change everything.

So don’t be worried about the racing mind; let it race — you just be a watcher. Soon, without fail, as a natural law, gaps will start happening. And when gaps happen, remain relaxed. Enjoy them, but without greed and desire, because they will disappear. They will disappear faster if you become greedy.

Keep Your Doors Open
This is the whole training of meditation. Soon, the day comes when the mind is completely silent, filled with great joy. But remember, it is not your doing, or else it may disappear. Always remember that you are the doing of existence. All that is great is going to happen to you not by your effort, but by your relaxed openness and availability. Just keep your doors open.

Awaken ‘Krishna’ In Your Consciousness By: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Janmashtami celebrates the birth of Krishna. He is not a vyakti or person but shakti or energy. Krishna was poornakalaavataran, a complete incarnation. The purpose of celebration is to realise that Krishna is in me. In the Bhagwad Gita, Krishna says, “One who sees everyone in Me and sees Me in everyone, for such a person, I shall never remain hidden and he shall never be far from me.”
Krishna’s life has all the nine rasas or flavours. For instance, he was naughty like a child, a warrior, joy personified and a source of knowledge. He was a perfect friend and guru. His birth on ashtami signifies his mastery of both spiritual and material worlds. He is a great teacher and spiritual inspiration as well as the consummate politician. On the one hand, he is Yogeshwara, the Lord of Yogas while on the other, he is a mischievous thief. His behaviour is a perfect balance of extremes — perhaps this is why his personality is so difficult to fathom. The avdhoot is oblivious to the world outside and a materialistic person, a politician or a king is oblivious to the spiritual world. But Krishna is both Dwarkadheesh and Yogeshwar.
 To understand Krishna, simply become Radha, Arjuna or Uddhava. Three kinds of people seek refuge in God -- the lover, the miserable and the wise. Uddhava was wise, Arjuna was miserable and Radha was love personified. Krishna’s teachings are most relevant to our times as they neither let you get lost in material pursuits nor make you completely withdrawn. They rekindle your life, from being a burnt-out and stressed personality to a more centred and dynamic one. Krishna teaches us devotion with skill. To celebrate Gokulashtami is to imbibe extremely opposite yet compatible qualities and manifest them in your own life.
 Krishna tells Arjuna, "You are very dear to me" and says he must surrender. Surrender begins with an assumption. You assume you are the most beloved of the Divine, and then surrender happens. Surrender is not an action; it is an assumption. Non-surrender is ignorance, an illusion. Surrender has to begin as an assumption and then it reveals itself as a reality. Finally, it reveals itself as an illusion. An illusion, because there are no two aspects, no duality. There is no independent existence of anyone. An individual has no independent existence.
 So, in the Gita, Krishna says, "He is dear to Me who neither goes on thanking people nor hates anyone.” Thanking and feeling obliged indicates that you believe in someone else's existence rather than in the Divine who is ruling everything. When you feel obliged, then you are not honouring the principles of karma or the divine plan. Appreciate people for what they are; do not thank them for what they do. Otherwise your thankfulness is centered around the ego. You are grateful, but not for an act. You are grateful for what is.
Hence the most authentic way of celebrating Janamashtami is to know that you have to play a dual role — of being a responsible human being and at the same time to realise that you are above all events, the untouched Brahmn. Imbibing a bit of avadhoot and a bit of activism in your life is the real significance of celebrating Janmashtami. Awaken the Krishna in your consciousness – “Krishna is not far from me, not separate from me, he is within me’-- this feeling will fill your life with Krishna.

What should you keep a secret and what should you confess? Find out with SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR

Meditation is the journey from sound to silence, from movement to stillness, from a limited identity to unlimited space. There are five ways through which meditation happens.

Physical manipulation: Yoga, Tai Chi, all these come under that. By stretching and contracting the body, the mind experiences a state of awareness that you can call meditation.
Breathing exercises and pranayama: The mind becomes quiet and still.
Through the five senses and sensory objects: You can experience a state of no-mind, no thought, calmness, serenity and inner beauty.
Watch empty space: On a free day, just lie down and keep looking at the sky; a moment comes when the mind becomes still, there are no thoughts and you don’t know where you are, but you know who you are. Experience the centre everywhere and circumference nowhere. Limitless awareness can happen by just watching an empty space, because our mind is also space; consciousness is space.
Intellectual stimulation: Through knowledge and awareness, you can go into meditation. This is called Jnana yoga.

If you have been into a space museum, you are in a different state of consciousness when you come out of the museum. There is a different context, because you have seen yourself in the context of the universe. Who are you? What are you? Where are you? How are you in reference to the unfathomable, infinite universe?

If you have studied Quantum Physics, you start to see that everything is just atoms, just a wave function, just energy. If you really listen to Quantum Physics and then you study Vedanta or the art of meditation or yoga, you will find striking similarities. You will find that the same language is being spoken.

Adi Shankara said, ‘All that you see doesn’t exist’. Eminent scientist Hans-Peter Durr said, “I studied matter for the last 35 years, only to find out that it does not exist! I have been studying something that does not exist”. So, through knowledge also you can experience a state of meditation.

What is the secret of meditation? There is a difference in the Orient and in the Occident when it comes to secrets. In the Occident, anything that is shameful is kept a secret. In the Orient, anything that is sacred is kept a secret. I find a startling difference between the two.

If you say something is very secret, it must be very sacred. That is the attitude in the Orient. In the Orient, a shameful act is never kept a secret; it is always confessed. There is nothing to hide there. But what is to be secret is one’s mantra — a sound which is kept very secret in the mind.

Why is it kept secret? It is said that mantras are like seeds and seeds sprout in secrecy. You put the seed under the ground and cover it with mud and then the seed sprouts and becomes a tree. Of course, the sprouts you eat are different. The ancient concept of mantra is a sound which is kept very secret in you; itgrows from inside; means it resonates inside you. Anything that you keep to yourself as a secret does not leave you, but it takes you deeper and deeper to  subconscious layers. That is one of the reasons for confession also.


Sound Mantra
Why do you confess and say something out? This is so that it does not go deep into your consciousness. A mistake or sin that you committed, once you confess, it just goes out. It no longer stays in and bothers you. But the mantra; a sound which has been given, and that too by one who is deep into meditation, one who has mastered it, helps you go deeper. The sound (mantra) is given to another person, a student saying, ‘Keep it to yourself, it is your personal mantra, and let it grow.’

Here, the meaning of the sound is not important, just the vibration is. Understanding the meaning is superficial compared to the vibrational aspect of any sound. It could be the same sound which everybody knows.

A child’s mind is always focused on something and it sticks there. But as the hormones in our body start functioning more and more, the mind starts swinging and wavering, and that focused attention becomes less and less. In earlier days, before this happened, before someone gets into their teenage, they used to train him in yoga and meditation. So, all through the teenage years when the mind is swinging and going here and there, already a youth is trained how to handle the mind. It is a very good age to start, at eight or nine years. Just before the hormonal changes start appearing is the right time to initiate one into meditation, yoga and all the martial arts. The body is ready and is flexible and mind is ready. This is most ideal, but any time is good to start meditation, any age is okay.

व्यक्ति अकेले पैदा होता है और अकेले मर जाता है;और वो अपने अच्छे और बुरे कर्मों का फल खुद ही भुगतता है; और वह अकेले ही नर्क या स्वर्ग जाता है.

कोई काम शुरू करने से पहले, स्वयम से तीन प्रश्न कीजिये – मैं ये क्यों कर रहा हूँ, इसके परिणाम क्या हो सकते हैं और क्या मैं सफल होऊंगा. और जब गहरई से सोचने पर इन प्रश्नों के संतोषजनक उत्तर मिल जायें, तभी आगे बढें 

Invite A Moment Of Calm By: J P Vaswani

What should you do when faced with betrayal, hurt, anger or disappointment? You can choose to react differently, by taking responsibility for your own emotions and feelings. You do this in full awareness that others do not ‘cause’ your feelings. You choose your own. We have to learn to let go of disappointments and get on with our life. We need to forgive.
This is especially difficult when other people don’t seek our forgiveness, or indeed when they are clearly in the wrong and don't deserve to be forgiven. Never mind -- let go! In such situations, forgiveness allows you to let go of a no-win situation and walk out of it unscathed.
Think of two people who have hurt you, made you angry or let you down recently -- two people about whom you still feel animosity. Now ask yourself: what is my animosity doing to me? Do I feel happy holding on to it? Does it make me feel happier? Does it improve my sleep? Is my life better, richer, more meaningful because of my resentment? If the answer to all the above questions is ‘No,’ then take a courageous decision.
Let go! Walk away from the disappointment and the bitterness!
A girl came to a holy man and said, “I know not why, but I am unable to sit in silence and pray or meditate. I feel restless. I used to be so happy.”
The holy man asked, “Try to think why this is happening.”
The girl answered, “I think it has something to do with one whom, at one time, I regarded as a friend. But she was very cruel to me, and I said that I would never forgive her, never talk to her. I am sorry I said it, but since then there has been no peace in my heart. What shall I do?”
The holy man said, “It is better to break a bad vow than to keep it. Go to her and seek her forgiveness.”
The next morning, she went to her friend and confessed her uncharitable attitude and asked her forgiveness. Her friend burst into tears. She said, “You have come to ask for forgiveness. It is I who should be asking for forgiveness, for I am ashamed of my attitude.” The two friends were reconciled.
To arrive at forgiveness, one has to pass through four stages. The first is the stage of hurt. Someone has wronged me, done something mean to me. Someone has been unfair to me and I cannot forget it. I feel hurt. The hurt keeps on throbbing in me. Remember that it is not I who feels hurt, but the ego.
Hurt leads to hate, which is the second stage. I cannot forget how much I have been hurt and I cannot send out thoughts of goodwill to my enemy. In some cases, I hate the person so much that I want him to suffer, as much as I am suffering.
The third stage is of healing. God’s grace comes to me and I begin to see the person who has hurt me in new light. I begin to understand his difficulty. My memory is healed and I am free again.
The fourth stage is of coming together. I am anxious to make friends with the person who hurt me; I invite him into my life. I share my love with him and we both move to a new and healed relationship.