Saturday, February 26, 2011

ITRODUCATION


Early in the morning when we wake up we leave the bed with certain thoughts and feelings. We plan for the day and try hard to achieve those plans. But we forget that the plans and goals what we have decided to achieve have its beginning not only with the routine work but have to prepare our self for the day long work with something new. It is said that healthy mind in a healthy body. How we can be healthy if we are not caring for the body. It can be achieved by doing light exercise. We do running, vigorous exercise and what not to keep our self fit. It can be done by taking couple of minutes out of our busy time. It is possible only with Yoga.  Yoga is a Sanskrit word. It means union with God. This union is a conscious union. We are all united with God but we are not aware of it. When we practice Yoga, we become conscious of our union with God.
Why practise Yoga? There are millions and billions of people who are not practising Yoga. We want to practise Yoga in order to be satisfied. If we are sincere to ourselves, we know that we have everything except satisfaction. Some seekers feel that everything in life has meaning only when God comes first. They feel that God is the root. When they become one with the root, the source, then everything has meaning and everything is satisfaction. The practice of Yoga can lead us to this goal.

When we enter into the field of Yoga, a few significant questions arise. Is Yoga something normal? Is Yoga something natural? Is Yoga something practical? Is Yoga something attainable? Yoga deals with God. What can be more natural and normal than dealing with God, our very creator? Yoga is something practical. Yoga is inevitable, for God will not allow any human being to remain unrealised forever. We are all seekers. Some of us are at the foot of the tree, some of us are climbing, some have already reached a great height. But we all have to climb up to the Highest, and from there we can bring down the fruit to the world at large. If we eat and do not offer the fruit to others, then God will not be satisfied. Some seekers want God only for themselves, but this is not the highest attitude. After we have realised God, we have to do something more. We have to reveal God to the world at large. Then God wants us to do something even more significant. He wants us to manifest Him. God realisation, God revelation and God-manifestation: these are the three goals that each seeker must eventually reach. Today God realisation, tomorrow God-revelation, the day after tomorrow God-manifestation.
Again, God realisation has no end, God-revelation has no end, God manifestation has no end. We are aspiring to realise the highest Absolute, but the Absolute can never be bound by anything. The Absolute Supreme is always transcending His own highest transcendental Height. When we go deep within, we see that He is not satisfied with His transcendental Height. It is in self-transcendence only that He gets real satisfaction. In our case also, it is in self-transcendence that we will achieve satisfaction.
Yoga is a subject, an inner subject, This subject has to be taught and loved. In this subject, an inner cry is of paramount importance. With our outer cry we try to possess earthly material objects. With our inner cry we try to transcend the earth bound consciousness and enter into the Heaven free consciousness its all with the help of yoga.
Yoga is a subject that has to be studied. When we study, there is a student and a teacher. There are many sincere seekers who are reluctant to have a teacher. They say that God is inside the heart, so it is not necessary to have a teacher. The Master says, "True, God is inside you. He is inside everything. God is also inside the books that you can read in the library. Why, then, do you go to the university and study under the guidance of a teacher? You study with the help of a teacher because you feel that when you study with him you will learn faster and you will be sure that what you learn is correct, whereas if you study alone, you will go slowly and doubt may assail you and make you think that you are not learning the right thing. In the spiritual life also, a teacher is necessary. The spiritual teacher is not like an ordinary teacher who gives examinations and passes or fails the student. Rather, he is like a private tutor. The spiritual teacher expedites our journey and increases our thirst for Truth, Light and Bliss. In the spiritual life, the teacher and the student have a relationship founded upon mutual faith and trust. The student feels that the teacher has the capacity to illumine him. The teacher feels that the student is sincere and aspiring.
No human being can be the real Master. The real Master, the real spiritual teacher, the real Guru is not a human being at all. The real Guru is the Absolute Supreme. The human being who is a spiritual teacher is like the elder member of the family. The Father has taught the eldest son a few things about inner height and inner power. The Father has told the eldest son, "I have taught you. Now it is your duty to be of service to Me, to help your younger brothers come to Me so that I can also share with them My infinite Wisdom and Light." The eldest son listens to the dictates of the Father and takes the younger brothers who are meant to listen to him to their common Father, the real Guru, who is God Himself.

Creator and creation. We are fond of the creation but not of the Creator. But inside the creation is the Creator. Again, if we are afraid of the creation and run toward the Creator, that is also a mistake. If we feel that the creation does not have anything to offer, we are making a mistake. Real Yoga will never ask us to renounce the world. We have to accept, transform and divines the world and bring perfect Perfection onto this earth.
The world has everything except peace of mind. We get peace of mind when we feel that the world can go on without us, but that we cannot go on without the world. We have to know that we are not indispensable; only God is indispensable. When we come to this realisation, only then can we have peace of mind. When we have peace of mind, we love humanity, we expand and spread our wings. When we love humanity, we are satisfied because we have satisfied God.
Dear seekers, let us try to bring down the Highest and become the Highest. What we have seen is God's Light what we have felt is God's Love. Now, let us grow into God-Delight.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

YOGA AND SPIRITUALITY


I had an urge to write this article seeing how yoga is being degraded to simple flexibility training and how yoga’s popularity is being used to sell practically anything from Absolute vodka to underwear.
Yoga and Spirituality are inseparable. Yoga is an ancient teaching that helps the persistent practitioner to achieve the spiritual enlightenment. By no means it consists of a set of exercise routine only.
Yoga is comprehensive system, a way of thinking, a way of living our everyday lives. Physical postures or Asama and breathing exercises or Prankster that are so popular on the West are just steps 3 and 4 of Rana yoga, which is one of the yogic paths’ to spiritual development.
There are 7 steps in Rana Yoga leading the practitioner to self-realization. These steps are described in the book of the sage Patagonian “The Yoga Sutras”. You can download it for free on this page.
Yoga played an important role in my life providing insights and answering the numerous questions that I had hard time to find answers to.
The Eastern occultism entered my life when I was 20 years old. I was lucky enough to find the book of Mabel Collins “Light on the path and through the gates of gold” in the country where the books on spirituality and religion were not published. Read the details on the Yoga page. You can also download the “Light on the path” for free.
Yoga personally helped me in a variety of ways – from improving my intuition to losing weight.
How to combine the simple Western Yoga practice with Yoga as a spiritual development tool?
It is not as hard as you might think. Here are some steps, simplified:
Do not lie, cheat, take advantage of other people or harm others in any way in your everyday life.
Stop habits that are damaging for you; stop harming and sabotaging yourself in any way.
Change your habitual negative thinking into positive the positive one. See some tips in the Techniques to Help You Think Positively article.
Stop judging people, you are no better than they are. As you go further in your practice you will realize deeply the concept of Oneness of all life so this will become easier for you.
Limit the stimulants intake such as coffee, alcohol, etc and at some point try to eliminate them completely. They deplete the body of vital energy and exhaust the body. Eat vegetarian diet that provides body with energy, include whole grains in your diet, drink lots of water daily. Do fasting once a week at least 3-6 months during the year.
See the the article entitled Fasting and Weight Loss. Even though it is entitled Fasting and Weight Loss it contains general information on how to fast.
Practice Yogic Ananias regularly.
Practice Yogic breathing exercises (Prankster) regularly.
I am in the process of finishing my yoga video and manual. It will be available here for download shortly. It includes Asama and Prankster.
Meditate twice a day for 20 minutes – in the morning and in the afternoon. You can do twice a day 20 minutes mantra meditation which is a silent repetition of a word or phrase to clear your mind. Use mantra OM for example, which is the Universal sound of creation.
If you think you don’t have time to meditate do the Mindfulness meditation – be present every second of your life.
These are first 5 steps. These steps are enough to bring vibrant health, clarity of mind, happiness and peace into your life. The devoted spiritual seeker then can go further.
If you haven’t done this yet, visit the Yoga page page for more details on Yoga.