• Table of Contents
  • Raising a Spiritual Child by Swami Veda Bharati
  • The Future Force Yoga Youth Conference 2013
  • In the Gurukulam by Maurizio Teodoro
  • Yoga for the Little Ones by Noida Sadhakas
  • Ferry Meditation by Sarah
  • Something Swamiji Said by Roxanne Currie
  • Spring 2012 Korean Tour by Stoma
  • Lithuania 2012 by Stoma
  • One Year Anniversary in Pune by Dr. Shirin Venkat
  • Silent Retreat on the Shore with Ma Radha by Lauren Forney
  • God Speaking, Humans Hearing, and a Nice Jewish Boy Meets Rabbi Jesus
  • Poem for Swamiji by Elizabeth Proctor
  • The Art of Joyful Living
  • Tattva Samasa by Swami Nityamuktananda
  • 2012 Events and Beyond
  • Full Moon Meditation Dates
  • Location of our SRSG ashram
• AHYMSIN Newsletter Archive

Something Swamiji Said

by Roxanne Currie

"Swamis live on a diet of poison."

I was sitting in meditation on my cushion in my bedroom when I heard a soft crunching sound.  Startled, I jumped up and tapped on the wall, it did not stop. I thought it might be rain, but no.

An exterminator gave the diagnosis of carpenter ants and a round of chrysanthemum crystals which were supposed to be lethal to ants. I had a tree removed.  This was all very expensive and maddening.  It was at its worst whenever I sat in my meditation seat.

I tried to relax and got angry.

Finally I said in my mind "Swamiji, you said to meditate every night and I can't do this without feeling anger at the ants who are chewing right through my walls!  How can you tell me to love all things when they're destroying my home?"  I was angry.  I felt bad for giving Swami my angry, poisonous thoughts.

But, immediately I saw in my mind's eye a river of ants flowing down to the lake where there were many dead trees and damp wood for them to forage and from that moment on, I never heard the chewing sound again, and I never saw another ant.

Now I send sweet, grateful thoughts to Swamiji.

“When it comes to your meditation go ahead and be lazy.  Don't move a muscle.  Don't think a single thought.”

Light heartedness:

“Take everything I have told you in this lecture and tie it up in a tight little bundle and throw it out the car window on your way home.”

On meditation:

“Don't believe me, don't take my word for it, try it for yourself.  Doubt everything, doubt even your doubts.”

 I keep remembering things Swamiji said, either in a lecture or a recording of a lecture; they have come back to me at many many times over the years, evolving in their meaning as my capacity to understand broadened.  

Something Swamiji said:

"Mind, Mind?  Can we not be friends, Mind?

You run from portal to portal of sights and sounds and touch and tastes and bring bits back to me to carry for you like so many shells and pebbles at the beach.

Mind?  Mind.

Come and sit - just you, the Brother Breath and Me."

"When your mind wanders bring it back gently, gently as you would a child."

"We are Tantric Yogis, and in this tradition, the male and female of the Universe are interwoven, they are the warp and the woof of life.  In the Sanskrit alphabet the consonants are male, the vowels are female.  The consonants don't even know what they are until the vowels draw them out."

"All of the world, the flora, the fauna of the Earth was put here for Man to enjoy.  If you want to know if this is true, ask Woman."

Editor’s Note:

We invite you to visit Roxanne Currie’s website: www.goodmedicineyoga.com

“Something Swamiji Said” is a column for you to honor Swami Veda’s many years of teaching us by sharing with others Something Swamiji Said that you heard and have remembered.  Sharing helps us to become a sangha. Please contact us at http://www.ahymsin.org/main/index.php/Contact-Us/AHYMSIN-Office.html

If you have contributed “Something Swamiji Said” that has not been printed yet, we thank you and assure you that it will be in a future edition.