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| AHYMSIN Newsletter, Issue - Oct/Nov 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Celebrate Silence The Himalayan Yoga Meditation Association of Ludhiana [India] celebrated silence on 9th September 2012 with a full day retreat. The Ludhiana Sangha shares their experience with us by sharing the Silence Schedule and articles by Dr. Divya Mittal and Mr. Sanjay Kath on their experience and observation after living a day in silence. Schedule for the day:Your silence observance should actually begin the day before when you begin to turn your mind inward and begin to let go of pressing concerns. That evening, go to bed in a meditative mood. Wake up in the morning and practice short meditation when in bed, then rise. Remain silent. Cleanse. Avoid perfume. Please reach at meditation hall by 6:45 a.m. sharp.
 An Enchanting Experience – Silence! By Dr. Divya MittalMy association with Himalayan Yoga Meditation Association of Ludhiana goes back to almost one year through regular engagement in yoga classes and weekend meditations. When during one of such sessions it was brought forward that silence shall be observed for a day, I aspired to be a part of it, to analyse my spiritual inclinations and deepen my practice thereby intensifying and improving upon my meditations, posture and using different modes of breath awareness. In my routine life as a medical professional, my mind is constantly occupied by chit chat and forced emotional stimuli. So, I hardly get sufficient time to engage in complete silence and intensive contemplative practices. This and my earlier stint at observing silence during a retreat at Dharamshala, made me yearn for similar experience. It was recommended to start observing silence the previous night. I felt a palpable feeling of joyfulness and excitement before sleep came over me. As per the schedule I arrived at 6.45 a.m. at the retreat venue to join 8-10 other people from different walks of life. The day started with sharing of literature on silence and mindfulness which formed the basis for preparation and focusing of mind for meditation. The session of contemplation lasted for an hour to be followed by stretching, pranayama and breath awareness. These were intervened by two video sessions on ‘Silence’ by Swami Veda Bharati and ‘The biography of Swami Rama’. The teachings by the masters were clear and direct and gave a greater zeal to my efforts on personal improvement and commitment to a life of Dharma. Swamiji said that silence is practising the independence of mind and non dependence on wordly experiences and objects leading to generation of Wisdom. The teachings and meditation sessions were aptly complemented by wholesome and Sattvic food prepared and served with great love by Sir’s family.  I observed that the initial apprehension gave way to a divine serenity as the day came to an end. Words seemed so unnecessary as compared to bliss and happiness that i experienced in silence. Later on, other participants shared similar views. Overall, i found this silent retreat to be extremely beneficial in terms of calming my mind, overcoming distractions and disturbing emotions, increasing sensitivity towards self and others as well as to intensify my spiritual practice. It was truly a day to learn a lesson of equanimity and wisdom. I look forward to many such retreats of longer duration. Namaste! Divya Mittal The Experience of Sanjay KathFor a beginner who has just felt the benign blessings of Swami Veda, it is difficult to share the bliss that we all experienced. This is the first revelation of silence. Personally speaking, the experience was so heavenly that i wished not to come out of this and delve again into mundanes of daily chores. If this first glimpse can give so much joy, what lies ahead, I long for that. I felt as if my consciousness was taking me somewhere. There was no destination to reach. It was flow of something within, which was carrying me to some different pedestal where i could not see anything else except for the whole universe merging into me. I had never felt like this before. In our routine lives, we often enjoy so many invitations, parties, get-togethers, but this invitation to silence was unique and unparalleled in its serenity, grace, and purity. I felt as if angels were walking amongst us. I was receiving vibrations of humbleness and devotion of everyone around me. At one time i was in tears of thankfulness. Here I’d like to share few thoughts. I wondered if God descends right now among us and exposes each of us what we really are, what we think about others in their presence. I felt shivers of fear of being exposed. This led me to think pure, impersonal, righteous thoughts during the retreat. This mantra is helping me afterwards also as i am shedding extra burden of pure non essential relations, situations, unwarranted connections and dependences. During all this time, I kept resolving what we really are, what we think we are, what others think what we are. And why we are not able to arrive at one image of ours.  A few random thoughts that kept me engrossed were:
The experience was so overwhelming that my mind is still asking, “When we will have it again”? Namaste! Sanjay Kath
Editor's Note:The Himalayan Yoga Meditation Association of Ludhiana is an AHYMSIN affiliate center. Ludhiana is in India. Sunil Trikha serves as centre leader. Here is a link to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Himalayan-Yoga-Meditation-Society-Ludhiana/127910867225147?fref=ts We invite you to read “Himalayan Neem Nursery” about a tree planting and tree plantation project the Ludhiana centre has undertaken at this link: http://www.ahymsin.org/docs2/News/1107Jul/02.html “Five Prana Eating” can be watched at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWVvtKBzdd0 Swami Veda Bharati on “Silence”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxFWVfFyMZo&feature=BFa&list=PL07083771F7680AF5 Swami Rama on “Yoga Sutras”: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBBD86952A2239E79&feature=plcp Swami Rama on “How to Tread the Path of Superconscious Meditation”: http://www.youtube.com/user/swamiramahimalayas/featured?feature=context-chf
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