• Table of Contents
  • Resort to Silence by Swami Veda Bharati
  • Meditation as “Indwelling” by Wolfgang Bischoff
  • My Friend the Mantra by Randall Krause
  • Bali Comes to SRSG by Joanne Sullivan (Divya)
  • Yoga for Inner Peace and Outer Strength by Rajah Indran
  • Homage to the Masters! by Suruchi Maitra
  • Dear Yoga Mentor, My Question Is…
  • On a Festival Called Savitri… by Dr. Shirin Venkat
  • Speak to Me of Silence by Nandini Grace Bishop
  • Self and Non-Self, Permanence and Impermanence
  • Sing like the Birds Sing by Ilyaz Nasrullah
  • SRSG Ashram News by Lalita Arya
  • Thunderstorm at SRSG
  • The Tunnel Inside by Daniel Hertz
  • 2013 Events and Beyond
  • Full Moon Meditation Dates
  • Location of the SRSG ashram
• AHYMSIN Newsletter Archive

Dear Yoga Mentor, My Question Is…

Sometimes students write to or ask Swami Veda and other senior teachers in our tradition questions about practice.  When this happens, Swami Veda may answer the question himself or ask a senior teacher to do so, or if the question is asked directly to a senior teacher, the senior teacher will respond.  This is one such “Question and Answer,” or Q&A.

An initiate asked this question:

I've been wanting to ask you something for a while now. Everywhere around us we see people doing wrong, crimes have increased tenfold, people have no morals, they are doing anything without thinking. Simple things that are righteous also, people can't understand anymore. So many atrocities on women, children and animals are increasing.

What can we do to heal the world? Can we help others through our meditation? Baba used to say we should keep praying for the world, for world peace. Since childhood I've been saying one line every night till date before sleeping, "please give world peace and a good day to all tomorrow." Should I keep praying for that? I really want to do so much but don't know how to. Please guide me.

Answer:

I am so happy to know someone who has these thoughts of concern for the world and actually does a prayer for the world peace every day.

In order for our aspirations for this sattvic nature require for us

1. Learning the art of making our prayers effective.
2. Learning to merge the individual mind into samashti-chitta, universal mind through which alone we can radiate sattvic thoughts in many people.
3. A deep sankalpa to serve and purify the world selflessly and to undertake whatever internal or external, personal or social tasks to which one might need to make a lifelong dedication.
4. For all this we require (a) intensifying our spiritual energies and (b) improving ourselves, our thoughts, words and actions, to serve as models and sources of inspiration for a large number of people.

Those who have mastered the above paths have always succeeded in bringing major changes in the world even though, to my knowledge, no one has ever succeeded in making the entire world sattvic; this is because each mind has its own samskaras and the effects on the free will.

I send you herewith a copy of my work.  The title is Sadhana in Applied Spirituality.
I wish you great achievements in this direction in this very life.

With blessings
Swami Veda Bharati

Editor's Note

To read Sadhana in Applied Spirituality by Swami Veda Bharati, please use this link: http://www.ahymsin.org/main/index.php/Swami-Veda-Bharati/sadhana-in-applied-spirituality.html

Photo of earth: Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Image by Reto Stöckli (land surface, shallow water, clouds). Enhancements by Robert Simmon (ocean color, compositing, 3D globes, animation). Data and technical support: MODIS Land Group; MODIS Science Data Support Team; MODIS Atmosphere Group; MODIS Ocean Group Additional data: USGS EROS Data Center (topography); USGS Terrestrial Remote Sensing Flagstaff Field Center (Antarctica); Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (city lights).  For more information: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=57723