Month: February 2018

Sangha Talk

Posted on by Divya - Administrator

Good evening and welcome on a cold evening. I’m sure you’ve brought your warm hearts and together such warmness will be enlightening. Welcome to those who have come from a distance – all the way from Chicago – as well as all of you, having ventured out on this cold evening to be another ember on this fire of illumination, the beauty of such a conflagration of consciousness that each and every one embraces as their own identity.

I am reminded of Swami Veda’s beautiful meditation on this relationship of a stream of awareness, an illumination of consciousness as the very Being – and each of us as that Presence imbued with the life-force from our Divine Mother who has enwombed us in her grace.

So, if I may, I’d like to play a short segment – not the entire 50 minutes, not to worry – of maybe 10 minutes with Swamiji’s words which are no longer words, but the experience of a saintly mind who lived his life in such a way that he truly believed he was a wave in this ocean of life and love – so much so that each of us has felt, and continues to feel, that Presence in a profound way, a very intimate way – an intimate way in which this aliveness is more than just a passing relationship associated with a physical presence, but a mind-presence that has no boundaries of past or future in terms of our concept of time – no boundary in the sense of this lifetime or previous lifetimes or those future lifetimes to be, for that too is simply a mirage, a falsehood called “time.”

So again bring your mind’s awareness to that inner flow, that sushumna stream, that breath, prana and light, as the very being that you are.

“Only a joyful mind immersed in the beauty of the ever-present facets and faces of the Divine Mother can meditate. A mind laden with anguish, sorrow and anger is not yet a vessel that has been prepared for meditation. Therefore in your daily life, endeavor to make your mind joyful and beautiful, resonating to the floods of the waves and waves of joyous beauty that touch you, course through you, pass through you, at every instant.

“Remember that your sense of individuation is a myth to be discarded, and that which you have discarded as a myth that is the awareness of the totality and unity of the indivisible, undivided universal consciousness, has to become a reality for you.

“Learn, instant by instant, to dip into your share in the ocean of joy. Eliminate from you the mythical belief that you are a body. This myth has been impressed upon you by those who have misguided you, and has been strengthened by yourself.

“That which you feel in yourself as a certain aliveness, a certain awareness, even though you have tried to bury it under the heavy load of the myth of being a physical body – that sense of aliveness, awareness, consciousness is your true Self. And the aliveness and the awareness of the universal conscious reality, because of its fullness is deficient in nothing, is wanting in nothing. Therefore it is all-joy, all this bliss, all-completeness: purnam, purnam, purnam!

“It is the flavorful essence, rasa, the juice of the very being of the universe, whose custodian is the Mother deity, the Divine Mother, Shri who is the resort and refuge of all forms and facets, of all thoughts and sentiments – all the power of will, power of knowledge, power of creativity – Lalita, the tender one, the gentle one, Tripura Sundari, the Beauty of the Three Realms, she whose name is beauty, whose faces are the forms. She is not the beauty of the faces; the faces are the forms of that force called the Great Mother, named Beauty.

“Know yourself to be as a particle of her being – her wave, the wave of fullness, of joy, of bliss, of completeness, of totality, of consciousness, indivisibility of life-force, passing through you like a mother’s mind-wave, prana-wave, as nourishment coursing through her body passes to the fetus – so sheltered, so protected, so guided, so having no cause for anguish and fear.

“Be nourished on this wave. Know yourself to be the wave of the fullness of life, the wave of the ocean of consciousness and perfection, which is everywhere as far as you can stretch the vision from your third-eye in the form of a ray emanating in all directions – in spaces, and in times and in all the variations that exist in the spaces and times, as far as the ray from your central eye can reach and touch. All of that is the extent of her unfathomable, shoreless ocean. Know yourself to be a wave linked to all the other waves.”

Know yourself to be a wave linked with all the other waves. An example of your thinking: “I should come to The Meditation Center” – a single mind-wave – that the iccha shakti, the will, carried out by the knowledge and action, brought you here. But many other waves from that same single source and force perceived that attraction, perceived that unity. So you were not coming on your own to be here for yourself only; you were coming as a calling, and you arrived as an answer to be acknowledged as part of the ocean. And we will sit together and we will listen together and pray together and meditate. We will eat together and converse together and depart together – yet where is the separation? For again when we sit for our meditation, we are together. That togetherness has never been lost. That fullness is always present.

So where is there room for this separation? – a myth that is to be discovered and dissolved, discovered in meditation as a process by which: Neti, neti! – “I am not that.” That desire that attachment – Let go. Let go. And for that moment of stillness where the wholeness begins to ooze into the crevasses of your mind’s eye, all the senses feel that rasa, that flavorful, beautiful presence to be called a peaceful moment in your meditation – that is carried into a few moments when you get up, a few more minutes before you get engaged, a few more moments before the habits of the worries arise again. Yet again with that inner dialogue, with that mantra, with that sense of unity and wholeness and holiness that is always who you are, you are reminded, you are protected, you are nourished, moment, to moment to moment – and life unfolds.

We have begun a new year with many expectations. We’ve looked to the past and found successes that we would like to repeat. And so we come into this new year with a momentum to be positive, to be energetic, to guide our energies in a positive way, a helpful way, a kind and compassionate way – kindness that begins with ourselves in that sense of letting go of the judgements, accepting and forgiving of our own mistakes and misgivings. And carrying that forward into our relationships with others, our family and friends, our coworkers and colleagues, yes! A little less of a judging, a little less of the verbal reaction to their mistakes. Such a kindness can be contagious. Notice a smile. And with the mind’s smile, the mouth will form a smile. The eyes will lighten and glisten with that touch of happiness, even if it is for a moment.

Again you have let go. Let go of the constrictions of an identity, and the habit patterns of a mind which is grooved by the habituated reactions that start many times from our every waking moment. How many carry their phones into the bedroom? How many look at them before even before arising from bed? Instead, why not put your feet to the floor and say,

Forgive me, Mother Earth, for touching you with my feet.
Let me think of you as I begin my day. You, my kind Mother as Earth, you’ve given me all that is nurturing. May I, too, nurture through kindness in my behavior, in my words, in my actions in some small way today.

If that can be your morning prayer and a moment of stillness to allow the breath flow as the life-force, to reconnect, to re-energize – to go into your battleground and be the Arjuna, guided by the Krishna, who is always present in your conscience. What is the voice of your soul saying to you? As you drive, as you sit at your desk, as you converse with others, are you listening? Not just to the words that are coming through the active sense of hearing, but through that inner voice of your soul that is reflecting kindness, compassion, love and peace – and yearning for that within yourself so as to recognize that in another – that you and I are one, that you and I are the same weave of the fabric of life. We are together being nurtured by the Divine Mothers.

So these are just beautiful little sentiments to carry as the unfolding of your life as meditation. Yes, you do meditation, but are you the source of that meditation – that witness, that observer, that still-point that is truly empty – neti, neti – not this, not this? Yet that emptiness reflects a fullness, and that fullness is your birthright. In the same way Jesus said, “I and the Father are one,” you, we all can say, “I and the Divine Mother are one.”

She is Tripura Sundari, the Beauty of the Three Universes – the gross, subtle and subtlest – associated with the personality of the five koshas, measured by pleasant-mindedness. That is the measure of your beauty. A pleasant mind is a beautiful mind. A loving heart is a beautiful persona that will attract and thus allow you the opportunity as a blessing to give – and to give more, and a blessing even to give more – again reflected in the very crucifixion of Jesus who opened his arms and said, “Father, take me.” [“Into Thy hands I commend my spirit.” (Luke 23:46)]

So Christ did not suffer. Jesus on the cross suffered, but the Christ Spirit, the spirit of fullness, oneness, wholeness and happiness, did not deviate, did not allow a separation to cause pain and suffering. So Christ did not suffer. We each must choose to live a life of suffering, pain and sorrow, or to know that life’s events have their flavors, yet you remain above, like the lotus on the lotus pond, rooted the in the mud, but shining in beauty as you float on the surface. Be that flower of beauty, be that witness to life.

Last week we were very fortunate to have Pandit Dabral address us through the technology we have. For those of you that were here, did you take a few gems with you that night? Two, three, four little gems from his talk that touched you, so that you said, “Yes, that reminds me,” or “That has awoken again in me,” or “That is now my resolve for the coming week,” and you applied them. You thought about them, contemplated them, and applied them in your life in some small way – and in that small way gaining slowly a momentum. Maybe it was in the way he described the mantra as your friend, or mantra as the Guru, or mantra bringing light into your life in some small way. Or many other gems that he shared: The support of the sangha, how with the kalyana-mitra it’s such a beautiful relationship in life, that you and your kalyana-mitra, the friend on the path, share truth together, share honesty, share inspiration together. Or maybe it was simply when Pandit Dabral confessed that when people came to him, saying, “I’m seeing this light.” “I’m feeling this.” This energy is doing that to me.” “What do you think?” He confided in us. “Actually,” he said, “I’ve been meditating for many decades, yet I haven’t seen anything. I don’t feel these things.” Such honesty! But at the same time a recognition that meditation is not in the movements of the energy; it is not in the bright lights that flicker like the neon light is downtown Minneapolis tonight.

Meditation is so subtle, for it is simple stillness and silence. And we all yearn for such an experience. Such bombardment of our senses! “Please! Can there be stillness?” Such engagement from moment to moment! “Please! Can there be silence in my life?” And that prayer can be heard. And that can be realized in your meditations when you let go and simply be. Be, becoming that which you are, that which you are to fulfill in this life as your dharma, following those contours of life which your karma creates, which your free will challenges you and protects you in each moment.

Life is beautiful, and each and every one of those waves in this ocean of life, they too are beautiful. The colors that they bring to life in their personality, are simply another of the spectrum of this rasa of Mother Divine, playing out her magic, her majesty and her myth – not as a mirage of falsehood, but as a spectrum of illumination that we call truth: that one life with many colors, like a rainbow.

So do not be dissatisfied and dissuaded by these currents and cross-currents through all the impact, through all the ways in which the senses engage in every waking moment. Draw all those senses back to their source, even for a moment in your busy day, and you will enjoy; you will be in joy for you will recognize yourself as the source of that joy.

Editor’s Note:

This is an excerpt from a transcript of the Sangha Talk dated February 1, 2018, by Swami Ritavan Bharati at The Meditation Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota USA. It was previously published in the February 2018 edition of the AHYMSIN Newsletter.

Psychology of Silence

Posted on by Mandala

When we contemplate silence and begin to talk about it, would we find ourselves at a loss for words? We want to reach the point of silence where words would be fully lost and the silence of mind that ensues alone would be our communication.

Since we use a verbal vehicle of communication we are still in the world of analysis.  However, it is not possible that silence, through silence, can be analysed.  Silence is that whole which is not constituted of parts.  But we know it.  We know its presence.  We know its possibilities by visible manifestations, by tangible experiences, by its signs and symptoms.

It is said in the Yoga-sutras that the yogi in samadhi does not say he is in samadhi. Only when he emerges from samadhi, seeing that time has lapsed, does he know that he was in samadhi. So also we know true silence only by the symptoms, the manifestations it leaves in its wake, the waves that arise from its depths.

Spiritual psychology has not yet been defined. A textbook of spiritual psychology has not yet been written. Much that passes for psychology has its roots in the world of manifestations and the experiences thereof. Although the founder of modern psychology, Freud (it is not well known) began his investigations under the tutelage of a teacher who was very keen on understanding breathing processes. He later abandoned that line of investigation and took a different route into the unconscious.

Many of our experiences of life and psychological conditions that have been forgotten, which lie in our unconscious, actually do not quite originate from where he says they do; for example, the human urge to return to the womb – the unconscious memory of the womb experience. Actually much that is attributed to the womb really belongs to that part of our being which is beyond the unconscious, which is the truly conscious, which is the world of silence. The desire for a return to the womb has its origin not in a desire but, in a recognition we all have of our origins being in a very deeply, eternally silent place. When we are in that eternally silent place, it is the truly silent night, a holy night. There is a mantle of silence under which we seek to conceal ourselves from the world of manifestations, to shelter ourselves from the world of noises. I have reached these conclusions after observing my own moments of excitation and agitations in life, the very excitatory phenomena that have become an integral part of our culture nowadays whereby we think that the more exciting the better. After observing those phenomena with great care, I have established that we seek excitations and agitations also because they lead us to exhaustion. It is actually the exhaustion we are seeking from the restless kinetic form of energy. Because, the large majority of us who do not know the direct route into the “eternal rest,” we try to go to it by way of exhaustion, through resting. Those who have begun to find that direct route, take to the path of pratyahara.

Editor’s Note

Passage has been taken from the book Silence, the Illuminated Mind by Swami Veda Bharati, published by Himalayan Yoga Publications Trust in 2018.

The Teacher Within

Posted on by Mandala

When I left the Himalayas, I thought I knew something. But when I came to the West, let me tell you that I learned a lot. I came to Detroit, and there I spoke, after the conference was over. So, when I wanted to cross the road, green light turned into red light. And I had to wait. So I always used to meditate wherever I went. I forgot to cross and again there appeared red light. It took me 15 minutes to cross the road. So there a policeman stops me, “Lord, which country do you come from?” I said, “Of course from Himalayas, India.” He said, “Nobody walks on the streets of Detroit. People are killed here.” I said, “Why are they going to kill me? I don’t have anything. I don’t possess anything.” “No, no, out of fun people kill here. You understand?” I said, “Out of fun?” After the congress was over I was invited at San Diego, and in the evening I go for walk. So I was staying with a guest, with a host of mine. He was a doctor. He said, “Don’t go out, people are dangerous here.” I said, “What will they do?” “They will beat you up.” I said, “If I deserve, they should.” Anyway I went out, I walked, I was walking, as I walk freely. Many people wonder and say, oh he’s very egotistical the way he walks. No, you should learn to walk straight. When you keep your head, neck, and trunk straight, when the spinal cord is straightened, you will enjoy your walk. Don’t put your weight on the locomotor. Then you walk, you walk like dancing. So I was taught to walk that way.

Suddenly two huge men came. “We are going to beat you up.” I said, “Ok.” So I threw my shawl on somebody and hit the other person. Whom I hit, he fell down. I said, “What have you to say?” “Are you a karate master?” I said, “I am a kung fu master.” They said, “Sir, what is your fee?” I said, “Only $40.” One ran away, other paid me $40. And then I said, “Look here, don’t come to this colony again. And don’t do this again, remember this.” “Can you teach us?” I said, “I don’t have time. I have to leave tomorrow.” I had to learn many things to prepare myself to come to the West. How to cross the road, how to drive the car.

But let me tell you, when you analyze life with currents and cross-currents you come to know that life is clearly divided into two aspects—life within, and life without. If you are trying to understand and analyze the world, you will fail for you have not understood your internal states. The problem of modern age is communication. Swami Rama Tirtha said two people fight because they don’t understand each other’s language. That’s why they fight. Language is a poor media of communication. Communication starts on thought level, on emotions. Before you came here, I knew you, you knew me. And we are knowing each other well. Even you have left, and I will be here, we will be knowing you, we will be knowing each other. Why this gap of communication? One nation, with one nation to another. First word, second word, third word, you talk of many words. Why this communication gap? Because we human beings are still primitive. We have not established a bridge between the two external and internal states. It’s important for us to know external world. External world offers the means but if those means are not applied carefully, external world creates a large wall between you and the reality.

Now, let us analyze. Is there anything in the external world that will help us knowing the truth, or reality, or center of consciousness within that is called master within, anything? Let any scientist come forward and say yes, we have got large telescope and we can see sun, moon, and stars, and we can see all the galaxies. You are able to see, and you will be able to see. But if you turn that towards yourself you will see nothing. Laws are different in the internal world. Educational system today is very superficial, based on imitation. A particular system that doesn’t offer much. Best part of education comes when you have come out with flying colors from colleges and universities, and then you try to learn and understand yourself. That is called self-education, how to educate yourself. And for that you need some qualities. You need to understand things as they are. If someone says bad, you have not to accept it. If someone says good, you should accept it in unattached way. This way you go on learning. Everyone is teacher for a student. If you are a student of life, you learn from everywhere. You don’t jabber much just listen to the people, and learn that method which is called filtering. The greatest of all filters is time. Do not forget, what you have to do today, do not postpone it for tomorrow. You have all the capacity. Don’t ever say that you cannot do it, you cannot be successful. Always say that I will do it, I have to do it, and I can do it. Never lose that courage. A human being has tremendous power if he knows how to dive deep into the inner recesses, how to fathom all the states of consciousness within. He can come out with beautiful things which will be helpful for others.

Editor’s Note

2018 Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust

PEACE IS …..

Posted on by ahymsin

“PEACE IS…” has been read at the inauguration of the UNESCO Chair of Peace Studies, University of Innsbruck, Austria, on 4th July 2004.

PEACE IS…..

Peace is the cool waters that flow between riparian states

Peace is the continents touching under the mantleof the depth of the oceans

Peace is the mountain passes through which the people course freely from one side to the other

Peace is the breezes travelling freely from country to country

Peace is the monsoons nourishing the fields of friends and the enemies alike

Peace is the moonlight scattered on both sidesof the imagined borders

Peace is the stars looking down on all humanity without discirimination in each twinkle

Peace is to call upon God by the name by which the ‘enemy’ used to call Him

Peace is the breath shared when two nations kiss and hug

Peace is to place all weapons in a Museum to Barbarity

Peace is every child on earth going to sleep with a full stomach

Peace is every child learning to recite the song of many nations

Peace is when you name any religion and every child as “that, too, is my religion”

Peace is God calling your enemy “My Beloved Child”

Peace is God calling you “My Beloved Child”

Peace is the enemy’s God calling you “My Beloved Child”

Peace is you and the enemy calling each other over the mountains and across the rivers, “Brother, where are you?”

Peace is to contemplate, “Can I manage without this additional acquisition of goods?”

Peace is the Art by which all arts flourish

Peace is to call the scriptures of all religions, “my sacred book”

Peace is to abandon that which was acquired by power

Peace is to let the weaker one win

Peace is for the stronger one to bow in humility

Peace is women suckling children unthreatened

Peace is women continuing to civilize wild males

Peace is the philosopher advising all kings1 and the kings listening to the advice

Peace is trees, plants, grasses forever remaining green and lush

Peace is no more war inside any Continent of the Skull

Peace is diffusing anger with non-anger

Peace is the heart not missing a beat in love

Peace is a conflict-free mind immmersed in the contemplations of the beauty of diversities

Peace is to know the one soul in all bodies and forms.

Peace is the heart pausing in stillness between beats

Peace is the silent moment between breaths

Peace is the natural human urge to which we all give way after the warps and aberrations of conflict

Peace is the mind becoming a still abode of infinity.

1 The ‘king’ here is meant to indicate all who rule and lead with secular power.

Friend

Posted on by ahymsin

Bhagavad-gita 6.9 lists six kinds of relationships. These are explained by the great Shankaracharya in his Commentary as follows:

Su-hrd: one who grants benevolence without expecting a return
Mitra: one who feels an affection
Ari: an enemy
Udasina: one who does not take sides
Madhya-stha: a well-wisher to both parties in a dispute
Dveshya: one for whom one has a dislike (irrespective of the other party’s feelings)
Bandhu: kinsperson

Here we are concerned with the two words expressive of friendship. Su-hrd means one with a good heart; his/her good-heartedness is not limited to just a feeling, a sentiment, but expressive itself in unselfishly good deeds for which one seeks no return. The word mitra, at least here, simply expresses the feeling of affection. A bandhu loves only because of a congenital or marital relationship, whereas a su-hrd and mitra do so with no other relationship except that of good-hearted affection.

Another word for friend that is found in the earliest Vedic hymns is sakhi. And friendship is sakhya.

Devanam sakhyam up-sedima vayam (Rg-veda-samhita 1.89.2): In friendship with the devas we sit close to them.

Yaska’s Nirukta, the earliest work on Vedic etymology explains the word sakhi as samana-khyana, one whose consciousness or level of awareness and understanding is akin, similar, to one’s own. But there is more to it than that. Su-hrd enjoys the state of eucardia. We shall come to the word mitra later. The word sakhi (the feminine form of which is sakhee) is derived from sam or sama plus kha. The prefix sam expresses harmony and togetherness, wellness, also thoroughness. Its cognates are found in words like sympathy, synchrony, and German samen (together), for example samenwerken (to work together). Sama means ‘same’, ‘similar’ and so forth. It is ham in Persian, as in ham-shireh, ham-dard, ham-vatan. The second part of the word sakhi is from kha, which is a word of mastery. The Yajur-veda-samhita ends with

Om kham brahma – YV.40.17

This is one of the earliest references to Brahman, the Transcendental Reality as Kha, which can be rendered as space, shunya, zero, neti. The philosophical concept and spiritual experience, from which the zero was derived to be written the best way, a space, may be expressed by circling an imaginary area of space: 0. The way the Roman zero is written, an elongated oval, is not true to the original concept. In the Hindu numerals, and in the Arabic ones derived from them, it is a round circle.

Just a little later in the Vedic period, the word kha denotes senses, giving rise to the words su-kha (pleasure) and duh-kha (pain), a comfortable space of the senses and an unpleasant state of the senses.

Anyway, the word sakhi means one who shares the same space, feels the same way, senses the same way, shares the same pleasures and pains, and in the final goals of life, is similar in the level of realization of the Transcendental reality. The nominative singular form in Sanskrit is sakhaa. Arjuna’s mistake was:

Sakheti matvaa pra-sabham yad-uktam….
Tat kshaamye tavaam — BhG 11.41

Thinking of you as my sakhaa, I addressed you (informally) as an equal. I ask you to please forgive me.

Until Krishna showed him the divine vision of his true form, Arjuna thought that Krishna was his sa-kha, sharing the same space, the same comprehension of reality.

Now we return to mitra. In the earliest usage the word is one of the names of the Sun Deity. In the ancient religion of Iran it becomes Mithra that becomes the Roman Mithras. The religion of Mitra or Mithra spread far and wide. Mithra as synonym of the Sun becomes Mihir. We have the famous Sanskrit polymath Varaha-mihira. The emperor Mihirkul. The town near Delhi known as Mehrauli, perhaps the site of an ancient astronomical observatory. And the Shah of Iran bore the title Arya-mihir, Sun of the Aryas. To this day, in performing the daily surya-namaskara, the set of yoga postures known as solar salutation, we recite, among the salutations to the 12 aspects of the Sun, Mitraaya namah: Salutation to Mitra.

Quite early in the development of the language, the word mitra began to denote a ‘friend’ as well. However, whereas mitra meaning Sun is masculine, the same word meaning friend is in the neuter gender. Why that should be so is still a mystery of the whims of a language. Of the twenty mantras of the Rg-veda beginning with the word mitra, two begin with it meaning ‘a friend.’ Mitram na yam shimyaa goshu (RV.1.151.1); Mitram na yam su-dhitam (RV.6.15.21); Mitram krnudhvam khalu (10.34.14). We recite in the Vedic hymns:

Mitrasya maa chakshushaa sarvaani bhuutaani sam-eekshantamm. Mitrasyaaham chakshushaa sarvaani bhuutaani sameekshe. Mitrasya chakshushaa sameekshaamahe.

May all beings look at me with an eye of a friend. May I look at all beings with the eye of a friend. May we look (at each other) with the eye of a friend.

In the Vedic wedding ceremony, the bridegroom addresses the bride:

Mitrasya tvaa chakshushaa sam-eekshe
I look at you with the eye of a friend.

One is tempted here to elaborate on the expression sam-eeksh. It does not mean simply ‘to look’. Refer above to the meaning of the prefix sam. Merge its meaning with that of eeksh, to see, and the word sam-eeksha will reveal its meaning.

But who is a true friend? The Buddha called himself everyone’s kalyana-mitra, noble friend, friend on the noble path. He encouraged his disciples and followers to be kalyana-mitra to each other. As a good friend seeing his friend about to slip on a banana peel, warns him, holds him back, and helps lift him up if the friend has already fallen, so does a co-disciple express his/her affection towards a co-traveller on the path. S/he reminds the friend not to get lost, not to waver, not to slip but to remain steadfast. This brings us to the verb root meaning of the word mitra, from maa ‘to measure’. The Sun is the measure, and the measure of all time, so He is mitra. This sense of measuring is expressed, inter alia, in the Rg-veda 1.38.14; 5.59.8; 9.64.19. A friend measures the capacity of the friend, watches and measures whether the friend is progressing, so serves like a solar beacon. Thus do the meanings ‘sun’ and ‘friend’ unite in one.

Such a friendship is not a short time game of fun and frolic. It is a part of our karmically established connections. Once a soul-mind jumps into it, it must continue for many life times. The Sanskrit texts state:

The friendship of the shallow is like the morning shadows.
The friendship of the wise is like the evening shadows.

The morning shadows start large, covering the whole earth but vanish by noon. The evening shadows start small and turn into an envelope for the planet.

It is such a friendship, amity, that is called maitri in Sanskrit, metta in Pali. Both in Buddhism and in the Yoga-sutras of Patanjali (1.33) it is the first of the four ‘frolics in God’, brahma-viharas. Amity, together with three others, constitutes the yoga practice of chitta-prasaadana, making the mind pleasant and clear; clear, thereby pleasant; pleasant, thereby clear. This pleasant clarity of mind, like that of a clear and pleasantly flowing stream, also becomes sthiti-ni-bandhani, not merely stabilizing but firming up, permanently establishing stability.

A friend, thus, is one who starts off out of a sentiment of affection; grants benevolence without seeking a return or an acknowledgment; slowly shares the same space of awareness, awakening of same level of consciousness and the realization of the Transcendent; at each step encouraging the friend to keep on the path, not to slip into apathy and darkness and confusion; serves as a solar beacon to light up the friend’s path and helps to stabilize him permanently into a clarity and pleasantness of the mind. Su-hrd, mitra, sa-khaa.

Editor’s Note

This is from a hard copy of the article given to Dave and Carolyn Hume when Swami Veda was still in the body.

Could you shower your guidance on Asana perfection?

Posted on by Mandala

Question

Could you shower your guidance on Asana perfection???

Answers

Three have answered this question: Mrs. Lalita Arya (Ammaji), Michael Smith, and Carolyn Hume.

Mrs. Lalita Arya (Ammaji)

I would like to share an early experience of Asana practice.  When Swami Veda was a single guy visiting Suriname and Guyana in South America, he did a lot of lecture tours as Pt Usharbudh. All his friends, students, and devotees knew him as Pandit. Since he was young, dynamic, and seeped in Vedic Lore and Knowledge, he was loved by all, except a few who were jealous of his popularity, especially among the Youths. He had managed to organize training of youths in Yoga & Meditation camps. You had to apply early for admission to these as they would fill up quickly. In the beginning, these were only for males. I happened to be the Head of the female wing and was persuaded to ask him to hold a camp for young women also so we could benefit. After much persuasion by the three top members of our group, he agreed.  We who had not known anything about what the training meant were overjoyed. We were mistaken. At first, there was NO joy in those yoga practices… it was vigorous training. Since I was the Head I was expected to perform 100% in both asanas & its attendant practice of sitting for meditation for hours. I was not a very athletic person then, but under his and his other trained teachers’ strict and attentive supervision we excelled. I recall one particular asana I was having some trouble mastering. He said something significant then – You are doing the asana only with your body, first do it in your mind, master it there, breathe, then let it flow into your body. It changed our approach in all our practices to success- not only of yoga asana…

To be aware that we are not only physical beings is important to remember in every walk of life. With best wishes for success to all. With Love and in service, Ammaji

Michael Smith

“Asana perfection.” When people use those words, it usually means that they have an image in their heads of an ideal way to perform a pose – from looking at their teacher, or another student in the class, or a photograph in a book. And there is usually a wide disconnect between that ideal image in their heads and what they are capable of doing. They feel that they should attain asana perfection, but it is impossible for them to do it. So right from the start, there is emotional tension and strain – frustration or discouragement or anger – because there is a split, a kind of schizophrenia, between their self-expectation and their present situation. So, we could say that for most people who come to Hatha Yoga classes, there cannot be “asana perfection” in that sense because perfection in yoga means harmony balance, and contentment (santosha). The next question to ask might be: “Is there another sense in which there can be “asana perfection” for almost everyone? And the answer is “Yes.” Swami Veda and Ashutosh Sharma have talked about it extensively.

Swami Veda has written in his book, Philosophy of Hatha Yoga:

“The primary consideration in the practice of hatha yoga philosophically is the practice of mindfulness, self-observation, the habit of being a witness to one’s own physical functions, aware of whatever we are doing with our bodies, whether it be the external surfaces of the body or internal things like muscle tension, heart rate, blood-flow, and breathing.” (p. 4)  “The grossest meaning of the word hatha is force, . . . but it is a gentle forcing . . . so when one begins to understand from where that gentle forcing comes, the meaning of hatha shifts – and then one is thinking not of the physical body alone, but of subtler truths, cosmic truths, the universal energy fields, the sun and the moon.” (pp. 2-3)

In Chapter Four of this book Swami Veda comments on three sutras about “asana perfection” from Patanjali’s Yoga-sutras:

Sutra II. 46 Sthira-sukham āsanam.
A posture [as a constituent of yoga] is that which is steady and easeful.

Sutra II. 47 Pra-yatna-śhaithilyānanta-sam-ā-pattibhyām
[The posture is perfected, made steady and comfortable] through relaxing the effort and coalescence [of awareness] with the endless, or with endlessness.

Sutra II. 48 Tato dvandvānabhi-ghātaḥ.
Thereby one is no longer impeded by pairs of opposites [pain & pleasure, hot & cold, etc.]

The phrase pra-yatna-shaithilya (relaxation of effort) in Sutra II.47 is one of the central practices of the Prana-vidya Hatha Yoga style, or as Swami Veda would say, “relaxing the mind that is in the body.”

Ashutosh Sharma has described what happens when perfection is shifted from being “positionally-based” to being “awareness-based”:

“When you are doing asanas as meditation, sometimes the state comes when you cannot move further. You are doing one posture, and you are just THERE. What makes you move? A thought! Sometimes you are so inward, it’s empty, the mind is empty and still, and you cannot move. You forget. For several minutes you are THERE, like frozen, because there is no more thought inside. It is completely empty, still. If that state comes, stay there. Don’t struggle to go further. But you cannot struggle, because there is nothing. It’s empty! Okay? So we are trying to find THAT state, because after an “Asana as Meditation” session, one cannot move. Even if you want to get up, you cannot get up, because you don’t have the will to get up anymore. Because here we are trying to balance ‘ha’ and ‘tha,’ ida and pingala, and now you are in sushumna. So many people, they just go THERE, and then you can’t move. You don’t feel like moving. You just enjoy that moment you are THERE.”

To see how this state can be achieved in asana practice, see the DVD of Ashutosh Sharma teaching hatha yoga as meditation in a 3-DVD set titled Extended Hatha Yoga, available through the Bookstore at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama (SRSG).

Carolyn Hume

Years ago at Honesdale when Swami Rama was in residence on campus, I was in a morning Joints & Glands class. There was an older woman in the class near me, and I am not sure what her physical condition was, but I think among other things she was crippled with arthritis. She could not do any of the exercises in a manner that would match the appearance of the demonstrations, not even something like the hand stretches. During the class and afterward I was struck with the feeling that she was doing the Joints & Glands Exercises better than anyone else in the room. This is actually the strongest memory I have from any hatha classes attended and somehow the words I have used in describing the incident do not quite seem to hold the strength of the feeling that I received, the love that flowed through me.

There is the willingness to be present and not to be afraid or embarrassed if it does not meet your own conception of how you should be or the conceptions of others. Whatever corrections, learning, or experiences you receive flow from love and are not a judgment that is finding fault with you.

Editor’s Note

If you have any questions about your spiritual practice, you may write to the AHYMSIN Spiritual Committee at adhyatmasamiti@gmail.com.

Deepening Your Sadhana

Posted on by Mandala

The Meditation Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota – USA. 25 January 2018

Let’s pay homage to the Guru Lineage. Let’s connect with their minds. Take the awareness through the presence of the Guru by the Guru Mantra, your personal mantra, your personal mantra reciting in your mind for a moment. Then join me for Guru Shanti and then we’ll begin:

gurur brahmā gurur viṣhṇur gurur devo maheśhvaraḥ
guruḥ sākṣhāt param brahmā tasmai śhrī-gurave namaḥ
Om! Śhāntiḥ! Śhāntiḥ! Śhāntiḥ!

Thank you! Namaste!

First of all I would like to thank Rajnikant who initiated this thought that I should do a Skype session. At the beginning I resisted it. Somehow I said “no” in my mind, but to him I always say “yes,” and I like this idea. It’s a great way to connect, and I would be happy to do more and more satsang this way – whatever you guys need. Whenever there is a need for me to speak, please me know. And I am so grateful and thankful to Rajnikant, and so “Thank you, Rajnikant!”

It’s always good to be with the Center and with all those who are here. This evening what I would like to share with you is what I was told when I asked a certain question to Swami Veda and also Swami Rama of the Himalayas. The question was: “How can we deepen our own practice, which is known as sadhana?”

I was told that no matter how many books I read, or how much I know, or how beautifully I can interpret the scriptures – any of the yoga-sutras, for example – these things would not take me to the final realization; they would not lead me there unless I put them into practice. So we must practice what we know. Swamiji said that we do not need to know all, but you need to practice what you know.

So, sadhana is the most important aspect of what we know. And the Yoga-sutras say that sadhana needs regularity. If we are not regular, we will not move further. This morning I was teaching a class, and I told the students that regular practice is needed. It’s mandatory. It’s a must. It does not have to be for too long. You don’t have to devote many hours to it, or even one hour. But regularity is required, even if you spend only five or ten minutes. Five or ten minutes will not make a huge difference in your daily schedule, but make sure that you are regular. Swami Veda repeatedly used to tell me, “It’s your appointment with the lineage. It’s your appointment with the Guru.”

The tools, the means, and the ways that we need in order to deepen our own practice are very simple: All it needs is remembrance. And the very first remembrance for me – the tool that I put into my practice – is that I am initiated into the Himalayan Tradition. This thought alone with inspire you every day to sit for your meditation, because when we sit, we communicate with the Guru. And there are not many people who have a Guru in their lives.

We are so fortunate, we are so lucky that we have a Guru in the form of a mantra that has been given to us. There are times when situations are such that we feel that our meditation practice is not helping us, or we feel that we don’t have time to do it. We may feel that we are disturbed and that we are not “there.”

Somehow or another we feel that we are not getting the chance, or we are not inspired to sit, or to continue sitting, or to put enough effort into our practice. Everybody goes through that, as well as having relationships that demand attention – whether it is family or whether it is work or our health – anything. Even though there are all these things, just remember that you have a mantra. Think: “How many people have a mantra?” When I think that – “I have a mantra! – then I feel very bad for people that do not have a mantra. I have no idea how they deal with their minds when they are in a crisis, when they have problems, when they have issues in their lives. No matter how much turmoil comes into your life, if you simply remember that you have a tool that can dispel the darkness of every issue, every problem, and you use it, then you, my friends, are deepening your own sadhana.

Your sadhana is not only sitting in the morning and the evening and holding your mala beads and doing japa. Your own sadhana is there all day long. You are aware of this factor: that you are a mantra. You have had many sessions from the Shiva Sutras. If you remember the first sutra in the second chapter of the Shiva Sutras, all your sorrows will go away. Do you know what that that first sutra is? “Chittam mantraḥ,” which means that the totality of your mind is mantra – nothing else. Because mana, which is chitta, has the same root as mantra.

So, we have that tool all day long, even though we have issues, even though we’re not doing well, even though there are problems – and Swamiji used to say, “As long as we are in the body, we will always encounter problems.” I was doing a satsang on Tuesday, and it just came out of my mouth, and I said: “We all have problems, and as long as life exists, we will always have problems and struggles. But we can change the perception, and instead of calling them ‘problems,’ we can call them ‘challenges.’” Challenges are very important in life. They shape us. They help purify us. They make us shine. Even in daily life I see on social media that people have all sorts of challenges: food challenges, home challenges, job challenges, health challenges. Why can’t we see all those daily things around us as challenges.

Swami Rama used to watch his students at the Himalayan Institute in Honesdale and see how they were encountering every challenge in their lives. What is your perception and your attitude, and what is the way in which you encounter and approach problems? Swami Veda would do the same thing. He used to ask us to write to him or type an Email. He told me in Calgary that it was not because he needed people’s help, but he was checking on them and seeing how refined they were with their communication.

Has the practice, has the sadhana that we have been doing made us somewhat better, sharper, purer? And he told me one day, “If you are ‘hitting’ the computer keyboard when you type, it means that you are not doing any sadhana.” So, my friends, sadhana means remembrance every single minute, every single hour, that you have the mantra and that you can remain connected with the lineage.  That is the first tool to deepen your practice.

A practice that is very valuable is to make your meditation a priority. Nothing comes higher than our yoga practice. Everything else comes afterwards. Even if you have to ignore something, absolutely ignore it. Swami Veda used to tell me that if you were serious about your practice and were ignoring something else, it was not being selfish. He said, “Be selfish when it comes to doing your practice.” Of course you do things for others and make yourself available, but when it comes to your practice, it’s your practice, and no one else is allowed. Close the door. Ignore what’s going on outside. Absolutely ignore it. That’s the second tool. Make your practice a priority. Then, no matter what happens, these ten minutes are yours. Even if your house falls down or the world falls apart, “I will not care.” I saw that in Swami Veda. Swami Veda used to do that. He said, “Even if the sky is falling, I don’t care. It’s time for my practice.” And from Swami Rama, from his own mouth I heard him say. He used to call me ‘Sonny.’ “Sonny,” he said, “if you are sitting in meditation and the world falls apart, you will be safe because your meditation will protect you.” So these are the thoughts that we need to keep alive.

Let’s say that you are not “with yourself” these days and there are problems and issues you have to deal with, or you are so busy, or you are out of work, or the economy is bad and there is job loss and all that. What do you do at that very time? Do you know what I would do? I would call my close friend who is also initiated in the Himalayan Tradition and just talk and share your thoughts. That’s why there is a sangha. The sangha has a great value in a sadhaka’s life. And that’s why it is advised and encouraged that we have to do satsang. Call a friend and talk to her/him over tea. Or invite him/her to your home, or have lunch. Share your thoughts. You will see some light.

Or have some books in a side table, some inspirational books, like Living with the Himalayan Masters. Keep those kinds of books near you, and every now and then flip to a page. Read just half a page before going to bed. There are many, many, many tools that we can use to uplift our morale and keep our morale higher.

Come to The Meditation Center and just sit down. There is something that you will feel just by being in that presence. Sit in front of the altar. Pandit Rajmani used to tell his son: “Go and sit in the puja room. Just sit. Do nothing.” Swami Veda also used to say, “Just by sitting on your meditation seat, something happens.” His favorite words: “Something happens.” We used that word “something,” because we don’t quite understand how it happens; but “something” happens. And that “something” we need, especially when we are down.

When I do not feel the inclination to do my practice – sometimes I don’t feel any inclination – but I was told, “Do not put yourself down and feel guilty.” But, at the same time, I would call a friend. I will call a friend like Rajnikant, and I will just start talking with him – and we do get inspired by each other’s talk, believe me or not. Any close friend, anybody you know who also practices. Open any inspiring book and start reading. Don’t ask, “Will this help me or not?” Not that attitude. Just simply do it, and you will begin to see that something unfolds in you. And you will open that door which temporarily got closed because some worldly curtains came and you could not see the sunlight showing you the room where you always used to sit to meditate.

Whether you think your mantra is helping you or not helping you, just keep repeating it.  I said to Swamiji, “I don’t see that anything is changing.” He said, “Don’t worry about whether things change or do not change; just keep doing it.” He said, “Your job is to do your mantra. Your job is not to find out what it is doing.” And many of you have heard Swami Rama lecturing, and repeatedly he used to say, “You do your chore. You do your part, and let me do my part. So, if I’m not there yet, simply keep doing your meditation.” Don’t do any analysis about “Am I making progress?”

Somebody sent me an Email asking, “Panditji, do you think I’m making progress? I’ve been meditating for the last seven years.” If I were to ask that question to Swamiji, he would say, “Just stop.” Actually, this makes me laugh. We were in Taiwan, and I was sitting with Swami Veda. He used to ask me to make chai. I was his chai person. We were both having chai at night, and I was reading an Email from his computer where a person wrote: “I am so happy because my kundalini is rising, and I’m seeing beautiful colored lights.” So I said to him, “Swamiji, I have been meditating for many years, and I have not seen anything. When I close my eyes, all I see is darkness” – because when I close my eyes, there’s nothing else.  Do you know what his answer was – a very classic answer? He said, “Hari Shankar, I have not seen anything either.” So, that very simple answer has many, many, many wordings. Swamiji said later the next day, “Our path is a nirguna path. We are not to seek any phenomena or any lights, or heat in the spine, or movement in our body. That is not the Himalayan Tradition. The Himalayan Tradition is a tradition of stillness, stability – which is shown in our daily performance of actions. And that is the teaching of the Himalayan Masters. They see how politely, how kindly, how thoughtfully we are talking to or relating to others in the world. “How stable am I when I sit? How still am I?” These are observations you can write down over time in your meditation journal: “I used to be able to only sit still for ten minutes, and now I can sit still for twenty minutes, and I am so much happier. I have a sense of joy when I sit.” So reflect on yourself.

Swami Veda used to tell me, “You do not need anyone, because you have YOU.” Why do you need anybody? Just go to yourself. How do I go to myself? I close my eyes and start reciting my mantra – absolutely simple. Just as long as you don’t think of anything. Don’t think, “Is my mantra doing anything?” Don’t think, “Am I doing it right?” – all kinds of questions that we have in our minds.  Have no questions.

Do you know Swami Veda’s book called Blessings? Out of all the hundreds of blessings, one blessing is my favorite, and also his favorite. And do you know what that blessing is? He used to give that blessing to many people, and especially those who were close to him. And the blessing is: “May you never find answers to your questions.” People get mad: “What do you mean by that? I am here to find answers.” We’re always trying to find answers. But, you know, the more we think we have answers and understand, the less we understand. We are not here to understand. We are here to experience. Understanding, my friend, is for the intellectual mind. Sadhana is not part of intellectual mind.

Sadhana is when you get connected with heart. Put your heart there. Swami Veda’s words are: “Fall in love with your practice. Get closer.” There are no rules. There is no manual in the world about how to fall in love. The easiest way to fall in love is to get connected. See your mantra every day. Go and see – like going to see your loved one. If you say, “Oh, I’m in love,” then you are always thinking about or, writing things to your loved one, or about being in love. You fall in love with your mantra. Whenever you have a chance, do your mantra.

We are to experience – because our understanding will change every single day. And it should change, and that’s fine. There is nothing wrong with that. But the actual under-standing, that which would move us further into realization, is practice – falling in love with your practice.

There was a woman in Honesdale who asked Pandit Rajmani to prescribe a special practice for her. So he said, “Lie down.” And Pandit Rajmani gave her a particular mantra and explained the rules and regulations related to it. And at the end, she asked, “How long do I do this practice?” And he said, “As long as you enjoy it.” She was so shocked, and her eyes got wide open. And she said, “Do you mean that I need to enjoy?” And that is what most of us miss. We think that a practice is a practice, and you are to do your practice. We do not see that enjoyment is a part of the practice. And we repeatedly read in Yoga-sutras I.14:

Sa tu dirgha-kāla-nairantarya-satkārāsevito dṛḍha-bhūmih.

Satkāra is to enjoy doing your practice. If you read Swami Veda’s booklet titled “The Daily Schedule of a Sadhaka,” he says that one of the signs which indicates that a sadhaka is improving and making progress is that s/he looks forward to sitting and doing the mantra: “Oh! When can I do my mantra?” Even if there are only two minutes available, you just start doing your mantra. That is what falling in love means. That is what enjoyment means: “Oh! I enjoy sitting!”

And, you know, we want to do more and more of what we enjoy! Everybody has their hobbies. “I really enjoy my hobby.” People say that. And we do enjoy all these other activities. But we never say, “I enjoy sitting every morning!” We say, “Oh, and then I have get up go to work, and I try to sit, but sometime I don’t get time.” Or people say, “Well, sometimes on weekends I have time, but I want to sleep in.” People never say, “I enjoy sitting and doing my practice!” People say, “I enjoy shopping for clothes.” “I enjoy this restaurant.” “I enjoy playing basketball.” “I enjoy long drives in the country.” But seldom do we hear: “I enjoy my practice.” If the day comes when you can begin to actually do that, and can say that, then you know you are progressing and deepening your practice. “Deepening your practice” means that you are more and more aware of your practice. Even though you are not sitting, you may be out driving, but you are aware of your mantra; you are aware of the practice.

Swami Veda and Swami Rama of the Himalayas used to say, “Thinking about your meditation is far better than actually sitting for meditation.” Do you know why? Because when we sit for meditation, the chances are that your mind is wandering. But when you think about your meditation, the chances are that you mind is one-pointed in that thinking of your meditation. Recall the sitting that you did this morning. Recall the practice that you did last night. Just think about it: When you are driving, when you are sitting alone.

There are times when we have a hard time falling asleep, and then we start wondering, “Why? What’s wrong with me?” Useless! And then you start reading a magazine: Useless! The easiest way is to start doing your mantra! You may never find the answer to why you are not falling asleep. But, relax, do the relaxation, do the mantra. There are many, many, many, many tools we have been given. We are so fortunate. Maybe just do the 31-point Relaxation. “Oh! I did the 31-points, but it did not help.” Well, do it again. Do it again. Do it three times, Do it four times. Keep doing it until you fall asleep.

Don’t give up. One time, two times, three times. Maybe do the 61-point Relaxation.

I personally do mantra. Swami Veda also used to do mantra.

One time Swami Veda told me. He said, “You know, people say, ‘I can’t sleep because I’m so stressed out.’ So I purposely tried to create stressful thoughts for myself to see if it would keep me from falling asleep.” And he said that he failed. He said that when he lies down within five minutes, he’s gone into deep sleep. Because his mind has no wrinkles like our minds have. And the wrinkles are all kinds of worries and all kinds of stresses. But mantra will certainly relax it. Mantra will certainly iron out and smooth out all the wrinkles the more and more you do.

Think how fortunate you are to be initiated and that we have a mantra. That was Number One. Number Two is that we know something about yoga. We know how to meditate. We may not be able yet to experience the highest, we may not be there as yet, but it’s okay. We know something about it, so use the tool.

Inspire yourself. Inspire yourself every day. Inspiration is needed. Without inspiration, nothing happens – especially when you are down. Especially when things are not going well in your life; that is the actual time when you need inspiration. Swami Veda used to say that inspiration is like a candle flame which lights inside your heart center. And then you really need to protect that light from worldly winds and blizzards. Don’t let that candle flame be blown out. Don’t let that light be extinguished. And that light is the light of inspiration.

And to me, personally, I enjoy and I feel so proud that “I have my mantra!” What else do I need. Anything and everything can be achieved just be approaching and getting closer to my mantra. Manana triyate iti mantra. All of you know this. If we know this manana triyate iti mantra, we know that “mantra liberates the mind.” So if your mind needs liberation from whatever it is: mantra!

Time liberates also. It is important. Drop by drop by drop, you collect. And then one day you see that your pail is now full. Don’t think that your pail is going to be filled in one day or one week; that never happens. For that you probably have to do a hundred hours of meditation, which is not possible or practical at all. What IS possible, and what IS practical is one tiny drop you put in your pail – and within a short time you will begin to see that your pail is filling up. And you didn’t even realize it; you didn’t even feel that you actually made a huge effort.

A huge effort is not necessary at all, my friends. This is the beauty of the Himalayan Lineage. They don’t tell us that you have to make a huge effort. You only have to make a tiny effort – but that tiny effort you do is with a full heart – that you are so in love with this mantra, that you are so in love with this sitting for meditation. You just sit for two minutes and you are there. “There” means that when you come out, you are so joyful, you are so relaxed, and you are so calm.

If that begins to happen, that means you are deepening your practice. It means that if during of the day your mind is thinking about doing your practice, it means that you are deepening your practice. But, at the same time as we were taught, we have read that, if you, for some reason, get disconnected, if for some reason you are not there, or not feeling the inclination, never condemn yourself; never put yourself down.

I always tell people, and it has become a motto in my life: “I am an important being.” I just read a quote from Swami Rama. He said, “The Lord of Life is within you.” So that means that you are an important being. When you get up every morning, say to yourself that you are not just anybody, but that you are an important being. Why are we important beings? Because we have the Divine within us. We have heard that we are divine beings. We have read that we are divine beings. We have not experienced that yet, but we are on the path of experience. And we should never feel that we are a “nobody.” We are important beings. We have the divine within us. Swamiji Veda used to say that slowly, though we might not experience it yet, tomorrow – if not tomorrow, the day after tomorrow – may you reach there.

So, rather than pondering on this – “How come I am not reaching there? How come I am not there?” – just simply take inspiration every day that  you are an important being and how fortunate it is that you have been initiated and have a mantra. It is very simple. If we think like that, we can remain inspired. We get bogged down in complications which we think is the actual life, but in Swami Rama’s books and his lectures, his advice is that simplicity is needed. So in your practice, keep things as simple as possible.

Sit for meditation every day and let go of thoughts. Whatever happened yesterday, it’s in the past. Take your inspiration for today. And your inspiration is: “I am important because I have a mantra. And because I have a mantra, I have a communication line through which I connect with my Guru at any time that I need to.”  How many people have this communication line?

Mantra and Guru are one and the same. By remembering your mantra, you are remembering you Guru. Thinking of your mantra, you are thinking of your Guru. Actually in the Bhagavad Gita or some scripture – and even Swamiji had told me – “If we think of the Guru, the Guru will think of us.”  It’s vise-versa – both.

It is not a communication like we normally think of; it is a sacred communication. There are no words. The communication is the recitation of one’s own mantra. Keep repeating again and again and again. And the more you repeat, the deeper you will go. And the deeper you go, the more solid and strong your communication will be with the Guru. With the recitation of the mantra and remembrance of the mantra, you open the channel for the Guru’s grace.

If you put in place the things we talked about tonight, you will be inspired, and that is all we need, my friend. Deepening your sadhana is not a very hard thing to do. Compared to the hard things we do in our lives and in home, it is very simple.

So, keep yourself inspired. Keep close to your friends on the path and come to The Meditation Center together frequently. You have a wonderful means with The Meditation Center. Come on Thursday evenings. Take advantage of this sacred site, to recharge and receive inspiration. You don’t have to do anything special when you are here. Just being around like-minded friends will inspire you. You have friends who are you kalyana-mitras, your “spiritual benign friends,” as Swami Veda calls them. Be around them; connect with them often. Just come and sit. And if for some reason you are away from the Center, call a friend and talk with her/him. And keep in your bedroom some inspirational books. Read at least a page or two every day. Or maybe make a resolution to read at least a page of some inspirational writing every day so that your inspiration remains high – high inspiration, high morale. So the inspiration and the tools are there. And the highest tool is your mantra. Okay?

I thank you. I wish everyone well and all the inspiration from the Guru Lineage. May the Guru guide us. And if we do our mantra, Guru will guide. I always tell people. You know Vimala. Once Vimala asked Swamiji Rama: “Swamiji, will you help me?” “Yes,” he said, “I will help you, as long as you meditate.” So that simply means that Swamiji is there and always ready to help if meditate. He is there to communicate if we do our part.   I wish you well. Go home. Sleep with your mantra. Wake with your mantra. Go to work with your mantra. Do your mantra when and wherever you get a chance.

Namaste! Hari Om!

Editor’s Note:

For more about Pandit Hari Shankar Dabral: http://www.himalayanmeditation.com

A recording of the talk is available here.