Month: December 2022

Choosing Your Mental Diet

Posted on by Divya - Administrator

Once in a while, I peek at some of the made-for-TV premium cable series, and am usually amazed at the graphic violence, hatred, greed, and blatant sexuality displayed in those programs. I understand, the cable companies want an audience and this sort of stuff attracts viewers, like a street fight attracts a crowd, and yet, “is this what I want to fill my mind with?” I ask myself.

Over the years, I’d heard my meditation teacher, Swami Veda Bharati, speak of paying attention to what you fill your mind with. Just as the type of food we take into our physical body affects our physical health, so also what we mentally consume affects our mental and emotional health.

Mental-diet

According to yoga philosophy, everything we take into our minds colors our minds and leaves a subtle trace in our memory. If we fill our minds with violent images, imagine the effect. Could seeing people act out intense greed, hatred, and violence cause us to believe that such behavior is acceptable? Could this be part of the reason there is so much random violence in our country and world? I don’t know, although it wouldn’t surprise me if this were so. What I do know is that when my mind is filled with the hyper-kinetic, super-emotional images of a violent movie, I’m not able to experience the simple joy of a serene and happy mind.

These savagely emotional movies are like spicy food. There’s an attraction to them, they are thrilling, exciting, and afterward, at least for me, there is a price to pay. Often, afterwards, I feel restless and agitated and may even have trouble sleeping that night. Is an hour or so of entertainment worth a day and perhaps more of feeling disturbed? Not in my book. This is why I’ve eliminated such “entertainment” from my watch list.

We all have a choice. We can consume images and thoughts that help us live healthier, happier lives and bring us into harmony with our souls, or we can pour violence and unhappiness into our minds. Whatever we fill our minds with leaks out into our relationships and society. So if we want to create a peaceful, happy world, we can start with ourselves by filtering what we consume for entertainment.

Here’s an experiment: read the following inspiring prayer:

Silence

I weave a silence onto my lips.
I weave a silence into my mind.
I weave a silence within my heart.
I close my ears to distractions.
I close my eyes to attractions.
I close my heart to temptations.
Calm me, O Lord, as you stilled the storm.
Still me, O Lord, keep me from harm.<
Let all tumult within me cease.
Enfold me, Lord, in your peace.

(From The Ortha Nan Gaidheal, translated by Eknath Easwaran)

Notice the effect reading the prayer had on your inner state.

Now turn on a violent movie or tv show that is full of action and watch a while. Again, become aware of the effect the violent show had on your inner state. Do you notice a difference? Once you know the effect that your mental food has on you, choosing becomes easy. Then it’s not what you “should do,” but what you want to do.

Editor’s Note:

Randall Krause (Mokshadeva) is a Senior Teacher and Mentor in the Himalayan Yoga Meditation Tradition. He spent years learning closely from Swami Veda Bharati, and time personally attending to Swamiji in India and elsewhere. He has taught the Himalayan Tradition in the USA, Europe, India (at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama), and in Thailand and Taiwan.

Streams of Negative Emotion

Posted on by Mandala

When you study the emotions you find that there are seven main streams of negative emotions that arise from the four primitive fountains or appetites. Desire, or kama, which we have already discussed, is the first stream and the mother of them all.

Anger is the second stream. It is the expression of frustration for a desire that finds obstruction in its fulfilment. You should try and remember this whenever you get angry. Anger is different from what many modern therapists suggest. They say, “Come on, release your anger; let it out.” It is true that if you do not express your anger it will turn into another disastrous direction; so you can let it out momentarily for the sake of your health. However, when you become angry your nervous system is activated, and in a fit of anger you might start acting like a wild animal. If you were to get angry all the time, you would want to express this anger all the time, and there would be no end to it; you would be forming a very bad habit. Anger is such a blind emotion that at its peak one can commit suicide or kill others. If you allowed yourself to release all your angers, you would be behind bars in a day. All the negative emotions are blind, but anger is the most dangerous.

Therefore it is very important to know how to train yourself not to get angry. This can definitely be done; it will happen when you learn how to control your desires. You should decide which desires are helpful for your growth and which desires will create obstructions to your growth. Learning to train the intellect within (buddhi) will definitely help in doing this: when you get angry, you can arrive at the source of your frustration and anger by sitting down and analyzing why you got angry in the first place and examining which desires were not fulfilled.

The third stream of negative emotion which is harmful for unfoldment arises when your desire is fulfilled and you become proud. “I have fulfilled my desires and others could not fulfil theirs. Look at how great I am.” Pride happens when you have something that others do not have and you are constantly aware of this.

The fourth emotion occurs when someone else succeeds in attaining the object of your desire, and you do not. This called jealousy. You may have something – but someone else may have something you think is better. You find yourself incapable of fulfilling your own desires if the other person is fulfilling theirs. When you are jealous you are condemning yourself for being incompetent. You have lost the battle and accepted defeat.

The fifth emotion comes when you have something and you become attached it by identifying yourself with it. You don’t see its true nature: that it will go to decay, to destruction, to death; you become so attached that you don’t realize this. For instance, a man has a wife, and as long as she is fulfilling all his desires he remains pleased with her. But the moment she loses her beauty, he gets upset. This is called attachment. Nowadays people do not seem to know the distinction between attachment and love. Attachment is selfish; love is selfless. Attachment brings bondage; love gives freedom. Attachment contracts consciousness; love expand sit. Attachment becomes a source of torment; love becomes a source of liberation.

When two people meet, they should come together in grand liberation and joy, not in bondage and attachment. Misery comes because of attachment, because there is no giving in the relationship. The greatest happiness in life comes from giving, and greatest chaos comes when two people claim to love each other but are really attached. Such a relationship, which is built on expectation, can only bring misery. When you really learn to love somebody you will do things selflessly and spontaneously, for love is that concern in which you enjoy giving and don’t expect anything in return. That is the way to freedom.

The sixth emotion comes from attachment. It inspires you to want more and more. It is a perverted cultural desire which comes through competition and insecurity. It makes you narrow, selfish, self-centred, and petty-minded. It is called greed. Greedy people do not want to share the object of their attachment with others; they want to protect it.

The seventh emotion is the last and most powerful. It is egotism, which leads you to separate yourself from the whole by comparing yourself to others. Many times this is based on false pride: you are afraid because there may be somebody better than you. People who don’t have anything frequently become egotistical to compensate for their inferiority complexes.

By examining these seven streams of emotion – desire, anger, pride, attachment, greed, jealousy, and egotism – you can analyze yourself. By studying your thoughts, speech, and actions you can find out how emotionally mature you are. All control is emotional. If the emotions are not controlled, there is no control at all. Control does not mean suppression of expression – it means regulation and balance within your capacity. With the help of reason and observation you can remain beyond the sway of emotions.

You should learn to attain a state of emotional maturity in which you know how to use your emotions positively. Positive emotion leads you to self-reliance and self-confidence, and motivates your mind, action, and speech in a joyous and creative way.

Editor’s note

This is an excerpt from A Practical Guide to Holistic Health, Revised Edition, by Swami Rama. 1999. The Himalayan Institute Press.

Story about Lala Babu

Posted on by ahymsin

I heard this story in 1950 when I was living briefly in the holy twin cities of Mathura-Vrindavan.

Before the western banking system took over in India there used to be banking houses in which the business went on from generation to generation. They were true power houses of the city.

The story is about a scion of one such banking house in Mathura. He was known as Lala Babu. He was spiritually inclined and the Guru claimed him.

Slowly, slowly, as is usual with the Gurus, he was dragged over the hot coals of purification. After his duties were done for his family he began the process of renunciation, spending his time in spiritual pursuits and meditation.

He built himself a small mendicant’s hut and lived like a monk begging for alms for his daily food.

hut

 

All this, because he kept on asking his Guru for the next steps for his progress, and each time he was told ‘you are not ready. You have not done the required ascetic practices’, but, as it often is with the Gurus, no practices were defined!

So the poor disciple was left to his own devices, devising his own level of asceticism and renunciation, perhaps keeping only one set of clothes instead of two. Perhaps eating once a day instead of twice or whatever.

Like all disciples he kept racking his brain as to what more purification or ascetic practices were required of him.

You see, there had been two powerful rival banking houses in the city, and they were not on speaking terms with each other.

When Lala Babu took to the life of an ascetic mendicant begging for his alms for daily food, he begged at all homes but that of the owner of the rival banking house. How could he appear at the door of the owners of the rival banking house begging for food!

After a long hard struggle he finally decided to renounce this last bit of arrogance and pride and one fine morning he actually went and begged at this home.

He was, of course, received not as a scion of a rival banking home but as a mendicant and given all due honours.

That not only ended the rivalry but that afternoon the Guru came to the disciple’s hut and said “Son, you have passed all the tests. You are now ready for the next initiation”.

That’s a true story I heard.

Swami Veda Bharati

18 April, 2015

Yoga Sleep

Posted on by Divya - Administrator

One doesn’t usually think of yoga as having anything to do with sleep. But, in the Himalayan Tradition of Yoga, an important practice is known as yoga nidra, yoga sleep. Let me tell you a story about yoga nidra.

Swami Rama’s Ashram, Sadhana Mandir, sits along the bank of the River Ganga, a mile or so downstream from the city of Rishikesh. I was there, assisting Dr. Usharbudh Arya (who later took sannyasa — renunciation— and then became known as Swami Veda Bharati) with his work. This was in the 1990s. At that time, the great Himalayan master Swami Rama was still roaming the world and lived in a two-story apartment building on the land, and Dr. Arya lived in a similar building further into the ashram. I spent many of my days and evenings at Dr. Arya’s apartment. Downstairs was the kitchen and place where we ate. Most of the activity occurred upstairs where Dr. Arya had a couple of rooms, one in which he slept and the other where work occurred and where he would meet people who came to visit him.

At that time, I often assisted him on the computer, taking dictation, writing letters for him, organizing his files and other things like that. There was plenty of work and I loved being part of it.

Dr. Arya was a master of yoga nidra. In yoga nidra, the body is completely relaxed, and the brain produces deep delta waves (which can be measured by scientific equipment) — the same brain waves as produced when in deep, dreamless sleep, except the person is completely awake and aware. When the rest of us are in that state of sleep, we are unconscious. But not the one who is in yoga nidra.

Dr. Arya would stay awake very late into the night and into the wee morning hours writing, reading, and other work, while the world slept. Then he’d go into regular sleep for about two hours. He said that that two hours of deep dreamless sleep was required to maintain the body. After that, he’d practice two hours of yoga nidra— just two hours of regular sleep plus two hours of yoga nidra gave him all the rest he needed. He would then rise and do his regular morning meditation at 8:00 a.m., followed by breakfast.

Whenever he might feel tired, Dr. Arya would again practice yoga nidra. Often, I’d come to his apartment in the afternoon and find him “sleeping.” The quotation marks around the word “sleeping” are because he was usually in yoga nidra that time. I knew from experience not to say anything near him that I didn’t want him to hear when he was in that state because he would hear everything. Not that I was keeping any secrets, but I still kept this in mind. He also asked us to not whisper to try to keep him from hearing us because he’d hear the whisper and I imagined he’d wonder what we were whispering about.

Besides being restful, the state of yoga nidra opens the inner gates to creativity and memory and one can learn very quickly. Dr. Arya said that he taught himself English practicing yoga nidra during the nights while he was in Germany at one point in his life. I personally witnessed his amazing use of yoga nidra for learning when, one time, I accompanied him (actually, by then he was known as Swami Veda Bharati) to Italy. He was scheduled to give a talk there the following day. On the evening before his talk, he lay down and went into yoga nidra and one of his students, who spoke both fluent English and Italian, read him an hour long talk in Italian. Swami Veda had written the talk, the disciple had translated it into Italian, and then slowly read it to him. He read it to him only one time. The next morning, Swami Veda stood up and gave the entire talk in Italian from memory. I was astounded.

Swami Veda’s mastery of yoga nidra was profound. One time, when he was in California leading a retreat, we were at the campus of IONS (The International Organization of Noetic Sciences), where the faculty studied the spiritual sciences and wrote books. While there, one of the researchers hooked Swami Veda up to instruments to measure his brain waves. My spiritual brother Stephen Parker (aka Stoma) was there and later related what happened: Once Swami Veda was hooked up, the researcher had a shock. Although Swami Veda was sitting there, looking wide awake and carrying on a conversation, the electronic instruments showed he was having slow delta brain waves—the waves produced in deep dreamless sleep. Swami Veda was literally conversing while in yoga nidra.

Although Swami Veda was a Master of yoga nidra, the state is also available to the rest of us. Like any discipline, if we practice, we can learn and gain in ability. Recordings in Swami Veda’s voice are available that will lead one through the practices that take one to the threshold of the state of yoga nidra and perhaps beyond. If you are interested in learning, contact AHYMSIN for information on how to obtain copies of these recordings.

Editor’s Note:

Randall Krause (Mokshadeva) is a Senior Teacher and Mentor in the Himalayan Yoga Meditation Tradition. He spent years learning closely from Swami Veda Bharati, and time personally attending to Swamiji in India and elsewhere. He has taught the Himalayan Tradition in the USA, Europe, India (at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama), and in Thailand and Taiwan.

Perpetual Youth

Posted on by Mandala

A yogi does not measure his life by the years but by the breath he takes. To say that he is old is an impossibility and a joke. Old age is a mere reflection of the mind, and not of years. Weakness and decrepitude creep in for lack of trust in truth, in justice, in oneself, and in one’s kinsmen.

These are the signs of old age:

    • As soon as the freshness and interest is gone out of one’s life, he is old.
    • When one talks about killing time, he is becoming old.
    • He who is interested in nothing new is old.
    • He who is timid and afraid to take on new enterprises is old.
    • He who has no self-reliance is old.
    • He who repeatedly calls for help is old.
    • The habitual fault-finder and complainer is old.
    • He who values mundane wealth more than uplifting thoughts is old.
    • One who clings to life and does not let go is old.
    • One who does not enjoy humor and has lost his smile is old.
    • One who does not enjoy the song of the birds or the beauty of the flower is old.
    • One who has no control over his limbs and is horrified of death is old.
    • One who does not enjoy stillness, quietness, and silence is old.
    • One whose mind is like a crowded abode full of strife and misery is old.

But one who remains in the garden of delight and smiles perpetually is young. One whose heart is every fresh, ever green, is ever young.

Editor’s note

This is an excerpt from the entry “Perpetual Youth” by Swami Rama and is found in the book Love Whispers by Swami Rama, published by Himalayan Institute Press.