Liquified Silence

In some unplanned moments in human history a sudden strange surge of silences becomes enfleshed. The people call it a “saint.” The enfleshment ends but silence continues so that many pilgrims may journey to immerse themselves in the pools left in the chambers where silence was thus “born” and had a dwelling.

Impelled, uninvoked, from the depths of some unknown ocean, the high tide of an irrepressible urge to silence comes welling up to sweep at the shores of some open-stretched-out minds, and leaves its overwhelming imprint of a quiet power behind.

The pools thus formed, the minds thus empowered, are thereafter revered as saints. The footprints of the saints too, on the beaches of history, form indelible pools of tranquility to remain forever as places where pilgrims from all polarities of the globe come penitent, praying for purity at these spots magnetized by sanctity where needles of many traditions converge.

Have you ever visited one of the birth places of Silence in any one of Her incarnations? This was one: where Silence and Her twin brother Love were born.

Silence is the twin sister of saints.

If you are not set that saints come dwell in your skull, you can for now keep company with their sister, Silence.

To enter where a saint was born is to be baptised in an invisible pool of the force of freedom named silence.

In an age where bodies of saints are no longer martyred but the sacred thoughts suffer cruelest inquisitions, one can find asylum in such a chamber.

The room where St. Teresa was born: the silence during prayer to Mother in that particular center of interior worlds was like that of a pool of water that had lain undisturbed for (the Cavemaker alone knows) how many millenia, like the mind of a yogi, that I saw the reflection of my face in, in the depth of Carlsbad caves.

The silence rained so thick, my soul was soaked through and through and the tongue turned so heavy it forgot its functions both of taste and speech.

In the chambers in which those fully grown in Spirit are born are to be found pools of holy water deeper than an ocean. The infants in Spirit, if they dare a reverent dive, emerge a moment later fully grown in splendour.

The splendour will last forever if a single drop from the holy pool clings to a corner of their minds.
A chamber where a saint is born is a crystal chalice filled with the milk of silence placed in the full moon light of agape and apotheosis.

Some sip reverently; some gulp hurriedly; some, alas, pass by with eyes averted. Blessed are the few who will be bathed with this Mother milk, that is the mead of sanctity that is wine of starlight that is the river of rays whose origin is the palm of God.

To sit silently in a chamber where a saint was born is to become foetus in the womb of God.


Editor’s Note

One of the Diary entries and postcards written and sent (Summer 1996) from within the room where St. Theresa was born in Avila, Spain.

Pain and Silence

A painful physical condition grants me many advantages and benefits, such as these:

  1. It enforces on me preservation and intensification of energy in the form of silence which I enjoy.
  2. It enforces silence on those who need to see me. They are advised to come and sit in silent meditation, thus pulling away the curtain of verbosity that exist between teacher and the taught. They need to learn this silent communion.
  3. It makes me abandon my pursuit of intellect, the attachment to books and writing, so I may go into meditation — the only thing one can do for prolonged periods without discomfort when in pain.
  4. It makes me practice to go very quickly to those intense places within which are centres beyond the reach of pain and physical discomfort. It

a. gives the Guru spirit a chance to enter me and heal me;
b. teaches me the art of self-healing;
c. makes me go into intense depths quickly,
d. thus making me spiritually progress faster.

God’s gifts are many; oh, so many.

May you find God’s gifts to be precious even when they come in p(l)ain wrappers.

21 August 2011

Last Desires

 

It is said in the spiritual traditions of India, as they are commonly practised that

1. Whatever one’s last thoughts at the hour of death in this life. They will manifest themselves in the next life.
2. One’s last thoughts are the sum total of all that one has desired, enjoyed and suffered during this life.

It is therefore always advised that one not have to die harbouring unfulfilled desires if they can be fulfilled harmlessly and ethically before one’s death.

For this reason, the loving ones and relatives almost invariably ask a dying person questions like:

1. Is there anything you desire at this time?
2. Is there someone you want to see?
3. Is there something you want to eat?

Some years back in the Chattisgarh state of India when the Naxalite Maoists stopped the caravan of a politician to kill him, they taunted: Anything you want to eat?!!

I believe similar is the case in Indian prisons where a prisoner about to be hanged is asked the same question and is provided whatever he wishes to eat in his last meal.

What determines the last desire(s) is a question full of complexity. Who knows why one wants to see only that one special child, or wants to eat papaya before dying. From when the seed of such desire lay hidden in him cannot be determined.

This also has another dimension. The Gurus are known to fulfil a disciple’s remaining desires before making him enter Samadhi so that these desires would not frustrate his internal journey. A great deal can be written or said about this fact.

The last minute desires of a dying person are quite intense in spite of the body’s feebleness. The unfulfilled desires will migrate as part of his intense samskaras and form themes for his next life. A child may be born with intense desire for some kinds of foods and so on.

The very verb for ‘eating’ in Sanskrit incorporates a whole order of mental connections. The same verb ‘bhuj’ is used for

1. eating,
2. enjoying anything,
3. sexual congress,
4. any experience with the senses,
5. making a food offering in worship (bhog lagaanaa),
6. suffering or enjoying the results of an act (tum ne aisaa kiyaa, ab bhogo!) or karma (karma-bhoga).

I may be missing out on some connections here. Thus ‘giving food’ or ‘eating’ psychologically and karmically covers a whole wide range of mental and physical involvements.

There is a very solid base in the Indian custom in the realms of samskara-psychology. It is best not to bind the soul in this way before sending it on to its journey; hence the custom of asking.

Holi Message, 2015

[Note: This message is in Hindi and English.]

मन बहुरंगी है न ?
संस्कृत वर्णमाला में अक्षरों को वर्ण कहते हैं ।
वर्ण शब्द का अर्थ है रंग । आपको शुभकामना
देता हूं कि सब मन्त्रों के सब अक्षरों के सभी रंग
आपके मन पर चढ जायें ।

Since the mind is multihued, the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet are called varna. The word ‘varna’ means colour. I wish you the colours of the letters of all mantras to dye your mind.

For Christmas 2014 and new year

 

To my most beloved soul-kin
For Christmas 2014 and new year

St.John of the Cross sang of the night when he, like the Buddha, left all cares behind and his ‘house’ was all stilled. He sang in eight stanzas.

En una noche oscura con ansias en amores inflamada
!Oh dichosa ventura! Sali sin ser notada,
Estando ya mi casa sosegada

On a dark night with intense love burning
Oh good fortune!
I departed unnoticed
And
My house was all stilled…
… leaving all cares forgotten among the lilies.

Three thousand years before St. John the Rishi of the Veda sang also a hymn to Night
That Is Dawn, in eight stanzas.

रात्री व्यख्यदायती पुरुत्रा देव्यक्षभि: ।
विश्वा अधि श्रियोऽधित ।।

Silent Night
(Paraphrased from Vedic hymn)

Night with myriad eyes in all directions
Has come bearing us the gift of Discerning Wisdom1;
O, how many glories has She be-sparked.

This expansive and immortal one
Has flooded the lower and higher places2 with light;
She dispels, wards off, all that is of darkness within us.

When this celestial Lady comes forth
She makes emerge Her sister Dawn,
And darkness flees in terror far.

She is ours today, and we are Hers;
We settle in Her ways as we are led;
She settles us into Her shelter
Like trees settle birds down.

All the nomadic groups3 have settled;
Those with feet, with wings, have settled.
The hawks that fly hunting have settled too.

Drive from us the violent beast (lioness?)
And thief4; O Thou who ever come in waves5.
Be Thou our own more beauteous self!

Darkness has shaped us into its forms,
And black manifestation6 called the world;
Blow it away, O Dawn7,
Like a debt forever discharged.

I compose these words unto Thee.
Do accept my gift, Heaven’s Daughter!
They are my paean sung for Thee Victorious.
Rig-Veda X.127.1-8
Hymn to the Night (Ratri Sukta)

I wish for you and yours such a Silent Night when your entire inner house is stilled and you leave all
Your cares among the lilies.

I send you the fruits of my loving meditations
So you can make an eternal fruit cake
!!!Enjoy!!!

Swami Veda Bharati


1 Final realization comprising the discernment between matter and spirit; that all my faculties constituted of matter are non-self; I am spiritual self.
2 Lower and higher centers of consciousness.
3 Wandering senses, unsettled faculties, perturbed states of mind. They have feet and wings, and fly off to hunt like hawks.
4 The beast and the thief within us, esp. the thief who has stolen our very self from us.
5 The Great Mother is called Tri-pura-sundari: She the Beauty of the three universes who touches us in spiritual waves. The primary text extolling Her is Saundaryalahari, Wave of Beauty.
6 Tamas, one of the three constituents of our Nature (prakrti), is synonymous with that “heaviness” and inertia that turns energy into forms and keeps them such. Its symbolic colour is black. The energy of our Nature is so subtle that it is intangible but tamas keeps it in the “heavy” manifest dark shapes and forms, including our own. The Night that is Light is being asked to dissolve this darkness of shapes and forms, to return energy to its primordial state of consciousness.
7 Because this Night is the Night of profound spiritual silence that is light, She is addressed as Dawn.
Silent Night is that state of the soul wherein all disturbing glitter ceases, senses are abandoned, and the word night becomes synonymous with spiritual light. Only then God’s manifestation can be born in the poor manger of your body and personality.
At first, Dawn of knowing seems to emerge from Night, till we realize that here Night Herself may be sung to as Dawn.
To understand this, do read, in preparation for the celebration of the silent night: St John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul, and his own commentary on the same.
Then read the hymn from the Veda again.

2015 Yoga Youth and Children’s Retreat, 22nd – 31st December 2015

(Editor’s Note: This letter from Swami Veda is presented first in English and then in Hindi.)

Dear loving Spiritual Parent,

All parents like to have their children grow up with spiritual values but do not always have the opportunity to make their wish fulfilled.

So far we have had two children’s retreats at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama. It had children of all ages; there was even one 82 year old child by the name of Swami Veda Bharati!

We all had a great silence, learning, inspiration, laughter and fun.

One parent donated 40 trees and the children planted these and they gave names to the trees. Come see!

On the last day all the children gathered around me and begged me to have such a retreat every year and I agreed.
Attached herewith please find a book list suitable for parents who want to raise children with a glow of divinity.

So, will you bring or send your children this year from 22nd to 31st December? Please write to ahymsin@ahymsin.org and childrensretreat@gmail.com

Please give my love to your children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Do please write soon. I cannot manage without seeing children for so long.

Always in your service
and in Service of Gurudeva

Swami Veda Bharati


प्रिय आध्यात्मिक मातृ-पितृ जन,

सभी माता-पिता अपने बच्चों को आध्यात्मिक मूल्यों के साथ बड़े होते देखना चाहते है परन्तु अपनी इच्छा पूर्ति का अवसर उनको सर्वदा नहीं मिल पाता।
अब तक हम स्वामी-राम-साधक-ग्राम में बच्चों के दो शिविर करने में सफल हुए हैं। यहां सभी उम्र के बच्चों ने भाग लिया। इन में स्वामी वेद भारती नामक एक ८२ साल का बच्चा भी था।

हम सब ने गम्भीर मौन, शिक्षा, प्रेरणा, और हँसी का आनन्द उठाया।

एक माता-पिता ने ४० पेडों का दान दिया और बच्चों ने इन्हें रोपित किया और उन पेडों को नाम भी दिये। आ कर देखिये!

अंतिम दिन सभी बच्चे मेरे पास आ कर एकत्र हुए और प्रत्येक वर्ष इसी तरह का शिविर कराने की मांग मुझसे की, जिसे मैं ने खुशी से स्वीकार कर लिया है।
जो प्रबुद्ध माता-पिता अपने बच्चों में देवत्व की चमक डालना चाहते हैं उनके लिए पुस्तकोंकी सूची इस पत्र के साथ जोड दी गई है।

तो क्या आप अपने बच्चों को इस वर्ष २२ से ३१ दिसम्बर तक के लिये लाएंगे अथवा भेज देंगे? कृपया सम्पर्क करने के लिए ahymsin@ahymsin.org और childrensretreat@gmail.com को लिखें।

अपने बच्चों, पोता/पोती और पड़पोता/पड़पोती, नाती/नतिनी को मेरा प्यार दे दीजिए। कृपया जल्द ही लिखियेगा। मैं लंबे समय के लिए बच्चों को देखे बिना नही रह सकता।

सर्वदा आपकी सेवा में
और गुरुदेव की सेवा में

स्वामी वेद भारती


Editor’s Note:

The book list can be read at this link http://ahymsin.org/main/swami-veda-bharati/reading-list-for-parents.html

There were Yoga Youth and Children’s Retreats in 2011 and 2014.

To read articles and see pictures about the retreat in 2014, click on titles:
Fun with Kids

Connecting to Mother Earth
2014 Yoga Youth and Children’s Retreat

To read articles and see pictures about the 2011, click on titles:
The Children Are Here!
The Yoga Youth and Children’s Retreat
Seeds Were Planted
An Experience of the Yoga Youth and Children’s Retreat

Reading List for Parents

A book list suitable for parents who want to raise children with a glow of divinity.

Love and Family Life (Swami Rama, Himalayan Institute Pr 1992)
Marriage, Parenthood and Enlightenment (Swami Rama, Himalayan Publishers, 1988)
Let the Bud of Life Bloom: A Guide to Raising Happy and Healthy Children (Swami Rama, Lotus Pr, 2002)
The Art of Joyful Living (Swami Rama, Himalayan Institute Pr 2007)
Creative Use of Emotion (Swami Rama, Swami Ajaya, Himalayan Institute Pr, 2000)
Happiness Is Your Creation (Swami Rama, Himalayan Institute Pr, 2005)
Fearless Living: Yoga and Faith (Swami Rama, Himalayan Institute Pr, 2005)
At the Feet of a Himalayan Master (Five Volumes) (Prakash Keshaviah – Editor, Lotus Press, 2010 – 2014)
Bhole: Adventures of a Young Yogi (Hema de Munnik, Lotus Press, 2006)
Raising Spiritual Families (Swami Veda Bharati, Himalayan Yoga Publications Trust, 2015)

Available from Himalayan Yoga Publications Trust, hyptbooks@gmail.com


Editor’s Note

Some of the books listed above are available at a number of bookstores, including
• Himalayan Yoga Publications Trust. Email: hyptbooks@gmail.com.  Website: www.yogapublications.org
• The online bookstore at The Meditation Center, which ships nationally and internationally.
• And other bookstores

Motto for All Future Silence Days

Motto for all future silence days (from some old lecture of mine):

Eat only when you are fasting
Be still while running
Speak only when in silence.

उपोषन्नेव भुञ्जीयात्
ब्रह्मचर्यमनुतिष्ठन्तावेव सङ्गच्छेताम्
तीव्रं धावन् स्थिर-शान्तस्तिष्ठेत्
मौनस्थ एव भाषेत

The second Sanskrit sutra here is left untranslated to keep it secret. Those who are true practitioners will find out and learn.

Many sadhakas say : I am anyway silent most of the day.
However, it is not silence if you are silent because you just happen to be alone!

Silence is silence when you have the intention, make the sankalpa, to keep a spiritual silence and then your mind is filled with spiritual contemplation and mantra, whether sitting, eating, bathing, lying down or running.

Breath & Prana Intensive Seminar, 1st – 7th November 2015

Breath & Prana Intensive Seminar
1st – 7th November 2015
at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama, Rishikesh, India
with Marilou Hermens,
Senior Teachers and SRSG Teaching Staff

Subtleties of breath practices

“An intensive practice of Pranayama’s 3 times a day! It is a true gift to yourself…Complete breath, kapalabati (different levels for beginners and advanced), bhastrika (different levels for beginners and advanced), brahmari (different levels and beginners or advanced), ujjayi, nadi shodhanam (different types). This seminar can be done while remaining in silence to deepen your personal inner journey. Beginners and advanced practitioners are all welcome and will be guided according to their level.”

– Marilou Hermens

Open to all
Cost: Cost of SRSG hospitality plus goodwill offering for instruction

Marilou Hermens is a faculty member of HYT-TTP (Himalayan Yoga Tradition – Teacher Training Program), teaches at the teacher training retreats at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama, and serves as a mentor; she also has a center in the Netherlands (http://www.yogameditatie.nl/).

Contact http://ahymsin.org/main/ahymsin-office.html

International Yoga Day

In a recent speech to the United Nations India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested starting an International Yoga Day. India officially gave the proposal. 175 countries supported it. 21st June every year has been declared by United Nations as International Yoga Day. All our initiators, teachers, centres should plan something each year.


Note:

To read Swami Veda’s Message for International Yoga Day, please use this link http://ahymsin.org/main/swami-veda-bharati/message-for-international-yoga-day-june-21.html