Category: Swami Ritavan Bharati

Advancing Guidance in Yoga Sadhana

Posted on by Mandala

OM SHAM

Namaste.

Are your foreheads relaxed? What did you say the topic is tonight? Advancing guidance. Advanced practices. Our beloved Swamiji simply said again and again keep your foreheads relaxed, and being the naughty student that I was for so many years, such students take a long, long, long time to learn very simple practices, like keep your forehead relaxed. Even now I am looking at the mirror, the grooves are getting deeper, I am thinking, too much thinking. Haven’t I learned anything from my teacher? Haven’t I practiced what he has taught me? Yes, serving, yes, a lifetime of serving and, yes, we do that with the attitude of svāhā, but along the way are we making progress? Is the mind more prasāda, more pleasant, more cheerful? There is an interesting word that Swamiji liked to use when he would teach what he called the six steps to liberation. We hear the word, oh yes, that is what I want, yet are we able to practice ‘titikṣā’? It is a unique word, titikṣā. Many times, because again as a naughty student I didn’t learn my Sanskrit, I call upon my brother Stoma, would you please say the word correctly. Titikṣā, say that again, titikṣā, yes (laughter). Even my mimicking needs some extra practice.

So it is a sentiment of forbearance. What does that word mean? It has many, many meanings. Luckily now we have Google to give us a few extra words. It means an inner strength. A patience, perseverance, maintaining that spiritual path step by step, and though at times we are all taking that step backwards, taking a break from our practice routine, even that small break, creates its own samskara. A step back. Again two steps forward, three steps forward, ah, I am on the journey again. A busy day, an angry moment, an interest in the newest Netflix, I will meditate later [than] when it [is] your time.

So this titikṣā, the way in which the path is maintained and there is an inner strength that actually builds not in the form of ego [with] which, generally, we measure our inner strength. Am I able to give commands and people obey? Am I able to express my opinion and know that it is right and impress that upon others? These strengths are weaknesses, or shall we say a weakening [of] the strength of humility, sincerity and truthfulness by which you are willing to admit your mistakes and not shed the blame on others, nor judge others for one’s own weaknesses that one feels.

So we build the titikṣā, the perseverance, the patience, the practice that matures day by day, and if you look back now, you have been here so many days, what five days, six days, whatever. Have you felt a momentum, have you felt a maturing of some titikṣā, some inner strength? That is your test, and the test is in the taste as they say.  The taste for your sadhana, is it sweet? The taste for a spiritual journey, though it may be bitter, it is a medicine, so take it.

It seems like in the first few days we have, let’s say, today we have made a slight shift. Those of you that were here for Vijay’s talk today on mind, [a] beautiful rendition on Swami Rama’s teachings on the functions of mind, but here his comments were on the watching, were on the seeing, this drishta that sees drishti, and so we are observing, observing our actions, observing in a self aware way, a mindful way, but again you can take another step toward asking who is watching, who is seeing, thus who is the witness? For this drishti, the seer must have a sākshi, a witness.

So now in your meditations you are finding ways in which the mind must be more refined. That quality of the consciousness that is reflected in the mind must become more subtle. Are you relating now to that seer as the intelligence and thereby mind observing mind. That intelligence of that consciousness now as witness observes the mind. Before that we had some days to understand that quality associated with the ākāśa of hearing. Seeing is which tattva? Earth, water, fire, air, space.  Seeing is the illuminating quality, the combustible quality, the agni, the fire, yes, association with light and thus seeing. What about hearing, what is associated, ākāśa. The waves that move through the space like presence. Here in the form of those vibrations that become the sound, that become the word, you listen.

So in the first days our emphasis was on this quality of your sādhanā in listening. You listen to some intention that brought you here. You arrive listening to some of the ways in which inspiration was being shared to get you in the mood that, yes, you are here at Guru’s ashram, and it is time to let go of those groves of the memories associated with where you have come from, and we establish that listening ear in your meditations and in your daily action, so we introduce the mantra, and in that way refining again this [one] who hears, one who sees, one who hears, you might say unites, what is the chakra associated with ākāśa. Viśuddhi, yes, and with fire? We will take manipūra tonight, you are already beyond, Shirin is Śri, so you are already beyond, let us get to you soon (humorously).

We have this place and space of the viśuddhi and manipūra. What do we have? Anāhata. This is associated with what tattva, vāyu, ok, and with what sense, touch, sparśa. So you have to unite these now with a feeling. The touch is very unique for your meditation. What is the feeling for your meditations? Yes, you have given them the prana and the fire of the energies. Yes, you have given your meditation the perspective of the observer and the witness, but what is the feel, a unique sense for your meditations? You can relate it to your lives, for in that way you see that the touch is related in a very special way. A greeting and a handshake, a touch of encouragement, a touch of a blessing, an embrace of love. So how in meditation are you touched, and how do you engage in that embrace?

So bring forward this in your meditation, that pure relationship, and again this is not so much identified only with the emotions of the embrace or the feeling of the friendship, but of a pure relationship, that has a touch that goes beyond emotion, a touch that carries a sentiment to its most pure state. No doubt you have all had the touch of peace, a meditation that is so sublime. Time is not recalled and no doubt you have had the touch of a satiety by which you let the breath go, and you had no concern that you would ever breathe again for you were fulfilled. Yet you inhaled and started the dualities once again. Merge those dualities again and again and again into unity. Use these little simple tools, become the observer and then the witness. Become the here and be pulled, pulled, pulled into silence and sit with an embrace of that divine, in whatever form or formless, with whatever name or nameless where you and the divine are one.

Initially as in all relationships you want a dialogue, so talk with your divine. Are you with your divine? Then again as in your relationships when you simply hug and need no words, no words to say I am sorry, no words to say I love you, for the you and I in that embrace, through that touch, through that sentiment, are one and then let that be the sweetness, let that be the flavour, and the taste that you desire each day. Let you partake in that banquet as spiritual practice of meditation, simply taste the sweetness. Yes, again you are going to do a lot of chewing because of those past habit patterns and those samskaras and those vrittis that will come back to you again and again.

Chew on them, chew them until they are swallowed. Remember when Shiva swallowed?  He took the poison, and he disbursed it. He chewed it until it could be then assimilated into what? Into a refined essence of that inner strength that you have seen yourself go through a hardship, that you have matured it through the pains and sufferings, whether it would be on the physical or on the mental level. You have gone through that, and in that way, have realised that inner strength, that titikṣā. Then the other of the steps to liberation, uparati, maintaining that ‘upa’ that upward, whether it is step by step on the ladder, until you get to the next elevation, and you see beyond that which had been a horizon for so long, and you have so much wanted to get to the next to see what is beyond. Persevere so that you can elevate, elevate so that you can see the next horizon that inspires you and know that there is always that pull that is coming from that next and next and next elevation, drawing you, lifting you, desiring for that embrace if you will only lift your arms to be lifted and thus embraced.

Maintain the śam, śama, that inner peace; maintain the dam, the dama, the inner virtue. These need to be the baselines of your personality now; as meditators, that is your riverbed, this virtuous life, virtuous behaviour, virtuous attitudes, based in ahimsā. Please, please, embrace the attitudes always of not harming, not violating another, in any way, by thought, in lust, by a word in those angers, those blames and disappointments that are expressed. They harm, they hurt, they tear the fabric of your personality. With the peace, with the śama and the dama, and the uparati and titikṣā, then these practices, these abhyāsas, will mature with vairāgya, as vairāgya. The rāgas, the colourings of the personality, are more pure. The rāgas, the emotions, are more sublime because of the ahimsā and because of the way in which the peaceful attitudes are now practiced.

What is the true measure? Again, Shirin would say liberation, but we are not quite there yet, so let us stop at this point now with simply samadhi. Shirin is in her samadhi always. Joyful, her ānanda is flowing as joy, but do we keep that mind as that joyful mind? Again, our Gurudev, The Art of Joyful Living. What else is there? Yes, it is both an art and the embrace of that which is beyond the sentiment now for it is simply the maintaining of the energy field called mind, in harmony, in unity, in the bliss of that unity as ānanda. Let us at least aspire for moments, whether they be moments in your meditation or whether they be moments in your day where you are practising kindness until it becomes a habit. You feel the compassion, and thereby that oneness brings a gentle harmonising of minds for some time at least. So these are the ways in which these tools of the practices, called the practices, abhyāsa, and so many, you are reminded by Swamiji, again and again the essence of practice, in this form, in this way, through these means. Practice, practice, practice, but enjoy the sweetness, enjoy the bliss, be in the enjoyment as your samadhi state of mind and thus just live happily, joyfully.

Those situations of life will continue to unfold, but are you reacting or simply now responding to the need of the moment? And keeping the harmonious mind field, the peaceful mind field? In that way simply enacting the līlā, the play on the stage of life. All of us have our roles and multiple roles, which there too is a spiritual practice.

“Swami Veda used to…” many of you are remembering. He says at least in India the understanding is a person will go to the office and play the role and they will leave that role in the office and they will come home, not to be the boss, not to be reactive as you would say in your office to show maybe inspiration to move the workers faster for a deadline. But at home to say to your wife, hurry up with the supper, honey, my programme is coming on, I want to watch. Come on, you are mixing the personas, the masks.

So with your family be a family person, yet again multiple ways in which that role is skilfully played by the father with the teenage son; by the mother with the child, telling the husband to wait, the child will come first. So again ways in which life in all its flavours will be enjoyed for it is the Divine Mother’s joy to which we are simply her children and have been born into that joy.

Om saumyā saumyātarāśeṣa saumyebhyas tvati sundarī ,
parāparāṇāṁ paramā tvameva parameśvarī.
tāre tut tāre ture svāhā.

Now no longer in the vocal, spoken word, moving the tongue, the lips without the sound.

Now sealing the lips and not only sealing the tongue but relax the entire oral cavity. From the hinge of the jaw to the chin. Throughout the entire neck to the base of the skull to the shoulder region and internally the finer fibres of that musculature.

Now say the words in the mind.

Now from vaikharī to madhyama there are many stages of this mental state of the mantra. Especially with the longer mantras it will take some time to let us say bring them to a higher frequency. It is sometimes referred to a higher speed or let us say faster, but let us know that the spoken word that is expressed as a mental word now will have subtler and subtler expressions of that vibration and so it will flow and that presence will be felt. That sound will be heard with the inner ear and you will observe not word in the mind but an illuminating quality of that mantraas it flows, repeatedly flows, flows.

So now in whatever way, in whatever frequency or rhythm that is easy and natural three more recitations of the saumyā mantra.

Coming back to your breathing, letting the memory, the sentiment of the mantra remains.

Mother as form, you see her. Mother as sound, you hear her. Mother as touch, embracing and thereby being embraced, the subtle fragrance, her sweetness. For what a poet would write in thousands of pages you as a meditator merge into a micro-moment, for you and the divine are one, and she gives you the next breath and into her you again breathe. That very breath breathes through you, that very saumyā the sweetness. When she takes a step or two or many steps away from you, you take that step and through that inner strength take the remaining steps, a sense of inner push toward that love and sense that pull that she pulls you toward her continuously. Though she may veil her presence, though you may doubt and in that fleeting moment even faith is missing. With that sense of surrender again you will be pulled, again the strength will come forward to push you and boost you and upward to that next rung to see the horizon. May you view that rising of the full moon and with that illumination that fills and fulfils your saumyā transforms, that embrace fulfils, until your last breath, whether it be in meditation, whether it be let go.

As you say svāhā tomorrow with the offerings, that letting go is the sentiment of svāhā.

Simply a moment, a minute now of silence.

Maintain your śraddhā, maintain your titikśā, your inner strength and keep your foreheads relaxed.

OM SHAM

Editor’s Note:

This is a transcript of a talk given by Swami Ritavan on 1 March 2019 at the 2019 Sangha Gathering at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama.

Sangha Practice for the Next 3 Years

Posted on by Mandala

Om yaj jāgrato dūram udaiti daivaṁ tadu suptasya tathaivaiti,
dūraṅgamaṁ jyotiṣāṁ jyotir ekaṁ tan me manaḥ śiva-saṅkalpam astu.

“Tan me manaḥ śiva-saṅkalpam astu” is the essence of the teachings in many ways. Many of you have heard Swami Rama say ‘all of the body is in the mind’ so this understanding that, yes, this personality is more than feeding the body, taking care of the body, for I am a mental being, and the ways in which this life of the mind unfolds are the secrets and the mysteries of yoga.

This morning we have spoken how the Tradition is one of meditation; the Tradition is one of transformation of the mind. Those qualities of the Prakriti and its first devolutes as its gunas, sattvic guna, rajasic guna, tamasic guna, and in that sense the sattvic, the rajasic and the tamasic mature into further evolutes by which the mind and that mind as senses, perception and cognition the very essence of the ahamkara, the I maker, and the buddhi, the intelligence.

So such a manner of understanding one’s personality is key and core to living life and a life worth living. The essence of Swami Veda’s teachings is citta-prasadanam, making the mind a pleasant place, and it is only through that constant maturing of that faculty of mind that mind is left behind. No longer needing this vehicle, you have taken the boat from one shore to the other, and you are free. Free to now leave mind behind, yet use it as accordingly as you wish, as you give the intention from that higher mind of buddhi.

This is the essence of sacrifice, knowing how to first understand the qualities of mind, regulate those qualities, control them, and in that way transform them to allow the buddhi to be the instrument reflecting the ātman, and so you become a being of light, yet you carry on with your day’s activities. You, receiving the light of the soul, carries that into all your actions and that illumines the words of your speech and sanctifies the thoughts of your mind, and thus we understand through this principle the art of worship, the method of sacrifice, and the two together become the constant yajna, the constant way in which reverence is paid by all your actions or your thoughts and words being offered as svāhā, not me and not mine.

We have a beautiful example of that in the Bhagavad Gita and, of course, with Swami Rama’s explanation of the Bhagavad Gita. [Perennial Psychology of the Bhagavad-Gita by Swami Rama] In the third chapter, verses 10 through 20, are the essence of sacrifice, the essence of worship, the essence of understanding the role of mind and thus the freedom from the bondage of mind when we look at that particular verse.

There are three types of yajna. These are performed with the goal of sacrifice in that you give up the fruits that you have received, and these practices bring value to your life as non-attachment. Ordinary people go about their day’s activities, and thus their oblations are into a fire of pleasure. It is only those that perform without attachment that these activities become austerities, and in so doing the fruits are no longer binding.

I said, a couple of years ago I think, to Jan and Lori, we introduce the verse 27 of the Saundarya Lahirī for the sangha community in Minneapolis, and this particular verse is a preparation for further Shri Vidya practices for it sets the mind’s framework of understanding sacrifice. Understanding the way in which japo jalpaḥ śilpam sakalam-api mudrā-viracanā that all my speech, all my moving about throughout the day, all my satisfying the hungers and lying down at night to find rest, each and every action, thought and word, are offered to Thee, O Divine Mother.  If this is an attitude for your life, no doubt Mother will embrace you with her love, speak to you in the mysterious words of silence and this will open your heart.

Then this year we have moved to the third verse that we use also in our evening prayer, ‘avidyānām-antas-timira-mihira,’ where my actions are no longer binding, for I am no longer grabbing for the pleasures of the fruits, satisfactions that are simply moment to moment, temporary pleasures and in my pursuits of knowledge, even there I am stuck. I am searching, and yet I find in Mother the flower that has the sweetness, and that honey is the satisfaction of Mother’s love. And those of us that are now on the spiritual path, having matured with the citta-prasadana, having practiced svadhyaya, constant japa and self-reflection, then in there is one knot to untie, the knot of samsara, that though I have lived a life with a spiritual nature I have not yet reached the other shore, and I am yearning for that final cutting of the bondage, and in that way Mother will deliver. These are the sacrifice, these are the yajña of life that we will perform as a worship tomorrow and each of the days following until we bring the purnahuti, the conclusion and the continuation for, as a collective sangha, collective mindedness, we will engage in the special mantra that is given as the initiatory mantra when the priest tomorrow will say, who will take the sankalpa, each of us will take it in our own way, and I will represent all of you at the yajña to, you might say, impregnate it with that mantra that I will carry like a child for three years until we come together again for the final pūrṇāhuti at our next sangha. Along the way you will have the opportunity to keep that subtle connection like a foetus with the mother through the japa of the special mantra.

This mantra from the Caṇḍī text is again one of our Tradition. Swamiji, as Stoma knows, recited verses from the text everyday of his life, the Devī Māhātmya text, or the Caṇḍī.  It was a way by which his personal sacrifice, worship, his internal yajña and offering to the Divine Mother through the mantras of that prayer recited mentally, and he would judge both his physical and mental health by the time that it took for him, for it was a regular practice that had a regularity of a certain amount of time, and every so often he would say, I must not be feeling well today; it took me 20 more seconds. It wasn’t that he was identifying with an illness, but he was identifying with the mind having some difficulty, some length of an extra moment or two to recite about 700 verses, the same size as the Bhagavad Gita. Don’t worry, you are not going to recite all those verses, but there is one in particular that was his favourite for he talked about the moonlike, cooling and soothing presence of Mother as Saumya. Actually even before the giving of the mantra to us originally at the 1999 gathering to bring in the new millennium, as a householder, he and his wife Lalita, chose that particular name for their third child, Saumya, so in that sense there is a real connection to understanding what it means both as a name, both as a spiritual practice, both as a way in which the sangha that truly became his expanded family.It is so near and dear to him to give that name and that mantra for us now once again.

Coming back to the yajna that will start tomorrow, you will see on your schedule the practice from after breakfast, you can come over, continuing with the pujas, the formalities of calling the divine forces, and in that way establishing those special relationships by which that divinity, those forces are present with us, and then each day the puja or the offerings, the worships that are done to strengthen those relationships to bring forward the way in which the maturing of a spiritual relationship with divinity will no doubt bring its fruits. Yet for us as sadhakas we will see how it will embellish the sattva of our minds, and through the mantra the essence of that sattvic mindedness will mature now, day by day, month by month, year by year. I will invite you to either in our library, our guest library next to our dining room, to look through the Yajña booklet, or you can purchase one for a minimal cost in our bookstore, which will explain a little more about the theme of the sacrifice, the yajña, as well as having some additional verses of the third chapter of the Bhagavad Gita associated with sacrifice.

Before imbuing the mantra, you will be receiving this, so I won’t actually go over the details of it, but it is the assimilation of some comments Swami Veda has made, some lectures he has given, some writings he has done on the saumya mantra. Over the years we have also used it during our 40-day practice to give it a little extra booster done each year leading up to Guru Purnima. The purpose of the observation is to establish and enhance peacefulness in the hearts and minds of Gurudeva’s disciples and thereby to strengthen the bond of a good heartedness among all beings for the pleasure of the Guru.

Guru prītam-artham. We will say that as part of our sankalpa.

For the Guru’s pleasure. For the Guru’s spirit guidance. For the Guru’s Grace.

The mantra is addressed to the Divine Mother, Saumya, in her moonlike peaceful presence. This particular observation over the next three years is to bring about the peacefulness, not only in each one’s mind, but then radiating that, applying that fruit of your sadhana to your family and then expand that to your students and continue expanding that through the samasṭi-citta, the universal mind, with that sentiment of svāhā, not me and not mine.

Now in preparation for receiving the mantra and in imbuing the mantra with the energy that it can provide. The normal rule is that while observing this practice you should refrain from confrontational or controversial engagements. Confrontational, controversial, in the sense of setting resistances and encouraging resistances. In the sense of creating boundaries and also the mental boundaries that you will find when you deny something or when you justify something and not be open to a correction or not be sensitive to others that may have a different understanding of your action and may question your intent. So these attitudes would go along with the practice, the constancy of observation and purification. Even though we declare the purpose is without accepting the fruits of the practice we surrender to divinity with the sense of Guru prītam-artham.

It is the intent of self-purification that you have requested and collectively undertaken this observation. It will go on to explain a little of the psychology also of the sattvic nature of these subtle changes that you will have with your attitudes and your mental processes along with your emotions.

The first line

The word itself saumyā saumyātarā śeṣa saumyebhyas-tvati-sundarī.

Saumyā the feminine word for the soma like lunar qualities and attributes. She the lunar one, the moonlike peaceful and kind one.

Saumyātarā: even more peaceful than the brightness of the moon and in that way she is even more beautiful than all the forces of nature that bring a peaceful contentment and satiety.

The second verse:

Parāparāṇāṁ paramā tvameva parameśvarī.

Parāparāṇām: all things of the transcendent nature. The realities that are of the other shore. She transcends even those transcendental forces as well as the imminent forces. She alone a supreme lady is the one who will guide us to moksha and so the ultimate goal in the Indian psychology is a spiritual one.

The highest is to leave mind behind, the state of amanaska yoga or asamprajñāta samādhi, yet immediately leading up to that state and stage of your meditation is viveka-khyāti, the raining of wisdom. It is like the cloud has been removed for in that rain intuition arises. The beauty of mind is truly understood through that god-given knowledge and before even this we must learn to cultivate the sattvic mind. Once again, we come back to the Bhagavad Gita for the understanding of the three gunas and in that way begin to find these relationships in our personal psychology by which subtle changes can be both made and understood. So, in the 14th chapter, the 17th and 18th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. 3rd, 14th, 17th and 18th chapters, so remember these for your reading and reflection.

Now in preparation for the mantra we will take the 3 minutes meditation bringing our minds into that harmony and unity and then there will be these 3 steps.

One: I will say the mantra and in that space of purity, calmness, to be the receiver of that flow of grace. You will hear and receive the mantra as it is recited three times.

In the next three recitations, you will also recite it in your mind along with me.

In the third set of the three recitations, you will move the lips and the tongue, but do not bring the voice forward for the spoken word.

In the final, we will say together out loud in one voice the Saumya mantra, reciting it three times.

As we prepare bringing our minds awareness to the Guru’s space and place, the place and space in which now Guru sits. Exhale and empty, letting go.

The breath of life breathes through you. That gentle rhythm and flow, exhalation followed by inhalation without a pause or break. Centring the mind with your personal mantra with or without the breath. Word mind mantra flowing as a single stream of awareness. Follow the mantra back to the bindu, the still point merging in silence. Now carrying that bindu point to the yajña centre and now follow upward the centre of the forehead, three digits above the yajña centre. A presence, the bindu, in the Guru chakra. Ask for Guru’s blessings to receive Guru’s grace. Becoming a child of innocence. And now listen.

Saumyā saumyātarā śeṣa saumyebhyas-tvati-sundarī.
Parāparāṇāṁ paramā tvameva parameśvarī.
Tāre tut-tāre ture svāhā.

[Swamiji recites this three times in each step, so nine times.]

Continue in your meditative state with your mantra or your personal mantra and then each of you will come up to receive the handout and the shawl. The shawl of Mother Divine wrapping you and wrapping your mind in that peaceful harmonious pleasure of moksha, liberation.

Editor’s Note:

This is a transcript of a talk given by Swami Ritavan on 25th February 2019 during the 2019 Sangha Gathering at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama.

Spiritual Message for This Holy-Days Season

Posted on by Divya - Administrator

“Guiding Light of Love Reborn—Celebrate!”

As you would hold a child in a hug, and breathe with a relaxed body, now do that with the desires and fears that you intently hold; Relaxing is to let-go, and letting-go is non-attachment.

This subtle relaxation of mind relieves the spiritual fears and afflictions from mind that holds them as, “me, mine and I”;
and deeper than this, is to re-awaken your conscience as the “voice” of mantra—your companion and guide.

Breathe through THIS mental-body.
Breathe with THIS Name and Identity.
May this Birth and Name be the reawakened soul you now celebrate,
the birth of peace, the name that is full of joy;
resolving to continue–each day, and each breath in the coming year.

With all love and light of the Tradition,
and through the grace of the Lineage,
Blessing you and your loved ones in this holy-days season.

Swami Ritavan Bharati

 

Guru Purnima Letter

Posted on by ahymsin

Dear Initiates and Students,

30 years ago [in 1988] we were reminded of the purpose of life. Each of us can reflect on how life has unfolded, karmic debts paid, dharma fulfilled. And now set the course with renewed intention, sankalpa, living each day with that awakened spirit, and finding joy in a life well-lived and well-loved.

Swami Rama’s address to The Meditation Center by phone on Guru Purnima, July 29th, 1988:

I pray to the Divinity in you.

This day, the day of Guru Purnima, is considered to be the holiest day for the students of life; for those that have been treading the path of light; for those aspiring to attain enlightenment in this lifetime.

They remember this day and celebrate it by becoming aware [that] the purpose of life is to attain enlightenment; the state of mind, internal state, that makes one free from all pains and miseries.

As Gurudev reminds us: “As fire purifies the gold, unconscious mind, and entire reservoir, thus the storehouse can be purified by offering all that I have stored within to the fire of knowledge by saying: ‘Om Guruve Namah.’ Everything belongs to the Light of Light. When nothing belongs to me … I am free.”

Please again read through the daily inspirations for the 40-day Spiritual Festival of Peace and choose your top 10; then select the three that you will commit to practice for the next six months. At that time (February 2019), we will gather for our special AHYMSIN Sangha in Rishikesh, with prayer and contemplation to discover and apply the steps of Spiritual Peace, within, and for our global family. Further details are upcoming.

Om Shanti, May Peace fill your hearts.

Swami Ritavan Bharati,
on behalf of the spiritual guides of AHYMSIN

Editor’s Note:

For more about the 2019 Sangha Gathering that will take place at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama (SRSG) 25th February – 5th March 2019, please read these two articles written by Swami Ritavan Bharati:

Daily inspirations were put out on social media by Divya Gupta – Facebook AHYMSIN Group, Facebook AHYMSIN, Twitter, and Instagram.

More about the Spiritual Festival can be read at: Annual Festival of Spiritual Peace.

This letter was also published in the July 2018 edition of the AHYMSIN Newsletter.

2019 Sangha Gathering and Preparations

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When we look to the future, we see the opportunities for change, for growth, for embracing a loving heart and a smiling mind. During these 40 days of spiritual peace, we deepen our commitment and accept our practices as discovery – a tapas of peace. We deepen our relationship with the source of inner light and knowledge through remembering our spiritual heritage, our guides, our inspirations of the past reborn in this deep innate desire for freedom, self-understanding and joy.

As the 40 days lead us to Guru Purnima, and to our upcoming Sangha gathering, we reflect, review, and preview these themes of living a spiritually fulfilling life. Living with the sense of sustainability, with a sense of understanding Mother Earth’s ability to produce and humanity to recognize the nature urge of living in harmony and understanding. We re-commit ourselves through our three themes of ahimsa, aparigraha, and ishwara-pranidhana. With an intention of restraint and understanding, humans can rise above the desires of wanting and taking. The destiny of humanity is to live with awareness and in harmony with nature, living in peaceful co-existence with all and thereby creating a beautiful future here and now.

We are honoring Swami Veda’s contribution through a beautiful little booklet that he created for the United Nations and also for the Parliament of World Religions. Nearly 20 years ago, he shared his revelation in “The Perennial in the Millennium”. These sentiments are as important now as they were then, and will be, in the next decades to come.

Perennial in the Millennium

He presented us with a How-To manual to create a beautiful future, a peaceful future, not only for oneself but for one’s family, community, and abundance for the whole world. In this booklet, he has given us tools for insight and guidance of humanity if they so choose.

In our sangha gathering, members of the world organization, the AHYMSIN organization will honor the Tradition with the dictum of Swami Rama: Love, Serve and Remember, and take steps to apply the vision that Swami Veda left with us to inspire our spiritual-lives for future generations.

Editor’s Note:

The 2019 Sangha Gathering is scheduled for 25th February – 5th March, 2019, at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama (SRSG) in Rishikesh, India. Contact: ahymsin@ahymsin.org.

“The Perennial in the Millennium” by Swami Veda Bharati is available in Kindle from Amazon and Amazon.in. For inquiries about purchasing it in booklet form, please contact Himalayan Yoga Publications Trust (HYPT) at hyptbooks@gmail.com.

“The Perennial in the Millennium,” a poem by Swami Veda Bharati can be read by clicking on the title.

[This article was previously published in the June 2018 edition of the AHYMSIN Newletter.]

Ashram Pramukha Address to Residents

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 Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama Ashram Pramukha addressing residents preparing for:

40-day Festival of Spiritual Peace: June 18th – July 27th 2018
Maha-samadhi of Swami Veda Bharati – July 14th
Guru Purnima – Full Moon 27th July 2018

Guru Brahma…Tasmai Shri Gurave Namah;

As we gather in this sanctuary, in this sacred place of beauty and peace, gather with sentiments (bhava) of respect, shraddha-faith, and joy, we reflect of the presence of Guru.

When devotion has matured in the fires of tapas, tempered in the flames of sadhana, a gem is formed. A pure heart is the gem of the saintly world, a loving mind, the gold of the saintly alchemists. This aspiration and sankalpa for a life well-lived are the gifts we humbly honor at the Guru’s feet.

We gather in celebration to embrace the subtlety of this presence, the beauty of this wisdom, and faith in this mandate — “share with the world the pure form of meditation and only initiate into the same.”

We gather to give witness — that our relationship with the Yoga Meditation Tradition, a Living Lineage, should be absolutely pure, selfless, and carry the Guru-Shakti of self-transformation and spiritual awakening.

Today, we remember (smriti), today we reaffirm our faith (shraddha), today we embrace our sankalpa. Today and every day, our lives are dedicated as we daily recite “tasmai shri Gurave namah”; in performing our duties selflessly, and through the mindful intention: — “Let Each Person Feel Loved.” This fulfills our debt to Gurudeva, and to our beloved Swamiji, and assures a wholesome life with contentment (santosha) and joy.

NOW for a moment of Silence…
Om; shreem gurudev namah;

Swami Ritavan Bharati,
dasanudasa
(dough now baking in Guru’s oven)

Editor’s Note:

This article was previously published in the AHYMSIN Newsletter, May 2018. 

The Annual 40-Day Spiritual Festival occurs each summer during the 40 days that precede Guru Purnima. Sadhakas are invited to participate in the 40-Day Spiritual Festival, to expand and refine one’s sadhana.

Annual Festival of Spiritual Peace

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Annual Festival of Spiritual Peace

18th June till 27th July 2018
“Vasudeva, the Indwelling-Lord”

Through the living presence of Swami Veda here in Sadhaka Grama, we are inspired to return “home” to the theme of “Vasudeva”. This theme holds many gems of sadhana practiced as the Annual 40-Day Festival of Spiritual Peace.

For 2018, our theme of “Vasudeva” will focus on three kriyas [practices]: ahimsa, aparigraha, and Ishwara-pranidhana.

Annual Spiritual Festival

Please see the edited talk below by Swami Veda addressing these, plus the links and references given for details on the observances during the Festival. Enjoy this immersion in sadhana during the festival celebration of Spiritual Peace.

— Swami Ritavan Bharati

Vasudeva Principle

by Swami Veda Bharati

In the Bhagavad Gita, we read “vasudeva sarvam”. That indwelling One is All. There is no other in relation-to, or conditioned-by. What do we mean by the indweller, the indwelling force? One of the many ways, the word “vasudeva” is translated in Bhagavad Gita is the “indwelling deity”. This is closely related to the word “vasu”, meaning, “all places”, for all places are dwelling places of divinity. Vasu is also the “hamsa”, that swan of the universal prana dwelling every-where in every-thing. Vasu-mana is also one of the thousand names of Shiva in the Mahabharata. Vasu-mana means beautiful mind, a mind that dwells as light in Being, and therefore, Vasu is the beautiful, light-filled, indwelling force.

May your mind be vasu-mana. Not this “me”, this little individuated mind, but mind as it is linked to the minds of the whole universe. When one mind-wave meets another mind-wave and a continuum is experienced that is called “mind as an energy field”. One mind-wave meeting another mind-wave in this oceanic-wave-field, and the two become one. When your individual mind touches that universal mind, “samasthi-chitta”, the senses of time and space dissolve. There is a force that acts through the force-field called “mind”, where space and time cease and some other force flows.

The practical application of that is in the principle called ahimsa. Until you learn to practice ahimsa you will never understand what cosmic mind is. You will not understand without the practice of non-violence, because according to the tradition, when you are hurting someone, being angry at someone, you are hurting and harming yourself. Each time people hurt themselves they express any form of violation, and this extends up to the entire cosmic mind, that cosmic mind of which you are a part. That is why among the yamas and niyamas the first yama is ahimsa.

What is ahimsa? First, you should know the Sanskrit word, “Sarvata”, meaning in all possible ways, in all possible modes. Of the many names for God, one of Her names is Sarvam, “All”. That All is indivisible, without division, not divided. Among all the divisions we experience, the “All” – Sarvam, remains full, undivided, complete in Her nature, and that is your true nature.

Ahimsa is associated with words, with thoughts, with actions. Doing it yourself, causing someone else to do it, someone else committing a violent act and you consent to it with words or silently. “Sarvata,” means at all times, in all ways, there is the intention to hurt, harm or injure. Not having the intention to hurt is ahimsa.

Of these 10 yamas and niyamas, after ahimsa, the remaining nine: satya, asteya, brahmacharya, aparigraha, saucha, santosha, tapas, swadhyaya, ishwara-pranidhana are all rooted in the first, ahimsa. They are there to help accomplish the perfection of ahimsa. They simply describe some aspect of ahimsa, and to make ahimsa perfect the other nine are included and necessary.

So if you want your prayers, your meditations, your silence, leading to your serenity, your quest for serenity, leading to your quest for peace of mind, yet, all the time you are committing himsa, all the time you are committing violence with your mind, where will your peace of mind be? For this reason, I am suggesting that you apply these kriyas, these applications of your yoga beginning with ahimsa and next, aparigraha.

This second practice (kriya) is aparigraha, non-attachment, not grasping or holding, possessing one’s object of desire beyond the “need” for which it fulfills. It is because of your lack of aparigraha that so much himsa is taking place and collection destruction of species is happening. Scale down your desires, and learn to remove your attachments to practice aparigraha. Take less, and let-go more. Keep to your practice of aparigraha and ahimsa.

These two, ahimsa and aparigraha are two closely related, but I want you to now add, Ishwara-pranidhana. What is the in-dwelling spirit – Ishwara in the butterfly? What about the Ishwara in the ocean or rivers that you have filled with plastic or muck? And when you take a shower or wash your hands remember the water you are using is now reduced, less for others. Be conscious, be aware, aware you are committing indirect violence. In many of your actions you are committing violence. Learn to enjoy more of less, and the world will be saved. These are all interlinked, the Ishwara pradhidhyana and your aparigraha and ahimsa are all linked. In this way, the amount of water you are using will reveal an understanding of Isha, the One Lord, practicing the presence of God, Ishwara pradhidhyana.

Practicing these kriyas will provide an “attitude-adjustment,” and thereby with a purified mind, you will experience a quietness and a sense of satisfaction. This mental-pacification is the essence of spirituality, this is the essence of dharma, this is the teaching that will elevate you and alleviate so many burdens of your mind.

Another part of Ishwara-pranidhana is “surrender to the Lord.” This indwelling principle, the indwelling Lord is Ishwara. Ishwara is that aspect of God which in relationship with the universe and its beings. And, Dhyana means to surrender, to merge your individual mind into the universal mind consciousness. Your individuated ego into the divine presence. Learn to connect with the lineage with Guru Parampara and at that moment the Guru Parampara lifts you and carries you.

When a Guru, yogishwara, divine Lord, Ishwara, graces you with attention, that is called Ishwara pranidhana. The devotee’s dhana is responding to by the divine (Ishwara) pranidhana. You will understand that only when you experience that connection through Samashti-chitta and through the Ishwara pranidhana principle, the Mahabharata explains, You only have to remember him.

Whatever I say, please go home and examine your life, examine your choices in life. Plan your spiritual life as you plan your worldly life. You plan for your finances, you plan for your business, you plan for what kind of house you will buy, you plan for what kind of car you will buy, you plan for what kind school you will send your kids to, you plan what kind of clothes you will buy for Christmas or Diwali, plan for your spiritual life.

You plan for insurance. Plan how much japa you will finish in five years. Plan for how much you will reduce your direct or indirect violence in the next five years or in the next one year. Plan that. Plan for how you can increase the time you sit for your prayers and your meditation. You will make a difference. Take it seriously. Plan for the moment of dying. Plan for the kind of body you want next time. Plan for in what kind of a household you want to be born next time. Part of that plan is the mood of your dying, what mood, what sentiment, what feeling, what smile there will be on your face at the moment of dying. What satisfaction you will have with your last breath.

Plan now for what spiritual improvements you will make in the next 40-days, in the next one year, in the next five years. If you need help we can help.

Enjoy the meditations on the full moon day each and every month. Slowly, slowly something will happen for you. So that is the indwelling principle, Vasudeva.

(See meditation on Vasudeva.)

Editor’s Note:

Please see the article “What You Might Do” by Swami Veda Bharati, or you may want to read The Spiritual Festival of 1992 by Swami Veda Bharati (written when he was Usharbudh Arya).

For more information about the Spiritual Festival Retreat at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama (SRSG), please contact ahymsin@ahymsin.org .

This article has previously been published in the AHYMSIN Newsletter, May 2018.

Links and References:

Grace of Adi Shankaracharya

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Swami Ritavan Bharati pilgrimage to Sringeri Math April 2018As one would visit their long lost ancestral home that is how the pilgrimage to the sacred Sringeri Sharada Peetham felt to me—coming home to this ancient seat of the Bharati Lineage, dating back for more than 1200 years. It was a trip of a lifetime, a trip enough to savor a lifetime, this lifetime. Visiting this island of knowledge as the very source of Adi Shankaracharya’s teachings, paying obeisance to the great Guru Lineage…

06a Swami Ritavan Bharati pilgrimage to Sringeri Math April 2018 scaled

At the Sringeri Peetham, there is a certitude of intimacy with the divine, a bliss unknown elsewhere, an uncanny trust into the subtle yet sublime presence of the Guru Force. An emotion that cannot be expressed, a feeling that needs to be experienced, an experience that must be felt…

Adi Guru Shankaracharya is considered an incarnation of Lord Shiva himself, who took birth on this earth for the salvation of the people to uphold the Sanatana Dharma. Having taken sanyasa at the age of 8 years, he had organized the traditional teachings into a new monastic tradition, the monastic tradition that I havebeen initiated into. He also established four centers of teachings across India for t

he monks to learn, practice, and spread the teachings. A story is told of the time when Shankaracharya was looking for the right place to establish the first Mutt. He came across a frog and a snake, enemies by nature, living peacefully together at Sringeri. Such is the energy of this sacred land.

06c Swami Ritavan Bharati pilgrimage April 2018 scaled

As one would visit their long lost ancestral home that is how the pilgrimage to the sacred Sringeri Sharada Peetham felt to me—coming home to this ancient seat of the Bharati Lineage, dating back for more than 1200 years. It was a trip of a lifetime, a trip enough to savor a lifetime, this lifetime. Visiting this island of knowledge as the very source of Adi Shankaracharya’s teachings, paying obeisance to the great Guru Lineage…

At the Sringeri Peetham, there is a certitude of intimacy with the divine, a bliss unknown elsewhere, an uncanny trust into the subtle yet sublime presence of the Guru Force. An emotion that cannot be expressed, a feeling that needs to be experienced, an experience that must be felt…

Adi Guru Shankaracharya is considered an incarnation of Lord Shiva himself, who took birth on this earth for the salvation of the people to uphold the Sanatana Dharma. Having taken sanyasa at the age of 8 years, he had organized the traditional teachings into a new monastic tradition, the monastic tradition that I have been initiated into. He also established four centers of teachings across India for the monks to learn, practice, and spread the teachings. A story is told of the time when Shankaracharya was looking for the right place to establish the first Mutt. He came across a frog and a snake, enemies by nature, living peacefully together at Sringeri. Such is the energy of this sacred land.

Where no shoes can touch the sacred grounds of the temple complex, barefoot we ventured to the river ghat and felt an instant connection to all of nature and the many fishes, as we stepped foot in the sacred waters. To join in this aspiration of moksha, liberation from the avidya and overcoming the mirage of maya is to traverse from this shore to the other shore. And with our mantra vibrating in our heart and mind, we crossed the setu over the Tunga River for Shankaracharya’s Darshan.

We observed meditation at this sacred place while awaiting the darshana of the 36th Jagadguru Shankaracharya – Shri Bharati Teertha Mahaswami Ji. He had been called by his Guru and the 35th Jagadguru, “the bright star that descended to give light to the world”. We exchanged the details of our spiritual journeys and writings of our Gurus. His own spiritual practices have been modeled on adherence to Adi Shankara’s guidelines for achieving the goal of spiritual life. Through daily svadhyaya, applying the principles through nididhyasana, thereby, worshipping God through the performance of one’s duties with meaningful competence.

Before parting, he asked whether we would be staying with them and attended to our comforts and meals for overnight residency at the Peetham. Later that night, we joined aarti at the Ma Sharadamba Temple (the presiding deity of knowledge) and spent some time in meditation at the Samadhis of the previous Jagadgurus. We also participated in the worship of the Chandramouleeswara Lingam by the Shankaracharya himself.

06i Swami Ritavan Bharati pilgrimage April 2018 scaled
06h Swami Ritavan Bharati pilgrimage April 2018 scaled

Immersed in the backdrop of Vedic chants and temple bells, by the side of the glorious and pious Tunga River, we felt absorbed into the sacred aura that immediately heightened our consciousness. Where students recite the Vedas aloud under trees; where Pandits perform daily pujas within the ancient Shiva and Shakti temples; where hundreds of seekers prostrate at the feet of the Adi Guru within the temples and at the samadhis of all the Gurus in the tradition, one goes back to the Vedic times.

It was an honor to receive a rare invitation from the Jagadguru to visit the Sringeri Sharada Peetham again. With a deep desire to go back to the roots of the Lineage, we hope to revisit this land that emanates great love and peace that needs to be imbibed and internalized.

Editor’s Note:

This article was previously published in the April 2018 AHYMSIN Newsletter.

2019 Sangha Gathering

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The Interview with Swami Ritavan Bharati about the upcoming 2019 AHYMSIN Sangha Gathering was recorded and edited by Lo, whom Tinyu Chen brought to Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama in March 2018. Below is a transcript of the video interview.

When we look to the future, we look at how can we create opportunities for students to deepen their practice or to become familiar with, to be introduced to practices that they may feel that now they are ready for, now they would like to understand themselves through such unique ways of these prayers, contemplations, meditation, yoga practices, so we’re coming together with a special gathering next year.

We are honoring Swami Veda in the sense of his beautiful little book, booklet, that he created for the United Nations presentation some years ago. Also for the Parliament of World Religions he gave a talk. He gave a theme that was simply called

“The Perennial in the Millennium” for it was the change of the millennium.  And he took these sentiments of how would one want to create a beautiful future, a peaceful future. Not only for oneself or one’s family or even among a community, but for the whole world. So he presented this at the United Nations. He presented these beautiful tools of insight and guidance for humanity if they so choose.

So we are going to gather a group together next year in the month of February and March to specifically review these themes of living, living with the sense of sustainability, with a sense of understanding Mother Earth’s ability to give and us as humans, not always taking, taking, taking, but to live in harmony with nature as a way by which we can see more of a beautiful future.

So with this the sangha, the members of the world organization, of the world communities, coming together for the AHYMSIN organization and serving the intention of Swami Veda before he left his life to inspire us for the future.

Also we have a number of traveling teachers so we continue to provide the instruction and the guidance, either by the way of seminars or programs or by way of teacher training. And again our unique way of training yoga teachers is to see yoga in ten different fields of knowledge, so we work with the entire scope of a, let’s say, an understanding of yoga.

What is the philosophy and the psychology or the texts and the scriptures or through one’s sadhana or through the tradition of the yoga lineage or through the asanas in the anatomy of the body, or through the pranayamas in the understanding of the breath practices that lead to meditation as well as the meditative states and the very specific tools of relaxation and in that way concentration that leads to meditation. These once again the context of the yoga philosophy that has been given to us through Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras. This is simply to say that yoga means samadhi. The purpose of yoga is samadhi, that state of harmony, unity, and oneness within one’s true nature.

So we continue to guide perspective teachers that would like to learn the practices in our tradition, teach yoga, but mostly practice, so that they really can provide guidance for their students in the future.

You know that in the paths of yoga, there are many paths that all lead to the same mountain top. Some are always wanting to read and to feel that connection that ideas can give them and in that way apply that in their life. Others like to be more active, more involved, more sharing with others, giving to others, working for others in the sense of a collective effort, and we say that’s the karma yoga, and in that way they understand through the acts of service and seva. Also one, they have more of an emotional character, which then bhakti yoga is able to guide them in the paths of making that object  of their emotion and of their sentiment a divine purpose either within the recognition of the divine in the other person or through their own prayer life that deepens through this deep sentiment called bhakti yoga.

So these tools of the yoga practice, of the paths of yoga. And then using the modern methods, let’s say, the ways in which over the internet now you have so many ways to view videos, to hear audios, to examine some of the Sanskrit texts or the language in which the texts have been written, the Sanskrit language, and in that way begin a sense of study.

But there should always be a sense of coming back to a guide, a guide that can form fit. You go to a shoe shop, and you say, you just don’t say give me a shoe and pull anything off. You say, “Do you have someone that can measure my foot?”, and so they measure it. “Yes, you need this. This is best for you.” So in that way the yoga guide is so important and in that way whatever you’re collecting by way of means and practices will be fine tuned through the guide and applied then for your effortless journey on this spiritual journey.

Editor’s Note:

The 2019 Sangha Gathering is scheduled for 25th February – 5th March, 2019, at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama (SRSG) in Rishikesh, India. Contact: ahymsin@ahymsin.org

“The Perennial in the Millennium” by Swami Veda Bharati is available in Kindle from Amazon and Amazon.in.  For inquiries about purchasing it in booklet form, please contact Himalayan Yoga Publications Trust (HYPT) at hyptbooks@gmail.com.

“The Perennial in the Millennium,” a poem by Swami Veda Bharati can be read by clicking on the title.

This article has previously been published in the AHYMSIN Newsletter, April 2018.

Sangha Talk

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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.