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About Harsha

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Meaning of the term “Satsang”

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, Love, Meditation, Nonviolence, PERSONAL, Ramana Maharishi, Satsang, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , ,

If one gains company of pure hearted, good people in life, one gains everything. In yogic psychology, such an association is known as “Satsang”.

At a practical level, Satsang refers to Spiritual Fellowship or company of others on the spiritual path. Satsang is a Sanskrit term and is made of two words, “Sat” and “Sang”.

Sat means “Truth”. Sat also means “Essence”. Sat also means “Existence”. Sang means to “Be With” or “Embraced By” or “In Company of”.

Combining Sat and Sang, we get Satsang, which means “In the company of or embraced by Truth or the Universal Existence”. 

it-will-be-ok-in-the-end

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PLATINUM INSURANCE

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Arunachala, INSPIRATIONAL, LIFESTYLE, PERSONAL, Ramana Maharishi, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . ,

From Mira Prabhu, the mystic, yogini writer residing at Arunachala mountain in India.

Mira Prabhu's avatarmira prabhu

36e4cbc86a09d338c9b54bed3a0b98fdHow are you? I asked a friend in Manhattan. Oh, I’m just FINE, he said with a laugh—then proceeded to inform me that FINE was an anagram for Fuddled, Insecure, Neurotic and Egocentric. (Actually he used two hyphenated words for the ‘f,’ but I think I’ll leave what they are to your rich imagination.)

The fact is that almost every one of us is (or has been) fraught by a million insecurities—and who could blame us? Consider the world wars our species has endured, the concentration camps and gulags, the ugliness of misogyny and patriarchy that plague so many, in a nutshell, man’s inhumanity to man—all of which leave scars on the collective human psyche. Above all, consider our ephemeral nature, as fragile as a snowflake melting under a hot sun. No matter how big we are in the world, nothing can protect us from old age, sickness and death; yes, when Yama…

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The Ego is Not Your Amigo – Part 2 of 2

. INSPIRATIONAL, Spirituality, Tantra, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , ,

From Mira Prabhu, the mystic writer living on the holy mountain of Arunachala.

Mira Prabhu's avatarmira prabhu

Harish Johari Harish Johari

I first began to consciously pursue the destruction of my own troublesome ego when I lived in hectic Manhattan. At the time, I had just begun to plot a novel based on eastern philosophy (Whip of the Wild God: A Novel of Tantra in Ancient India), and was engrossed in learning everything I could about Tantra and mysticism.

In the process, I met folks who tended to interpret Tantra mainly as a license to enjoy indiscriminate sex. My view was different: mainly from delving into the treasure trove of eastern philosophy at the New York Public Library, I had discovered that, etymologically speaking, the word Tantra derives from two Sanskrit words: tanoti and trayati—meaning: the explosion of consciousness. How one performs this magic is up to the individual; while couple-hood can certainly become a means of liberation, celibate tantrics often evolve faster—simply because…

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Keep the Flame of Your Love Burning: By Dr. Harsh K. Luthar

. INSPIRATIONAL, LIFESTYLE, Love, Nonviolence, Ramana Maharishi, Satsang, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , ,

My dearest friends, even though prejudice, hatred, violence, and wars are embedded in world history, these have never been able to completely overshadow the enormous capacity many people have demonstrated in every age, to love, to nurture, to heal, to be peacemakers, and to forgive without reservation. Even when there is darkness all around, if one candle is lit, there is potential for other candles to be lit through it. That is the beauty of the Sangha. Be that Candle. Keep the flame of your love burning, so others can learn to love through you, and the light of wisdom and compassion will guide your way.

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IMG_0111My Dearest and Wonderful Friends:

Thinking of all of you makes me smile with love, wonder, and gratitude.

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Death and Self-Realization

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Ahimsa, Gurus, Hinduism, Meditation, Ramana Maharishi, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It is the ancient teaching of sages and scriptures that our mental state at the time of death determines our next birth. If at the time of death, we fully surrender to the Lord, the Universal Being, then we merge in God and are freed from all sorrows.

We usually think of that at the time of death what we have loved and thought about during life. Hence the purest souls who have devoted their whole life to serving the God of Love merge in that Universal Love immediately at the time of death and achieve complete liberation.

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Sri Ramana and My Teacher Gurudev Sri Chitrabhanu-Ji: By Dr. Harsh K. Luthar

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Ahimsa, Gurus, INSPIRATIONAL, LIFESTYLE, Love, Meditation, Nonviolence, Ramana Maharishi, Satsang, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , , ,

All of us come from different backgrounds, and we walk the path in our own unique way. Yet, we all have the same innermost longing to know the deepest mystery of our own nature and being. Reflectin…

Source: Sri Ramana and My Teacher Gurudev Sri Chitrabhanu-Ji: By Dr. Harsh K. Luthar

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Sage of Arunachala

. Ramana Maharishi, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Yoga . , , , ,

The greatest yogis of the day and Shankracharyas came and visited Bhagavan Ramana.

They saw an ordinary frail man, who had nothing, sitting there on the rocks.

Bhagavan Ramana did not try to impress anyone.

The highest yogic adepts and saints instantly saw that they were in the presence of the Eternal Presence ItSelf.

bhagavan-sitting-and-a-person-offering-his-respect

 

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The Root of Self-Inquiry: By Dr. Harsh K. Luthar

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, Ramana Maharishi, TEACHERS, Wisdom . , ,

The ultimate Reality cannot be named. It has no name. There is no one outside of Reality to give it a name.

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Realized Sages such as Bhagavan Sri Ramana have indicated the experience or the state of the Self.  It is what it is.

It is the Heart of Existence, and Existence It Self.  Sri Ramana used to say that It is only Being.

You can call it what you like. Self, No-Self, Shunya, Reality. What difference can it make? The ultimate Reality cannot be named. It has no name. There is no one outside of Reality to give it a name.

Ancient sages taught that the core of our being is pure Sat-Chit-Ananda which roughly translates from Sanskrit as Existence, Knowledge/Consciousness, Bliss as One.

It is devoid of thought or doubt or conflict, but utterly complete and supreme over its domain, its domain being no other than It Self.

It is the Eternal Reality which is not conscious of anything separate from it, being Pure Consciousness Itself.

It is beyond happiness…

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The Nature of Humility

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Gurus, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, Meditation, Ramana Maharishi, Satsang, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , , , , ,

Sri Ramana’s teaching is that the ego/mind merges in the Heart in two ways.

First, we can investigate the nature of the ego and examine the sense of “I” that we naturally feel and see where it arises. To do this, one needs to still the mind and with a purified and subtle intellect trace the “I” back to its source, the Heart. This is the yogic path of Jnana.

The second approach is to simply surrender the ego/mind without reservation to the Lord and accept that it is never our will but the Lord’s will as to what happens. If this attitude of “not my will but thine my Lord” penetrates deeply into our being, then we become accepting of everything. We see that worries and anxieties associated with ego/mind do not belong to us as we have surrendered our individual identity to the Lord. This is the approach of devotion and leads to the ego/mind merging into the Heart where the Lord sits as Eternal Existence.

“If ego rises, all will rise. If the ego merges, all will merge. The more we are humble, the better it is for us”. ~ Sri Ramana in “Gems”, Chapter XIII.

Photo art in this article is from Andreas Farasitis.

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Food is Sacred

. ART & POETRY, Food and Drink, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, Satsang, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Yoga . , , ,

May all beings be healthy and happy and enjoy fullness without being too full.

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Vegan Salad with Mango pieces

Sri Ramana spent many years cooking for others at the Ashram and even gave precise instructions to those in the kitchen on cooking! He was a taskmaster and did not allow any food to be wasted.

The Upanishads remind us that food is sacred. “Food (anna) itself is Brahma” ~  Taittiriya Upanishad.

Bhagavan Ramana taught the devotees that food influences our body and mind, and should be selected with care, prepared well, and eaten in moderation.

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