Category Archives: Yoga

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Free style interpretation of Ashthavakra Gita verses 3.9 to 3.14

. Self-Inquiry, Spirituality, Tantra, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , , , , , ,

Whether honored or tormented, in laughter or tears
the wise man, who is aware of his Self-Nature
does not see the body and mind as his own
and releases them to their natural ways.
Freedom from duality comes from Self-Knowledge
and reveals the joy that takes one beyond all sorrows.

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Here are the original verses from the Asthavakra Gita 3.9-3.14

Whether feted or tormented, the wise man is always aware of his supreme self-nature and is neither pleased nor disappointed. 3.9

The great-souled person sees even his own body in action as if it were someone else’s, so how should he be disturbed by praise or blame? 3.10

Seeing this world as pure illusion, and devoid of any interest in it, how should the strong-minded person feel fear, even at the approach of death? 3.11

Who can be compared to the great-souled person whose mind is free from desire even in disappointment, and who has found satisfaction in self-knowledge? 3.12

How should a strong-minded person who knows that what he sees is by its very nature nothing, consider one thing to be grasped and another to be rejected? 3.13

An object of enjoyment that comes of itself is neither painful nor pleasurable for someone who has eliminated attachment, and who is free from dualism and from desire. 3.14

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How about a FACE LIFT with Sirshasan?

. TEACHERS, Yoga

Wonderful post on Sirshasan!

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Woman and her desire to look beautiful have been in existence since the history of time. That is, perhaps, the reason for the immense growth of the beauty industry. Incessant struggle of a woman to look fresh, glowing and rejuvenated is the foremost reason for this.

Among the most popular of the beauty practices is facial. Facial brings glow to your face. How? – By massaging facial muscles which increases the blood flow in that area. This is, however, passive (done by other), expensive and requires a trained professional or else the repercussion could prove to be disastrous. How about going natural way?

Sirshasan can give you a FACE LIFT

Picture1An absolutely free, natural, active, long lasting way of getting all the above benefits is by performing Sirshasan regularly as Sirshasana brings abundance blood flow to your face. Not only that, the facial muscles have an earthbound orientation due to…

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The Search For True Love

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Arunachala, Gurus, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, Love, Meditation, Ramana Maharishi, Self-Inquiry, Spirituality, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , , , , , ,

The search for true love is really the search for the ultimate reality of this universe.

It manifests outwardly as the search for that perfect person, the search for God, the search for the mystery of our existence.

Underlying all fears and anxieties is the fundamental agitation of not knowing who we are.

To solve this existential riddle, Sri Ramana advocates the sincere and keen inquiry that focuses on the question, “Who Am I?” 

It is this inward focus with intent and intensity, that leads the mind to dive deep into the very heart of the unknown.

It is in the deepest core of our being, that we find the Heart, that is in reality the Self.

One never feels complete until one realizes that one who has been pursued and sought as one’s true love is one’s own Self.

In coming close to the Self, one is drawn to the Self, and then by Grace merges with the Self, the very Heart of Existence and becomes That.

Bhagavan Ramana used to say, “The Self is always there. It is you. There is nothing but you.”

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Worries Do Not Belong To You!

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Hinduism, Love, Meditation, Self-Inquiry, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , , , , , , ,

The basic tenet of Advaita-Vedanta is that our original nature, the nature of the Self, is Sat-Chit-Ananda-Nityam-Purnum. Sat means Existence. Chit refers to Consciousness. Ananda means Bliss. Nityam mean Eternal. Purnum means whole or complete.

These are not qualities of the Self but its very nature as One monolithic whole. The Self is One without a second, A Mass of Conscious Bliss that is Eternal and Whole. When we experience the Self, we see that the ancient sages were very precise in describing our nature. It is unmistakable and leaves no room for any thought or doubt. Sages teach us that what comes and goes is not our true nature. What is transient has no permanent power or hold on us.

Although we view our personality as made up of mental traits and thoughts, Advaita teaches us that even our mind and thoughts are transient as they are constantly undergoing change. If our identity is based on mental fluctuations, suffering is the natural result.

Sri Ramana, the Sage of Arunachala, taught that through reflection, introspection, and self- inquiry, we can see through our mental conditioning, be free of it, and go beyond it.

Then we see that what comes and goes is not our nature.

Here is a conversation with Sri Ramana and a visitor to illustrate this point.

A visitor said: “I suffer from worries without end; there is no peace for me…” Sri Ramana asked: “Do these worries affect you in sleep?” The visitor admitted that they did not.

Sri Ramana asked him again: “Are you the very same man now, or are you different from him that slept without any worry?”
The visitor said, “Yes, I am the same person.”

Sri Ramana then said: “Then surely those worries do not belong to you. It is your own fault if you assume that they are yours.” (From Maha Yoga by K. Lakshmana Sarma).

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The Most Powerful Yoga

. Advaita and Yoga, Ahimsa, Gurus, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, Love, Meditation, Nonviolence, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , ,

Live your life without hurting anyone. ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj in “I Am That”

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Image (4) lak_Instructing.jpg for post 104

Meet your own self. Be with your own self, listen to it, obey it, cherish it, keep it in mind ceaselessly.

You need no other guide. As long as your urge for truth affects your daily life, all is well with you.

Live your life without hurting anybody.

Harmlessness is a most powerful form of Yoga and it will take you speedily to your goal.

This is what I call nisarga yoga, the Natural yoga.

It is the art of living in peace and harmony, in friendliness and love.

The fruit of it is happiness, uncaused and endless.

Nisargadatta Maharaj in “I Am That”

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The Self Cannot Be Found In Books

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Gurus, Meditation, Ramana Maharishi, Self-Inquiry, Tantra, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , , , , , ,

“You may go on reading any number of books on Vedanta. They can only tell you ‘Realize the Self’. The Self cannot be found in books. You have to find it for yourself in yourself.” Bhagavan Ramana in Gems ~ Chapter 8.

Sri Ramana here states the truth directly and unmistakably. No matter how many books one reads, one cannot gain Self-Realization.

Reading, thinking, and conceptualizing involve mental activity. Yet, it is this mental activity that distracts us and covers up the pure essence of being.

It is the mind itself that has to subside into the Heart and dissolve in it. Upon the merging of the mind in the Heart, the Self, recognition of our true nature is instantaneous. With the mind absent as the intermediary, the wordless Realization is immediate. One recognizes and says that “It has been Me all along. I am the Self.”

This recognition is beyond thoughts, words, and concepts. We use the words only to indicate that our real Self stands always Self-revealed.

Bhagavan Ramana teaches that once we become conscious of our power of attention to scan its own nature, we should focus on that.

in the classic quote given at the beginning of the article, Bhagavan Ramana emphasizes the role of deliberate and conscious introversion of the mind by shifting our attention from perceptions to the perceiver via self-inquiry.

OM Shanti!

Namaste

Note: The featured picture is from Mirela Skerbic on Facebook

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The Nature of Joy

. ADVAITA & YOGA, Gurus, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, LIFESTYLE, Love, Meditation, Ramana Maharishi, Self-Inquiry, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , , , ,

I have left all my practices,

and words of the wise

now sound like noises

in the city at lunch time.

On entering the heart of awareness,

I saw that

joy is simply the glow of contentment

devoid of longing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Nature of the Ego

. Advaita and Yoga, Arunachala, Gurus, Hinduism, INSPIRATIONAL, LIFESTYLE, Meditation, Self-Inquiry, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , , , , , ,

“When the ego rises, all things rise with it. When the ego is not, there is nothing else. Since the ego thus is everything, to question ‘What is this thing?’ is the extinction of all things”.

The quote above from Bhagavan Ramana is from ‘Reality in Forty Verses’ (‘Ulladu Narpadu’), v. 26. It can be found in Bhagavad’s “Collected Works”.

Here Bhagavan eloquently points out that one cannot force oneself to give up the ego. The very attempt to discard the ego, is itself based on the assumption of separation from the whole. In other words, the effort to conquer the ego is based on egotism!

Such forced efforts to overcome the ego end up only reinforcing the notion that we are “separate” from the Universal Existence. With such attempts, the nonexistent phantom of the ego appears real in our imagination.

Hence Bhagavan Ramana says, “Question, what is this thing, this ego which manifests as a sense of separateness from the whole”? Where does it come from?”

This inquiry requires us to simply bring our attention to the sense of identity, the sense of “I AM”. It is only by bringing quiet, nonjudgmental attention on the ego, that the ego can be see through as unreal. The method is simple and yet the mind has to be made pure and subtle to grasp it.

Love to all

Namaste

 

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Your Karma Ate My Dogma…Part 3

. Advaita and Yoga, Arunachala, Ramana Maharishi, Spirituality, TEACHERS, Wisdom, Yoga . , , , , , , ,

Mira Prabhu, residing at Arunachala in South India, explains the nature of karma in her characteristic straightforward way that everyone can understand.

Mira Prabhu's avatarmira prabhu

dalai-lama-addressSometime during the mid-90s, at a workshop at Omega, situated in Rhinebeck, upstate New York, I asked Bob Thurman, ex-Buddhist monk and father of the lovely Hollywood star, Uma Thurman, to explain the laws of karma. Bob shrugged and said he didn’t know of any. Much later, when I moved to Dharamsala from Manhattan, I realized how many versions of karmic theory there are—and not just in the Hindu world, but reflected in the four different schools of Tibetan Buddhism.Just for the record, the laws of karma according to my Gelupa Buddhist guru are as follows:
  • that karma is definite–meaning that acts that cause pleasure result in pleasure, that acts causing pain bring pain back, while neutral acts have no apparent effect;
  • that karmic energy increases exponentially–which means that if you steal one measly rupee, at least four rupees will be stolen from you;
  • that one cannot become…

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ONE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE…

. Arunachala, PERSONAL, Ramana Maharishi, Spirituality, Tantra, Wisdom, Yoga .

Lasting happiness and peace are an inside job…Mira Prabhu

Mira Prabhu's avatarmira prabhu

b14516b6b40561bfe96c12b674d70118…is all it takes to blast open the mind and to prove to us, from the inside where it counts, that what we take for reality, as revealed to us via the five senses and our limited finite mind, is just a thin covering over an Absolute reality simply staggering in its intricate beauty and vast complexity.

As a child growing up in south India, I used to catch strangely disorienting fevers that incapacitated me for a couple of days. I would fall into a heavy sleep at night, then wake up to find myself floating above my body; what would hold my ethereal body from floating away, was, believe it or not, the thin cotton top of the mosquito net we always slept under! I would look down with a gasp of surprised terror to see my sleeping body below, and the next second I would be back within…

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