540 – The synergy between the Mother and Rama

Chaitra Navratri signifies the creation of the universe and the beginning of the universe and beings. Durga Ma was engaged in the procreation of the world and therefore this festival is considered to be the beginning of the Hindu year. It also demonstrates the synergy between Devi and Rama. What is our role and how can we celebrate Chaitra Navratri with our hearts and souls. Continue reading

536 – Thoughts and Words

I have been writing about our thoughts very consistently. Our thoughts are our masters until we are able to break free from them. They keep us leashed and our senses are their slaves. We are guided by them and they play havoc with our mind and body. We have descriptions of personalities who are either Type A or B. Continue reading

535 – Taming our heart

Belong means accord, fit, be a part of, to be akin, to have a relationship. We all want to belong to someone. I am going to share excerpts from ‘The Little Prince’ with you:

One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes… it’s the time that you spent on your rose that makes the rose so important… You become responsible for what you’ve tamed. You’re responsible for your rose. Continue reading

531 – Tigers and us

A true story. A farmer saw a tiger in the forest. He watched the tiger and then went and pulled his tail. The tiger turned around and struck the man, who was mortally wounded. The victim was taken to the hospital where he died. It really happened in India. Now why would he pull the tiger’s tail. It is a case of where fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Continue reading

529 – Lifelong Celebration of Easter with Sadhana

Give your full attention to whatever you are doing and recognize the constant renewal of life all around you. Appreciate the beauty and spiritual radiance in people. Open your heart with compassion and accept people as they are. Lastly leave the past to God’s mercy, the future to his discretion. Live in the present with awareness and empathy. In your heart resides your soul. Let us make this our life long celebration of Easter. Continue reading

525 – Atmabhava makes us dear to God

Quotes from the Bhagwada Gita,

One is dearest to God who has no enemies among the living beings, who is nonviolent to all creatures. I look upon all creatures equally; none are less dear to me and none more dear. But those who worship me with love live in me, and I come to life in them.

He alone who truly sees the Lord the same in every creature… seeing the same Lord everywhere, he does not harm himself or others.

Be fearless and pure; never waver in your determination or your dedication to the spiritual life. Give freely. Be self-controlled, sincere, truthful, loving and full of desire to serve… Learn to be detached and to take joy in renunciation. Do not get angry or harm any living creature, but be compassionate and gentle; show good will to all. Cultivate vigour, patience, will, purity; avoid malice and pride. Then you will achieve your destiny.

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524 – Develop the eye of wisdom

Osho spoke,

The third eye is where one puts the tilak, the vermilion mark on the forehead. It was devised as a symbol of that unknown world. This point is not in the same place for everyone. It is said that if someone has meditated for a long time in his/her past lives and has had a small experience of samadhi his/her third eye will be lower down. If no meditation has been done, the place on the forehead is higher up. It can be determined by the position of this point, what the state of one’s meditation was in one’s past life; it will indicate whether the state of samadhi ever happened to one in one’s past life. If it happened often then, this point will have come down lower, it will be at the same level as one’s eyes—it cannot go lower than that. If this point has come in line with one’s eyes, then one can enter samadhi. The happening is so small that it is insignificant.

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521 – Mother Cow and non-violent veganism

 

The Bhagwada Gita describes all the Upanishads as cows and the Supreme Lord Krishna as the cow herd boy and the devotee Arjuna as the calf. It is said that cows give milk only when there is affection for the calf. The cow has four udders, two are for the calf and two are for humans. The cow is described as one of the seven mothers of mankind in the Vedas.

The seven mothers are: Continue reading

520 – Everyone is Divine

The more I live, the more I become convinced everyday that every human being is divine. In no man or woman however vile, does that divinity die… You must know what you are, what your real nature is. You must become conscious of that infinite nature within. Then your divine bondage will burst. – Swami Vivekananda

The main idea in Tantra is having faith in oneself, which according to Tantra is equivalent to having faith in God because neither Tantra nor Vedanta views God as something different from the person. Therefore, if we leave aside the idea of God sitting somewhere up in heaven while we are down here faith in God simply means having faith in ourselves, in what we do and express and achieve to the best of our ability—slowly and slowly developing the creative aspect of our personality. – Swami Satyananda Saraswati

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509 – The umbrella of self-love

The umbrella of love is the new kind of self-love. What is the significance of the umbrella? God is the ultimate umbrella of protection over all of us. Protection arises from love.

What is self-love? Self-love is a state of appreciation for oneself from having a high regard for one’s own wellbeing. Self-love is not inclusive and therefore to understand a new kind of self-love, which is an umbrella, let us examine this quote by C. S. Lewis. Continue reading

506 – Become a Valentinian

Today is Valentine’s Day and let us all try to become Valentinians. What should we experience to accomplish this?

Be connected with the yogic principles and Saint Valentine. Who was he? He was a compassionate and caring person, who looked after all of God’s creatures, from the lowest animal to mankind. He was a practitioner of atmabhava, lover of humanity and we celebrate his memory on this day. Continue reading