Dear ones, the tarsier is an animal, which is halfway between lemurs and monkeys. It measures only about 9-16 centimeters. Its tail is double its length. It is found in the Philippines and various islands of Southeast Asia. Continue reading
Life is not so short, but that there is always time enough for courtesy. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Civility costs nothing and buys everything. – Montagu
A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve. – Joseph Joubert
A tree is known by its fruit, a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship and he who plants kindness gathers love. – Saint Basil
How do I find silence? I live in such a noisy place. There are different sounds all around. The whistling of the pressure cooker from my neighbor’s home. The doorbells ringing. Cars going past. The cry of the ambulance or the police sirens. The birds are squawking and the crows are cawing. Dogs barking, vendors selling their wares. Oh dear, oh dear what shall I do? Continue reading
Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that: Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. – Martin Luther King Jr.
So many of us enable and help others and then we feel that we have not been thanked. We say that person is ungrateful.
Swami Sivananda said that one should help those people, who do not even know that they have benefitted from our help. Continue reading
How do I surrender my ego? The most precious pearls of wisdom were given by my Guru Swami Satyananda Saraswati. He shares his experience of when he met Swami Sivananda. He felt his overwhelming influence. Continue reading
When your soul and mine have left our bodies and we are buried along side each other, a Potter may one day mould the dust of us into the same clay. – Omar Khayyam
With nothing on the body,
And with nothing on my hands,
Let me roam on the banks of the Ganga,
With the name of Shiva on my lips
And the thought of Devi and Durga in my mind.
Let me not even know that I exist,
And when I die, I will not know that I am dying. – Swami Satyananda Saraswati
An excerpt from Swami Yoganand’s lectures.
In the beginning of creation, a soul was split into two parts and that before liberation, we have to in some way re-unite with the other half. It is something that is arranged by God and not something that we can really seek on our own. – Swami Sivananda
There is no such thing as sin. Sin is only a mistake: it is a mental creation. The baby soul must commit some mistakes during the process of evolution. Mistakes are your best teachers. Think, ‘I am pure atman,‘ and the idea of sin will be blown in the air.
Aim Hrim Klim
Everyone uses the word karma freely, flippantly and frankly. What does Karma mean? It means that every emotion, thought and action have a consequence.
The vanished lives of all are filled with many shames. Therefore, do not judge.
Beings with unredeemed earthly karma are not permitted after astral death to go to the high causal sphere of cosmic ideas but must shuttle to and fro from the physical and astral worlds. Continue reading
It is fabled that elephants are very wise creatures. Now to add to this fable, research is proving that elephants speak to each other. Their calls can be differentiated from as to whether they are speaking to each other in a family group or in a group of male elephants. It can also be made out whether they are calm or agitated. They are capable of vocal limitation and they learn from each other. Each family has a specific dialect which can be recognized in terms of an individual belonging to a family. Also, each individual has a different tone. Continue reading
Para Pooja is the highest form of worship in which the devotee experiences and worships nothing but God at all times. This form of pooja is described in this poem: Continue reading
What does one see? Either we see nothing or we see selectively. I read a story about Swami Sivananda and I was completely silenced. Swami Sivananda practiced what he preached. Continue reading
Our param guru, Swami Sivananda, said that when one performed one’s yoga sadhana one must involve all of one’s faculties. This means practicing with one’s mind and body. This can be accomplished by awareness, visualization and detachment. Continue reading
The Hindu belief is totally non-exclusive and accepts all other faiths and religious paths. An ancient Vedic text says that God or truth is one and wise persons refer to it by many names. Hindus believe that no one religion is exclusively true, that all major faiths are aspects of the one universal all encompassing truth, and that there are many paths to seek and experience religious understanding and enlightenment. Continue reading
Yoga will emerge as a mighty culture and change the course of world events.
My only request for aspirants is; be constantly aware of the spiritual self beyond the body and mind.
Transform every act of yours into an act of Yoga.
Pain is a cross on which nature hangs a man whenever She wishes to make him a sublime superman.
by Swami Satyananda Saraswati. 1963 Continue reading
Where is this wellspring of love? What does wellspring mean? Wellspring is the source of a stream, spring or fountainhead. It is the heart, which is the source of everything one does. King Solomon said, that the heart was the wellspring of life. It is the source of everything in one’s life. Continue reading