Wednesday 22 August 2012
Great soul
A man can reach the roof of a house by
stone stairs or a ladder or a rope-ladder or a rope or even by a bamboo pole.
But he cannot reach the roof if he sets foot now on one and now on another. He
should firmly follow one path. Likewise, in order to realize God a man must
follow one path with all his strength. But you must regard other views as so
many paths leading to God. You should not feel that your path is the only right
path and that other paths are wrong. You mustn’t bear malice toward others.
Tuesday 21 August 2012
Monday 20 August 2012
Sunday 19 August 2012
Teacher
THE NEED OF GURU
Swami vivekanandha
Every soul is destined
to be perfect, and every being, in the end, will attain the state of perfection.
Whatever we are now is the result of our acts and thoughts in the past; and
whatever we shall be in the future will be the result of what we think end do
now. But this, the shaping of our own destinies, does not preclude our
receiving help from outside; nay, in the vast majority of cases such help is
absolutely necessary. When it comes, the higher powers and possibilities of the
soul are quickened, spiritual life is awakened, growth is animated, and man
becomes holy and perfect in the end.
This quickening impulse
cannot be derived from books. The soul can only receive impulses from another
soul, and from nothing else. We may study books all our lives, we may become
very intellectual, but in the end we find that we have not developed at all
spiritually. It is not true that a high order of intellectual development
always goes hand in hand with a proportionate development of the spiritual side
in Man. In studying books we are sometimes deluded into thinking that thereby
we are being spiritually helped; but if we analyse the effect of the study of
books on ourselves, we shall find that at the utmost it is only our intellect
that derives profit from such studies, and not our inner spirit. This
inadequacy of books to quicken spiritual growth is the reason why, although
almost every one of us can speak most wonderfully on spiritual
matters, when it comes to action and the living of a truly spiritual life, we
find ourselves so awfully deficient. To quicken the spirit, the impulse must
come from another soul.
The person from whose
soul such impulse comes is called the Guru — the teacher; and the person to
whose soul the impulse is conveyed is called the Shishya — the student. To
convey such an impulse to any soul, in the first place, the soul from
which it proceeds must possess the power of transmitting it, as it were, to
another; and in the second place, the soul to which it is transmitted must be
fit to receive it. The seed must be a living seed, and the field must be ready
ploughed; and when both these conditions are fulfilled, a wonderful growth of
genuine religion takes place. "The true preacher of religion has to be of
wonderful capabilities, and clever shall his hearer be" —
; and when both of these are really wonderful and
extraordinary, then will a splendid spiritual awakening result, and not
otherwise. Such alone are the real teachers, and such alone are also the real
students, the real aspirants. All others are only playing with spirituality.
They have just a little curiosity awakened, just a little intellectual
aspiration kindled in them, but are merely standing on the outward fringe of
the horizon of religion. There is no doubt some value even in that, as it may
in course of time result in the awakening of a real thirst for religion; and it
is a mysterious law of nature that as soon as the field is ready, the
seed must and does come; as soon as the soul earnestly desires
to have religion, the transmitter of the religious force must and
does appear to help that soul. When the power that attracts the light of
religion in the receiving soul is full and strong, the power which answers to
that attraction and sends in light does come as a matter of course.
There are, however,
certain great dangers in the way. There is, for instance, the danger to the
receiving soul of its mistaking momentary emotions for real religious yearning.
We may study that in ourselves. Many a time in our lives, somebody dies whom we
loved; we receive a blow; we feel that the world is slipping between our
fingers, that we want something surer and higher, and that we must become
religious. In a few days that wave of feeling has passed away, and we are left
stranded just where we were before. We are all of us often mistaking such
impulses for real thirst after religion; but as long as these momentary
emotions are thus mistaken, that continuous, real craving of the soul for
religion will not come, and we shall not find the true transmitter of
spirituality into our nature. So whenever we are tempted to complain of our
search after the truth that we desire so much, proving vain, instead of so
complaining, our first duty ought to be to look into our own souls and find
whether the craving in the heart is real. Then in the vast majority of cases it
would be discovered that we were not fit for receiving the truth, that there
was no real thirst for spirituality.
There are still greater
dangers in regard to the transmitter, the Guru. There are many who,
though immersed in ignorance, yet, in the pride of their hearts, fancy they
know everything, and not only do not stop there, but offer to take others on
their shoulders; and thus the blind leading the blind, both fall into the
ditch.
— "Fools dwelling
in darkness, wise in their own conceit, and puffed up with vain knowledge, go
round and round staggering to and fro, like blind men led by the blind." —
(Katha Up., I. ii. 5). The world is full of these. Every one wants to be a
teacher, every beggar wants to make a gift of a million dollars! Just as these
beggars are ridiculous, so are these teachers.http://meditationsukha.blogspot.com
Friday 17 August 2012
yoga
Yoga
Stand erect with the feet quite close together, heels and the big toes touching each other. Hands touching thighs, this position help to achieve stability of pulse. |
Standing Position - Yoga Postures or Asana in Standing Position
Swami Vivekananda, known in his
pre-monastic life as Narendra Nath Datta, was born in an affluent family in
Kolkata on 12 January 1863. His father, Vishwanath Datta, was a successful
attorney with interests in a wide range of subjects, and his mother, Bhuvaneshwari
Devi, was endowed with deep devotion, strong character and other qualities. A
precocious boy, Narendra excelled in music, gymnastics and studies. By the time
he graduated from Calcutta University, he had acquired a vast knowledge of
different subjects, especially Western philosophy and history. Born with a
yogic temperament, he used to practise meditation even from his boyhood, and
was associated with Brahmo Movement for some time.
With Sri Ramakrishna
At the
threshold of youth Narendra had to pass through a period of spiritual crisis
when he was assailed by doubts about the existence of God. It was at that time
he first heard about Sri Ramakrishna from one of his English professors at
college. One day in November 1881, Narendra went to meet Sri Ramakrishna who
was staying at the Kali Temple in Dakshineshwar. He straightaway asked the
Master a question which he had put to several others but had received no
satisfactory answer: “Sir, have you seen God?” Without a moment’s hesitation,
Sri Ramakrishna replied: “Yes, I have. I see Him as clearly as I see you, only
in a much intenser sense.”
Apart
from removing doubts from the mind of Narendra, Sri Ramakrishna won him over
through his pure, unselfish love. Thus began a guru-disciple relationship which
is quite unique in the history of spiritual masters. Narendra now became a
frequent visitor to Dakshineshwar and, under the guidance of the Master, made
rapid strides on the spiritual path. At Dakshineshwar, Narendra also met
several young men who were devoted to Sri Ramakrishna, and they all became
close friends.
Difficult Situations
After a
few years two events took place which caused Narendra considerable distress.
One was the sudden death of his father in 1884. This left the family penniless,
and Narendra had to bear the burden of supporting his mother, brothers and
sisters. The second event was the illness of Sri Ramakrishna which was
diagnosed to be cancer of the throat. In September 1885 Sri Ramakrishna was
moved to a house at Shyampukur, and a few months later to a rented villa at
Cossipore. In these two places the young disciples nursed the Master with
devoted care. In spite of poverty at home and inability to find a job for
himself, Narendra joined the group as its leader.
Beginnings of a Monastic
Brotherhood
Sri
Ramakrishna instilled in these young men the spirit of renunciation and
brotherly love for one another. One day he distributed ochre robes among them
and sent them out to beg food. In this way he himself laid the foundation for a
new monastic order. He gave specific instructions to Narendra about the
formation of the new monastic Order. In the small hours of 16 August 1886 Sri
Ramakrishna gave up his mortal body.
After
the Master’s passing, fifteen of his young disciples (one more joined them
later) began to live together in a dilapidated building at Baranagar in North
Kolkata. Under the leadership of Narendra, they formed a new monastic
brotherhood, and in 1887 they took the formal vows of sannyasa, thereby
assuming new names. Narendra now became Swami Vivekananda (although this name
was actually assumed much later.)
Awareness of Life’s
Mission
After
establishing the new monastic order, Vivekananda heard the inner call for a
greater mission in his life. While most of the followers of Sri Ramakrishna
thought of him in relation to their own personal lives, Vivekananda thought of
the Master in relation to India and the rest of the world. As the prophet of
the present age, what was Sri Ramakrishna’s message to the modern world and to
India in particular? This question and the awareness of his own inherent powers
urged Swamiji to go out alone into the wide world. So in the middle of
1890, after receiving the blessings of Sri Sarada Devi, the divine consort of
Sri Ramakrishna, known to the world as Holy Mother, who was then staying in
Kolkata, Swamiji left Baranagar Math and embarked on a long journey of
exploration and discovery of India.
Discovery of Real India
During
his travels all over India, Swami Vivekananda was deeply moved to see the
appalling poverty and backwardness of the masses. He was the first religious
leader in India to understand and openly declare that the real cause of India’s
downfall was the neglect of the masses. The immediate need was to provide food
and other bare necessities of life to the hungry millions. For this they should
be taught improved methods of agriculture, village industries, etc. It was in
this context that Vivekananda grasped the crux of the problem of poverty in
India (which had escaped the attention of social reformers of his days): owing
to centuries of oppression, the downtrodden masses had lost faith in their
capacity to improve their lot. It was first of all necessary to infuse into
their minds faith in themselves. For this they needed a life-giving, inspiring
message. Swamiji found this message in the principle of the Atman, the
doctrine of the potential divinity of the soul, taught in Vedanta, the ancient
system of religious philosophy of India. He saw that, in spite of poverty, the
masses clung to religion, but they had never been taught the life-giving,
ennobling principles of Vedanta and how to apply them in practical life.
Thus
the masses needed two kinds of knowledge: secular knowledge to improve their
economic condition, and spiritual knowledge to infuse in them faith in
themselves and strengthen their moral sense. The next question was, how to
spread these two kinds of knowledge among the masses? Through education – this
was the answer that Swamiji found.
Need for an Organization
One
thing became clear to Swamiji: to carry out his plans for the spread of
education and for the uplift of the poor masses, and also of women, an
efficient organization of dedicated people was needed. As he said later on, he
wanted “to set in motion a machinery which will bring noblest ideas to the
doorstep of even the poorest and the meanest.” It was to serve as this
‘machinery’ that Swamiji founded the Ramakrishna Mission a few years later.
Decision to attend the
Parliament of Religions
It was
when these ideas were taking shape in his mind in the course of his wanderings
that Swami Vivekananda heard about the World’s Parliament of Religions to be
held in Chicago in 1893. His friends and admirers in India wanted him to attend
the Parliament. He too felt that the Parliament would provide the right
forum to present his Master’s message to the world, and so he decided to go to
America. Another reason which prompted Swamiji to go to America was to seek
financial help for his project of uplifting the masses.
Swamiji,
however, wanted to have an inner certitude and divine call regarding his
mission. Both of these he got while he sat in deep meditation on the
rock-island at Kanyakumari. With the funds partly collected by his Chennai
disciples and partly provided by the Raja of Khetri, Swami Vivekananda left for
America from Mumbai on 31 May 1893.
The Parliament of
Religions and After
His
speeches at the World’s Parliament of Religions held in September 1893 made him
famous as an ‘orator by divine right’ and as a ‘Messenger of Indian wisdom to
the Western world’. After the Parliament, Swamiji spent nearly three and a half
years spreading Vedanta as lived and taught by Sri Ramakrishna, mostly in the
eastern parts of USA and also in London.
Awakening His Countrymen
He
returned to India in January 1897. In response to the enthusiastic welcome that
he received everywhere, he delivered a series of lectures in different parts of
India, which created a great stir all over the country. Through these inspiring
and profoundly significant lectures Swamiji attempted to do the following:
- to rouse the religious consciousness
of the people and create in them pride in their cultural heritage;
- to bring about unification of Hinduism
by pointing out the common bases of its sects;
- to focus the attention of educated
people on the plight of the downtrodden masses, and to expound his plan
for their uplift by the application of the principles of Practical
Vedanta.
Founding of Ramakrishna
Mission
Soon
after his return to Kolkata, Swami Vivekananda accomplished another important
task of his mission on earth. He founded on 1 May 1897 a unique type of
organization known as Ramakrishna Mission, in which monks and lay people would
jointly undertake propagation of Practical Vedanta, and various forms of social
service, such as running hospitals, schools, colleges, hostels, rural
development centres etc, and conducting massive relief and rehabilitation work
for victims of earthquakes, cyclones and other calamities, in different parts
of India and other countries.
Belur Math
In
early 1898 Swami Vivekananda acquired a big plot of land on the western bank of
the Ganga at a place called Belur to have a permanent abode for the monastery
and monastic Order originally started at Baranagar, and got it registered as
Ramakrishna Math after a couple of years. Here Swamiji established a new,
universal pattern of monastic life which adapts ancient monastic ideals to the
conditions of modern life, which gives equal importance to personal
illumination and social service, and which is open to all men without any
distinction of religion, race or caste.
Disciples
It may
be mentioned here that in the West many people were influenced by Swami
Vivekananda’s life and message. Some of them became his disciples or devoted
friends. Among them the names of Margaret Noble (later known as Sister
Nivedita), Captain and Mrs Sevier, Josephine McLeod and Sara Ole Bull, deserve
special mention. Nivedita dedicated her life to educating girls in Kolkata.
Swamiji had many Indian disciples also, some of whom joined Ramakrishna Math
and became sannyasins.
Last Days
In June
1899 he went to the West on a second visit. This time he spent most of his time
in the West coast of USA. After delivering many lectures there, he returned to
Belur Math in December 1900. The rest of his life was spent in India, inspiring
and guiding people, both monastic and lay. Incessant work, especially giving
lectures and inspiring people, told upon Swamiji’s health. His health
deteriorated and the end came quietly on the night of 4 July 1902. Before his
Mahasamadhi he had written to a Western follower: “It may be that I shall find
it good to get outside my body, to cast it off like a worn out garment. But I
shall not cease to work. I shall inspire men everywhere until the whole world
shall know that it is one with God.”
Thursday 16 August 2012
Swami Vivekanandha
The first meeting at Dakshineswar between the Master and Narendra was momentous. Sri Ramakrishna recognized instantaneously his future messenger. Narendra, careless about his clothes and general appearance, was so unlike the other young men who had accompanied him to the temple. His eyes were impressive, partly indrawn, indicating a meditative mood. He sang a few songs, and as usual poured into them his whole soul.
His first song was this:
Let us go back once more,
O mind, to our proper home!
Here in this foreign land of earth
Why should we wander aimlessly in stranger's guise?
These living beings round about,
And the five elements,
Are strangers to you, all of them; none are your own.
Why do you so forget yourself,
In love with strangers, foolish mind?
Why do you so forget your own?
Mount the path of truth,
O mind! Unflaggingly climb,
With love as the lamp to light your way.
As your provision on the journey, take with you
The virtues, hidden carefully;
For, like two highwaymen,
Greed and delusion wait to rob you of your wealth.
And keep beside you constantly,
As guards to shelter you from harm,
Calmness of mind and self-control.
Companionship with holy men will be for you
A welcome rest-house by the road;
There rest your weary limbs awhile, asking your way,
If ever you should be in doubt,
Of him who watches there.
If anything along the path should cause you fear,
Then loudly shout the name of God;
For He is ruler of that road,
And even Death must bow to Him.
O mind, to our proper home!
Here in this foreign land of earth
Why should we wander aimlessly in stranger's guise?
These living beings round about,
And the five elements,
Are strangers to you, all of them; none are your own.
Why do you so forget yourself,
In love with strangers, foolish mind?
Why do you so forget your own?
Mount the path of truth,
O mind! Unflaggingly climb,
With love as the lamp to light your way.
As your provision on the journey, take with you
The virtues, hidden carefully;
For, like two highwaymen,
Greed and delusion wait to rob you of your wealth.
And keep beside you constantly,
As guards to shelter you from harm,
Calmness of mind and self-control.
Companionship with holy men will be for you
A welcome rest-house by the road;
There rest your weary limbs awhile, asking your way,
If ever you should be in doubt,
Of him who watches there.
If anything along the path should cause you fear,
Then loudly shout the name of God;
For He is ruler of that road,
And even Death must bow to Him.
When the singing was over, Sri Ramakrishna suddenly grasped Narendra's hand and took him into the northern porch. To Narendra's utter amazement, the Master said with tears streaming down his cheeks: 'Ah! you have come so late. How unkind of you to keep me waiting so long!
My ears are almost seared listening to the cheap talk of worldly people. Oh, how I have been yearning to unburden my mind to one who will understand my thought!' Then with folded hands he said: 'Lord! I know you are the ancient sage Nara — the Incarnation of Narayana — born on earth to remove the miseries of mankind.' The rationalist Naren regarded these words as the meaningless jargon of an insane person. He was further dismayed when Sri Ramakrishna presently brought from his room some sweets and fed him with his own hands. But the Master nevertheless extracted from him a promise to visit Dakshineswar again.
They returned to the room and Naren asked the Master, 'Sir, have you seen God?' Without a moment's hesitation the reply was given: 'Yes, I have seen God. I see Him as I see you here, only more clearly. God can be seen. One can talk to him. But who cares for God? People shed torrents of tears for their wives, children, wealth, and property, but who weeps for the vision of God? If one cries sincerely for God, one can surely see Him.'
They returned to the room and Naren asked the Master, 'Sir, have you seen God?' Without a moment's hesitation the reply was given: 'Yes, I have seen God. I see Him as I see you here, only more clearly. God can be seen. One can talk to him. But who cares for God? People shed torrents of tears for their wives, children, wealth, and property, but who weeps for the vision of God? If one cries sincerely for God, one can surely see Him.'
yoga
Introduction
Yogic practices represent a
unique feature of Indian tradition and culture. Evolved thousands of years back
by the Rishis, Yoga techniques are being widely covered for meeting the
changing health care needs of mankind. Yoga has attracted global attention in
recent years. The awareness about Yogic practices is increasing among people
from different walks of life, not only for preservation and promotion of
health, but also for the management of various diseases. Many Yoga experts and
Medical Professionals have been advocating Yogic lifestyle intervention for the
prevention and management of stress induced and other psychosomatic disorders.
Keeping in view, the time-tested benefits of Yoga and being highly economical,
it is felt that the Yoga facility should be made available to more and more
people at gross root level adhering to the classical knowledge, so that people
trained in Yoga can derive maximum benefits. Also as popularity of Yoga is
growing, the demand for Yoga training is increasing at all level.
Foundation
Course in Yoga for Wellness (FCYW)
This is a part time course
extended over a period of one month (45 hours) has been designed to promote
physical, mental and spiritual health of an individual and to lead a happy and
healthy life, thus to bring harmony and peace in the society. This course is
open for all individuals who have passed the Matriculation examination from a
recognized board or its equivalent. No person with chronic ailments shall be
allowed to take admission to this program.
Mode
of Class-
1.
Online
Distance Education
Or
2.
Regular
classes for residential
Yoga Training
programme (YTP)
The contents for regular Yoga training
programme according to the needs of participants.
Course duration-1yr
Distance Edn.
Contact
Gireesh
kumar N.G
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)