Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Riding the Cycles - Sadhguru

Most people keep repeating the same cycles in different scenery. The first time some rubbish happened to you, you were in school. The next time it happened, you were in college. The next time it happened, you had a job. The next time, you were married. The scenery is different, but experientially, the same things are happening if you closely observe your life.

If you exist here as just a body, you know where you are going; every second, you are getting closer to the grave. Life will be play, then it becomes pleasure, then it becomes so many things. Then, every joint hurts and one gets terrified because it is coming to an end. For physical life, this is progression; you don’t have to go through it to know it, you have enough intelligence to just sit and see it. But our fortune is we are not just physical, we have other dimensions to us. In terms of your mental status, it can either continue to grow or it can go in cycles. In terms of your emotional status, it can also continue to grow or it can go in cycles. You may not be aware of other dimensions yet, but even there, you can go in cycles or you can go somewhere. When there is a set process, you cannot change things so easily. But when there is a periodic destabilization of the system, there is a great possibility for change.

If you are very balanced, your cycles will happen once in twelve to twelve-and-a-half years. If you are not so balanced, they will happen in a quarter of the time – a little over three years. It could also happen more often, every sixteen to eighteen months, or every three months. The longest cycle is one hundred and forty-four years; this is a Maha Kumbh Mela. I will not go into the whole arithmetic of it because people will complicate things for themselves, but definitely, everything in this system is cyclical; the earth is going in cycles, the moon is going in cycles. If you do not stand up with a certain level of awareness and a certain level of determination, you will naturally become a part of the cycles. These cycles can mean bondage or these cycles can mean transcendence; that from one cycle of life to another, you transcend. Or, you repeat the same cycle.
The difference between astrology and spirituality is just this – astrology is telling you how these cycles bind you. The spiritual process is telling you how you can get away from these cycles. We are not denying the cycles; it would be stupid to deny them, they are definitely there. They are like waves in an ocean, either you can ride them or be thrashed and drowned by them. But we are looking at how you can slip away from them. If you live by being conscious of the cycles, your life will have a certain equanimity, a certain level of success, wellbeing and prosperity. But if you are constantly looking at how to become free from the cycle, you are looking for your liberation. The question is, are you looking for just wellbeing or are you looking for liberation? Accordingly, you must live.

So right now, if your life is going through cycles and repetitiveness, you are not going to reach anywhere; it is time to change the pattern. I want you to observe – is it happening every three months? Once in sixteen to eighteen months? Is it happening once in three-and-a-quarter years, or is it happening once in twelve years? Don’t start imagining all kinds of things, but it is happening whether you are able to notice it or not. It is not just happening with your mental and emotional situations, if you are aware of it, even physical situations around you will repeat themselves. It is so uncanny that even physical situations happen exactly the same way.
So what can you do about your cycles? If they are manifesting every three months, we can push it to eighteen months. If they are manifesting every eighteen months, we can push it to three years, or we can push it to twelve years. Or we can push it to one hundred and forty-four years. Or above all, instead of trying to dodge these cycles, we can ride these cycles.

I have been riding my cycles. I am now approaching my twelve-year cycle. Every time it comes, my life changes and it will change dramatically in the next four to six months. Every time I approach these times there will be a significant presence of a serpent. Shiva’s compassion lest I should forget – this time around, it is a king cobra. Exciting times ahead. Be with me with all your being, do not mess your Destiny. Of course, don’t miss the fun.

What is Consecration ? Sadhguru

Sadhguru: Agastya Muni was sent to South India by Shiva – the Aadhi Yogi, or the first yogi. He consecrated every human habitation south of the Deccan Plateau in some form and made sure that a live spiritual process was on. He did not spare a single human habitation. They say it took him 4000 years of work. We do not know whether it is 4000 or 400 or 140 – but looking at the phenomenal amount of work and the amount of travel that he did, he obviously lived a very extraordinary lifespan. Agastya muni went to the extent of saying that when the world truly goes off the track because of development and knowledge, when knowledge becomes poison, when what should be good for you becomes negative for you, his work would rise and act.
Consecration is a live process. It is like this, if you transform mud into food, we call this agriculture. If you make food into flesh and bone, we call this digestion, integration. If you make flesh into mud, we call this cremation. If you can make this flesh or even a stone or an empty space into a divine possibility, that is called consecration. Today, modern science is telling you that everything is the same energy manifesting itself in a million different ways. If that is so, what you call as divine, what you call a stone, what you call a man or a woman, what you call a demon, are all the same energy functioning in different ways. For example, the same electricity becomes light, sound and so many other things, depending upon the technology. So it is just a question of technology. If you have the necessary technology, you can make the simple space around you into a divine exuberance, you can just take a piece of rock and make it into a god or a goddess -this is the phenomenon of consecration.
An enormous amount of knowledge about this dimension of life was perpetuated particularly in this culture, as this was held as the most important thing. It does not matter what you are eating, how you are or how long you live, at some point, a need will come that you want to get in touch with the source of creation. If that possibility is not created across the planet and is not available to every human being who seeks, then society has failed to provide true well-being for a human being. It is with this awareness that in this culture, every street had three temples because even a few meters should not pass without there being a consecrated space. The idea was not to create one temple versus the other, the idea was that nobody should walk in a space which is not consecrated. Nobody should live in a space which is not consecrated. The temple was always built first and then houses were built.
The whole state of Tamil Nadu is built like this. Every significant town in Tamil Nadu had a grand temple and around that, a little town. Because the kind of dwelling you live in is not important. Whether your house is 10,000 square feet or just 1000 square feet is not going to make a difference ultimately, but being around a consecrated space is going to make a phenomenal difference in your life. With this understanding, they built human habitations such that, if there are 25 houses, there must be one temple. Whether you go there or not, whether you pray or not, whether you know the mantra or not, is not the point. You must be in a consecrated space every moment of your life.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

A Brief Discussion on Religion. Sadhguru

Arun Shourie`s Tryst with J. Krishnamurti - Dealing with Autism

Arun Shourie, with his wife Anita and his Autistic Son, Adit.
A Mother’s Heart

Years passed. J.Krishnamurti, the great philosopher and teacher, was visiting Delhi. As usual, Ram Nathji had met him in the past, and had a way to get to him now. Krishnaji was staying at the house of Mrs. Pupul Jayakar- a lady who had done great service to Indian handicrafts, a close friend of Mrs. Indira Gandhi and one of Krishnaji’s closet disciples.

Ram Nathji sent me to interview Krishnaji. We talked of the state of affairs, and the rest. Krishnaji’s point was responsibility. Unless each of us owned responsibility for what he as an individual was doing, the state of affairs would just go one hurtling the way it was doing. Krishnaji asked me about Anita. The conversation turn to Adit.

Bring the young man around, Krishnaji said as I got up to take leave of him. His mother is as welcome, but she will not come.

I was to go back two days later. I asked Anita to come along also. She refused-nothing happens, she had concluded, our hopes are raised again and again, and again and again they are shattered.

I went with Adit. Krishnaji talked. Adit was in my lap. From time to time, Krishnaji would fondle his hair and smile at him. A noble child, he said.

‘Your wife did not come?’

‘No, sir. She ahd work at school.’

Krishnaji just looked at me.

‘Come again. Bring the child. Ask your wife to come too.’ This sequence was repeated twice. Krishnaji was most kind to Adit. Sometime during the conversation, he would remark, ‘So, your wife didn’t come?’ I would repeat some transparently cooked-up excuse.

‘Well, I am going to Benares day after. As you know, I have spent my life debunking godmen. I do not believe in miracles. But some people say they have been healed by these hands’ – he looked at his elegant hands and turned them out. ‘ Come to Benares. We have a good place there-completely peaceful. Stay with us. Bring the child along. Your wife too is welcome, if she will come. If I can do anything at all for this child, I would love to. In any case, come again before I go.’

I was truly touched. Such a great man. One of the greatest teachers our times. Prepared to go so far out of his way for our little Adit.

As I used to do after every visit, I told Anita what had transpired. I implored her, ‘Please come along. Every time he asks about you. He is such a kind and such an elegant man… Come, for my sake.’

The three of us went to meet Krishnaji.

This time Krishnaji made me sit on a chair opposite him-holding Adit in my lap. He made Anits sit on the sofa with him. He took her hand in his, and kept it in his hand.

The conversation proceeded. Suddenly, one moment, Krishnaji turned fully to Anita and asked, ‘How do you feel about your son?’

‘He is a happy child,’ Anita replied.

‘I didn’t ask what kind of a child he is. I asked “How do you feel about your child?”’ Krishnaji said with some emphasis.

‘He is our life.’

‘I didn’t ask what he is to you,’ Krishnaji said in a raised voice, almost scolding Anita, ‘I ASKED YOU WHAT DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CHILD,’ his voice even higher, the pauses between each word, minority, stern, unyielding.

Anita, who had not cried even once in the years since Adit’s birth, burst into tears. It was as if a missile had pierced a dam. She wept uncontrollably. Krishnaji kept her hand in his, and let her continue crying.

See?’ Krishnaji turned to me, still holding her hand, ‘I told you, you don’t know a mother’s heart.’ And there I was-thinking that I had my mother’s caring heart.A life-lesson, a live-lesson that I have never forgotten.

Excerpts from Does He Know a Mother`s heart (Arun Shourie)

Friday, December 2, 2011

If Slaughter houses had Glass Walls, than everyone would be a Vegetarian - Paul McCartney

On proper food diet and fasting

While one is practising yoga, the ideal gap one should allow between meals is eight hours.

But a minimum of five hours is a must for everybody.
This is because your excretory system functions properly only when your stomach is empty.
As an experiment, split one day’s worth of meals in two portions and eat it over two meals in a day. Then, split the same meal in 10 portions and eat it over 10 meals. You will see that when you eat the same meal broken into 10 parts, you will put on more weight.
This is simply because the excretory system is not efficient. A lot of garbage, which would have otherwise gone out of the system, is still there because the stomach is constantly full and digestion is constantly happening. Only when the stomach is empty, the cleansing happens well.
If you observe the natural cycle of the body, there is something called a mandala of 40 to 48 days. In every cycle there will be three days when your body does not need food. If you are conscious of how your body functions, you will know the day on which the body does not need food, it is a cleaning up day. On that day you should not eat. Without any effort you can go without food on that day.
Since most people do not have this awareness, the day of Ekadesi was fixed, once in every 14 days. If a person is unable to go without food because their activity levels are such and they do not have spiritual practices to support them, they can include fruits in their diet. Those whoconstantly consume coffee and tea will find that fasting can be very difficult.
So before fasting, they should prepare their body by having the right kind of foods. It may not be a good thing for everybody to fast, but it has many benefits if it is done in a proper way.
You may have observed that while you are sick and weak, you walk every step with full
awareness when you get up from the bed. As you become less of a body, your awareness of the other dimensions of you naturally gets enhanced.
When you are very hungry, all your body wants is food. But at that point pause and say a prayer. Then wait for one moment and then start having food. Just a simple act like this releases you from your body. It brings awareness that you are not the body. When you are veryhungry you are the body. Just give it a little space and suddenly you are not that. Hunger is there, you are there and it is okay.
If one wants to fast for a certain period, it must be supported with the right kind of spiritualpractices or sadhana. If you fast forcefully, without preparing your body and mind, you will only damage your health. But if your body is prepared in all aspects — mentally and energetically — fasting can be of much benefit to you.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Making Family Into a Blessing - Sadhguru

On a certain day, at a family dinner, Shankaran Pillai* announced that he was getting married. His mother looked shocked and asked, "Who are you going to marry?" He said, "I am marrying Lucy, our neighbor." Immediately the father said, "What? You're going to marry Lucy? She doesn't have any inheritance. Why would you want to marry her?" Then the uncle looked at Shankaran Pillai and said, "You're going to marry Lucy? Her hair is a mess." The aunt said, "You're going to marry Lucy? Her make-up is terrible." And the little nephew, not wanting to be left out said, "Why will you marry Lucy? She knows nothing about football." But Shankaran Pillai insisted, "No, I am marrying Lucy." They all asked him, "Why?" Shankaran Pillai said, "She has one great virtue. She doesn't have a family."

When a child is born, it is not made to the extent that other creatures are made. It needs nurturing, training and molding. So the need for family arose. Family is a very supportive base for a human being to grow. But for many people, family does not become a support, it becomes a hurdle. It does not become an uplifting process, it becomes a way of entanglement. Especially for those who walk the spiritual path, family usually becomes the biggest hurdle. Not because family is a problem, but because of the way you hold it.

Family is an example of how anything that is created for your well-being can be turned into a disadvantage. You see this happening in many different ways. For example, affluence should have been well-being, but most people use it like poison. Education should have been well-being, but educated people are the ones who are destroying the planet right now. What has been given to us for our well-being could have been the greatest blessing upon humanity, but instead it is what is threatening the very existence of the human race.
Similarly, family, which should have been a support and a means for one's growth, becomes a process of entanglement and a burden. Essentially, this process of getting entangled with life around you is happening not because of who is around you, but because nothing has been done about your inner nature. If your inner nature grows to a certain point of maturity and fullness and feels like a complete life by itself, your need to cling to someone or something would naturally reduce.

The need to cling, this compulsion to turn everything that is for our well-being into a detriment to our life, is essentially because of an incomplete persona. If you plant two trees close together, you will see that these two trees have enough sense to grow apart, so that each gets enough sunlight. Both of them are rooted in the same earth, and they do not have the freedom to walk away, but still, they create enough space because each just exists as a piece of life, and every piece of life is a complete piece by itself. If you just sit here as just a piece of life, you would know that you are complete. But if your experience of yourself is just your persona, you will always feel incomplete and you will always have a terrible need to cling on to something or somebody.

So, is there a complete persona? There is no such thing. A being is complete, this life is complete, but a personality is never complete; it can never be in the very nature of things. The more you invest in your personality, the more incomplete and insecure you feel. The more attachment to people you create, the more fear of separation you will have. If life chooses to separate you from someone, in your experience you will feel as if you have been torn apart from yourself, as if you have been broken into two pieces. But you are a complete life; you do not need a stake to keep yourself up, if only you are willing to be here just as life. What we call "meditation" is just this, that instead of being here as a person, you are here just as a piece of life -- which is what you really are.

Flash Mob Mumbai - CST Official Video

A Noble Idea - Which has to be emulated in all Restaurants

         

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Sadhguru on Samyama


Now, when we say Samyama - It is a state where your awareness has reached a point - where you clearly know - when I say "Know", knowing is always thought in terms of "Oh! I - Know". It is not that knowing, you are fully aware that you are not the body, you are not the mind, you are not the world. Your body is separate, the mind is separate - these are the three things that you are always getting identified with. You get identified with the body, the mind, the surroundings around you - this is the trap.

If you are in Samyama, the body will be there, mind will be there, world will be there but you are not part of all these three things. If you are free from all these three things, there can be no suffering. If you are in the body, body can suffer, if you are in the mind, mind can suffer, if you are in the world, world can make you suffer. If you are not in any of these three things, you are outside of these three things, this is your Mukthi - That is the aim of Samyama. It is the height of awareness, where your witnessing has separated everything. If your witness is sharp enough - it will slice off the body, it will slice off the mind, it will slice off the world - it will leave you free from all these things. In what way it is connected to Samadhi? It is not connected to Samadhi. It is a way of bypassing all Samadhis.

Fundamentally, on any Spiritual path, there are only two types of spiritual processes in the world - the path of Samadhi and the path of Pragna. Pragna means the path of awareness; Samadhi means the path of dissolution. Samadhi - there are various types of Samadhis. Mainly in the tradition, they classify Samadhis into 8 forms, some 14, some 18 and it goes on. Samadhi is like a prize - it is a gift nature gives you for doing so much Sadhana. Now, nature gives you a break - when you are in Samadhi, you are blissful. You are free from everything. Nature offers you a bottle of drink and says, OK, you have done so well, so drink this and be happy. So drink this and you are fine for sometime, but once you come back, almost everything is the same. It leaves you transformed to some extent, but still you are not free from everything. However, whichever Samadhi you are going through, it is the same. All Samadhis we are talking about, 8 or 16 or whatever type - they all belong to Savikalpa or Savi Tarka Samadhi.

All these things involve certain qualities - they are good. It is just like by doing good Karma, people go to heaven. Heaven means it is a small escape that a man has in the process of life and death because of good karmas, he gets a break, where he is blissful. Different levels of bliss are available; there are different levels of heaven - different grades of heaven. You want to call it as heaven or different dimensions of life or different levels of consciousness, whatever. Samadhi is one more heaven. When you are alive, nature gives you a little bit of heaven because you have been so good, this is a prize offered to you. But a person who is in a hurry to reach the goal should not take these Samadhis. Samadhis are very beautiful, very transforming. Also very transforming for the atmosphere. It is beneficial for people around us when we go into Samadhis. The whole atmosphere gets charged because one person is in Samadhi, as many of you have witnessed.

But, I would not consider even the Samadhi state as real growth - it is only a prize that nature has offered to you. If you want you can enjoy it or you can just leave it and go on. Initially, these prizes that are being offered to you are precious to you. But as days go by and everyday you start getting prizes, then prize becomes meaningless. The first medal that you got in school or college, that is very valuable, you put it in the showcase. Suppose you become a big sportsman and you get thousands of them, then all over your house it will be there. You will throw it somewhere and go because you got many and the same happens to this also. A person who earns too many Samadhis, after sometime does not want any more Samadhis - that is one way. Or another person who is going on seeking more Samadhis, wants to remain there for longer and longer. Deep attachment will arise to this state that you want to be in this state always, because it is blissful. It is like being in the lap of God. It is like going back to the lap of existence where nothing can touch you, where you are free from everything. It is like a child getting addicted to the mother's lap - that is the Samadhi state.
Fundamentally, on any spiritual path, there are only two types of spiritual processes in the world - the path of Samadhi and the path of Pragna.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Get Wise Before You Get Old Sadhguru on Listening to the Life Within

Zen Master

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

The Beautiful People of Africa

The Moon and the Mysticism

We have come to modern times where, day or night, light is glaring in our eyes. Even if there is a full moon, I think most people who live in urban areas today do not even notice it. How can you miss a full moon? It is big enough and bright enough!

Every phase of the moon, you can look up in the sky and notice it. Or if you bring a certain level of awareness and perception to your system, if you just observe your body, you will see for every phase, the body behaves slightly differently. It is very much there both in the male and the female body, but in the female body it is more manifest. As you know, the fundamental reproductive process in a woman is very much connected to the moon’s cycles. The timing with which the moon goes around the planet and the cycles that human beings themselves go through within themselves and the very process of human birth – the process of creating this body – are very deeply connected.

The moon has a large influence on our daily life, which is why in the eastern cultures, particularly in India, we drew two kinds of calendars. For mundane affairs, we have a solar calendar. For all the other subjective aspects of our life, which is not information or a technique but a live thing, we have a lunar calendar. It has always been such that any aspect which is beyond the logical has always been connected to the moon.

As one shifts from the calculations of the logical mind to intuitive ways of looking at life, the moon becomes more important. Generally the influence of the moon is considered illogical. In the West, anything illogical got labeled as madness or insanity. In the English language, the moon is referred to as lunar. If you take a step further, you come to lunatic. But in the eastern culture, we always saw the limitations of logic. There is a logical element to you which helps you to handle the material aspect of your life. But there is a dimension beyond logic, without which the subjective dimensions can never be accessed.

Human perception is a reflection. If you see anything other than the reflection, that means you are not seeing the truth. Any perception is actually a reflection. The moon is also a reflection; you can see the moon because it reflects the sun’s light. So the deeper perceptions of life have always been symbolized with the moon. Moonlight and mysticism have been very heavily connected everywhere in the world. To symbolize this connection, Shiva wore a piece of the moon on his head; his ornament is moon.

The yogic sciences and yogic path were also structured like this. The initial few steps are 100% logical. But as you climb higher, it moves away from logic and goes into areas which are totally illogical. Logic has to be thrown away because that is the way life and creation is structured. So moon becomes very important.

This is the only way any science can happen. If you look at modern science which is still in its infant stage actually, the same thing is happening. They were 100% logical to start with; after they took a few steps, now they are becoming slowly illogical. The physicists are almost talking like mystics. They are beginning to talk the same language because this is the only way it can go, because that is the way the creation is. If you explore the creation, that is how it will be.

Kaya Project ft. Omar Faruk Tekbilek - Eye of the Storm

Omar Faruk Tekbilek - Zeynep's Romance!

Aadhi Yogi Alayam Consecration 23-24 December, 2011

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Patience - Looking at the other side of the coin


During the chai stop at the ancient temple complex of Srirangapatnam, someone asked Amma, "What is our patience, is mistaken for weakness, and we are consequently exploited?"
                 Instead of answering, Amma asked members of the tour group to respond.  One westerner spoke about how he feels that any quality expressed will beget the same quality.  Thus, expressing patience, for example, will beget patience from others.  This he said, was the principle that governed his interaction with others.  He then gave the example of how auto-rickshaw drivers overcharge him sometimes, seeing him as easy prey.  Nevertheless, he would exercise patience and pay in the hope that the rickshaw driver would later feel repentant and thus stop his wrongdoing.
               In response, Amma disagreed with him.  She said that pointing out adharma (unrighteousness) was also one's dharma, or duty.  She said that only one or two in a hundred rickshaw drivers might feel repentance or regret for cheating others; most would be motivated to continue exploiting others.  Amma then presented a few hypothetical scenarios of what could go wrong.  The next passenger might be a poor man.  Or a ruthless rickshaw driver might kill a bank employee carrying large amount of cash.  The driver might be jailed for life.  By being a passive accomplice in the rickshaw driver's cheating, the Westerner would be guilty of fostering adharma.  Not only that, his actions would have paved the way for murder of an innocent man (the bank employee) and the consequent suffering of his wife and children, in addition to the life-long suffering of another in prison.
                Amma stressed that spiritual aspirants must assiduosly cultivate patience.  However when they step out in the world, they must ensure that their actions do not unwittingly foster or encourage unrighteousness.

If I'm Joyful Why Can't I Exist Forever? Sadhguru

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Swami Rama on the proper posture of sitting.


Today I am going to teach you the real practice. You will understand the value of it, provided you pay attention. As part of systematic meditation, you first learn to sit with your head, neck and trunk straight. It is the healthiest and most comfortable way of sitting. When you sit this way, the pressure at the base of the spine creates heat, and as the heat increases, the pranic forces expands and rises upwards. Because the spine is straight and the nervous system relaxed, the pranic energy flows freely upward along the spinal column toward the head. In this pose you are free from inertia and sloth. Without the proper posture you will face numberless obstacles in your meditation. And meditation is the core of all practices.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Things that you have never imagined possible will become a reality if you can just be aware in that moment when you are transiting from wakefulness to sleep. - Sadhguru

Q: Sadhguru, a lot of the spiritual traditions talk about the moment of death as the most significant moment of your life. Is that really true?

Sadhguru: All the moments before that moment in your life are most important. If people don’t realize that, they try to catch the final moment of their lives. Unless you have caught a lot of moments in your life as a deep, penetrating experience for yourself, you just cannot catch the final moment of your life. Try this and see: Tonight when you go to bed, just see if you can maintain an awareness of the final moment of transition from wakefulness to sleep. If you can manage that, phenomenal things will happen in your life. Things that you have never imagined possible will become a reality if you can just be aware in that moment when you are transiting from wakefulness to sleep. If you can do that, you will also transit from life to death in full awareness. Yes, the moment of death has many implications, many consequences. But let’s look at it this way. Did you ever die? No – so you have no experience of death. Did you ever see a dead man? No. You have seen dead bodies, but no dead man. Did you ever see somebody who actually died and came back? No. There may be near-death experience. Near is not good enough. “I nearly ate” – is it good enough? “I nearly lived” – is it good enough? No. So if some people nearly died, it is not good enough, as an experience.

So you haven’t experienced death, you haven’t seen it, nor have you had first-hand information from anybody. So from where did you get this idea that there is something called ‘death?’ Death is a fiction created by ignorant people. Death is the creation of people who live their lives in total unawareness. There is only life, life and life alone, moving from one dimension to another, another dimension to another.

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev's talk at Dartmouth

Coolest way to drink water - Getting in touch with raw life

         

A Graceful Transition - An Isha meditator shares about his daughter’s death. Many Many Thanks to Sadhguru, for coming in our life.

I had a daughter named Aarthipriya. She was born with a congenital myopathy . She could neither walk nor perform daily chores.


I first met Sadhguru 20 years ago. When I told him about my daughter who was four or five years of age at that time, he said that “because of good karma, she has chosen to be born to you. That life has chosen you to dissolve its karma. Take care of her with love.”

Later, when Sadhguru went to the US, he enquired about a treatment for this disorder. He called me to say that there was no known treatment and advised us to just shower her with love and to take care of her well. There was some sense of calmness within ourselves after he told us that. She was very active, sang Carnatic music and did lots of craft work. Everybody who met her liked her. She never worried about the disorder or showed her incapability. She would never create a situation where we would have to worry about her.

Each time she met Sadhguru, she would sing songs for him. And he blessed her and gave her a flower that she would preserve in her book. When he gave her a fruit, she would ask her mother to give her a little every day and savored it over two to three days. She had so much trust in Sadhguru.

Once, when she was 15, she complained about body aches, and a family friend suggested Reiki . She was given Reiki for two days, and the pain reduced a little. When we had an opportunity to meet Sadhguru and I told him about the treatment, he said, “Stop that treatment immediately. All her karma should dissolve in this body; in this lifetime. Let her not take anything with her. If she can bear the pain, stop the treatment.” The next day, I told Aarthi what Sadhguru said and when I asked if she would bear the pain, she said, “If Sadhguru had said so, then I don’t need this treatment. Please ask them not to come anymore.”

Whenever I went for Sadhguru’s sathsang, I had to tell her in detail what Sadhguru had spoken, and she would listen with so much interest. Once, Sadhguru said something like “Leave your last moment to me. I will take care that your death will happen smoothly.” When I shared this with Aarthi, I could see that this touched her deeply.

In the final year of her life, her health turned critical. For six months, she was bedridden, ate less, and needed an oxygen machine to support her breathing. One day, upon advice of the doctor, an x-ray was taken of her chest. The radiologist said that in his 25 years of experience, he had not seen anything like this – all the organs were merged one on top of the other. The doctor told me in private, “The situation is very critical. Anything can happen – there could be kidney failure, or the blood might clot, or she could go into coma.” I was helpless, and I could not share this with my wife or relatives.

But Aarthi insisted that I should tell her exactly what the doctor had said. When I told her that the doctor said the situation was critical, it seemed like she arrived at a decision. The next day morning, she called me and said, “Please pass on this message about my situation to Sadhguru.” Sadhguru replied saying, “She is in my awareness. Please ask the others to remain calm.” I told her this and that was when she relaxed. She asked Isha Yoga teacher Swaminathan to come and she spoke with him. After the conversation, he said she asked questions like “How to be in the last moment? In what mental state should I be? How to face it?” He added, “She is prepared. Prepare yourself too and everything will be fine.” When we went to see her in her room, she said, “Father, I have decided and there will be no change in this. It should happen soon.”

She kept listening to the ‘Brahmananda Swaroopa’ CD that had been sent to her from the ashram and she was looking at Sadhguru’s picture next to her. At that time, she was still on oxygen support. Four, five days later, she said, “Daddy, I have decided already. It should happen soon.” We were deeply concerned about what she said. To the doctors who came that day, she said, “Please make arrangements for my eyes to be donated. But please check if my eyes can be donated, to make sure that the disease will not spread to someone.”

One evening, a relative of ours came to visit, and when leaving, he said to Aarthi, “Today is Amavasya [new moon], so I will go to temple.” That whole night, Aarthi breathed without respirator and listened to ‘Brahmananda Swaroopa.’ She said, “I wish to be alone. I don’t want any relatives to come to see me.” In the morning around 10 a.m., I went next to her. It was as if her breath was going faster. In the next half hour, her breath changed. I sensed that this was going to be her last moment. When I touched her hand, she held it. I called my wife too, and we chanted together. In this half hour, without any struggle, she left her body peacefully. Her face was so clear at that moment. Death happened very smooth for her.

We had been afraid that her death would be painful, because that was what the doctors had said. We had been worried about the struggle that she might have to go through towards her end. But as she gave herself to Sadhguru, her death happened so effortlessly. We felt so humbled and grateful within.

The next day, we passed on the message to Sadhguru and his reply was, “She has reached the right place. Everybody can be calm.” I consider myself very fortunate for having known Sadhguru. Many times have I heard Sadhguru saying, “Give yourself to me. I shall take care of your life and death.” But now, I saw this with my own eyes through Aarthi. After this incident, my respect and gratitude for Sadhguru has increased even more.
- Krishnakumar, Isha meditator, Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu, India
[Translated from Tamil]

Monday, October 10, 2011

Kaushiki Chakrabarty - a bhajan in raag Bhairavi (1/2)

Ram Stuti Bhajan - Pt. Jasraj 1/2

Isha making a difference in Rural Villages.

A Guru’s Predicament - Sadhguru on His Full Potential

Q: Sadhguru, you once said that you are functioning at about 3% of your full potential. Can you tell us how we can create a situation where you could unleash your full potential? And what would that 100% mean?


Sadhguru: What would the full potential be? Different people have expressed this in different ways. Krishna said, “I am the radiant sun among the luminaries. I am the moon among the stars. I am the lion among the beasts. I am the king of birds among the birds. I am the Ganga among the rivers. I am the Himalaya among the mountains.” In this language he went on, very eloquently. Jesus said, “I am the son of God; the only son.” That is another kind of language; the same thing expressed in a different way. Gautama said, “If you walk my path you will never have to turn around,” – a subtler way of saying it. In India, it is very common to chant, “Aham Brahmasmi” – that means, “I am the Ultimate Truth.” Mansur al-Hallaj, who is the originator of the Sufi system, went to India, came back and said, “Anal haq.” That means, “I am the truth,” and he got into a lot of trouble.

I am not given to that kind of language; I am just putting it very simply. Whatever mechanics of this existence, whatever dimensions of this existence, if you just provide me the needed atmosphere, I can take you to any one of them and I can fix any one of them. I am not a god, I am not a Guru – I am a mechanic. This is the 21st century where God is a bad word, and Son of God is even worse. [Laughs] Two thousand years ago, God was a sacred word; so if somebody said, “I am the Son of God,” it was all right. So if you prepare the necessary situation, I can take you to the mechanics of this existence, whatever dimension it is; whatever needs to be done, I can fix it. That is the 100% potential; that does not sound as grand and poetic as, “I am the lion among the beasts. I am the Himalayas among the mountains. I am the Ganga among the rivers.” My interest in the existence is that it works. It looks so chaotic, so unwieldy, nobody knows the beginning and the end, but it still works.

So if you are interested in that which works, you are naturally a mechanic. I can make it work on any level of existence. It is just a question of creating a conducive atmosphere, and that is challenging. If we create the atmosphere, I can make it work on any level of existence. This is all I have aspired for – and this is all there is. So what do you have to do? One thing is the foundation – the foundation of any building should be in the ground, but the Isha Foundation is sitting on my head all the time. I want to put it to the ground. [Laughs] So if you are willing to be that ground and to take the load of the foundation, if it is off my head, a lot more things could be done. That is not all, but it is an important factor right now – I am trying to unload; step-by-step, I am getting it off my head, but still it is happening too slowly because life does not stop for one moment. [Laughs]
This is a race to the grave. You may think that the physical body is going to many places. “I went to Himalayas, I went to Florida, I vacationed in this place, I did this, I did that.” But still, your body is going straight to the grave – nowhere else. The rest is your imagination. Your physical body is going straight to the grave; no deviation. That is something that I am constantly aware of. In a very codified way, not the knowledge, but the keys to everything that is worth knowing are all in one place. If tomorrow somebody with the necessary awareness comes, it will not be lost. That was the intention of the Dhyanalinga – not just what I know, also what my Guru knew and what the whole tradition knew, everything is there, not in the form of knowledge, but in the form of keys. If someone is aware enough, they can pick it up and open whatever they want in the existence. It is a dvara, a doorway to the creation. You can use it to open just about anything. But right now, the 21st century is a talking century. If you don’t talk, nobody gets the point.

People don’t understand that if I don’t talk and just sit, something more profound is happening. If I don’t talk, they will gape, get up, and leave. People are even talking to themselves while driving a car or walking on the street, because there are hands-free sets. Just twenty years ago, if you had done this on the street, people definitely would have thought you have escaped from some kind of institution – but now it has become common. You don’t get along with anybody in this century but you talk to everybody. You go on the internet and talk to all kinds of people that you have not seen. People have love affairs with those that they have not seen because it is so easy to love people that you have not seen; it is just like loving God. [Laughter] The trouble is always with people that you have seen and have known for long periods of time, or that you have to live or work with. On some faceless Facebook, you are all lovey-dovey with the whole world. That is very easy, you know.

So because this is a talking century – I hope it won’t be a talking millennium – we have to talk, but at the same time create an atmosphere where the needed talk happens as quickly as possible so that we don’t have to go on talking endlessly. If the talk has to be quick, it has to be brutal. If the talk has to be brutal and still people should not run away, you have to create the necessary atmosphere where people are so overwhelmed by your love, devotion and intensity that when they come here, I can go straight at them – no diplomacy – so that the talking period can be shortened; otherwise, you will end up talking for the rest of your life and still people won’t get it. If you speak gently, the conversation will go on forever. One brutal word, it stops. To say a brutal word and not make them run away, to make them realize this brutality has a profoundness behind it, you need to create a certain atmosphere, otherwise the diplomacy that you should do, I will have to do, and my time is ticking away.

If people are created who are of a certain capability, people who are stable beyond mental moods and emotions, they will be the foundation – that means it is off my head. Then a lot more can be done. If we could find 100% expression with even a handful of people, that would already be fantastic. We are not expecting to find 100% expression with the whole word; that is never going to happen. I am not so dreamy. But definitely, it is possible to create a handful of people with whom it could be 100%. If that cannot be done, we may be a success in the world, people may be clapping their hands, but if we cannot find full expression even with a handful of people, if we have to be careful with them, watching out for their egos, then as a spiritual movement, it is a disaster.

We need people who have the necessary integrity, balance, stability, and heart in them, that even if you let them out into the most corrupt situation, they will function successfully there and come out untouched. Like Gautama allowed a young monk to stay at a prostitute’s house [knowing he can trust his integrity]; I want people like that, that I could send you into a place like that and still I would not have to worry about what you will be doing. We need people of integrity. Integrity has become a dicey thing in today’s world because people have very infantile ideas of freedom.

It would be impractical to think that you are going to make every fool on the planet into an enlightened being. The world is always a play between the positives and the negatives. Some generations enjoy the positives more than the negatives; some generations suffer the negatives more than they enjoy the positives. If there is something that we as a generation can do and be proud of, we have to see that for the next generation, the positives of life hugely outweigh the negatives. This does not mean there will be not a single problem in the world, that everything will be perfect; that would not be a dream, that would be hallucination.

When you dream something, it is also a possibility. When we talk about creating something, and you cannot see the logical staircase to reach there, or you see the staircase disappearing into the clouds, you think it is an impossible thing, but it is not. It just needs a little more fire. Suppose you were born in a social or family situation where education was not possible for you, and somebody told you, “Why don’t you become a doctor or an engineer,” you would have said, “Not for me, not possible, I will go to work.” But if somebody gave you a scholarship, if somebody supported you, you could have gotten there.

So that which is not in your realm of experience and thought seems to be impossible to you. But should not whoever has the largest experience, whoever has explored the world to the maximum extent, guide where the world should go? That is how it should be, but that does not happen right now. The whole world may not go spiritual but if you at least create a possibility that is available and accessible to the whole world, then the pluses would increase to a point where people can gloss over the minuses. When life is so good, even if one little bad thing happens, you can ignore it and go on. Otherwise, every little minus pricks you so badly because there are no pluses in your life.

Particularly in today’s world, because of technology, our ability to reach people is phenomenal; never before was this possible. What we can do in terms of reach, a Krishna could not do, a Buddha could not do, a Jesus could not do. Today, we have the advantage of technology – we have audio, video, television, and the internet – we can slip into everybody’s house. Though there are many other disadvantages in today’s world, this is a phenomenal advantage. If we make use of this – if we can change the culture of this planet from materialistic to spiritual even by one percent in our lifetime, it is a phenomenal achievement because if a ship keeps changing direction by one percent, after some time, it will have made a complete U-turn. Yes, you cannot turn everyone around right now, and there is no need to. If you can just change the direction by one degree, in a certain period of time, the world will have made a U-turn. This can be done if the necessary people are there.
We still have some life in us – there is time left. You decide how far you want to take it, what you want to do. Let me see that fire spilling from your eyes – not a fire of anger, greed, or passion, but the cool fire which burns quietly and does all the work that needs to be done without burning itself up. Cool fire fuels everything but it does not burn anything up – and we have everything in our hands to do that. Today, we have a social situation in the world where as long as we don’t break the law, we can do whatever we want. This was never so before.

It does not take millions of people to do this. Fifty really committed, stable people who don’t have basic questions on an everyday basis, are all it takes. You must settle your basic questions and from then on your questions should dig deeper. People come up with the same nonsense every day. If you are asking the same stupid question for ten years, then this speaks of your intelligence, or rather the lack of it. “Is he going to exploit us? Is he going to use us?” If I wanted to exploit you, I could have made it in such a way that when you walked into that free introductory and I would have told you, “Drop everything that you have here and walk away,” you would have done it. At least trust my efficiency. If you take that idea from your mind, you are on stable ground. If you cannot settle these basic questions, you must leave or just be on the fringe; just come and go, fine.

So, if you settle these basic things within yourself once and for all, this will bring stability, a new ground for you to stand upon within yourself. Then the next steps will naturally come. Every rung will be a challenge, so you have to stabilize the ground on which the ladder is standing. I am not asking you to run up the ladder without checking every rung. But if you keep disturbing the ground on which the ladder stands, then however good the quality of the ladder is, it is useless. You take your time on every rung; that is perfectly okay. If you are maddened by this, you run up the ladder without bothering whether it is going to withstand your weight or not – that is also okay. If that is not possible for you, check every rung and go. But this one basic thing, the ground, you must settle. If you don’t settle that, it will be just waste of time.

Time is not a commodity that comes and goes – it just goes. Time is life. We cannot afford to squander it. I would even say, there is no such thing as time, there is just life. If we create such people with the necessary integrity, stability, and balance, we can start exploring.
- Excerpted from a talk by Sadhguru

Anger is Intensity. Sadhguru

Is it Possible to Disappear Using Yoga? Sadhguru

Friday, October 7, 2011

Difference between Sadhguru and the Dhyanalinga


Sadhguru: There's no difference. It's just that I still have the problems of eating and sleeping. He doesn't. Otherwise, there's no difference, except that I can walk; he can't (laughs). Now, what you're referring to as the Dhyanalinga is the highest possible subtle body. It is at its peak vibration with all the seven chakras intact. It was consecrated by creating a certain vortex, which drew in enormous amounts of energy. Another difference is that I took three lifetimes to become like this; he managed it in three years. That's a big difference. The etheric body, or the subtle body, was constructed using enormous amounts of energy. If we had made it any more intense, it couldn't have retained a form; it was in that level of intensity. This was the peak of intensity that you could hold within the dimensions of a form. The Dhyanalinga is the highest possible being sitting there all the time, stable, steady, always the same way because he has no problems of a mental body, karmic body or physical body. He is always the same because he's just a subtle body.

In theory, it is possible to slowly construct a human physical body for the Dhyanalinga, and to create a being like that - somebody who will walk - if we're willing to work towards this. In theory, it is possible, but to get all the ingredients and all the forces together is an enormous job. Once we create a physical body, to sustain himself in such peak energies, he would have to do so many things. Above all, once you have a physical body, people's ability to experience what's beyond that will decrease, because once you see a person, you start judging - seeing what's right and wrong about him, what appeals to you or doesn't. All these judgments will take away your ability to experience that being. That's the huge difference. To create the subtle body itself took enormous amounts of work. If we want to create grosser dimensions of the body, we can create a very beautiful human being without him being born through a womb, because the subtle body is properly established. It would be like having Shiva back, alive, walking, but it wouldn't serve any purpose and would involve too much. It's very difficult to tell you logically or sensibly what this is all about.

This reminds me: when Vivekananda was a highly energetic and intense young boy, he was very skeptical and full of questions. He wanted to investigate everything. He had won many awards in debates and was always looking for more debates with whomever he met. When he met Ramakrishna he asked him, "You're always talking about God. What is the proof that there is God?" He was expecting some great explanation, which he obviously had the logic to break down, and he would defeat him. Ramakrishna said, "I am the proof." Vivekananda didn't expect this answer. He was expecting some explanation as to how there's a creation and a creator. So when Ramakrishna said, "I am the proof," he didn't know what to say. He sat there, bewildered. Ramakrishna thought this fellow's snooty logic was making him stupid. Vivekananda had enormous intensity, but he was missing the whole point. So Ramakrishna just took his foot and placed it on Vivekananda's chest. He lost all of his logic, and tears started flowing. Tears and Vivekananda were impossible. Logical people cannot shed a tear unless they're touched in their innermost depth. Tears just started flowing and then he said, "I'm very sorry I even asked you such a question."

Now, if you think logically, it seems impossible that there is no difference between the Dhyanalinga and me. Even if you have experienced the Dhyanalinga in some way for a moment, it still sounds absolutely egoistic for me to say this; but really, there's no difference. If you don't like it, I can't help it. Slowly you will see, as the days pass, I won't be interested in keeping up any façade for anybody's sake. We have done enough of that in order to bring about the necessary goodwill and understanding into people so that they could become receptive enough. We don't have to continue doing that for a lifetime. Those who are too logical and whose ability to live life is very much on the surface may fall off. I don't want them to fall off, but they may, because I am too blunt. It's all right. This is how it is.

When you go to the Dhyanalinga, just sit there - you don't have to believe or disbelieve anything. It's as if a good dinner is being served in front of you. You're not overly hungry nor do you dislike the food. Simply sit there, not trying to grab it. Just be willing, open, not making any judgments about the food in front of you. You must sit in front of the Dhyanalinga like that, not doing anything, but not putting your foot into the food either. Sit there with a certain willingness and openness; then you will see that this is not just a symbol. The Dhyanalinga is not just a stone standing there anymore . You will see it is like a living being in every way.

Somebody who doesn't have a physical, mental or karmic body, but only has a subtle body - spiritual or etheric body - can only touch you on that level. If we teach you Hatha Yoga, kriyas, or if we change your mental attitude through the programs, and you practice for some time, then you give it up, you will see, you will go back to square one. But once you're touched at the level of your etheric body, you can't get rid of it. Whether you live or die, it still goes with you. This is what initiation means. It's not just a bundle of instructions. The idea is to touch you on the level of your etheric body so that it can never be taken away, no matter what kind of life you live, or how ignorantly you live. The seed can't die; that's how it is put across. That's what an initiation means.

When you sit in front of a living Guru, you have many problems, judgments, likes and dislikes, because invariably you end up looking at his personality. People have left their Gurus for all kinds of frivolous things. This happened with J. Krishnamurti, a realized being and very wonderful man. There was a certain lady who was very close to him and deeply involved with his work. She was always around him and traveled to many places with him. Once when he was in Amsterdam, Holland, he went into a shop to buy a tie for himself. He was so meticulous about choosing a tie, because he was very conscious about everything and also what he wore. He could throw the tie away if he wanted to, but when he wears it, he wants it to be in a certain way. So he went into the shop and spent nearly four hours picking out one tie. He pulled out every tie in the shop, looked at it, put it on, and then said, "No." It took him four hours to select just one tie. This woman watched and watched and watched, and as minutes passed, in her mind his enlightenment receded. She thought a man who could be so concerned about what kind of tie he wears couldn't be enlightened, and she left him. Many such stupid things are done because of your judgments.

People have left their Gurus for even more frivolous things. This is simply because, in your day-to-day life, you are deeply caught up with your own physical and mental bodies. What has happened within you on deeper dimensions is not in your moment-to-moment awareness. Certain moments you know this is the deepest thing that has happened to you in your life. The rest of the time your mind will argue and prove to you that it's not so. With Dhyanalinga, you don't have these problems because it doesn't carry a physical or mental body. If you experience him once, every time you sit, you will look up to him reverentially. If he had a physical body, one moment you would be looking up to him reverentially, the next moment you would be judging him and condemning him for something. It's bound to happen. So he has come with extra advantages
 
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