Making of a Hata Yogi -- Isha Hata Yoga Teacher Training Program

Sadhguru : The training is structured to see that, slowly transform to you, not a Hata Yoga Teacher, but into a Yogi. Because in my perception, ultimately only One, who is Yoga, should transmit Yoga. Only than it will be a real thing. Not that you learned Yoga, not that you know Yoga, but You are Yoga.

Just throw your heavenly spiritual experiences in the TRASH-CAN

"One day I said to Mother (Sri Anandamayi Ma),—”Ma, all these days the Mantric Sounds 'Arise' in me in a continuous stream. In the daytime as well as at dead of night the Flow of the Sound -naturally Wells out of My Heart, like the gushing jets of a fountain.”

When I said it, some 'slight tinge of personal satisfaction' lurked in the inmost recess of my heart. Mother gazed at me and said nothing. When I reached home, the Sound 'ceased' and in spite of my best efforts, I could not revive it. The day passed and night wore on, but the 'joyful stream' of Mantric melody could not be restored.

Next morning I requested Bhupen to inform Mother about my sad plight. Bhupen met Mother on the way while She was proceeding to a devotee’s house in a carriage. She began to laugh. It was 10 A.M. Just at 'that moment' I found that the choked-up Stream began 'To Flow' with its former ease.

I came to know from Bhupen afterwards at what time he had met Mother. In this connection, Mother 'was heard' to observe that in Spiritual matters, even the 'slightest tinge' of I-ness retards one’s progress."

~ MOTHER AS REVEALED TO ME ॐ 
English edition of Bhaiji’s Matri Darshan

~ Divine Photo of 1930's: Bhaiji, one of 'greatest devotees' of Ma, Sri Anandamayi Ma and Ma's husband and devotee of Ma, Bholanathji

*** OSHO AGREES TO VISIT A BISTRO & HARSHAD WAS STUNNED ***

I used to come to Bombay, before I settled in Bombay, almost two or three times per month because the headquarters were in Bombay, the whole work was there. There I had the greatest following; and the most intelligent people in India of course are in Bombay. Slowly thousands of people started knowing me. One day one of my sannyasins -- at that time I had not started sannyas but now he is a sannyasin.... He used to drive me about, and just jokingly -- he did not mean it, but he was not fully aware of me -- just before a bistro he stopped the car and said, "Osho, would you like to come in and have an ice cream?"

Ice cream I used to love. To tell you the truth I still love it, although there is no way to find it anywhere. I said, "That's a great idea!" Then he became afraid. He had been joking. He had said it thinking that a religious man would say no to going into a bistro, where an almost naked woman was doing a striptease dance. He said, "Are you sure?"

I said, "Absolutely! Just open the door -- because this is my last life. After this life there is no bistro for me and no ice cream: I don't want to miss the last chance." He waited for a few seconds. I said, "For what are you waiting?"

He said, "But if somebody sees you there, and recognizes you there...."

I said, "That is my problem."

He said, "No, it is not your problem -- they will kill me, they will say 'It is you who took him; otherwise how could he find that bistro? You were supposed to take him home from the meeting place, not to a bistro.'"

I said, "Don't be worried. I will protect you and say that I insisted, that seeing the signboard, 'Bistro,' I said, 'What is this? -- I want to know.'"

He said, "Then it is okay. But, Osho, you are creating a very troubled state for me."

I said, "Don't be worried -- just come on."

I had to enter first, then he followed me; he had to follow. It was an air-conditioned place, but he was perspiring.

I said, "Harshad" -- Harshad was his name -- "your name means rejoice. What a fool -- rejoice!"

And what he was afraid of happened. The manager of the bistro had heard me: he came and fell at my feet. Harshad was just going into a nervous breakdown. Everything stopped; even the striptease dancer stopped -- everything was frozen. When the manager fell at my feet, other customers who had no idea who I was started coming to touch my feet and the striptease girl came down from the stage. I said, "Harshad, it seems even in this life it is not going to be possible." I told the manager, "At least bring my ice cream."

He said, "Will you accept one?"

I said, "Accept? I am ordering one: I like tutti-frutti." I was eating my ice cream and the whole crowd was standing around me. I said, "What are you doing? Do your business!" And Harshad was hiding behind the crowd because if the manager saw him....

As I finished my ice cream he came and just grabbed me. He told me, "Osho, out! I will never drive you again if you do such a thing."

I said, "But what have I done? I have not created any problem for anyone. You had asked me,'Would you like some ice cream?' so I ordered one. And in all this hullaballoo they have not asked for the bill. Go and pay it.

He said, "I am not going inside again. I cannot go alone; if you come ahead of me...."

I said, "Then don't bother, because nobody is thinking of the bill right now. We enjoyed them, they enjoyed us, and it is balanced. There is nothing much to be worried about. But where have you been hiding? I had to eat two long glasses full of ice cream because the manager had brought the best, the biggest glasses. Where were you? I had to eat two glasses, and two glasses that size are a little too much."

He continued to drive me, but whenever there was a bistro or anything, he would go so fast. I would say, "Harshad, a bistro!" and he would say, "Never again!"

People came to know somehow and he had a good beating from everybody. In Bombay, in those days there were many old people who were followers of mine, very respected people: somebody was an ex-mayor, somebody was ex-sheriff, somebody was a minister. I told everybody, "Nobody is to harass Harshad; he has been punished enough." He had perspired and begun trembling, but I simply enjoyed it; the whole scene was so fabulous. And for the striptease girl this was an absolutely new act. She may never have done it before and will never have to do it again.

- OSHO








Book - From Personality To Individuality
Chapter # 28
Chapter Name - Knowledge Is Information, Knowing Is Transformation

Travel at the speed of light and you will become light. Travel at the pace that I move, and you will become me. - Sadhguru

Just do everything with the same sense of involvement and energy, without paying less attention to one thing and more attention to something else.

Questioner : Sadhguru, this sounds awkward, but I'd like to say it. I want to become like you. Is there such a possibility for me?

Sadhguru : Grow a beard like me. (Laughs) Yesterday, somebody asked me a similar question in a different way, and I just reminded them that there is a simple phenomenon in life, in physical existence, that they should be aware of. If you know some physics, you know there that if, for example, if you take this piece of metal and throw it at the speed of light, it will not remain a mass as it is now; it will become light. Did you know this?

Anything in existence, if it travels at the speed of light, it becomes light. So everything in existence can be converted into light; if I just move this hand at the speed of light, this hand will no more remain a hand, it will become light. This is a scientific fact.

If you try to plug yourself into a electric socket - like the light bulb - it will do something else to you! You will not become light. So, whatever you consider to be Sadhguru, right now - I do not know what your idea of me is; that is also questionable - if a desire has risen within you, for whatever reason, that you want to become me, then you have to move at the same pace has me.

A very beautiful example was set by Adi Shankara. Adi Shankara was a walking man, you know? He died at the age of thirty-two, but before this he walked up and down this country three times. He even walked the country once or twice sideways, east and west. That is a lot of walking, isn't it? By the time he was thirty two he did all this walking. But it wasn't the walking that killed him, by the way!

When he walked his disciples walked behind him. And he set up this device. He demanded that the disciples should walk at his pace. Sometimes he walked very fast, sometimes slow, sometimes at medium speed. Whichever way he walked, everybody was expected to walk at just the same pace. If they walked at the wrong pace, they were reprimanded. He would walk ten miles an hour and everybody had to walk ten miles an hour. He would walk one mile an hour and everybody had to walk one mile an hour. He would walk three miles an hour and everybody had to walk three miles an hour. He would be walking at a certain speed, then he would alter his speed, and everybody had to alter their speed. This was a simple way to train his disciples to become him. It was a very physical tool. By simply doing that, he transformed the people who walked behind him.

So if a desire has risen within you that you want to become me, you must start from the end that you know. You cannot start from the end that you do not know. You must have noticed that this morning our meeting started at twelve noon. It is ten pm now; it has been going on continuously for ten hours. Before that we had two or three hours of telephonic meetings. this meeting may continue through the night until tomorrow morning, and I will sit here and go through all that it demands. I will sit here the whole night. I will just be going on with what I have to do, without any irritation, without any agitation; I will just do what i have to do with total involvement.

So start from this end.
Learn to conduct the day - no matter what the quality of the day, no matter what kind of people you meet, what kind of situation you face - with the same sense of involvement, with the same dedication to little things and big things.

Just do everything with the same sense of involvement and energy, without paying less attention to one thing and more attention to something else.

Pay total attention to everything. Start from this end. It can happen. Just do that.

Did you ever see me paying less attention to one person and more attention to another person?

Or did you see me pay more attention to one issue than the other?

You did not. And whatever the situations have been, or whatever the kind of people, you did not see me getting irritated or agitated. Start from that end.

Travel at the speed of light and you will become light. Travel at the pace that I move, and you will become me.

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The Lord of this Universe : " Oh, that is what I have been waiting for from My child! "

Never accept discouragement or defeat in any aspect of your spiritual life. Keep on with your daily sadhana no matter what. 

 

Whenever I had periods when my heart felt dry and I wasn't having good meditations, I said: "Never mind, Lord, I will not give up. You will see, I will shake the walls of Your silence until You do respond! I am here, and I will not change my resolve. I will never leave You." 

 

The seeker after God has to convince Him, and then the Lord says: "That devotee means it. That devotee cannot be sidetracked from the path or tempted by offerings of the lesser goals of the world. That devotee wants Me. Oh, that is what I have been waiting for from My child!"

~Sri Daya Mata

Freedom (or?) Next Birth ~ Mooji

*** This Guarantees that you do not return to this earth *** Robert Adams

 Do not think you're so important that you have to overcome a problem. That is all you're doing when you think you have a problem to overcome. It makes you feel important. I've got to solve this problem, I've got to overcome this situation. As if 'I' is somebody important. 'I' doesn't exist. If 'I' doesn't exist neither does your problem. You know by now that your problem exists because you believe in your 'I'. When you realize 'I' does not exist everything disappears. This is what I mean when I tell you sometimes, there are no problems, there never were any problems and there never will be any problems. But as soon as you begin to think there are problems. Even while you're sitting here listening to me, if you allow your mind to think doesn't a problem come up in your life that you're thinking about, that you think is so important at the present time? 


But if you were spontaneous and live in the eternal present, the eternal now, forget about the past, don't worry about the future but live in this particular second, in this second there are no problems. If you can only stay in this split second, no-one is hungry, no-one is ill, no-one is in need, no-one is suffering. As you begin to stay in that split second, this split second expands into a minute, into two minutes, into ten minutes and as you abide in it, it turns into eternity. You are always in that split second where nothing is happening. Where no thing is taking place. That split second is bliss, pure intelligence, absolute reality and you are that. 


 So again, it begins when you get up in the morning. You observe the 'I'. You watch yourself thinking I got up, I just woke up. 

But now here's the catch, do not allow the 'I' to go any further. 

As soon as you watch yourself saying, "I just woke up". Try to catch yourself and ask yourself the question, "Who is the 'I' that just woke up?" For in that split second prior to awakening you were in bliss, no thoughts. But as soon as you begin to think of the 'I', the world comes into play. In that split second before I came along you were awake. Yet there was no world, there were no people, there was no universe, there were no problems. In that split second. But as soon as you began to think of 'I' your troubles began. Because you're thinking about the day, I'm hungry, I have to take a shower. I have to get dressed and I begins to do its mischief. That is why it's very important to observe the 'I' coming out. 


If you can really observe it you will see that the 'I' is coming out of your spiritual heart on the right side of your chest. But a funny thing will happen. As you observe it, it will go back, isn't that interesting? As you observe the 'I' or as you question it, "Where did the 'I' come from?" It will stop. It will stop its procedure, it will stop its journey to the brain where you become body conscious. All these things happen in a split second. So you have to be aware, you have to be alert, you have to watch for it. 

I admit it takes some effort in the beginning but it's well worth it. Think about this again.

Just before you awaken to the 'I', you are already awake in that split second. In that split second there is no world but you are awake, you are conscious, you're totally happy, you're totally self-realized in that split second. But then the 'I' begins its journey from the heart to the brain. 

Now if you can observe the 'I' and question its authority, it will lose its momentum and slow down. And begin to return to the heart. If you can get it to return to the heart, you will be conscious but you will be liberated. 

You will go about your business like you always do. You will take your shower, you will eat your breakfast, it will all happen spontaneously. There will be no thoughts. The only experience you will have is total bliss. Total happiness, total joy and yet your body will go about it's business. It can happen all at once or it can take time. But it's worth the effort isn't it? Even if it takes you a lifetime, at least you will be free at that time. What is more important than this? 

Can anything be more important than this? 

This guarantees that you do not return to this earth. It guarantees that while you are alive in your body, so-to-speak, you will be a jivan-mukta, self-realized in the body. This is your only salvation. But you've got to do it. These teachings used to be handed out by the Rishis from mouth to mouth to explain it. It is most difficult to comprehend the books. Even though some of them are very clear... (tape break then Robert continues) ...something within that knows what to do to make it happen. But if you try to understand with your brain, with your head, you will forget. And when tomorrow morning comes you will get up and your 'I' will take over immediately. You will say I'm late for work, I'm in a hurry, I'm this and I'm that and you will forget everything we're talking about this evening. But if you are listening with your heart, when tomorrow morning comes you will spontaneously be able to catch yourself. I will repeat again how to do this. When you first open your eyes, in that split second you are conscious. The 'I' has not risen yet, but remember it's all happening in a second. So you've got to be aware, you've got to be awake, intelligent. Watch and you will notice that the 'I' begins very faintly and becomes stronger. You can shout out, "Who are you?" That's the same as saying, "Who am I?" Who gave you permission to awaken? Observe, watch. The 'I' will begin to lose momentum. The 'I' will become weaker and weaker. The way it usually happens with people, with most people, is they're able to catch it for maybe a few seconds and then the 'I' will take over completely. 

Do not be disappointed, that is the worst thing you can do. 

It has taken most people years, centuries perhaps to go all the way. Be happy with what you've got. But as you begin to do this practice diligently, everyday, that split second where you observe the 'I', will expand into a full second, into two-seconds, into three-seconds. In other words for those three-seconds you will be self-realized to an extent. You will be conscious, period. You will not be conscious of this or that, you will be conscious. And you will feel something you never felt before, a joy. You will know you're on the right track. Then when the 'I' takes over completely you can get up and go about your business and ask yourself, "Who am I? What is the source of the 'I'?" During the day as the thoughts come to you, be receptive, be alert, question, "To whom do these thoughts come?" They come to me, "Who's me? Who am I? What is the source of the 'I'?" Practice that all day. The next morning you do the same thing. If you do this my friends I can assure you, things will begin to happen to you that you never dreamed possible. May you all experience bliss and your true Self. ~ Robert Adams

Sadhguru talks on how to use Vairagya Mantra

Golden Quote from Paramhansa Yogananda.

"Let not anyone else know how deeply you feel for the Lord. The Master of the Universe knows of your love; don’t display it before others, or you may lose it."

— Paramahansa Yogananda, Man’s Eternal Quest, Why Waste Time! God Is the Joy you Seek

GOD'S POWER IS REALIZED WHEN OUR EFFORTS ARE NO LONGER HELPFUL

D.: We are trying to stop thoughts. Gandhiji also says that thought is an obstacle to God’s guidance. So it is the natural state. Though natural, yet how difficult to realise. They say that sadhanas are necessary and also that they are obstacles. We get confused.

M.: Sadhanas are needed so long as one has not realised it. They are for putting an end to obstacles. Finally there comes a stage when a person feels helpless notwithstanding the sadhanas. He is unable to pursue the much-cherished sadhana also. It is then that God’s Power is realised. The Self reveals itself.

D.: If the state is natural, why does it not overcome the unnatural phases and assert itself over the rest?
M.: Is there anything besides that? Does anyone see anything besides the Self? One is always aware of the Self. So It is always Itself.

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi no 647

How to be a entreprenuer? You will love, how Sadhguru says about it ♥

People try to find happiness in drink, sex, and money, but.................................

People try to find happiness in drink, sex, and money, but the pages of history are filled with tales of their disillusionment. The time I have spent in prayer has made my life unimaginably fruitful. A thousand bottles of wine could not produce the joy it has given me. In that joy is the conscious guidance of God's wisdom. When you are attuned with Him in this way, even though you unwittingly do wrong it will be righted by the Lord's omniscient direction; if you make a poor judgement it will be corrected by Him.

Paramahansa Yogananda

Ramana to Papaji: "I am with you wherever you are"

From David Godman's quite recent book The Fire of Freedom:

Papaji: There had been a lot of trouble in the Punjab, and most of my family were still living there. Since I had not been reading any newspapers, I didn't even know what was going on there.

One of the devotees told the Maharshi that my family was stuck on the wrong side of the new international boundary between Pakistan and India, and when he heard this the Maharshi advised me to go home and look after them.

I didn't want to go because I had completely fallen in love with the Maharshi. I felt that I couldn't live without seeing his form.

We were walking on the hill together when this conversation was taking place.

'Sir,' I said, 'before I came to meet you I had a wife, children, brothers, sisters and parents. Now that I have met you, all these people have become a dream. I am not attached to anyone any more, except you.'

The Maharshi replied by saying, 'If you want to call it a dream, why are you afraid of it? If you can see that it is a dream, then you can transact your dream business with these dream people.'

I could see the logic of what he was saying but I didn't want to leave because I had become infatuated with his form and presence.

'I am completely attached to your form,' I said. 'That's the only relationship I have left. I am so physically attached to you. I cannot leave, even for a few hours. When the doors of your hall are open, I am inside, staring at you. When they are closed, I am camped outside your window, hoping to catch a glimpse of you. During the night I sleep on your front veranda because I can't bear to be any further away from you. I am absent for about one hour a day, eating or going to the bathroom. The rest of the time I am here with you. How can I leave?"

He looked at me and said, 'I am with you wherever you are'. These are the words I remember him saying. I immediately understood what he was saying. The 'I am' that the Maharshi spoke of, referring to himself, was my own Self as well, so how could I ever be away from it?

I could not argue any more. I prostrated before him, walked around him three times, prostrated again, collected some of the dust from under his feet and put it in my pocket. I went back to my home town, picked up my family and took them all to the safety of India on the last train that left Pakistan. After that I never had a chance to go back to Ramanasramam because my family were destitute refugees. I had to support them all by working here in Lucknow. I didn't need to go back because I understood that 'I am with you wherever you are' means that my Master is always inside me, as my own Self.

Question: I have just one simple question. Why did you pick up the dust from under the Maharshi's feet?

Papaji: Gratitude. It was an expression of my absolute, unconditional gratitude.

Self-remembering means you must have a double-arrowed arrow, one side of it showing to me, another side showing to you. A double-arrowed arrow is smriti – self-remembrance. - Osho.

You don’t remember yourself. You may remember millions of things, but you go on continuously

forgetting yourself, that you are. Gurdjieff had a technique. He got it from Patanjali. And, in fact, all techniques come from Patanjali. He is the past Master of techniques. smriti, remembrance – self-remembering – whatsoever you do. You are walking: remember deep down that ”I am walking, I am.” Don’t be lost in walking. Walking is there – the movement, the activity – and the inner center is there, just aware, watching, witnessing.

You need not repeat it in the mind, ”I am walking.” If you repeat, that is not remembrance. You have to be non-verbally aware that ”I am walking, I am eating, I am talking, I am listening.” Whatsoever you do, the ”I” inside should not be forgotten; it should remain. It is not self-consciousness. It is consciousness of the self. Self-consciousness is ego; consciousness of the self is asmita – purity, just being aware that ”I am.”

Ordinarily, your consciousness is arrowed towards the object. You look at me: your whole

consciousness is moving towards me like an arrow. But you are arrowed towards me.

Self-remembering means you must have a double-arrowed arrow, one side of it showing to me, another side showing to you. A double-arrowed arrow is smriti – self-remembrance.

Very difficult, because it is easy to remember the object and forget yourself. The opposite is also

easy – to remember yourself and forget the object. Both are easy; that’s why those who are in the market, in the world, and those who are in the monastery, out of the world, are the same. Both are single-arrowed. In the market they are looking at the things, objects. In the monastery they are looking at themselves.

smriti is neither in the market nor in the monastery. smriti is a phenomenon of self-remembering,

when subject and object both are together in consciousness. That is the most difficult thing in the world. Even if you can attain for a single moment, a split moment, you will have the glimpse of satori immediately. Immediately you have moved out of the body, somewhere else.

Try it. But, remember, if you don’t have trust it will become a tension. These are the problems

involved. It will become such a tension you can go mad, because it is a very tense state. That’s why it is difficult to remember both – the object and the subject, the outer and the inner. To remember both is very, very arduous. If there is trust, that trust will bring the tension down because trust is love. It will soothe you; it will be a soothing force around you. Otherwise the tension can become so much, you will not be able to sleep. You will not be able to be at peace any moment because it will be a constant problem. And you will be just in anxiety continuously.

That’s why we can do one: that’s easy. Go to the monastery, close your eyes, remember yourself, forget the world. But what you are doing? You have simply reversed the whole process, nothing else. No change. Or, forget these monasteries and these temples and these Masters, and be in the world, enjoy the world. That too is easy. The difficult thing is to be conscious of the both. And when you are conscious of the both and the energy is simultaneously aware, arrowed in the diametrically opposite dimensions, there is a transcendence. You simply become the third: you become the witness of both. And when the third enters, first you try to see the object and yourself. But if you try to see both, by and by, by and by, you feel something is happening within you – because you are becoming a third: you are between the two, the object and the subject. You are neither the object nor the subject now.

THIS POWER WILL ALWAYS CARRY YOU, IF YOU ALLOW IT

I recall when I first saw a picture of Ramana Maharshi in my teens and I had to go to India to see him. I had no idea, why? I didn't have the funds. A couple of months later my aunt died and left me fourteen thousand dollars. And I left my family and went to India. I don't know why.
And it has been like this all of my life. So I've learnt to surrender my wants, my desires, my ego, to the power that knows the way. And this power will always carry you on a stream of blessedness to your highest good, if you allow it. But you hove to become humble and you have to let go of fear. You do this by this the methods we teach, through self-enquiry and becoming the witness.

People ask me, when I see peace, what do I mean? I don’t have to see peace where it’s peaceful. I feel and see peace in every situation. Whatever there appears to be going on, there is peace. Just as in the center of a hurricane, there is a peaceful circle, total stillness at the center of a hurricane. The same is true in the center of a tornado, in the cyclone. There is a Center of Peace. We are all that Center. The true peace is YOU.

I replied: "I don't want either of those things. I can't avoid disease as long as I have a body. May I never forget you: that is all I want. Be with me wherever I go."

 Paramhansa Ramakrishna's disciple Swami Subodhananda

Swami Subodhananda left for a pilgrimage in the Himalayas. He visited the holy shrines of Kedarnath and Badrinath. While he was practising austerities in Hardwar, the following incident occurred:

I had been suffering from fever for two months. I was so weak that I could not lift my water pot to pour water into my mouth. One night when I went near the water pot to quench my thirst, I fell down on the floor unconscious. When I regained consciousness, my feelings were hurt and I cried: "Master, I am suffering terribly. There is none to look after me. You didn't give me sufficient strength even to drink a glass of water by myself." Thinking thus I fell asleep. Then I saw [in a dream or vision] the Master stroking my body with his hand, and he said: "Why are you anxious? Don't you see I am always near you? What do you want - attendants or money?" I replied: "I don't want either of those things. I can't avoid disease as long as I have a body. May I never forget you: that is all I want. Be with me wherever I go."

Early in the morning I heard a voice from outside, "Swami, please open the door." I got up and opened the door. A young monk told me: "Please tell me what you need. I shall beg food for you." I said to him, "I don't want anything." When I asked how he knew about me, he said that he had arrived there a couple of days earlier to perform a religious rite at the Brahmakunda. The previous night Mother Durga had appeared to him in a vision and said, "You will get more virtue by serving that sick monk in the cottage than by performing this religious rite." So early in the morning he came to my cottage and realized that his vision was true. Tears trickled from my eyes. I controlled myself and asked the young monk to let me live alone.

On the same day another monk received fifty rupees by money order. He came to me and said: "You are suffering from fever. You need food and medicine. Please use this money." I declined his offer.

Early the next morning the young monk came again and told me that at night Mother Durga had exhorted him to serve me as before. Then I told him politely that I really didn't need any service and that perhaps Mother Durga had asked him to serve someone else. The young' monk left. Then I prayed to the Master: "Please don't tempt me anymore. I am glad that you have crushed my pique." The young monk also came on the third day, but never again.

Healthy Food and a Proper Diet -- How Does One Decide? - Sadhguru

A small thing which is directly useful in the Master's work is far better worth doing than a large thing which the world would call good. - Alcyone

Try to see what is worth doing: and remember that you must not judge by the size of the thing.

A small thing which is directly useful in the Master's work is far better worth doing than a large thing which the world would call good.

You must distinguish not only the useful from the useless, but the more useful from the less useful.

To feed the poor is a good and noble and useful work; yet to feed their souls is nobler and more useful than to feed their bodies.

Any rich man can feed the body, but only those who know can feed the soul. If you know, it is your duty to help others to know.

Never admit that you live by the power of food and not by the power of God!

Yogananda (Mukunda) blessed to be nurtured under Beautiful Masters

“Mukunda, I see your father is regularly sending you money. Please return it to him; you require none here. A second injunction for your discipline concerns food. Even when you feel hunger, don't mention it.”


Whether famishment gleamed in my eye, I knew not. That I was hungry, I knew only too well. The invariable hour for the first hermitage meal was twelve noon. I had been accustomed in my own home to a large breakfast at nine o'clock.


The three−hour gap became daily more interminable. Gone were the Calcutta years when I could rebuke the cook for a ten−minute delay. Now I tried to control my appetite; one day I undertook a twenty−four hour fast. With double zest I awaited the following midday.


“Dyanandaji's train is late; we are not going to eat until he arrives.” Jitendra brought me this devastating news. As gesture of welcome to the swami, who had been absent for two weeks, many delicacies were in readiness. An appetizing aroma filled the air. Nothing else offering, what else could be swallowed except pride over yesterday's achievement of a fast?


“Lord hasten the train!” The Heavenly Provider, I thought, was hardly included in the interdiction with which Dyananda had silenced me. Divine Attention was elsewhere, however; the plodding clock covered the hours. Darkness was descending as our leader entered the door. My greeting was one of unfeigned joy.


“Dyanandaji will bathe and meditate before we can serve food.” Jitendra approached me again as a bird of ill omen.


I was in near−collapse. My young stomach, new to deprivation, protested with gnawing vigor. Pictures I had seen of famine victims passed wraithlike before me.


“The next Benares death from starvation is due at once in this hermitage,” I thought. Impending doom averted at nine o'clock. Ambrosial summons! In memory that meal is vivid as one of life's perfect hours.


Intense absorption yet permitted me to observe that Dyananda ate absent−mindedly. He was apparently above my gross pleasures.


“Swamiji, weren't you hungry?” Happily surfeited, I was alone with the leader in his study.


“O yes! I have spent the last four days without food or drink. I never eat on trains, filled with the heterogenous vibrations of worldly people. Strictly I observe the SHASTRIC rules for monks of my particular order.


“Certain problems of our organizational work lie on my mind. Tonight at home I neglected my dinner. What's the hurry? Tomorrow I'll make it a point to have a proper meal.” He laughed merrily.


Shame spread within me like a suffocation. But the past day of my torture was not easily forgotten; I ventured a further remark.


“Swamiji, I am puzzled. Following your instruction, suppose I never asked for food, and nobody gives me
any. I should starve to death.”


“Die then!” This alarming counsel split the air. “Die if you must Mukunda! Never admit that you live by the power of food and not by the power of God! He who has created every form of nourishment, He who has bestowed appetite, will certainly see that His devotee is sustained! Do not imagine that rice maintains you, or that money or men support you! Could they aid if the Lord withdraws your life−breath? They are His indirect instruments merely. Is it by any skill of yours that food digests in your stomach? Use the sword of your discrimination, Mukunda! Cut through the chains of agency and perceive the Single Cause!”


I found his incisive words entering some deep marrow. Gone was an age−old delusion by which bodily imperatives outwit the soul. There and then I tasted the Spirit's all−sufficiency. In how many strange cities, in my later life of ceaseless travel, did occasion arise to prove the serviceability of this lesson in a Benares hermitage!

Oh. What did you say...........Your wife doesn't cook food properly.......Ok.........Lets listen to what Bhagavan has to say.

A Bhakta shares :

When I was writing to you yesterday about eating popcorn with boiled rice, I was reminded of another incident. Echamma’s cooking was never very good; it would not contain vegetables and spices in proper proportions.

To Bhagavan her devotion was more tasty than her preparations and so he never complained, but some who could not relish the food casually hinted at this now and then while Bhagavan was cutting vegetables in the kitchen in the early morning hours. After hearing their complaints repeatedly Bhagavan said, “I don’t know. If you do not like the food you need not eat it. I find it quite good and I shall continue to do so.”

Sometime back, she was sending food for about a week or ten days through someone else because perhaps she was out of town or not quite well. The cooks one day forgot to serve the food sent by her and completed serving all other items of food cooked in the Ashram. Bhagavan who would usually beckon to others to start eating and would himself commence doing so, sat silently that day with his left hand under the chin, and his right hand on the leaf. The people there sitting in front began to look at one another and those in the kitchen, or wondering and enquiring in whispers about the possible reason.

Suddenly they remembered that the food sent by Echamma had not been served and, when they served it saying, “Oh, we have forgotten,” he gave the formal signal to the others to eat and he too commenced eating the food. It is usual for him to eat with greater relish the raw groundnuts offered to him by a devotee than the highly seasoned sweets and puddings offered by rich people, just as Lord Krishna ate with relish the beaten rice handed over to him by Kuchela.

Letters from Sri Ramanasramam

What we are concerned about is that whatever you eat, should be as far away from you as possible in the evolutionary scheme of things. - Sadhguru.

Questioner: Sadhguru, can you tell us what kind of food we are supposed to eat? Why are meat and meat products not considered the right kind of food for people on the spiritual path, and how is

seafood different? If this is just about killing or violence – isn’t a plant also life?

Sadhguru: This is not just about violence. We know life is violent. The question is just, will you conduct violence only to the extent that is necessary or will you overdo it? No one can live here without violence. Every breath is violence. Whether you cut a carrot, an apple, a chicken, or a goat – it is violence. Whether it is an ant, a cockroach, or a goat – for every life form, its life is the most precious thing on the planet. You may think, “Just a goat’s life.” A goat never thinks so. See with how much pride it walks. It thinks it is the most important life on the planet. Just like you.

In the yogic culture, we call the different life

forms jeevarasi. One heap of life – different levels

of evolution. Different levels of sensitivity. What

we are concerned about is that whatever you eat

should be as far away from you as possible in the

evolutionary scheme of things. Plants are furthest

away. If you have to eat an animal, we say it must

be in the water, because that is the first form of

animal life. If you want to look at it in terms of

stationary life and moving life, among the moving

life, fish are the furthest away from us, so we say

it is okay. You don’t eat a mammal because it is

very close to you.

If you think that if you eat a goat, you will

become healthier, why don’t you eat a human

being? Maybe you will become even healthier.

What is the problem in eating another human

being? It is that they are so much like us. A

certain life form is more complex only because of a certain volume of memory. Suppose we bring back your ancestors. If we raise the previous 10 generations, out of these maybe 150 to 500 people, at least 25 people may look startlingly alike, because the memory continues.

In the human system, the memory is more intricate

than in any other life form. As life evolved, the

memory became more complex, and the structure

of the system became more sophisticated. If you

eat an animal or any creature that is closer to you,

which has its own very complex memory, do what

you want – you cannot digest it. If you eat a plant,

you can digest almost 100% of it – you eliminate

its memory and impose it with your memory.

Your body started with two cells. Two cells of

memory multiplied into all this – still maintaining the same characteristics. But if you go on eating food that has more complex memory, your ability to superimpose your memory on it becomes less and less, the closer it is to you. You may think a goat’s life is nothing, but that is not true in terms of life. It is so much like you. If you cut open a goat, you will see its digestive system, its liver, and its kidneys are very similar to yours.

Your body is just an accumulation of the food

that you have eaten. If you want to impress your

samskara on the food that you have eaten and

make it yours, the complexity of the memory in

the food should be minimal. The more complex it

gets, the more you lose your characteristics. The

inherent qualities that have flown through you,

25,000 years of culture will go waste on you if you

eat food that has a complex memory structure.

The idea of creating a culture and a civilization is

so that it can be transmitted from one generation

to the next. Transmission is not only in the

school room. It happens in the genes. There are

substantial studies to prove this today. We

have always been saying this is your samskara.

Samskara means a distilled essence of civilization

flowing through you without being taught. You

can see this from one person to another person.

Even if you expose two people to the same kind

of external influences, still one person is different

to the other. This is because of samskara. Your

ability to let this inherent quality flow through

you will become minimal if you eat food with

complex memory structure.

Mahavir said this 2600 years ago – if you eat the

flesh of an animal, you will slowly become like

an animal. This does not mean if you eat goat

today, tomorrow you will look like a goat. Over a period of time, the kind of food that you consume will create a kind of memory distraction in your system. If you eat food with minimal memory, your body, your memory structure, and your genes easily imprint themselves on that and make it “you.” If you eat complex memory and you reproduce, the next generation will be confused, because the imprint of memory on them will not happen as clearly as it would have happened if you ate food with less complexity of memory.

If you consume animals that have emotions

and thoughts like human beings, it is close to

cannibalism. This is not a religious or moral issue.

It is an existential and scientific issue, a profound

understanding of how the system works. If you

consume meat or any food with complex memory

and strong emotions, you will slowly lose your

fundamental characteristics of being human.