KARM. SADBHAV. VIVEK.

Talking about YouTube - Lakshmi $Laxmi$ Gayatri for Spiritual Wealth and Luxuries

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:10:25 GMT

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YouTube - Lakshmi $Laxmi$ Gayatri for Spiritual Wealth and Luxuries

Five Basic Elements that Universe is made of.

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:42:08 GMT

The whole universe is made up of five basic elements - the earth, water, fire, air and space(sky). Different cultures have categorized these basic energies in different ways. In Chinese tradition, the elements have been considered as Earth, Water, Fire, Wood and Metal. In India, the Hindu texts state that the World is made of five elements (PanchaTatva): Earth (Bhoomi), Water(Nir/Jal), Air(Vayu), Fire(Agni) and Sky (Aakash/Gagan). In fact the most sacred word “Bhagwan” is the wisdom encapsulated in the five syllables of the word Bhagawan (Bha-bhoomi, Ga-gagan, Va-vayu, Aa-agni, and Na-nir) is what the Panchatatva or the five elements is all about. Our body is also made up of these five basic elements of nature. The panchatatvas are related to our five senses of smell, taste, hearing, touch and sight. Sky is related to sound , Water is related to taste, Air to touch, Fire to sight and Earth to smell .

YOGA IS MATHEMATICS.

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 16:49:48 GMT

Yoga is not a religion — remember that. Yoga is not Hindu, it is not Mohammedan. Yoga is a pure science just like mathematics, physics or chemistry. Physics is not Christian physics is not Buddhist. If Christians have discovered the laws of physics, then too physics is not Christian. It is just accidental that Christians have come to discover the laws of physics. But physics remains just a science.

Yoga is a science. It is just an accident that Hindus discovered it. It is not Hindu. It is a pure mathematics of the inner being. So a Mohammedan can be a yogi, a Christian can be a yogi, a Jain, a Buddhhist can be a yogi. Yoga is pure science, and Patanjali is the greatest name as far as the world of Yoga is concerned. This man is rare. There is no name comparable to Patanjali. For the first time in the history of humanity, this man brought religion to the state of a science: he made religion a science, bare laws; no belief is needed.

So-called religions need beliefs. There is no other difference between one religion and another; the difference is only of beliefs. A Mohammedan has certain beliefs, a Hindu certain others, a Christian certain others. The difference is of beliefs. Yoga has nothing as far as belief is concerned. Yoga doesn’t say to believe in anything; Yoga says experience. Just as science says experiment, Yoga says experience. Experiment and experience are both the same; their directions are different. Experiment means something you can do outside; experience means something you can do inside. Experience is an inside experiment.

Science says: Don’t believe, doubt as much as you can. But also, don’t disbelieve because disbelief is again a sort of belief. You can believe in God, you can believe in the concept of no-God. You can say God is, with a fanatic attitude; you can say the quite reverse, that God is not, with the same fanaticism. Atheists, theists, are both believers, and belief is not the realm for science. Science means experience something, that which is; no belief is needed.

So the second thing to remember: Yoga is existential, experiential, experimental. No belief is required, no faith is needed...only the courage to experience. And that’s what’s lacking. You can believe easily because in belief you are not going to be transformed. Belief is something added to you, something superficial. Your being is not changed; you are not passing through some mutation. You may be a Hindu, you can become Christian the next day. Simply, you change: you change the Gita for a Bible. You can change it for a Koran, but the man who was holding the Gita and is now holding the Bible remains the same. He has changed his beliefs.

Beliefs are like clothes. Nothing substantial is transformed; you remain the same. Dissect a Hindu, dissect a Mohammedan, inside they are the same. He goes to a temple; the Mohammedan hates the temple. The Mohammedan goes to the mosque and the Hindu hates the mosque, but inside they are the same human beings.Belief is easy because you are not required really to do anything — just a superficial dressing, a decoration, something which you can put aside any moment you like.

Yoga is not belief. That’s why it is difficult, arduous, and sometimes it seems impossible. It is an existential approach. You will come to the truth, not through belief but through your own experience, through your own realization. That means you will have to be totally changed. Your viewpoints, your way of life, your mind, your psyche has to be shattered completely as it is. Something new has to be created. Only with that new will you come in contact with reality.

So Yoga is both a death and a new life.

As you are you will have to die, and unless you die the new cannot be born. The new is hidden in you. You are just a seed for it, and the seed must fall down and be absorbed by the earth. The seed must die; only then will the new arise out of you. Your death will become your new life. Yoga is both a death and a new birth. Unless you are ready to die, you cannot be reborn. So it is not a question of changing beliefs.

Yoga is not a philosophy. I say it is not a religion, I say it is not a philosophy. It is not something you can think about. It is something you will have to be; thinking won’t do.

Thinking goes on in your head. It is not really deep into the roots of your being; it is not your totality. It is just a part, a functional part; it can be trained. And you can argue logically, you can think rationally, but your heart will remain the same. Your heart is your deepest center, your head is just a branch. You can be without the head, but you cannot be without the heart. Your head is not basic.

Yoga is concerned with your total being, with your roots. It is not philosophical. So with Patanjali we will not be thinking, speculating. With Patanjali we will be trying to know the ultimate laws of being: the laws of its transformation, the laws of how to die and how to be reborn again, the laws of a new order of being. That is why I call it a science.

Patanjali is rare. He is an enlightened person like Buddha, like Krishna, like Christ, like Mahavira, Mohammed, Zarathustra, but he is different in one way. Buddha, Krishna, Mahavira, Zarathustra, Mohammed — no one has a scientific attitude. They are great founders of religions. They have changed the whole pattern of human mind and its structure, but their approach is not scientific.

Patanjali is like an Einstein in the world of buddhas. He is a phenomenon. He could have easily been a Nobel-Prize winner like an Einstein or Bohr or Max Planck, Heisenberg. He has the same attitude, the same approach of a rigorous scientific mind. He is not a poet; Krishna is a poet. He is not a moralist; Mahavira is a moralist. He is basically a scientist, thinking in terms of laws. And he has come to deduce absolute laws about the human being, the ultimate working structure of the human mind and reality.

If you follow Patanjali you will come to know that he is as exact as any mathematical formula. Simply do what he says and the result will happen. The result is bound to happen. It is just as two plus two become four. It is just as you heat water up to one hundred degrees and it evaporates. No belief is needed: you simply do it and know. It is something to be done and known. That’s why I say there is no comparison. On this earth, never a man has existed like Patanjali.

You can find in Buddha’s utterances, poetry...bound to be there. Many times while Buddha is expressing himself he becomes poetic. The realm of ecstasy, the realm of ultimate knowing is so beautiful, the temptation is so much to become poetic. The beauty is such, the benediction is such, the bliss is such that one starts talking in poetic language.

But Patanjali resists that. It is very difficult. No one has been able to resist. Jesus, Krishna, Buddha — they all become poetic. The splendor, the beauty, when it explodes within you...you will start dancing, you will start singing. In that state you are just like a lover who has fallen in love with the whole universe.

Patanjali resists that. He will not use poetry; he will not use a single poetic symbol even. He will not do anything with poetry; he will not talk in terms of beauty. He will talk in terms of mathematics. He will be exact, and he will give you maxims. Those maxims are just indications what is to be done. He will not explode into ecstasy; he will not say things that cannot be said; he will not try the impossible.

He will just put down the foundation, and if you follow the foundation you will reach the peak which is beyond. He is a rigorous mathematician — remember this.

GREEN FOR LIFE

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 18:07:45 GMT

Ode to Green Smoothie

As the Russian proverb says: New- is something old, that has been long forgotten. This summer I re-discovered green smoothies. What do I mean by green smoothie? Here is one of my favorite recipes: 4 ripe pears, 1 bunch of parsley and 1 big cup of water. Blended well. This smoothie looks very green, but it tastes like fruit. I like green smoothies so much that bought an extra blender and placed it in my office, so that I could make green smoothies throughout the day. More than half of all the food I’ve had in last several months have been green smoothies. I have so much more energy and clarity that I have removed green juices from my diet. (Juicing has been something that I’ve been doing regularly for years.) Green smoothies have numerous benefits for human health.

1. Green smoothies are very nutritious. I believe that the ratio in them is optimal for human consumption: about 60% - ripe organic fruit mixed with about 40% - organic green vegetables.

2. Green smoothies are easy to digest. When blended well, all the valuable nutrients in these fruits and veggies become homogenized, or divided into such small particles that it becomes easy for the body to assimilate these nutrients, the green smoothies literally start to get absorbed in your mouth.

3. Green smoothies, as a posed to juices, are a complete food because they still have fiber.

4. Green smoothies belong to the most palatable dishes for all humans of all ages. With a ratio of fruits to veggies as 60:40 the fruit taste dominates the flavor, yet at the same time the green vegetables balance out the sweetness of the fruit, adding nice zest to it. Green smoothies are simply the best tasting dishes for the majority of adults and children. I always make extra smoothie and offer it to my friends and customers. Some of them eat a standard American diet. They all finished their big cup of green smoothies with complements. They were quite surprised that something so green could taste so nice and sweet.

5. By consuming two or three cups of green smoothies daily you will consume enough of greens for the day to nourish your body, and they will be well assimilated. Many people do not consume enough of greens, even those who stay on a raw food diet. The molecule of chlorophyll has only one atom that makes it different from a molecule of human blood. According to teachings of Dr. Ann Wigmore, to consume chlorophyll is like receiving a healthy blood transfusion.

6. Green smoothies are easy to make, and quick to clean up after. Many people told me that they do not consume green juices on a regular basis because it is time consuming to prepare green juices and clean the equipment after juicing, or to drive to the juice bar.

7. Green smoothies are perfect food for children of all ages, including babies of six or more months old when introducing new food to them after mother’s milk. Of course you have to be careful and slowly increase the amount of smoothies to avoid food allergies.

8. When you consume your greens in the form of green smoothies, you can greatly reduce the consumption of oils and salt in your diet.

9. Regular consumption of Green smoothies forms a good habit of eating greens. Several people told me that after a couple of weeks of drinking green smoothies, they started to crave and enjoy eating more greens. Eating enough of green vegetable is often a problem with many people, especially in children.

10. Green smoothies can easily be freshly made at any juice bar, restaurant or health food store for the great convenience of health-oriented customers. Please bring a copy of this article to your local juice bar.

I encourage the readers of this article to start playing with green smoothies, and to discover the many joys and benefits of this wonderful delicious and nutritious addition to the menu.

Here are more ideas for your green creations.
Some of my favorite greens to add to green smoothies: parsley, spinach, celery, kale and romaine. My favorite fruits for green smoothies are: pears, peaches, nectarines, bananas, mangoes and apples. Strawberries and raspberries taste superb in green smoothies, when combined with ripe bananas.

Delicious combinations.

Mango-parsley
2 large mangos
1 bunch parsley
Water

Peach-spinach
6 peaches
2 handfuls of spinach leaves
Water

Mango-weeds
2 mangos
1 handful of lambs quarters, stinging nettles, purslane, etc
Water

Strawberry-banana-romaine
1-cup strawberries
2 bananas
1⁄2 bunch romaine
Water

Apple-kale-lemon
4 apples
1⁄2 lemon juice
4-5 leaves of kale
Water

Kiwi-banana-celery
4 very ripe kiwis
1 ripe banana
3 stalks of celery
Water

Pear-kale-mint
4 ripe pears
4-5 leaves of kale
1⁄2 bunch of mint
Water

Finger banana-spinach
10 finger-bananas
2 handfuls of spinach leaves
Water

Bosc pear-raspberry-kale
3 bosc pears
1 handful of raspberries
4-5 leaves of kale
Water

MUSIC A HARMONIOUS SOUND?

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 16:08:13 GMT

Music and Meditation are two aspects of the same phenomena.

without music meditation lacks something.

without music meditation is dull, unalive...

without meditation, music is simply noise- harmonus sound....

BEAUTY OF WOMAN.

Sun, 26 Mar 2006 11:39:34 GMT

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears,
The figure she carries, or the way she combs her hair.
The beauty of a woman must be seen from her eyes,
Because that is the doorway to her heart,
The place where love resides.
The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole,
But true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul.
It is the caring that she lovingly gives,
The passion that she shows.
The beauty of a woman
With time, only grows.

ALL LIFE EXISTS THROUGH SEX, ALL LIFE GROWS OUT OF IT.

Wed, 19 Oct 2005 04:51:23 GMT

Nothing is wrong in pure simple sex.

It is natural.
There is no need to hide it behind the beautiful word love. There is no need to create a cloud of romance around it.
Ninety-nine percent know sex only as a relief; they don't know its orgasmic quality.
Even if they think they are having an orgasm, it is not orgasm - it is just genital relief.
Orgasm has nothing to do with genitals as such. Genitals are involved in it, but orgasm is total - from the head to the toes, it is all over you.
What is orgasm?
Orgasm is a state where your body is no longer felt as matter; it vibrates like energy, electricity.
It vibrates so deeply, from the very foundation, that you completely forget that it is a material thing. It becomes an electric phenomenon.
Now physicists say that there is no matter, that all matter is only appearance; deep down, that which exists is electricity, not matter.
In orgasm, you come to this deepest layer of your body where matter no longer exists, just energy waves; you become a dancing energy, vibrating. There are no longer any boundaries to you - pulsating, but no longer substantial. And your beloved also pulsates.
Now, sexual orgasm needs time - the longer, the better; because then it will go deeper into your being, into your mind, into your soul.
Then it will spread from the toe to the head . . . every fiber of your being will be throbbing with it. Your whole body will become an orchestra and it will come to a crescendo.
But if you are in a hurry the orgasm becomes just an ejaculation, it is no more an orgasm. It is local and very tiny, almost meaningless. In fact you will feel tired, frustrated, depressed after it, because the energy is lost and it has not given you a bath, so it was just meaningless.
You remain the old - a little more tired, of course, with less energy of course, but you remain the same. It has not been a cleansing process, it has not thrilled you from corner to corner, from end to end.
Man always likes to enter the woman immediately.
He is not interested in foreplay because his positive pole is always ready. And women are always reluctant to enter into the sex act immediately, without any foreplay, because their negative pole is not ready. . . .
And man thinks the sex act is simple. Why waste time? Enter the woman immediately - and he is finished within minutes. But the woman was not a part, she was not aroused. . . .
When the woman remains cold, the man's orgasmic experience remains local, genital.
It does not reach to his soul, it does not reach to his whole body. All his cells are not thrilled, are not in a dance. It is poor, very poor.
It is a release, a relief, but not an orgasmic experience.
Make love only when there is tremendous desire and passion, otherwise simply say, "Excuse me, it is not there, so what is the point?"
Pretending is not good.
And if you stop pretending, you will find that your depth of love-making has increased very much.
Premature ejaculation is really not a sexual problem at all; it is more a psychological problem.
Physiologically there is nothing wrong but psychologically you are in a hurry, that very hurry creates premature ejaculation.
Why has man so many ways in relating - heterosexual, bisexual, one-to-one or in a group?
Man has freedom to choose.
And this choice can make you pathological or this choice can make you a Buddha.
Now it depends on you, how you use your freedom.
Sex has been called the original sin - it is neither original nor sin.
Up to now societies have been so much against sex - religions and churches against it - that they have created a very very unconscious hatred.
You may not be aware of it consciously, you may not see it anywhere in your mind so that you can detect it.
It has gone to the very roots of the body, to the gut level, because it has been centuries that people have been taught to be against sex.
That hatred has to be dropped, that hate and condemnation has to be dropped, and that can only be dropped if you start learning a reverence for sex.
We suppress movements. Particularly, all over the world, we suppress all movements, all shaking for women.
They remain just like dead bodies.
You are doing something to them; they are not doing anything to you. They are just passive partners.
Why is this happening? Why all over the world do men suppress women in such a way?
There is fear - because once a woman's body becomes possessed, it is very difficult for a man to satisfy her; because a woman can have chain orgasms; a man cannot have.
Any woman can have at least three orgasms in a chain, but man can have only one. And with a man's orgasm the woman is aroused and is ready for further orgasms.
Then it is difficult. Then how to manage it!
She needs another man immediately, and group sex is a taboo.
All over the world we have created monogamous societies. We seem to feel that it is better to suppress the woman.
So, really, 80% to 90% of women never know what orgasm is.
They can give birth to children; that is another thing. They can satisfy the man; that is also another thing. But they themselves are never satisfied.
So if you see such bitterness in women all over the world - sadness, bitterness, frustration - it is natural.
Their basic need is not fulfilled.
Because of three basic elements in sex, you come to a blissful moment.
Those three are, firstly, timelessness: you transcend time completely. There is no time. You forget time completely; time ceases for you. Not that time ceases: it ceases for you; you are not in it.
Secondly, in sex, for the first time you lose your ego; you become egoless. You are not, nor is there the other. You and your beloved are both lost into something else.
And thirdly, in sex you are natural for the first time. You are a part of nature - a part of trees, a part of the animals, a part of the stars - a part! You are immersed into something - the Cosmos, the Tao.
You cannot even swim in it; you are not. You are just floating - being taken by the current.
These three things give you ecstasy.
The future will have a totally different vision of sex.
It will be more fun, more joy; more friendship, more a play than a serious affair as it has

SAHAJA YOGA (THE MOST DIFFICULT YOGA)

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 04:27:02 GMT

Sahaja Yoga is the most difficult of the Yogas, because there is nothing more difficult than to be sahaja — effortless, natural and spontaneous. What is the meaning of sahaja? Sahaja means: let whatever happens happen, don’t resist it. To be sahaja means to flow like air and water, and not to allow the intellect to come in the way of whatever is happening. As soon as the intellect comes in the way, as soon as it interferes, we cease to be sahaja, natural, and begin to be asahaja, unnatural. As soon as we decide what should be and what should not be, we immediately begin to be unnatural. And we become natural when we accept that which happens, that which is. So the first thing to understand is that sahaja yoga is the most difficult yoga. Don’t think that it is very easy as the term suggests. There is a misconception that sahaja yoga is an easy way of sadhana or spiritual discipline. People quote Kabir: “Sadho, sahaj samadhi bhali; O seeker, natural ecstasy is the best.” Of course, it is the best, but it is also very difficult. Because nothing is more difficult for man than to be natural. Man has become so unnatural, he has traveled such a long way from being natural that now it is so easy for him to be unnatural and very difficult to be natural. But then we have to understand a few things in this context, because what I am teaching is Sahaja Yoga. To impose doctrines and dogmas on life is to pervert life. But we all do it; we all impose doctrines and ideals on ourselves. Someone is violent and he is trying to be non violent. Someone is angry and he is trying to be peaceful. Someone is cruel and he is trying to be kind. The thief is trying to be generous, and the wicked to be saintly. This is the way we all are; we are always trying to impose something on what we are. But what is the result? We not only fail when we fail in this endeavor, we fail even when we succeed as such. Because howsoever he may try, a thief cannot be generous; he can of course give to charity and he can have the illusion of being generous; but a thief’s mind will find ways to thieve through charity. All the unnaturalness of our life is this — that we are always trying to be different from what we actually are. No, Sahaja Yoga will say, do not try to be other than what you are; know what you are and live it. If you are a thief know that you are a thief and live the life of a thief fully. This is very arduous, because even a thief feels gratified to think that he is trying to get rid of thieving. He does not rid himself of it really, but he feels relieved to think that although he is a thief today he will cease to be a thief tomorrow. Even the ego of a thief derives gratification from the thought that although he is compelled by circumstances to steal, a day will soon arrive when he will be a philanthropist, and not a thief. So in the hope of tomorrow he conveniently steals today. Sahaja Yoga says: Know that you are what you are, and don’t try to move away from it even by an inch; don’t try to be different from it in the slightest way. The moment you become fully aware of its sin, its pain, its misery, its agony, its hellfire, you will immediately jump out of it and you will be free of it in no time; you will have to be out of it totally. If a thief fully knows himself to be a thief and does not entertain in his mind even the slightest thought that he will ever cease to be a thief; if he knows that he is a thief today and he will be a greater thief tomorrow, because in twenty-four hours his habit will be further strengthened; if he accepts his destiny as a thief fully and with full understanding, do you think he can remain a thief even for a moment? This awareness that he is a thief will sink into his heart like a bullet and it will be simply impossible for him to live with this condition even for a moment. In that very moment a revolution will happen, a mutation will take place. To be sahaja, to be natural means: that which is, is: now there is no way to walk out of it; I have to live it; and I am going to live it, to be it. What is, is. Know this what is and live with it. That which is, is a fact; live with that fact. Live with the facticity of your life. Sahaja Yoga means: don’t deceive yourself. Know and accept yourself exactly as you are and how you are without any reservations. If you do so, mutation will happen instantly. Mutation happens simultaneously with understanding and acceptance. Then you will not have to wait for it. Will one wait till tomorrow if his house is on fire and he knows it? He will get out of his house in a split second!The day we fully see our life as it is — and it is a house on fire — the moment of mutation arrives. But we have our own deceptive ways. The house is on fire and we have decorated its interior with flowers. Our hands are in chains and we have coated the chains with gold, and so while we see the glitter of gold we fail to see the chains. We are full of illnesses and wounds, but we have covered our wounds with colorful bandages, and we see the colors and not the wounds behind them. This deception is so deep and vast that we spend our lifetime in it and the moment of mutation does not come. We go on postponing that moment. Death comes, but not the moment that had been postponed. We die, but we do not change; we are simply incapable of changing. The change, the mutation can happen any moment really. Sahaja Yoga says: live with what is, and you will be transformed. You don’t have to make efforts to change; truth changes. Jesus says, “Truth liberates.” But we don’t know the truth. We live in lies, we live in untruths; but we decorate our untruths before we live with them. And untruth binds, while truth liberates. Even the most painful truth is better than the most pleasant lie. The pleasant untruth is really dangerous. It will bind you; it will be your bondage. And even the painful truth is liberating, even its pain is liberating. So live with the painful truth, and don’t harbor lies however pleasant they may be. This is the whole of Sahaja Yoga. And then comes samadhi, ecstasy or awakening, or whatsoever you call it. You will not have to seek samadhi; it will come on its own. What I call meditation, and what we have here, is a process of Sahaja Yoga. Here you accept all that happens to you; you let go of yourself completely and accept all that happens on its own. Otherwise it would be unthinkable that educated and cultured people, people who are affluent and sophisticated go crying and yelling, hopping and jumping and wildly dancing like crazy people. This is not an ordinary thing. This is something extraordinary and invaluable too. That is why the spectator is bewildered and he doesn’t understand what it is all about. He feels bemused and then he laughs at the whole thing. But he is not aware that if he were to join you, he would go through the same bizarre experiences. Or maybe his laughter is just a defense measure. He laughs only to protect himself, he means to say through his laughter that he won’t do what you are doing; it is not for him. That is what he thinks, but his laughter on its part says something else. It says that he too has some thing to do with it. His laughter says that in a way he is really concerned with it. His ridicule indicates that if he were to participate in what is happening here he would do the same. He too has withheld and repressed himself; he too has suppressed his tears and laughters, his dances and his ecstasy. Bertrand Russell said in his later days that civilization has robbed man of a few precious things and dance is one of them. He said that he could not think of standing in the middle of Trafalgar Square and dancing, although we claim that we are a free people and that we have more freedom than our ancestors ever had. He also observed that on the one hand it is trumpeted that the world has entered its era of liberty and freedom and on the other he was not free to dance in the marketplace, and if he did so the traffic police would immediately arrest him on the charge of obstructing the traffic! Moreover, he would be thought to be a mental case! Bertrand Russell also recalled that whenever he visited some primitive tribes dancing with abandon under the starry sky he painfully realized that the civilized man has really lost much that is valuable. Civilization’s gains are small and its losses are enormous. The civilized man has lost his naturalness and simplicity, he has lost nature itself. And, more over, he is a victim of all kinds of perversions. Meditation is a way of making you natural and simple, restoring you to your nature once again. In Search of the Miraculous

THE ART OF EATING.

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 17:04:04 GMT

Whenever you are half-hearted in anything, it lingers longer.

If you are sitting at your table and eating, and if you eat only half-heartedly and your hunger remains, then you will continue to think about food the whole day. You can try fasting and you will see: you will continuously think about food. But if you have eaten well — and when I say eaten well, I don’t mean only that you have stuffed your stomach. Then it is not necessarily so that you have eaten well. You could have stuffed yourself. But eating well is an art. It is not just stuffing. It is great art: to taste the food, to smell the food, to touch the food, to chew the food, to digest the food, and to digest it as divine. It is divine; it is a gift from the divine.

Hindus say, Anam Brahma food is divine. So with deep respect you eat, and while eating you forget everything, because it is a prayer. It is an existential prayer. You are eating the divine and the divine is going to give you nourishment. It is a gift to be accepted with deep love and gratitude. And you don’t stuff the body, because stuffing the body is being anti-body. It is the other pole. There are people who are obsessed with fasting, and there are people who are obsessed with stuffing themselves. Both are wrong because in both the ways the body loses balance.

A real lover of the body eats only to the point where body feels perfectly quiet, balanced, tranquil; where body feels to be neither leaning to the left nor to the right, but just in the middle. It is an art to understand the language of the body, to understand the language of your stomach, to understand what is needed, to give only that which is needed, and to give that in an artistic way, in an aesthetic way.

Animals eat, man eats. Then what is the difference? Man makes a great aesthetic experience out of eating. What is the point of having a beautiful dining table? What is the point of having candles burning there? What is the point of incense? What is the point of asking friends to come and participate? It is to make it an art, not just stuffing. But these are outward signs of the art; the inward signs are to understand the language of your body: to listen to it, to be sensitive to its needs. And then you eat, and then the whole day you will not remember food at all. Only when the body is hungry again will the remembrance come. Then it is natural.

YOGA FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY.

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 16:53:11 GMT

So Yoga is both a death and a new life.

Yoga is not a philosophy. I say it is not a religion, I say it is not a philosophy. It is not something you can think about. It is something you will have to be; thinking won’t do.

He will just put down the foundation, and if you follow the foundation you will reach the peak which is beyond. He is a rigorous mathematician — remember this.

PEOPLE WHO THOUGHT DIFFERENT.

Thu, 06 Oct 2005 19:35:33 GMT

They are the crazy ones.

The misfits...The rebels....The troublemakers.

The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

They’re not fond of rules.

And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.

Because they change things.

They invent...They imagine...They heal.
They explore...They create...They inspire.

They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some see them as the crazy ones,
we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world, are the ones who do.

DIFFERENT YOGA ASANAS PART III.

Sun, 02 Oct 2005 18:43:04 GMT

KURMASANA ~ TORTOISE POSE

Now here's a real forward bend, one that will make you respect what being a turtle is all about. Kurmasana strongly stretches the spine, back muscles and inner thighs, opens the hips, stimulates the abdominal organs, and calms the nervous system, so the mind becomes clear and free of emotion. In fact, Light on Yoga says a tortoise drawing itself into its shell is used in the Bhagavad Gita to represent pratyahara, the withdrawing from external sensations. And the pose is named for the Tortoise Incarnation of Vishnu in which he dives to the bottom of the ocean (think of your inner depths) to find the lost nectar of the gods. So kurmasana helps to prepare one for meditation. Because the legs pull down on the arms in this pose, the spine is stretched more strongly than in other forward bends, creating more space between the vertebrae, increasing circulation and improving metabolism in the vertebral discs. The result is a refreshing release of tension that eliminates fatigue and boosts energy. So when you do decide to come out of your shell, you'll be ready for anything.

Practice Tips:

Because kurmasana gives the back, especially in the lumbar area, such a strong stretch, you may want to take a pass on it if you have disc problems or find less intense forward bends, such as paschimottasana, difficult. But if your back is healthy, this pose can help keep it that way, increase flexibility, and produce all the benefits mentioned above.

Start by sitting on the floor with your legs a couple of feet apart and your knees slightly bent. Take your hands down between the legs and slide them out under your calves. As you do this, work the arms under the back of the knees. If you're new to this pose, you might want to start with half tortoise, in which you reach forward to grab the soles of the feet from the outside. Roll the thighs in to get the knees pointing straight up. Then gently push your feet forward as you pull on them to elongate the spine and stretch forward.

As you stretch, be sure to keep pushing the groins down and lifting the lower abs in and up to prevent straining your lower back. Also, gaze several feet ahead and elongate your neck as you rotate in the hips to deepen the forward bend. Go out, not just down, as if you were taking your sternum (breastbone) across the room. Hold for eight to ten calm and deep breaths, then slowly come up out of the pose.

If this seemed ok for your back, you might want to go into the full pose by pushing the arms out to the side under your knees, then back at an angle (this helps prevent strain on the elbows and shoulders) with your palms down as you bend forward and work the back of the knees up the arms toward your shoulders. Be careful not to have the backs of the knees over the elbows, because the pressure of your legs there can hurt them.

Start to push forward through your heels to extend the legs. Keep extending the spine and performing the other actions describe above. But instead of pulling on your feet, push the arms back against your thighs to help elongate the spine. You might also want to pulsate in the pose as Dona Holleman's suggests: Elongate the spine from the groins while you inhale and activate mula bandha. Then elongate the legs to bring the spine further down as you exhale, eventually getting your forehead, then your chin and finally your chest to the floor. Remember to roll the inner thighs down and try to loop the shoulders back (they'll come forward, but looping will help stretch the spine and prevent over stretching the shoulders or crunching the collar bones). Also, keep the arm muscles toned and pulling in towards the shoulders to prevent straining the elbows. Instead of pushing into the pose, stretch gently and mindfully into it. After all, there's really no place to go except where you are. After eight to ten breaths, come out slowly.

If you want an even stronger stretch, you can try the more intense version of the pose known as supta kurmasana or sleeping turtle. Start as before, but after extending the arms out to the side, turn the palms up and push the arms back so they are along your hips. (To do this, I find it's helpful to bend the knees a bit and rock from side to side as you wriggle the arms back.)

Work the shoulders further under the knees and the feet toward each other as you bend the elbows and (ideally) clasp the hands over your lower back. If that doesn't happen , hold onto a strap or towel and try to work the hands closer to each other behind the back. Then cross one ankle over the other and lower your forehead to the floor between your shins * or perhaps just to your ankles, if the full pose is not possible or too intense. As those of you who take Ashtanga classes know, it can be very helpful to have a teacher or partner assist you in clasping the hands and crossing the feet in this pose.

After you come out of any version of kurmasana, you might want to sit cross-legged and gently arch and flex the spine a few times and twist gently to each side to relieve any tension there. Then take a moment to notice how calm, centered and at ease you feel, like a turtle on a log sunning happily in a quiet pond.

Natarajasana ~ The Lord of Dance Pose

When done full-out, this is an very demanding asana, requiring great flexibility in the shoulders and spine, tremendous openness in the chest, groins and front of the thighs, and great strength in the standing leg. So it’s not surprising that of the 200 asanas B.K.S. Iyengar talks about in Light on Yoga, this is number 199, followed only by savansana. The very name of this pose signals that it has to do with something lofty and noble. Nataraja, which means Lord of Dance, refers to Shiva, the all pervasive Supreme Consciousness, whose dances both create the world and destroy it in the eternal rhythm of life.* But don‘t let all this keep you from practicing this exhilarating combination of balance and backbend. There are less intense versions that everyone can do to some degree and experience the wonders of the Dance -- as well as the many physical and mental benefits of this beautiful pose. These include opening the shoulders, spine and chest, strengthening the upper back, stretching and strengthening the legs, increasing lung capacity, and improving concentration and poise. So -- shall we dance?

Practice Tips:

Like any good dancer, make sure you warm up before attempting this pose. Sun salutations, shoulder openers, and backbends such as setu banda sarvangasana (bridge), ustrasana (camel) or eka pada rajakapotasana (pigeon) are good ways to get ready for Natarajasana, which in its most advanced version is like another intense backbend, ekapada viparita dandasana, done standing up. And unless you’re blessed with great flexibility, it helps to work into the full pose gradually. Here are some steps to follow in mastering this awesome dance.

First, easy dancer. Start by standing tall in tadasana (mountain pose) with your legs firmed up. Shift the weight to your left foot, bend your right knee, and reach behind with your right hand to grab the top of your right foot. If you can’t reach your foot, put a strap around it and hold the strap. And if balance is a problem, be near a wall so you can support yourself with your left hand. Once you‘ve found your balance, rest your left hand on your hip (or against a wall) and take inventory of your alignment. Keep your heart lifting, your shoulders looping up and back, your tail down and in, and your shoulders and hips square to the front as you gaze at a fixed point in front of you. Stay here for a few breaths as you stretch your right knee straight down out of the pelvis to open the front of the thigh.

If you want to go further, energize your left arm as you inhale, loop your left shoulder up and back, and stretch your arm up, keeping the top of the arm bone anchored in the shoulder socket. (Alternatively, you can stretch the left arm straight ahead, parallel to the floor.) With an exhale, scoop your lower abs in and up, and push your right foot back against your right hand as you stretch up and forward with your heart. As you push the foot back, work your right hip and shoulder forward to keep your hips and shoulders square and the knee under your right sitting bone, not flaring out to the side. Hold the pose for five to eight breaths, drawing energy in and stretching up as you inhale, and pushing your foot back more and expanding your heart forward more as you exhale. Max out the pose with one more inhale, then with an exhale release the right foot and go back into tadasana. Pause for a breath or two and notice how you feel, then do the other side.

If you were steady and comfortable holding your foot with one hand in easy dancer, you might want to try holding it with two hands as you stand tall, extend the arms behind you, and push the foot back and up against both hands. This version helps to open the chest more and work the lifted leg more. As before, make sure you keep the hips and shoulders square, the knee of the raised leg in line with the sitting bone, and the standing leg straight and strong.

In the full-out version of Natarajasana, you’ll want to have your arms stretching up and back, rather than back and down, to hold your foot, first with one, and eventually with both hands. This is extremely difficult for most people to do, even with one hand. To start working toward this version, loop the end of a long strap around your right foot and hold the strap with your right hand two or three feet up from the foot. As you bend your right knee and raise the right foot up, stretch your right arm out a bit to the right, then rotate the shoulder externally (up and back) as you bring the elbow forward, in towards your torso and then up past your ear while you push back with your right foot to extend the raised arm behind you.

If you’re holding the strap too far up to get much stretch in the arm or leg, release and try the pose again, holding the strap closer to your foot. If you’re holding it too close to comfortably get into the pose, hold it farther away. Once you get the strap right, square off the hips and shoulders, and push your right foot back against the strap as you pull against it with your right hand. Extend the left arm up (or forward), keeping your tail in and performing the other actions described above for easy dancer. Your goal is to get your right thigh parallel to the floor with your right shin straight up and down (ankle directly over the knee). After holding for five to eight breaths, release and do the other side.

Once you can comfortably hold the strap close to the foot, you can try doing this one-handed version without a strap. To do so, bend your right knee, lift your right foot up and turn it slightly out. Rotate your right shoulder, arm and hand externally so the palm faces up. Reach back and loop your middle and index fingers around the top of your right big toe (the fingers will go to the inside of the big toe, with the thumb to the outside of it). Bend the knee more so the foot comes in near your hips. Then, lifting the right leg higher, rotate your right shoulder externally and bring the elbow forward, in towards your torso and then up past your ear as you as you push back with your right foot to help extend the raised arm behind you. Your fingers will roll more around the top of the toe as you do this. Square off and perform the actions described for the previous version.

If holding the big toe seems too difficult, try holding the top of the foot with your right hand. To do this, lift your right foot and rotate your arm and hand as above. But instead of looping the big toe, rotate the palm externally even more so you can bring the fingers from the outside of the foot around the top of the foot, with your thumb on the sole. Then, lifting the leg higher and pushing back with the foot, rotate the shoulder externally more and bring the elbow forward, in and up, as you slide your fingers more around the top of the foot so they curve around to reach the inner arch. Square off and complete the pose as described above.

Once you’ve mastered this one-handed version of the full-out pose, work on holding the foot with two arms extended up and back. Again, it helps to start by using a strap, gradually working the hands down toward the feet until you can hold the top of the foot with both hands, keeping the lifted thigh parallel to ground and the shin perpendicular to it, with the knee and ankle in line with your right sitting bone. Then, if you want to go all the way, tilt your head back and bring the raised foot in to touch the top of your head.

After this strong backbend, which, like all other backbends opens the nadis on the front of the body and really makes the energies dance around within you, it’s a good idea to do a forward bend as a counterpose and perhaps lie a while in savansana to let things settle and balance out. As you do, reflect on the miracle of the Cosmic Dance, in which you play a small yet infinitely important part.

In her book Dancing the Body of Light, Dona Holleman (who also ends her discussion of asanas with Natarajasana) notes that the full two-handed version of this pose looks from the side like a wine glass ready to be filled with the Universal Force. And when the foot is placed on the back of the head, with an empty and transparent mind, the human embraces the Divine in the ecstasy of enlightenment. Sounds like a dance worth doing, doesn’t it?

Pashaasana ~ Noose Pose

Ever wonder what it would be like to do a squat, forward bend and twist at the same time? Well, here's your chance. Pashasana gives you an awesome twist because it's done in a squat, which allows the pelvis to drop lower than it does when you?re seated, enabling the lumbar spine to stretch more and therefore twist more. By stretching the muscles connecting the vertebrae vertically as well as laterally, this pose increases flexibility in the torso and stimulates circulation in and around the spine, promoting the health of the many nerves that connect with it. Plus, because in the finished pose the abdomen is against the thighs, as in a forward bend, there's strong compression in the abdominal area, thereby intensifying the effects of the twist on the liver, kidneys and intestines.

The benefits of putting yourself in this noose are many. Like other twists, pashasana wrings out the body, releasing tension and thereby increasing circulation and beneficial energy flow. When the compressed area is released, blood rushes back in, cleansing and nourishing tissues and organs. So you feel refreshed, relaxed and more alive. Noose pose also stretches the Achilles tendon and back of the calves, and makes the ankles more flexible. It frees the shoulders, opens the chest, tones the spine and abdominal organs, rejuvenates tired legs, and improves digestion. And if that's not enough reason to do this pose, it also reduces fat around the abdomen and waist. So come on baby, let's do the twist!

Practice Tips
Pashasana demands great flexibility in the ankles, hips, spine and shoulders, as well as stretch in the hamstring and buttock muscles. (I think that's one reason why it's in the Ashtanga intermediate rather than primary series.) So you'll find it helpful to loosen up those areas with squats, twists and forward bends before working on noose pose. Squats like Malasana, twists like Maricyasana C or Ardha Matseyendrasana, and forward bends like Marciyasana A or even Pascimottasana can all help to make Pashasana easier. It also helps to warm up with a sun salutation or some standing poses before you try to put yourself in The Noose. And you might want to skip this pose or not go fully into it if you have bad shoulders, ankles or knees, or spinal problems.

If you have the required flexibility, the pose itself is relatively simple. You squat down with feet and legs together, with your torso against your thighs and your pelvis close to the heels (but not on the floor). Then twist from your belly to the right, extend your left arm, and bring the upper arm to the outside of your right knee, with the armpit into the thigh. Turning the palm down, bend the elbow and wrap the forearm down around the right shin. Extend your right arm up and sweep it around in back so you can grab the right wrist with your left hand. (It helps to look to the right as you do this to allow the right shoulder to open back more. If you can't grab the wrist, hook the fingers or use a strap to close the gap.)

You're now in the noose. To deepen the pose, use the arm against the knee as a lever to twist more to the right, turning your gaze (drishti) infinitely to the right. As you do, pull your shoulder blades towards each other and down the back, keep the outer hips firm (mula bandha helps this), and keep pressing the heels more into the floor as you descend the sitting bones toward them. On the inhale, lift the sternum and lengthen out through the top of you head. On the exhale, twist a little more, leading with the left ribs. After five deep breaths or so, untwist and do the other side.

But if you're like most of us, you won't have all the required flexibility, and Pashasana will be a real struggle. So you might want to approach in stages, using props to compensate for stiffness in ankles, hips or shoulders.

For starters, you might want to just go into a shallow squat, with your hips a foot or more above the floor, and, twisting right, take your left arm to the outside of your right knee and place your fingertips or palm on the floor to the outside of the right foot. Use your arm as a lever to deepen the twist, perhaps reaching the right arm up and around to catch the left hip or inner thigh for more leverage. Keep looping the shoulders open, lengthening the spine and descending the sitting bones toward the heels (try to get them at least parallel to the floor) as you do this prep.

If you're trying to go further in the pose but your heels don't come to the floor when you squat fully (back of thighs into your calves), or they barely touch and you fall down to sit as soon as you try to twist, place a folded blanket, a block or a rolled mat under your heels for support. Or let the heels stay up and keep both hands on the floor as you twist to the right, perhaps again stretching the right arm up and back to catch the left hip or inner thigh as a lever point to open the shoulders and deepen the twist.

If the heels are grounded on the floor or some support but you can't wrap the arms and clasp the hands, you can take the left elbow to the outside of the right knee and press the palms together to deepen the twist. Or try taking the left arm between the legs to the inside of the left knee and wrap and clasp in what you could call 'half noose' pose.

You can also work with your right hip near a wall so you can twist to the right and place the hands on the wall with your left elbow against the right thigh, and use the elbow and wall as fulcrums to lever yourself more into the twist. Then, using your right hand on the wall for support, you can begin to wrap the left arm down around your right shin. And if you rest your buttocks on a block to help balance (either near a wall or not), you might be able to swing the right arm behind and clasp. Of course, having a teacher or practice partner to help you with the pose can enable you to go much farther into it than you might by yourself.

Even though I still can't do Pashasana full out, it's one of my favorite twists, because it works the body in so many ways at once to release tension, stimulate energy flow, open tight areas and rejuvenate you both physically and mentally. The Noose is definitely a pose to hang out in often.

MAHATMA GANDHI ANYONE?

Sun, 02 Oct 2005 17:11:35 GMT

Below mentioned are some of the few Idealism that we associate with is Gandhi is far from dead. It lives on in young people. They just don'nt know him anymore. And that's the problem.

"In whatever incarnation of God we belive, to me the most important is Daridranaryan, that is God in the avatar of the poor."
"The weak can never forgive. Forgivness is the attribute of the strong."
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
"Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes."
"Faith must be enforced by reason. When faith becomes blind it dies."
"I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill."
"Non-violence is not a garment to be put on or off at will. Its seat is in heart, and it must be inseprable part of our very being."
"We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends behave to us." -Aristotle
"Function of Wisdom is discrimination between good and evil."
"Love never claims, it ever gives"

THE PHONE RINGS.

Sun, 02 Oct 2005 15:32:24 GMT

The phone rings....
.
There are priests in India who at wedding ceremonies recite stanzas from holy books like the Vedas without ever understanding them.

They begin by reading them, and then over a period of time some priests realize that there could be something more to them in the inherent knowledge that they possess.

So you have a choice, either you can turn it into a career, learn how to shoot professionally and forget about it or you can use it as a tool for self-learning and discovery. Depending on how you perceive life in general.

The most vital aspect of creativity is to be original. It is enough to convince others of great work but at the end of the day you should be able to look at yourself, and ask your soul if it was your best effort.