NAG Newsletter Fall 2008
Tip for the Quarter
Extracted from Swami Niranjan's address to the Young President's Organization - Bangalore, 2007
“Where do we go from here?”
Practice 10 minutes of meditation every night before going to sleep. This is an effort you should make for the sake of your own sanity and peace. Allot 23 hours and 50 minutes to your society, family, profession, the world and 10 minutes for your peace, benefit, tranquility and sense of well-being. For these 10 minutes, sit down quietly and develop a thought or idea in the mind. “For these 10 minutes I am not this body nor the experience of comfort and discomfort associated with the body. I am not the mind, nor the experience of pleasure and pain that arise in the mind.” Try to create total dis-identification, total disconnection from the physical and mental experiences. Now, if you are not the body, if you are not the mind, then what are you? Just yourself, nothing more. And in that experience of yourself, experience the space, the stability, the silence inside.
Next, quickly review the activities of the day: “I woke up at this time in the morning, I had this for breakfast, I wore this, I read this, I spoke this, I did this, I did that.” If you find a challenging situation in which you reacted in a particular manner, then hold the reel there for few moments. Freeze the recording, look at it, and think how you will react if you encounter the same situation again. In a better way or in a worse way?
If you continue to do this every day for a month, you will find that your responses have changed. Instead of going like a bull in a china shop and shattering everything around, you are more careful, more conscious, more aware of what you are doing and more in control of your responses. You will be better able to manage your levels of stress by acknowledging them and saying, “Tomorrow I will find a better way to deal with this situation. I will not subject myself to the same agony that I underwent today.” Cultivation of awareness will take place with this meditation. After having reviewed the activities of the day, observe the flow of the natural breath for 5 minutes. And try to take long, deep and slow breaths. This completes your 10 minutes meditation practice.
You do not need to replace other practices or rituals that you may or may not be following. Include this meditation as a habit in your life, not as something you are forced to do. Without any complication, in a very simple manner, sit down, become still, dis-identify with the body and the mind, review the activities of the day, analyze, say to yourself, “Tomorrow I will deal with the situation in a better way,” plan, observe the breath, relax and stop. That’s the meditation.
As you become more aware of your unconscious reactions and responses through this process, you will find that you begin to cultivate the softer qualities of life. These qualities come with understanding, with putting oneself in others’ shoes, knowing the difficulties that they are facing, and trying to find a compromise, balance and harmony between them, between your aspirations and others’ performance.
Lend a Helping Hand
Extracted from YOGA January 2008
To lend a helping hand is the most important thing in life, because it allows you to connect with other beings. Humanity is one single club; there is no elite group and no deprived group. The groups may exist socially and economically, but as part of the life experience that we are all undergoing there is no separation. Some people have had the opportunity to express themselves and others have not had such an opportunity. When their time comes, they too will shine. After all, it is the same brain, the same mind, the same force in each and everyone; the application depends on the opportunities that one gets in life.
Swami Sivananda was an advocate of humanity. By profession he was a medical doctor, but he left his lucrative practice to become a sannyasin. And he became a sannyasin of the highest quality. There is a difference between those who take sannayasa because they are committed and those who are escaping from life. There are people who take sannayasa to escape from life, and there are people who take sannayasa because they want to commit themselves to help others grow and prosper. There are many who belong to the first category and a few who belong to the second. Swami Sivananda had only one aim in mind. “How can I help another person attain health, peace and prosperity?” And it is his teachings that are being lived in the institutions that are created in his name, Sivananda Math and the ashram.
Paramahamsaji [Swami Satyananda] also says that there is much hypocrisy in our lives. Life should be innocent, simple and joyous. We put on different masks every moment to project ourselves in a particular way. Even when we look at ourselves in the mirror, we have the masks on. We want to see ourselves differently, not as we are. We become so used to seeing ourselves in the mask that when we remove it, we don’t recognize ourselves any more. “Am I really like this?” is the question that comes.
The only way we can feel free internally is by experiencing oneness, atmabhava, being able to see ourselves in other people. This is when we begin to understand them and their situations. Having come to this point, if we are capable, we should help them out. If not, we should direct them to somebody else. But a movement of co-operation must take place between human beings, not to satisfy our egos, but to help others come out of their misery.
There is a famous saying, “If a person is hungry , don’t give him fish to eat, but teach him how to fish.” This has been the principle of Swami Sivananda. He did not believe in charity. He said that charity is the mother of poverty, of dependence, weakness. He always emphasized the role of purushartha, self-effort, self-empowerment. To lend a helping hand, therefore, means that you empower another person to manage and look after their own life and be responsible for their peace and prosperity. This is the actual meaning of the phrase ‘lend a helping hand’. And this is the idea of service or seva.
Paramahamsaji tells us, ”If you go to the market to buy shoes or clothes for your two children, instead of buying two pairs, buy three. Two for your own children and one for the unknown child that you have adopted in your mind.“ There are enough deprived people in the world to whom you can give that pair of shoes or that uniform, and they will cherish it for the rest of their lives. They will always remember the kindness showered upon them. If every affluent citizen looks after the needs of one deprived citizen, in ten years there will be no poverty anywhere. All you have to do is see yourself in that deprived state. We are very fortunate that we have enough to eat and also to waste. Eighty percent of the population in this country does not have a square meal a day. They are our fellow beings who need some encouragement, who need to know that they have not missed all the opportunities in life and that somebody is looking after them. If this becomes your one activity in life, you will die happy, knowing that you have brought smiles to one person or family. When you have this realization, it will be a day of great satisfaction.
Sadhana for Satchandi Yajna and Yoga Poornima
The following Devi sadhana can be performed during the period of Satchandi Yajna from 28th November to 2nd December:
1. 32 names of Durga x 9
2. Ganga Stotram
3. Saundarya Lahari (20 verses per day, and 23 on last day)
4. Havan with —
Durga Gayatri x 24
Durga mantra x108 (Aim Hreem Kleem Om)
5. Devi Kirtan x 2
Please click HERE for the words of the chants for the Satchandi Sadhana
The following Guru sadhana can be performed during the Yoga Poornima celebration from 8th to 12th December:
1. Guru Stotram2. Sivananda Mangalam
3. Shiva Mahimna Stotram
4. Havan with —
Guru Gayatri x 24
Mahamrityunjaya mantra x 108
5. Guru Kirtan x 1
6. Shiva Kirtan x 1
Click HERE for the words of the chants for the Yoga Poornima Sadhana
These sadhanas should take about one and a half hours and can be done in the evening after dinner or as it suits your schedule. The place of sadhana and havan should be cleaned and decorated each day.
Giving as a Yogic Practice
By Swami Atmarupa Saraswati
"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."-- Winston Churchill
Giving is becoming a popular topic. Last year, ex-President Bill Clinton published a book entitled “Giving – How Each of Us Can Change the World”. In this book he discusses various reasons why people are reluctant to give:
- Belief that it won’t make a difference
- Belief of limited resources
- Belief that people can’t be changed
- Belief that holding on (time, money, feelings) will create more enjoyment in life
- No feeling of moral obligation
- No one is asking
He then goes on to discuss the illogical foundation upon which each of these beliefs is built and how giving can, and does, change the world.
But giving can also change the giver. When we give, we are forced to acknowledge our attachments and the feelings surrounding letting go. We think our possessions give us security, but as Andre Gilde has said, “Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you.”
I remember Swami Satyananda saying that in India if a villager has one pair of shoes he considers himself fortunate and takes very good care of those shoes without ever thinking about having a second pair. As Westerners we may have 20 pairs of shoes and still want more – and our mind has many more thoughts about those shoes - to find a place for them, keep them clean, match our clothes – the shoes begin to possess the mind. Now look at this in the context of all that we own. Our mind becomes possessed by our possessions.
Most of us spend considerable amounts of time thinking about, or working toward, getting something we don’t have – something we want – something that when acquired we think will make us “happier.” Indeed, when we get the new house, the new car, or new outfit, we feel happy at that moment. Incorrectly, we believe that it is the object that has brought us happiness. After a short time, the normal level of life satisfaction or dissatisfaction returns and we begin to look for another object to acquire to be able to experience that same feeling of happiness. In this way, we succumb to the wanting mind and continue to look outside of ourselves rather than within. We are either living in the past remembering the experience or searching the future trying to repeat it. We are missing the opportunity to be fully present and content with what is.
If you can remember a time when you felt a connection to something larger than yourself, something beautiful and peaceful, bringing you totally into the present moment, you will also remember that during the experience the mind did not want. It was content. Life was full. It is from being present and quieting the wanting mind that abundance flows. Abundance is a state of being and not about what stuff we have or don’t have. In fact, the more stuff we have, the more likely our mind will be consumed with thoughts about that stuff – what to do with it, how to take care of it, how not to lose it – and we will be moved further and further from a sense of fullness and abundance. We can always give.
In this season of giving and thanksgiving, take a moment to consider the words of Swami Sivananda.
"The water of the Ganga cannot decrease if thirsty people drink it. So also your wealth cannot decrease if you do charity. Share with others whatever you possess, physical, mental or spiritual. You will expand. You will experience oneness and unity of life. Strip yourself of the veils of limitations. It is easy to fight in the battle, but it is difficult to give a gift silently without manifesting pride and self-glorification and without expressing to others. Charity must be spontaneous and unrestrained. Giving must become a strong habit. Give, give and give.”
Swami Atmarupa is facilitating a workshop on giving to benefit the North American Gurukul at the Atma Center in Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday, December 15, 7:30 - 9 pm. For more details, please visit the Atma Center's Events Page
The North American Gurukul, Inc. (NAG) is a nonprofit organization established to support the growth of Satyananda Yoga® throughout North America in order to enhance the health, well being, & human potential of individuals and society.