Ashram Yoga : India's Spiritual Tradition

You Squeeze Me Like A Lemon

adam — Mon, 14 May 2012 07:20:00 +0000

By: Janina Gomes Dear Life, You promised me a lot. But what you have given me has surpassed all that you promised. I knew that both beauty and ugliness would come my way for nothing comes unalloyed in life. My life has encompassed both good and bad because you have made me understand only too well that nothing comes unalloyed. When I look back and also regard the present, I realise that the richness of life is in bringing all these experiences together and weaving a beautiful tapestry of them. When I try to achieve my goals in haste, you slow me down. You teach me patience; the value of waiting for what is worthwhile. You teach me that life is ever-flowing; like the river that gets around so many bends and boulders, you also make me flow over and around obstacles and difficulties. The trajectory I choose for myself now is different, on account of the lessons you have taught me. By choosing not to identify myself completely with difficulties that come my way, I look beyond them and myself, despite my multiple identities, to the spiritually awakened Self that’s inside me. I had the same expectations as many others do — marriage and family. But you showed me that there are infinite ways of reaching my full potential. There are conventional structures and landmarks, but not all of us pass by the same way. You often squeeze me like a lemon and so stress, pain and defeat become part of my experiences. You make demands on me. I was made to take on responsibility, to care for others and to give something back to you. However, when the demands became excessive you have shown me that sometimes I have to be squeezed to give of my best. You have also given me the chance and opportunity to recover when the feeling of being squeezed of all energy threatens to take over. There comes a healing touch – or there is sickness that forces one to stop and take stock, and helps one emerge fitter and stronger for the experience. Looking, back, I find that you have enriched me with a gamut of experiences. You’ve let me experience the fact that being tested does not mean one has to seek escape from you. When we say ‘yes’ to life, we are really saying ‘yes’ also to surprises, setbacks and personal tragedies, and not only to happy times. In the course of my life, so many things have happened, but not every happening was significant. I have now learned to skip and not mull over or get bogged down by happenings that could have been accidental, coincidental or negative, and therefore they do not say much to me anymore. Life, you are a twin sister of Time. In learning to make the best use of time and putting our talents to best use in activities that are essentially time-bound, we are really living life to the full. There is time for everything under the sun. But you have impressed upon me that I should do and undertake only work and activities that promote life, not destroy it. Yet, may I request you: Please don’t squeeze me like a lemon. I have learnt my lessons and the need to put up a good fight and keep the faith. I will celebrate you and not waste the opportunity. And when I whisper a prayer, I will say, ‘Thank You Life, for the gift of Self to me’. With gratitude,

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You Squeeze Me Like A Lemon

Projects Abroad India Dirty Weekend – Madurai Seva Ashram

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:27:17 +0000

Projects Abroad India dirty weekend

Atmayaan Yoga Ashram Rachael Fallon.m4v

admin — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:51:24 +0000

Alexandra performance at Sivananda Ashram, Kerala, India

admin — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 00:15:36 +0000

Awesome performance by Alexandra at Sivananda Ashram Kerala, India. One of the best performances I saw at Ashram.

Is it a Sin to be Happy?

admin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 05:27:00 +0000

By Ramesh Bijlani There is no dearth of dead serious, eager and earnest spiritual seekers who sincerely believe that everything that feels good is sinful. On the other hand, it is difficult to find a spiritual master without a smile on her face. Children, nearer God than most adults, are a bundle of joy. The key to this paradox lies in the source of happiness. There are things we can eat, wear, see, touch or smell that give us a type of happiness, which we may call pleasure. There is another type of happiness that is not sold in markets, the one that comes from being loved, from success, praise, name and fame. This type of happiness is erratic, unpredictable, and vulnerable to vicissitudes of life. While these two types of happiness depend upon getting something, there is another kind of happiness that’s neither fleeting nor fragile and that comes from giving. It may come from giving an object, physical support or care, all expressions of love. This happiness comes from responding to an inner call when faced with choices. Life is neither full of fortune that makes us happy, nor of misfortune designed to make us unhappy. Life is a chain of events and circumstances, each of which offers us choices. Choices are an opportunity, because making the right choice leads to spiritual growth. The guidance for making the right use of every opportunity is available from a voice that comes from the depths of our being. Acting on that voice gives us lasting inner peace rather than happiness. Inner peace brings the type of happiness for which the word happiness is inadequate – it is called joy, delight or bliss. Responding to the inner call that brings joy needs the type of courage that Buddha showed when he left his family and kingdom in search of truth. Responding to the inner call needs the type of ‘foolishness’ that the award-winning chef Narayanan Krishnan showed when he gave up a lucrative career in five-star hotels and refused a job in Switzerland to feed the homeless in Madurai. Responding to the inner call needs the capacity to swim against the current that the IIM-Calcutta graduate Puja Mishra showed when she chucked placements to live and work in a remote village to educate children. Responding to the inner call brings joy, but that is not why you respond to it. You respond to it because to you that seems the only right thing to do. When you decide to respond to the inner call, you also get what it takes to do so because the call emanates from your divine essence. The Divine is all-knowing and all-powerful. Hence, the call also has extreme clarity, and brings with it the courage required to stand up to the whole world, if necessary. As the Mother has said, “Give up all personal seeking for comfort, satisfaction, enjoyment or happiness. Be only a burning fire for progress, take whatever comes to you as a help for progress and make at once the progress required”. The ‘progress’ referred to here is spiritual progress. With spiritual progress as the purpose of life, treating whatever comes to us in life as a vehicle for progress accomplishes the purpose and the bonus is joy, its by-product. Genuine happiness comes not from being pursued, but from making the pursuit of something higher than happiness the purpose of your life.

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Is it a Sin to be Happy?

Sant Shri Asharamji Bapu Discourses 16Jan12 part-19 (Ahmedabad Ashram)

admin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:19:39 +0000

Param Pujya Sant Shri Ashramji Bapu satsang 17 January 2012 Uttarayan (Makar sankranti) Dhyan Yog Shivir Ahmedabad 2012

The Pure Spirituality of India

admin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:15:11 +0000

“The Yoga of India is a Burning Fire… God, Burn me in Thy Fire. Burn me in Thy Love, oh Lord. The highest wisdom. That’s what you come to learn from India. If you want God realization, you must not depend on external or materials things for your happiness. The more you depend on God, the more He becomes dependable…. Oh devotee, don’t ask God for this or that again and again. He knows all that you want, without you saying so.” Filmed at the Siddhanath Forest Ashram, India 2012. Opening used by permission from “Rishi Gayatri” 2011, Artist: Shivraj, Publisher: Saregama India Closing Music used by permission from “Wings To Freedom” Artist: Shivraj For more information on Hamsa Kriya Yoga: www.siddhanath.org Copyright © Hamsa Yoga Sangh®. All rights reserved

Prana Ashram Yoga Rug SKU: #7885719

admin — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 20:38:46 +0000

Check out these new styles and more from Zappos.com!

Shir Lamaalot – Shivananda ashram Kerala, India

admin — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:53:09 +0000

Hebrew prayer Shir Lamaalot from the Book of Psalms (Tehilim) sung by an Israeli group at the Shivananda ashram in Kerala, India

Renunciation As Supreme Enjoyment

admin — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Greek thinker Diogenes gave up everything. Like Mahavira, he lived naked. All he kept was a begging bowl, for begging and drinking water. One day, he saw a villager drinking water by cupping his hands, so he immediately threw away his begging bowl. The villager asked him, “What have you done?” He replied, “I never knew that one could drink water by cupping one’s hands – now why should I be deprived of such a joy? The begging bowl is only a dead thing, and when I fill it with water I feel nothing from it. When I fill my hands with water, they feel the connection with water, its coolness, its life-giving energy. My love also enters the water through my hands, and it becomes alive. So I will be drinking that too.” The first time Diogenes cupped his hands and drank water from them, he started dancing! He said, “What a fool I was to use a dead vessel to drink water from, because it made the water dead, too. The energy from my hands, the heat, could not pass through to the water. And this was also insulting to the water.” Our senses have become numb like his bowl. Whatever we receive through them becomes dead. Food on the plate looks beautiful; the minute it enters your mouth it becomes ordinary. Music becomes mundane when it enters your ears. Flowers lose their beauty when seen through your eyes. We make everything ordinary – whereas everything in the world is extraordinary. The flower you see on a tree has never blossomed before. It is absolutely new. It is impossible to find another flower like it on this earth. It has never existed before, and it will never exist again in the future. Our eyes turn the existence of a unique flower into something mundane when we say, “It’s okay – we’ve seen thousands of roses like this before.” Because of the thousands you have seen, your eyes have become blind and you cannot see what is there, present, in front of you. What have those thousands of flowers got to do with this one? Emerson has written that upon seeing a rose it came to his mind that the flower has no idea of the existence of thousands of other flowers – neither of the flowers still to come, nor of those which have gone before. This rose is present, here and now, offering itself to the divine. It is joyful because it does not compare itself with any other. But when he sees it, the thousands of others which he has seen get in the way. His vision is blurred, and the unique experience of this flower goes to waste. He doesn’t perceive its beauty; the strings of his heart are not moved, nor are his senses stirred. We live in a unique world. The divine is manifested here in so many ways all around us. But we’ve made a grave of our senses. We are only passing through life – nothing touches us. We ask, “Where is bliss, where is godliness?” – and it is present all around us! Inside, outside, there is nothing other than godliness. By abusing our senses, we kill the one who could experience it. Renunciation is the science of supreme enjoyment. Only someone who knows how to let go is able to experience. Let go of the meaningless so that you can realise the meaningful; let go of sensations so that you can perceive the subtle. Voice Of Silence,

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Renunciation As Supreme Enjoyment