Ashrams of India

The experience of a variety of Indian ashrams, including some Krishna ashrams, Radha Soami near Agra, Papaji in Lucknow, Art of Living in Bangalore, Sai Baba at Puttaparthi, Auroville, and Ramanashram in Tiruvanamalai.

The Spiritual significance of celebrating navaratri

The Spiritual significance of celebrating navaratri By T.Madhavan Navaratri is one of the important festivals being celebrated across the world by people from various sects of hindu religion. The word ‘ratri ‘implies change. One of the names of the female deity (Devi) is kaalaratri. Kaalaratri is the one who brings about change in the absolute being of time (kaalpurush). Rotation is the inherent nature of earth. Changes such as day and night occur on account of the rotation of earth. To be able to withstand such changes effectively, religious observances such as navaratri are undertaken. Significance Throughout these nine days, various spiritual practices such as recitation of holy verses in praise of the Goddess, continuous burning of ghee or oil lamp, garlanding of the goddesses, etc, are performed. Rituals and penance that help in spiritual progress are also undertaken with ardent devotion. During navaratri, one should chant ‘sree Durgadevi Namah’ as much as possible. According to orator nagai mukundhan, the Tamil calendar year has been divided into six ‘rudhus’and the ‘navaratri’is being celebrated throughout the year. According to hinduism, the special worship of goddess shankti is done twice a year in the following seasons:Vasantha navaratri (worship during spring )and sharath navaratri (worship during autumn). The scientific reason for this is that during the twilight periods, when one season ends and the next begins, the position of plants and atmosphere are both very conducive for the spiritual progress of human brings. If one could not do ‘navaratri’ poojas in a grand manner at least they can chant Lalitha sahas ranama, sakalakalavalli Maalai, Abhirami Andhathi or Meenakshi Ammai pillai Thamizh during the nine days to derive the benefits of performing a puja. Those well-versed in music could recite Muthuswami Dikshithar’s Navavaranam kritis to get the blessings of the goddess. Orator S.Madhivannan puts the significance of Navaratri thus: The nine days /nights of Navaratri are divided into three days each and dedicated to goddesses Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi respectively, goddess Durga offers ‘Veeram’ (valour/courage), while goddess Lakshmi offers ‘selvam’(wealth/treasure)and goddess saraswathi offers Knowledge through education. Persons with enough wealth and Knowledge could not survive in this worlds without courage. Hence, our ancestors placed shakti worship for the first three days of Navaratri . In Hinduism, wherever we worship a god, we need the divine blessings of mother goddess to get rid of our sins. For example, while Lord Narayana the saves us with his divine blessings, Goddess Mahalakshmi gives wealth, to protect us. Lord Siva, often tests his devotees, whereas goddess parvathi saves us with her motherly affection. Worshipping the goddesses during the Navaratri is sure to bring in happiness in the family and it also paves the way for societal harmony.

Guidelines for Spiritual Practice

Spiritual practices should not be done in public or for show. If you do them before others, that will be harmful to you. People will pass comments and make fun of you and offer you unsolicited advice and conflicting suggestions, as a result of which various doubts will arise in your mind and your spiritual progress will be obstructed. The ideal sadhaka behaves thus – he goes to bed at night with the mosquito curtain drawn down. Everybody thinks that he is sleeping, but as a matter of fact, he spends the whole night in Japa and medication, lying quietly on his bed. While you are young, you must try hard to get a taste of divine bliss. When once you have got this taste of divine bliss. When once you have got this taste, you can never forsake your Sadhana. Even at the risk of your life, you will continue your spiritual practices. Those who are troubled with too much sleep in the night will do well to sleep during the day, with a view to devote the night to meditation. The best time for meditation is dawn, dusk and midnight. Too often people waste these valuable periods in useless ways. Sri Ramakrishna never spent the night in sleep, nor would he allow the young devotees who stayed with him to sleep at night. When others had gone to bed, he would wake up his disciples saying,’ Why are you sleeping? Have you come here to sleep?’ He would give them definite instructions and send them to the Panchavati, or the Mother’s temple, or the Siva temples for meditation. They would spend the whole night in Sadhana as directed, and take rest during the day. It was in this way that Sri Ramakrishna used to take them through various spiritual exercises. Often he used to say,’ Three classes of people keep awake in the night – Yogis, Bhogis and Rogis. You are all yogis. You should by no means sleep away the night’. Source: Eternal Companion – Life and Teachings of Swami Brahmananda

Riding On A Calm Wave With Spirituality

By Shailaja Kumar From sleek leather bags we’ve seen a shift to jholas. From funky pumps we’ve seen those feet slip into kolhapuris. From leadership schools we’re seeing a jump towards spirituality. Is it just another way of looking cool or is it a practice here to stay? We have seen the young drifting towards seemingly western ways of living but a growing number of youngsters are coming back to their own roots. Sailaja Kumar, an Isha volunteer, mentions that young people are involved in spiritual and meditation programmes more because of stress revival than spiritual revival. But the biggest reason to turn to spirituality is that the younger generation is getting tired of material things very early. She adds that many young students are attracted to these programmes because of the volunteering involved. “They want to give others the experience that they are having,” she adds. True, when Macbooks, fancy cameras and iPads are available to the young, enlightenment is the only thing left to achieve! Anupama Ralegaonkar, a student, says, “I came into this spiritual exercise as a way to achieve an alternative perspective on life. Peer pressure and competition messed me up in the head; this has given me a new lease on my life.” Anupama is a 22-year-old on her way to becoming a chartered accountant. Ramnarayan, 25, says that all he wanted to do was to make his own decisions in life and that being spiritually alive is only helping him. The Art of Living sessions he has been attending brought him clarity and sense, he says. Deepa Prem, marketing professional, says, “I was a party person but I always felt that there was something missing and that there was much more to life than just eating, sleeping, studying, partying, job, marriage. The way I experience life has changed, now I am full of love, joy, peace and completely at ease with everything.” Satyapal G., a member of Vipassana, said that many youngsters participate in the meditation programmes. “It’s primarily because of the simplicity of our technique, which focuses on washing out the suffering from one’s life and helps in coping with difficulties,” he adds. Akshita Sahgal, a 21-year-old interior designer, got into a spiritual programme to cope with her frustration and suffering. “My mother left me for over five years and I had trouble coping with it. I could never confront her about it. But connecting with my spiritual side has really helped channelise that frustration into doing something good and it helped me open up to my emotions.” Indu K.B.’s tryst with spirituality isn’t new—she hails from a spiritually active family—but her experience of spirituality is different. She says, “From being completely pampered by my family, when I moved to another town, I was left completely alone. It was a lonely time for me. While I wasn’t depressed, I just felt like I had too many things to deal with. That’s when I really began to take spirituality seriously.” The younger generation also sees this as a positive way of getting over a bad break-up. Vineetha K., a 22-year-old, confesses that after her break-up with her boyfriend, she couldn’t focus and found that spiritual awakening brought a much needed discipline back to her life. Whether it is a passing trend or a lasting change, the current generation is opening up to the concepts of spirituality and self-help.

Karmic Effects of Thoughts, Actions & Speech – Acharya Shree Yogeesh

yogeeshashram.org http siddhalishree.com Acharya Shree Yogeesh explains the different karmic effects of thoughts, actions and speech. He mainly focuses on Intention and Mental Activities as the primary ways to collect karma.

INTERFAITH – How I Found My Path To God

The Hindu Community Council of Victoria presents: A VEDIC FORUM ” WHAT DOES MY RELIGION SAY ” series of lectures and Q & A sessions. The topic of the second of these HCCV Vedic forums is; “How I Found My Path To God” The venue for this HCCV event is the Shiva Ashram, Mt Eliza, [...]

GMCKS Arhatic Yoga Ashram – Pune, India

The MCKS Arhatic Yoga Ashram was Grand Master Choa Kok Sui’s Vision and Dream. It holds an important part of his mission to spread the teachings of Pranic Healing and Arhatic Yoga. Master was dedicated to build a beautiful and comfortable Ashram where serious practitioners of Arhatic Yoga from around the world could come and [...]

Welcome to the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat

What does it mean to be on the spiritual path? A common notion is that spirituality means dedication to certain spiritual practices, particularly meditation, and attainment of spiritual experiences. However, for Swami Vishnudevananda, spirituality meant much more than that. It meant being a servant of humanity. While he did not minimize the importance of spiritual [...]

Mahamandaleshwar Inauguration of Swami Jasraj Puriji on Kumbha Mela Haridwar 2010

Pictures and video of Yoga in Daily Life The copyright holder is and remains with International Sri Deep Madhavananda Ashram Fellowship. press@yogaindailylife.org Mahamandaleshwar Inauguration of Swami Jasraj Puriji on Kumbha Mela Haridwar 2010 The title is one of the highest titles bestowed upon Sannyasis and it is the first time that the title has been [...]

Sukhi Sivam On Pride

Sukhi Sivam Words can comfort or hurt. It is our pride that makes us use words that hurt. The words that great men utter are words that will prove true. We should, therefore, seek their blessings, and not doubt whether their words of blessing will come true, said Suki Sivam in a lecture. One day a spiritual man blessed a sick man and said he would recover soon. A bystander mocked at the great man and asked how he knew that the sick man would recover. Moreover, would his words of blessing have the power to heal, he wondered. The great man then said to the bystander, that he, the bystander, was like an animal. Immediately, the bystander fell upon the spiritual man and scratched him. The spiritual man observed that all that he had said was that he (the bystander) was like an animal. Immediately, the man had behaved like an animal. If he, through his behaviour, had proved that the great man’s words would come true, why should anyone doubt that the great man’s words of blessing too would come true? Words of great men come true, because of their spiritual strength. The reason we disbelieve even great men is our pride. Pride is like drug-resistant bacteria. If we suppress one form of pride, it mutates and takes another form. So we have the strange phenomenon of people who are proud of their worship of God, and dismissive of other people’s bhakti. In temples, we see how some people arrive with a lot of fanfare, and wonder if others are watching them as they display their devotion. So in their case, pride has taken a novel form – pride in religiosity. There was once a teacher, to whom everyone went for lessons in siddhanta. In that village was a child, wise beyond its years, who was taking spiritual lessons, but not from this famous teacher. Angered, the teacher asked the child what it knew. Did it know the meaning of pride? Could it define pride, the teacher asked. The child silently pointed to the direction of the teacher. The teacher was the embodiment of pride, for he had assumed that there was no one else who had more knowledge than he, and a child had pointed this out to him. If we leave the luggage of pride behind, then we can reach the destination of heaven.