Wednesday 25 May 2016

Freedom from Karma

Karma is action, its impression which feeds on to further actions. The source of action, the action itself and the seeds for future actions are all Karma. These are termed as Sanchita, Prarabda and Aagami Karma respectively (past, present and future Karmas) . As long as you are bound by the action and its results you are held within the limits of Karma.When you are acting on the strongest impulse in your mind, you are bound by Karma.Good Karma brings you heaven and bad karma hell.

What is Moksha or freedom
it is the state free from Karma. The purpose of life is freedom, but the repetitive cycle of birth and death is to exhaust the Karma baggage.

How to exhaust Karma
Both Sancthita and Aagami Karmas (past Karma and seed of future Karma) can be eliminated. The methods prescribed are
  1. Going through the Karma - the commonest way which most people follow - takes many lifetimes to exhaust
  2. Going through Karma with full awareness
  3. Dropping the I - Most actions originate in the ego - the sense of Me and mine. at times when this is dropped, Karma is burnt. this happens during dreamless sleep, during meditation, singing and dancing.
  4. Service - you eliminate bad karma through accumulation of good Karma. Service helps to accumulate good karma. any action that brings comfort and relief to others brings good Karma.
  5. Yagya - any action that is done as a group for the upliftment of the whole. Yagna has three components - the actual ritual, Daana or charity and Sangatikarana - getting together for a noble cause. Meditating together, listening to knowledge and chanting together are all Yagyas
  6. Grace - a moment of grace can burn away lifetimes of Karma. that is why the company of the enlightened is SOOO……. important
  7. AKarma - non doing or non attachment to the action or results. Being of witness rather than the participant in the action; Staying with the experiencer rather than the experience.



Who is Iswara (GOD)?

Patanjali in the Yogasutras gives methods to overcome the tendencies of the mind. 

One way is the way of Action - by Abhyasa (practice) and Vairagya (dispassion). Practice is that stabilises you in the present moment and Dispassion is the ability to let go, to not to be perturbed or attached to the results of the action.

The second way is by devotion or surrendering to the Lord or Ishwar.

Who is Lord?
That consciousness which is free from Karma and Klesha (suffering) is Ishwara

How do you experience the Lord? 
through the Turiya
we usually are familiar with three states of  consciousness
  • Waking - mind fully awake and dominant, world is prominent and real 
  • Asleep - mind absent ; absence of the world
  • Dreaming - mind weakly awake,  experience a different world

There is a fourth level which is a neither awake nor asleep or dreaming OR it is a bit awake, a bit asleep and a bit dreaming. This state of transit is called Turiya - the fourth state. This is also the state of meditation/ Sudarshan Kriya. It is said that you meet GOD in this state. This state is also experienced in the few twilight moments just after waking up or just before slipping into sleep. Also if fully alert, this can be experienced at the transit between inspiration and expiration.

How do you address the Lord?

By chanting the soundless sound that indicates and includes the infinity within it - AUM

Wednesday 13 April 2016

Philosophy and Darshana

Philosophy is a Latin word means "love of knowledge". The Indian translation is Tattva Shastra - science of theories. That's what Philosophy is - just theory & concepts. Knowledge has no relevance if there's no reference. When there is no reference, there is no experience either. Words that are not followed by experience or a thirst for experience become a burden. That's how GOD has become in the modern world - a theory, a concept but not an experience. 

A seeker is one who is looking not that much to understand life, but to experience life. As he experiences, any understanding that follows has relevance and depth. Every understanding that follows an experience has an - Aha - wonder - attached to it. 

When a seeker comes across revelations, he becomes a Seer. That's why the Indian version of philosophy is called Darshana - the seeing. The One whose intuition is sharp is a Seer. Seers dont theorise they only see what is already there more clearly than the rest of us. They are discoverers. Their  power of discrimination is so mature and intelligence so sharp and untainted they can easily see what is illusion and what isnt. They give what they expereince. Unlike philosophers their aim is not to convince but to confirm. They are less logical and more intuitive. Their logic is also very special (Vitarka) than ordinary logic (Tarka). 

That's why a Master is so relevant - he not only tells but also makes you experience. He IS the knowledge. Just observing Him, you get a taste of the beyond. Everything around him seems to be so harmonious inspite of the obvious chaos. He doesnt try to convince nor does he try to force anything on you, but by being Him, just inspires.

Wednesday 30 March 2016

Competition and Harmony

Many think that to be successful you need to be competitive. When we live with this notion, we see & experience competition everywhere - at school, at work, in social groups & sometimes even within family. Competition brings jealousy, insecurity, fear and the desire to dominate. It breeds exclusiveness & pumps the ego. Growth in this environment is difficult & slow. And when it happens, it is usually at the expense of others.

When you invest in harmony rather than competition, you experience friendship, inclusiveness, trust and security. In this environment you are supporting yourselves by supporting others. The collective energy makes growth fast and effortless. Individual ego expands to a collective ego. With harmony comes a sense of belongingness. With belongingness comes responsibility and with responsibility comes strength. 

So how to develop belongingness? You cannot. When the stress in the system is reduced, when the restless mind become quiet through meditation, people appear friendly and supportive; and belongingness automatically increases. Meditation increases the sensitivity to suffering so there is a willingness to attend to pain and to do everything to alleviate suffering of oneself and others 

Remember whenever you are not experiencing harmony, you are in the grip of ego. In competition there is only one winner, while in harmony everyone is a winner.

Wednesday 17 February 2016

Evolution of consciouness

The stages of evolution of consciousness are from Disturbance to Peace to Happiness to Love and finally Freedom. Most humanity is distracted and disturbed with too much Rajas. As you settle into spiritual practices and adopt healthier and conducive lifestyles, Rajas is tamed and you experience more peace. As you progress further, happiness adds on to the peace. When you are able to let go of the desire for happiness, Divine Love - the ability to experience and express unconditional love - dawns and when you are not seeking divine love either, freedom ensues. Love brings attachment and obligations, and can restrict you. When you are able to be detach yourself from obligation - Liberation ensues. Dispassion or Vairagya is the highest attribute as there is no freedom without Dispassion. Remembrance of the impermanence of everything , awareness of your own death  and company of the enlightened all help in attaining Dispassion

The spiritual journey

THERE Is a story in Ramayana
Rama realises that Ravana’s  immortality  is in his navel and shoots his navel. As Ravana collapses breathing his last, Rama asks Lakshmana to go and seek knowledge from Ravana - who is a great scholar. it is important to know that Ravana was born to a Rishi father (Vishrava) and a Rakhsasi mother and his grandfather was one of the Saptarishis called Pulastya. So when Lakshmana approaches Ravana from his head end and requests knowledge - Ravana turns his face away. So Lakshmana goes to his foot end, kneels down and requests Ravana for knowledge. Ravana smiles and says these last words - It is the nature of the ignorant mind to be attracted towards things that cause harm and to avoid things that are good. Remember that what tempts and distracts us will in all probability be the cause of our downfall. What we shy away from, what we procrastinate about, is probably what will help us evolve

Guru Mandala is representation of the journey form the periphery to the centre. Centre is the self where the Guru is established, periphery is the world where all the distractions are. The spiritual journey is the travel from the periphery to the centre, overcoming all distractions. Everytime you get distracted you move away from the goal. Sensory pleasures, laziness, low levels of energy and ignorance are all distractions. To reach the centre one has to overcome all these. There is no better way than to surrender to the Master and just be focussed on the path.

Friday 12 February 2016

Seeing Life as Energy

Patanjali in the Yoga Sutra says Jyothishmati Bhava - Become a glow of energy. 

There is life and there are life situations. I am rich, i am poor, i am sad, i am happy, i am clever, i am in trouble, I am happily married ….. all these are life situations. Life is just I am… What binds us to the world is what follows the I am. Just I am liberates. It is impossible to tackle all the life situations, but it is easy to handle Life. Understanding life as a play of energy helps us enormously.

On the Scale of Aliveness, when the life energy or Prana is at its peak, you experience bliss. As the energy level starts dropping you move down to enthusiasm, then boredom, then apathy, then anger and frustration and finally depression. When we are born, we are at the top of this scale and as we grow older, we move further down. Yes of course our life situations and the way we handle those situations play a big role in our energy levels moving up or down. There is a clever way of managing our life - that is by attending to the life energy rather than the life situations so that irrespective of what the situation we are in, we are able to be centred and undisturbed. How to do this? First understand that there 4 main sources of energy - Food, Rest (sleep and meditation), Breath, and Knowledge ( Happy mind). When you attend to these 4 sources effectively, you are able to replenish your Prana in no time and feel fresh and elevated. We are unhappy because we constantly lose our energy by worrying, by talking and through overindulgence in sensory pleasures. Spending our vital life energy without knowing how to replenish will lead to us to be in the lower levels on the scale of aliveness. Just wake up and see, everything is changing. And one day soon, you are going to die and disappear.  

Stop worrying. Come out of the rigid perceptions and see life as a play of energy.


comforts and conflicts


The world is full of conflicts from which there is no escape. You sort one thing, another pops up. You sort the second and a third one is waiting! This is endless. These conflicts are there to test your skills, strength & faith. Life is like being in a frying pan, thats why it is called Tapas. Tapas literally means to be fried. the skill is not to jump from the frying pan into the fire. Spirituality is that skill . When the conflicts overwhelm you, retreat into the comfort of the self. Meditate, Recuperate and come out with renewed vigour & skills to tackle the challenges. With practice you will master this skill of when to confront & when to retreat. Once this is achieved, you will realise life is a play. You always have the option to react or respond, to confront or retreat. You will also look around and see all those who are in misery are those who have taken life too seriously.

Have Fun & Celebrate life with its opposites. 

Have a great weekend.

Sunday 7 February 2016

Overcoming Inertia

By law of physics, force is needed to overcome inertia of an object at rest to set it into motion. The initial force that is needed to overcome the inertia is quite significant as you change the state of the object from rest to motion. Once the inertia is overcome, only a small amount of force is needed to maintain motion and once a critical speed is attained, no external force is needed, the momentum carries it forward. It's the same with anything including practices. You might have noticed that the most difficult thing to do when the alarm rings in the morning is to just get up from the bed. Once that is done, all other actions follow almost automatically. Same with exercise. Same with spiritual practices. The only real effort that is needed is to overcome the initial inertia (Tamas) - to transform potential energy into kinetic energy.

If you are able to motivate yourself to overcome the inertia of the mind for the first two weeks, it will help you to attain the 40 day goal and once you hit 40 days, it will continue on its own. What i have noticed is that, it is helpful when you have a buddy or a group that are motivated to carry on with the practices and especially if you take responsibility to moderate the group. My Sadhana was most regular when I was moderating our group Sadhana.

Art of Living have an app called Sattva which is a tracker for spiritual practices. It is free to download and keeps a record of your practice. Also there is an abundance of resources for Pranayama, meditation and chants to help you have a variety in the practice.

So download the app and let's Just keep our practices going. 

For our own happiness!!

Organisation

in one way or another we all are part of an organsiation. our body on its own is an organisation, so is a family, a community, a spiritual or a corporate organisation or a nation. Some organisations are successful while others are not. When I looked into what makes organisations succeed, this is what I came up. Some of it might be inspired by books i have read previously or heard from successful people.

Vision - Every successful organisation should have a vision. The vision should have a strong spiritual component. When the vision is focussed on richness and not riches, success is automatic. The primary objective should not be about making money but helping out people. For eg when McDonalds was formed - the vision was to provide tasty food at a affordable price. Whatsapp was formed to help people all over the world to communicate without paying anything extra. The ethos of Art of Living is to help people to be happy, healthy, peaceful & useful. And in every action of ours (teachers, administrators and volunteers) representing the organisation we should be acting through this vision. Everything else is secondary. It is not only important to believe in the vision, but also to allow others to share the vision, experience the risks and rewards, and create a sense of ownership. You will then realise that true happiness is not through self gratification but by devotion to a worthy purpose. If we ourselves do not experience the peace or happiness, we won't be able to transmit it. If we feel that we are not there yet, it is best to withdraw & engage more in Sewa (service).

Team work - what one struggles three can easily do. In an exam helping the person next to you is cheating. Just imagine if people were allowed to help each other in an exam, everyone would be a topper. In an organisation it is called collaboration. When done effectively, team work greatly enhances the learning process & creates more leaders than competitors. Also having different points of view will enhance the ability to learn without making mistakes. in competition you rejoice at others mistakes, in collaboration you identify and rectify mistakes before they cause damage.


Leadership - walking the talk. Though an organisation can have many leaders, every project should have one leader and the team should surrender to the leader. The leader should be able to manage & run the show even if the team disintegrates as he (she) strongly believes in what he started. The leader allows people to grow by providing opportunities or putting them in situation which though not always comfortable is conducive to growth. Another role of the leader is to identify the weaknesses in the team before they damage the organisation. At each level of growth, the leader should plan the system to support the next level. As systems get better, you have to put in less effort to grow. when the system is weak, whatever success is attained soon dissipates.

Monday 18 January 2016

Uttarayana - the day of Gods begins

There is a Rhythm in life, in nature. everything ebbs and flows. Understanding these ebbs and flows should help us to understand when to be dynamic and when to hold back. Like inhalation and exhalation, day and night, life and death, we have on annual basis Uttarayana and Dakshinayana.  One human year is one day for the Gods, the day bit is the Uttarayana and the night bit Dakshinayana. Scientifically speaking starting from Uttarayana, earth starts moving closer and closer to the sun and in dakshinayana - away from the sun. As life reverberates with the sun - uttarayana is filled with prosperity, aliveness, increased mood and high energy. It is also said that most enlightenments happen in Uttarayana. All Kumbh Melas are held during this phase. It is the period of harvest or Siddhi or reaping the fruits of one’s Tapas. Uttarayana starts with Sankaranti and ends around Guru Poornima

Dakshinayana on the other hand stands for the night  of the Devas - characterised by darkness, hibernation, rest and Tamas. The unwise get lost in the darkness and experience the effects of low energy while the wise use this period to go inwards and focus on intense Sadhana. To support this, the ancient Rishis developed the concept of the Holy 4 months or Chaturmaas to do Sadhana towards different energies. Also as this was the rainy season and spiritual people could not continuously move in this time, they would set up retreat camps at one place. The 4 lunar months that occur in Dakshinayana include Shravana (dedicated to Shiva), Bhadrapada (Ganesha), Ashwija ( Devi) and Karthika (Shiva and Vishnu). Winter starts after Karthika. Dhanurmasa is the solar month also representing the last month of the Dakshinayana - the month of utter darkness or maximum Tamas. If unaware, many misconceptions, misunderstandings and conflicts can happen during this phase. That is why the wise called this the Shunya masa - the Zero month when no major decisions are to be taken, but dedicated to increasing awareness and doing intense Sadhana. People usually wake up before sunrise, take cold water bath and stick to austerities during this month. This is also the month of hibernation for plants and animals. Immediately following Dhanurmasa is the Uttarayana - the time to reap the harvest of Sadhana. Dakshinayana is for Sadhana while Uttarayana is for Siddhi. Spring starts with Sankranti and summer with Shivaratri.

Purpose of pain

I caught a virus whilst in India this time and ended up having one of the most painful after effects - sore joints- not one but many - sometimes all together and other times one after the other. I also had to take time off work, stop exercising, could drive my car and at time couldn't do simple things like open a bottle cap or lock the door or lift my laptop. This has been going on for 3 months now. Though the severity of the pain has come down, I am still going through phases of pain limiting my activity. During these times, I have asked myself more than once - What is the purpose of pain? These are some of the things that occurred to me
  • While joy brings expansion, pain brings depth and focus. It brings you back into the present moment. Just think about when you had a toothache. you whole consciousness was concentrated on one tooth.
  • Pain helps us to appreciate the pain-free moments of life
  • Pain tests your faith and strength, it challenges your Tamas. you can either complain and slip into deeper inertia or take it as a challenge and rise up.
  • Nothing including pain lasts forever. you need patience and prayer to go through it
  • Going through a painful phase is burning some negative Karma. If on the spiritual path and you are going through pain, know that nature is trying to clear off a big chunk of your Karmic debt. Realise that you are getting rid of some unwanted stuff and be grateful. This is the time for intense Sadhana. Sadhana brings you strength and surrender helps you not to blame, but let go
  • Know that you are beyond pain and pleasure. Pain and pleasure are intense sensations. They are two sides of the same coin and come in equal dosages. The wise treat both similarly.
  • Remember what Buddha said - Pain is inevitable, but suffering in optional