8/13/08

Hello! How are you?...

"Saa Vidya ya VIMUKTAYE"

"Whatever liberates you is true knowledge", declare the Upanishads.

But what are we seeing today? Hatred, violence and rivalry everywhere around; mutual suspicion and wars are enmeshing the entire globe. The eternal human values like love, kindness, and generosity are being thrown to dust. "Myself first" has become the dictum of the day. Is it not an alarming image of life that we have carved on the canvas of peace, harmony and happy co-existence? Where is the way out?

Society is nothing but projection of man. If man could be transformed totally, society would automatically fall in line. Not superficial reformation but total transformation of man to bring him 'vimukti' (freedom) through Real Education is the only way out.

The sages of India were real educationists apart from being seers and philosophers. Their deep contempla-tion into human nature, his relationship with life and society in peace and harmony resulted in "Real Education of Man". They evolved various systematic comprehensive, humane educational approaches which we today know as "YOGA – MUSIC – DANCE – ART – AtmaVidya" and so on. Each system aimed at transforming the raw into the refined, and establish harmony within oneself and its influence on the external world.

"Charaiveti" i.e. "March Ahead" and explore into the unknown recesses of life is our aspiration. This Upanishadic proclamation is our inspiration towards holistic education. This e-Newsletter of Sadhana Sangama aims to spread and inculcate the eternal educational values to Mankind.

With yogic fragrance
Sri Pattabhiram

8/12/08

Internal Dialogue

Uncontrolled thoughts lead to the asylum, but controlled internal dialogue leads to an understanding of the nature of the mind and helps in the path of meditation and contemplation. In a monastery novices do not begin with meditation. First students are taught to purify their minds. Modern man is too impatient and wants to master the art of meditation immediately. Learn to have a dialogue between the observer and that which is being observed. Follow the imagination in this dialogue, analyze and observe the train of mental objects, and slowly control will be gained over these things. We rise above them, and they disappear from the domain of mind.

One‘s conscience already knows what is right and wrong, good and bad, helpful and unhelpful. One simply has to tune into his inner conscience, which guides him all the time. The first and foremost duty of a true and selfless teacher is to introduce his student to that inner guide which leads one during the waking, dreaming, and sleeping states. When one takes time from his busy life and learns to sit calmly in a quiet place, the inner counselor begins counseling. It would be helpful if therapists and psychologists, as well as priests and spiritual teachers, would learn to listen to the inner counselor and then introduce that inner guide to their clients and students.

If you do not want to meditate, then do not meditate. You should not have a fight with your mind; you should have a gentle dialogue with your mind. You will learn many things when you enter into self-dialogue. You do not begin with meditation itself. First you learn to set a regular meditation time, and then to have a dialogue with yourself.

If you have a dialogue with yourself for a few minutes or a few hours before you do meditation, then your meditation will be good. If you do not do that, then you use your meditation time for self-dialogue, and then the 'meditation' is not really meditation. Be a close friend to your mind, a very close friend. Let the mind whisper those inner secrets to you, and put all things in front of you. You need to make the mind your friend because it is either a great friend or a great foe. That which is an enemy can be converted into a great friend. Today you cannot face yourself; you don‘t want to know yourself because you are afraid. Once you know how to have this kind of dialogue with yourself, it will help you enormously.

First, you need to understand what you are doing wrong. Next, you need to create new grooves, so that your mind does not automatically flow in its old grooves, but instead begins to flow in the new grooves. Learn to counsel yourself and have a self-dialogue. Learn to mentally talk to yourself. Ask yourself why you are doing an action. Many times you will say to yourself, "I don‘t want to do this, but I have been doing it, so now it‘s a routine," and then you‘ll understand the process of habit formation. With all your idealization of sadhana and gurus and teachers, you have neglected one thing: you need to know something practical. You need to know a practical method of gaining freedom from those weaknesses that you have formed in your child-hood, which have become part of your life, and are difficult for you to resolve. In this kind of training, books can‘t help you; nothing external will help you. You need to consider why you often do not do what you really want to do. Put these questions to yourself and you‘ll find the answers.

Swami Rama
(Excerpt from Teachings of Swami Rama)

8/10/08

Secret of Successful living

Everyone of us wants to be successful in life. It would seem that the definition of success varies depending upon our circumstances or priorities. We want to be successful in our careers. We want to be successful in academics. We want to be healthy and strong. We want attention. We want love. We want to be successful even in not wanting anything. The definition of success, however, has to be singular. That is why there is only one word to describe it. What actually varies is the manner in which we seek success and the place or activity where we choose to seek it. Success is merely a state of mind that gives one the feeling of well being. This feeling of well being exists in all of us momentarily and in patches throughout life. It may exist for a while immediately after we complete an assignment to our satisfaction or whenever the memory of it takes hold of us. It is temporary and, therefore, a particular event or chain of events in our life cannot be construed to constitute successful living.

Life is continuous. If we live to the age of eighty, then we have lived every moment of those eighty years. We cannot choose to live five days a week and take the weekend off! Successful living, then, has to mean that the feeling of well being needs to exist in us every moment in life albeit the changing environment. In order to achieve this, we need to continually assess our situation and environment both internal and external and then respond to it. In order to respond, we must first accept the reality around us. We must accept our situation in life and our relationship to society and the environment. Acceptance is the first condition to response as opposed to reaction. Furthermore, our response needs to be such that it produces minimal disturbance. If we disturb the environment, we will only succeed in increasing the activities and adjustments that we need to make to preserve our own successful state of mind.

After understanding our situation and accepting it, we need to work on ourselves, cultivate the right attitude, and improve ourselves in order to convert reaction to response. We must leave no stone unturned in our efforts. When we speak of the environment we are normally referring to society, and that too, human society in the form of family, neighbours, country men, friends and enemies, the society needs to be dealt with appropriately. We must love unconditionally and serve dispassionately. If our best efforts do not bear fruit, then we must pray to divinity for intervention. We must pray to divinity to shower love and blessings on all those around us, the people we love, the people we hate and the people we have hurt in our attempts to improve the conditions in which we live. This is the secret to successful living. It is this that produces the state of mind that can be called success.

With Yogic Fragrance
Sri Pattabhiram.

Support for the cause...

How your contribution does really matters a child in Sadhana Vidyalaya… Sadhana Vidyalaya Students Mid-day meal – recurring expe...