12/30/12

Winter Camp - Day 1

Day 1 of Winter Camp on Pranidhana started off well with Gurudev inaugurating the camp with lighting the lamp chanting Guru Vandana & Shanthi Slokas



Below are some of the excerpts from Guruji's Day 1 lecture.
-  No guarantee that practice alone would give one the Transformation, it also requires Pranidhaana

- Pranidhaana means Self Surrender (Guruji though emphasized that the real meaning of the word Pranidhaana would be discussed in the subsequent sessions)

-    What is Self-Surrender?

•    A Mind which is innocent
•    A Mind which is not seeking
•    A Mind which is not begging
•    A Mind which experiences deep satisfaction (Atmasanthosa)
•    A Mind which does not know how to complain and
•   That Mind is the mind which can completely merge with the absolute ONE

-    One should ask this question to one’s own self – What am I seeking & why I am seeking?

-    Sadhana means going back to your own mind

-    Seeking is essential nature of the jeeva. Find out the energy which is constantly pushing you to seek and find out what is that you are really seeking?

-    What is a Quality of a Real Seeker?  - It is the power of persuasion

-  One of the important quality of self-surrender is “PERSUASION”  i.e.. to travel in inner domain, constantly nurture patience and perseverance.

-   We have not made mind to listen, we made mind only to react. Guruji made lot of emphasize on one’s listening quality

-    Meditation means Resistance less LISTENING

-    When YOU end it, THAT works ! (this is samarpana) 

-    Consider external world as DUTY…. Then the samarpana happens in YOU

-    Meditation means integration of all these forces that are working as a corporate sector in me, with me.

-    Try between partner – listen to your partner silently with full attention without reaction

-    If we don’t know how to listen, pranidhaana is impossibility.

-    Hours of yoga, japa or pooja though important , its real meaning & effects happens only if one learn to listen

TAPA – SELF DISCIPLINE,
SVADYAYA - SELF STUDY,
PRANIDHANA – SELF AWARENESS

DISCIPLINE has to inspire to STUDY. STUDY has to take you to the AWARENESS

-    What should we do during Meditation ?

1) STILLNESS 2) RHYTHMIC BREATHING 3) CALM MIND

Finally Gurudev asked all the participants to ask a question to one’s own self - what are we really seeking? He emphasized Self surrender happens on it’s own, once we find the answer to this question.



Friends, What listed above are some of the excerpts that this small Mind (ME) could capture.  However one could understand the real meaning only by listening to our beloved Gurudev directly. For those who have missed the camp or not able to grab the full essence of today's lecture (like me) let’s wait for the Video recording to come out, Thank you.

- A report by 'Bansuri'

12/24/12

Season Greetings from Sadhana Sangama



Dear Sadhakas

Happy Christmas & new year to all of you. This Christmas, let us remember Swami Rama’s message written in his book “Sacred Journey”.

Swami Rama Quotes: All of life’s events try to teach that out of death comes life. In the process there is an urge to know and feel something that cannot die. Jesus taught that “whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall save it.” In the next sentence Jesus asked, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

Jesus meant that whoever is attached to the wordly life and this earthly body will lose them in death. But whoever lets go of attachments to this worldly life and this earthly body and identifies with the permanence or God-consciousness that Jesus represented, will never die. What good will it do to have all the riches of the world and all the world’s pleasures? They will all disappear in the flash we call a human lifetime. Focusing on the pleasures of the world keeps the mind too distracted to search for the inner Self.

Yama says to Nachiketa, “When all desires and passions are removed, when perfect stillness prevails, the mortal becomes immortal.” That is the key.

In the service of Parampara,
Sri Pattabhiram
Sadhana Sangama Trust

11/10/12

Guru Smarana - Day of Deep Contemplation



November 13th is Maha Samadhi day, a special day for all Sadhakas of Himalayan tradition blessed by Gurudeva Swami Rama of the Himalayas. Gurudev left his limited mortal frame on 13th November 1996 and expanded his consciousness into the divine infinite sky of eternity. It is the day of deep contemplation to all of us. Let us look into our inner world, glance on all the limitations that are binding us and creating misery. Let us make a sankalpa to break all the walls of division, experience the boundless space filled with love and compassion, feel the     presence of Gurudev as a bright star of radiance and allow the rays of grace to enter our lives and empower with the brilliance of life scintillating light and become that beaconing light to share with one and all.

The suggested Mantra Japa  for November 13 is as follows:

1. Take a comfortable posture by keeping the back, neck and the head along the same straight line. Relax the body completely – do inner journey.

2. Do 21 rounds of Shushumna breathing.

3. Come to Guru Chakra (above the Ajna chakra), imagine a Tirkuti (upward triangle) and in that Trikuti feel the Agni (fire) of Guru eternally glowing.

4. Focusing on the Trikuti, chant Om Shreem Gurudevaaya Namaha 108 times.

5. Conclude by chanting Hiranya garbaa aarabdhaam, saeshou vyaasaadhi madhyamaam, Swami Shree Rama Paadaanthaam, Vande Guru Paramparaam.

6. After Guru Vandana, offer all unresolved problems, negative things and emotions that are bothering you into the Trikuti fire as Aahuti (offering) so that the fire of Guru burns all your negative emotions, karmas, samskaras, and negative tendencies that block your path of sadhana and spiritual progress and instead bring enthusiasm, harmony, health and happiness in the life of disciples and also to their families.

May Baba be with you all and bless you.

In the service of Parampara,
Pattabhiram & Jyothi

Please Note: 
The Guru Smarana program is organized at Sadhana Dhama Ashram in presence of Guruji & Jyothi Ma on Nov 16th, 2012 from 10-1 p.m.  We welcome you all to take part in this program and receive the blessings of Baba. We will be performing Gurusmarana with Pancha Mukhi Kaaryakrama (5 fold approach) from 10 a.m. to 12p.m. by:

•    Chanting Gayatri Mantra
•    Performing the Rudraabhishaeka
•    Chanting Lalitha Sahasranaamaa
•    Bhajans, and
•    By Sharing and remembering Gurudev’s experiences and conclude with Maha Prasada (lunch at 1p.m)

Venue : Sadhana Dhama Ashram,  Date : Friday, Nov 16, 2012

Address: Sadhana Dhama, 4th KM Sri Ramapuri, Near Kanva reservoir, Chennapatna, Bangalore Rural.
Ph. Nos. : At Bangalore office : Mr. Sriram 23222611 – contact during office hrs. 10.30a.m to 4.00 p.m.
At Ashram :   Mr. AG Narasimha Murthy – 9901710565,  Mr. Prashanth – 9008940081
Bus route : From Bangalore Satellite Bus Stand – Mysore road to Channapatna via Ramnanagar.

11/6/12

Sleepless envoy of the Himalayan Sages




In twenty-four hours, you breathe twenty-one thousand six hundred times and if the breath stops for three minutes you are gone, finished. Such an essential process of life and so very close to you, still you seldom know that you are breathing. In the same way, Guru lives in us, but we do not know he is with us. You can experience Guru in his physical form or in subtle form. When you realize that he is like us, you start identifying yourself with him, understand his love, his benediction, compassion and nature. You can also understand his frivolities. Guru in his subtle form teaches and guides through transmission. A disciple may not see the Guru face-to-face but learns what the Guru teaches. He pours his grace. To experience and appreciate his grace, you have to develop the awareness.

November 13th is Mahasamadhi day, a special day for all Sadhakas of Himalayan tradition blessed by Pujya Gurudeva Swami Rama of the Himalayas. Gurudev left his limited mortal frame on 13th November 1996 and expanded his consciousness into the divine infinite sky of eternity. It is not only my personal and direct experience but to numerous other disciples of Baba that he is still active and guiding all of us in the path of ‘Sadhana’. I can say this with confidence because even today I am being attended to and guided by Baba.

Mahasamadhi day is the day of deep contemplation to all of us. Let us look into our inner world, glance on all the limitations that are binding us and creating misery. Let us make a  Sankalpa to break all the walls of division, experience the boundless space filled with love and compassion, feel the presence of Gurudev as a bright star of radiance and allow the rays of grace to enter our lives and empower with the brilliance of life scintillating light and become that beaconing light to share with one and all. Let us experience his presence all through the year in our Sadhana.

Blessings of the Parampara are always with you
- Jyothi & Pattabhiram

10/19/12

Doership to Seership

The first thing a sadhaka has to learn to shift himself from pose to posture, from doership to seership. Doership means I am doing which denotes karta bhava and seership means observing what I am doing and this denotes drusta bhava. Shift your thinking - I am not the doer, I am seer. In that all illogical tension will disappear. Then you need not convince anybody. Everybody will get convinced with you. When you take up this kind of sadhana, you go through three experiences which is shared by Swami Vivekananda based on his own experiences. The first one is upahasya, i.e., when you start meditating all people around you will make fun of you and will crack jokes on you. At that time you give it back to them in the same humorous way, but don’t react. For example, if somebody says to you, “Oh you are becoming like a Saptarishi.” In the same humorous way give it back to them saying, “Of course I was a Saptarishi in my previous birth. I had forgotten that in this birth which I am trying to recollect now to become one among them.” Don’t get insulted or agitated by that.

If you have strengthened your sadhana and perused, then comes the second experience virodha means the resistance or opposition. In your own house, your close relatives, your own people are going to oppose saying you non-contributory to family or society that you are wasting your time, etc. All kinds of irritation start throwing on you. You know why it happens. It is called law of osmosis. The stronger solution moves towards the weaker solution. When you start cleaning yourselves, all stronger suppressed emotions of others will start flowing towards you. Here you are helping others to ease out their strong emotions. It is a mutual thing and it is not negative. So when your partner or others reacts, take it with a beautiful smile and thanks the Lord for giving you the opportunity to out suppressions of others and making that jeeva ready for the sadhana. So the second level of sadhana is this kind of virodha. 

Finally comes the third beautiful stage, sweekara. People will start accepting you and would seek your help in their problems and also help you in your own sadhana. So before transforming others you transform yourself first. Your very transformation itself will transform hundreds. You light your diya, that is all. This diya is going to light thousands of diyas. All this you can achieve when you disassociate yourself from doership and start observing your own actions, i.e., develop seership.This is the key to your transformation.

-Blessings of Parampara are always with you
-Jyothi & Pattabhiram

10/10/12

Navaratri Message

Home is a beautiful space for all the members of the family to share - learn - grow in harmony - confidence - love. Family is an integrated institution for every member of the family to flower completely in goodness, evolve gracefully in relationship and merge joyously in divinity.

Home a sacred space is synonymous to HOMA - SACRIFICIAL ALTER. HOMA is a sacred fire that burns all the negative karmas and connect with the divinity and bless with all richness and security. Similarly HOME is a sacred alter to burn all the negative feelings, be free from inhibitions and grow in eternal compassion - love - beauty and prosperity. To create such HOME we need benevolent grace from the  Divine Mother.

Let us do a JAPA on Divine Mother as part of the Navarthri Anushtana starting from October 16th upto 24th October (Vijaya Dashami).

The mantra for your Anusthana is:
OM Shreem Sadaashiva Kutumbinyai Namahaa

Sadaa = Always
Shiva = Harmony, Happiness and Completeness
Kutumbini = Divine Mother of the family

May you and your family be blessed by Divine Mother.
With yogic fragrance
Pattabhi & Jyothi

Practice Sequence:

Assume a comfortable posture. Keep the body still till the end of the practice.

2. Relax the body completely.

3. Focus on Sushumna for 3 minutes.

4. Come to Guru Chakra. Feel the presence of Bhole Baba (Swami Rama). Meditate there with the special mantra (minimum 1 mala – 108 times)

“OM HREEM GURUDEVAAYA NAMAHA”
Seek the blessings of Bhole Baba.

5. Come to Anahada Chakra (Heart). Feel the presence of Divine Mother in her blissful, graceful and benevolent form.

6. Meditating on The Mother, chant "OM Shreem Sadaashiva Kutumbinyai Namahaa". Take a special Anushtana and chant 10000 times i.e. 1000 every day during this Navaratri. Or do a minimum of 216 times everyday.

7. Chant with intent feeling that Divine Mother is present and remember the meaning and the message above.

8. After completing japa, come out of meditation by chanting the prayer:

OM SARVE BHAVANTHU SUKHINAHA
SARVE SANTHU NIRAAMAYAAHA
SARVE BHADRAANI PASHYANTHU
MAA KASHCHIT DUKHA BHAAG BHAVETH
LOKAA SAMASTHAA SUKHINO BHAVANTHU
LOKAA SAMASTHAA SUKHINO BHAVANTHU
SAMASTHA SAN MANGALAANI BHAVANTHU
OM TAT SAT


9/28/12

My Experience with a Dancing Girl



(Excerpt from Living with Himalayan Master's)

My master often told me, “This whole world is a theatre of learning. You should not depend on me alone to teach you, but should learn from everything.” One time he instructed me: “Now, my boy, go to Darjeeling. Outside the city there is a stream and on the bank of that stream is a cremation ground. No matter what happens, for forty-one days you should do a particular sadhana [spiritual practice] which I am going to teach you. No matter how much your mind attempts to dissuade you from completing the sadhana, you should not leave that place.” I said, “Very well.”

Many people are afraid of staying at such a place. They have funny notions. But it didn’t bother me. I went there and lived in a small thatched hut, where I made a fire for cooking. I was going to the University in those days and it was summer vacation. I thought, “It’s very good for me to spend my vacation in sadhana.”

I followed the practices he had assigned to me for thirty-nine days and nothing happened. Then some powerful thoughts came into my mind: “What a foolish thing you are doing, wasting your time in a lonely place, cut off from the world. You are wasting the best period of your youth.”

My master had said, “Remember, on the forty-first day you will definitely find some symptoms of improvement within yourself. Don’t give up before that. Don’t be swayed by the suggestions of your mind—no temptations.”

I had said, “I promise,” but on the thirty-ninth day my mind advanced reason after reason against this thing I was doing. I thought, “What difference can two more days possibly make? You have not experienced anything after thirty-nine days. You promised your friends that you would write to them, and you haven’t written a single letter. You are living among the dead! What type of teaching is this? Why should your master have you do this? He can’t be a good teacher.” So I decided to leave.

I poured a bucketful of water on the fire and I destroyed the small thatched hut. It was a cold night, so I wrapped myself in a woolen shawl and walked toward the city. I was going down the main street when I heard some musical instruments being played. There was a woman singing and dancing. The theme of the music was “There is very little oil in the vessel of life, and the night is vast.” She repeated the phrase again and again. That stopped me. The sound of the tabla drums seemed to call to me: “Dhik, dhik! Fie on thee, fie on thee! What have you done?”

I felt so dejected. I thought, “Why don’t I complete the final two days? If I go to my teacher, he will say, ‘You have not completed your practice. You are expecting fruit before the plant has matured.’ So I turned back and continued my sadhana for the remaining two days. On the forty-first day, the fruit of the practice appeared just as he had predicted.

I then walked back to the city once again and went to the house of the singer. She was a beautiful and famous dancing girl. She was considered to be a prostitute. When she saw a young swami coming toward her house she called out, “Stop, don’t come here! You are at the wrong place! Such a place as this is not for you!” But I kept right on. She closed her door and told a servant, a large and powerful man with big moustaches, not to let me in. He commanded, “Stop, young swami! This is the wrong place for you!”

I said, “No. I want to see her. She is like my mother. She has helped me and I am grateful to her. Had she not alerted me with her song, I would not have completed my practices. I would have failed and I would have condemned myself and felt guilty the rest of my life.” When she heard this, she opened her door and I said, “Really, you are like a mother to me.”

I told her what had happened and we talked for some time. She had heard of my master. When I got up to go, she said, “I promise to live like your mother from now on. I will prove that I can be not only mother to you but to many others as well. Now I am inspired.”

The next day she left for Varanasi, the seat of learning in India, where she lived on a boat on the Ganges. In the evening she would go ashore and chant on the sand. Thousands of people used to join her. She wrote on her houseboat, “Don’t mistake me for a sadhu. I was a prostitute. Please do not touch my feet.” She never looked directly at anyone’s face and never talked to anyone. If someone wanted to talk to her she would only say, “Sit down with me and chant God’s name.” If you asked, “How are you?” she would chant, “Rama.” If you asked, “Do you need anything? Can I get you something?” she would respond, “Rama,” nothing else.

One day before a huge crowd of five or six thousand people she announced, “I am leaving early in the morning. Please throw this body in the water, where it will be used by the fishes.” And then she kept silence. The next day she cast off her body.

When awakening comes we can completely transform our personalities, throwing off the past. Some of the greatest sages of the world had been very bad—like Saul who later became St. Paul. Suddenly the day of awakening came for Saul on the way to Damascus, and his personality was transformed. Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana, one of the ancient epics of India, had a similar experience. Don’t condemn yourself. No matter how bad or how small you think you have been, you have a chance to transform your whole personality. A true seeker can always realize the reality and attain freedom from all bondage and miseries. In just one second you can enlighten yourself.

- Swami Rama

9/20/12

Annual New Year Camp Highlights







Guruji’s Session:

Authentic knowledge can be gained only through Direct Experience. How you can have that direct experience and, of what, is the question? At present, your Consciousness which is locked up in the body needs to be freed so that it expands and stabilize in its true nature. When we say direct experience, it is the experience of this Consciousness in you in its full  potency.

To attain Direct Experience Self–discipline, Self–study and more importantly Self–surrender is required. Self–surrender alone can lead you to Self-expansion and to merge with the Divinity within you. When you surrender, you allow the Divinity to work through you. Therefore, in this camp, we are going to focus on what is self-surrender and how it can be attained.

¨ Morning & Evening lectures on Pranidhana by Guruji with practice sessions


Jyothi Ma’s Session:


Based on techniques as contained in Sri Vidya Tradition:

¨ Mandala meditation based on Soundaryalahari text of Adi Shankaracharya
¨ Chanting of chosen slokas - contemplate on its meaning and feeling - Japa to get the direct experience of divine mother.
¨ Learn to draw the related yantra and meditate on it to directly experience its latent energy.
¨ Understanding the subtle relationship between mandala – mantra – yantra.

DHAARANA an essential requirement for meditation would be imparted. Vijnaana Bhairava an ancient text of Tantra provides 112 types of Dhaarana techniques for any individual disposition!

¨ Intensive practice to enhance the power of Dhaarana for deeper meditative states

 

Camp fee for 5 day’s - Rs.2000. You need to kindly do your own transportation arrangement to reach the Ashram. Request you to confirm your participation by writing to anjanamurlidher@gmail.com on or before 31st October 2012 so that arrangement for stay & food can be made accordingly at the Ashram for you.  


Let us together build beautiful and harmonious families. Come and join us in this endeavour.

With yogic fragrance,
Jyothi & Pattabhiram

For regular info & updates on Sadhana Sangama, please visit www.facebook.com/sadhanasangama 


9/16/12

Reaction to Response

Practicing mediation and pondering over the sutras of Patanjali, would give you a base where when you react to the external world, it would not be a ‘reaction’; it would be a response. You would slowly shift from reacting to responding. That is the zone of non-stress. That way, you would not create stress around you. So, slowly, people would recognize you, people would respect you, because the base you are operating is Truth, nothing else.

I want you to understand yoga practically, applying it to your own life, and experimenting it on every aspect of your life. Thus, finding the truth from your own point of view. Yoga is a way of life. Each and every minute, you have to experience the touch of divinity that is within you. If you want to experience that, you must live in ‘chitta vritti nirodha’. If somebody does something to you, when you get into some uneasy situations, don’t react immediately. Observe, from where the reaction is coming; what is it that is forcing you to act in a particular way? Is it because you are hurt? Is the hurt because of your ‘conditioned’ mind? Is the reaction coming from your authority? Is it because you are frustrated?

There is nothing wrong in reacting. But react after understanding the source. If you know that you are reacting because of your hurt, realize what this hurt is. That is the beginning of a new life. Otherwise, it wouldn’t help you in bringing harmony in your relationship. The same reaction would come back to you in some form or the other, today or tomorrow.

In the service of Parampara,
Sri Pattabhiram

7/4/12

Inauguration of Sadhana Arogya Vardhini - A Report

In continuation of our earlier mail on Arogya Vardhini Project, we enclose a report below on the Inauguration of Arogya Vardhini on 1st July 2012, Sunday at the Bangalore Center of Sadhana Sangama Trust.

Our Gurudev Swami Rama is always unassuming and reveals everything in a very surprising but apt way. The very imminent example is the inauguration of Arogya Vardhini, a Holistic Ayurveda Centre. The inauguration started with Dhanvantri (who is the avatara of Lord Vishnu as a healer of the universe) Puja. With his grace and blessings, the healing is going on not only at the physical level but at all levels. After seeking his blessings, the formal inauguration went on very well.

Shri Sridhar Sagar, Director of Hindu Seva Prathisthana inaugurated the function in the graceful presence of Jyothi Maa and Guruji. Prof. H.S. Lakshmi Narayana Bhatta and Shri Shankar Narayana Shastri blessed the occasion. Dr.Vani, briefed about the various treatment that would be part of Argoya Vardhini. Dr.S.Krishnamurthi thanked the Audience.

On this occasion, Guruji spoke about the two Mission entrusted to him by Gurudev, Swami Rama:

1. Baba mentioned to Guruji that every child is a moving temple and, therefore, build the moving temples. Inspired by this, Guruji started Sadhana Vidyalaya – School for Rural Children. With the blessings of the Himalayan Parampara the school is growing and is attracting more students each year from the neighbouring rural areas.

2. The second Mission Baba gave Guruji was the concept of Ayurveda as a complete Health Care System in the form of a ‘Health Promotion Research and Training Institute’. Baba told Guruji that it is not the mere physical health that is more important. Therefore, we have to inspire every person who comes to our Centre with the message that –

• Why do I need good health?

• Do I need good health only to continue to perpetuate my pleasure seeking pursuit? Or,

• Is it required to prepare myself to understand the complete message of life?

Every Therapist, while healing the patient, has to convey the message that health is not merely for pleasure but an essential dimension for oneself to go into the unfathomable depths of one’s own personality. Sadhana Arogya Vardhini will function with this objective in mind.

Eventually, Arogya Vardhini will be located in two places – one in Bangalore and the other one in the Ashram. After the preliminary consultation and treatment at the Bangalore centre of Arogya Vardhini, patients will be sent to our Ashram, Sadhana Dhama, for the longer residential treatments like pancha karma, etc., as the case may be. However, this phase (at Sadhana Dhama) will begin after Guruji’s return from abroad (end October, 2012) sometime in mid-November, 2012

As mentioned in the beginning of this message, Baba gave a surprise on the inauguration of Arogya Vardhini. To show that this Mission has his blessings and he is still very much present and active, Baba gave us a house with an approximate area of 2800 sq. ft. in the heart of Bangalore and close to our Bangalore Centre as a proof. This has happened by the way of one of our senior most sadhaka couple and a long time associate, Mrs. Prabha Suryanarayanan & Mr. Suryanarayanan donating their house to the Trust for Arogya Vardhini Project.

As you are aware that health is an inevitable aspect in everybody’s life, and also since Baba has entrusted us the Mission of Arogya Vardhini, on this auspicious occasion, let us join together and carry forward this beginning and in the process receive the blessings from the Parampara in abundance. Your kind gesture and support will have a definite impact in the growth of Arogya Vardhini in the times to come.

You can start referring people whom you know to Arogya Vardhini. For details, kindly contact +91-80-23 222 611. May Baba bless us with the opportunity to take part in his Mission – Sadhana Arogya Vardhini.

For photo’s & other updates, please visit www.facebook.com/sadhanasangama

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