Shri Swami Shankara Tilakananda

THE SENSE GOVERN US

2011-09-14T17:00:00.001-07:00

THE SENSE GOVERN US

by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKANANDA

______________________________________

We have Upadis, obstacles. The first upadi is the body. If the senses don´t go outside, I can´t maintain the body. I have to have biological cognition. My senses have to go outside. I have to see, eat, live, relate with others and act, because without action the body cannot maintain itself.

This makes my mind not only direct the senses outside, but be dragged down by them also. This is why Yoga is called the process of self-control. I have to control my senses.

The senses or indriyas are what govern, what control. If you do not control the indriyas, they will control you. The senses are what receive the impact of yoga.

MEDITATION GIVES YOU THE PRIZE

2011-09-14T16:58:00.000-07:00

MEDITATION GIVES YOU THE PRIZE

by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKANANDA

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Meditation converts all aspects of your mind, into a specific type of mind, with just one particle, "dhi", the enlightened mind. So meditating is the prelude to the yoga prize. What is this yoga prize? It is samadhi. To obtain samadhi, the process is meditation in all its different dimensions.The practice of meditation makes you become a Raja Rishi, because if you don´t meditate, you cannot become a yogi . You may really like yoga, gloat, speak about Yoga, teach it, move your body a lot, but if you don´t meditate its like he who prepares a meal; they stir it, speak about it, smack their lips in delight, but don´t eat it.

BUDDHI, THE INTELLECT

2011-09-14T16:56:00.000-07:00

BUDDHI, THE INTELLECT

by Swami Shankaratilakananda

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We have just described the process of yoga: you abstract the senses, you have sensorial abstraction, you concentrate the mind and the power of the senses on an internal point. You let the mind flow through this point, dhyanam. The word Dhyanam has very interesting meanings. There are many names for the word mind in Sanskrit, and one of them is "dhii". You will have heard the word buddha, well buddha means he who has touched the budhi, and what is the budhi? Another word for the mind. But a mind different to manas, the sensorial mind. Budhi is the mind that allows us to reach an understanding beyond the senses. And therefore this mind has to have budhi prakti, it has to have a certain type of opening. Praktihi, also means Enlightenment.

2011-09-14T16:47:00.000-07:00

SARASVATI DEVI

INVOCATION MANTRA TO LEARN DHARMA

~ by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKÂNANDA

THE GREAT SADHANA OF THE 15 GODDESSES FOR THE PROTECTION OF DHARMA

______________________________________________

SARASVATI DEVI:

INVOCATION MANTRA TO LEARN DHARMA

______________________________________________

SADHANA & ESOTERIC TEACHINGS ARE INCLUDED IN THE TRANSLATION

Sarasvati Devi

Dharma Learning

* What is Mandala Murti:

A mandala, the recreated symbolic form of an image or picture of a teaching, mystical or philosophical concept and is the vedic didactic way used by the Rishis and Siddhas so that human beings can become intellectually closer to the Greatness of the Nature of Brahman, the Absolute Supreme. The mandala contains symbolic descriptions of the wisdom about the Divine Science, Brama Vidya.

SARASVATI DEVI: INVOCATION MANTRA TO LEARN DHARMA

(recite 5 times)

Yâ kundendu-tusâra-hâra-dhavala

Yâ shubhra-vastrâvritâ

Yâ vînâ-vara-danda-mandita-karâ

Yâ Sveta-padmâsanâ

Yâ brahmâchyuta-Shankara-prabhritibhir

Devaih sadâ vanditâ

Sâ mâm pâtu Sarasvatî Bhagavatî

Nihshesa-jâdyâpahâ

RECITE THIS PRAYER IN ENGLISH, WITH DEVOTION AND A RECEPTIVE ATTITUDE

* Invocations to the Shakti, the Fundamental Power of the Goddess Sarasvati:

(read with devotion and recite)

"I invoke the Goddess Sarasvati, Who is the Power of the Eloquence that emanates from the dark lake of the mind. Your Power is invoked so as to be able to learn Dharma correctly. -* Invocation to the Mudra, to the Mystic Sign revealer of the Maha Vidya, the Great Mystic Knowledge of the Goddess Sarasvati".

(recite 3 times)

OM... may I also be blessed so I can also conquer Yoga.

"I invoke the Mudra of the garland of flowers of Kunda that reveals to us the pure and unaffected karma of the Yogarudhas, those who conquered Yoga thanks to your blessings".

(recite 3 times)

OM... may I also be blessed so I can also conquer Yoga.

"I invoke your similarity in the Mudra with the moon, which in the night of the body enlightens the consciousness with the power of spiritual awakening: HAMSAH "I am the Self" and not the body or the mind".

(recite 3 times)

OM... may I also be blessed so I can also remain awake.

"I invoke the mudra of the snowy mountain peaks, of which you are the ice, because concentrating on you all the knowledge of the Vedas as it concentrates on the peaks of the snowy mountains, you shed the water of wisdom making the rivers of the teachings in which the yogis drink their knowledge and learn that Brahman is the non Dual Unity".

(recite 3 times)

OM... I invoke you to receive the compassion to learn from the Masters of Dharma.

5. "I invoke the Mudra of your white cloth that so many yogis wear as those who become widows do, because both know how to say goodbye to the body in death and know how to be grateful for life. Life is a school where we learn what is permanent in impermanence".

(recite 3 times)

OM... I invoke the power of learning what is Samsara, transmigration and of what is Brahmavidya, the Knowledge of the Absolute Supreme.

"I invoke the Mudra of the white lotus flower, which is your seat full of subtlety and grace, so I can learn to have an unshakeable mind that is not affected by the movements of existence".

(recite 3 times)

OM... I invoke your compassion so I can be taught by a Master.

"I invoke the Mudra that carries the Lute that allows the correction of wrong pronunciation of the mantras and elevates the tones to an appropriate level".

(recite 3 times)

OM... I invoke your blessing to be able to receive the rhythm, intonation and sacred pronunciation so that the mantra will give me enlightenment, help those who are needy and not be dangerous or harmful to anyone

"I invoke the same power with which they adore you, the Trimurti Deva, the Triple Cosmic Power from where existence originates, Brahmadeva, that which preserves, Vishnudeva and that which transforms, Shivadeva".

(recite 3 times)

OM... just like my invocation to the three supreme powers, I want to surrender my actions to your Dharma. I will always act in life according to the teachings that your power taught to the Rishis and the Siddhis and which they have transmited in the shastras of the Sacred Scriptures.

Om Shântih. Om Shântih. Om Shântih.

_________

PLEA TO SARASVATI FOR SPECIAL BLESSINGS

(recite 3 times)

OM... Oh Sarasvati! I ask you to bless me in my secular and religious studies and in my sacred training.

OM... AIM... SVASTIH

(recite 3 times)

OM... Oh Sarasvati! Perfect my memory so I may remember my duty and the teachings of the Masters of Dharma.

OM... AIM... SVASTIH

(recite 3 times)

Om... Oh Sarasvati! Give me the agility and intellectual skill to be able to cope in this complex and deceiving world with harmony and astuteness.

OM... AIM... SVASTIH

(recite 3 times)

Om... Give me the skill to learn the subtlety of music and the mastery of musical instruments that always uplift my songs when sung for you.

OM... AIM... SVASTIH

_____________________________________

~ Teachings from the venerable monk Swami Shankaratilakananda, disciple of the very venerable master Shri Swami Tilak Paramahansa © Vedic Foundation of the Himalayas. Rishikesh-India / Edited by Dipanjali Upasaki.

Guruji with the Great Master Gopala Acharyaji in Rishikesh

2011-09-14T16:39:00.001-07:00

NATIONAL SEMINAR ON VEDIC STUDIES AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

2011-08-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

NATIONAL SEMINAR ON VEDIC STUDIES

AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Honourable Chancellor Dr. Pranav Pandya of the very prestigious Dev Sanskriti University, Honourable Vice-Chancellors, Professors, respected Professor Mr. Abhay Saxena, Secretary of Organization of the Department of Computer Science, and Responsible of the prestigious National Seminar on Vedic Studies and Information Technology, for all of you my most kind and respectful regards in Anjali, my gratitude, my recognition to Shri Veda Mata Gayatri Trust for its sponsor to this outstanding event, my humble tribute to all the speakers, specialists, and participants of the seminar, my very kind regards to all the students and other participants. May all be rendered to the Divinity, may all be rendered to the Rishis, Siddhas, Acharyas, and refuged in the Dharma and under the Lotus Feet of my Venerable Gurudev Puja Tilak Swami Paramahamsa. I humbly address to all of you to share with you my reflections regarding to what I have titled "The Accurate Communication for the Revolution of the Consciousness".

OVERVIEW OF THE ARTICLE

COMUNICATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES

The communication is the basis of all the relations and this communication should be at least correct, which means, the receiver has to understand the message the sender sends to him. This message comes codified through the language, both spoken and gestual language. The result of a good comunication is a cohesive and prosperous society, which comunicates correctly with the Divinity, with the individuals and with itself.

The aim of comunication is to transmit a knowledge and that transmission should obey a basic rules which guarantee a comunication where the space for interpretation of the message by the receiver is the minimum possible. Through the education we create a link between the one who knows, the one who desires to know and the knowledge.

The one who transmits a knowledge should educate through teaching and training to the one who is going to receive the message. This education should be well structured trough a didactics that marks the form in which the teaching is given and will have as a result the consecution of an adikhara that cualifies this person as a receiver of this knowledge.

In order to carry out this communication process in which the transmission of knowledge is involved, it is necessary a technology in accordance with the times. All that it is not renewed expires, is degraded and the transmission of knowledge is no exception to this rule. For this reason it is an act of responsibility to be trained on new technologies and use them towards achieving accurate communication to help harmonize the universe and relations of all beings that inhabit it. Dharma sets the duty of relating to all beings using the best tools at our disposal. If we do not encourage the student to project in his environment the wisdom of the Vedas, if we ignore the technological means that gives us our time, students will abandon the teachings since they will not see them or practical nor applicable to life. It is our responsibility to preserve knowledge through its correct transmission, so we must learn as much as we can in the scientific knowledge applied to communication.

COMMUNICATION IS THE BASIS OF ALL RELATION

This idea is dissiminated in between all the generations as a patron and primordial link on which all the ideology is set and on which any model of civilization is developed. To improve the communication is to go beyond the obstacles that are always present in the understanding, in the comprehension and in the achievement of all ideals.

Despite the comunication is the motor of survival, in itself “the comunication” as a concept is an abstration that needs to be technological developed to be effective and to acomplish the basis for which it exists: to link the knower with the object of knowledge.

In the practical level, which means, the inmediate experience, only triumphs in the comunication the one who knows something, has a knowledge, and can make another one, the receiver, not only to receive it, but also to understand it. In fact, that is how we know, that in the didactics is, one thing is to know, and the other is to know how to communicate the knowledge one has. It is so crucial and important the development of communication, that all the species, starting from the micro organisms, until the human being, have evolved according to their comunication resources, as for the organization in between the species and for the self defense and protection before a superior comunication that the agressor might have in any attack.

The word is the vehicle of message

The human have grown as intelligent beings, due to the development of a sofisticated, ideographic and phonetic resource to which we call language. We could not understand civilization without the culture, and the culture without the release of the word. The word carries in itself, the message, the idea, the knowledge, in such a way that we make synonimous of teach, deliver the word or give the word. We induce the word to be transformed and take the character of honorable, contractual, sublime or sacred according to how the word is communicated. The word is knowledge.

The good functioning of human societies is only possible thanks to the continuous improvement of the communication, in such a way, we improve in the economy when the channels of comunication are converted into roads that transport in an effective, quick and secure way, people and goods from one place to another, but since the ancient times, the ideologies, the thoughts that have formed the men civilization, and in the culture, the religion, the human perspective of social justice, the colective well being, the philosophy that searches answers, this link of communication that is needed to be established with the universe, with the transcendent, with the Divine has, also, travelled by the same paths, for which the men has walked.

Communication is organizad through codes that structure the language

In the didactics of communication, a referential terminology is used to be able to clarify what communication is and how it can be established. Thus code is called to the system of signals and rules that organize the road for communication and language. This code must be previously organized and must be mutually known between the speaker and the listener. For this reason, previous to the reception of the message, there must be the preparation and qualification of the receiver. This preparation of the receiver is called, in the theory of communication, the channel. This channel is the means used to make possible the message to arrive. But no means nor code can be activated and have success without a previous qualification of the sender. For this reason in communication terminology, we call sender to that who has the capacity to transmit the message because he has previously collected the knowlege and thus symmetrically to the sender is the receiver, who conversely to the sender is that who must de-code the code and has to have the capacity to be able to interpret and thus make his the message.

The objective of the communication is to convey a knowledge

As the spirit or omnipresent soul, there must be previous to everything, even before the code, the channel, the sender, and the receiver, a message, something to convey, a knowledge, that justifies all the process of communication. A knowledge that exists before the knower and the object known; but in this process of communication we must take into consideration that possibly, there would always be in one way or another, what it is called the context of situation or state, which is the whole group of circumstances that is going to affect the transmission and reception of the message and which can affect it in such a way that it can also modify it, making it to be unlinked extensively from the original message, and as a result, the receiver will receive the message through the altered channel or the message itself would be conveyed altered. In our tradition, in the Dharma of the Veda, we know, through the legacy of the Rishis, that all that is part of the theory and practise of communication is part of the nature itself of the Dharma.

Bhagavan Krishna wanted to communicate his disciple, Arjuna, that there is a message that must be conveyed and there is the necessity to be known , and which is, at the same time, key to the correct building of the human civilization, which is vital for the harmony not only of all the beings on this world but in the cosmos, and from this message, which is the key of an acquisition or revelation of a truth, hidden up to that moment, a civilization, a way of living, and a way of being is organized.

Bhagavan Krishna declared that this message is Dharma, which is the core on which the universe is sustained and a conception of human being which codifies and channels as arya and yoga. Shrî Krishna makes his disciple understand that he is generator or main sender, who sends his message to his disciples, that will act first as receivers and later as repeaters senders. At all times receivers disciples have received this message and these, at the same time, have become senders to others, but Shrî Krishna also clarifies Arjuna that the circumstances that interfere this communication process abort the success of the transmission, making not only the message not successfully received by the receiver but also the signal detracts the message and, therefore, the teaching of the Dharma remains as a hidden message, unknown because previously it has been corrupted in the understanding both by the sender and the receiver.

The link between the one who knows, the one who desires to know and the knowledge is the education

Education is the vehicle or channel for which it is established the link between the one who knows and the one who desires to know. Therefore the education is, in itself the set of technologies needed to make the communication effective.

The English word “education”, comes from the latin “educere” that means to guide and to drive and at the same time, also, “educare”, which means, to form and instruct. In the first meaning “educere” indicates that the one who has received the education, not only he is able to drive himself in life and in the process of knowing, but he can also form and instruct others because he is the valid sender, due to have been previously learned and this is the meaning of the second word “educare”. Therefore, the education in itself establishes a cultural, moral and conductual consciousness, which is transmitted in the form of vinaya, which means codes or conduct patrons, which fixes samskaras, links and constructions of mentality, ways of being and proceeding which are the values to be preserved by a civilization that want to be human and elevated. For that reason, the education has to be sikshana, binding. For the one who receives the knowledge, this link has to be with the person who transmits, and with the message he receives, which means the heritage that is perfected according to what is given and receiving.

The education, as the communication, is another abstraction until it is defined and organized according to the objective that is wanted to be reached and having in consideration the context in which the message has to be given and also to whom has to be given. To place the person the nearest possible to the knowledge is upadeshaka. This is education: to establish a scientific, pedagogical discipline that always keeps present all the processes and elements that exist in the teaching and the learning. Upadeshaka is the didactics. The teaching of the ones who give knowledge and learning by those who receive it is the didactics or the technology of teaching, Greek word from which the English word didactics comes. To estructure and facilitate this didactics is what gives the reasons for the existence of a school, in connection with the Master, which means, in the gurukula, where the knowledge that the human being has acquired about himself, about the universe and about its secrets is spread. From this we have learned to call university or visvavidyalaya to the place where the whole group of investigation units and teaching of the highest knowledge possible has been established.

To receive the message is necessary to have a certain adikhara

The Arjuna’s adikhara, as a symbol of the disciple, is in direct relation with the upadhis and adhyasas, which means with the obstacles and the superimpositions, both those which existed in him as well as the ones which his environment generated. This necessity of reaching a optimum degree to be able to receive the message was essential for Isvaku, in the ancient times, as it is for Ravish, Sharada, Peter or Jane in the middle of 21st century.

The social and the individual adikhara claim for a didactics, in other words, a group of technologies and systems prepared for make the learning process easier, given the importance of renewing and updating without opposition of traditional methods because they should know how to coexist with it.

The transmission of knowledge requires a technology related with this era

All which is moved is degraded. All which is renovated expires. The message is eternal because the knowledge is permanent, and the methodology and the technology should be according to the times. To insist in refusing using new didactics and new resources, admiring how the students and Masters from the past where is to deny the movement of the history, is to deny the reality that is in front of us.

The world is not the same today than yesterday and even less than fifty years back, five hundred years or thousand years. Neither the people that are in the world nor their way of living. This might like us or not, but to dream with the past times is just a dream. And if we do not awake up from the dream we wanted to live in, we are going to loose the present and the same knowledge Krishna said it is sleeping in the course of time, will again hide from us and who knows when it will come again.

Teachers, professors who teach raised from the student they were in the past. And those who are learning today will be the teachers of the future.
If we do not motivate students to be projected on their environment combined wisdom of the Veda with all the practical and scientific knowledge required in this modern era, students of Vedic teachings will not understand to the extent that they will not know how to apply it in their lives.

Those who teach Dharma, because we live this life in Dharma are convinced not only of the conceptual eternity of Veda but also how our life has content apparently living like everyone but in a way called Vedic, in which we have made of yoga our way of living, but from there we know how to transmit it to Ravish, Sharadha, Peter and Jane, from India or any part of the world, is something else, is a new challenge that requires strategy, intelligence, and relerning on behalf of the teaching staff.

Sometimes we have reductive ideas that make our students see us as dinosaurs of the past. See sannyasis, pandits, yogis as character of pre history, they give us obstacles for the modernity and the advancing of the societies, country, etc. and they are right when they have such a vision because we do not consider essential the pedagogy in our didatics, both new technologies, as chanels of communication, as the new psychology with which we should relate and understand emotionally the students from our days.

The adaptation of the Communication to the new technologies has requiered a great effort in the last decades

The 20th century jumped quantitative and qualitatively higher in hundred of times, in comparison to what the world was progressing or transforming in the previous centuries. In only 50 years, fashions, mentalities, culture, society, technology trasnformed radically, and contemporarily from one year to another, the understanding we have of the world escapes out of our hands like water.

The teachers, the educators must be very updated. It is a continuous renewal. The guru or teacher or yogi or sannyasin that boasts of not knowing how to use a computer, an Ipad, a videoconference programme, of not participating in a social network, of not sending and receiving mails, of not knowing how to study or consult through the Internet, is condemned to become extinct like a species that does not know to adapt and in its recession drags a whole culture. Many things threaten our knowledge of the Dharma, the preservation of our Vedic culture. But many do not come from our decays, etc, they do not come only from the panchakaristhas, from our laksyam, negligence, avinaya, tendency to desobedience, from our ahamkharam (egoism and egocentrism) from our asviya, our tendency to envy, jealousy, competitivity, and from our asavyata, our lack of correct behaviour and social respect; but this threaten for the preservation of the Dharma comes from the social changes that are taking place in our society, that establishes new codes and scale of values. And it is here where we must know to give and be flexible so that we can adapt our gurukulas to make place for the new students of the Dharma, that must learn what Veda is when invoking the Divine Gayatri as well as learning psychology, medicine, mechanics or business management. If we inspire in the ideal of Vyasa and in the example of his disciple Visampayana, we will understand that Vyasa was the last in receiving knowledge in one way of learning, and the precursor of a new way of teaching. And if we guide ourselves by the didactic example of his disciple: Visampayana, we will understand that the necessity for structuring and adapting the teaching and its methodology to what he led as a gurukula, in order to be able to teach the Veda to his disciples, is what we must know to do today with our new students of the same tradition that Vyasa led.

Masters know how to see in advance the necessity to adpat to the new ways of communication

My venerable Master: Shri Puja Swami Tilak Paramahansa, had the clear vision of the modern man and thus, beginning the eighties, he ordered us to buy one of those very expensive computers with dark screen and green letters that used Floppy disk. The objective was to call the Dharma. He said that the message travelled faster and more effectively through a book, and that the book precede Him before He arrived to a place to teach, to convey the word, and the book remained as a guardian of the knowledge teached when he left. If he would have been living in this time of ours of high technology, He would have been doing what we are doing today. That is the powerful effect of planting a seed that later will give its fruit. The precursor glimpses in a way, what the eyes of others will be able to see. In the past, the students, with many dificulties went to find a Master, went to look for being admitted in a gurukula, in an ashrama, to be able to receive the teaching, and all this with big dificultties, today, students come from all over the world, willing to learn, and they come back to their homes and works because the time they have to receive the knowledge is little and conditioned to the survival, but they wish to go on learning.

From long time ago, masters travel to meet their students and sometimes students travel only few days to meet their masters, but new technologies have opened the possibility to travel without moving from the place of residence and the demand of learning and the necessity grows. But the misery of the human being also grows, and therefore, the necessity of healing minds and lives of men and women of the 21st century is increasingly urgent, since the crisis that our world lives is not only economical, is fundamentally human.

There is no disease equal to greed. There is no enemy greater than anger. There is no sorrow that is greater than poverty. There is no happiness equal to wisdom.

Belief in God has declined. Dharma has disappeared. Atheism is on the increase. There is no respect for the guru-preceptor. Devotion to God, respect for our ancient culture,

and tradition have been given farewell. There is no patronage for true education. Only bread-earning education has become the order of the day. These, alas! Are the signs of modernity!

“I am in the Light; The Light is in me; I am the Light.”

Adapting to the new Technologies is an impertive of the current times

We cannot fight against the bad signals of modernity with an involutionist attitude, closing the eyes to reality. My experience is that of being to the service of the Vedic School founded by my Venerable Master 30 years ago.

The same as you can no longer dream of a life with bullock carts or tonga (horse carriages), you can not dream of a life without cars, televisions nor mobile phones, we cannot understand our life and manage it without internet, nor computers, nor home automation.

The same as before the illiterate was the one who did not know how to understand the letters and, therefore to read, and consequently not knowing to use the book, to write the letters, to use a pen, today illiterate is considered that who does not know to write in computeres and manage a credit card, or checking account online.

We are present in the social Networks, such as Facebook, webs… that represent us, give us information, communicate our existence and activities, and create a interrelation among a circle of friends, associates or virtual sangha. We teach like in ancient times, following the process of svarana, smaranan, vichara, viveka, etc.. listening, remembering, analizing, discriminating and we do it in person in the spirit marked as I said before, by Visampayana, master-disciple relationship in the purest tradition of the gurukula, but we also do it through videoconferences in which we teach the upadesha convened in Satsangha, not only in person but virtually to students and sadhakas wherever they are in this world, but also do mentoring, advising, conforting, solving problems directly, carrying the teachers in their tutelage of preaching the dharma, not only the old kamandalu but also the modern laptop. We print in the print of Gutenberg the books of the Vedic Scriptures, but we also digitalize in PDF of Adobe. We create files of videos and private TV channels with simple resources that Internet eases such as Ustream and we help to preserve the forests managing the whole of our administrative processes from registrations to the Communications with the departments through mails, pdf, webs, chat, etc…

We highly recommend our students to use personal computers in their Studies of our Foundation and to bring them to the satsanghas, when we teach theory classes about Shastras, Prakaranas y Samdeshas.

We do not consider viable, today, the spreading of the Dharma, the Vedic teaching, the humanist training without the use of new technologies. We consider the learning of new technologies so vital for students, who are receivers of the communication, as for teachers and administrative staff who are the senders, that we plan our gurukula, dedicating, without reluctance, economic funds and technological instruments, since we have absolute confidence that we can only transmit the Dharma effectively, using as didactic toos what we will call the computer base, that is, computers updated with powerful microprocessors able to interact in multimedia and through Internet in an increasingly wider field and in a longer projection of the time. In the inversion called base audiovideo, in the use of electronics, with TV flat screens, image digital treatment, high definition electronical formats, data storage that gives guarantee of the preservation of the information, and the base of telecommunication with different services that the different spectrum of GSM even GPS allow us to move and communicate actively.

We are conscious that we can be questioned and critized by the sectors that understand that one is conservative because one is inmobilist, involutionary, not modern, but we consider that the readaptation and adequacy of the gurukulas, the methodologies of teaching and the way of living of sadhus, yogis and seculars, etc. is vital and cardinal for the survival in a world with serious crisis, and the worst is the crisis of the scale of priorities, together with that of values and the economical. We are in a world with a very serious identity crisis.

We feel proud of having reacconditioned, as many times it has been done along the history, in our own tradition, to the times we live because that who does not know to adapt and adjust and make oneself confortable, not only looses his position in life, but also does not savor the true essence of yoga.

SALUTATIONS

There is no other tradition and culture most prepared for innovation and technology than the Vedic culture. Having as name and ideal the knowledge implies a great commitment with the evolution of the spirit and the progress of the society.

Veda and technology is science and they must be understood as two beats of the same heart.

I congratulate to Shri Veda Gayatri Trust and the Dev Sanskriti Mahavishwa University for its great effort in organizing such a significant event that will allow to find a unified path for the development of the human being.

I invoke the blessings of all the venerable Masters and the protection of the Divinity and all its blessed powers.

My name is Swami Shankaratilakananda Saraswati, disciple of the most Venerable Swami Tilak Paramahamnsa, Chancellor of the Vaidika Antarastriya Pratisthanam, Vedic Foundation International for the spreading of the Dharma.

10 DEFINITIONS ON THE NATURE OF FRIENDSHIP

2011-08-16T15:52:00.001-07:00

10 DEFINITIONS ON THE NATURE OF FRIENDSHIP

THE NATURE OF FRIENDSHIP

1: ON FRIENDSHIP AND PROTECTION OF A FRIEND

If someone speaks badly about your friend listen to him as if speaking ill of you. - Ethiopian Proverb

2: ON FRIENDSHIP AND PROTECTION OF A FRIEND

A true friend is known in danger.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero

3: THE FRIENDS AND THE VALUE OF FRIENDSHIP

Take time in choosing a friend, but even slower to change it.
- Benjamin Franklin

4: THE FRIENDS AND THE VALUE OF FRIENDSHIP

Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.
Just walk beside me and be my friend.
- Albert Camus

5: THE FRIENDS AND THE VALUE OF FRIENDSHIP

A faithful friend is the medicine of life.
- Hitopadesha

6: THE FRIENDS AND THE VALUE OF FRIENDSHIP

The best mirror is an old friend.
- George Herbert

7: THE NATURE OF A FRIEND.
Preferably, between friends, not just those who are saddened by the news of any misfortune yours, but even that I do not envy your prosperity.
- Socrates

8: THE NATURE OF A FRIEND
Friendship finishes where distrust begins.
- Spanish proverb

9: THE NATURE OF FRIENDSHIP
The bonds of friendship are narrower than those of the blood and family.
- Giovanni Boccaccio

10 and end: CONCLUSION, THE FRIENDSHIP IS:
Friendship is a perfect agreement of the feelings of divine and human things, together with the kindness and a mutual tenderness.
- Cicero

12 DEFINITIONS OF THE NATURE OF YOGA

2011-08-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

12 DEFINITIONS OF THE NATURE OF YOGA

1. THE NATURE OF YOGA

Yoga is the practice of quieting the mind.
- Patanjali

2. THE NATURE OF YOGA

Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity includes all aspects of one's being, from bodily health to self-realization. Yoga means union - the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul. Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in daily life and endows skill in the performance of one's actions
- B.K.S. Iyengar

3. THE NATURE OF YOGA

Yoga is said to be the unification of the web of dualities.
- Goraknatha

4. THE NATURE OF YOGA

Yoga is collectedness
- Shankaracharya

5. THE NATURE OF YOGA

Yoga is said to be control
- Brahmanda Purana

6. THE NATURE OF YOGA

Yoga is ecstasy
- Vyasa / Yoga-Bhashya

7. THE NATURE OF YOGA

Yoga is said to be the oneness of breath, mind, and senses, and the abandonment of all states of existence.
~Maitri Upanishad

8. THE NATURE OF YOGA

Yoga is the separation of the awareness of the Self of the phenomenological consciousness.
~Bhoja / Raja-Martanda

9. THE NATURE OF YOGA

This they consider Yoga: the steady holding of the senses.
~Katha-Upanishad

10. THE NATURE OF YOGA

Yoga is the union of the individual psyche with the transcendental Self.
~Yoga Yagñyavalkya

11. THE NATURE OF YOGA

Yoga is said to be the unity of exhalation and inhalation and of blood and semen, as well as the union of sun and moon and of the individual psyche with the transcendental Self.
~Yoga-Shikha Upanishad

12. THE NATURE OF YOGA

Yoga is skill in action.
~Shri Krishna / Bhagavad Gita

THE GURUPURNIMA DAY AND THE RESPETCS TO THE MASTER

2011-08-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

THE GURUPURNIMA DAY AND THE RESPETCS TO THE MASTER

By SWAMI SHANKARATILAKANANDA

___________________________________

Swami Shankaratilakananda,

According to the Vedic calendar, this year the festivity of Guru Purnima, THE DAY OF THE GURU, which coincides with the full Moon, is celebrated on 15 July.

This is a fond day for all vedic people, being a custom enjoying the company of the Master, receiving in a special way his teachings, advices and the energy of his physical presence.

It is a custom to give presents to the Master as a sign of gratitude and wish of renewing the friendship that will make his teaching and company possible, and this is not an obligation but an expression of affection and gratitude. The Master Adi Shankara reminds us on his famous Viveka Chudamani, that in order to get access to the grace and the favour of the master, receiver of the knowledge necessary that helps us to cross the ocean of the life, we must first get close to him with an attitude of respect and service and thus getting his friendship.

There is a deep teaching in the words and energy of a master, able to change the life of that who needs it. Those who can enjoy of His company are good knowers of this and they benefit in all fields, since knowledge of the spirit is never separated from the multiple aspects of life.

The Vedic Sangha honours its Gurus on this day and wishes to share with all those people of noble heart that learn through the pah of Yoga to do it also with their Masters and teachers enjoying their company, paying tribute to them, attending and giving them the affection that comes out from their grateful hearts. Those who cannot be at their physical presence due to distance, should remember them in their hearts through the repetition of the Guru Mantram.

DHARMA IN HINDUISM by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKÂNANDA

2011-01-30T09:47:00.000-08:00

DHARMA IN HINDUISM by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKÂNANDA
by Swami Shankaratilakananda

   The river sindhu

Hinduism

P1
DHARMA IN HINDUISM
by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKÂNANDA
____________________________________
Part 1: SINDHU . HINDU . INDIA

SINDHU, THE RIVER WHOSE NAME WAS GIVEN TO A SUBCONTINENT AND CULTURE
Location
The Sindhu river begins in Tibet which currently belongs to China, in the high plains close to the famous Mansarovar lake which leads to certain glaciers and comes into India through the region of Ladakh and runs through Pakistan where in comes out in the Arabian sea close to the port of Karachi.

The sediment of the western mountainside of Tibet in the Arabian Sea, indicates that the Sindhu river has run from its current basin for 45.000.000. It is one of 25 rivers in the world with the largest amount of aquiferous influx and the second largest in sediment overflow, in this case, coming from the Karakoram mountains in the Himalayan Mountain range, which gives a special colour to the Sindhu river waters.

The Sindhu valley, arid and with hardly any vegetation, is an extreme example of deforestation and desertification caused by human beings, therefore the large amount of fish farms and the irrigation dependency from the labour camps in Pakistan and the region of Punjab cause an ecosystem overload in the Sindhu river that critically positions it in danger for the future.

The mythic Sindhu River honours the fertile earth of Punjab. Punjab is the vital heart of great mystic heroes from the cultural tradition of India and of the Dharma Sister of the Sikh religion inspired in the mystic Gurunanak. Punjab is the derivation of the vernacular term derived from the Sanskrit pañcâpas, "panj", meaning "five rivers" which comes form the enunciation of the five rivers that flow through them: Jhelum, Chenam, Ravi, Beas and the Sutlej. These five Punjabi rivers are rich influxes from the Sindhu river.

In the tradition
Sindhu, is a Sanskrit word. Sanskrit is a language spoken by the Aryan people and was used to write the Vedas. The Vedas are sacred scriptures that collected the sacred teachings of the Yogi Patriarchs from the Ancient times. “Sindhu” has different curious meanings: river, sea, ocean, torrent, flood. Another more common word used in Sanskrit to designate a river is nadī.

The Sindhu River was very crucial and important in the ancient and remote Aryan and Dravidian civilization, so much so that “Sindhu” in itself is associated with the idea of “The River, the Ocean”. There was no other river so important as the Sindhu. Having as its heart the banks, along with those of the Ghaggar-Hakra, Ganges-Yamuna rivers, in its immense valley, a great civilization was developed known as the "Sindhukush" or the "Valley of Indus". In this fertile valley the famous cities of Harappa, Mehrgarh, Lothal and Mohenjo-Daro were established.

The most important of the four Vedas, the Rik, mentions the Sindhu River almost in all of its Mandalas; groups or books. The Brahmana priests of the Vedas dedicated a number of invocation hymns to it and compared it with the fertility of the sacred cows and their mystic purity to help with the rectification of karma. Sometimes it appears associated with the mysterious and mythic Saraswati River that evokes the crucial Devata Sarasvati that presides over the enlightening understanding of the Vedas.

In the epic Mahabharata, which is included in the Bhagavad Gita, the essence of Vedic Dharma, Sindhu was a very important kingdom, founded by the king Vrisadarbha, and from which the capital received its name: Vrisadarbhapuram, also known as Sindhu and which corresponds to the actual city in the south of Punjab called Mithankot. The crucial hero of the Kurukshetra war narrated in the Mahabharata Itihasa, Jayadratha, a family member of the prince Duryodhana, leader of the Kauravas, was the king of the Saindhavas. The Saindhavas were the inhabitants of the kingdom of Sindhu. Jayadratha and his Sindhavas pauravas were the most famous lancers and war carriage drivers that infringed huge losses to Arjunas Pandavas, Krishnas disciple in the Bhagavad Gita who killed Arjunas son Abhimanyu. Arjuna deeply detested Jayadratha and the Sindhus whom he considered depraved and cruel fighters.

The hymns from the Rik Veda mentions the Sindhu River amoung the Sapta Nadî or 7 Sacred Rivers that lead to the mystic gifts that the sacred scriptures declare and perfectly correlate:
    1.    Ganga nadî, who’s Devata of Divine Power is connected to Shiva, the transmutation of life and death.
    2.    Godavari nadî, who´s Devata of Divine Power is connected with Râma, the establishment of perfect Dharma.
    3.    Yamuna nadî, who´s Devata of Divine Power is connected with Krishna, success in Yoga.
    4.    Sindhu nadî, who´s Devata of Divine Power is connected with Hanuman, the journey of a devoted yogi.
    5.    Sarasvati nadî, who´s Devata of Divine Power is connected with Ganapati, the destruction of the impediments of sadhana, spiritual life.
    6.    Kaveri nadî, who´s Devata of Divine Power is connected with Dattatreya, the mastery of Enlightenment.
    7.    Narmada nadî, who´s Devata of Divine Power is connected with Durga, the protection of life.
Each sacred river contains the siddhi of the mystical power of the charkas of the sacred earths that favour the communication with the gods or supernatural powers and the spiritual transformation of the seekers of the truth. These seven rivers are selected by yogis to do tapasyas, advanced disciplines to favour their growth in Enlightened Yoga.

A river is water, it is âpas. Âpas is one of the “Five Great Elements”. It is a conductor of life, and the path that takes us towards the Light of Liberation from Samsara, continuous transformation. Sacred water is used daily for a vedic devotee topurify the 3 bodies and 5 sheathes.

The First Foreign Chroniclers: The Greeks
Lucius Flavius Arrianus, the roman citizen of Greek origin was a famous historian and chronicler of the life and work of Alexander Magnus who wrote about his military campaigns which took the great conqueror to the valley of Sindukush and to the sacred Sindhu river.Indica was the famous book written by Arrianus about the commander Nearchus, Head expeditionary for the conquering of Alexander from the Valley of Sindhu to the Persian Golf. “Indica” is the singular work that narrates the history, geography and culture of the ancient subcontinent of today´s India. Nearchus, who learnt the language of Sindukush had been sent by Alexander Magnus as a expeditionary to inform them about the Sindhu as he had planned to return to Babilonia after the conquest of Ancient India.

Meghastenes was a Greek ethnographic that also wrote a chronicle essay called “Indica” that Arrianus used as a source of documentation. Meghastenes was an ambassador in the court of the emperor Chandragupta Maurya, of the splendid Pataliputra (India). He crossed India from the Sindhu to Madurai, from the Himalyas to Shri Lanka around the years close to 288 A.C.

"Indica" makes an interesting description of the geography of India locating it on the banks of the Sindhu valley and Ganges and compares its riches with those of the Nile and Danube. During centuries Indica served as a reference to Greeks and Romans about how the inhabitants of India were, their culture and geography. Curiously, in the work, the findings in India of Heracles (Hercules) and Dionysios (son of Zeus) are mentioned.

The Muslim invaders of the Sindhu
Many centuries after the western Greek invasions, the Muslim armies of distinct origins invaded the subcontinent of India in the VII century AD.
    ▪    Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Sindhu and Punjab and gave it over to Califato of Umayyad (Damascus) who had also conquered Hispania (Spain) and would later give origin to Caliifato of Cordoba in AL-Andalus (Andalusia in Spain), under their government the fundamentals of Islamic law that would govern and transform India until the establishment of the British rule were established.
    ▪    Mahmud Ghazni, Persian by origin but established in Afghanistan
    ▪    Sultan Shahāb-ud-Din Muhammad Ghori, established the Ghorida dynasty that reined over what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the north of India. Afghan by birth but of Persian origin, he won over the former Muslim governments. He invaded Gujerat (the ancient kingdom and actual state of the modern India Union), the kingdom of the ancient Alexander of Indopotamo or Alexandria of the Indus, in the junction of the rivers of Punjab with the Sindhu river also called the Uch Sharif, which is the actual Bawalpur in Pakistan and in ancient times was a hugely famous University in Asia for Islamic studies and a large centre for sufi studies. Muhammad Ghori was also the conqueror of the famous city of its age Mulasthana, later called Multan by the Muslims, located in Pakistan where it is known as the “city of the Sufis and mosques”.
    ▪    Tamerlan-Timur, of turc-moghul origin, initiator of the Ottoman Empire
    ▪    Zahir ud-din Muhammad Babur, established the bases of the Moghul Empire in India that he governed until the creation of the British empire.
The fame collected in the Indian chronicles of the Greeks and the attraction of riches and beauties from the fertile effluents of the River Sindhu, invited the great Muslim conquerors of the age to invade India, cross over natural barriers from the East of the Indica, formed by the river. These invasions forever changed the culture of Dharma and saw the end of vedic society which disappeared forever from the world. Only Nepal maintained itself as a “hinduist” state until the transformation of the country in a republic.

The origin of the word "hindu". The return of the European Invaders & The name of India: "Bhârata".

The Greeks
It was Meghastenes who gave the name "Indica" to the region of the Valley of the River Sindhu and from there extensively to all the knowledge that he had from the subcontinent. The Sanskrit word Sindhu (river) was changed by the Greeks to the word: Indu, leaving out the letter “s”.

The Persians
The Persian invaders of Mahmud Ghazni with their difficulties of pronunciation substituted the letter “s” for “h” and this is how the name "hindhu" appeared and initially designated the population in the valley of the River Sindhu, including the geographic inhabitants of the whole subcontinent.

The Arabs
The Arab invaders from the XIII century also derived the name "Al-hind" and it was the first time that it was called so and excluded all the inhabitants of the subcontinent that were not Muslims and so the wrong name began to spread to designate the religious spirituality of the Vedics for not being Muslims even when they lived thousands of kilometres from the Sindhu Valley.

The Spanish
The Spanish that knew about the subcontinent because of the Greek Indica chronicles named the whole territory “India” and “indios” to the inhabitants, for this reason Christopher Columbus began an adventure to go around the world navigating the oceans to arrive to the land of abundance and the spices of India that were known for their condiments and silks and gold from the classic times and by the Muslims who had invaded Spain and Europe. When Columbus discovered the territories that we call America, he called them India, and he named the variety of islands and continental territories he discovered “The Indias”. And so he began the continuous confusion that persists today of calling the Native Americans “Indians” and also the citizens of the country of India. The Spanish opened the path that would be followed by the Portuguese.

The Portuguese
The Spanish and Portuguese that formed the same kingdom at the end of the XVI century, after the annexation of Portugal for Spain, also arrived to the subcontinent in the XVI century on the hand of the Portuguese and where the ones that definitively fixed the term "India" to the subcontinent and “hindu” to the settlers of India. Being Christians they extended the denomination “Hinduism” to the practices and religious beliefs of the inhabitants of India.

The Dutch
At the beginning of the XVII century, the Dutch established their first colonies in the south of India which they eventually lost in favour of the British in the first quarter of the XIX century to facilitate the creation of their empire.

The French
Almost at the end of the XVII century, the French established themselves in the south of India in Pondicherry and established several commercial colonies that extended from Bengal to Kerala, with an immense area of influx toward the inland part of the south of India and the flat Deccan Plaines. The scarce military presence only dedicated to defence and its initial commercial focus, allowed the arrival and after the definitive establishment of the British, which ended up evacuating the French except in the enclave of Pondicherry.

The British
The British opened up India in the middle of the XVIII century and progressively during the XIX century they had complete control of India converting it in part of its empire and they allowed a divided India (Pakistan, Shri Lanka, India) to be converted into a state. The English used the term "Hindusthan" and "India" indistinctively to designate their possessions and called "hinduism" the religion of India and "hinduists" its followers. The Spanish called them Indostán and they still call the indica region that groups the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Shri Landka (Ceyloan) and Bangladesh this way.

The Hindus and Bharata
The Hindus call their country by two different names. One is “India” and the other is "Bharata Ganarajya". It was called India because of historic inertia from the foreign invaders and so therefore “hindus” and sometimes “Indian”. Bhârata means "the descendents of Bharata". Bharata was a rishi, the epithet of the vedic legislator Manu, the denomination of one of the tribes-clans of ancient vedic rishis, the ancient vedic yogi was a very important puranic king from the legends known as one of the twelve universal emperors.Religiously, the Hindus called vedic religion in a common and patriotic way: Hinduism, which makes indirect allusion that all those born of biological hindu origin (racial) can access their beliefs and in this way identify with their followers that are also called in the same way as the inhabitants of the country India: “Hindues”. By calling Dharma Vedic religion as a nationalist statement, the true denomination has been lost, Dharmâsthika, or Vedic.

Om
End of the First Part
....................................
© Rights reserved: Author & Vedic Press

___________________________________________________________________
ૐ Teachings from the venerable monk Swâmî Shankaratilakânanda, disciple of the very venerable master Shrî Swâmî Tilak Paramahansa
* Edited by Dipanjali Upasaki.
© Vedic Foundation of the Himalayas. Rishikesh-India
~ email: vedicfoundationhimalayas@yahoo.co.in

THE TONGUE AND TASTE PRIORITY

2011-01-30T09:38:00.000-08:00

THE TONGUE AND TASTE PRIORITY

The TONGUE is a vehicle for concentration, from the TIP part inward makes all the senses activate and concentrate on taste, so what determines the movement of the mind makes the vital impulse... to eat. The TASTE sense is not only for tasting.
But what makes any of the senses like or dislike a taste, is that all the senses in a vital way GO TO THE TASTE, to a space in the mind, to generate serenity or perturbation.
In this way, with this sense life begins and ends when it does not receive energy from others, and the hearing sense remains isolated. Even when we are born, our hearing isn´t totally activated, and we have the pleasure of getting to know the mother previously, in the womb.
In the technique of DHARANA in the NABHI CHAKRA (navel) Pitanjali explains after he mentions HRIDAJA PUNDARIKA (the lotus that helps to open the heart), and always gives us a different focus like a meditation in the vibration of the heart chakra.

Teachings of the venerable monk Swami Shankaratilakananda, disciple of Swami Tilak (edited by Dipanjali Upasaki)

http://yogaydharmamadrid.blogspot.com/

yogalaya ashram

THE MUNI, THE SILENT ONE by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKANANDA

2011-01-30T09:34:00.000-08:00

THE MUNI, THE SILENT ONE
by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKANANDA
______________________________________

He who keeps just the correct amount of silence and speaks only when it is necessary is a MUNI, and is in MOUNA.To be a muni, to have silence of the word, it isn´t just a spiritual value. The wiseman that knows how to remain silent and joins the yoga of silence with pratyahara is a MOUNI.

Mouna, the yoga of silence, is fundamental in the sadhana of a yogi. Mouna is the silence of words.The root of moun, gives place to MOUNI, he who knows how to measure. He who practices moun knows how to measure his thoughts and his actions, because of a logical development of the different visions of the word silence.
MOUNI and MOUN is measure, moderation. The wiseman, who is in balance, doesn´t have to be excessive, he doesn´t let himself be carried away by taste or aversion, but follows the middle path.
Krishna, master of yoga is he who has overcome being a muni. The aruruksha becomes a yogaruda.This mouna is a conquest for the apprentice to oblige his mind to stop being disperse and to have more lucid reflexion.
When we stop the tongue and not the mind, it is truely in silence, not in mouna. He who forces himself to remain quiet, really isn´t. But the MUNI, the intelligent one, stops speaking when it is convenient and when he should; he who doesn´t know how to stop speaking loses his intelligence.
An ignorant person is like a child that doesn´t know how to keep a secret, he is like someone who doesn´t have any control and tells everything to everyone. They are like children who run down the street screaming. But a wiseman, like an old man, knows how to stop talking and speak when its convenient. Swami Tilak told us this.He who observes mouna through words, observes the silence of God. God stops speaking for he who doesn´t know how to listen say the texts.God speaks to the reflexive, not to the impulsive, to who is in Dharma, through the consciousness in peace, and not with an angry mind.
For this reason, he who observes the silence of words, maintains power, and the strength of life.

THE DHARMA OF VEDICS

2011-01-30T09:28:00.000-08:00

Dharma eva hato hanti. Dharmo rakshati rakshitah: Rakshitam Dharma Rakshati: "That which destroys Dharma is destroyed by Dharma. That which protects Dharma, Dharma will protect: Dharma protects if it is protected."

THE DHARMA OF VEDICS
by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKANANDA

Dharma eva hato hanti. Dharmo rakshati rakshitah: Rakshitam Dharma Rakshati

"That which destroys Dharma is destroyed by Dharma. Dharma protects that which protects Dharma: Dharma protects if it is protected".

Dharma is the true name of the vedic spiritual tradition.

Hinduism is not the true name. In the Shastras, the Sacred Scriptures, the term "hindu" never appears.
Hinduism is the name given by the invading occupiers of India. By giving it this name, the Dharma taught in the Vedas is devalued to the ethnic and cultural condition of a country and the perspective of the Sanatana of Eternal Wisdom for all humanity is withdrawn.

Dharma is eternal, this is why the Dharma of the Vedas is known as Sanatana. If we think of Dharma as a religion, Dharma is not a religion. If we think of Dharma as law, Dharma is not law. If we think of Dharma as tradition, Dharma is not tradition. Dharma is a concept, it is a knowledge that does not have symmetrical value in any other tradition, religious idea or moral principle.

To explain it, we associate Dharma to many ideas and we translate it into many different forms: Dharma is a multi-skilled term and has many different meanings including: Divine Law, Self Law, the Path of Rectitud, Religion, Ethics, Duty, Responsability, Virtue, Justice, Kindness and Truth. But Dharma is Dharma.

Tadrisho ayam anuprashno yatra dharmaha sudurlabahaDushkamha pralisankhyatum tatkenatra vysvasyathiPrabhavarthaya bhutanam dharmapravachanam kritamYasyat prabhavasamyuktaha sa dharma iti nischayaha. (SHANTHI PARVA. MAHABHARATA 109-9-11)

"It is difficult to define Dharma. Dharma has been explained as that which helps the sustainment of living beings. Therefore, that which assures the wellness of living beings is without doubt Dharma. The instructed Rishis declared that Dharma is that which sustains".

Sa hi nisreyasena pumshamsamyunaktiti pra-tijanîmahetadabhidhiyate chodanalakshno ariho dharmaha. (JAIMINII RISHI -JAIMINI SUTRAS-2)

"Dharma is what is indicated in the Vedas as conducive to the most elevated good".

Dharma is always Dharma and only Dharma.

MANDALA, YANTRA, MANTRAM IS TANTRA by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKANANDA

2011-01-30T09:21:00.000-08:00

yogalaya ashram - Yoga Mandir Hall

MANDALA, YANTRA, MANTRAM IS TANTRA
by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKANANDA
______________________________________

Words of power
Tantra is what before we did, invoke Shiva, the great destructor, and also Hara so he opens the doors.

“Asato ma sadgamaya
tamaso ma jyotirgamaya
mrtyorma amrtam gamaya”

“Asatoma sadgamaya” take us from what is unreal to what is real, “tamaso ma jyotirgamaya” from darkness to light. It is very important to cross from death to immortality…

“Mrityorma amrtam gamaya”, may the great boatman direct our lives, as Krishna directed Arjunas carriage, like Shiva, or like the guru who directs our life. This is why we call Shiva “adi guru, adi natha”, the first one among the noble people and this is tantra.

By using tantra we are able to acquire ridhis and siddhis (spiritual and pshycic powers) to facilitate vibhuti, the development of our mental power and the perfection of our spiritual power so as to acquire the spiritual grace that determines our enlightenment. This is the objective of Tantra. Our body is the mandala, our points construct the yantra, and each impulse of our prana determines the mantram so we have tantra. Mandala, yantra, mantram is tantra.

This is tantra. That which expands like deep wisdom in the mind and in which nothing leaves your centre. The centre of your mind has to be on the Atman.

OM TAT SAT ITI

NARASIMHA DEVA by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKANANDA

2011-01-30T09:16:00.000-08:00

NARASIMHA DEVA
by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKANANDA

______________________________________
Inside

Narasimha Deva is the image shared with buddhists, it has the same iconography. It is a tantric lion, with lotus flowers and snails in its arm, an open mudra in its hand, and in the other a Dharma wheel that can also be converted into a disc that cuts heads. The word shastras (scriptures) can be changed to sastra
(weapon). If you say to someone publically that they are bad, why are you not afraid of them? They should be able to do many bad things just like you. The Dharma wheel is a chakra and the claws destroy the hidden man Hiranya Kashipu.
Jesus said that we should put a wheel around a persons neck who criticises and scandalizes. Those who criticise and scandalize make a crazy man with a weak mind take justice into his own hands. This is the danger of those who scandalize, no one who is actually listening thinks if the person is so bad but that they could go after them. Someone crazy with nothing to lose is capable of killing. People who scandalize do not think about the energy they are moving, or the energies that move around them; spiritual science has united many things.
Narasimha Deva carries and bow, the bow of the science of yoga, of the fidelity of ideals, just like Hanuman's mace represents justice, and justice is won by being honest.

Revolution of the Consciousness / EXPERIENCE

2011-01-30T09:12:00.001-08:00

Revolution of the Consciousness
EXPERIENCE
by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKANANDA
______________________________________

Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita "abandon all dharmas". Unite to mine and all your karmas of past lives and of this life will burn and you will live in happiness. He refers to other dharmas or to those that speak of the scriptures who are not honest, but in reality are hypocrites and live in adharma.

In dialogue II, slokas 42-43 of this text it says:

“yâm imâm puspitâm buddhir
pravadanty avipashcitah
vedavâdaratâh pârtha
nâ ‘ nyad astî ‘ti vâdinah”

Arjuna, those who are full of worldly desires and devoted to the letter of the Vedas, who look upon heaven as the supreme goal and argue that there is nothing beyond heaven are unwise.

“kâmâtmânah svargaparâ
janmakarmaphalapradâm
kriyâvishesabahulâm
bhogaishvaryagatim prati”

They utter flowery speech recommending many rituals of various kinds for the attainment of pleasure and power with rebirth as their fruit.

This means that whoever lacks experience is not a useful person. It´s like when you ask a question and they answer with another question.

Arjuna, Krishnas disciple, seems to say wise things. Krishna warns us about people that lack experience, being therefore in the field of retoric. "Attached to the letters of the Veda" they are those who study the scriptures and speak of meditation and philosophy.

Would we go to a yoga course if we knew the person that was gaving it didn´t control his mind? They achieve objectives, but what kind of objectives?

A doctor educates people so they don´t have pathologies, but when they get them he must cure them. The placebo effect is powerful when you believe, you have confidence or faith.

Even a disciple with faith learns because although he doesn´t have a good master, he has pureness in his heart. What he must do is look for a better master, always being grateful to his previous master and the teachings received.

Cristianity for example can lead someone away from their bad life. Svamiji was accepted by the Christian religion like Moses was accepted by the Pharaoh. It is good that parents teach religion to their children, and that later on they decide what religion they would like to follow.

OM TAT SAT ITI
___________________________________________________________________
ૐ Teachings from the venerable monk Swâmî Shankaratilakânanda,
disciple of the very venerable master Shrî Swâmî Tilak Paramahansa
* Edited by Dipanjali Upasaki.
© Vedic Foundation of the Himalayas. Rishikesh-India
~ email: vedicfoundationhimalayas@yahoo.co.in

TAKE AWAY MEMORY

2011-01-30T09:11:00.000-08:00

by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKANANDA
______________________________________

Memory Samskara

The state of perfection of the mind is one where there is no echo of the exterior in our interior, its a state of progressive perfection; it is taking away sankalpa, taking away the answer that there is no memory, that pain in space and in time does not exist and generates a trauma that blocks us. Our memory paralyzes us and to recall something unpleasant blocks us.

To live ruled by what is pleasant and unpleasant does not function well. The scriptures say that someone who has mastered yoga should maintain it even in the most negative conditions. What is negative is not an option, to live is conflictive, a protocol of conflict, we strive for our existence. Some of us are worried about food, others about being eaten. Some devour us with their jealousy, with their intolerance, their taxes, the crisis, but they also devour our life. Life takes away our own breath and we must surrender it to life.T

OM TAT SAT ITI

THE DOOR TO THE FOURTH STATE

2011-01-30T09:09:00.000-08:00

Open the door to the beyond.
There is a fourth state. This is the cognition of yogis. One must access it through a door and not in the awakened state, because this will take you to dreams which is the second state of consciousness; and there is a door in the second state that takes you to the third state. So the door that takes you to the forth state is in the third state.
So to meditate you must take everything out of your mind as if you were going to go to sleep, and this is why through nidra yoga, through perfect relaxation, is how you find the key to this door and if you don´t, then you will fall asleep meditating. Everything is dark and you have to find it. This is why you cannot fall asleep, but you can´t think that you shouldn´t sleep because if you do you enter into the second state (sleep) where it seems as if you are sleeping and it seems as if you are awake and you begin to dream.
So how do you do this? Just like when you shoot an arrow with a bow, concentrate and do not lose your breath. The arrow will know where to go. If you begin to think in the movement of shooting, "will it get to the target or won´t it get there" "I am off track or I am not off track"....the arrow will fail. This is why they say not to lose the contact of attention with the breath even though you feel like dying, which is like falling asleep, keep flowing.
So what could happen to you? That you feel afraid, because you have already fallen, but there is no need to feel afraid, you must continue. Follow the flow of the breath. This is why I said, just like a river knows where the ocean is, prana knows where pranava is. Continue. Whenever you want to recover the thread of breath, you must never think "oh dear, I´ve lost it", do not generate this vritti; kindly and simply make an adjustment and continue.

OM TAT SAT ITI

2010-09-10T15:52:00.000-07:00

CONVERSATIONS WITH GURUJI

INTERVIEW WITH SWAMI SHANKARATILAKANANDA

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Guruji, Swami Shankaratilakananda Sarasvati

From a very young age was interested in yoga and was initiated in 1974.One and a half years later he met who would later become his great direct master, the Very Venerable Swami Tilak from India. Under his blessings he studied with him and with other masters the depths of Vedic Dharma, Vedic Theology, Advaita Vedanta, Hindu religion, the history of the orient, Yoga, Vyayam and Ayurveda,as well as the sacred scriptures of the Vedas. In 1984, Swami Tilak died and since then he serves his memory through the Vedic FoundationInternational, which looks after his legacy. He has participated innumerous organized activities for Hindu institutions. He is the creator of the "Traditional Vyayam School" and the person responsible for divulging Vyayam in the West. He is the author of the Vyayam book, the first methodological book about Vyayam that has been published not only in Spain but in the entire world, and has been translated into numerous languages.

Vedic Foundation, Vedic School, Vedic Philosophy, what do they follow? How do they support themselves?
The Vedic Foundation is a consecrated institution to theological and philosophical teachings for all those people who wish to learn more seriously about the teachings that are found in the Vedas; Yoga,Tantra, Meditation...and in this way benefit from the wisdom and the spirituality according to their needs independently of their religion or ideology. The Vedic Foundation is also involved in a mission to solidly form knowledge and mysticism in an internal way, to all those who look to embrace dharma considering it as part of their lives and they are instructed in the profound teachings of the sacred Scriptures.

The Vedic School is the name of our Dharma School, responsible for assessing spiritual life according to the light of Vedic Dharma and making learning Vedic theology easier,and from Sanscrit which is the language that the ancient rishis and siddhas expressed, who were the Masters that founded and strengthened dharma. The Vedic School is part of the Vedic Foundation International,and is one section of the vedic sangha of Spain.The Vedic Sangha ofSpain is a Religious Community recognized legally in Spain as a Hindu cult and legally and religiously protects the needs of the secular and monastic devotees of this country. In different countries the different sanghas are differently recognized, in India, the vedic sangha ascribed to the Vedic Foundation International is called the Vedic Foundation of the Himalayas.
The global finality of the Vedic Foundation International is Diffusion through encouragement, implantation and development of Vedic Dharma. The fundamentals or sustenance of the teachings about Dharma come from the teachings recognized in the Vedas and in its orthodox tradition but without losing sight the reformatory needs and adaptation to our modern times.
The East has given the world great religions and illuminative philosophies that humanity can enjoy; but I am not here to say now that the east is currently more spiritual that the west.

Essentially, what are the differences between the west and the east?
The east and west in the 21st century are slowly losing the force of differentiation. Global consumerism is unifying the necessities of the people and therefore alters their ways of life; so problems that we had as human beings in the east are in the west and those problems in the west are creating problems in the east.
If we want to understand east and west as a way of understanding the nature of the Self and the nature of human beings, then we have to go back to philosophy, the spiritual life, when the east and west were very different.
The east is still incredible and there are very modern countries that create sophisticated technology that is consumed in the west, and what was before spiritually exclusive from the east in its spiritual vision of a human being, today flourishes in the west with great force, and with a great sense of necessity which is practically essential so it becomes more popular, and so it is propagated all around the world so there are fewer people in the west that do not know what Yoga or Meditation is, and that ideas like Karma or reincarnation are converted into daily conversation. The teachings that come from the west take different historical ways, one is a Semite way and the other is the Aryan way. The Semite way has given us a great legacy in Judaism, Christianity and Islam and the Aryan way has given us Vedism (Hinduism), Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, and also in a very inspirational way it has given us Taoism and Shintoism.

The east has given the world the greatest religions and illuminative philosophies known to humanity, but I do not agree in saying that the east is currently more spiritual that the west.
Those of us who live in the east, as is my case, I reside in India, see that the two sides of the river of the world that are east and west are united by the bridge of knowledge and by the boat of mutual necessities; s...o we should think more than in just west and east, and more like a unified human being; and this unity is in the desire to know the means to be able to do it. As the Rig Veda says, in the same way we open our hands to gold without asking ourselves where it came from, lets open our arms to knowledge no matter where this wisdom has come from.

Does man have a mission?
The mission of man is to live because life is the reality that man has for simply being a man given that the affirmation of the "Self" means to exist, and we develop existence in life, therefore, knowing how to live is man's mission. Learning to live life is a necessity.
There are many conditions in life. Some come from external nature and also from ones own nature, others come from society, others come from our thoughts, from our culture of being and these conditions can be a help or a hinder, the mission is in necessity. If you cover a necessity then you solve the conflict that comes from negative conditions and give potential to everything that helps us as human beings inside an ecosystem to be able to live in more harmony and resolve the sufferings that come from ones own existence, this is in itself a human beings mission.
And he who lives, he who "is", if he doubts himself, he should share his self with others and help others to also be harmonic and happy, and therefore the mission of a human being is as the scriptures of the Vedas say, to help everyone so they are as happy as possible, and in these "everyone" are all living beings.
As the Rig Veda states, in the same way we open our hands to gold without asking ourselves where it came from, lets open our arms to knowledge no matter where this wisdom has come from.

What is the actual state of Religion in the world today?
Crisis, in all senses of the word. Religion is in itself a confusing option for technical, consumerist and emerging societies.
For societies that wish to maintain their ethnic and cultural identity,religion is the refuge of this identity as well as an ideology. Religion is losing theological weight and becoming dramatically simplified inspiritualistic emotionalism that is confused with devotion.

Are we how we act?
Not always. Being incoherent forms part of our unconscious and inconsequent nature.

Lets speak about Vyayam and the celebrated session that was given at the Fujitsu factory in Japan for numerous workers.
It was a program organized by this Japanese company with the objective of helping their workers in the irrest and physical rehabilitation inside the very sophisticated installations they had available for their use. Optimizing life requires optimizing work.
It was an amazing personal experience and a wonderful opportunity to serve and share the Vyayam discipline.

The essence of what could be extracted from the course "Mystic, East-West Dialogue" of which you were speaker and coordinator?

Man becomes interested in his inner peace when he is conscious of what he loses when he actually loses it or doesn't reach it, and when he also becomes conscious of how he suffers when tense, in continuous activism etc.
May knowledge and learning liberate us from fanatics and prejudice. Knowing about the religion of others and "others" from other religious is a great realization for human mentality.
I am not talking about substituting one medicine for another. I mean only to include it inside the vision of medicine toward Ayurveda and any other expression of medicine that could be in itself serious and reasonable.Remember...what cures....is medicine.

Ayurvedic or traditional Medicine?
The pros and cons of both. Medicine is for curing and what cures is the best option. Healing is perfected in the prevention of future diseases and anticipated prevention is the best medicine before disease arises.
Ayurveda is knowledge of the psychobiological connection and the learning of making ourselves responsible for our own health, as well as a way of compassion to help others to look after themselves as a way of living. Ayurveda is part of the tradition of Vedic Dharma and is a gift for humanity.
We call Modern medicine tradition al because Ayurveda is considered new and we think this because we have only come to know about it recently, but Ayurveda is really"traditional medicine" given that it is older than "Modern" or western medicine.
All over the world western medicine is practiced and is what is considered scientific and modern.
Western medicine is effective but it does not have a vision of learning but of symptomatic healing.
I am not speaking about substituting one type of medicine for another, but that it is included inside the vision of Ayurvedic medicine and any expression of medicine that is in itself serious and reasonable. Remember...what cures...is medicine.
Is it true that aggressive physical exercise, self-defense practices etc. are more popular than yoga?
Yoga is a process of enlightenment where healthy instruction with physical exercise fullfils a mission which is to help human beings to follow a path of enlightenment in their lives and this life is lived through the body and therefore the body should be looked after and Yoga looks after the body, but because human beings also have minds, yoga also looks after the mind.
It is a mistake to think of yoga as a body discipline, this is like thinking that the hand only has one side.
A way of life with better benefits for human beings, that is assumable from a western point of view?
A western way of seeing is a cultural or consumerist way of seeing? Or is it technological? If we stroll through the West we see poverty and misery. The best way of living is a way that allows learning, emotional freedom and which teaches balance and health. I recommend that we learn from Yoga a way to live with wisdom, harmony and prevention.

Guruji
Thank you Swami Shankaratilakananda, it has been a true pleasure to speak with you.

2010-09-10T15:14:00.001-07:00

Yato-bhyudayanihsreyasa-siddhih sa dharmah

"That which leads to the attainment of Abhyudaya, prosperity in this world, and Nihsreyasa, total cessation of pain and attainment of eternal bliss hereafter, is Dharma.

Vaiseshika Sutras -Kanada Rishi

2010-09-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

Prithivim Dharmana Dhritam

Dharanad dharmamityâhuh

"This world is upheld by Dharma. Dharma is called so because it bears and holds up the entire creation"

Atharva Veda

Dharma eva hato hanti. Dharmo rakshati rakshitah. Rakshitam Dharma Rakshati

"That which destroys Dharma is destroyed by Dharma. That which protects Dharma, Dharma will protect: Dharma protects if it is protected."

2010-09-10T14:29:00.000-07:00

कृष्ण जन्माष्टमी
THE CELEBRATION OF SHRI KRISHNA JANMASHTAMI
STUDY OF THE SACRED BIRTH OF THE 8TH SEAL OF DHARMA
by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKÂNANDA SARASVATÎ
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* Teaching dictated at the Satsangha celebrated in the Shri Bajaranga Bhaktabali Mandiram Temple in Granada (Spain)

SHRI KRISHNA
Shri Krishnârpanamostute

A MYSTIC BIRTH UNDER THE AUSPICIOUS ROHINI NAKSHATRA
Shri Krishna appeared in the world in the year 3.227 B.C (on the eighth day of the second fortnight of the month of Sravana of the Visvavasu year) between the intermediary point of the beginning of one day into the next. His birth was extremely auspicious and marked with great predictions from the respected signs that the Jyotisha Vedic Astrology revealed, like the predominance of the star Rohini nakshatra.

The brightness that emanates from Rohini is regulated by the moon and created from the power of the Shakti Prajapati, the energy of all past times given that nakshatra is a karma condenser for these times. Prajapati is the manifesting power of existence. The star Rohini has as its symbol the Sacred cow, Survani. This symbol of the celestial cow accompanies the beautiful iconographic representations of Shri Krishna.

Shri Krishna had great features and signs of those born under the predictions of Rohini Nakshatra: he was physically good looking, of delicate facial skin, fine and white, he was tall, thin and Apollonian, broad wide and muscled shoulders, with large beautiful seductive and magnetic eyes. His character was obstinate, firm, he did not change his opinion and he showed himself to be indifferent to contrary opinions, as he did not let himself be influenced by anyone. He was critical with quick psychology to find the defects and errors in others for which his advice from master to masters of Yoga was profound and direct. He was an idealist, with a heart harmonized with reason. He was always ready to sacrifice everything for his family, friends. He valued with preference action to words of false negotiations. He was both loathed and loved. Truthfulness was his banner and lies his enemy. He had a plan that he followed with firmness without ever deviating. There was never a “tomorrow” because for him only the present existed. His mind was absolutely free.

He managed his life with precision. He was the king to a beautiful and mystic kingdom called Dvarka, which today is the state of Gujerat. Dvarka means “The door of Freedom” in Sanscrit. The palace where he lived was made of gold, emeralds and other precious stones. Dvarka was constructed with a base of diamonds and cut glass. They say that Vishvakarman, the Lord of Destinies and Unknown Dimensions designed his beautiful kingdom-city. Shri Krishna lived in Dwarka close to 100 years and when he disappeared from this world, his magnificent city disappeared submerging itself in the waters of the Arabian Sea. He was the great leader of his subjects who acclaimed and followed him with absolute royalty, given that he was an attentive governor to the needs of his subjects.

His family life was especially unrepeatable. He was loved and he loved beyond all conventionalisms. His mother adored him and her example of love was converted into a guide of devotional love for the Vedic tradition from the Eigth Dharma onward. His sense of freedom was also reflected in his sentimental life.

THE MEANING OF HIS SACRED NAME AND OTHER SIGNS
Krishna is a name full of mystic and philosophical content. Krishna means “black”, a symbol of Eternal Plenitude. Etymologically Krish + Na means “what is taken to the earth, to happiness”. Krishna is the “Most Attractive”, he who seduces every one to keep them away from Adharma.

Shri Krishna had on his body the divine marks of the conch, the discus of Dharma, lotuses and the svastika.

About the birth of Shri Krishna, the sacred legends tell that his natural conception was shrouded in wonder. Devaki gave birth to him wrapped in a magical brightness that enveloped her and the prison where she was with an incredible atmosphere of peace, happiness and vitality. The forests became greener, gardens bloomed and rivers became clearer. Animals ran around and savage peacocks danced with their feathers in open fans.

Shri Krishna is called the divine flautist that plays the flute of the 7 chakras on the Yoga body of the yogis granting them Moksha of Liberation.

His apparition in the world was an advent. An advent is an apparition that has been waited for and expected by the ancient patriarchs and wise yogis.

MAHA AVATARAM. THE GREAT DESCENT
Krishna was a Maha Avatara, a Great Divine Complement. An Avatar penetrates energy in the world to reincarnate taking on a body that not always has to have a human appearance or conceivable to the mind and perceptible to the senses. His material body is a vehicle for the divine manifestation (reincarnation). The advent of the Avatar is the complement through the material energy taking on a body of a special nature that allows the expression of the Maha Maya Shakti, the immense power that interacts in all material plains.

Avatâra means, "Descended", meaning that descending makes the Power of the Divine accessible by taking on a human body. The orthodox vedic tradition of the Smarta Sampradaya accepts in this tradition the 10 Dharma Yoga Avatars that re-established lost Dharma, meaning the Cosmic Forces in the Universe in human society. Krishna concluded the Dvapara Yuga, the third quarter of the cycle of existence and opened Kali Yuga, the fourth quarter of Maha Yuga, according to vedic cosmic conception.

KRISHNA, SURABHI & FAMILY THE STORY OF HIS MISSION

The ancestral books of the Puranas tell that Shri Krishna lived 125 years, leaving his body in the year 3.102 B.C during the new moon of the month of Phalguna and when the darkness disappeared in the world of man and the era of Kali opened swallowing the vedic tradition, the civilization of the noble Aryans. In Kali Yuga, mans memory is weak, life short and the confusion of Dharma creates a disjointed society, the loss of historical memory, the loss of spiritual references and the beginning of Meccha Dharma, barbarianism.

In the transit of the Yugas, the world is populated with Demons that devastate it, possessing the minds of human beings, being converted into those who rule, contaminating the nature and unbalancing the elements and generating great natural catastrophes. These demonic Asuras lead men to war.

Shri Krishna cleaned the world of titanic demons and was decisive in his labour in the great war of Kuruksetra in the Mahabharata. This terrible battle destroyed the Aryan civilization and caused the fragmentation and loss of human unity. The Maha Avatar revitalized Dharma and influenced the vedic path for the coming times emphasizing the value of prayer and sacred actions.

The great teaching of Shri Krishna and his great power is concentrated in the Bhagavad Gita. The Gita, the All-powerful Song, contains the instructions given to his disciple Arjuna in the middle of the battlefield of Kurukshetra, where Yoga, Vedanta and the essence of the Vedas were synthesized. The Gita is actually the path which Vedic Dharma flows through.

The Sadhana of the Advent has as its objective to give happiness to the Sadhaka, eliminate the sadness caused by pain in life, give potential to the capacity to do Karma Yoga, the integral Yoga of Karma, Bhakti and Gñyana Yoga united in Raja Yoga: correct action, Supreme Devotion, and Perfect Wisdom in the Sovereignty of the Mind.

THE SADHANA PROCESS

The process of perfect devotion is Tantra in the Temple and consists of:
* A particular level can be observed inspired in the totality of the process or realizing just the parts that are appropriate.

- Complete or partial religious fast eating fruit. The fast can be done over one or two days.
- Chanting mantras in honour of Shri Krishna. The Maha Mantra is ideal for Sankirtan:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

- Sacred dance in the rhythm of the sattvic melodies of the ragas or spiritual songs.
- Recite the Bhagavad Gita in its totality or choosing one or several dialogues.
- Recitation of Poems of honour to the glories of Krishna

A POEMA BY MIRA BAI

Human Existence

This human existencedoes not return time and time again
Who knows what gave its fruit,
To receive this beautiful human bodyIt grows little by little
And it stops with each new breath.
Once it has gone,It does not return.
The mundane tide is hardAnd its waves are merciless
It arrives to the other shoreIn the boat of Knowledge.
In the game of the world, even victory is a failure.
All the saints have said thatlife is a gift of short duration.
Only God belongs to usIn all this world
Only God belongs to us, no one else.
I have looked everywhereAnd no one else is truly ours.
I have lost my attachments,My family and friends.
I have left behind name and fame,
I enjoy the company of saints.
When I see a sincere searcher,
I feel elevated.
This world only pulls me down.
The king sent me a cupWith poison, I drank it and danced.
Why should I worry?
If what has to happen, will happen?
Without God, there is only sadness
Without God, everything the heart feelsIs angst and sadness.
This world is a pillar of garbageIt doesn’t have a taste for truth.
It criticises the search for God,
Meanwhile it is wrapped in stupidity.
Without a Master,
You never experience clarity.
One remains trappedIn the ups and downs.
Unite to the saintly campaign
Do not waste life.When Mira found her Master,
She found joy.
Oh King! I do not enjoy your company.
In your palace there are no saints,
All your people are empty.
I do not have any use for jewels,
Or fashion, I live with simplicity.
I do not want makeup, or eyeliner,
There are no longer any more ties between us.
I am in love with the Lord of life,
I have found my love

- Self Sacramental Interpretation of theatrical pieces about the life of Shri Krishna.
- Elaboration of vegetarian sweets to share in satsangha and with family.
- Recitation of the Mantra as an invocation of the Sacred Mystic Power.

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VASUDEVAYA

- Puja light offering, incense, water and flowers in adoration of Krishna.
Sacred bath of the mandala images of Krisha.
- Embellishment of the Temple and the sacred images and decoration and complete cleaning of the family house, ashram, temple.
- Meditation in Krishna, his name, form and attributes.

PRAYER AND PETITION

* Praying to Shri Krishna from the compassionate heart:

Nâthayaiva namah padam bhavathu nas chitraih charitra kramaih
Bhûyobhih bhuvanani amûni kuhanâ gopâya gopâyate
Kâliindhî rasikâya kâLiya pani spâra spatâ vâtikâ
Ranga utsanga visanka chankrama dhurâ paryâya charyâh yathe (Swami Deshika)

"May our obedience be only for the Supreme Krishna. May he protect the world with his incredible hand. May we enjoy in his association as he does with his connection to the Yamuna River. He danced on the serpent of absolute death, and in doing so he teaches us to overcome the fear of death. We will always remember Shri Krishna and his lovely spiritual games. We yearn for Krishna and by being so brilliant and special he made himself pass as a humble shepherd"

Shaantâkâram bhujagashayanam
padmanâbham suresham
vishvaadhâram gaganasadrisham
meghavarnam shubhângam
lakshmîkaantam kamalanayanam
yogihriddhyânagamyam
vande vishnum bhavabhayaharam
sarvalokaikanâtham.

"I prostrate before Vishnu, the Lord of the worlds and the dissipater of all the causes of fear. Vishnu possesses a nature that gives joy to all. Lying down on a serpent bed, He rests in the all-powerful infinity. From his navel comes a lotus which is the centre of power that sustains life. He is the Lord of all angelical beings that look after all beings. He sustains the cosmos as if his arms were the confines of the Universes. All his being is exquisite and his complexion is blue like the sky and the clouds of rain. His consort of spiritual power is Laksmi, Prosperity. Her eyes rival with the lotuses that always bring out the positive and elevated. Yogis meditate in Him, in his most intimate heart."

SHRI KRISHNA ARPANAMOSTUTE
EVERYTHING IS OFFERED TO KRISHNA

OM HARIH OM ITI

2010-09-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

THE DHARMA OF VEDICS

by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKANANDA

Dharma eva hato hanti. Dharmo rakshati rakshitah: Rakshitam Dharma Rakshati
"That which destroys Dharma is destroyed by Dharma. Dharma protects that which protects Dharma: Dharma protects if it is protected".

Dharma is the true name of the vedic spiritual tradition.Hinduism is not the true name. In the Shastras, the Sacred Scriptures, the term "hindu" never appears.Hinduism is the name given by the invading occupiers of India. By giving it this name, the Dharma taught in the Vedas is devalued to the ethnic and cultural condition of a country and the perspective of the Sanatana of Eternal Wisdom for all humanity is withdrawn.Dharma is eternal, this is why the Dharma of the Vedas is known as Sanatana. If we think of Dharma as a religion, Dharma is not a religion. If we think of Dharma as law, Dharma is not law. If we think of Dharma as tradition, Dharma is not tradition. Dharma is a concept, it is a knowledge that does not have symmetrical value in any other tradition, religious idea or moral principle.To explain it, we associate Dharma to many ideas and we translate it into many different forms: Dharma is a multi-skilled term and has many different meanings including: Divine Law, Self Law, the Path of Rectitud, Religion, Ethics, Duty, Responsability, Virtue, Justice, Kindness and Truth. But Dharma is Dharma.

Tadrisho ayam anuprashno yatra dharmaha sudurlabahaDushkamha pralisankhyatum tatkenatra vysvasyathiPrabhavarthaya bhutanam dharmapravachanam kritamYasyat prabhavasamyuktaha sa dharma iti nischayaha. (SHANTHI PARVA. MAHABHARATA 109-9-11)

"It is difficult to define Dharma. Dharma has been explained as that which helps the sustainment of living beings. Therefore, that which assures the wellness of living beings is without doubt Dharma. The instructed Rishis declared that Dharma is that which sustains".

Sa hi nisreyasena pumshamsamyunaktiti pra-tijanîmahetadabhidhiyate chodanalakshno ariho dharmaha. (JAIMINII RISHI -JAIMINI SUTRAS-2)

"Dharma is what is indicated in the Vedas as conducive to the most elevated good".

Dharma is always Dharma and only Dharma.

Continued in P2

2010-08-15T17:35:00.000-07:00

"Tanyate vistarayate jnanamanena iti Tantram"
ABOUT TANTRA VIDYA
by SWAMI SHANKARATILAKANANDA

What is Tantra?
Tantra is a mahavidya, which means, a great mystic way of enlightenment deeply rooted in vedic dharma.

All perspectives about what is sacred, about communication with human beings and the divinity in all its dimensions and plains is managed by tantra in the Vedas. The link with divinity and its potential benefactors is established through mantra; mystic formulations, yantra; sacred forms, mandala; mystic concepts, chara; mystic qualitative regulations, puja; mystic offerings and upasana; meditative mystic introspection. All these are the tools, among others, that Tantra teaches.

The Tantric scriptures define tantra as: that which helps to reach internal wisdom, hidden and residing in the mind by opening and expanding it and preparing it for enlightenment; Tanyate vistarayate jnanamanena iti Tantram.

This Tantra is interwoven and linked with dharma which from the very beginning has been lost in the historic memory of time. Tantra and Veda have been and are the very same dharma. So they have left the legacy of siddhas in the way of teachings collected in the shastras (scriptures) in the Agamas and Nigamas which are the shastras or scriptures where the Tantra mahavidya is learnt; for example the kularnava tantra; given that the dharma of Veda has historically been a very well fertilized mother.

Other brilliant spiritual traditions have arisen from this thousand year old spiritual tradition of humanity like Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. So we find the Tantra mahavidya also omnipresent in different enlightenment schools of buddhism and sikhism. In the tumultuous wave of the ocean and currents of the new age, Tantra is associated with erotic exhibitionism and sensitive sexuality deemed as sacred. This is far from what tantra and sacred sexuality really is and hides and covers the true path of Tantra. But with a purifying bath in the pure and crystal clear waters of the Tantra Mahavidya, this confusion disappears.

What does the practice consist of?

There is a series of tools that help to open the mind to achieve enlightenment of the consciousness. All of these practices are collected in different Upayas that induce deep meditation and an awareness of the physical, psycho and energetic divinity connection.

All these tools or Upayas are grouped inside different yogas, which are, enlightened access points that build the body of knowledge of Tantra. One of the most important is Guru Yoga, which facilitates the connection with the Guru’s nature, giving the qualification to be a sadhaka or follower, then afterwards a sishya or disciple; and then ending in the flowering of a new Guru: the disciple.

Guru Yoga allows the Master’s apprentice to receive a “shakti path”, the grace that comes from the tradition of the perfect yogis through the yoga that is learnt directly in sadhana or spiritual living in the company of a live Guru.

Meditation or Dhyana yoga is also the foundation for Tantra mahavidya given that it resides in the heart as the true “I” and only with the immersion of the mind through the offering of prana or the internal vital breath, this truth that the Tantras declare can be revealed; through Adhyatma yoga it positions the sadhaka or aspirant in Dharma allowing their life to be sustained by the virtues of dharma, freeing them from the samsara of error and ignorance, removing suffering and allowing them to drink the nectar of stable happiness.

"This supreme path is Kaula, the most secret and pre-eminent path. There is nothing greater than Kaula, which is the essence of all the essences; it is Shiva, the Sacred Doctrine that has come to us through the ages by listening. Shiva himself, who knows the essence of everything, has extracted it from the ocean of the Vedas and Agamas after having beaten the ocean of knowledge. All other paths are directed toward the Path of Shakti. In this way, the print marks of all animals are lost in the prints marks of an elephant, and all the philosophies are absorbed in this doctrine". Kularnava Tantra (II Ullasa: 9, 10, 11, 12).

Does Tantra lie within the Vedic Tradition?
Yes. It is woven through, just like its name implies. Tantra among other things, means cloth, in which the sacred cloth covers the blessed bodies of the yogis and helps them to walk on the complex path in a life of dharma.

Tantra is the path, Yoga is the vehicle and Vedanta is the knowledge of the path, how to be on the path with the vehicle, and the objective at the same time.

In this way throughout Vedic Dharma history and its different religious developments, there has been a continuous importation and exportation of experiences and knowledge by the siddhas or perfect yogis, so the spiritual experience of other countries and cultures that entered in contact with the dharma of the Vedas has been leaving its mark, its presence in the different enlightenment methods that are present within Tantra.

The difference between Paramavidya and Vedanta, closed knowledge, is the description of Brahman, the Absolute Supreme, and given that Brahman is eternal and its knowledge and truth does not change because it is eternal, the enlightenment resources become enriched with the different life experiences of the sadhakas and siddhas, or the apprentices and Masters. In this way, Tantra moves and Tantric yoga is adapted to this movement.

The Atharva Veda and the Sama Veda collect the Gñyana kanda or the fundamentals of Tantric wisdom, just like the Krishna Yajurveda. This is what corresponds to Shruti or the revelation given by the Rishis or the ancestral patriarchs of Vedic dharma, which are later complemented by the Acharyas or Masters and other Rishis in their legacy called Agamas, Nigamas and Puranas.

"Only Gñyanis are those who possess wisdom on the path of Gñyana Yoga, and who know and understand the philosophy of Kula, not the ignorant ones; just like the mystic swan knows the technique of drinking the milk which has been mixed with water, however the ignorant crane does not know this. This world is made up of Shiva and Shakti, Consciousness and Power. To be established in a world like this, the path of Kula is the highest of them all. It has its base in the truth of both Shiva and Shakti, therefore it is the truest and the most complete. "The Six Darshans-says the Lord-are my six members. Those who differentiate between them are dividing my body. For the same reason, the Darshans (derived from the Veda) constitute the six members of the Kula. This is why we learn that the Kula Sastra is nothing other than the Veda Sastra". The Divine who concedes its fruits in the diverse philosophies is one; and this same Divine is what gives happiness and liberation in this Kula path. You do not need to try Kula to establish its excellence. The immediate fruits that are granted are sufficient justification for their affirmation of being the highest Sastra. It is open to all to verify its affirmation. Who knows what is beyond all this and what is going to happen to each person. What gives immediate fruits, the direct realization here, is the highest Teaching" Kularnava Tantra (II Ullasa: 82, 83, 84, 85, 86)

Is there a relationship between Tantra and sexuality?
The same relationship there is between life, knowledge, action and the human being.
The enlightened way relies on the nature of human beings. By fixing the question, if sexuality and Tantra are related, we focus Tantra on sex, but we could lose the perspective that
man eats, sleeps, loves, works, and meditates etc.

"Everything that man does in his life is of interest in Tantra, but not in an emphatic way or individualized way as this would create unbalance and loss of harmony."

Sexuality as part of human life and sacred sexuality as a tool of knowledge and enlightenment are present in the Tantra Mahavidya as something that can be employed and abandoned.

What can Tantra sadhana do for us?
In the Shiva Sutra we learn that this plane of consciousness is ananda, which means, bliss; however our mind is duhkha, pain and suffering. If Tantra is tanyate vistriyate, gñyana manena, what expands and liberates the mind, it is because Tantra can and should primarily give us gñyana (wisdom) how to understand this dhukhaananda, that reveals the second Shiva Sutra, that destroys mithya, the connection with pain.

What is the recommendable way of doing Tantra sadhana?
Books are sometimes legacies of knowledge and other times a funeral niche of wisdom. In the tradition of dharma, the Scriptures compile oral knowledge imparted directly by the Masters to their disciples. The end of this legacy sees it being converted into an emergency manual so that this genuine learning procedure keeps repeating from one man to another man.

The way of learning Tantra Mahavidya is through direct learning from those who know and have learnt it and lived it in the same way; this is what we mentioned before, the Guru Yoga, whose central teaching can be found in the Guru Gita.

Does meditation play an important role in its practice?
Meditation is the temple of Tantra. Mandiram as well as Temple means the refuge where the mind is purified from the contamination of continuous samsara and it strengthens itself through the knowledge that the wisdom of living in Dharma contributes; and in this way the School where the students take refuge at the feet of the Master, is a true temple, just like in the interior of a compassionate heart, a yogi finds refuge in happiness that does not depend on the connection with anything or anyone. In Sanskrit the particle "dhi" means the perfected mind, liberated from error and this particle "dhi" is converted in the root of the word dhyaya which is the contemplation of the discourse that the siddha or perfect yogi transmits in his teachings to the sadhaka; and at the same time "dhi" is the root of the word dhyanam which means the constant and uninterrupted flow of the liberated mind of the senses and that allows us to submerge in the consciousness of the inner dweller. So contemplative meditation in the teachings of the siddhas, through the Guru and deep and silent meditation through focused breathing in the internal nucleus, is called meditation. Without meditation there is no Yoga. Without Yoga there is no Tantra, no liberation or Moksha.

¿How is the energy of our body understood from a tantric point of view?
The Tantra vidya, the knowledge which comes out of the Tantra, describes a cosmic anatomy structured in the body of the living entity simetric to the cosmic body. This simetry is called pinda-brahmaanda: that which is in the whole is in the part. This alingment is carried out through the shakti, the primary power from which all the forms of energy arise, from which come all the forms of living entities which express in all the forms of visible or non-visible creatures. This primary power or shakti is nuclearly present through prana, or the inner breathing of life, either any form in which this “breathing” is developed.

Thus an atomn breaths, a stone breaths, a wiseman breaths.
The shakti is present in the physical body from the same biological substance that builds it, in the atomic structure that constitutes it, in the thought, codified that makes that each cell organizes having the knowledge of what it has to do in the body, as in conscious thought of the mind that linking to the body entitle to know the world and being known by the world. Thus shakti is linked with the body through prana or the vital breathing. This is the reason why yogis take their prana to obtain strength for their bodies and spiritual perfection for their mind. Without breathing control there is no meditation.

“In order to know what Tantra is, first it is necessary to know what it is not, and thus, free from wrong ideas, we can learn what Tantra is. Tantra is a refuge. An offering and an ecstasy”.

Is there a connection between creativity and the expression of our Self and the Tantra?
Shakti is known as the creative capacity because all emerges from it, all that is dense and subtle, that is, prakriti and purusha, matter and spirit; and that creative force is focused in breathing, it moves the lung that sustains prakriti, the matter and which mobilizes that sustains Purusha, the spirit. From the lung the sexual power is originated, and from the mind which is thought the power of building our technological and phylosophical world. Thus with sexual energy we build bodies, and with mental energy, the physical world in which these bodies have to live, and the mental world in which our “I-s” will have to live.

"Mantras have their femenine and masculine nature: The mantras of the Devatas are masculine and those of the Vdyas are femenine. The mantras which end with Hum or Phat are masculine and in these Mantras the Prana is mobilized throught the right nostril, Pingala. The Mantras wich end with Svaha come from the femenine deities and the Prana mobilizes through the left nostril, Ida. The Mantras that conclude with Namah are considered neutral and the Prana will mobilize through both nostrils”. Kularna Tantra (XVI Ullasa: 41)

¿Has the use and practise of Tantra in the West lost much of its true essence?
To a great extent yes, because all which is obsesive is unhealthy. It is as overload a boat at one side, if it does not sink, it leaks. It is not westerners´blame initially. The greed of the masters is to be blamed, who knowing of the necessity of the pathological demand of westeners regarding sexuality, and the supersticious magic has led to the demystification of Tantra and therefore to its deactivation as illuminative path, so call Tantra to that which presents so popularized and wrong is like calling auto, car to a chassis without wheel nor motor. But this is the evil of our times, which opposite to the truth of release appears the evil of popularization, deformation, destruction of contents and the definite annulment of the truth.

In order to know what Tantra is, frist it is necessary to know what it is not, and thus free from wrong ideas, we can learn what Tantra is. Tantra is refuge. A offering and a ecstasy. Tantra es devotion, es prayer, es purity, opening of the heart and surrender to Divinity.

Om Tat Sat

2010-02-27T18:48:00.001-08:00

“Learning to live”

Importance and necessity of drinking water

The benefit that produces the intake of hot water is based in the fact that improves the functions of the agni, the digestive fire. This agni is stimulated and strengnthens with hot water and weakens with with cold water. The weakness of the agni is the source and origin of many illnesses, because if food is not properly treated in the stomach, waste materials which are not well digested are produced and they accumulate in the walls of the intestine, and they are waste materials that do not disponed with feces, this is the so-called ama.

OM TAT SAT

2009-12-12T11:54:00.000-08:00

KNOW HOW TO BE

2009-12-12T11:47:00.000-08:00

What is convenient

The duality, the dicotomy, two colours, two ways of seeing the same thing by the same person, to be divided, are all factors of emotion. Emotion moves through two spaces, in a continuous swinging between attraction and rejection. In the functioning of the mind, there is one thing which is the wish, but what we wish is not always convenient, and what is convenient is not always what you wish most.

OM TAT SAT

2009-12-12T10:59:00.000-08:00

THE RELATION BETWEEN THE EXPANSION OF THE TAN
AND THE EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT / PART 2

This core is called tan. This is a sankrit word that hascontributed to form other words in different languages, such as the Chinese.Thus, we have a tan as the element which groups all the energy of the humanbeing.

The emotion is understood both in western and vedicpsichology. Vedic psychology means prism, that is, the science by which wefocus on a potential and this multiplies generating a wide spectrum of knowledge.In some way, Greeks wanted to explain us that psychology is the study of thesoul, and after all, the soul is in the Vedic science the true Self of allbeings. Therefore, emotion is the energy by which the soul expresses its naturein the mind. This means that emotion constitutes a structural part of the mind.An therefore, emotion is a powerful energy, which can either benefit or damage.Therefore, the core of the human being is energetically and physically in someplace where all bodies, physical, energetic and spiritual, in this case alsounderstood as the spiritual body, must work in a logical way. This means mymind lives in the body, they are not separated. Thre is a common union betweenbody and mind. That which I eat becomes chemical and a nervous impulse. This makes possible that the mindgenerates energy by means of which, through the senses, it sets a communicationwith the world and it represents it in the body. If the mind doesn´t do this,it won´t be able to know the world because there is no energy nor capacity tounderstand. Therefore when people have lack of food, or they are influenced bythe ecobiological atmosphere, for example in spring, a natural depression mayoccur.

Glands are overestimulated and in that moment people get depressed. Butthis depression has no moral nor ideological character. It does not have to dowith the perception the person has on life, but it is a question of lack ofvitamine B. On the other hand, this way of thinking consumes a electro-chemicalenergy. For this reason, when having excesive pychological activity, that is,emotional efforts, problems, we require vitamines, herbs and glucose, andtherefore our mind can keep on doing its psychic work as study or can face theproblem regardless the person´s will-power. All we live and we can perceive andits understanding has an electrochemical translation and our body is thevehicle, as the tantra Scriptures called it. At the same time, all the thingsthe body acquires and its contact with nature, wind, sun, cold, water etc.,with the five elements of nature, creates an electrochemical filed that helpsmind do its pragnya, its understanding of what happens in life. Theelectrochemical co-ordination which involves the Central Nervous System,lymphatic system, the chakras, our glands, nadis etc is carried out by the tan.As well as one metabolizes what is going to live chemically in the digestivesystem, which has to do not only with the ability to assimilate food in thecolon, the intestine, the esophagus and the stomach but with the ability tobolt down through the esophagus, the mouth, the tongue, the teeth etc, as wellas the capacity of evacuationthrough the rectum, the sphincters... and the capacity of assimilation throughthe spleen, kidneys, liver... And all this has a transcription in the subtlebody composed by chakras.

OM TAT SAT

KNOW HOW TO BE

2009-12-12T10:52:00.000-08:00

Shri Pujya Swami Tilak Paramahamsa

Guru of Shri Swami Shankara Tilakananda

Correct action

Do not look for actions that lead to your own personal good, but according to the corresponding action in Dharma: the correct action.

OM TAT SAT

2009-11-08T19:37:00.001-08:00

THE RELATION BETWEEN THE EXPANSION OF THE TAN AND THE EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT / PART 1

This terminology comes from sanskrit, which is present in the vedic culture, base don oral tradition. The Word Veda means knowledge. This culture comes from the ancient Rishis. The Rishis were the ancient yogis, arcans who taught their disciples, in a direct way in little groups called sacas and which are the origin of what we nowadays call sangha. These Rishis know very well their disciples, since it was very difficult to be accepted as a disciple, they have to pass 12 years knowing each other, Master and disciple. After that time, the iniciation took place, beginning thus the learning process. These Rishis taught in sanskrit, which means perfect. Sanskritan was understood as a sacred language and therefore a language by means of which Gods spoke with men. Taking into consideration the magical powers of this language, the Rishis taught us the different mantras that appear on the Vedas.Therefore, the word tan is present, for example, as a prefix in the word tantram. The word tan means something that becomes the core of the balance of something, if we refer to people, the core of the balance of the human being. Therefore it is important to understand what the human being is, the Rishis explained that it was more than a body. In fact, it was constituted by three bodies, containing five sheaths. In these three bodies the psychophysical and psycoenergetic reality of the human being is established. For example, the body and the chakras. The subtle body is translated as cosmic body. This connection between the three bodies has a core, the same as the wheel with different spokes connected by the axle, otherwise they will be pieces separated without a common benefit. This core is a convergent and divergent point, that is, this takes the individual strength from each spoke and after having fed off this strength, it distributes it among each sopke, which takes advantage of having invested in a common action, for example, giving the ability of movement to transport a cart, as a result of this hatha. This strength has the shakti, the power. This core is called tan.

( continues)

KNOW HOW TO BE

2009-09-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

Factors of emotion

The duality, the dicotomy, two colours, two ways of seeing the same thing by the same person, to be divided, are all factors of emotion. Emotion moves throgh two spaces, in a continuous swinging between attraction and rejection. In the functioning of the mind, there is one thing which is the wish, but what we wish is not always convenient, and what is convenient is not always what you wish most.

OM TAT SAT

SHRI GURU PADUKA STOTRAM - Adi Shankaracharya

2009-09-04T20:14:00.001-07:00

Video 2 / Lesson 1.2: Prominent Vedic Symbols: OM / * THE PARAVAR

2009-09-04T20:08:00.001-07:00

PROMINENT VEDIC SYMBOLS: OM LESSON - 1.1

2009-09-04T20:05:00.001-07:00

JUMPING THE RULES

2009-09-04T20:03:00.001-07:00

GURU PADMAPADA UPAYA MEDITATION by SWAMI SHANKARA TILAKANANDA

2009-09-04T19:54:00.001-07:00

KNOW HOW TO BE

2009-09-01T20:23:00.000-07:00

WHO IS ALIVE?

Who is alive? He who breathes. Who is dead? He who does not breathe. In this way everything breathes if it is present in this existence. Maybe we are unable to see how a mosquito breathes, but it is alive, it breathes. A tree, a fish even a rock breathes and has its place in space, because they share their existence with us. Each being has their own way of breathing, so we can not think of breathing according to how we understand it; in fact, fish breathe water, and we breathe air. They have a different process but each one takes from the fountain of life, and this prana is what makes everything fit together and become unified because it´s the way to live life. This prana makes us coordinate our breathing if we establish ourselves in a harmonic way through what we call yoga.

OM TAT SAT

SWAMI DAYANANDA VISIT TO GRANADA SPAIN

2009-08-29T03:32:00.000-07:00

GLOBAL VISION OF TANTRA

2009-08-27T12:24:00.000-07:00

PART 2 / GLOBAL VISION OF TANTRA

Tantra is a path for all men and women of this time. It is for those people who live little, badly and have no time for themselves. It is for those dispossessed of their identity and exploited by the macro identity of the state. For those who need to find a sense of value in things and in the existential investment that one dedicates to the pledges he makes in life. It is for those weakened by the consumerist system that drowns out religious beliefs such as political-social ideologies.

For those men with a special need to be reflective and therefore a mystical system capable of distancing them from spiritual fraud, from the corruptness of religious membership, and above all something that works, here and now, benefiting on earth and victorious in heaven.

The human body is a sacred temple, full of the spirit of love. The body is our field, where we plant the seeds of our creative thoughts. Our body is the expression of all the energies of the universe, with the sun and the moon and all the planets. Our body is the micro cosmos, a reflection of the macro cosmos.

GLOBAL VISION OF TANTRA

2009-08-27T12:20:00.000-07:00

GLOBAL VISION OF TANTRA / PART 1

Tantra is a path of Perfection, where happiness and the inherent pleasures in human nature are joined together resulting in a mystical and profound path.

Spirituality results from the sensitizing of the body and mind. From this sensibility, Tantric Culture consists in enlightening the most daily yet highly important values that life involves.
Tantra goes on to become a Great Gnosis; a knowledge of theory and practise that is converted into a path for life for those who meditate upon their needs and interests, in all areas and dimensions.

Tantra bases the development of its work in the reintegration of the consciousness toward higher values. The creation of an external world projected from a replicated internal world is the foundation of the wisdom of Tantra. Ability and harmony are the pillars in the search for the spiritual treasure that Tantra grants, enlightens and guides. This is supported in the following sentence from the Sanskrit scriptures:

Tanyate vistriyate gñyanamanena iti Tantram

“That which obtains, expands and perfects knowledge and power is Tantra”. (Tantra-Shastra)

OM TAT SAT

GURU PURNIMA PRAYERS 1

2009-07-25T18:40:00.000-07:00

KNOW HOW TO BE

2009-07-12T17:51:00.000-07:00

The Guru and the path towards freedom

Guru- Sanskrit term (language from the Indo-European family) which means: he who dispels ignorance.

No easterner will do anything without the blessing of their Guru, nor are they happy if they don’t have a master.

Westerners however, want to demonstrate to the world that they are self sufficient, strong, and makers of their own destiny, and in this way society will value them as they become more “free”. But are we free? No! We are slaves of our ideas and worst of all, when we don’t have any ideas, we are prisoners of the ideas of others. Conditioned by the opinions of others, information found in books, by what people tell us, by what we believe….in other words we are prisoners of our ignorance. And in this way we exercise our freedom…from our limits.

We have killed masters with our culture, and this is why we are lost, walking without any fixed route, immersed in doubt, in distrust, in mistakes and on many occasions in suffering.

Knowledge is the light that brightens the path. Knowledge is enlightenment.

Only someone with light can guide you on the path, and this guide shows you the path towards freedom.

It is in the tradition that we have made our own process of self realization, but we do this with help, just like when we eat and digest food by ourselves, but there is no Being that isn’t reliant upon someone: no one can say that because we can eat on our own, we can live on own without needing others.

We need someone to show us the way, we need someone to show us the path toward freedom.

Knowledge makes you free.

Knowledge therefore, can only be shown to you by an enlightened being, who freely teaches he who freely wants to learn what freedom is.

OM TAT SAT

2009-07-12T17:26:00.000-07:00

2009-07-12T17:12:00.000-07:00

CONFERENCE IN CASA ASIA - MADRID SPAIN

2009-07-12T16:48:00.000-07:00

CONFERENCE IN CASA ASIA in July - MADRID SPAIN "CONCIOUSNESS REVOLUTION"

VEDIC CULTURE: PART 2 / Joining Shiva

2009-07-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

Joining Shiva

Dancing in the light with Shiva

Ultimate purpose of life: PARASHIVA

Epistemology means to link those given premises in a scientific or logical manner. To contain a logical link they have to include: semantics and etymology

This was very important to India; that is why we have prosody (how to intone words, and how words are built in grammar. An accent changes the philosophical sense of the word when we use it to think about something) Therefore Patañjali was a grammarian too. There is a very important text written by him, based on another grammarian: Panini.

This text is called ASHTADHYAI, what means the eight studies or reflections about word’s value.

DHIAI means chapter or dialogue and comes from DHY (stable mind). From DHY comes Dhyana (meditation), because just with a stable mind one can flow to the Being.
In a free-flowing and logical presentation, both speaker and listener have to keep their mind stable. If the one who speaks does not have its mind stable, what it is said is unstable. Also the one who listens has to keep its mind stable to be able to build it from what it is said.

Hence we call dhyaya to Gita’s dialogues. We can also recite them in Sanskrit. Dhyaya is like a reflecting meditation. Every dialogue is a dhyaya because makes our budhi to meditate about the nature of the divine, and also enlighten our budhi to become BUDHAPRAPTI (when intellect transcends the world of senses, and travels to know what is beyond perception, that is to say: divinity. That is why we say Budha has budhaprapti: the one who has the enlightened intellect.

The intellect is enlightened when what is learnt though the senses, takes the intellect to flow to a higher state; that is why we call it transcendence (this term was referred the other day in the yoga laya).

Speaking of thinking, there are two opposite concepts, the two perceptions of the intellect: transcendence and immanence.

The immanent is what is inside or proper of what is going to be known; also inside or proper of the one who knows. In other words: what you touch, what you perceive, the one who is perceiving. There is no beyond; that is why it can be seen, heard, touched, tasted; we are referring to material world.

The transcendent is what transmutes or transforms and makes to go beyond. Beyond what is perceived by the senses. The sense does not perceive anything how it used to. That is why we call it enlightenment process of the intellect. To enlighten the intellect or BHUDA AVASTHA. In other words, when the intellect goes beyond of what is informed by the senses.

All of this to say that if we establish an axiom or principle: we are close to religion when we talk about the divine. If we think that we can not conceive this through thought because the axiom says: This is like this; we can not make philosophy, and every thought we have, will be about the axiom.

Philosophy is to establish an axiomatic principle inside what is been revealed by divinity or by who has heard God’s word and tell us: this is like this. Since this can not contain all what is needed to be thought by human being about life. Different thinkers come up and try to look for Truth, using this revelation axiom as inspiration. Every Philosophy has to surround this inevitable principle, because all philosophies are axiomatic doctrines.

Theology is the study of the divine word given by God or through someone. Theology is based on that divine word. In the case of Christians, they did not have philosophical foundations so they have to turn to Greeks and Plato, who did not have anything to do with Jesus but served as inspiration to think about philosophical matters.

No one can think about something without a precedent. A primitive person thinks primitive. As long as he thinks, the next one will take it as foundation and will think beyond it.

When Christians did not have thinking foundation, they have to turn to Greek philosophy that was close to them. They have to adapt it for Christian thought. Christian philosophy is short and that is why we talk about Christian theology instead of Christian philosophy.

In the Aryan Dharma, either Vedic, Buddhist, Jainist, or Sikh (this one is further because is influenced by Islam) the principles (even if they come from the conviction of God’s words, for example: Krishna talks to Arjuna) would be the word of God that is present; and we think about this word and more, for example: in the Shiva Samhita (texts of Hatha Yoga), Shiva talks to Parvati and teaches her in the science of inner strength. Men must think about it.
Aryan Dharma opposed to Semitic religions is not based in axiomatic principles; neither the main principle is the faith that takes us to salvation. In Dharma, is not the faith, is the understanding what take us to the enlightenment through the process of self-realization. Thus, Dharma allows the fact that have existed a lot of persons who have thought in many ways; also the fact that many men have created many schools of thought (some more elevated than others). Sometimes these facts create problems depending on what is the main thinking, other times do not create problems, and instead they resolve them. However, throughout history, there are theological-philosophical schools whose line of thought is narrower, even thought they admit the Vedas. These kinds of schools used to be Bhakti ones

Bhakti schools are interested in having a definition of God. In these schools, you can not think questioning; neither you can try to understand in order to prove what is said to be exactly like that.

These Bhakti schools are younger, and they have reasons to be like that; for example: they have Muslim and Christian influences. Muslims have stayed in India for one thousand years. Christians arrived from Syria to Kerala, but their influence was minor. Later on, Portuguese Christians arrived to India and used the basic seeds of Syrians to spread Christianity. These influences have biased the idea of divinity, for instance: in the Vedic mentality.

The origin of Hare Krishnas is in Bengal, hundreds of years ago

GAURANGA – the one who has the golden body

KRISHNA CHAITANYA – the spiritual name received in his initiation

Chaitanya – because his master came from an Advaiti school, non-dualistic; even though he had a non-vedantic thought

The scriptures usually call Isha regarding God, but Prabu is more familiar. Prabu is frequently used in Bengal, and often used in Bhakti Yoga; that is why it is in PRABU PADA SWAMI BHAKTI VEDANTA (ultimate knowledge of devotion)

PRABU PADA SWAMI BHAKTI VEDANTA founded Hare Krishna movement in USA. He did not do it as Krishna Chaitanya, but as Prabu Pada

Thus, we will see in Krishna Chaitanya’s thought a mixture of Muslim thought. There is also a mixture of Presbyterian thought, which is to say from English people; since the headquarters of English were in Bengal, until they moved to Calcutta.

What are Hare Krishna’s characteristics? What sets an axiom such as Krishna is God?
For example: if we study Vedic thought, Krishna is an avatar of Vishnu. Vishnu is a potential of Brahman, “The Absolute”; it is one way to call Brahman when it preserve life, and is the preserver of Dharma. If we were Vaishnavists, we would say that the name of God is not Brahman, it is Vishnu; so it would have a body identity. This is an axiom and it can not be denied. Also if we were Vaishnavists, we would say that from Vishnu arise the ten avatars; and Krishna is the eighth. But Hare Krishnas set a more rigid axiom up; they say: Krishna is the name of God and Vishnu is one aspect.

So this is the way in which Hare Krishnas make all their philosophical-theological settings, but as we see, it is not a philosophical setting, since they say: Krishna is God. They even will say: Truth is Brahman is an epithet of Krishna.

Therefore, due to this axiom of Krishna being the supreme reality of God, and this is the only way…etc. Every thought that we can have about Krishna must have as a reference either the scriptures or the thoughts of people considered very important, to support what scriptures have not come to say. For instance: the Hare Krishnas’ tradition can not use all Vedic scriptures as basis, but they use Krishna Chaitanya’s teachings (GAUDILLA SAMPRADAYA’S founder)

We would say that Hare Krishna is a subsection of a sect called Vaishnavism inside the Vedic religion.

In this case, Hare Krishnas have their grounds on subsequent master’s teachings; Krishna Chaitanya too. Afterwards, their masters end up setting the theology and philosophy of GAUDILLA SAMPRADAYA up.

We could say that Hare Krishna is a religion; in fact they tried to legalize themselves not as Vedic but as a proper religion; since they start more and more from definite axioms. We could call it Dharma because it accepts the Vedas, but as Swami Vivekananda said: not in the sense of a philosophy, since they do not follow the principle of self-realization.

We have seen that Rishis left a legacy about the comprehension of what is Brahman; then, we try to think, understand and prove it; that is why we can not call it religion. A Vedic accepts the philosophical given premises of their masters, but a Vedic must think about it; and using the necessary tools, prove it. That is why we are not believers but philosophers. The word for this is Jñani-.

For that reason, the title of the lesson that we are about to start is PARASHIVA: ultimate purpose of life

Resuming, why do we say PARASHIVA? It is an epithet of Shiva; why do we choose it? Because we will see and understand what is Shiva according to our capacities (adikara). The capacity of thinking is as much as the consciousness we have.
If I am conscious of being the body and this is so strong (and my skin is not only stuck to the muscle and the muscle to the bone, but my self is so stuck to the body), it is very difficult to understand a thought such as: I am Shiva; and If I think that I am Shiva, I will think about it putting my superlative self in the prosody.

Philosophically, we will say that requires a different prosody, a different statement in which if I am not very stuck to the skin, we will say: I am Shiva!

The idea of what I am would change because I would be accepting Shiva as my true self. Referring the body as my true self, is not just a matter of semantics and linguistics, but also a matter of consciousness. Thus, although I could study about it intellectually and then I accept it, I would miss a component: the consciousness. This is the relationship that I have with the self and what I use.

I can study about it, but my senses fail and finally I end up being the body. In fact, there are people who can not even understand this intellectually, so they are disqualified to begin this Dharma process, because their mind get confused whenever they start hearing about this (since they are too sensorial and sensitive). For example: when we start listening music, and some people fall sleep, because their senses are not refined and they need atavistic music, the most basic; modern music is like this, with little prosody, little rhythm, little scales and consequently senses get stuck on it. Classic music requires a more refined and subtle hearing

Although the intellect of people can be skillful for being a doctor, it does not mean it is ready to philosophize and think about one’s own nature, because for this a qualified consciousness is needed. Thus, we find people who can use their intellect to learn how to do something but they get bored when we get into transcendental thinking.

What would happen if you take that philosophical thought to the mysticism? Where the thought becomes experience of what you learn. “I am Shiva”, but it clashes with the body and what you perceive every day. You have to go further. And here is where Yoga has to show up. Because Yoga is for Prakriti and Purusha; the perception of being the body is Prakriti, the opposite is Purusha.

Because of this, Patañjali’s method separates consciousness from the body, in other words, creating the consciousness that I am not the body. Later on, the consciousness has to unite with what I am: Brahman.

Thus, we say that the process of Yoga starts with Viyoga (separation between body and soul), and then Samyoga (union between body and soul where there is understanding of being Brahman)

Hence, if I conceive Shiva as an idea of God, I affirm: Shiva is not what I am: because if I can think about something, the object of my thinking is not me. Therefore, we differentiate between subject and object. When I perceive something, I have just discovered: what I perceive is different from me, so I am not that. When I see a tree, I realize two things: the tree is the tree, and secondly I am not the tree, that is why I see it. Thus, if I think about God, I realize that God is not me and I am not God. That is to say: God is God, and I am me. That is why I think about them. For these reasons, the Sanskrit term used to give a title to this lesson means “ultimate purpose of life”.

Vedanta: the ultimate knowledge that sets the ultimate purpose up, the ultimate ARTHA. The ultimate purpose, ANTHARTA, is reaching the VEDANTA, the last level; and this level is in PARASHIVA.

We were reviewing the etymology of the word PARA (supreme, the other, it… etc) because as long as we are doing it, I am going to understand my intimate relationship with it. If I think that the last purpose is what the body needs and the life of the body in Life, therefore the last purpose of Life is living it, and staying alive. On the contrary, if I think that the last purpose is what I really am; I have to understand it; first intellectually and then living it.
Shiva, Shivaoham, I am Shiva. Shiva will not be the other or it (this is what it means etymologically PARA). On the contrary, Shiva will be my supreme reality, or my greatest reality. In other words, my expanded self. What I really am. Then, we must understand that PARASHIVA, the supreme Shiva, is SHIVOHAM. Thus, we start studying it as “The other”, but we accept that it will be philosophically explained by Masters. We start studying it theologically as an external form; that is to say what someone says it is, for example: someone says what Yoga is (one of its epithets is YOGAA, the one who is Yoga). That is why, when it is said: “I am Yoga”, masters explain us what it is, and when we practice pranayama, asana, mantra, meditation…all of this is Yoga. So every time I practice, I am being Shiva. Why? Because you have a body that was not built by itself, but from your mother’s body; and it is built continually by nutrients; that is to say nutrients that come from breathing, drink, and food. So every time you consume life, you have life.

Therefore, you are made of food; you are not made of yourself; so if you have to build your consciousness of Shiva up, you must eat Shiva. Every time you do pranayama, you are not just doing pranayama, but nurturing yourself. So when you do pranayama, if you just do pranayama and you do not get consciousness of Shiva, you do the same as bulimics (eating to vomit). Thus, you do not nurture yourself. If you think that eating is just the act, and has nothing to do with digesting and assimilating; if you think that Yoga is the external act of doing asanas, and you do not get consciousness of Shiva, you are a bulimic; you vomit the yoga every time you take it. Resuming, every time you do your sadhana you become Shiva.

Therefore, sadhana is a commitment to the truth, to what you really are.
Every time you do your sadhana you devote yourself to what you really are.

We can think that you eat food just for yourself, but what happens? Your whole body serves to the feeding process. All you blood, your metabolic system serves to the feeding process to build yourself up. Just like this, it seems that we meditate but it is our mind what devotes to meditation. It seems that we eat but it is our body what devotes to the feeding process. That is why we devote ourselves to the truth; and the result is that we are more and more yogaa, more Shiva. For this reason, we are called yoghis, because our body, intellect, senses are more and more Shiva. We are yoghis not because we practice, but we are more and more yoghis because we do yoga. So, it is nor a matter of practicing but of being. If you are not conscious about this, you vomit Shiva. It will take you a lifetime, doing millions of pranayamas, thousands of asanas, and yet you will not be conscious of Shiva. It is said by Adishankaracharya; because if you do not develop philosophical consciousness (living what you do) of what it is an enlightenment process, you will not assimilate yoga

Shankaracharya says in the VIVEKACHUDAMANI: if after being born as a human being you do not understand what Brahman is, you lose your life despite everything you can do.

Guru Gita says: that one who does not understand the Guru’s principle and is involved in pranayamas and asanas which will hurt its body and everything done in life will be useless. Guru’s principle is enlightenment over ignorance.

Light is knowledge; the knowledge of being Shiva; thus you are learning that you are Shiva every time you devote yourself to a Yoga process, and you are becoming simultaneously in a greater Guru, because you have more and more light inside you.

So, if you do not understand this, unfortunately your asanas and pranayamas will hurt your body. Thus, if your spiritual and mental bodies are not inside the spirituality, the physical body will get hurt because you will have a disproportionate ego; and even though you have a strong physical body, your mind will be weak and you will end up somatising, because the true nature of the mind is in understanding that you are not the body.

The bigger your ego, the weaker you are, the bigger your rage.
Scriptures say: there are three infernal open doors for those who have a strong ego:
- rage
- greed
- lust

Lust is when your senses are your real goals; enjoying the senses.

Vivekachudamani – Is the jewel of right knowledge. It is a PRAKARANAGRANTHA- We call like this to Shankara’s texts which help us out to understand what Brahman is. Therefore PRAKARANA: setting the right thinking. Inside of this, there are a lot of Shankaracharya’s scriptures and one of them is the Vivekachudamani. We have to seek and look what Shankaracharya tried to tell us and warn us about the wrong position in the sadhana. He warns us of not losing our lives in the wrong yoga. In other words, either we join the ego doing yoga or we join Shiva.

Most of people practice yoga to join the ego, and finally the non-practisers are better than the yogis who end up being pathetic and arrogant.

The title of the subject is: SAMPRADAYA- Line of philosophical and doctrinal thought that comes from Krishna Chaitanya – AUDHYA SAMPRADAYA

OM TAT SAT

2009-07-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

FORGIVENESS

2009-07-12T09:40:00.000-07:00

Many people ask forgiveness as a proceedure, without will of rectification, without intention of compensation. They ask for clemency. They ask there’s no reaction from their victims. Those who ask forgiveness in this way, they abuse of the benefit they know they will have on behalf of their victims due to the more education, sensible and virtuous than them.
They ask forgiveness to continue abusing creating problems and causing pain.
To ask “ Forgiveness” is to ask clemency, as in redention as in lack. Lack will always be there living in the damage bring about as a physical injury, material and in the last stage of damage; in the memory of the victim as the guilty. The guilty one can feel the necesity of asking for “forgiveness” due to fear of the pain he can receive for punishment of his lack.
This fear can be physical or emotional, because all puneshment implies a loss. The “forgiveness” that comes from the fear to the personal loss ( own’s interest) its not a trae forgiveness in the field of virtuous justice. This type of forgiveness really does never satisfies the victime ven if there is material compensation as a change of the forgiveness.
The forgiveness for fear it’s not the result of becoming aware and reflect about the damage which was caused by the mistake in it self and the damage inflicted to others, therefore this forgiveness is not real and even if the victim forgives him and the civil justice absolves him or redeems him, the reactiv Karma will act.

VEDIC CULTURE: PART 1 / Joining Shiva

2009-07-10T02:47:00.000-07:00

Joining Shiva

Dancing in the light with Shiva

Ultimate purpose of life: PARASHIVA
PARA – means supreme

We can call Shiva in many ways and every one of them corresponds to a perspective on last reality; because we understand that realities are what they are.

About divinity’s vision, we have different perspectives. One of the qualifying adjectives for Shiva is Parashiva; Para means, among other things, the greatest; supreme.

The prefix Para- means the greatest, supreme; but also in Sanskrit Para- means “the other” and “It”. Therefore, depending on how we observe Shiva, Shiva changes.

First of all, for being able to observe Him, we have to perceive Shiva as different from what we are.

“Me and the other” If I observe something, that something I observe it is not me. This is in the grammar of every language: subject and object. If I am the subject, I can observe the object; because I observe it I realize the object it is not me.

When we could open the subject of Vedanta, it will be very important to remember these basic principles that are found in the SAMKYA (This is one of the six Darshanas, one of the six thought’s schools)

If we do not have this clear, the whole philosophical process will not be clear.
We need guidelines and idiomatic understandings such as: semantics, epistemology, prosody, syntax and grammar. We will receive this class, we will…

Thus, to make philosophy, to think about the divine, and not doing what we do not have to do: just believing; we must understand.

Due to this, if we explain what is Dharma as opposed to other religions, and I am not referring Dharma as opposed to morality, but Dharma as a whole of teachings, beliefs, philosophies, methodologies about the divine; if we have to distinguish it, we will say that Vedic Dharma is different to Mleccha Dharma. Non-Vedic Dharma or Adharma is distinguished by philosophy.

Also, we could talk about Aryan Dharma, or Aryan Dharmas, or about Semitic Religions. The others are based on faith. Many researchers said that we could not assign the term religion to Dharma. Also Swami Vivekananda and Swami Tilak said: we do not follow a religion, but a philosophy.

Swami Tilak zipped his lips because a philosophy is not followed but is studied.
We can understand that every religion, obviously, study some philosophy, based on theology, studies about God’s word or thoughts about the divine.

Sometimes, some thinkers of that religion link the divine’s word with philosophy. For instance: Christianity is a religion, in other words, it is based on an act of faith. It develops this belief on God’s word.

It admits that God speaks to men, and thus, the beginning of apprenticeship of Christianity followers is based on faith; studying what God has said. This is Theology, the study of God’s word.

Subsequently, Christians have some philosophers. They are restricted, since they can not make philosophy beyond the limits of what is established in God’s word. For instance: Thomas Aquinas takes philosophical principles of Greeks, particularly Plato, and begins to introduce thoughts and theology to Christianity (philosophical thoughts of Greeks that have nothing to do with Semitic ideology). Thomas Aquinas takes these philosophical principles to deal with human being’s aspects that are not contemplated in early theology, that is to say: God’s word.

God can not say everything because human being changes; thus human being needs an answer from the inspiration of divine Christian word, and has to turn to philosophical thought. This philosophical thought must have a precedent, because is very difficult for a man to think originally, without having a previous paradigm. In case, you do not have this paradigm your thoughts would be very basic.

We observe the thoughts of the most primitive tribes. They think about God and nature in a very atavistic way. As men pass on their legacy of thoughts to next generations, the new ones think about these thoughts, purify them and develop them. Hence, Thomas Aquinas, Christian thinker, takes from Greeks the foundation of what he needs to be able to think about human being’s life.

This was initiated by Pablo, founder of Christianity. In this way, we can think about what is theology opposed to philosophy. Theology is the study of the divine, according to the word given under a proposal of faith: God has said. Theology is separated from philosophy, as for philosophy develops the thought of human being about the divine: “What is God? If religion is based on faith, as in the case of Semites, this restricts the thought that man can have about the divine; since thoughts can not leave the strict field marked by faith doctrine.

If we move to Dharma’s field, even though we have the LEGACY (this is the way I like to call what the Rishis have left for us), always there is the experience as a foundation. That is why we have numerous thinkers in the Dharma that reflect about what the Rishis have bequeathed in many different ways, and for this reason they make philosophy.

Thus, we say that Dharma is more philosophy than theology. However, we can not say that Dharma is not a theology, because it has also a word given by God. This is the way we understand it in our tradition. This is written right in the Guru Gita, the Bhagavad Gita and many other texts; where Gods teach humans and sometimes also to other gods.

We think about that God’s word and, due to Dharma’s character, if the school is one where the most important is this thought and its experience, a free thinking is developed. This free thinking takes the risk of being harmful, because thoughts depend on individual abilities.

This is called ADHIKARA, and obviously this thought about the divine, born of the abilities of the person who thinks, determines what the person is going to think and specially is going to decide what others are going to understand. There are Vedic Schools where the freedom of thinking about the word of the divine has been restricted. These schools have established dogmas and axioms that bias the thought of those who are going to think, and thus, they do not know if they have the ability of transcend that doctrine, for example: this happens in Bhakti Yoga Schools.

When we talk about these Bhakti Schools, we must understand the different thoughts that arise from some philosophical guidelines attached to some theological guidelines, where preserve the given idea about God is very important (because is an idea about something, or someone who is studied or known). Since what is wanted to be preserved is the axiom of God being in some way, every thought about God must preserve this idea.

Thus, this thought helps us to think about how the greatness of the divine is or how we are going to relate with it, but we will never change the idea of how is God. This is called axiom.

OM TAT SAT

Guruji in Murcia, Spain

2009-07-08T04:24:00.000-07:00

Shri Swami Shankaratilakananda

2009-07-08T04:17:00.000-07:00

Shri Swami Shankarananda is a vedic master from the orthodox tradition Smarta Sampradaya from the Advaita Vedanta school.

Guruji is the name that his students affectionately call him.
He is the direct disciple of Shri Swami Tilak Paramahamsa, who he accompanied until his parting from this world, and received in his arms his last living breath.

His great capacity of surrender to the teachings, his immaculate attention to detail, his exquisite way of dealing with all those around him, his profound lack of attachment, his teaching methods, his depth and sharpness in analysing knowledge are some of the qualities that adorn such an incredible master of our time.

His teachings are the light from a beacon for all men who navigate in the darkness of the night in the ocean of life.