The Stormy life can be braved
Only by the heart’s sunny
Meditations
– Sri Chinmoy, Sri Chinmoy’s Heart-Garden
Author Archive
Oneness and Happiness
Practise the feeling of oneness.
Do not try to get ahead of others
You are bound to be supremely happy.
– Sri Chinmoy
Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees no. 38,315
How Yama and Niyama Affect Daily Life and Yoga Practise
This is a guest post by Manatita
In this essay, the writer will first show the essentials of Yama and Niyama and its relation to Yoga, and will conclude with the practical aspect of how these two ?abstinences?, has affected his daily life and Yoga practice.
Yama and Niyama are the first steps in Yoga practice. They are considered the foundations of Yoga. They are the first two limbs of the eight-fold Path of Patanjali – the ancient sage – the rest being:-
- Asana – bodily postures. They combine a series of exhaustive exercises, widely known in the West as Hatha Yoga, for the health and discipline of the physical. They are also useful for the movement of the life-force and the attainment of the Higher Yoga.
- Pranayama – control of the life-force. It involves the inhaling, retention and exhaling of breath.
- Pratyahara – withdrawal of the senses from the external world
- Dharana – concentration – control of or steadying of the mind on a particular object to the exclusion of everything else.
- Dhyana – the gazing or fixing of the mind on a Higher Consciousness. Sri Chinmoy, in his book The Silent teaching, 1985, refers to it as conscious self-expansion?.?silence, energizing and fulfilling?the eloquent expression of the inexpressible?
- Samadhi – profound contemplation or the tuning of the inner self with the Universal Self. This is a profound state and achieved by only a few. (Gibson, WB: The Key to Yoga, 1958)
Quotes on Criticism
To deliberately criticise
Another individual
May cause an indelible stain
On the critic.
– Sri Chinmoy
Those who serve the world constantly
Do not have time
To criticise others,
While those who do not serve
Others selflessly
Have endless time
To criticise the whole world.
– Sri Chinmoy.
Even absent-mindedly,
We must not
Criticise others.
– Sri Chinmoy.
Daibutsu Great Buddha
The Great Buddha of Kamakura is a bronze statue of Amida Buddha that is located on the grounds of the Kotokuin Temple. With a height of 13.35 meters, it is the second largest Buddha statue in Japan (the largest is located in the Todaiji Temple in Nara)
Video of Daibutsu Buddha
Daibutsu – The Great Buddha of Kamakura from kedarvideo on Vimeo.
Inspirational Quotes
Forgive,
You will have happiness.
Forget,
You will have satisfaction.
Forgive and forget,
You will have everlasting peace
Within and without.
– Sri Chinmoy
If anyone speaks ill of you,
Praise him always.If anyone injures you,
Serve him nicely.If anyone persecutes you,
Help him in all possible ways.You will attain immense strength.
You will control anger and pride.
You will enjoy peace, poise and serenity.
You will become divine
– Swami Sivananda
“Many people excuse their own faults but judge other persons harshly. We should reverse this attitude by excusing others’ shortcomings and by harshly examining our own.”
– Paramhansa Yogananda
Interview with Sister Madonna
Sister Madonna talks about her life as a nun, active in the world.
MY KOLKATA GUIDEBOOK
By Dr. Vidagdha Bennett
Most tourists arrive in Kolkata clutching the latest guidebook to India as if it were a lifeline tossed in a stormy and troubled sea. The 2007 edition from Lonely Planet, to take one popular example, is reassuringly crammed with well-researched facts on all the practical aspects of travelling in the sub-continent. The section on Kolkata prescribes exactly what to do, where to stay according to your budget, places to eat – and how to exit the city rapidly once you have exhausted the slender range of options that are listed. In practice, I found that this tome is, without doubt, a compendium of vital information should you happen to be a ‘casual’ traveller, someone who is just passing through the city on the way to, say, Darjeeling or Varanasi, someone who wants to skim the surface and cross Kolkata off the list of 100 places you hoped to see before you die.