Wednesday, September 2, 2015
WHAT IS TRUE YOGA ?.......
DEFINITION OF YOGA : EASTERN VERSES WESTERN YOGA
With this article we want to visualize the meaning of YOGA , by giving reference of our two most esteemed religious scripts BHAGWAD GEETA and YOG VISHISHT, it has been commonly realized that the present meaning of YOGA is just taken on the basis of physical exercise and elasticity of human body to improve endurance of our physical body . Its commonly observed that yoga is represented as tough asanas or gymnasic version of original asanas ESPECILLY OF WOMWEN JUST TO LURE PEOPLE (mostly by yoga guru from west AND COMMERCIAL YOGIS ) but it should be made in mind that the aim of YOGA is much higher. It should not be limited only till the development of the physical body but to refine our mind and soul to achieve the ultimate stage of everlasting peace. By siting these examples we want to give a brief ideas about the power and perspectives of yoga which our religious scripts show, our sages worked for thousands of years to visualize the meaning of YOGA, they practices numerous sadhnas to achieve higher stage of ultimate bliss. We are giving an idea by two esteemed religious text BHAGWAT GEETA and YOGA VISHISHT
Bhagwan Shri Krishna defines yoga in The Bhagavad Gita, , as Clear, discerning, totally voluntary, dynamic participation in one’s life in everlasting, primal, revealing, the archetypal light and fueled by love. Heightened sensitivity and awareness of all life around us and within us, and an outpour of love in reciprocation with life’s wonder and beauty. By the different forms of yogas we can achieve pure, determined force that moves us toward the mysterious and secret, and connects us with the wonderfulness of existence, of being and of all life.
Then Krishna tells Arjuna that four types of people turn toward him: those who are distressed, those desiring knowledge, those seeking personal gain and those possessing knowledge.
“Among these, the person of knowledge, who is constantly absorbed in yoga that is solely an offering of love, is exceptional. For I am so dearly loved by the person of knowledge, and that person is dearly loved by me” (7.17)
Yoga is a heightened sensitivity and awareness of all life around us and within us, and an outpour of love in reciprocation with life’s wonder and beauty.
One of the gratest sage Maharishi valmiki in a verse of YOGA VISHISHT says “When the mind is at peace and the heart leaps to the supreme truth, when all the disturbing thought-waves in the mind-stuff have subsided and there is unbroken flow of peace and the heart is filled with the bliss of the absolute, when thus the truth has been seen in the heart, then this very world becomes an abode of bliss”
He whose mind is firmly established in peace through the practice of yoga has the right vision of the truth. To see that the supreme self is without beginning or end, and that these countless objects are in fact the self and no other, is the right vision. Erroneous vision leads to rebirth; right vision ends rebirth. In it there is no subject-object (knower-knowable) relationship; for the self (consciousness) is the knower, knowledge and the knowable, too, and the division is ignorance. When this is directly seen there is neither bondage nor liberation.
Liberation is attained when one arrives at the state of supreme peace after
intelligent inquiry into the nature of the self and after this has brought about an inner awakening. Kaivalya or total freedom is the attainment of pure being after all mental conditioning is transcended consciously and after a thorough investigation.
Hopefully this will give atleast an idea about long range and definition of YOGA (atleast superficially ), because YOGA is such avast field that it cannot be explained in few line, our sages spent thousands of year in sadhna and research for this, and its very humble effort of ours to tell something about YOGA
Refrences
Valmiki’s YOGAVASISTHAFrom a Translation by Swami Venkateshananda
Edited by Dennis B. Hill
Shree bhagwad geeta
TRIMBAKESHWAR MAHADEV JYOTIRLINGA
Trimbakeshwar temple is a religious center having one of the twelve Jyotirlingas. The extraordinary feature of the Jyotirlinga located here is its three faces embodying Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Rudra. Due to excessive use of water, the linga has started to erode. It is said that this erosion symbolizes the eroding nature of human society. The Lingas at Trimbakeshwar are covered by a jeweled crown which is placed over the Gold Mask of Tridev (Brahma Vishnu Mahesh). The crown is said to be from the age of Pandavs and consists of diamonds, emeralds, and many precious stones. The crown is displayed every Monday from 4-5 pm (Shiva).All other Jyotirlingas have Shiva as the main deity. The entire black stone temple is known for its appealing architecture and sculpture and is at the foothills of a mountain called Brahmagiri.Three sources of the godavari originate from the brahmagiri mountain. Introduction of the holy place Shri Trimbakeshwar
500 years back from now there was built a city which later on became famous as Trimbakeshwar. In the period of the Peshwas regime Nana Saheb Peshwa had instructed to sonstruct the Trimbakeshwar temple and developed and beautified the city of Trimbakeshwar.
There is a mountain named the Brihmagiri Mountain 18 K.M. from the city of Nasik in the Nasik district. This is one of the parts of the Sahayadri Vallies. The city of Trimbakeshwar is located in the bottom of this mountain. This is a beautiful natural place with the cold weather as it is situated 3000 ft. above from the sea.....
THE UNIVERSAL VAIŚVĀNARA
This Ātman, which is Brahman, is fourfold, and can be approached and attained by a fourfold process of selftranscendence. We now propose to take up these stages, one by one, by way of analysis and synthesis. The first stage of approach, naturally, is that which pertains to the degree of reality presented before our senses. All successful effort commences with immediate reality. We, generally, say, ‘you must be realistic in your life and not too much idealistic’, which means that our life should correspond to facts, as they are, and we should not merely idealise or live in a world of dream. The mind will not accept what it does not see or understand; and no teaching, whatever be the subject of the teaching, can be undertaken without reference to facts, facts which are a reality to the senses, because, today, at the present moment, we live in a world of the senses. We cannot reject what is real to the senses, as long as we are confined to their operation.
The Māndūkya Upanishad, therefore, takes this aspect into consideration and commences the work of analysis of the self from the foundation of sense-perception and mental cognition based on this perception. What do we see? This is the first question, and what we see is immediately the subject of investigation. Scientists are engaged in what they see and their enquiries and experiments are restricted to what is seen with the eyes. Science does not concern itself with the invisible, because the invisible cannot be observed and, therefore, cannot also be an object of experiment and investigation. What do we see? We see the world. We see the body. We do not see God, or Īsvara, or Brahman. Wedo not see Omkāra, Praṇava, the Creator, Preserver, Destroyer. All the things which we hear are not seen by us, and we cannot accept sermons based on invisibles unless a satisfactory explanation is offered first in regard to the visible. ‘Can you tell me what this is before me? Then I can accept what you say in regard to that which is above me.’ This immediacy of consciousness, this sensory fact which is presented to us in our day-to-day experience is comprehended within what may be called the waking life or jāgrat-avastha.
All our life is confined to the waking experience, and we are not concerned so much with our experiences in dream and sleep as with those in the waking state. To us jīvas, mortals, individuals, humans, whatever is presented in the waking state is real, and to us life means just waking life. Our business is with facts presented in the waking consciousness. So we shall begin, first of all, with an understanding of the way in which we begin to know the world as it appears to us in the waking life. The waking consciousness is the first foot of the Ātman, as it were, the first aspect or phase of experience that we are studying and investigating. The waking consciousness is jāgaritasthānah, that consciousness which has its abode in the wakeful condition of the individual. And what is its special feature? Bahihprājñaah: It is conscious only of what is outside, not conscious of what is inside. We cannot even see what is in our own stomachs. How can we see what is in our minds? We are extroverts, aware of only what is external to our bodies, concerned with things which are external to the bodies, and busy with those objects which are other than our own bodies. We deal with things, but allthese dealings are with ‘other’ things, not with ourselves. This, is the peculiar structure of the waking consciousness which is engaged in action, and is busy with other things, but not with itself. We are worried over others, not ourselves.
We are engaged in the study, observation, experimentation and dealing of other objects and persons; not ourselves. This is the peculiarity of the waking consciousness, conscious only of what is external. Saptānga ekonavimśatimukhah: Seven-limbed and nineteenmouthed is this consciousness. It looks as if it is a Rāvana multiplied, with so many heads, as it were. Seven limbs this consciousness has, and nineteen mouths it has, and it eats the gross – sthūlabhug. It swallows, consumes what is gross. And what is its name? Vaiśvānara is its name. This is the first foot of the Ātman. This is the outermost appearance of the Ātman.
SWAMI KRISHNANANDA The Divine Life Society Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India
The Māndūkya Upanishad, therefore, takes this aspect into consideration and commences the work of analysis of the self from the foundation of sense-perception and mental cognition based on this perception. What do we see? This is the first question, and what we see is immediately the subject of investigation. Scientists are engaged in what they see and their enquiries and experiments are restricted to what is seen with the eyes. Science does not concern itself with the invisible, because the invisible cannot be observed and, therefore, cannot also be an object of experiment and investigation. What do we see? We see the world. We see the body. We do not see God, or Īsvara, or Brahman. Wedo not see Omkāra, Praṇava, the Creator, Preserver, Destroyer. All the things which we hear are not seen by us, and we cannot accept sermons based on invisibles unless a satisfactory explanation is offered first in regard to the visible. ‘Can you tell me what this is before me? Then I can accept what you say in regard to that which is above me.’ This immediacy of consciousness, this sensory fact which is presented to us in our day-to-day experience is comprehended within what may be called the waking life or jāgrat-avastha.
All our life is confined to the waking experience, and we are not concerned so much with our experiences in dream and sleep as with those in the waking state. To us jīvas, mortals, individuals, humans, whatever is presented in the waking state is real, and to us life means just waking life. Our business is with facts presented in the waking consciousness. So we shall begin, first of all, with an understanding of the way in which we begin to know the world as it appears to us in the waking life. The waking consciousness is the first foot of the Ātman, as it were, the first aspect or phase of experience that we are studying and investigating. The waking consciousness is jāgaritasthānah, that consciousness which has its abode in the wakeful condition of the individual. And what is its special feature? Bahihprājñaah: It is conscious only of what is outside, not conscious of what is inside. We cannot even see what is in our own stomachs. How can we see what is in our minds? We are extroverts, aware of only what is external to our bodies, concerned with things which are external to the bodies, and busy with those objects which are other than our own bodies. We deal with things, but allthese dealings are with ‘other’ things, not with ourselves. This, is the peculiar structure of the waking consciousness which is engaged in action, and is busy with other things, but not with itself. We are worried over others, not ourselves.
We are engaged in the study, observation, experimentation and dealing of other objects and persons; not ourselves. This is the peculiarity of the waking consciousness, conscious only of what is external. Saptānga ekonavimśatimukhah: Seven-limbed and nineteenmouthed is this consciousness. It looks as if it is a Rāvana multiplied, with so many heads, as it were. Seven limbs this consciousness has, and nineteen mouths it has, and it eats the gross – sthūlabhug. It swallows, consumes what is gross. And what is its name? Vaiśvānara is its name. This is the first foot of the Ātman. This is the outermost appearance of the Ātman.
SWAMI KRISHNANANDA The Divine Life Society Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India
THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE ABSOLUTE
The first mantra of the Māndūkya Upanishad describes the nature of Omkāra and its connotation in relation to the whole universe. Now, it also denotes some object, as was pointed out earlier. It is a Universal Name which refers to a Universal Form in such a manner that the Name and the Form coalesce to constitute one Being. As the Name is Universal and the Form also is Universal, they have naturally to blend into a single existence, because we cannot have two Universals standing apart from each other. There is, therefore, the Universal Name coalescing with the Universal Form; nāmā and rūpa become one in this experience-whole. That experience is neither nāmā nor rūpa, by itself. It is both, and yet neither. God is not merely a form denoted by a name, nor is He an object that can be described by any person.
As all persons are included within the body of God, there is no naming God by any other entity outside it. Hence, in a sense, we may say that God is nameless. Who can call Him by a name? Where is that person who can call Him by a name! As there is, therefore, essentially, no name, in the ordinary sense of the term, that can designate God, He cannot also be regarded as a rūpa or a form which corresponds to a nāmā or a name.
There is an indescribable something which is designated ultimately by Omkāra or Praṇava, and, being indescribable, it is visualised by a name that conveys the best of possible meanings. Though it may itself have no name, and it cannot also be said to have any particular form, we, as jīvas, individuals here on earth, cannot envisage it in that transcendent nature. We have to conceive it in our mind before we can contemplate or meditate upon it for the sake of realisation. This meaningful and suggestive designation of that indescribable, transcendent something, is Brahman, the Absolute.
As all persons are included within the body of God, there is no naming God by any other entity outside it. Hence, in a sense, we may say that God is nameless. Who can call Him by a name? Where is that person who can call Him by a name! As there is, therefore, essentially, no name, in the ordinary sense of the term, that can designate God, He cannot also be regarded as a rūpa or a form which corresponds to a nāmā or a name.
There is an indescribable something which is designated ultimately by Omkāra or Praṇava, and, being indescribable, it is visualised by a name that conveys the best of possible meanings. Though it may itself have no name, and it cannot also be said to have any particular form, we, as jīvas, individuals here on earth, cannot envisage it in that transcendent nature. We have to conceive it in our mind before we can contemplate or meditate upon it for the sake of realisation. This meaningful and suggestive designation of that indescribable, transcendent something, is Brahman, the Absolute.
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
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