Category: Habbits

SADHANA

Sadhana means spiritual path, that is the set of all the practices, rituals and austerities that are performed with regularity and concentration, with the aim of obtaining Moksha (liberation). It is an act of purification and expansion of the mind, which leads to the state of Self-Realization.

In the tantra it is stated that Shiva , in his infinite grace, full of compassion for suffering beings in this dark age, proclaimed   tantric sadhana by means of spiritual emancipation. Tantrism is not a simple theory or philosophy, but above all it prescribes a   systematic sadhana , a regular discipline, according to the practitioner’s temperament, ability and evolutionary degree. A terrific opportunity to experiment with extraordinary techniques for spiritual evolution, introducing yourself to the world of  yantra, mantra and tantra .

Yantra , mantra and tantra symbolically represent the three paths of Hinduism. The yantra  is the path of knowledge (Jñanamarg), themantra  is the path of devotion (Bhaktimarg), theTantra is the path of action (Karmasanyasmarg).

Main types of Sadhana

  • Repetition of the Name
    • Namasmarana / Japa Mala (repetition of formulas or mantras)
    • Bhajan
  • Dialogue
    • Satsang
    • Prayer
  • Abstention / austerity
    • Silence (abstention from speech)
    • Fasting (whole wheat, or limited to certain types of food)
    • Chastity
    • Asceticism (renunciation of worldly life)
  • Study of sacred texts
  • Seva (selfless service)
  • Worship
    • Puja
    • Yajña (ritual sacrifices)
    • Ablutions
  • Contemplation
    • Dhyana (meditation)
    • Contemplation of one or more Murti

0

The 99 Club

Image result for 99 club

Once upon a time, 🏰there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle, was neither happy nor contented.

One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he😊 worked. This fascinated the King…

Why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land, unhappy and gloomy while a lowly servant had so much joy.

The King asked the servant, ‘Why are you so happy?’

The man replied,
‘Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant. My family and I don’t need much – just a roof over🏠 our heads and warm food to fill our tummies.’🍲

The king was not satisfied with that reply. Later in the day, he sought the advice of his most trusted advisor.

After hearing the King’s woes and the servant’s story, the advisor explained, ‘Your Majesty! I believe the servant is not a part of The 99 Club.’

‘The 99 Club? What exactly is that?’ the King inquired.’👥

The advisor replied, ‘Your Majesty, to truly know what The 99 Club is, place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant’s doorstep.’💰

The servant saw the bag, took it into his house and opened it. ‘So many gold coins!’ he gasped in shock.😱

He began to count them. After several counts, he was convinced that there were 99coins only. He wondered, ‘What could’ve happened to that last gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!’😕

Related image

He looked everywhere but that final coin was elusive. Finally, he decided that he was going to work harder than ever to earn that one gold coin and complete his collection.

From that day, the servant’s life changed. He overworked himself, became horribly😖 grumpy, and castigated his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin. He had stopped singing.

Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. When he sought his advisor’s help, the advisor explained, ‘Your Majesty! The servant has now officially joined The 99 Club.’……

These are people who have enough to be happy but are never contented. They’re always yearning and striving for that extra 1, saying to themselves: ‘Let me get that one final thing and then I will be happy for life.

Moral Of the Story:

‘ We can be happy, even with very little in our lives, but the minute we’re given something bigger and better, we want even more! We lose our sleep and happiness, we hurt the people around us… all these is the price we pay for our growing needs and desires.

Are you a part of “Club 99” 🤔😊

Image result for 99 club
0

Appreciation

Image result for appreciation

Question: What is the best advice your mother ever gave you?

Answer By Jonathan Pettit

I was about ten. My mom had just finished creating one of her amazing meals, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Delicious. Later, as I was washing the dishes, my mom came up to me. “Sorry, dinner was so awful again,” she said.

I was shocked. “What? No, it was great. I loved it.”

“Really?” she said, with mock surprise. “You always eat so quietly, never saying anything. You’ve never told me you liked my cooking, so I thought you hated it.”

“No, you’re the best cook I know.”

“Then you should tell me that,” she said. “Whenever someone does something nice for you, you should thank that person. If you don’t, then she might think she’s not appreciated and stop doing those nice things.”

Something clicked right then. From that day onward, I thanked everyone for literally everything. If anyone did something that even vaguely helped me, I thanked that person profusely. It became a habit, something I didn’t even think about, and that’s when the magic started happening.

People liked me more. They talked to me more, shared with me, were more friendly. In my first year of high school, during the final week, I came home and found a giant freezie (a kind of sweet frozen snack) waiting for me. “Thanks, mom!” I said instinctively.

“This isn’t from me, she said. “This is from your bus driver.” He had been driving that bus for years, and my siblings and I were the first people to ever thank him as we got dropped off. Those two simple words made a huge difference, so much so that he went out of his way to tell our mom and give us a present.

That’s the power of appreciation. When you have it, all is right in the world, but when it’s missing life is empty. My mom taught me many things, but taking two seconds to say ‘thank you’ every time, in any situation, was the best.

Image result for appreciation

CRUX OF THE STORY

You would have met people who call themselves as good critics but have you ever met a person who says I am good at appreciating others? Isn’t that a sad part of our society?

Let’s start appreciating people more frequently especially people who are close to us.

Communication,appreciation and understanding are the building blocks of any successful relationship

And more the gratitude and appreciation we show, the more we get to be grateful and appreciative of.

Image result for appreciation

Source: internet

1

Wisdom

Image result for wisdom

Today i would like to tell you about Wisdom. There are 3 different types of wisdom.

  1. The wisdom we hear from others perhaps in a conversation where someone imparts a truth
  2. Then there is intellectual wisdom when we go further into intellectual understanding perhaps by reading a book or taking a course
  3. Finally there is the third type of wisdom when we experience insight and truth first hand for ourselves. This is experiential wisdom.

I will share you an example where Sri S N Goenka describes the three types of wisdom from the perspective of being in a restaurant environment.

1st wisdom heard – this is when a friend or coworker recommends a restaurant and we read positive reviews. We have a favorable impression and decide to make a reservation.

The next level of wisdom is deeper where we gain intellectual understanding. We show up, get seated and browse the menu. As a server passes by we see delectable dishes. Our mouth waters and our tummy growls.

Last the third type of wisdom occurs when we receive our food. We taste and know it is good for ourselves . This is experiential learning / applied wisdom. This third type of wisdom is the most powerful , the one that leads to transformation and liberation.

Wisdom that arrives through our own experience .

Image result for wisdom

The Sanskrit verse to attain knowledge is:

असतो मा सद्गमय । Asatō mā sadgamaya
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय । tamasō mā jyōtirgamaya
मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय । mr̥tyōrmā amr̥taṁ gamaya
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥ Om śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ
– Br̥hadāraṇyakopaniṣat 1.3.28

“O Lord Lead me from the unreal to the real.Lead me from darkness to light.Lead me from death to immortality.May there be peace, peace, and perfect peace”.Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28.

Image result for wisdom

I share this because this is common for people who are interested in meditation to be drawn to intellectual understanding . This is how we learnt in school. We read, absorb, memorize and take a test.

Meditation is int like that. Sure it can helpful to read books and take proper courses to learn the correct technique but the deeper understanding can only come from Doing. With time and patience, through experiential learning we witness and realize the benefits for ourselves.

So read about mindfulness, have conversations about it and take courses by all means, but expect the deepest insights, the most everlasting wisdom to come from sitting down, closing your eyes, and discovering this practice for your selves.


As Conficuious said :


I hear and I forget,

I see and I remember,

I do and I understand.

Image result for wisdom
0

A story of Sri Sri Krishna

Image result for sri krishna

 

Once, it so happened that Lord Krishna was standing in front of the mirror decorating himself. He was trying on different crowns on his head and putting on some fine jewelry while his charioteer waited outside with the chariot ready. His charioteer waited and waited and thought to himself – usually Krishna comes immediately, today he has still not come. So, out of curiosity he went inside to find out if the program was still on because Krishna was very unpredictable, anytime anything could change. So, the charioteer goes inside and he sees Lord Krishna standing in front of the mirror admiring himself.

He politely asked, “My dear Lord, tell me, why are you dressing up so much today. Where are we going?”

Lord Krishna said, “I am going to meet Duryodhana.”

The charioteer said, “You are dressing up so much to meet Duryodhana?”

Lord Krishna then said, “He cannot see my inside, he can only appreciate my outside. So how I am dressed will impress him because he cannot see my inside.”

Then the charioteer said, “You are going to Duryodhana? You should not go, he should come to you. This I cannot accept.”

Many times, the drivers and assistants give you more advise than needed. He continued to say, “This is not fair. Look at your status and look at him! You are the Lord of the world. You should not go, let him come.”

Krishna turned back, looked at him, smiled and said, “Darkness does not come to light, light has to go to darkness.”

These few words silenced the charioteer.

 

 

0

Inner Work

Image result for inner work

Usually when we think about our work we think about our jobs, studies or the daily tasks/chores of living. When we get  a good review from our boss, an ‘A’ on our exam , or a Tidy and organised home, we feel successful in our work. we thrive on seeing visible results and external achievements. Yet there are times when our energy and action needs to shift away from this type of external work and focus instead on inner work, Transformation of our thoughts, emotions and desires. the challenge with inner work that it is imperceptible. there is no gold star when our mindfulness practice helps us temper our reactivity. No one gives us an ‘A’ when meditation helps us improve our concentration. We don’t get a promotion when mindfulness helps us bring gratitude into our daily life. The inner work we do in this path doesn’t provide the visible external achievements we get from our job or responsibilities. But inner work  no less difficult. In fact sometimes it is far more difficult and it’s certainly no less important.

A powerful example of this can be seen in the life of Psychologist Dr Carl Yang. Dr Yang was already an influential psychiatrist when he had a mental crisis of his own. overcome with intense emotions, dreams and even terrifying visions, he withdrew from his professional work for several years. However he wasn’t inactive. Yang used this period of illness to search deep within himself. from the outside he seems to be breaking down but inwardly he was breaking through. Years later Dr Yang wrote that this intense period of inner work led him to his most original and influential insights about human psychology.

So the lesson we can take here that inner work can be some of the most valuable work we do. Overcoming fear, addiction, rejection, regret or grief  through patient inner work can lead to  significant and long lasting improvements in our lives and the lives of those around us.  So make a special effort to recognize and validate your inner-work  –  The hard effort of transformation, healing and growth.

As a guru writes ” peace and joy hither neither in the quietness of a forest nor out of the accomplishments of a market place, but only from within”

Image result for inner work

 

 

0

Flow – The secret to happiness

Image result for mihaly csikszentmihalyi

“Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times—although such experiences can also be enjoyable, if we have worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. ”

― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

 

Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen. For a child, it could be placing with trembling fingers the last block on a tower she has built, higher than any she has built so far; for a swimmer, it could be trying to beat his own record; for a violinist, mastering an intricate musical passage. For each person there are thousands of opportunities, challenges to expand ourselves.

Related image

0

Let it Go ……

Related image

When somebody told me that he has failed in his exams, my question is, “Is it a law that you will pass every time?”

When someone told me that my boyfriend broke up with me, my question is, “Is it a rule that you will have successful relationships everywhere?”

When somebody asked me why am I in depression, my question is, “Is it compulsory to have confidence all the time?”

When someone cried to me about his huge business loss due to his wrong decision, my question is, “Is it possible that you take all right decisions?”

The fact is our expectation that life has to be perfect/permanent is the biggest reason of our unhappiness.

One has to understand the law of impermanence of nature.

After each sunny day, there has to be a dark night, after each birth there have to be certain deaths, for the full moon to come again it has to pass through no moon. In this imperfection of nature, there is perfection.

So stop taking your failures and bad part of your life soooo personally or intensely, even the divine energy does not like to give you pain but its the cycle through which you have to pass. Prepare yourself for one more fight after each fall because even failures cannot be permanent…!

Enjoy life…. 👍😊☺

Your breath comes to go.
Your thoughts come to go.
Your words come to go.
Your actions come to go.
Your feelings come to go.
Your illnesses come to go.
Your phases come to go.
Your seasons come to go.
You have come to go.

Then why do you hold on to your guilt, anger, un-forgiveness, hatred so so so tightly, when it too has come to go…

Let it go … 🌹🌹

Related image

 

0

Good Habits & Discipline

Related image

Please read this carefully and get your son or daughter to read it too.
This post is about what happened in a typical middle-class household.
The son didn’t like living in his father’s house. This was because of his father’s constant ‘nagging’;
“You are leaving the room without switching off the fan”
“The TV is on in the room where there is no one. Switch it off!”
“Keep the pen in the stand; it is fallen down”

The son didn’t like his father nagging him for these minor things.
He had to tolerate these things till yesterday since he was with them in the same house.

But today, however, he had an invitation for a job interview.
“As soon as I get the job, I should leave this town. There won’t be any nagging from my father” were his thoughts.

As he was about to leave for the interview, the father advised:
“Answer the questions put to you without any hesitation. Even if you don’t know the answer, mention that confidently.” His gave him more money than he actually needed to attend the interview.

The son arrived at the interview centre.
He noticed that there were no security guards at the gate. Even though the door was open, the latch was protruding out probably hitting the people entering through the door. He put the latch back properly, closed the door and entered the office.

On both sides of the pathway he could see beautiful flower plants. The gardener had kept the water running in the hose-pipe and was not to be seen anywhere. The water was overflowing on the pathway. He lifted the hosepipe and placed it near one of the plants and went further.

There was no one in the reception area. However, there was a notice saying that the interview was on the first floor. He slowly climbed the stairs.

The light that was switched on last night was still burning at 10 am in the morning. He remembered his father’s admonition, “Why are you leaving the room without switching off the light?” and thought he could still hear that now. Even though he felt irritated by that thought, he sought the switch and switched off the light.

Upstairs in a large hall he could see many aspirants sitting waiting for their turn. He looked at the number of people and wondered if he had any chance of getting the job.

He entered the hall with some trepidation and stepped on the “Welcome” mat placed near the door. He noticed that the mat was upside down. He straightened out the mat with some irritation. Habits die hard.

He saw that in a few rows in the front there were many people waiting for their turn, whereas the back rows were empty, but a number of fans were running over those rows of seats.
He heard his father’s voice again, “Why are the fans running in the room where there is no one?” He switched off the fans that were not needed and sat at one of the empty chairs.
He could see many men entering the interview room and immediately leave from another door. There was thus no way anyone could guess what was being asked in the interview.

When it was his turn, He went and stood before the interviewer with some trepidation and concern.

The officer took the certificates from him and without looking at them asked, “When can you start work?”

He thought ,”is this a trick question being asked in the interview, or is this a signal that I have been offered the job?” He was confused.

“What are you thinking?” asked the boss. “We didn’t ask anyone any question here. By asking a few questions we won’t be able to assess the skills of anyone. So our test was to assess the attitude of the person. We kept certain tests based on the behaviour of the candidates and we observed everyone through CCTV. No one who came today did anything to set right the latch at the door, the hose pipe, the welcome mat, the uselessly running fans or lights. You were the only one who did that. That’s why we have decided to select you for the job”, said the boss.

Image result for good discipline

He always used to get irritated at his father’s discipline and demonstrations. Now he realized that it is only the discipline that has got him his job. His irritation and anger at his father vanished completely.
He decided that he would bring his father too to his workplace and left for home happily.

Whatever our father tells us is only for our good aimed at giving us a bright future!

A rock doesn’t become a beautiful sculpture if it resists the pain of the chisel chipping it away.

For us to become a beautiful sculpture and a human being we need to accept admonitions that chisel out the bad habits and behaviour from ourselves. That is what our father does when he disciplines us.

The mother lifts the child up on her waist to feed her, to cuddle her, and to put her to sleep. But the father is not like that. He lifts the child up on his shoulders to make him see the world that he couldn’t see.
We can realize the pain the mother undergoes by listening to her; but the father’s pain can be realized only when others tell us about it.

Our father is our teacher when we are five years old; a terrible villain when we are about twenty, and a guidepost as long as he lives…

Mothers can go to her daughter’s or son’s home when she’s old; but the father doesn’t know how to do that…

There is no use in hurting our parents when they are alive and remembering about them when they have passed away. Treat them well always.
This is an example of mentorship.

*PLEASE! Share with parents & children.
Good day

Image result for good discipline

0

Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.

Up ↑