Everyone says, “Happy New Year.” As we move into the new year, hopefully you are considering what improvements you would like to make in your life. That’s what New Years resolutions are all about – how you can be happier.
No one ever resolves to make themselves unhappy. Sometimes they accomplish this, unfortunately, but not as a New Years resolution.
You do things that you hope will make you feel good. This is true all year long, actually. Now is the time you can set your trajectory for your whole year.
Yoga has the best methodologies I’ve ever found. In minutes, even in a few breaths, you can upgrade your mood, state of mind and even your physical condition.
Here’s how it works – if you are not feeling the way you want to feel, do some yoga. One quickie is the yogic sigh. When you sigh, everyone understands what you are communicating – that you’re not feeling the way you want to feel.
But the yogic sigh is not about getting someone else to change what they are doing. It is purely and simply for the purpose of changing how you feel. Let’s do the yogic sigh…
For the new year, you could to do more sighing. The more you do, the less you need.
Of course, yoga has other breathing practices along with poses. My personal practice of yoga breathing and poses keeps my body healthy and my mind sharp.
Yes, the condition of your body affects your mind. You know this if you’ve ever had a cold or the flu. You can’t think. One of the ways to help with brain fog is to improve your physical condition. It’s been researched and proven. Your body affects your mind.
And while yoga excels at physical improvements, it is the deeper inner experience that yoga focuses on – not simply your body, nor your mind, and not even your emotions – but the deep wordless sense of your own Beingness.
When you feel like you, you feel good. When you feel like you…
“May your days be merry and bright” — what a great line from the song “White Christmas.” It is a beautiful and heartfelt wish.
This sums up what most people look for on Christmas Day or the other holy days celebrated at this time of year. Yes, you want your family gathering to be merry and bright. This is the focus for most people on Christmas. Let go of your agendas for what you want. See how you can help others get what they want.
It’s not so much about the physical gifts, probably. It’s more about the time together, something that may happen too rarely these days.
A full heart is also the secret to having all your days be merry and bright. Not artificially merry, but filled with the love and joy that overflows from a full heart. Your days are bright when they are lit from within, with your own inner light. Now we are talking about yoga.
Yes, your yoga makes you able to share light, love and joy with your dear ones. Your yoga makes you able to give more to the world. Your yoga makes you happier as well as healthier, and fills your heart from the inside out.
As a yogi, this means you fill yourself up before you get together with others. Do more yoga is true on every day, including Christmas Day. Do it for them! As well as for you. You will all be happier.
Plus you might take a moment to remember the one whose birthday we celebrate on December 25. His life and death have affected millions of people for thousands of years. Don’t try to ignore him. You may not be attending a Christ-mass, a religious ceremony in his honor, but give him a breath or a few, a little space in your mind and heart.
His message was very yogic. Yes, it has been interpreted in different ways throughout the millennia. This is why yoga says you must have a living Guru – one who can keep you from the misinterpretations that lead to so much pain.
The whole point is to be filled from the inside-out. The only reliable source for that filling is inside. This is why Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14). Yoga tells you to bring your light with you everywhere you go.
If nobody notices, that’s OK. It’s not about how they see you. It’s about how you see you, oh Shiva. And it’s about how you can make their day merrier and brighter, for that’s what they want, just like you. Oh, Shiva.
The millennia-old yogic tradition is based on yogis helping yogis.
While Western yoga is focused mainly on entry-level practices (poses, breathing practices and devotional chanting), there is help available every step of the way.
Even if you’re doing it yourself by working through a website, yoga book or our Pose Cards, you’re getting a boost from the author. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
As your yoga progresses into the subtleties, into the more powerful realms of inner exploration, the help you get also becomes more subtle and more powerful. Yoga calls this “Grace,” defined as the power of revelation.
Your process of interiorization moves through stages of contemplation and meditation, culminating in profound and deep experiences of inner absorption (samadhi).
As a practitioner of Svaroopa® yoga’s spinal release poses, you already know the early levels of samadhi. You experience them so easily in the seated poses and twists, and especially in your many Shavasanas.
To excavate more deeply, all the way to your inner Divinity, you have to sit up.
All your spinal release work has prepared you for an easy seated pose, so the meditative energy, named Kundalini, can climb your spine.
Yo’vipastho j~nahetushcha.— Shiva Sutras 3.29
Only a yogi with mastery over the shakti-chakra is capable to enlighten others.
This sutra says there are yogis who are capable of giving enlightenment to others. What an amazing gift that is! Personally, this is what got me into yoga and has kept me so focused for so long. Having met such a yogi, my own Guru, I knew I was being given a gift beyond compare ― Grace.
Excerpt from Yoga: Embodied Spirituality, pages 30–32
You want to solve problems. You want to be creative. You want love and joy. You want to care and share. Where does all that come from?
It all comes from within. As you settle in deeper and deeper, you can base yourself in your own Divine Essence. It is Grace that gives you inner access, but it is your own efforts that give you the inner steadiness, the deep inner center that sets you free.
This is freedom, in Sanskrit — moksha. It means liberation. It means you won’t have to come back for another lifetime. You can if you want to, but you won’t be stuck in the repetitive cycle for eons. You’re free!
In honor of 4th of July, the American holiday celebrating freedom, I focus on freedom. I do realize that July 4 is about political freedom – but I like to use it every year to celebrate spiritual liberation. That you really can become free:
* No more inner shadows.
* No more knee-jerk reflexes.
* No more need, greed and fear.
When you find your own inner essence, and when you base yourself in your own Self, you are free from everything that used to drag you down. It’s great!
And it’s a little strange.
* For your past is still your past, but it doesn’t drag you down.
* And your life is still your life, but it’s not weighty and constraining.
* And your future is still your future, whatever you think it could be or should be – it’s up to you, but you’re not holding your breath waiting to see.
You know what freedom is? That your sense of self doesn’t come from your past, nor your imagined future, and not even from the circumstances of your life. Your sense of self is an inner sense, an inner knowing, a wordless Knowingness… of your own Beingness.
In the Knowingness of your own Beingness, you have fulfilled life’s highest purpose – liberation! Freedom!
And you have the freedom to create, to care and share. To give without measure. Free to be without analyzing or strategizing, without making up for or trying to attain. And your mind becomes your greatest tool. Instead of having mental shadows that block your inner light, your mind shines with the light of Consciousness. Chetana, it’s called in Sanskrit.
Expanded mind. Divine mind. Your heart overflows. What a way to live!
Bittersweet chocolate is the best. The sage Narada agrees, describing the yearning for God as the most painful and most blissful of the 11 types of Divine Love.
Today, I honor my Guru on the anniversary of his departure from this earthly plane. It is a day of great grief and a day of great gratitude – both of which are based in Divine love.
Grief is when you feel you’ve lost something important to you. Yet the fact that it was important means you are grateful for what it gave. Thus, grief is the flip side of gratitude.
Wonderfully, this gives you a pathway out of grief — simply express your gratitude. When you put words to all you’ve received from that source, you are filled up inside and there’s no room left for grief.
I was in Spain when Baba left. At the pivotal time in India, it was sunset where I was, on private retreat in a small town overlooking the Mediterranean. That sunset lasted longer than any I’ve ever seen, with colors ranging from golden orange into deep purple.
As I sat and watched it, Baba spoke to me inside. For a long time. Mostly it was wordless communion, but sometimes a few words would come – deeply loving while giving me direction for my life.
He was my sunset. He was my sunrise. He was the sun that lit up my whole world, even my inner universe. Or I thought he was. As long as he was in his body, I could see only Baba. He took up the radar screen of my mind in an ecstatic and glorious way. It was a whole lot better than anything else I’d had on my radar.
It was only after he was gone (seemingly gone) that I could look past my mind and discover what he had given me. He gave me my own Self, the vast profundity and inner reality of Beingness being me. But frankly, I’d rather look at him than look at me.
That’s bhakti yoga, the science of Divine Love. Tukaram, a poet saint of India said it this way, “Please, please, dear God. Keep me just a little separate from you, so there’s still a ‘me’ to love you.” Yes, I love to love Baba. Which is why I indulge myself in sweet moments of Divine Grief – so I can feel the love, the longing, the yearning, while I know I am the One who was He.
There is only One Reality, the ultimate, ever-existent, present-right-here-and now Beingness. Called by many names, our tradition honors the One by the name Shiva, meaning the Auspicious One who plants his auspiciousness in all.
But it’s not like planting a seed in earth, with the seed being different from the earth. Instead, Shiva plants himself in you by being you. Shiva is being you while being me, while being all and beyond all. Oh, Shiva!
So when I look for Baba, I find him inside. I love to look at his photos, but it is always he who is looking through my eyes. I masquerade as a bhakta, lost in love of the Divine, while being the One who is being both the lover and the beloved. There’s no better way to live, always lost in Divine Love, yet knowing that it is me loving me – even when I am loving you.
bittersweet chocolate bits
Jai Muktananda! Hail to Muktananda! As he said about himself, I also proclaim to the world – I don’t care what anyone says about my Baba. He gave me everything.
And he sends me to share it with you. Does anyone want some bittersweet chocolate? We can laugh and cry together. It’s a glorious way to live!
Enlightenment is not what you think. Firstly, enlightenment is not what you think it is. Secondly, and more importantly, enlightenment is not about your mind, so it’s not about what you are thinking. Yet your mind can keep you from being enlightened.
In other words, you must use your mind to get enlightened, but you use your mind in a way that gets you beyond your mind. Enlightenment is a state of being, not a state of mind. It is a deep inner feeling, but not an emotion. Best of all, it’s effortless.
Being unenlightened is hard! You have to constantly review your anxieties and limitations. Your sense of self worth is dependent on how others see you, which means you’re always performing, trying to win their good opinions. Worse, your opinion of yourself needs help.
Enlightenment is a state of profound ease and joy. It needs no external support or feedback as it arises from within. The ever-arising flow of Divine Consciousness washes away all anxieties and limitations. This is called freedom, freedom from who you thought you were so you can be who you really are – Consciousness Incarnate.
How do you get enlightened? You get it from one who has it. It’s just like if you are shopping for shoes. Don’t go to the florist. You’ve probably been trying to get enlightened by learning from unenlightened people. No wonder it’s hard!
It’s time to go shopping for enlightened beings. Find a few, meet them in person if you can. Try out the practices they give and see what you get. Just like shoe shopping – slip them on and walk around in them for a bit.
But the difference with enlightened beings is that you want one that both uplifts you and challenges you, so you can’t stay in your old ruts. It’s dark in there.
It’s not just spring, there’s something more going on. New possibilities, a bounce in your step, fresh energy, even optimism – after years of laying low, it’s time to emanate again. For us in the northern hemisphere, it coincides nicely with spring.
Planetary cycles have held us up for several years, with the pandemic and fear of death hovering over every encounter. Only a few weeks ago, it felt scary to go out without a mask, but now I don’t think about it.
Unmilana is the Sanskrit word for blossoming forth. It is also translated as the opening of your eyes or the uncovering of the sun at the end of an eclipse. It feels that way. You can poke your head out. The sun is shining!
When bears emerge from their winter hibernation, they spend a couple of weeks in “walking hibernation.” They get out less; they do less. You may be in that phase yourself. After all, home has been a safe haven for quite a while. But your comfort zone can become a trap.
Unmilana also means coming forth, along with becoming visible. While online connections have made visual connections possible during our period of seclusion, there’s nothing like getting together in person. There’s even biochemistry to it.
When women get together, their bodies produce more serotonin and oxytocin, which are called “happiness hormones.” With male bonding, testosterone and cortisol are more involved. Bottom line, it’s physical as well as mental and emotional.
In yoga, we focus on a deeper reality, the spiritual dimension of your own being. This is a time of great opportunity. You could blossom forth from your deeper dimensions or you could get lost in worldly drama. It’s all described in this sutra:
By free will alone, Consciousness blossoms forth the universe on the screen of her own existence.
You’re doing the same thing as you emerge from your pandemic seclusion, with one minor exception. The sutra says the unmilana or blossoming forth of Consciousness is what created this universe, while you are blossoming forth into the universe that already exists. Since you are part of the universe, you get to choose what part you will play in it.
Will you be a consumer or a producer? If you were holed up during the pandemic, your focus was on consumption, specifically how you could get everything you needed to make it through an unknown time period. Now that you are emerging into the world, you have an opportunity to focus on what you can give.
To draw from your depths and to share with others, this is unmilana – also translated as twinkling. Like a star at night, you can bring the light of your own being into the world, which makes a difference for everyone.
How do you find the light of your own being? Look in the direction where it resides. That’s inside. Meditate.
I had years with him. I lived and studied with my Baba, both in America and India. After I got past my initial awe of his incredible teachings, I relaxed into his energetic embrace. I deepened into inner realms beyond my imagining. Subtle unravelings freed me from psychological patterns laid down in my childhood, which I now recognize as karmas brought from lifetimes past.
He left this earthly plane 40 years ago today. It was overwhelming to lose him. I didn’t know who I was without him as an external anchor. Yet it was even more overwhelming to discover that his presence had become stronger. The anchor was now inside.
He had prepared us so well, explaining countless times that a great being doesn’t leave when they die. Such a Master merges into Self, thus is found in the Self of all. Their external form was only a masquerade anyway. Living in the whole of Beingness, they are only seemingly limited to a single form. I didn’t understand, of course, not until I experienced it. And even then, I didn’t understand, not until I’d experienced the passing of other loved ones. There’s a difference – a big difference.
When Baba left, I was sitting by the sea, watching the most extraordinary sunset I’ve ever seen. It had more colors and it lasted for hours. All the while, inside, he was revealing truths I need to know. I sat in a Divine communion with him that has never ended.
But to call it Divine communion is misleading, for there must be two in order to commune. Inside, there is only One, which yoga calls Shiva. But for me, that One is Baba. Shiva became Baba in order to give me my Self, who is Shiva. Yes, it’s circular reasoning, even confusing. Yes, it’s entrancing, entwining, enrapturing, enchanting – and Baba was all of that. I live in that Divine mystery. He unveiled it for me while he embodied it. He set me free. Thank you, Baba.
Krishna wanted to tease Rukmini, so he started with a questionable statement, “My dear Rukmini, I could never understand why you chose me out of many great personalities in the royal order who wanted to marry you. Among them, some were famous kings, very powerful and strong. Some may not have been kings, but they all possessed the affluence and riches of kingly order. They were not unfitting in anyway. In particular, your parents and brother gave their word of honor to Shishupala who was a great king. He was madly in love with you, especially after your beauty and he would have remained with you just like your faithful servant. In comparison with Shisupala’s personality, I am nothing. I am surprised you rejected him for me. May I ask you the reason that convinced you to accept me, as I feel I am inferior to all those princes who wanted to marry you? Remember I was so much afraid of Jarasandha that I could not dare to live in Madura, and I had to construct Dwaraka in the middle of the sea to evade him.”
Rukmini and Krishna https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-story-behind-Rukminis-wedding-with-Krishna
He didn’t stop there. He continued, “It’s not too late. You have the freedom to select a suitable husband who is an actual equal to you in family tradition, wealth, beauty and in all other respects. As you know, usually a person does not establish a marital relationship with a person who is either higher or lower than his position.”
Rukmini was well aware that her husband was not an ordinary being. But upon hearing this, Rukmini was afraid of being separated from her Lord, for she had never heard such insensitive words from Krishna before. Filled with fear and anxiety, without replying with a single word, she cried as if being drowned in an ocean of grief. She lost all her reasoning powers and became so weak that immediately her body lost so much weight that the bangles on her wrists became loosened. The fan with which she was serving Krishna immediately fell from her hand. Her mind and memory became puzzled, and she lost consciousness. She fell down straight, like a tree brought down by an axe.
Lord Krishna immediately realized that Rukmini had not taken his words in a playful spirit. She had taken them very seriously. In her extreme anxiety over immediate separation from him, she had fallen into this condition.
Seeing this, Krishna’s heart was softened by Rukmini’s condition. He appeared in front of her in his real form, as Lord Vishnu with his four hands. He got down from the bedstead and brought her up by her hands. He placed his hands on her face and smoothed the scattered hairs on her head gently. He then hugged her to his chest.
He began to speak again in a soft gentle way, “My dear daughter of Vidarbha, my beloved Rukmini, please don’t misunderstand me. The words I spoke that affected you so much are not factual. I just wanted to irritate you and was expecting you to make counter arguments. I am very sorry that you have taken them seriously. I expected to see your angry face and that your red lips would tremble in anger. I thought you would chastise me in many words. I never expected that your condition would be like this. My dear Rukmini you know that we are householders and are always busy in household affairs. We long for times that we can enjoy some teasing words between us, the ultimate game in household life.”
In this way, Krishna wanted to exhibit himself as just an ordinary householder who delights himself by exchanging joking words with his wife. Thus, he repeatedly requested Rukmini not to take the words he had spoken seriously.
Hearing this, Rukmini was freed from all her fear of separation from the Lord. She started speaking softly. “Oh Lord! Yes, you are right about we not being equal. I can never be equal with you as you are the One Divine Reality in its full form. You are the master of all greatness, controller of the three qualities and object of worship. You reside in the deep recesses of the heart of all beings, who are always battling the powerful material senses, which are their enemies. Your movements which are mysterious for even the sages are certainly incomprehensible for human beings. There is nothing beyond you.”
Krishna said, “Oh dear princess, as I said earlier, I fooled you just because I wanted to hear what you would say. Your answers are absolutely correct. Even though you were disturbed by my words, your mind couldn’t be dragged away. I have now perceived pure love towards one’s husband, and adherence to vows of chastity. In all my palaces I do not find another as loving as you.” Rukmini’s delight by hearing this was unmeasurable.
Sudama and Krishna https://heartmeetsoul.com/krishna-sudama-story-moral-english/
Days and weeks passed in Dwaraka. One fine day the guards came into the palace and informed Krishna that his dearest friend Sudama had come to see him. Hearing this, Krishna rushed to meet Sudama. When he saw Sudama, he embraced him and welcomed him with the greatest joy. Then he took him to his personal room. Who is this Sudama that Krishna is so fond of?
Krishna and Sudama were childhood friends who studied under Guru Sandipani. Years passed and Krishna became the King of Dwaraka, Sudama returned to his village and immersed himself into Vedic studies. Sudama belonged to a poor Brahmin family. After some time, he got married and had many children. Even though he was a Vedic scholar, he was suffering from severe poverty. But he never begged for money from others, as he was satisfied with whatever the little money he earned. As he didn’t have good clothes to wear, he often wore worn out clothes with holes in them.
Kuchela and his wife https://www.holydham.com/ the-story-of-lord-krishnas-friend-sudama/
That made people call him Kuchela, a person who wears rags. Kuchela’s wife was admired by all for her domestic virtues. She was always satisfied with whatever her husband brought, having devoted her life to him and the children. She gave the children the education they needed and filled their hearts with dharmic principles, preparing them to be good citizens. Even though what Kuchela brought was not enough, she found a way to feed them all sufficiently, going to bed with an empty stomach herself. After some time, living that way too became difficult. It was time for her to come up with a plan, as she couldn’t bear the sufferings her family was going through.
That’s when she remembered Krishna, a great friend of Kuchela. She went to her husband and told him to approach his good old friend Krishna and ask for help, hoping that he would honor his request. She was sure of it, as she had heard many stories about people approaching Krishna with love and devotion. They always got rewarded for their devotion. Though Kuchela was hesitant at first, he was encouraged by his wife’s persuasion and decided to visit Krishna.
Kuchela with wife and children http://kkrgowthamgudavalli.blogspot.com/ 2017/05/sri-krishna-kuchela-story-of-true.html
He didn’t want to visit his old friend empty handed, after all these years. But he didn’t know what he should offer to Krishna. The usual practice and courtesy required him to take something, so he asked his wife for suggestions. She told him that the idea of a gift was excellent, but as they were so poor and couldn’t afford any gift to be given to a king. After contemplating they both agreed that Kuchela should carry some aval, rice flakes. So, he carried aval in a small sachet and started his journey to Dwaraka.
Kuchela began dreaming about meeting Krishna at Dwaraka. He prepared himself with all the things he could say to please him. He was so delighted that he was getting to go and serve, honor and embrace him. Then suddenly, fear came into him. He wondered how he would pass through the guards. What if they don’t let him in?
But he was determined to go see Krishna so he entered the palace confidently. To his surprise, no one stopped him from entering the palace. He went straight to the guards, who came to Krishna and informed him of his dearest friend Kuchela’s arrival.
After inquiring the welfare of his family, Krishna asked Kuchela what he had brought for him. After seeing the splendor of Dwaraka, Kuchela was feeling embarrassed with his gift of rice flakes. Krishna noticed that Kuchela was hiding a small bag and even without asking for it he snatched it from his hands. He opened it and his eyes lit up in delight, seeing the rice flakes. Immediately he took a handful of rice flakes and happily put them into his mouth. It was so tasty that Krishna wanted to eat more, but Rukmini intervened and took it from him.
Kuchela enjoyed the stay with Krishna and his family. When the time came to leave, he was very sad. On his way back home, he was thinking only about the time he spent with Krishna, particularly the happiness he felt when he was with Krishna. But halfway home, he was a bit unhappy that he had not asked for anything from Krishna, as he and his wife had planned. But he consoled himself by saying, if it was to be, Krishna would have given him the wealth. Krishna didn’t want me to immerse myself in the pleasures of worldliness, he thought to himself. With these running through in his mind he returned to his hut.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudama
He was pleasantly surprised that a miracle had taken place. He couldn’t recognize his hut. In its place was a beautiful and lavish mansion. What he gave Krishna was a merely a fist full of rice flakes with love, but in return Krishna had ordered Vishwakarma the divine architect to build this fine mansion for him. Kuchela noticed his family wearing new clothes and found an abundance of food in the house, or should we say mansion. He was so happy that Krishna had showered his blessings on him.
In spite of all this wealth, Kuchela did not indulge in worldly pleasures, but instead immersed in the thought of Krishna for the rest of his life. Kuchela set an example to all, as the grace of God is the final gift to every human being and we should aspire for it and it alone.
