RAJ YOGA

Spiritual Powers come from practicing the spiritual activities.Inspired by the Hindu monk , Swami Vivekananda, I present to you the Raj Yoga,which helps to attain spiritual wisdom and ultimately make you lead a spiritual life .

The easiest way for me to bring the concept of Raj Yoga to you is by presenting it in a text format ,quoting the message of Swami Vivekananda. He has already explained the Raj Yoga long time ago and there is no need for me to describe it in any different way, as his was very easy to understand and follow. Below is the message that he had delivered in one of his discourse on Raj Yoga.

The result of this branch of Yoga is to make men live long; health is the chief idea, the one goal of the Hatha-Yogi. He is determined not to fall sick, and he never does. He lives long; a hundred years is nothing to him; he is quite young and fresh when he is 150, without one hair turned grey. But that is all. A banyan tree lives sometimes 5000 years, but it is a banyan tree and nothing more. So, if a man lives long, he is only a healthy animal. One or two ordinary lessons of the Hatha-Yogis are very useful. For instance, some of you will find it a good thing for headaches to drink cold water through the nose as soon as you get up in the morning; the whole day your brain will be nice and cool, and you will never catch cold. It is very easy to do; put your nose into the water, draw it up through the nostrils and make a pump action in the throat.

We must be the masters, and not the slaves of nature; neither body nor mind must be our master, nor must we forget that the body is mine, and not I the body's.

Returning to our subject, we come next to Pranayama, controlling the breathing. What has that to do with concentrating the powers of the mind? Breath is like the fly - wheel of this machine, the body. In a big engine you find the fly - wheel first moving, and that motion is conveyed to finer and finer machinery until the most delicate and finest mechanism in the machine is in motion. The breath is that fly - wheel, supplying and regulating the motive power to everything in this body.

We do not know anything about our own bodies; we cannot know. At best we can take a dead body, and cut it in pieces, and there are some who can take a live animal and cut it in pieces in order to see what is inside the body. Still, that has nothing to do with our own bodies. We know very little about them. Why do we not? Because our attention is not discriminating enough to catch the very fine movements that are going on within. We can know of them only when the mind becomes more subtle and enters, as it were, deeper into the body. To get the subtle perception we have to begin with the grosser perceptions. We have to get hold of that which is setting the whole engine in motion. That is the Prana, the most obvious manifestation of which is the breath. Then, along with the breath, we shall slowly enter the body, which will enable us to find out about the subtle forces, the nerve currents that are moving all over the body. As soon as we perceive and learn to feel them, we shall begin to get control over them, and over the body. The mind is also set in motion by these different nerve currents, so at last we shall reach the state of perfect control over the body and the mind, making both our servants. Knowledge is power. We have to get this power. So we must begin at the beginning, with Pranayama, restraining the Prana.

Raj yoga is a long subject and will take several posts to illustrate it thoroughly. Today I leave you with this much only, will present some more in this regard in my future posts.

SPIRITUAL HEALING

What is Spiritual healing? Different people and masters of spiritual practices have their own way of explaining this concept of spirituality. It’s the use of the incredible ability of our soul to heal ourselves from various diseases that make us weak and low on morale. It is the ability to grow from inside and it comes from inside only. This knowledge or spiritual wisdom of healing ourselves is inherent in man and it does not come from outside. It’s our own soul which has the ability to teach us, to heal us and there is absolutely nothing that is impossible for the soul. The soul is the infinite mine of knowledge and one has to discover it by removing the cover off his soul.

Any spiritual activity like praying, meditation, offerings to different deities, visiting temples or other places of worship, etc gives internal and eternal happiness to the mind, body and the soul. The ability to use these practices to work on our weaker areas of life such as earning more and more wealth, staying out of diseases, staying out of debts ,earning respect and above all staying joyful and happy from the core of the heart is what I call as Spiritual Healing is all about. Correct me if you think I am wrong. 

The power of Spiritual Healing is attained from long and continued practice of the spiritual activities. There is a way to attain these Spiritual Powers. To begin with, one has to start believing on the importance of prayers. Pray not only for you selves but also for others as well .Start praying right now. Close your eyes for some time, breathe in a fresh air and release it, now talk to your Lord in the language that you’re most comfortable with. Say everything to him now. Surrender yourself to him. Feel the happiness that you get after every prayer. My friend, let’s pray to the Lord for blessing us and giving us the ability to have control over the five senses - sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch.  The sense organs that control these senses should not be confined to do anything that you do not want them to do. Developing such a control system in the body keeps us free from all sorts of sins and sinful activities. One needs to be pure from inside to have the Spiritual Powers and the spiritual wisdom. The key to this end is meditation. There are various ways of meditation and much have been discussed in my earlier posts as well, also there is a separate tab on the top of the screen on meditation. One of the prime advantage of deep meditation is you develop your DNA and also the sixth sense. You will have much better understanding of Karma. DNA is an interesting topic of discussion these days. When the DNA is activated to its fullest potential then you will be able to manifest easily and it will be much easier to move from negativity and fear into peace, love and forgiveness. You find yourself many years ahead. 

Let’s take the first step towards spirituality and try to attain the spiritual powers. Lets follow the teachings of our spiritual gurus and leaders to empower ourselves with Spiritual healing. Let me know how feel about my blog.

RIGHTEOUSNESS OR RECTITUDE

SPIRITUAL POWERS

This article is on Righteousness.I have used many words that you might not be aware of. These words are in Sanskrit, but you can find the English meaning of these divine words in Wikipedia (find Wikipedia on the right side of your screen). I am thankful to Wikipedia for helping us with the meaning of these Sanskrit words from their huge database which also serves as a knowledge bank for us.

The reason of writing this article is to give you an insight on righteousness or  rectitude and where to find it in today’s life where people can no longer be assured of living hundred years of life. Physical well being is threatened by many ills and the mined is more concerned with Kama (meaning sexual desires),Krodha (meaning - rage),Lobha (meaning-greed), Moha (meaning - strong attachments),Mada (meaning -pride),Matsarya (meaning - stinginess),which are the six main enemies of man. Man’s intellect is clouded by ignorance. If we want to come out of this illusion, which is called Maya, then we have to save our soul from this sinful life on earth. We have to study righteousness and other holy books or the religious texts like the Vedas and Puranas in Hindu religion, or The Bible in Christianity, or the Quran in Islam and Guru Granth Sahib in Sikhism and all other holy text books according to our faith and followings of any religion of the world.

Unfortunately most of us are so occupied in our present day life that we do not have the time to study these holy books which are invaluable and the most precious texts to the mankind. All of our spiritual gurus have talked and preached about developing the habit of reading the holy books every day from time to time. Our holy books tell us the story of the Lord and all those things that our Lord has done to establish righteousness on earth. We may call him by different names according to our beliefs but we all know that he is infinite, the incomprehensible, and not bound by anything. The lord has helped man again and again. He establishes righteousness or dharma whenever there is a threat of its being eclipsed. Even the most unacceptable sinner in the world can be saved if he listens to the stories of the Lord and about his teachings. The only path to the Lord is devotion or bhakti or the bhakti marg.  

Now the question is how to find the Bhakti marg or the path to the Lord. Find the company of a spiritual guru who discusses about the greatness of the Lord and helps to reach salvation. In Indian philosophy we call it as Satsang. Also learn about the spiritual powers hidden in Prayers. It helps to come out of all sorts of fears and also helps to regain confidence in God. The Hindus have a ritual called Aarti which light from wicks soaked in purified butter (it’s called ghee in Hindi) and camphor is offered to the Lord and then to all the deities present. During this ritual the deities present sing songs in praise of the deity. These are just a few things out of the in numerous practices that can be followed to realize the spiritual powers that we all have inside ourselves.

Points to remember:

• Follow the path of devotion which leads to the Lord
• Start following your holy books and start learning about the greatness of the Lord.
• Come out of all the sins by reading about the Lord.

One Important Point from the earlier posts:

• Start meditation and understand the happiness in the Meditation Process.

Who Addressed the Americans as his Sisters and Brothers?

Dear friends I would like to draw your attention to a speech that was delivered by a Hindu monk, Swami Vivekananda, several years ago in the year 1893 in the Parliament of World’s Religions in Chicago, USA. This speech, I think teaches us many things to live a happy life.

I can tell you that you will not only enjoy but you would love reading through the lines of this beautiful speech which was delivered way back in 1893, in English in a country where you find the maximum population from the native speakers of the English language. This is not an ordinary speech; rather there are many things that one can find out from this speech of Swami Vivekananda, which might help us realize the importance of the spiritual aspect of our life.

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA, AT the Art Institute of Chicago , IN THE WORLD PARLIAMENT OF RELIGION, USA, 1893.

Sisters and Brothers of America,

It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions; and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects. My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that

these men from far-off nations may well claim the honour of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering remnant Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: "As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee." The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: "Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me." Sectarianism, bigotry, and it’s horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honour of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal. 

The Speech :