DHYAN FOUNDATION

Doomsday  is round the corner while I am writing this. 21/12/2012, as per the Mayan calendar and various abstract prophecies, indicates the end of world. The very fact that you are reading these thoughts today proves that nothing happened. But do not be relieved, as the process of destruction of humankind had set in when division set in, when advait became dvait. During the Vedic times, when there was no division, no religion, wars were fought only for protection of dharma. Earlier even asurs followed a code of conduct in war. Now wars happen because of exploitation and hunger for power of a few and there is no code of conduct. In the Vedic times, in spite of having such an advanced weaponry system, there was no pollution, no exploitation. It is only when the concept of ‘I’ came into play that misuse/exploitation of resources, senseless killings and destruction of nature began (though it is interesting to see that no religion talks about ‘I’, violence or division. They only ta...

Pause a moment to think, what is it that brought you to this world. All of us at some point were just a sperm competing with the millions that are produced daily in the human body. The reason why we were born is because we pushed and knocked off the rest of them to come first in the race. This is our basic nature, the reason why we are here - ‘me first’ or simply, selfishness. It is this selfishness that defines everything that we do, including our relationship with people. This is the reason why human relationships do not work out. The reason why you are with someone – be it your friends, parents or spouse is because you want something from them. You are with them only till the time you are getting that from them. As soon as that stops, you will not even look at them. You can try it sometime. The deepest and fondest of relationships come to an end as soon as that give and take is over, and all that remains is grief of what you have lost, what you could have got. You enter and leave...

You look at the cosmos, you look at the farthest of stars that the human eye can see, only to find out that someone somewhere has discovered another star, another galaxy, further away from what you thought was the extent of the universe. You will be surprised to know that the galaxy he ‘discovered’ did not exist before. It is just the consciousness of the person who is looking at it, who was searching for it, who focused his entire life on it that actually created that star. Such is the power of the brain. Consciousness is the sum total of the manifested and the unmanifested. Manifested consciousness is what you can perceive with your five senses — the things you can see, hear, smell, touch and taste. Unmanifested consciousness is what is beyond these five basic senses. The concept of consciousness has a very close bearing to your brain. In an ordinary being, only 7-8% of the brain is functional, and this caters to the experiences of the five senses. As you grow in yoga, with pract...

Sound or ‘ dhwani ’ is said to have originated from the ‘damru’ of Lord Shiva. It is said that every perceivable and unperceivable object in the Universe has a corresponding sound. Sound, the first perceivable dimension of the physical creation originates from a layer so subtle that a normal human mind would not be able to comprehend that force. Prana is the force that pervades the Universe. Manifested in different forms it makes itself perceivable. ‘Mata Adi Shakti’ manifested as the Trinity for the purpose of physical creation. The first physical manifestation after the Trinity was in the form of sound. ‘Om’ (Aum) was the first sound and it came out of the damru of Lord Shiva. Divided into four parts (a-u-m and silence) it represents the journey of the spirit. Before sound, i.e. Creation, there was eternal sil...

Art of silence the key to evolution  By Yogi Ashwini   The mind and the brain control the human body. What is it that controls the brain and the mind? Definitely not the body; otherwise it will become a vicious circle. The brain and the mind are controlled by the desire of the soul. What does a soul desire? Close your eyes and see what is going on inside your brain; give it two minutes. You will realise that there are so many thoughts that are running inside you; so many different things you want—children, family, spouse, business, emotions. All these thoughts indicate to you the desire of the soul. It is because of these thoughts or desires that you are unable to go beyond the human existence and you cannot find peace and happiness within your body. All that is physical is temporary and what is temporary is painful—the reason for the pain that you experience day in and day out in the pursuit of these desires.  When the mind is engaged in thought...

When you see a great work of art, you marvel at its beauty. When you hear a beautiful piece of music, you want to listen to it again and again. When you read an interesting book, it stimulates your mental faculties. But these are the creations of that artist, that composer and that author. Isn’t it ironical that we engage day in and day out in taking pleasure in things that are someone else’s thought and creation, someone who, at times, we do not even know? How many of us care to access the source which triggered that thought process in that person to create something that we all admire? In the last 20 years of teaching yog, I have met many spiritual aspirants, the most learned and well read. I have attended countless spiritual meets where the discussions and concepts usually stem from the intellectual understanding of great works by masters. Adi Shankarcharya, based on his revelations, gave us the Saundarya Lahiri. Patanjali gave the yogsutras . Krishna summarised his gyan in the...

The physical body reflects the power of the ether and its practices The Vedic rishis were the masters of the physical and the spiritual; super beings who controlled prakriti (Nature) and all its manifestations. Time and again, modern science and the best of western minds have turned to Vedic culture to find solutions to complex problems. Enough research has highlighted the scientific basis and precision of Vedic concepts. The physical body, comprising the five mahabhutas (elements), had been completely mastered by the Vedic rishis. The rishis of yesteryears could maintain their physical youth and glow till the very end and then leave the body in a state of full consciousness and awareness. It is very possible to achieve the same in this day and age, provided one develops an in-depth understanding of Vedic concepts and applies them in the right manner to master the physical body. Let us begin to understand what was it that endowed the Vedic masters with their phenomenal glow ...

Creation emerged from stillness. The ultimate purpose of yog is to gather that stillness inside because stillness is the ultimate strength; in fact, it holds the complete creation in it. Patanjali, the source and fountain of yog calls yog to be chitta vritti nirodh, that is, to still the modifications of mind. There are no asanas in Patanjali’s yogsutras , but only one sloka: ‘sukham sthiram asanam’ which translates as a posture in which one is comfortable and still. Similarly, there are no breathing exercises, only kumbhak, that is the cessation of breath and that too natural, not forced — a state experienced in states of dhyan. It is interesting to see how people dance around trees and breathe like animals in the hope of achieving yog. Chitta comprises of the five senses related to five elements, which is the body. In terms of energy body, these five senses correspond to five basic chakras in the body — mooladhar(sense of smell), swadishthan (sense of taste), manipoorak (...

By  Yogi Ashwini 18th November 2012 12:00 AM Mahabharata describes the city of Krishna’s Dwarka and also the war between Shalwa and Krishna. It mentions the various weapons used which include thunderbolts hurled from flying machines in the sky and weapons, which seem to resemble nuclear warheads and machines that seem like flying saucers. Till recently, modern day historians called Dwarka a myth; just as they labelled Ram Setu, the Mahabharata, the Saraswati River and the Aryans being from India as legends. One does not need much brains to understand that most of the historians were from the West or were western-educated, and were towing the line of Macaulay, who had proclaimed in 1836 in the House of Commons that Indians were economically and culturally very advanced. He saw no beggars on the streets and there was no dearth of wealth. He felt that it was impossible to rule such a culture and that the only way was to make Indians believe that their culture was infe...

Take a look at the mirror. Is this who you are? If yes, then who is the person in the 10-year old family portrait? And where will you be when the mirror shows a wrinkled face with grey hair 20 years from now? Are you the person who was sure he could not live without a certain somebody or the one who is now cursing the day he met her? What is it that attracts you to another body — for a short while, temporarily, but enough to enamor you and make you regret later when it is too late as your body has aged? Think about it. What is it in this body that is you? What is it that makes you who you are? People tell me ‘we are the soul’ but then where is the soul? What is the soul? All these are just words till the time you actually have an experience of it. The truth is we do not know who we are, what we want or why we are here. So when we have no idea of what or where we are, who is that we are serving? We sp...

Our body is a poorna ansh or integral part of creation that is run by various shaktis or energies. Each day of the 365 days in a year is governed by a specific shakti; hence the  yogsutras  stress the importance of niyam. If you skip your practices for even a single day, then the shakti or energy of that day is left behind and the sadhna or practice of the entire year becomes compromised because if even a single thing is removed from Creation, it will impact everything around. So the niyam of your practices must not be broken. The days leading to Diwali are especially powerful and a sadhak should keep his mind focused for it is said the sadhna of this time is equivalent to the sadhna of many months put together. On the night of Diwali, there is a congregation of powerful energies and their access becomes much simpler than on normal days. While most are busy lighting lamps, eat...

Om tamso maa jyotirgamayo (take me from darkness to light). Diwali is the darkest night of the year and the night when it is easiest to access the power of light. Light here does not refer to lighting lamps but to the internal light of gyan, which illuminates the being. Most people spend the day lighting lamps in front of Goddess Lakshmi for “getting more and more wealth” but the essence of Diwali lies in “give me wealth and detach me from it” because all that is physical is nashvar (temporary)... it (wealth) will go and when it goes it will give you immense pain. The more you have, the more the pain. Think about it. The things that give you immense pleasure are also the greatest source of your pain. Those who love sweets are the ones who usually become diabetic. Those who deceive you or cause hurt to you are not strangers but the ones who are the closest to you. The wealthiest are the ones who are most tensed towards the end of their loves, unable to part with all they have colle...

http://www.epapernavhind.in/07112012/epaperpdf/07112012-md-Ga-18.pdf

The final phase of kaliyug will witness only pain, and the process has already begun. If you look around, you will see that everyone is unhappy and in pain. The source of pain may be a physical ailment, emotional problem, financial loss or relationship problem, but we are all looking for solutions. At Dhyan Ashram , we come across so many cases of people being fooled into buying weird products and practices to solve their life problems, only to land in bigger troubles. Recently someone wrote to me reporting that she had taken diksha of some strange vidya from a gentleman to gain success in her business but after receiving the vidya, the opposite happened — she suffered a major financial setback and is now looking for someone to teach her some other vidya to get her out of her present problems. Desperate times call for desperate measures and, in such times, we tend to lock our common sense in the cupboard. Think about it; how can someone who is himself dependent on the fee you pa...

Sometime in the ancient times was born a concept that God is somebody holding a thunderbolt in his hand which he will throw down at anyone; not anyone, really, but at your enemy. Lord Shiva, they say, has got bhoots, pesaaches, devis, devtas, suras, asuras, yakshas, rakshas, manavas, danavas and jeev-jantus at his beck and call. Ergo, everything in the universe is an aspect of God. There is no such thing as the devil personified or God personified; everything is part of the One. It is said that even when you harm someone who is bad, you are harming God himself because that person is also part of God. Since you are also a product of divine energy, in a way, you are harming your own self. When you kill someone or hurt an animal, you are harming yourself and that harm has been detailed in the law of karma; while inflicting pain your consciousness level may not be evolved enough to empathise with that pain at that point of time. With the passage of time, that karma ...

 Why are we born? I get mails from people all across the world asking the reason for birth. One common denominator in all these mails is that everybody is in pain and are looking for that something more. Primarily there are two purposes to birth and they have not changed since creation began. First is to go through experience. Experiences were created in the form of a physical body the physical creation and soul was sent to get that experience. Second is to go back to where you started from because with every new life, your experiences are getting grosser. As times progress, the experiences will get worse and the pain will increase. Only when we choose to go back and look for a guru will the pain begin to reduce. We must not forget that we are all linked to each other through the five elements, through collective consciousness, through oneness of the divine. It is our ego that separates us from others and makes us go through our own personal experiences. It is okay to experie...

Artcile came in Navhind times on 24th actober. http://epapernavhind.in/24102012/epaperpdf/24102012-md-Ga-25.pdf

A yogi who doesn't believe in religion is usually hard to come by. But  Delhi-based yogi  Ashwini proudly states "I'm an atheist. I don't believe in religion despite being a yogi." Claiming that "there is no such thing as religion", he adds, "Yoga is a science." Yogi Ashwini was recently in Saligao with his disciple Chandni Jain, to promote her book 'Doomsday Y' . Jain said she accidentally landed at the yogi's ashram. There she "was introduced to some practices of sanatan kriya and realized the science behind it." She said she "used to make fun of it earlier and thought it was boring". "But it has been a process of learning and I have experienced it myself," she said. Explaining how the yogi suggested that she write the book, Jain said, "I was skeptical but he said if you have changed, others can also change." "How many of us actually know our culture?" Ashwini interje...

Vedic civilisation and culture—the oldest of all civilisations—has proved its supremacy over all other existing cultures by virtue of its concepts and superior thought process. When the whole world was living in jungles and leading a nomadic life of hunting and gathering, people living in this part of the planet had developed a highly evolved culture. Their thought process was so unique that it encompassed within it, entire creation; there was no aspect of the physical as well as the spiritual world that was left unattended and un-detailed. Till date, the human mind has not been able to comprehend most of the philosophies and concepts given by the Vedic seers. In this article, I invite the reader to delve into a few of these concepts and understand how deep and how superior their thought process was. Let’s start with the idea of God. God, for the Vedic seer, was an energy which is very light and subtle. Light and subtle, in this context, does not mean that it has no weight; ...

Navratri is time when one sees long queues of people outside temples waiting for their turn to make their request before God. Whenever we pray, we ask for pleasure, how many of us ask for pain? Pleasure and pain go hand in hand. Every pleasure comes with a pain and pain comes with pleasure. Usually we only indulge in pleasure, because of which pain is forced upon us in the form of disease and financial and relationship troubles. Earlier generations understood this dynamic and therefore used to inflict pain upon themselves to compensate for the pleasures they had indulged in. This pain usually comes in the form of service, charity and tapa. So, what is tapa? It is one of the five niyamas prescribed in Ashthang Yoga , where you heat the body by giving it pain. A basic purification, it is a means to throw out your negative karmas and expedite evolution. Fasting or upavaas done during the nine days of Navratri is a form of tapa. Do remember bhoga is a never-ending process; there is...