DHYAN FOUNDATION

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 ...