DHYAN FOUNDATION

The ever-powerful goddess’s presence can be traced across the globe in numerous religions, myths and texts. As per modern historians and geologists, the world as we know today was one big landmass called the ‘Pangea’ many thousand years ago. If one reads the creation story in various cultures, they talk about a flood and a saviour. So then, does it mean that all of us—geographies and cultures irrespective—have common roots, a common origin, and are governed by the same energy? As per Vedic philosophy, there are three aspects of Creation: creation, preservation and transformation, and to run these functions the Divine energy assumes the triple form of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, with the propelling forces Saraswati, Lakshmi and Durga respectively. Interestingly, these pieces of evidence are not limited to the Indian subcontinent but can be found all across the globe. In this article, we will trace the presence of Durga or Adi Shakti cross the world map. Another name f...

Shiva is often described as adi, unborn; anant, endless; akhand, indivisible; nirakaar, formless. Yet, shivling has a form. Why is that? Shiva is beyond birth and yet He has a form. And this form was brought into creation by Adi Shakti. Adi Shakti manifested itself and then created gravity around it through a whirling motion, through rotation, or ‘pradikshina’. Rotation is the basis of gravity, of magnetism, of the energy of prana that is in every microcosm of Creation. When something rotates, it creates a pull or magnetism around it. When you do pradikshina of a Shakti, you are able to relate to it very easily. This practice is used in advanced sadhnas of Sanatan Kriya. When Adi Shakti created the force, yoni manifested. And shivling manifested in that yoni. A shivling encompasses the entire brahmand (creation). When you do sadhana on the shivling, then the entire creation unfolds in front of you, and you are able to access any energy therein. A specific kriya in Sanatan...

Article was published in Goan Varta, Goa

The article was published in Asian Age newspaper. 

Nature has its way of providing for balance in this Creation. For every aspect there exists an equal and opposite. Darkness is nothing but absence of Light. Similarly, Silence is nothing but the absence of Sound. It is only the duality in nature, the co-existence of positive and negative that gives meaning to the existence of the whole. What if at any given time, there exists the entire positive and negative? Then the two will balance each other out completely resulting in a shunya, and yet it is poorna or complete. In other words, there would be everything yet nothing. The only form that could fit such a description is the formless – Nirakaar, Para Brahma. This is the swaroop of Shiv.  In the words of Shankaracharya, 'Na Punyam Na Paapam Na Saukhyam Na Dukham Chidananda Rupa Shivoham Shivoham.' What then is the dancing male form, or the half-man-half-woman, or a sadhu clad in loin cloth with body smeared in bhasma? Are Natraj, Ardhnareshwar and Ne...

                                       In Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna: Krodhaat bhavati sammohah sammohaat smritivibhramah | smritibhramshaat buddhinaasho buddhinaashaat pranashyati ||2-63|| (From anger comes delusion, from delusion a lapse of memory, from lapse of memory there is destruction of buddhi, and from destruction of buddhi person is destroyed.) Krishna in the battlefield of Kurukshetra, gives Arjuna the gyan of deta chment (vairagya) from the fruits of war, to stay untouched from the attachments of anger, jealousy, resentment, grief etc., for the body is perishable, as it is one has to die… attachments only expedite self-destruction. Whenever you do anything with extra passion or attachment, it is equivalent to anger, because body reacts same way—the metabolic rate shoots up, resulting in faster pulse and rapid breathing. These are also the symptoms of a person who is dyin...

Navratras come twice a year, marking the transition of seasons. In Ayurveda, during this time, consume nourishing foods in minimal quantities to rid the body from toxins collected during the rains. The nine nights and ten days of Navratras hold the energy of ten forms of Shakti–Shailaputri, Brahmcharini, Chandrakanta, Kushmanda, Skandmata, Katyayani, Kaalratri, Mahagauri, Siddhidatri and Aparajitha. The weather changes, and various energies of creation move from imbalance towards a new normalcy, including in our body. Our body’s prana shakti undergoes realignment, from imbalance to a new balance for the new season. For this realignment, the body has to be kept light. Therefore, the ancients prescribed fasting or upvaas during these nine days. Upavaas has a  greater connotation than merely holding back from certain foods. At Dhyan Ashram, sadhaks observe upavaas in its authentic sense—giving up all pleasures to observe austerities during sadhna, through celibacy, consumi...

Once I was lecturing at the Oxford University, when a journalist asked me what is yog. I told him, ‘Yog is Guru’. He replied, "If you talk like this we will not be able to publish this article, because in this part of the  world , we do not believe in gurus." I could not help but smile, I told him, "We are one billion Indians, we can export yoga in a billion ways to you, but if you ask me about yog, there is only one. Yog is Guru. You and I can do nothing to change that." This is a problem that one faces not just in the West, this is a problem of the  yug . Someone asked me recently, "Why the country which boasts of such great discoveries and inventions from the past, is today a ‘third-world’ country. Whatever happened to the richness of our culture and advancement of our sciences, where is the charm?" The answer lies here. The charm disappeared with the disrespect of the Guru. Start respecting the Guru, and it will be back. Take a look a...

Nature has its way of preserving balance in Creation. For every aspect, there exists an equal and opposite one. Darkness is nothing but the absence of light. Silence is nothing but the absence of sound. It is only the duality in nature, the coexistence of positive and negative that gives meaning to the existence of the whole. What if at any given time, there exists simultaneously the entire positive and negative? Then the two will balance each other out completely, the net result being shunya or zero. So, there would be everything yet nothing. The only form that could fit such a description is the formless—Nirakaar, Para Brahma. This is the swaroop of Lord Shiv. In the words of Adi Shankaracharya, ‘Na Punyam Na Paapam Na Saukhyam Na Dukham, Chidananda Rupa Shivoham Shivoham.’ What then is the dancing male form, the form of half-man and half-woman, or the sadhu clad in a loincloth with his body smeared in bhasma? Are Natraj, Ardhnareshwar and Neelkanth myths? Let us dwell up...