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Guru, a four-lettered word, has the phenomenal potential of taking you beyond; not beyond the pains and miseries of life, but beyond yourself. In other words, beyond what you know yourself as, opening the doors to the higher worlds and taking you through experiences which turn you from a normal being to a super being. A guru-shishya relationship is beyond the ambit of maya or a commercial transaction. Guru does not charge a material fee for what he gives you, for it is said that material is maya and it binds you to the physical and someone who himself is bound with the physical cannot take you beyond. In Vedic philosophy, the highest place and regard is given to the energy called Guru. Guru’s shakti (force) is not limited, as the energy is anant (endless) and akhand (expansive). The first Guru, or Adi Guru, is Lord Ardhanarishwar, Lord Shiva Himself. He is the energy responsible for the dissolution and transformation of all forms of existence. Souls who have complet...

The article was published in The New Sunday Express  

Guru is the giver of gyan, the one who puts you on the path of experience and takes you beyond, beyond the realm of five senses. He is not someone in a fancy robe, with a beautiful beard, who dances around trees and promises to cure your illness by breathing like a monkey, of course after emptying your pocket. That is an entrepreneur, who has devised an innovative marketing strategy for him to grow physically. Someone who is himself tied to the pleasures of the senses cannot take you beyond, which is the ultimate purpose of yog. Guru is not the physical body, it is an energy through which gyan flows into the shishya, yet it is important for the Guru to be in body. You get a Guru as per your karmas and shreni, it is not necessary that, who was the Guru of your forefathers will be your Guru as well. Whoever can transfer the experience of yog to you is your Guru.  Guru Poornima is an extremely powerful day, merely being in your Guru's presence can have amazing effects on your evol...

Close your eyes. You will open yourself to a vast limitless expanse, what we call the chittakash. It is in this space that yogis and sadhaks are able to manifest the unmanifest in deep states of dhyan. One might wonder how when there is no space between eyeballs and eyelids can one experience a limitless expanse between them…in this lies the first experience of Shiv; that which is everything and yet nothing. The sum total of opposites- positive and negative, darkness and light, day and night, black and white, silence and sound, creation being bipolar. If you add opposites the result is zero. Shiv thus is that which is purna and also shunya. In the higher reaches of Himalayas you will find sadhus and babajis sitting in silence with not even a piece of cloth on them and yet people from far and wide make the arduous journey to meet them in hope of fulfilment of their desires. Ever wondered how a person, who seemingly has nothing with him, will be able to g...

Life is born out of ‘desire’ and we remain prisoners of this desire over countless lifetimes. During these births, the soul remains oblivious of the purpose of life and gets more and more entangled in  various attractions of the physical world — in relationships, career, properties and places, occupations and hobbies. He is totally immersed in the web and glue of maya, bound to the senses and their objects. What, then, is the purpose of life? It appears to be in experiencing desires which brought you here. And desires are unending. They start with the cycle of karma — one leads to the next and it becomes a successive movement, one that continues forever, until the soul decides this quest is over and finally decides to get back home. But until you return all you took from Creation, you will keep coming back. You have to pay back every karma you play out in your life.  It might be okay to experience and enjoy pleasures, but it is also important to remember the purpose of...

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...

People often ask me, “Why can I not read all the books available and the vedas and evolve? Why do I need a guru? I cannot bow before another man." Such questions and emotions expressed so frequently make me think about the role of a guru. It is the result of good karma of all the previous lifetimes that the gate of a being’s good fortune opens and s/he meets a guru. As a rule, this never happens unless preceded by intense sadhana performed in the previous births. Moreover, very often it happens that even if a great saint, the very incarnation of Lord Shiva, appears in front of an unfortunate being, he is so blinded by ignorance or ego that he takes Him to be an ordinary person and starts judging Him with his limited senses. Whereas if someone has acquired good fortune through positive karma in previous births then love and single-minded devotion at the feet of the guru are his natural qualities — s/he would never lose the chance of meeting Him and recognising that i...

Prana is a frequency of energy at which each individual vibrates. Prana is needed for one’s survival and to perform various day-to-day functions, it is obtained from our environment and everything we come in contact with, like the food we eat, the air we breathe, where we walk (foot contact), what we touch, what we wear, what we look at, and even of whom we think. The body of a being lives due to its ability to hold and utilise the same. It actually manifests in a being as the various essentials (dhatu), viz. asthi (bones), maas (flesh), meda (fat), rakta (blood), majja (marrow), rasa (lymph) and sukra (semen). These are the seven vitals that form a human body. Our soul lives in the body till the time the pranic frequency it is tuned to exists in the body. The day that pranic frequency leaves, the soul also leaves the body. All our actions, moods, aspirations, likes and dislikes, abilities, tastes, energy levels, success and failures, diseases and health are manifest...

Yogi Ashwini  What prompted me to write this article was an interview published by one of the newspapers on a yoga teacher. In one of the lines he was quoted as “my Guru requested me to……” This sadly shows the level of knowledge one has of the Guru and the level of reverence for the Guru today. The Guru never requests you but instructs you and guides you to do a particular act. It is so unfortunate that the people have forgotten the meaning and importance of a Guru. It is very important to understand what a Guru is. Om Dhyan moolam, Guru murti Puja moolam, Guru padam Mantra moolam, Guru vakyam Moksha moolam, Guru kripa,  Om shri guruve namah Om The foundation of Dhyan is your Guru’s image, the foundation of your puja is your Guru’s feet, Guru’s words are like the mantra that cannot be defied and moksha or nirvana is possible only by your Guru’s grace. It is so interesting to know that the concept of Guru is prevalent only in India. There is no ...

By Yogi Ashwini I am often asked why one cannot read all the Vedas and other books available and evolve? Why does one need a Guru? People often say, “I cannot bow before another man”. Such questions and thoughts, asked so very frequently, made me write about the Guru in great detail. To grasp what is a Guru imagine that the sadhak is a piece of very hot stone and that ultimate knowledge is like ice. If this ice melts and falls straight on the sadhak, the body of the sadhak would crack with the force and sudden change in temperature. The Guru is the force that holds this ice cold water and very gently pours it on the sadhak’ s body — very gently the sadhak begins to cool and ultimately becomes as cold as the ice, now he is also a Guru. Sir John Woodroffe, a famous tantrik from the West, impressed me greatly with his works, especially the ones in which he has explained, with quotes from various authorities, the Guru. The following paragraphs echo some of his views and are dedicat...

Guru a word, a four-lettered word, has the phenomenal potential of taking you beyond, beyond not the pains and miseries of life but beyond yourself. In other words, beyond what you know yourself as, opening the doors to the higher worlds and taking you through experiences which turn you from a normal being to a super being. So let us go beyond these four letters, into the energy of these four letters, to fathom this phenomenal force. A guru-shishya relationship is beyond the ambit of maya or a commercial transaction. Guru does not charge a material fee for what he gives you, for it is said that material is maya and it binds you to the physical and someone who himself is bound with the physical cannot take you beyond. Guru has to take you beyond the clutches of maya to give you the real experience. In vedic philosophy the highest place and regard is given to the energy called Guru. Guru is not a physical being; Guru is the energy considered even higher than Para Brahma, the divi...