If you want to strengthen yourself, try to develop consideration for
others and see how much you can do for them.

Usually you do things only for yourself and you also expect others to
do things for you.

If you develop and cultivate in yourself the desire to give to
others, and then once a day do that without any selfishness, you will
be surprised to find that you will enjoy everything more.

Swami Rama
The Art of Joyful Living

Sunday, August 18

Dear Friends,

Word has just come to me that Swami Satchidananda Saraswati, founder
of Yogaville, in Virginia, USA has just left the body within the past
few hours or so. He was in India at the time.

Swami Satchidananda is one of the most loving and loved yogis of
modern times. Though I never met him personally, I hold him close to
my heart, as he and Swami Rama were close friends for many years.

Here is a link to the Yogaville page on Swamiji's biography:
http://www.yogaville.org/Integral_Yoga/Sri_Swami_Satchidananda/Bio.php

Swami Satchidananda has been an exemplar for all as a most devoted
servant of humanity.

OM Tat Sat,

Swami Jnaneshvara

Here is the obituary of Swami Satchidananda Saraswati,
published by the Yogaville Ashram:

http://www.yogaville.org/Obituary.html

http://www.yogaville.org/

To be a miner of diamonds,
take care of your picks and shovels.
To be a miner of your spiritual Self,
take care of your body, breath, and mind.

Swami Jnaneshvara

We must not create a wall between our worldly and spiritual lives.

People disorganized in their worldly life search for spiritual wisdom
in seclusion; whereas, if organized properly, they can have all the
means and resources that are of utmost importance for spiritual
enlightenment. The purpose of human life is to make the best use of
the resources that nature or God has given us.

There are typically two kinds of people. Some are involved in the
world and are busy in their self-centered activities. Others renounce
their families and do not participate in worldly life at all. There
are very few people who use discrimination, work hard for their self-
fulfillment, and at the same time, contribute to the welfare of
society. People belonging to these two categories have an incomplete
world view, and therefore, strive for their limited goals.

In our modern age, where the standard of living has been facilitated
by science and technology, we must learn to make the best use of our
ample resources. A lifestyle that is suitable for both worldly
fulfillment and spiritual enlightenment is the best.

Those who strive to attain personal enlightenment and help others
light their lamps are the true leaders of the human race. Blessed are
those who are useful for themselves as well as others. They attain
the highest goal of life here and now. Right in this mortal world,
they become immortal and their wisdom guides humanity on the path of
immortality.

Today's society is waiting for selfless, spiritually enlightened,
well-balanced leaders to guide them in how to live happily here and
hereafter. Such leaders or reformers will not come from outside our
society. They have to be born, raised, and trained right in our own
society. We are the ones to become our own guides, our own leaders,
and we are the ones to enlighten our own lives.

Get up, my friends, arise: attain knowledge, and dedicate your life
to the service of your fellow beings.

Swami Rama
A Call to Humanity

In case you're finding meditation difficult or complex, here is a
reminder of the "simplest" meditation:
http://swamij.com/simplestmeditation.htm

In loving service,

Swami Jnaneshvara

When one learns to analyze his desires, he comes to understand which
desires are helpful for him. Desires can be chosen by understanding
how they arise and function and what their consequences are.

The faculty of discrimination helps us to judge which desires yield
results that are helpful, and which do not.

Those desires that create obstacles should be shunned, but the
desires that are helpful should always be strengthened. Such helpful
desires should be brought into action.

Control of unhealthy desires is not repression or suppression.
Control means that we have realized that a desire is not healthy and
that we are gathering together all our energies and directing those
energies toward one healthy goal. But in repression and suppression
we suffer because of stress and we are still victims of those
desires.

Swami Rama
Choosing a Path

Love is what is left
when you've let go
of all the things you love.

Swami Jnaneshvara

Imagine you see a car, and your friend says, "What's that?" You
say, "It's a car." Imagine that the car is missing a wheel, and your
friend asks you the same question. Still, you say, "It's a car." But
what if all four wheels were gone, and the doors were gone, and the
engine was gone. Then, what would you say when your friend
asked, "What's that?" You might say something like, "Junk." We may
not know the exact point of change, but somewhere along the way, in
removing the parts, you'd naturally stop saying, "It's a car."

At what point, and after how much adaptation to modern culture, does
Yoga cease to be Yoga? When Yoga is stripped of its higher goals and
methods, can it still be called Yoga? When is Yoga no longer Yoga?

See also: http://swamij.com/ancientyoga.htm#nolonger

Swami Jnaneshvara

You have the power to change the destiny of your life. You have the
power to mold the entire stream of your life, to give a new direction
to your life.

There is one difficulty in doing this, however, and that is your
habit patterns. Your personality is a particular character, woven by
your habit patterns, but how are your habits themselves formed?
Habits are formed because you have repeated some action or thought
again and again. Thus, it becomes a habit. Then, you unconsciously do
it; eventually, it is a full-fledged habit.

When you understand that all your habits are formed by the simple
process of repeating some action or thought again and again, then you
can learn another process, that of undoing and changing your habits.

Swami Rama
The Art of Joyful Living

Knowledge has a subject and an object.
Wisdom has neither.

Meditate, meditate, meditate...

Swami Jnaneshvara

Pope revamps rosary for a new generation

Thu Oct 17, 8:25 AM ET

Cathy Lynn Grossman USA TODAY

Pope John Paul II initiated the 25th year of his papacy Wednesday by
updating the prayers of the rosary for the first time in five
centuries. The rosary is the Roman Catholic world's best-known
devotional practice.

Deeming this the Year of the Rosary, he added a new set
of "mysteries" -- events in the lives of Jesus and Mary -- for
worshipers to reflect on while repeating a series of prayers.

The additions will give "fresh life" and renewed attention to the
rosary as a vital part of Christian spirituality, said the pope,
lamenting that his own favorite prayer practice had faded,
particularly among younger Catholics.

The rosary is a series of prayers, including the Our Father and the
Hail Mary, that are recited repeatedly, keeping count on a chain of
beads. Tradition has it that Mary revealed the structure of the
rosary in a vision to St. Dominic in the early 13th century.

The current version was standardized in the 16th century. It calls
for contemplating 15 mysteries, clustered in groups of five: the
joyful mysteries of Christ's birth, the sorrowful mysteries of his
crucifixion, and the glorious mysteries of his resurrection.

Different mysteries are contemplated each day, with the glorious
mysteries repeated on Sundays.

Now, on Sundays, the pope asks Catholics to reflect on
five "mysteries of light": Christ's baptism, his first miracle at
Cana, his proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God, his
transfiguration in front of three disciples, and the institution of
the Eucharist as a sacrament.

While beloved by many older Catholics, the rosary is not a required
devotion, and some have come to view it as a rote prayer. Many baby
boomers jettisoned their rosaries in favor of more personalized
prayers.

Now their children are finding new excitement in old-fashioned
practices, says Monsignor Dale Fushek of Mesa, Ariz.

Fushek is the founder of the fast-growing Catholic youth movement
Life Teen, established in 900 U.S. parishes. Once a year the groups
distribute rosaries embossed with the Life Teen logo and teach teens
the prayer cycle.

"They don't learn it at home and school anymore, but kids today
hunger for spirituality," he says.

"When I announced (the change) to students, it blew their minds,"
says Scott Hahn, professor of theology at Franciscan University in
Steubenville, Ohio, where 60% of students pray the rosary
daily. "They think it's awesome because it connects Jesus and Mary
even more than before."

Unlike the ardent students in Steubenville, however, most U.S.
Catholics say the rosary rarely. According to a national poll of
Catholics in 2001 by the Center for Applied Research for the
Apostolate at Georgetown University, 39% never say it, 33% say it
only a few times a year and 27% say it several times a month.

An updated rosary connects with the popularity of meditation today,
says the Rev. Thomas Marcinik of LeMoyne College, a Jesuit school in
Syracuse, N.Y. "The pope is saying that with all the changes and
openness to the modern world, not to lose the spirit of traditional
prayer."

A group of bats, hanging from the ceiling of a cave, discover a
single bat STANDING upright below them on the floor of the cave.
Surprised by this unusual behavior, they ask, "What's wrong with you?
What are you doing down there?" The standing bat answers, "Yoga!"

An attitude of indifference and laxity towards the purpose of life is
ruinous. We should always carefully refrain from such an attitude.
Friends, my words may be unpleasant to you, but I will never give a
coating of sweet words to this stern truth. How long can we beguile
ourselves by turning away from the truth of life?

Swami Rama
Book of Wisdom, Ishopanishad

Knowledge has a subject and an object.
Wisdom has neither.

Swami Jnaneshvara

Interior research is fundamentally different than the research
conducted in the external world. In the external world, the
researcher finds subjects for his experiments, but in interior
research, the researcher must become the subject himself.
The task is enormously difficult, for the interior researcher must
assume the attitude, "I am a researcher, I am a laboratory, and I
am the subject."...

A true researcher uses all means available to search for the cause of
the happenings in the internal world.

Swami Rama
Path of Fire and Light

Today, November 13, 2002 is the 6 year anniversary of Swami Rama's
Mahasamadhi, his day of leaving the body. While remembering the highs
and lows, the kicks and blows, this is a day in which I especially
recall, with a tear in the eye and warmth in the heart, the moment in
which this most masterful face of the Himalayan sages said to
me, "You are on the path--I will lead you."

It is a good day to remember that Gu means darkness, and Ru means
light, and that Guru is not any person, but is the force field driven
by grace that removes the darkness of ignorance.

May the grace of Guru guide you to your eternal Self. May all of
humanity be bathed in the light of Guru.

In loving gratitude and service,

Swami Jnaneshvara

Dear Friends,

Below are links to a few new papers that have been published on the
web site. I hope you enjoy them and find them useful.

In loving service,

Swami J

Yoga Nidra (yogic sleep):
http://swamij.com/yoga-nidra.htm

Three Schools of Tantra :
http://swamij.com/tantra.htm

Kundalini Awakening and a River:
http://swamij.com/kundaliniriver.htm

Modern Yoga versus Ancient Yoga:
http://swamij.com/ancientyoga.htm

You have the power to change the destiny of your life. You have the
power to change your personality. You have the power to mold the
entire stream of your life, to give new direction to your life.

There is one difficulty in doing this, however, and that is your
habit patterns....

When you understand that all your habits are formed by the simple
process of repeating some action or thought again and again, then you
can learn another process, that of undoing and changing your habits.

Swami Rama
The Art of Joyful Living

Dear Friends,

Here is a link to a new web page at entitled "How to use a mantra".
It provides some practical tips on how to use a mantra or sacred
word. These suggestions are general in nature and should apply to
most any use of mantra:
http://swamij.com/mantra-use.htm

There have also been some clarifying revisions to the paper
"The Self behind the Paint and the Canvas":
http://swamij.com/canvas.htm

In loving service,

Swami Jnaneshvara

Shortcut to Self-realization:
http://swamij.com/shortcut.htm

The state of silence is a state of complete, all pervasive peace, in
which the intellect ceases to occupy itself with that which is only
relatively real. In this silence, the great soul who knows and is one
with Truth enjoys unmingled joy of the eternal.

To the person who has realized the Truth as his or her own true
being, there is no more excellent joy than this state of silence, in
which all cravings are dumb.

Adi Shankaracharya
Vivekachudamini, The Crest Jewel of Discrimination

What is more important than
where we are standing on the path
is the direction we are looking.

Swami Jnaneshvara

The modern world revolves faster and faster, day after day, and human
beings are dazed and unable to find their bearings. Modern man finds
himself deep in this situation: his past is unrecoverable, his
present is uncertain, and his future is an interrogation. Never in
the history of mankind has the human being ever experienced such
utter darkness within himself, in the midst of such abundant
prosperity outside himself. The modern economy governs modern men and
women.

Yet modern people are seeking for light to lead them. Their hearts
are crying for Truth today, for life and health.

The ancient prayer echoes silently in the hearts of modern men and
women: "From the unreal, lead me to the Real. From darkness, lead
me to Light. From death lead me to Immortality."

Swami Rama
Wisdom of the Ancient Sages

Dear Friends,

The human being is like a building with 10 doors, which are the 10
senses called indriyas. It is through the indriyas that the indweller
communicates with the external world. The process of self-
exploration, in a sense, begins with these 10 senses. They are
literally observed in action as a part of sadhana (spiritual
practices), both in daily life and at meditation time.

Here's a new paper on the website that is about the 10 indriyas:
http://www.swamij.com/indriyas.htm

In loving service,

Swami J

If you enjoy shopping, you might spend many hours going from store to
store, examining countless products that catch your eye.

If you enjoy the forest, you might wander the whole day, exploring
this and that place, the plants, and the animals.

So, why is meditation so difficult? Why is it called
"discipline" when you have to force yourself to sit still,
and close your eyes for a few minutes?

Do you enjoy meditation? Do you examine and explore within, like you
do in a shopping mall or a forest? Or do you fight, trying hard to
avoid all of those inner products, places, and life forces?

If you enjoy meditation, you need no discipline. It is a joy to go
within, to learn the fascinating ways that this inner instrument
operates. The journey within, the call to be an inner shopper, an
interior explorer or researcher, pulls on you, calling you to that
time each day when you can be still and go within.

In the shopping mall, when your feet get tired, you finally sit for a
rest, and watch the other people. In the forest, after some time, you
find a quiet place to rest in the beauty of nature. In meditation,
after all of the exploring of the impressions, letting them come and
go, you come to rest in the stillness and silence, being a witness to the inner
actions.

May your favorite journey be the one within.


In loving service,

Swami J


To know yourself at all levels:
http://www.swamij.com/WhatIsYogaMeditation/levels.htm

Witnessing within:
http://www.swamij.com/witnessing.htm

Dear Friends,

In recent history there have been great strides in bridging the
spirituality of East and West. Notable among these was comments made
by Swami Vivekananda at the World Parliament of Religions in 1893.
The World Parliament of Religions was sponsored by the Unitarians and
Universalists of the Free Religious Association, and was a part of
the greater Columbian Exposition held for several months in 1893, in
Chicago, which was attended by over 27 million people.

Swami Vivekananda's talk is a benchmark, in that he was the first
such teacher to visit America, and this was his first talk.

After the welcome address of the opening of the World Parliament of
Religions, Swami Vivekananda spoke, and started with these few
words: "Sisters and Brothers of America." The 7,000 people in
the audience, immediately feeling his sincerity, rose to their feet
and "went into inexplicable rapture with standing ovation and
clapping that lasted for more than three minutes." He went on,
"It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to
the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us…"

Swami Vivekananda closed by saying, "Sectarianism, bigotry, and
its 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 honor 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."

Most of us in spiritual pursuits know of the many
"coincidences" that seem to come from time to time.
Occasionally, one of these "coincidences" is so strong as to
leave us momentarily speechless. Such a moment came to me as I
realized the current significance of the date of Swami
Vivekananda's message.

In the East, the number 108 has been described as having great
significance, as noted here:
http://www.swamij.com/108.htm

The first message of Swami Vivekananda in America, often said to be a
key point of the bridging of Eastern and Western spirituality, and
the coming of yoga to the West, was given on September 11, 1893,
exactly 108 years, to the day, before the date September 11, 2001.

Whether by coincidence or plan, it calls out for a closer reading of
Swami Vivekananda's message and it's appropriateness for our
current times.

In loving service,

Swami Jnaneshvara

http://www.swamij.com

In your meditations this new year....

May your body be still and comfortable....

May your head, neck and trunk be aligned....

May your breath be smooth, slow, serene, and with no pauses....

May the flow of thoughts in your mind not disturb you....

May your meditations this new year bring you peace, happiness and
bliss....


OM, shanti, shanti, shanti
OM, peace, peace, peace

Swami Jnaneshvara

In meditation, we try to let go of all the many mental distractions,
preoccupations, and the fleeting thoughts and associations of our
normal waking experience.

We do this, not by trying to make the mind empty, which is
impossible, but instead, by allowing the mind to focus on one subtle
element or object, which leads the attention further inward.

By giving the mind one internal focus of attention, we help the mind
to cease its other stressful mental processes, such as worry,
planning, thinking, and reasoning.

Swami Rama
Meditation and Its Practice

Dear Friends,

Following is a news release from the Associated Press of Asia, dated
January 6, 2003 relating to the slaughter of cows in India. I am not
intending to take sides in this, but thought you might enjoy seeing
the perspective of the degree to which we have choices in practicing
the yogic principle of ahimsa, non-violence.

As a matter of interest, the state of Uttar Pradesh is in the
northeast of India, near the Himalayas. Until the recent (2000)
division of Uttar Pradesh into two states, it included Rishikesh and
the main pilgramage sites in the high Himalayas, bordering on Tibet
and China (those are now part of Uttaranchal state).

In loving service,

Swami Jnaneshvara


LUCKNOW, India - India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, on
Monday banned the slaughter of cows.

India's Hindu majority reveres cows, but beef is served in
restaurants and hotels in big cities. A few of India's 29 states have
previously banned cow slaughter, prompting traders to carry cattle
across state lines to slaughter houses.

Under the ban, anyone found slaughtering cows in Uttar Pradesh can be
jailed for up to seven years and fined $290, said Ratan Kumar
Srivastava of the state Commission to Help Cows.

Uttar Pradesh, which now has some 180 million residents, enacted a
law in 1955 banning most cattle slaughter, but allowed older cows and
defective calves to be killed, Srivastava said.

On Monday, officials raided slaughter houses across the state and
prevented 1,164 cows from being killed, Srivastava said.

Hindu hard-liners have been campaigning for a national ban on cow
slaughter in India, a nation of more than 1 billion people.