Established in 1916, the mission of Yog Sadhan Ashram is to provide all individuals, regardless of income or religious background, the traditional and complete teachings of Yoga philosophy and practice free of charge.
One of our talented students, Urmilla Chawla, wrote this beautiful poetry on the 12th chapter of the Gita…enjoy!
Arjun questions Lord Krishna:
Some devotees worship personal God with rituals, prayers and loving devotion
While others seek the Imperishable, Undefined, Unmanifest, and second to none
Tell me Supreme Lord, which Yogi is the superior knower of the path of devotion?
ॐ शन्नो भगः शमु नः शंसो अस्तु
शान्नाः पुरन्धि शमु सन्तु रायः I
शन्नो अर्यमा पुरुजातो अस्तु II
Source: Rishi: Vashishtha Rigveda: 7.35.2
MEANING:
O God! By your grace, humankind has attained wealth, power, intelligence, comforts,
luxuries, independence, and a lot more. We pray that we must not misuse these powers and riches.
They should be used to enhance comfort, peace and justice in the world.
No being should ever suffer from these powers.
Our wealth and fame must beget peace, our intelligence must always be the cause
of comfort, upholding truth and peace. May your justice extend peace and
happiness everywhere.
Hershji gave a very enlightening and inspiring speech on Ram Ravmi! Click below to listen:
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This past weekend over 20 students participated in a workshop on the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. In addition to learning the great wisdom contained in this yogic scripture, everyone also had the opportunity to learn and practice asanas as well as cleansing techniques, like neti and vaman. Pranayama, mudras, and bandhas, practices less commonly practiced in the U.S., were also discussed and practiced.
Above all, students walked away knowing more about the true purpose of Hatha Yoga, which is preparation for higher consciousness. While yoga is commonly thought to be a practice for the body, we wee reminded that we are not merely seaking the freedom from diseaeses but the freedom from the bondage and the waverings of the mind.
The scripture proved to be full of information, and we will likely be studying it in even more depth during Sunday philosophy classes in the future. Stay tuned!
Devta is derived from the word DEV. It literally means: one who gives selflesly. Practically, it has many aspects.
काम क्रोध लोभ मोह अहंकार
kaam krodh lobh moh ahankaar
They refer to universal obstacles and enemies of one’s spiritual development. As long as we indulge in these traits of daily living, we cannot faithfully follow the teachings of Yoga. Hence we cannot attain Moksha, the ultimate goal of human life.
1. Kaam: The sensous feelings. They prevent one from rational thinking, and if denied or are not attained, it leads to Anger.
2. Krodh: Anger. Anger leads to fuzzy and irrational thinking, which leads to irrational behavior. A mind not thinking clearly definitely is a cause for one’s total destruction.
3. Lobh: Greed. Greed leads to attachment. Fulfillment of greed increases attchment and more greed. Non fulfillment of desires leads to anger. Both attachment and anger prevent one from an unbiased thinking.
4. Moh: Attachment (to a person or possessions). As above, attachment is a slow killer. It promotes biased, irrational and depressing behavior.
5. Ahankar: Ego. This is the worst of all enemies. It is the root cause of all other behaviors. It makes a person non humble, non cooperative, possessive, empowering over others and leads to all other four cursive personalities.
We celebrated Vyas Puja last month, and have included some pictures from the day. The highlight was Acharyaji’s short speech on Sunday.
“Dhyana Moolam Guror Murti, Pooja Moolam Guror Padam, Mantra Moolam Guror Vakyam, Moksha Moolam Guror Kripa”
Hershji translated this beautiful mantra for us: I want to meditate on the form of my Guru, pray to the feet my Guru, every word of my Guru is sacred, and moksha comes only from the grace of my Guru “guru kripa”. Simple words but hard to comprehend, Hershji explained that we want to identify with the Godliness of our Guru. This is the real “puja” of the day, not just the rituals.
Finally, Acharyaji spent some time discussing the relationship between the Guru and disciple. It is important to do seva (selfless-service), not because the Guru needs it but it makes us humble, heightens our intellect, and helps us see God in everyone. Seva prepares one to absorb the knowledge from a Guru, but one must actually be in the presence of their Guru to do this. Just like the dialogue between Krishna and Arjun happened in person, we must make the effort to engage in a conversation of questions and answers to progress on the Yogic path.
To find your Guru, look for someone who has knowledge of the scriptures, an ability to explain them to you, nobility of character, and actually experienced what they are teaching.
In the last month’s article, it was detailed how time is measured in Yugas. The Yogic scriptures have also illustrated micro divisions of time in a day. It was well known, even then, that time could be sub-divided into very finite units as tabled below.
१ दिन = ८ पहर
१ पहर = ३ मुहूर्त
१ मुहूर्त = २ नाड़ी
१ नाड़ी = १५ लघु
१ लघु = १५ काष्ठा
१ काष्ठा = १५ क्षण
१ क्षण = ३ निमेष
१ निमेष = ३ लव
१ लव = ३ बेध
१ बेध = १०० त्रुटी
१ त्रुटी = ४ त्रसेणु
१ त्रसेणु = ३ अणु
१ अणु = २ प्रमाणु
1 day = 8 pahars
1 pahar = 3 muhurats
1 muhurat = 2 nadis
1 nadi = 15 laghus
1 laghu = 15 kaashta
1 kaashta = 5 kshans
1 kshan = 3 nimeshs
1 nimesh = 3 lavs
1 lav = 3 bedhs
1 bedh = 100 trutis
1 truti = 4 trasenus
1 trasenu = 3 anus
1 anu = 2 pramanus
Contributed by Louella Harty
On Sunday mornings, ten to twenty students gather to learn from the timeless Yoga scriptures. Acharya Hersh Khetarpal guides us through these rich texts, helping us understand the deep teachings and applications to our daily lives. For the past several months, we have been studying the Kathopanishad.
The Kathopanishad recounts the encounter and subsequent dialogue between Nachiketa and Yama, the God of Death, which was the direct result of Nachiketa’s father’s angry response to a question asked by Nachiketa. As a result of Nachiketa being a patient and honorable guest waiting for the arrival of Lord Yama, he was granted three boons by the God of Death.
Read the rest of this entry »
Yoga philosophy explains the life of this universe and the life of God’s creation using a measurement of time called “kalp”. At the end of the Kalp, the universe is destroyed and stays in dormant condition for a long time. Afterward, the Universe is resurrected and a cycle of another Kalp starts.
A Kalp is said to be a wink of Lord Vishnu, and Vishnu has a life span which cannot be calculated by any known scale. That is how old the universe, God’s Srishty, is. Here is how a kalp is calculated by Earth time.
There are 4 Yugas: Sat yug, treta yug, dwapar yug, and kali yug.
1 Sat yug = 1,460,000 Earth years
1 Treta yug = 1,095,000 Earth years
1 Dwapar yug = 730,000 Earth years
1 Kali yug = 365,000 Earth years
Sat yug + treta yug + dwapar yug + kali yug = 1 CHATAR YUGI = 3.65 million Earth years
1000 Chatar yugis = 1 day of Brahma
1000 Chatar yugis = 1 night of Brahma
2000 Chatar yugis = 1 Braham Divas = 7.3 Billion Earth years
365 Braham divas = 1 Braham Varsh =2.6645 Trillion Earth years
100 Brahm Varshs = Age of BRAHAMA = 1 KALP = 266.45 Trillion Earth years