Drawing cosmic energy

Long back, I got an opportunity to learn the technique of how to draw solar energy from a surya yogi.First he explained the beneficial effects of early morning sun rays on human body. Then , he taught us how to draw that solar energy through right concentration and breathing and then send it to every part of the body systematically. The whole process took fifteen minutes only, and we could feel light tingling sensation on each part of our body. Like this surya yoga, many other ancient techniques like, pranayama, yoga, meditation etc can rejuvenate body and mind in a short time , in a significant way. It is also proved that, when we inhale more oxygen and exhale more carbon dioxide, body glows and feels less hunger.
Our common belief is, restoration of bodily energy is possible , only by taking more food, drink and rest.Though there is some truth in it, but according to yoga theory, eighty percent of energy comes from right breathing and positive mental attitude, while twenty percent comes from food and rest.Over eating and wrong eating habits  create many problems.As Yogananda said, "some thing that tastes good and fills the stomach, does not necessarily satisfy bodily needs." He also said, fresh fruits vegetables and nuts are very effective to supply energy. But heavy intake of protein can cause many ailments.
To maintain good health, good food habits and light exercises like walking, swimming, yoga etc should be combined. Proper breathing also keeps body mind healthy and glowing. It is better to be careful not to waste energy by useless and negative thoughts and actions.Through right actions and meditation , when life gets connected with its source, it becomes meaningful. Breaking the narrow wall of selfishness , it embraces life with love , compassion and self less service. This massage is echoed in these few lines of Tagore. He said,"Let me not project myself in my work. Let your will be done in mylife.Stand firm on the lotus of my heart, and protect me .

Four pillars of life

An inspiring zen proverb gives a formula on how to be happy in life. It says, "Health is the greatest gift, contentment is the greatest wealth, a trusted friend is the best relative, a liberated mind is the greatest bliss." Focusing on these points more with right concentration, we may find some very important points, which generally we over look in life.
Health is the greatest gift which we get from nature. According to ancient Indian yoga system, good health stands on five pillars. They are right exercise, right breathing, right relaxation, right diet and positive thinking. Good health also includes a happy mind, because a happy mind attracts more cosmic current and universal energy into every body cell. And that is why a happy man is less subject  to disease. According to medical research, today many serious ailments are happening by mental stress and tension.
Next is contentment. Though happiness and contentment to some extent depend on external conditions, but too much dependence on outside conditions is the surest way to be unhappy. Contentment is a mental attitude, to accept life gracefully, and at the same time to do ones duties with love and with sincere effort.
Thirdly a trusted friend is always an asset in life.. A true friendship is uncontaminated by physical attraction or by selfish desires. It is a spontaneous mutual desire to be friends, by previous karmic bond, or by law of attraction by God's plan. Unselfish pure friendship always creates joy around us.
Finally we all want to be liberated and blissful souls . And that is possible only by establishing right relationship with our creator, through meditation and through unselfish  services in life.  A liberated soul realizes God's presesence in every life. That awareness brings universal brotherhood and loving compassion for all. We all can put our little effort to make this world more peaceful.

Mysterious game of joys and sorrows in life

Twilight and sunshine ,joys and sorrows are all interlinked in life.This eternal game of God , seems to be very mysterious and confusing to a common man.He does not know the purpose of it.Among many realized souls, Tagore also realized the deeper meaning of this hide and seek game of our creator, and expressed it beautifully in his poem. He wrote, "O heartless one, you have done well,... this incense of mine unless burnt , does not yield any fragrance. This lamp of mine, unless kindled does not spread any light. When my mind lies insentient your cruel strike is your touch, is your gift." He said the purpose of this eternal game of life , is not to confuse us , but to awaken us from the slumber of ignorance.According to Dao philosophy, misfortunes come to motivate us  to achieve our best. They help us to build up moral character and many other virtues.
The natures law is, no pain no gain. The initiative quality generally blossoms  in the time of distress.All scientific inventions and spiritual findings are the result of such inner quest of human mind.Barriers and stress come , so that we can use them for our evolution. We make our body strong by hardship, sharpen our brain through complexities, and spirit grows with the experiences of hardship in life.Param Hansa Yogananda described this quality, as a creative faculty, and said, a spark of Infinite Creator is present in each of us.
This inner creative ability gives us courage to face challenges, inspires to explore new positive solutions, and also inspires to act with sincere effort  for well being of all.
Experiences of external circumstances , drive us to creat some thing out of nothing. Our unselfish actions
make us master of own destiny ,by attracting divine grace and blessings of others.Good action makes present beautiful, future bright and clears the effect of past wrong actions effectively.
Following the scriptural guidance, we should be careful about the influence of out side energy also, and should stay away from one horse power people who are lazy and negative by nature.Also we need little training to establish conscious contact with the infinite power through right kind of meditation.Param Hansa Yogananda beautifully summarized this point saying, "Life may be dark, difficulties may come , but by the quality of divine initiative within you, you can defeat every ininvasion of fate, created by your past wrong actions and march victorious into paradise" .

Magic of Maditation

Tagore beautifully expressed his desire to have divine bliss in one of his song. He wrote, "you lay buried in my heart, I failed to see you. I cast my eyes out ward, did not look within." Like him ,we also want to have a glimpse of perfect peace in life, but do not know how to get it. Paths shown by great souls,like  Buddha Krishna or Christ can surely help us to experience peace in life.
Today , medical science has proved that , uncontrolled mind , saturated with negative emotions is the root cause of our physical and mental sufferings.Paramhansa Yogananda said, "having lots of money, while not having inner peace is like dying of thirst, while bathing in the ocean. "
As all problems have some solution, the solution of this problem  was also found by rishis and yogis of ancient India.The capsule formula they gave was, " Atmanam Bodhi" , know thyself. Man can be stress free only by knowing his own divine soul nature.
Meditation is a scientific technique , when practiced in silence and seclusion, makes us soul conscious.Mind becomes calm, clear , and compassionate to all life.Dalai Lama said, calm mind brings inner strength, self confidence and good health. Meditation is benificial because , it makes us aware , of our negative emotions. And with increasing right discriminating power can correct them and can dump them for ever. Then with perfect self control, one can roam about in the world like a lion. No frogs of weakness can kick him down.
According to "yoga Sutra" ,meditation brings perfect concentration,good health and many other miraculous powers. We all know that, controlling mind is not an easy task. Mind tends to run here and there , and it becomes a constant struggle to have a momentary period of joy in meditation.
Even then, the little side effects , which come through regular practice of meditation, can transform practitioner,s personality in a very positive way.One becomes more humble, loving and compassionate to all. His positive vibration spreads all around, and improves relationships,  and interactions in every sphere of life. With inner strength one can transform adversities into opportunities, by taking support from the same platform , on which he falls.
This strength does not come from out side,it comes from inner convictions,patience and self effort. As Yoga nanda said, " change the attitude that, you are a mortal beggar, and a victim of circumstances. Never let your mind be controlled by your body,...you are separate from your mortal form. You are a spirit " ( The Divine Romance ) .

Mindful Meditation.

once Paramhansa Yogananda said, every soul is like a diomond , but we cover it up with the mud of ego, greed, anger, hatred and other negative emotions. Life's duty is to remove those  muds , then the original self will shine again with loving kindness, purity and devotion, through our every thought and action of life.
These inspiring sayings of Yogananda show us the path to bring peace and harmony in life.Our thoughts make our personality, and personality gets reflected through our actions, speech and attitudes. Life becomes stressful by negative thoughts created by our own mind. But if we know, how to transform our negativity into positivity , then surely we can make our home, our surroundings and this world a place of harmony and joy.
We get a scientific guidance in this matter , from ancient Indian yoga system. In "Yoga Sutra" a lot of importance is given on self introspection, and self analysis. Honest self introspection is possible , only by being established in higher consciousness, when one can observe his own worldly activities like a detached spectator , can evaluate its righteousness, and also can change it into right direction. Through mindful meditation , yoga system brings clarity in our understanding, discriminating abilities, and also strengthens our will power , so that the implementation of right ideas in right place at right time becomes possible.
By entering the laboratory of mind, we watch and understand the nature of the mind. Then with the help of higher consciousness, we can control over negative tendencies, and can be the master of our own mind.
Resident minister of Ramkrishna Vedanta Society of North Texas USA, wrote that , this mindful meditation practice has been successively used in experiments with patients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, and this yoga practice is termed in psychotherapeutic language as "impartial spectator."
Yoga's mindful meditation technique also brings a tremendous positive result in our attitude. We become more humble and learn to perform all worldly duties as an instrument of God, to fulfill His wishes , and not to fulfill our narrow selfish desires. This noble attitude is described in Bhagavad Gita  as "Nishkam Karma" , which means action with out attachment . One can also remain completely stress free by working for well being of all, which includes his well being too.
The truth of universal connectivity and the joy of self less service , was realized by all great people and  they expressed it in many different ways. I end with a quotation from Tagore's poem ,where this sentiment was expressed beautifully."Help me submerge, all my vanity under modest tears. May I not project myself in my own activities. It is your intentions that I carry out in my life " 

Taming the mind

Judhisthir the most pious character of Indian epic Mahabharata, was once asked by Dharmaraj (king of righteousness) that, what goes faster than the wind?. Judhisthir replied, mind goes faster than the wind.It is true, mind can cross the boundaries of time and space in a fraction of a second. It also influences our daily lives very strongly. A chaotic mind finds chaos all around,where as a peaceful mind can make a soothing background, and can help us to act in a harmonious way through all challenges of life. Connections between mind and life's activities are very deep rooted.Our personalities are formed according to our positive and negative thoughts created by mind, and we also act accordingly.
As certain training is always needed for engaging in the art of war,so does our engagement in battling with active life.AsYogananda said,unless we know,how to persevere our inner peace, we can soon be down with bullets of worry and restlessness in active life. So all through the ages,many great souls thought and meditated on this problem very deeply. They found the solution and showed us the ways to be the master of our own mind.
One such powerful and scientific technique is Ashtanga Yoga. Rishi Patanjali showed the definite way,to be the master of our own mind,by controlling our senses,with systematic practice of moral discipline,exercise, proper breathing,concentration,meditation etc. Yoga means,union between individual soul and the supreme soul. With the help of yoga,when an individual soul realizes his inner potentialities,his divine source, and his connection with the divine energy,he gets empowered, and can easily overcome all worldly temptations of life .Being the controller of his mind, guides it rightly with his proper discrimination and will power. Describing the power of yoga,Paramhansa Yogananda beautifully said,"in any given situation,our actions can be correct and appropriate,only when we know how to remain mentally undisturbed. An undisturbed mind can see the world as a cosmic drama,while a confused mind takes it too seriously and suffer.
Buddha realized , the intensity of human suffering depends on the intensity of minds clinging attitudes. The isolated and insecured mind tries to cling to impermanent worldly things to have permanent peace and happiness, and soon gets disillusioned and unhappy. To create peace in our own mind,Buddha asked to work on mindful breathing constantly.Mind always wonders in past or in future thoughts. Mindful breathing can bring it back to the present and makes it calm.Buddha said, Buddhahood is present in every one, only we have to put right effort, and dive deep in meditation to find the precious pearl of peace in our own mind.