Purushartha - Sw. Satyasangananda
According to the Upanishads, we are living life in a stupor. It is only when the inner eye awakens that we truly arise from this slumber. As the awareness starts to develop, we begin to become Conscious, and the realization dawns that we are a part of that Cosmic Whole, the Atman and begin to experience those dimensions which were lying dormant within us. But for that new awareness to dawn, we have to make self-effort......Purushartha - self-effort
The Gifts of Ashram Life
I have previously visited the ashram for 2 or 3 weeks at a time and always for a particular programme or course. However, having been attracted for some time to the idea of a longer stay, I chose on this occasion to come for a 2-month Yoga and Ashram Life stay at Rocklyn Ashram, Victoria.
In the weeks leading up to this stay, I observed a feeling of something beginning to build, ready to unfold and express during this visit. And, in the steadiness and regularity of ashram living, with only 3 weeks of karma yoga practised, I have already received some amazing gifts.
Those gifts came by way of several challenges combining over two or three days to nudge me to a point of confrontation within myself. Outside of the ashram, when I have reached this point, I have often found a way to avoid or distance myself and, in doing so, my conditioned perspective and my patterning has remained intact – more firmly intact than I had realized as it transpires! Here in the ashram however, I was able to see that patterning differently – 180 degrees differently - and that huge shift in perspective has allowed positive change to begin.
How did this happen? Against a backdrop of the flow of grace, several strands wove together to facilitate this process: the power of intention; the yoga practices; the emphasis on awareness in the ashram; the consistency of ashram living; the support and caring of those living in the ashram; the power of witnessing and the space to reflect on all that is observed.
All of these strands combined to provide me with fresh insights into my actions, thoughts and feelings at a fundamental level. And with this shift in perspective I feel freer, lighter and optimistic about continuing to develop these changes within myself.
With gratitude for the gifts already received I look forward to the remaining weeks of my stay.
Hari Om Tat Sat
From Rikhia blog:
Navaratri - The Nine-Day Purification - Satsang by Sw. Satsangi
Satsang on Navaratri by Sw. Satsangi
Navaratri is about transformation. We need to go beyond mind and intellect. We need to develop a vision of our life. It has to be one of bhakti. That’s the importance of bhakti in our life. It makes our life fruitful, auspicious and accomplished.
Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati
Ganga Darshan Vishwa Yogapeeth, Munger, Sunday 19th May 2013
If you want to be a drashta, be a drashta this year of your actions, attitudes and behaviours, and rectify them. If you want to meditate this year, remain focussed in all the moments of dissipation and distraction. That should be your meditation. Like Shukhdev, let the drums play and remain fixed and one-pointed, let the girls dance and remain fixed and one-pointed, let the wine flow and remain fixed and one-pointed.
Read more....The Witnessing Attitude
Yajna – from the teachings of Swami Sivananda Saraswati & Swami Satyananda Saraswati
Yajna is the celebration of the first awakening of consciousness, the first breakthrough of consciousness that dawned in man and brought him to the first rung of evolution. When man learned how to use fire to help, protect, nurture and sustain him, and when he learnt that grains could be cooked and cultivated, this understanding put him on the first rung of evolution. Yajna celebrates that first realization, that first untainted, pure experience. The aim of yajna is to use that potential to launch the consciousness into the unknown dimensions for further discoveries.
Read more...The Purpose of Havan/Yajna
Rocklyn Yoga Ashram, operated by Yoga Association of Victoria Inc. as an autonomous entity, remains committed to the tradition of Satyananda Yoga and continues the teachings of the Satyananda system of yoga.