S I V A N A N D A

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Inside this issue:

*Mount Kailas Yatra
*Optimum Health with Ayurveda
*Pilgrimage in Europe
*Vedic Astrology
 WINTER 2001

CONTENTS
4 SATSANGA 38 THE PURE PRINCIPLE
Swami Sivananda speaks on ‘being in companionship with those who have attuned their consciousness A selection of writings underlying the principle of
to the absolute Ultimate Reality’, the underlying essence of all religion ‘unity in diversity’. Taken from the sacred texts of
many religions and excerpted from Quaker
8 A NEW YEAR’S MESSAGE Jim Pym’s latest book
Swami Vishnu-devananda’s New Year’s Message delivered in 1982 imparting the
great wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita 40 GIFT OF THE GURU
Srinivasan, Acharya for the Eastern United States,
14 THE SPIRIT THAT YOU ARE offers an insight into the joys of leading a ‘yoga life’
President and founder of the Nataraja Yoga Ashram in San Diego, Dr Erhard Vogel
presents extracts from his book ‘Experts in Our Lives, – Journey into Your Center’ 42 HEALTH, HARMONY AND
AYURVEDA
15 GUIDE TO SADHAKS Dr Mark Halpern, founding member of the
SIxty inspiring precepts for the spiritual aspirant from Swami Sivananda California Association of Ayurvedic Medicine takes
us through the journey toward harmony, peace of
16 ADVICE TO YOGA TEACHERS mind and perfect health
Swami Durgananda gives inspirational advice on the powerful benefits and effects of teaching yoga
44 THE BEGINNING OF THE END
20 MOUNT KAILAS YATRA 2000 By Maneka Gandhi. A beautiful tale, narrated with
A glimpse of the epic journey of fifteen devotees into the depths of Tibet to the magnificent abode joy and wisdom by one of India’s leading
of Lord Siva environmentalists and taken from her recent book
‘The Rainbow and Other Stories’
22 EUROPEAN MILLENNIUM PEACE PILGRIMAGE
The experiences of the continuing Millennium Peace Pilgrimage as it wends its way through 49 PRISON PROJECT UPDATE
Europe Swami Padmapadananda keeps us abreast of the
developments in the prison project
24 VEDIC ASTROLOGY, YOGA AND SPIRITUALITY
Dr Stephen Quong, renowned in India, and one of the West’s most prominent Vedic astrologers,
gives a lucid introduction to the principles of jyotisha and its relationship to yoga practice

30 TEACHERS’ TRAINING COURSE IN VAL MORIN

A student’s perspective of the Sivananda Teacher Training Course

33 I AM PAIN, THY TEACHER

‘And so I come to you, to heal, to teach, to guide’
Swami Sivananda
HEALTH IS WEALTH,

34 LESSONS WITH SWAMIJI PEACE OF MIND IS HAPPINESS,

The inspiration of Swami Vishnu-devananda’s presence and teachings, recalled by
one of his long-term devotees YOGA SHOWS THE WAY
Swami Vishnu-devananda
36 INDIAN ART
A glimpse into the essence behind all Indian art by the Maharaja of Travancore

Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre

51 Felsham Road, London SW15 1AZ
tel: 020 8780-0160
fax: 020 8780-0128
e-mail: siva@dial.pipex.com
web: www.sivanandayoga.org
2
PERSONNEL YO G A Life Winter 2001

Swami Sivananda
(1887 – 1963)
The spiritual strength behind the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres, Swami Sivananda’s teachings
are a synthesis of all the formal doctrines of yoga. Author of more than 250 books on yoga and
health, Swami Sivananda was a medical doctor before renouncing worldly life for the spiritual
path. His main message: Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Meditate, Realise. In 1957, he sent one of his
foremost disciples, Swami Vishnu-devananda to the West to spread the ideals of yoga. Swami
Sivananda entered mahasamadhi on July 14, 1963.

Swami Vishnu-devananda
(1927 – 1993)
Born in South India in 1927, Swami Vishnu-devananda entered the ashram of Swami Sivananda at
the age of 18. A world-famous authority on hatha and raja yoga, Swami Vishnu-devananda
founded the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres and authored The Complete Illustrated
Book of Yoga, Meditation and Mantras, a commentary on the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, and Karma and
Diseases. Swami Vishnu-devananda entered mahasamadhi on November 9, 1993.

The International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre, founded by Swami Vishnu-devananda is a non-profit
organization whose purpose is to propagate the teachings of yoga and vedanta as a means of
achieving physical, mental and spiritual well-being and Self-realization.

Executive Board Members of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre

Swami Durgananda Acharya of the Sivananda Yoga
Vedanta Centers in Europe. For many years she has held
spiritual retreats all over Europe and has recently opened
the Sivananda Yoga Retreat House in Tyrol, Austria.
Swami Kailasananda Newly nominated Acharya of
the Sivananda Yoga Centers in Paris and London, she has
taught asanas and pranayama in many Teachers’ Training
Courses.
Swami Mahadevananda Director of the Sivananda
Yoga Vedanta Dhanwanthari Ashram, Kerala. Acharya of 1957
the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers in South India,
Swami Mahadevananda travels extensively, teaching yoga Published by
with great love and enthusiasm.
The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre
Swami Sivadasananda Acharya in Europe and 51 Felsham Road, London, SW15 1AZ
South America, he has taught asana and pranayama in England. Tel: 020 8780 0160
many Teachers’ Training Courses worldwide and shares
the experience of yoga with great enthusiasm. email: YogaLife@sivananda.org
Swami Swaroopananda Acharya of the Sivananda
Yoga Vedanta Centers on the West Coast of the U.S. and Headquarters
Israel; director of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat, Sivananda Ashram Yoga Camp
Nassau, Bahamas. Swami Swaroopananda has taught Eighth Avenue, Val Morin, Quebec,
numerous Yoga Teachers’ Training Courses around the Canada, JOT 2RO. Tel: 819-322-3226
world.
email: hq@sivananda.org
Srinivasan Acharya of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta
Centers in New York and Chicago, he is currently based, With centres and ashrams located around the world
with his family, at the beautiful Sivananda Ashram Yoga (see page 50/51 for addresses)
Ranch in New York’s Catskill Mountains.
 3
YO G A Life Winter 2001 OBITUARY

Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya DR. SWAMI SIVANANDA-HRIDAYANANDA

Chellamma was born in 1914 in
Kerala. She was an outstanding
student, studied medicine, and got
a degree in Opthamology. She
served as assistant surgeon and
civil surgeon in Madras before
starting a private practice. One day
Chellamma bought a book by
Swami Sivananda. When she saw
Master’s photo she knew she had
known him before. That night, in
her meditation, she had a vision of
Gurudev and the thought of Master
began to possess her. In 1955, whilst visiting the ashram for
Gurudev’s darshan, Master asked her to do some service at the
ashram hospital. Mataji agreed, and she never left. On Guru Purnima
in 1956, Gurudev gave her Sannyas Diksha and the name Swami
Sivananda-Hridayananda. Swami Hridayanandaji set up an eye
hospital, became Gurudev’s personal physician and assistant, wrote
books about Master, and guided ashram visitors. In later years, Mataji
Swami accepted invitations to visit South Africa, the U.S. and Europe.
She settled in Europe where she established spiritual centres and
guided seekers in their ongoing quest for God realisation.
Revered and dear ‘Dr. Mataji’ Sri Swami Sivananda-Hridayananda
Mataji attained the feet of Gurudev as it was her most cherished wish
till the last moment, all the time looking at Gurudev’s picture with the
conviction that beloved Gurudev would come and take her. She was very
very peaceful and everyone felt these peaceful vibrations in the
atmosphere. The Hague branch of the Divine Life Society, disciples and
friends, would kindly like to inform you that on Sunday 6th August 2000
at midnight, in Shiva Kripa, H.H. Swami Sivananda-Hridayananda Mataji
peacefully passed into another plane of consciousness, mahasamadhi.
Mataji’s life was dedicated to giving and giving and giving as she wrote
herself, in one of her letters to Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj.
From ‘Sivananda My God’: ‘Dearest Lord, allow me to pour my
flaming devotion at thy lotus feet. I cannot think of anything now. I
am not concerned of what you think of anything now. I am not
concerned of what you think of me even, it doesn’t worry me whether
I am worthy or not and it is immaterial whether I get anything in
return from thee. Just allow me to give and give and give. I cannot
curb this desire to pour out this inexhaustible devotion for thee
without any reservation. Allow me to enjoy the ecstasy of giving. Oh,
this is the most wonderful state of devotion. I have never known this
before. Here is my heart at thy feet. I offer it to thee with all its
devotion, faith, reverence and hope. Do whatever you like with it.’
The last few years of her life in this plane of consciousness she
dedicated to preparing herself for her ‘journey back to the source’.
She had on many occasions said to her intimate disciples that her
Gurudev would wait for her on the other side. He had himself
promised her this. Mataji was a great saint and example to those
who knew her. Her loving simplicity opened up everyone’s hearts.
She will always be with us and guide us on the spiritual journey.
On Thursday 10th August a funeral ceremony was held in The Hague.
May Gurudev’s grace and blessings of Mataji be ever upon us all!

Om Namo Narayanaya
DR. DEVAKI KUTTY MATAJI
Born in 1923 in Kerala, Dr. Kutty had a medical education in Madras and Lucknow, and became a renowned gynecologist and obstetrician.
Whilst on pilgrimage to Badrinath, during an annual leave, she stopped at the Sivananda ashram
for Gurudev’s darshan. She felt conquered by the magnetism of Master’s divine personality,
cancelled the planned trip to Badrinath, and began to serve at the ashram hospital. Gurudev
inspired in Dr. Kutty a spiritual impulse, and she became a dedicated sadhaka. From 1953 to 1963,
the year of Gurudev’s mahasamadhi, Dr. Kutty spent every annual leave at the ashram. When Dr.
Swami Hridayanandaji went abroad, Dr. Kutty took full charge of the ashram hospital and guided
and instructed the medical staff. It had been her inner sankalpa (intention) to spend the
last years of her life at the Sivananda Ashram and this intention was
fulfilled. Along with her hospital work, as a brilliant organiser Dr.
Kutty was appointed chief executive planner of Sri Gurudev’s birth
centenary celebrations. She assumed the same function for Pujya
Swami Krishnanandaji’s seventy-fifth birthday anniversary. Both
events were a great success. Pujya Swami Chidanandaji called her ‘a
gem of purest ray serene’.
She endured a brief illness, suffering a cardiac arrest on August 3rd,
from which she was revived, and taken to the ICCU in the Himalayan
Institute at Dehradun. Here she was supported with a respirator machine
– but her condition took a bad turn and she went into irreversible
septicemia followed by multi-organ failure. Our beloved and revered Dr.
(above) Dr Kutty at Swami Vishnu Devaki Kutty Mataji attained samadhi at 7.30 on the evening of Tuesday
Devanandaji’s funeral and 8th August.
treating patients right We pray to God that her soul may rest in peace.
4
YO G A Life Winter 2001
atsanga is the company of spiritually
S minded people; it can be the company
of a saint or holy person, or the company
of other devotees. Yatris (pilgrims) may
meet holy persons and have the benefit of
their satsanga. Such satsanga is momentary
in character. But, when the seeker approaches
a teacher, establishes a permanent relationship
and regards that person as his or her spiritual
guide, then satsanga assumes a special aspect.
It becomes permanent. The devotee has a
special reverence for the guru. There is a
mysterious relationship between the seeker
and the perfected saint through whom he or
she is trying to attain salvation.
Only the receptive can benefit from
satsanga. If you approach a saint and wish to
attain benefit, you have to put yourself in the
Sat
position of a receiver. This is true even in worldly
life. Let us suppose you wish to know something
from a highly learned person. Supposing you
go to them saying ‘I know everything’, then
naturally you will have no ears for what that
person may have to say. If you do this, even if
you go to the highest scholar, you will come
back with the same ideas that you had before.
You would not have gained even a grain of
knowledge, because you never felt ‘there is
some void in me; let me go and learn’. Until
and unless this feeling is there, the devotee
cannot receive knowledge; that person comes
back empty-handed, because they have not
fulfilled the conditions of a receiver. It is so
when you approach any person, and it is all
the more so when you approach a saint and
try to take him as your teacher.
4 5
SATSANGA WITH SWAMI SIVANANDA

sanga
‘Satsanga’ means ‘being in companionship
with Truth’, or ‘being in companionship
with those who have attuned their
consciousness to the absolute Ultimate
Reality, who have made themselves
of the form of the Supreme Truth’.
6
YO G A Life Winter 2001
The Basis of the Guru-disciple Relationship
The basis of the guru-disciple relationship,
which is held in such great importance in the
Hindu spiritual world, may be summed up in
three words. If you keep them in mind, you
get a glimpse of the psychology behind this
important feature of spiritual life. The first
word is ‘Upanishad’; the second word is
‘upasana’; and the third is ‘satsanga’.
‘Upanishad’ means sitting near a person
who is illumined, so that we may receive
knowledge. It means sitting near a perfect
master, a seer of wisdom, and trying to humbly
draw on his knowledge. This knowledge is
revealed through sages at whose feet seekers
sat with devotion, receptivity and humility.
Whereas the word ‘upanishad’ gives us
the clue to the technique of attaining
wisdom, devotion to the Lord is described
by the term ‘upasana’. ‘Upasana’ means
worship or adoration of the Lord; in Sanskrit
it means, ‘having your seat close by’. This
shows the necessity of establishing a close
contact with the teacher from whom you
wish to derive enlightenment.
‘Satsanga’ means ‘being in companionship
with Truth’, or ‘being in companionship
with those who have attuned their
consciousness to the absolute ultimate
reality, who have made themselves of the
form of the supreme Truth’. A person who
realises the ultimate Truth becomes an
embodiment of Truth, the visible
expression of Truth. So when you have
satsanga you sit in close companionship
with Truth or with a supreme embodiment
of Truth, which the saint is.
These three things – upanishads, upasana
and satsanga – have always been the very
sheet-anchor of our spiritual life. At the
highest pinnacle, at the very fountain-
source of our spiritual culture, we have the
Upanishads. In the realm of devotion, we
have upasana. As for satsanga, it is said,
‘The greatest thing in the kali yuga and the
only effective method of crossing this
ocean of samsara, this sea of delusion, is
satsanga’. It is the boat that takes the soul
across the sea of this phenomenal
existence; therefore great importance has
been given to satsanga in this kali yuga
(iron age). The hope of the seeker, the
mainstay of the aspirant’s spiritual life,
hangs upon the twin factors of nama
(repetition of mantra) and satsanga. So,
starting with the Upanishad, and later on
coming to upasana, this supreme technique
exists in the field of samsaric life in the
form of satsanga. It is of utmost
importance to the aspirants in their journey
towards the ultimate reality.
The Right Approach
Satsanga is the supreme factor in the
unfolding of one’s spiritual consciousness, yet
every aspirant that comes to a teacher does
not receive the same illumination, the same
fruition of his or her sadhana (spiritual
practice). Krishna was the visible manifestation
of the supreme Lord. Among the people who
had His company, who spoke to Him and had
dealings with Him, there were some who had
intimate knowledge of His divine nature and
became blessed. And there were some that
remained unchanged. The approach of the jiva
(individual) is the factor that decides whether
the satsanga of a seeker is fulfilled or fruitless.
For example, when the Kauravas approached
Krishna, their approach was one of dosha-
drishti (materialistic vision). They were blind to
all the good that was in the Lord and their
entire vision was focussed upon the seeming,
apparent defects. The Lord moves with His
yoga-maya, the mysterious indefinable prakriti.
If our attention is focused upon prakriti, then
the light of the atman is lost upon us.
Similarly there was a handful that realised
the greatness of Jesus; they have become
immortal. Lost in oblivion are the countless
people who saw in him a political agitator, or
a man who practiced black magic. For them
the satsanga of Christ was non-existent.
It is the mode of approach that decides
the benefit that one derives from satsanga.
We have a classical example in one story in
the Mahabharata. In it, the great Vyasa
reveals the anatomy of Duryodhana’s
personality and that of Yudhishthira.
6 7
SATSANGA
The Classic Example of Yudhishthira and Duryodhana
The story is that Krishna sent Yudhishthira and
Duryodhana out on missions. He asked
Yudhishthira to, ‘Go and get a person who is
totally bad, completely devoid of any virtue,
completely full of vices.’ Then He called
Duryodhana and said, ‘You try to get a person
who is full of virtues, devoid of any defects.’
After some time, they came back. To each,
Krishna enquired, ‘Have you brought the
person? Where is the person you went out
after?’
Duryodhana said, ‘I have tried my best to
find a person full of virtues and devoid of
defects. I have gone everywhere; but I could
not find anyone who is without defect.
Everyone is full of defects. If he has one virtue,
he has a dozen evils. And after making a
Use and Misuse of the Fault-finding Faculty
These are the two methods of approach.
Yudhishthira’s approach was the approach of
the aspirant in whom the faultfinding nature
is directed not outside, but within oneself.
Faultfinding is the worst canker that dwells in
human nature. It is universal. True spiritual
seekers form a special group who have begun
to see the importance of correcting oneself
and not correcting the world, who have begun
to see the importance of analyzing oneself and
trying to improve, and not analyzing the world.
For a viveki (a person of discrimination), the
world is full of imperfection. Perfection is not
to be found in the work of prakriti (nature). If
Brahman is supreme perfection, prakriti is
imperfection. Thousands of lives are not
enough if we get caught in faultfinding. This
faculty has to be directed towards oneself. It is
only then that one’s life is transformed.
But, if the faculty is turned outside, the
entire world becomes a teacher of evil. That
upon which you constantly fix your mind
becomes the sustenance of your personality.
Your personality feeds upon, grows and
develops into those mental pictures which the
mind holds. This is a psychological fact. If you
always contemplate on perfection, if you
contemplate on beauty, if you contemplate on
peace, you grow into the likeness of perfection,
beauty and peace. If you hold before yourself
thoughts of imperfection, ugliness and gloom,
you will find everything so. If you always think
of the biting cold of the Himalayas, the beauty
of the snows will be lost for you. You may see
the beauty of the full moon, but if at the same
time you are thinking of the other side of the
moon, that circle of intense blackness,
blackness will be in your mind and heart, and
not the radiance of the full moon.
WITH SWAMI SIVANANDA
Books by
Swami Vishnu-devananda
thorough search I find that the person without
the least defect, is no other than myself.
Therefore I have come to you; do what you
want with me.’ Krishna just smiles.
Then Yudhishthira came and Krishna asked,
‘Where is your person?’ Yudhishthira answered,
and his answer has become immortal as it
shows his greatness, ‘0 Lord, even in the worst
felon, I find qualities which are worthy of being
emulated, I find traits which are good. Meditation and Mantras
Therefore, I could not find any person who is The most complete source
full of defects. However, I analysed myself and on mantras, meditation
I find that I am so full of defects, imperfections and other techniques of
self-inquiry readily
and vices that I cannot find a more suitable available. It contains all
person to present to you. I am the only person the techniques for under-
who can fulfil the description you have given standing and controlling
me. So I present myself before you.’ the mind. The book
contains the key to the
most priceless treasure a
man can own – intuitive
wisdom.
A faultfinding nature is the greatest
obstacle because it forever ties the seeker to
his lower nature, to the defective prakriti. He Hatha Yoga Pradipika
takes with him, to the feet of the guru, into with commentary by
the sacred sanctuary of yoga, into the pure Swami Vishnu-devananda
spiritual path, that mind which ever ties him The classic work,
down to the lower sensual life of defects. essential for those
Instead of becoming the receiver of light, he who wish to learn
becomes a hugger of darkness, for he will not the advanced practices
of hatha yoga from a
allow himself to let go of it. The light of yoga qualified teacher.
is completely barred from his heart, because
an impregnable wall is within him. To ward off
that danger, the ancients gave the Upadesh:
Yasya deve parabhaktih yatha deve tatha gurau,
Tasyaite kathita hyarthah prakasante mahatmanah. Sivananda Upanishad
To that great soul in whom there is
A collection of letters,
prefaces and open letters
extreme devotion to the Highest Divinity, written by Swami
God, and equal devotion to the guru, all the Sivananda. Reprinted
truths of the scriptures become revealed. The here in the sage’s own
student approaches a spiritual preceptor in handwriting and with his
order to avoid the grave error of dosha- photograph on every
drishti (vision of darkness). page, each letter provides
You may immerse a stone in the sea, yet
guidance, solace and
peace of mind.
the stone is the same. The millions of tons of
water that flow over it will not change it; it
is completely impervious to the influence of The Complete
water. It is this nature of the aspirant, who is Illustrated Book of Yoga
This famous book
satisfied with his own little knowledge and provides a complete
little personality, with its self-assertive training programme for
nature, with its rajasic tendency of clinging tapping yoga’s power to
to its own pre-conceived notions, to its own relax and rejuvenate the
pet preconceptions, that is the greatest bar mind; to improve
to the fruition of satsanga. As long as the concentration, to prevent
aspirant clings firmly to his old nature and illness and retard old age
and to increase physical
refuses to admit the need of a change in strength and flexibility.
himself, satsanga is absolutely barren of
result. The aspirant must effect a change of
attitude. That attitude is the greatest A full listing of mail order
requisite for the fruition of satsanga. ■ and boutique items is available from any
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre or Ashram
8
YO G A Life Winter 2001

A NEW YEAR’ S

YO G A Life Winter 2001
S WA M I V I S H N U - D E VA N A N D A S P E A K S
S MESSAGE
FROM SWAMI VISHNU DEVANANDA, 1982
THE BHAGAVAD GITA
he Bhagavad Gita contains the
T essence of the Upanishads and Vedas.
Each chapter contains specific
instructions regarding various
aspects of life. We’d have to go through
thousands of volumes of the Vedas and
Upanishads to find the answers that the
Gita contains in one small book.
This scripture took place in the midst of
a battle, with two armies standing facing
and ready to destroy each other. It was a
World War which occurred about 5,000 BC.
We know only of World Wars I and II, yet
there have been thousands of World Wars
before these. In the Mahabharata War,
various types of missiles were used – agni
astra, pasmas astra, brahma astra (astra
means missile) – all equivalent to multi-
megaton hydrogen bombs. Those missiles
were more powerful than any we know of
today.
We have only just redeveloped the ability
to split the atom and to fuse atoms to
release their energy. Fusion and fission –
these are the only things that we know of
at present. We are also in the process of
developing death rays and cosmic rays,
chemical weapons, and poisonous
(The Song of God)
weapons. These types of weapons were
known in ancient days, as well as more
powerful ones. Not merely fission and
fusion were used, but also energy was
obtained through sound energy. Not spoken
as sound – you hear my voice – that is just
air vibrating, but sound in the form of
thought-energy. Spoken sound is only the
gross manifestation of thought. A thought
originates in the mind, then it slowly,
slowly becomes codified and condensed
through the brain and then finally the
vocal chords. All the muscles of the body
try to interpret that energy which is
taking place in the mind. In ancient days
the science of transforming thought-
energy into sound wavelengths had been
perfected. A simple example of this sound
frequency is a singing voice or violin,
which can shatter the molecules of a
glass. A mere voice becomes an energy –
a kind of motion. The ancients had
mastered more than merely the energy
released from this physical vibration, but
they could tap the source – the thought
itself – corresponding to the particular
wavelength of the particular object.
Everything in this universe is in motion.
9
Everything oscillates; nothing is
stationary. Even a glass tumbler oscillates,
the water inside oscillates, and the whole
universe and cosmos is in oscillation.
When your thought-energy is tuned to the
particular wavelength of a particular
object, then just as the tumbler can be
broken, so also any object, even a city, a
country, or the planet itself, can be blown
into pieces by using this energy.
The brahma astras and marayana
astras, most dreaded and powerful
weapons, have no counter-weapons.
However other missiles, like agni astra (a
fire missile), do have one. When a fire
missile was sent to burn a city, the
counter-weapon could be used to collect
molecules of water (water is made up of
hydrogen and oxygen), to create the
particular wavelength to disarm the
missile.
Very powerful poisonous weapons have
also been described in ancient Indian
scriptures, such as the one which Indrajit
used on Laksmana, Rama’s brother. The
entire monkey army and Laksmana were
completely poisoned by this one weapon.
Hanuman, the monkey warrior, had to get
10
BHAGAVAD GITA YO G A Life Winter 2001

an antidote from high in the Himalayas,

which neutralized the energy of these
poisons.
They also had mohan astra, which was a
psychological weapon. When this weapon
was applied the enemy’s mind was
completely changed. Modern nations are
now investigating weapons that can change
the human mind. Once the mohan astra was
applied, the victims’ minds would change in
such a way that they would see their friends
as enemies and would start killing each
other. As the enemy’s army was out of sight,
the victims, seeing only their own army,
would kill their own people until the entire
army had been destroyed.
During the Mahabharata war many of
these missiles were employed, killing
billions of people. At that time the earth
was overpopulated, as it is now. One of the
main purposes for the coming of Lord
Krishna was to reduce the overpopulation
of the planet, which was filled with not
only good human beings but also many
bad, negative, demonical types like Kamsa,
who were reincarnated on this planet earth.
Many demons from the past were born as
kings and rulers of various countries,
having huge armies under their control.
These negative forces became very difficult
for anyone to conquer. So the Lord Himself
came as Krishna, to reduce the weight on
the planet of these demonical people. Both
physically and emotionally they destroyed
everything. So the Gita takes place just
before this war, with two armies ready to
destroy billions of people.
Arjuna, the great warrior, was in a state
of shock. Seeing the many millions and
millions of people he was to wipe out, he
demanded of his friend and chariot driver,
Krishna, ‘What is this? What am I going to
gain by shedding this blood?’. And Krishna
replied, ‘Arjuna, you cannot see the past, nor
can you see the future. You see only these
armies standing against you and your army
standing against them. But these warriors,
these kings, these chariot drivers, this is not
the first time they are standing against each
other. They were doing this in the past –
they were kings, they were soldiers, they
were charioteers, they were war heroes. In
past wars they also died, and now they are
reincarnated as present kings and rulers.
You cannot see that. So also you were born
before; I can see all of your past lives. So
also I took incarnations in many, many ages.
In different times I came to establish law
and order. I see your own future, your past,
and others’ pasts also. And if this war takes
Excerpt from the Bhagavad Gita ch. XI v.65
place now and these people die, this is not
the end of their lives – they will come back
again in the future.’
And so we had people like Mussolini and
Hitler, who must be incarnations of Kamsa,
Ravana and others. These negative-types
reincarnate again and again; and so also the
positive or sattvic force will come again to
counteract it.
Thus the positive force, in the form of the
Supreme Being Lord Krishna, came as
prophets such as Jesus and Moses came. But
incarnations come only when law and order
are completely broken, and the relative
forces rage out of control everywhere. When
darkness falls everywhere, when negativity
reaches an extreme climax, then the
Supreme power will come, the full sattva
(purity). Only sattva can overpower the
negative rajasic (agitating) and tamasic
(ignorant) forces. That is why spiritual life is
very hard for spiritual aspirants now. You
can tell the truth, you can show the truth,
but no one will believe you anymore because
of negative forces. The true meaning of
spirituality has been forgotten in this iron
age. As a spiritual aspirant it will be very
difficult for you to stick to the spiritual path
because the negative forces are everywhere,
and your
little sattva is immersed in that negativity.
For this reason satsang is essential.
Through satsang you will be able to
counteract, or at least hold yourself from
falling, until the Supreme Being comes again
in His next incarnation. Satsang can slowly,
slowly fuel the flame of spiritual life in our
own heart, as well as in others who are ready
to absorb the spiritual energy.
So the teachings of the Gita took place in
the midst of a battle with the dark forces,
with Krishna instructing Arjuna to free him
from darkness. Arjuna thought that he was
a great warrior and that he was going to kill
all of these people. Then in the eleventh
chapter of the Gita Lord Krishna reveals His
Cosmic Form. Suddenly Arjuna didn’t see the
flute or the beautiful Krishna anymore, but
saw the entire universe at once – the Cosmic
Form containing billions and billions of
galaxies exploding simultaneously. And in
the huge Cosmic Form of Krishna, Arjuna
saw a small tiny speck called Earth, and in
the corner of the Earth was Kurukshetra. He
saw a few million germs, called human
beings, standing with arms against each
other. And he also saw himself seated in one
corner of that tiny field, merely one germ,
along with his charioteer Krishna. As he saw
these things, worlds and galaxies were
exploding, millions of earths were being
destroyed at that very moment, and all of
their civilizations were being consumed by
Kala, or Time. So Arjuna asked, ‘Oh Lord, Who
are you?’ And He replied, ‘I am not only the
beautiful Krishna, I am also Kala, Time, come
to destroy, so that I can re-establish sattva
once again.’
So let us look at this eleventh chapter to
give us a glimpse of what Arjuna saw and

YO G A Life Winter 2001
how Krishna explained it. I’ll take a few
verses to help you prepare for the coming
times. They are very, very, powerful and very
difficult to face, as the lack of personal
discipline is increasing. Even spiritual
aspirants with years of practice leave the
spiritual path and go back to their old ways.
Only a few can survive the negative forces.
With the aid of God’s grace or guru’s grace,
they thin the ego enough to be able to
surrender. Only then, they are able to
overcome the negative forces and hold on.
The eleventh chapter is ‘The Yoga of the
Vision of the Cosmic Form’. In the previous
chapter Lord Krishna had given a description
of all His glories: ‘I am the Himalayas, I am
the Ganges. Wherever there is greatness, it
is me. I am also Arjuna and I am the
Pandavas’. He explains that wherever there
is greatness, there is His energy. Nothing else
exists in this universe. Then Arjuna opens the
eleventh chapter with:
1. By this word (explanation) of the highest
secret concerning the Self which Thou hast
spoken, for the sake of blessing me, my
delusion is gone.
Arjuna is saying, Oh Lord, I want to see
that form of yours. You gave me so many
stories about how You are the Himalayas,
You are the Ganges, You are the sun, You are
the moon, You are galaxies, You are heaven,
You are hell and so on. I want to see that
Cosmic Form. Is it possible? If you please, let
me have an experience of that Cosmic Form.’
2. The origin and the destruction of being
verily have been heard by me in detail from
Thee, O lotus-eyed Lord, and also Thy
inexhaustible greatness.
3. (Now) O Supreme Lord, as Thou hast
declared Thyself, O Supreme Person, I wish
to see Thy divine form.
4. If Thou, O Lord, thinkest it possible for me
to see it, do Thou, then, O Lord of the Yogis,
show me Thy imperishable Self.
The Blessed Lord said:
5. Behold, O Arjuna, forms of Mine, by the
hundreds and thousands, of different sorts, of
divine sorts, and of various colors and shapes.
6. Behold the Adityas, the Vasus, the
Rudras, the two Aswins, and also the
Maruts; behold many wonders never seen
before, O Arjuna.
Krishna is saying that as you look, you
can see all of these, but with your ordinary
eyes you cannot see the Cosmic Form. Our
eyes cannot even see the full spectrum of
light – we can only see seven colors – violet,
blue, indigo, green, yellow, orange and red.
Beyond these, our eyes cannot perceive. Our
ears can only hear certain vibrations – only
certain sounds. You can’t hear a dog whistle
because it is too high. But a dog can hear it.
If the physical sense perceptions are so
limited, how could you see the infinite
Cosmic Form all at once? It is not possible
with the five senses, but I will give you the
Cosmic Eye with which you can see all at
once – past, present and future – everything
will be at once. You will be able to behold
me as whole. With these present eyes and
ears you can only see me with the flute in
hand, or holding your horses as your
charioteer.’
8. But thou are not able to behold Me with
these thine own (physical) eyes, I give thee
the divine eye; behold My Lordly Yoga.
9. Having thus spoken, O King, the great
Lord of Yoga, Hari (Krishna) showed to
Arjuna His Supreme Form as the Lord.
10. With numerous mouths and eyes, with
numerous wonderful sights, with numerous
divine ornaments, with numerous divine
weapons uplifted, such a form He showed.
11. Wearing divine garlands and apparel,
anointed with divine unguents, the
all-wonderful resplendent (Being)
endless with faces on all sides.
12. If the splendor of a thousand suns
were to blaze out at once in the sky,
that would be the splendor of that
mighty Being (great soul).
Arjuna saw the form and then said, ‘I see,
not only the physical universe, I see also an
infinite number of astral universes, astral
heavens, an infinite number of angels and
Brahmas and creators – all in that form. All
at once I can see these things.’
16. I see Thee of boundless form on every
side with many arms, stomachs, mouths, and
eyes; neither the end nor the middle nor the
beginning do I see, O Lord of the universe, O
Cosmic Form.
So after experiencing this Cosmic Form
and giving a description of what he saw,
Arjuna was frightened, because it was not
just something beautiful. The Cosmic Form
contains death, galaxies being born and also
galaxies being destroyed. Universes come
and go. Arjuna saw that Earth was not the
only place where war was taking place. Earth
is not the only place where human beings
fight. This type of birth and death takes place
in countless universes. There are countless
11
BHAGAVAD GITA
Arjunas, and countless galaxies and heavens,
where fighting takes place. He saw endless
fire and destruction, volcanoes erupting, and
all sorts of death and destruction. Arjuna
also saw all the armies and people of the
planet Earth rushing into the blazing fire,
just like moths. Have you ever seen a moth
going into a bonfire? The moth runs toward
the fire and then is consumed by the fire. So
these billions and billions of soldiers are now
running towards the fire called death – they
are all slowly being consumed by Time.
Then Arjuna said, ‘What I see is unbearable,
I can’t continue to look at this; tell me
Who Art Thou?’ Up until this time he had
thought that Krishna was merely his friend
and charioteer – he used to play and
work with him. But now, after seeing His
Cosmic Form, he asks:
31. Tell me, Who Thou Art, so fierce of
form? Salutations to Thee, O God Supreme,
have mercy. I desire to know Thee, the
original Being. I know not indeed Thy
working.
Why have you come to this planet Earth?
Why do you act as my charioteer, and why
suddenly do I see the whole Cosmic Form in
you? I can’t understand your workings. Why
is all this happening? Why have millions and
millions of people been swallowed by Time,
by the cosmic fire?
Lord Krishna explains in verse 32: I am the
mighty world-destroying Time, now engaged
in destroying the worlds. He is saying, ‘I
create angels and beings. I also destroy
because the negative forces now predominate.
I am these negative forces now.’ So you think
that God is only always merciful?
Destruction is also his way of telling human
beings that they must maintain sattva, or
when rajas and tamas come to the fore, then
12
BHAGAVAD GITA
I will come to destroy that rajas and tamas.
That’s called destruction; that’s called war.
‘Even without thee, Arjuna, none of the
warriors in the hostile armies shall live. Even if
you don’t try and fight, even if you just leave
and go away, that doesn’t mean these people
will not be killed. This is a foolish idea. I have
already destroyed them. I am consuming them
in a world fire. I am pulling everyone into My
mouth of Time. Even without you this is going
to happen. But only as an instrument, will you
be there to show that you are the destroyer –
that you are going to kill these people with
various weapons. It is only an illusion; really
the Time is consuming. ‘I Am’ is doing this. I
am seated as Arjuna and I am seated as your
charioteer. I am seated as all these armies –
both enemies and allies. I am both. I am
everything. Now I must consume this negative
energy. Without thee I can still do all the actions
and all the destruction because I am the all-
consuming fire. Even without thee, even if
Arjuna would not fight, these warriors are
doomed to die. I have already slain them. You
are only going to be an instrument; already I
have slain them.’
Arjuna is not very important. Arjuna thinks
he is a great warrior and is going to kill
everyone, but really he is not needed – it is
done already. This idea is very important for
us. We think we are going to run this
organization, and that we are going to keep
these things and are going to ‘do’. But we are
just instruments – He is behind it. I saw a light
when I came here to the Laurentian
Mountains the first time, and immediately I
thought that this must be the place where I
will make a Yoga Camp, and that God had
brought me here. I am only an instrument. So
did you all come here through my power? Did
I bring you all from Germany, from all those
places? Is it through my power that you all are
here? It is God’s wish that you are here at this
particular time. When the world is under the
influence of negative forces, you are to keep
the light burning. And if you surrender, then
that energy will come from God. If not, then
you will be consumed by the negative fire and
negative forces.
This particular talk is not meant to frighten
you, but to tell you the truth. If a World War
takes place, it is not because of you and me,
Hitler or Mussolini, Reagan or Kennedy – it is
God’s wish, because there are negative forces
everywhere. When there is no dharma, no
righteousness, in these conditions, the Lord
has to come, and then another World War will
come. At that time the world will not be
completely destroyed, but major negative
forces will be destroyed and then sattvic
forces will again envelop and control. This is
the truth about life. You are not doing
anything – you are only an instrument.
So Lord Krishna emphasizes this point to
Arjuna by saying, ‘I have already slain them. You
have seen them dying, therefore thy
instrumentality is not of much importance. Such
being the case therefore, stand up and obtain
fame. If you fight and you win, who gets the fame
and name? You get it! You get the fame, and I do
all the work!’ Swami Vishnu thought, ‘I created
all these asanas, I get the fame!’ But who did
it? The Supreme Being, He did it; but Swami
Vishnu gets the glory! The Lord said, ‘Get up
and do your duty.’
33. Therefore, stand up and obtain fame.
Conquer the enemies and enjoy the
unrivalled kingdom. Verily have they
been already slain by Me; be thou a
mere instrument, O Arjuna.
‘Be merely an apparent or nominal cause; I
have already killed them. I destroyed them long
ago. People will think that Bhishma, Drona and
the other great warriors, whom even the gods
cannot kill, have been defeated by you. You will
be famous; such fame is the result of good
karma only.’
So here the great warriors are standing
and they think that no one can kill them –
just as Hitler thought that he was the
unconquerable. But somehow a bullet killed
him! And who fired that bullet? He Himself
fired it! God said, ‘Alright, the time has come.
You said that no one could kill you, but I’ll
show you. I can make your own hand put the
bullet in your own head!’ If you look into it,
you will see that God controls everyone’s
actions. So let us be instruments. Don’t
worry about dharma and righteousness and
unrighteousness. No one has got power over
this maya (illusion). Just come to His feet
and surrender. He will take care of
everything. So, Arjuna, don’t worry about
whether you are going to kill, or not going
to kill, or whether you are going to sin. Don’t
worry. Surrender to Me. I will take care of
everything and you will get all the fame that
you want.
35. Having heard that speech of Lord Krishna,
the crowned one (Arjuna), with joined palms,
trembling, prostrating himself, again addressed
Krishna, in a choked voice, bowing down,
overwhelmed with fear.
Arjuna said:
36. It is meet, O Krishna, that the world
delights and rejoices in Thy praise, demons fly
in fear to all quarters and the hosts of the
YO G A Life Winter 2001
perfected ones bow to Thee.
The sattvic people bow when they see this
form. They praise You, while the demons and
negative beings run away. Sattva is so strong
that no one can stand against You.
37. And why should they not, O Great Soul
bow to Thee, who art greater (than all else),
the primal cause even of the Creator.
Then Arjuna glorified the Lord. After
glorifying, he says, ‘I cannot look at this
Cosmic Form any longer, please stop. I only
want to see your four hands with discus, conch,
lotus, and mace in them. I want to see the
beautiful crown and smiling face, the beautiful
blue form – let me see that form instead. This is
Arjuna’s last request to the Lord.
Lord Krishna replied:
52. Very hard indeed it is to see this form of
Mine, which thou hast seen. Even the gods are
ever longing to behold it.
53. Neither by the Vedas nor by austerity, nor
by gift, nor by sacrifice can I be seen in this
form as thou hast seen Me (so easily).
54. But by single-minded devotion can I, of
this form, be known and seen in reality and
also entered into, O Arjuna.
So if you have true devotion to Him you’ll
enter into Him and see His form, as Arjuna did.
No one can see God without true devotion.
Then Lord Krishna assumed the old form – the
flute in hand, holding the chariot. Arjuna now
becomes a true disciple of Krishna because he
has seen the Cosmic Form of the Lord.
At the end of the eleventh chapter of the
Gita, the Lord said, ‘He who does all actions for
Me…’ It doesn’t matter what you do – you can
wash dishes, clean the office, or type. It doesn’t
matter even if they are good or bad actions.
‘He who does all actions for Me, who looks upon
Me as the Supreme’ – the only Supreme that
nothing in this universe can exist without –
‘Who is devoted to me, who is free from
attachment’ – attachment to all objects and all
beings, and whose only attachment is to God
– ‘Who bears enmity towards no creature’ – it
doesn’t matter who they are –
‘That person comes to Me, O Arjuna’.
This last verse (55) of chapter eleven contains
the essence of the whole teaching of the Gita.
One who practices this teaching will attain
supreme bliss and immortality. This very verse
contains the summary of the entire philosophy
of the Bhagavad Gita. ‘He who performs actions
(duties) for the sake of the Lord, who consecrates

YO G A Life Winter 2001
Krishna as Arjuna’s charioteer
all his actions to Him, who serves the Lord with
all his heart and soul, who regards the Lord as
his supreme goal’ – remember those words, ‘he
who regards the Lord as the supreme goal’ –
‘Who lives for Him alone, who works for Him
alone, who sees the Lord in everything, who sees
the whole world as the Cosmic Form of the Lord
and therefore cherishes no feelings of hatred or
enmity towards any creature even when a great
injury has been done by others to him, who has
no attachment to wealth, children, wife, friends,
and relatives, and who seeks nothing else but the
Lord, realizes Him and enters into His being. He
becomes one with Him.’
Thus in the Upanishads of the glorious
Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the
Scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Sri
Krishna and Arjuna, ends the eleventh
discourse entitled ‘The Yoga of the Vision of
the Cosmic Form.’ Om Tat Sat.
So in the coming times you must
understand that if there is a nuclear
holocaust, or war, or calamity, it is all God’s
wish. Negative forces come upon you and you
cannot stop them. We do what we can, by
prayer and positive actions., to create as
13
BHAGAVAD GITA
much of a sattvic force whenever we can and can’t pretend to be what I’m not; God knows
wherever we go. what I am inside and why I am doing these
Please see that you surrender your life and things. So you don’t have to make anyone
do whatever you can to bring God’s energy to believe in you, if you have full conviction and
this universe so that there will be some peace surrender everything to God. He who is
here. Even if the negative forces come, some travelling within you can see your actions.
positive force will be there, which you can Then you can go ahead and He will take care
maintain through surrender and devotion to of everything. Offer all to Him; every action
the Lord. Then God will take care of you perform, everything you do, do it for His
everything. sake. In that way there will be no sin incurred;
If the organization is to survive, it will neither negative actions nor positive actions
survive. If it has to go, He has already planned can affect you. You will be ever free from all
it. He planned this Yoga Camp before I was duality and attain eternal peace and harmony.
even born. I never even knew of the Laurentian OM ■
Mountains but He had planned all this – that I
was to be a religious instrument. I got the glory
– ‘Swami Vishnu-devananda founded this
organization’ – but it is all His wish. Suppose
He has decided to take this camp from us, then
that is also His wish, for everything is planned
by Him.
If this thought is always in the back of your
mind, you’ll have no fear of anyone. People
may criticize you, people may praise you,
people may say ‘he is doing it for this’, ‘she’s
looking for that’, but God knows your heart. I
14
THE SPIRIT T H AT YO U A R E YO G A Life Winter 2001

THE SPIRIT THAT YOU ARE

by Erhard Vogel, Ph.D.

o fulfil yourself, you must know

T yourself. To know what you really are,

look not at what you are now and then,
but what you are permanently,
intrinsically and essentially. Many things about
you have changed since your infancy. Your
body has grown, your mind matured. As an
adult you feel, think and act differently than
you did in childhood. Yet in essence you are
still the being that came into this world on the
day of your birth. That essence is the
permanent aspect about you. The permanent
endures infinitely, independent of time and
circumstance; it is transcendent. There is a
tendency to be so absorbed in the momentary
emotions or events, that you feel as if they
were your very being; you identify yourself
with them. However, they are merely
momentary emotions or events. If you invest
them with your identity, you lose touch with
your real being. The emotions, sensations,
feelings and events that may have seemed so Swami Vishnu-devananda with Erhard Vogel leading the procession during the Indian Music
critically important, pass on and are soon and Dance Festival, Val Morin, 1970
forgotten. Your identity remains; it is what you
always are. That which is permanent about describes objects as momentary phenomena important term. When we speak of the spirit of
you, your identity, is also intrinsic to you — caused by the coming and going of atoms. Thus, something, we speak of its true intent, its very
being of your innermost nature and what our senses alone perceive is not real. Only meaning, as in the spirit of the law. Thus your
inseparable from it. we as knowing beings are capable of perceiving spirit is the meaning, the true intent of your
The essence is that which upholds the full reality. There cannot be only ephemeral existence. We relate spirit to loyalty and devotion,
everything about you. It is your unchanging events; there has to be something underlying — as when we speak of team spirit. Clearly, spirit is
identity. The word ‘essence’ is derived from the some substance out of which these events arise. what is fundamentally most important to us and
Latin root ‘esse’, to be, from which our word The word ‘substance’, derived from Latin, about us. To live in loyalty and devotion to our
‘is’ is derived. You are what you are in essence. denotes that which stands under, the underlying. spirit is called a spiritual life. It only makes sense
Your essence is the power by which you are, It is your foundation and structure, what you to live according to our fundamental priority.
the power of being; your essence is that you fundamentally are. In the human being, Thus, to live realistically means to have our
are. substance is not something of weight and shape; mind and feelings, indeed all our instruments of
However, this essence, this most important that is only temporary appearance again, not awareness relate loyally to us in terms of our
and fundamental beingness of you, is often real. The reality of you, your substance, that real identity, the spirit that we are. Your spirit is
neglected or even regarded as unreal merely which permanently and intrinsically stands your essential identity, that which you really are.
because it cannot be perceived by the senses. under all aspects of you, is your essence, your That is what you need to know in order to know
Most of us are accustomed to regard what we beingness. Essence is also referred to as ‘spirit’. In yourself, to fulfil yourself. ■
can see or touch as real, and anything we cannot chemistry, spirit is the essence of something, the
see or touch as unreal. Actually, it is the other way distillate, the refined, the pure substance you
around. It is generally agreed that the senses can have left after extracting all dross. About the author
only perceive phenomena and events, the I am usually loathe to employ this word, Erhard Vogel Ph.D. is president and founder
passing. The passing phenomena and events are ‘spirit’, for in our society it tends to conjure up of the Nataraja Yoga Ashram in San Diego,
only momentary appearances, like the images on fantasy images like syrup dripping from silver- California. This is from his upcoming book
a movie screen, which you certainly would not lined clouds. I indulge myself carefully and “Experts in our Lives – Journey into your
consider substantial or real. Remember, physics sparingly in the use of this much-abused, but so Center”
 15
YO G A Life Winter 2001 GUIDE TO SADHAKS

Guide to Sadhaks
1. Reduce your wants to the utmost 33. Be prepared for any amount of
minimum. pain.
2. Adapt yourself to circumstances. 34. Have a set of maxims always with
3. Never be attached to anything or you to induce vairagya
anybody. 35. Treat sensual enjoyment as
4. Share what you have with others. poison, vomited food, vishta
5. Be ever ready to serve. Lose no or urine. They cannot give
opportunity. Serve with atma bhav. you satisfaction.
6. Entertain akarta and sakshi bhav. 36. Preserve your veerya carefully.
7. Speak measured and sweet words. Sleep always separately.
8. Have a burning thirst for God-realization. 37. Revere ladies as Mother Divine. Root out the sex idea.
9. Renounce all your belongings and surrender yourself Prostrate before all
unto God. 38. See God in every face, in everything.
10. Spiritual path is a sharp-edged razor path. A Guru is 39. Take to sankirtan, satsanga, prayer when the mind is
absolutely necessary. overpowered by other instincts
11. Have great patience and perseverance. 40. Face obstacles coolly and boldly.
12. Never leave the abhyas even for a day. 41. Care not for criticism when you are in the right path.
13. The Guru will only guide you. You should yourself Yield not to flattery.
tread the path. 42. Respect rogues and scoundrels. Serve them.
14. Life is short. Time of death is uncertain. Apply 43. Admit your faults plainly.
yourself seriously to yogic sadhana. 44. Take care of your health. Do not neglect daily asanas
15. Maintain daily spiritual diary and record correctly and exercises.
your progress and failures. Stick to resolves. 45. Be active and nimble always.
16. Do not complain that there is no time for sadhana. 46. Develop your heart by giving. Be extraordinarily
Reduce sleep and small talk. Stick to brahmamuhurta. charitable. Give more than one's expectations.
17. Let the thought of God (Reality) keep away the 47. Desires multiply misery. Develop contentment.
thought of the world. 48. Control the senses one by one.
18. Forget the feeling that you are so and so – a male or a 49. Develop brahmakara vritti by repeated thinking.
female – by vigorous brahma chintan. 50. Have a check over all your thoughts. Keep them pure
19. Never postpone a thing for tomorrow if it is possible and sublime.
for you to do it today. 51. Do not lose temper when anybody insults, taunts or
20. Do not boast or make a show of your abilities. Be rebukes you. It is a mere play of words and a variety
simple and humble. of sounds.
21. Be cheerful always. Give up worries. 52. Rest your mind in God and live in truth.
22. Be indifferent to things that do not concern you. 53. Be up and doing in the path of perfection.
23. Fly away from company and discussion. 54. Have a definite aim in your life and proceed
24. Be alone for a few hours daily. cautiously.
25. Give up greediness, jealousy and hoarding. 55. Benefits of mouna are incalculable. Never give
26. Control your emotions by discrimination and up this practice.
vairagya. 56. Four important means for passion to enter the mind
27. Maintain equilibrium of mind always are sound, touch, sight and thought. Be vigilant!
28. Think twice before you speak and thrice before you 57. Have intimate connection with none but God. Mix
act little with others.
29. Give up back-biting, criticizing and fault-finding. 58. Be moderate in everything. Extremes are always
Beware of reactions. dangerous.
30. Find out your own faults and weaknesses. See only 59. Every day have self-analysis and introspection. Know
good of others. Praise the virtues of others. the amount of your growth.
31. Forgive and forget the harm done by others. Do good 60. Give up curiosities in spiritual path. Conserve your
to those who hate you. energy and concentrate. Think little of food, body and
32. Shun lust, anger, egoism, moha and lobha like a relatives. You must realize in this very birth itself!
venomous cobra. Swami Sivananda
16
ADVICE TO TEACHERS YO G A Life Winter 2001

Advice to Y
by Swami Durgananda
These extracts come from a meeting for
yoga teachers held at the Sivananda Yoga
Vedanta Center Madrid in 1997

A
s a yoga teacher, your primary
activity is to teach asanas and
pranayama, but what you are really
giving to students is wisdom and
spirituality. At first, they come to you to learn
the postures and the breathing, but
subconsciously they are coming for wisdom.
Finally, when they are ready for it, you will be
able to teach them the mantras and their
meanings. Then you will realize that you
know yoga from back to front. However, the
foremost occupation is to teach asanas and
pranayama. We must give students
something to do – they cannot just look at
statues all the time or sit like a holy person.
Swamiji taught us in this way so that new
people can begin to experience a very deep
knowledge. That knowledge is the wisdom or
universal understanding about how we are
related to the Truth. It isn’t even necessary to
speak about this when we teach asanas. The
students ask you how to practice this or that
exercise and all you need to do is simply to
teach them the way you learned it. We have
taught you the way we learned from Swamiji,
which is a very correct way, and you should
stick to it. At the same time, you must keep
the wisdom alive within yourself through
your own spiritual practices. With time and
experience, you will find that students will
come.
Swamiji made yoga teachers out of you so
that you would practice. I am still here
because I was given the responsibility to
teach, and that same responsibility lies with
you too.
If you teach in a very detached way, without
identifying yourself with the knowledge, you
will become a pure instrument. That purity is
carrying you and often you are not even
aware of it. The idea in yoga is to go
through life in the purest way possible; this is
the main support when you come across
obstacles on your path.
We cannot say one thing and then do
something else; people see through this. They
will say, ‘Oh, the Swami is going to the disco
every night, and then she is going to the
butcher shop where all those hams are
hanging from the ceiling.’ If I went there and
ate all those things, you would not be sitting
here. You would not feel the purity, the
support behind what I say. If I tell you, ‘Don’t
eat meat!’ or ‘Don’t listen to loud music!’, but
then in the evening I go and do exactly those
things, you would not be touched by what I
say to you.
That is why Swamiji made yoga teachers
out of you. You must always remember this –
it will give you a lot of strength. The idea to
train you as yoga teachers came out of a
vision. It didn’t come from the intellect
deciding to create a new profession in order
to make money. It came out of a vision for
peace. This is the reason why it is such a
blessed activity. So many people have come
to our courses from around the world; more
than 10,000 people have graduated in the
Yoga Teachers’ Training Course since 1969.
This is not because we are better than others.
It is because we have the blessing of the
divine vision of our Master, Swami Sivananda.
None of us do it to make money, this is not
our goal. Otherwise, we would do it
differently. We would go to a nice hotel
complete with modern comforts. There are
yoga teachers who teach in hotels because
they want to make money, and because
otherwise, nobody would come to them. They
have a weekend in one place, and then
another weekend somewhere else, and all the
time they are counting the money. During the
week they watch television, eat snacks and go
dancing.
We all have a tendency to be a little naive
in our efforts to teach yoga, and we forget
that the Sivananda Yoga Teachers’ Training
Course came out of a vision which Swamiji
had in Nassau, Bahamas. In his vision the
whole world was on fire, everybody was
running. Today, everybody IS running. Have
you noticed? We are all running. We hear of
an earthquake in Italy, a flood in Acapulco,
bombs in Colombia. In Israel a big bomb
exploded just five hundred meters from our
centre. We have all heard the news.
Sometimes it is better to avoid the news. I
learned not to avoid it, but to look at it. I am
not looking at the news because I am bored. I
am looking at it in order to NOT avoid the
reality of the world. We are still alright at the
moment, for somehow we are protected. But
when you look at the map, you see that it is
purely for karmic reasons that we are
untouched by this fire. Maya or illusion says,
‘Oh, we are OK, so the rest of the world
cannot be on fire.’ But this is not true. After
his vision Swamiji was wondering what he
could do. What can one person do? We say,
‘Oh no, I can’t do much. I am not in politics
and even so, what difference could I make?’
Swamiji asked, ‘What can I do?’ He then
remembered what Swami Sivananda was
doing. He remembered his guru. What did
Swami Sivananda do? He was only one man;
a one-man show. He did not have many
disciples. He simply went to the Ganges, sat
down and started meditating, practicing
asanas, pranayama and the yogic purification
techniques. He was always smiling. When
people asked, ‘How do you do this?’ He would
reply, ‘Well, just come and live with me!’
Swami Vishnu-devananda wanted to know

YO G A Life Winter 2001
Yoga Teachers
who this man was, this man who had said, ‘An
ounce of practice is better than tons of
theory.’ One day he had found these words on
a piece of paper in the waste basket and he
wanted to know who this man was. So he
went to the Sivananda Ashram at Rishikesh in
the Himalayas. He then saw that Master
Sivananda was only teaching what he was
practicing. He was teaching a teachers’
training course, which he called the Yoga
Vedanta Forest Academy. After going through
this training you learnt everything about yoga,
just as during our four-week yoga teachers’
training course.
Swamiji remembered what his Master did,
and then decided to do the same. This was the
beginning of the Teachers’ Training Course. So
you see what a pure motive he had. It was
simply to bring peace to each individual;
because if you are peaceful, your partner is
peaceful, the children are peaceful.
When the family is peaceful, you
can do business correctly,
there is no greed, no
anger, no jealousy.
There will be a
peaceful
environment,
and that peace
will spread from
person to
person., like cells
splitting and
multiplying. In this
way one person can
touch thousands of
people – this was the idea.
It is one of the biggest missions
for peace that anyone has done for
this world.
If you think of these things when you
teach, you will carry this spirituality within
you. Spirituality means that you are not just
thinking about yourself, but that you are
thinking of others. If you do this you will be
an excellent yoga teacher. Of course, you will
have to see whether what you teach is really
pure or not. Question yourself, ‘Am I teaching
yoga the way I learned it?’ If the answer is
‘Yes’, then you will feel the grace of the
masters and you will be a very effective
teacher. You deserve the Nobel Peace Prize if
you teach in this way, because you want to
spread peace in the world in the midst of the
fire. However, don’t expect recognition,
because nobody will know what you are really
doing. This is why Swamiji said that the
highest yoga is to ‘Bear insult, bear injury’.
Everybody will think that you are just a yoga
teacher. But you are more than that.
There is so much commercial yoga
everywhere, but what you have learned is
something much deeper. You learned to serve
others and not to be attached to the fruits of
your actions. This is why Swamiji asked you to
study the Bhagavad Gita. He did not do this
to make a Hindu out of you, nor so that you
would become an expert on eastern
philosophy. He did it so that you would
understand what karma is. If you are attached
to the fruits of your actions you won’t find
peace, because you will be accumulating
agami karma, which means that you will have
to start all over again. Who wants to do this?
The spirit of the peace movement is to
give and to give. If somebody gives you
something and you know they want
17
ADVICE TO TEACHERS
something in return, you are not so happy
about it. If a neighbor gives you a bouquet of
flowers and you know that when they are on
vacation you will have to water their flowers,
it is alright, but if somebody gives you
something and asks nothing in return, you
feel loved. That is what we are supposed to
do when we give.
We are supposed to give everything to
students, and then they feel the love. Once
they feel love, they can give love. There are
many people who don’t feel that love and
that is why they come to yoga. But if they
come to a teacher who is thinking about
making money, they will not feel that love.
There is no love there. Remember that. This is
your test now. So don’t do that with your
precious yoga. Taking money is not bad, but it
is what you do with that money that counts.
You can rent a hall with the money, you can
buy some pictures and frame them. This is
what we do. It is not
good karma if you put
it aside for your own
purposes. If you do, you
won’t be happy, you
won’t be blessed and
you won’t feel love
because your senses
will always want
more.
Swamiji’s vision
was to pass on the love
which you are receiving
from the practice of yoga.
You touch people’s hearts so
that they
can then go home and love
their families in a pure way. If you keep
this in mind, you will be wonderful
yoga teachers. ■
About the author
Swami Durgananda is Acharya (spiritual head) of
the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers in Europe.
For many years she has held spiritual retreats all
over Europe and has recently opened the
Sivananda Yoga Retreat House in Tyrol, Austria.
20
M O U N T K A I L A S YAT R A YO G A Life Winter 2001

Mount Kailas
In June a group of fifteen led by two Swamis embarked on an epic one-month-long yatra (pilgrimage)
to Mount Kailas, the most sacred mountain in the world and the legendary abode of Lord Siva, deep in
the heart of Tibet. To pilgrims, Mount Kailas is the bestower of divine grace and destroyer of many
sins; to walk once around the base of the mountain (parikrama) holds great powers of purification.
What follows are extracts from the diary of Gita, one of the yatris.

driving to Mount Kailas

s we drive further away from Lhasa the countryside starts to change. Initially it seems to be almost the

A same each day, yet the change is subtle. The change in energies is equally subtle. My focus is taken up by
trying to cope with the dynamics within the group. At first I don’t quite understand what it is that makes it
impossible for us to find a comfortable way of communicating with each other. Somehow I am challenged on a very
deep level. The energies are exaggerated, my perception is over sensitive. It seems like the volume is turned up and
I feel as though I have been put into a small space with too many people, yet this is the most deserted place I have
ever been to. I try to shake my senses to pull myself together. This is how it must feel like to go mad. Maybe it is
the altitude. I find it almost impossible to control my mind. Reality and imagination seem to melt into each other. I
can feel the fever rising and soon I am taken over by the pain in my head. I take refuge in sleeping in the back of
the car, yet even in sleep I can hear all conversation, and yet I feel as though I am not really present.

Within these fever dreams I have short spans of
perception, which are crystal clear. I understand that
the Siva energy is preparing us. The obstacles are deep
inside and there is no easy or gentle way to get to
them. Like in a film I see the issues within
myself that need urgent attention. It is a
nerve wracking and painful process. I am
drifting in and out of sleep, each time
becoming aware of the fever which seems
to put me in the strangest frame of
mind. Sometimes I am aware that we are
stopping. I choose not to leave the car, I don’t feel in
control of my body. I am aware that someone is talking
to me and I can hear myself answering, yet I don’t
know what is said. In this state of mind I perceive the
group and each member. Siva’s energy cuts to the very
root of all of us. This manifests on all levels. It creates
the tension between the group members. All are
irritable, at times short-tempered or just simply
particularly difficult.
My reaction to the change is obvious. Physically
my body breaks down. It reacts with fever and even
though this is very uncomfortable and I have a
blinding headache (probably from the altitude) I feel
suddenly relieved. I know this reaction of my body. I
have experienced this reaction many times after
being subjected to a great vibrational change. I know
that it will be over within twelve hours. I know I will
come out of it adjusted to the vibration and I also
know that during this time my vision is particularly
sensitive and often very sharp.
The next morning I wake up feeling one
hundred percent transformed. The vision of the
previous day is burned into my consciousness.
Words or actions seem unnecessary. All is right as
it is. Sometimes I do not understand what a vision
is good for. It leaves me with a feeling of isolation.
During the next couple of days I see the vision
being played in front of me. All is manifesting.
The obstacles are presenting themselves in many
ways. The smallest things seem to have the most
profound impact...
...we are getting up ready for our last day in the
car, the day we are supposed to arrive at Mount
Kailas. It is freezing and getting up seems to become
more difficult each morning. There is an expectancy
and nervousness in the air. We are all desperate to
get there. The days in the car have challenged us
profoundly. We just want to get going. Little did we
know that the most difficult was yet to come.
Lake Manasarovar and Mount Kailas
At the end of the day we arrive at Lake
Manasarovar and after a short drive we come to the
spot where we see Mount Kailas for the first time.
Our driver takes us in a circle around the prayer
flags, before stopping the car. We stand in awe, some
of us prostrate. I allow the picture to settle, the
impression to develop. We pray.
Once the energy starts to settle deep inside, I
feel myself being moved to tears. It feels like the
tension of lifetimes is releasing. I am not able to
control my emotions until the next day. We went for
our holy bath in the lake before returning to our
cars, which will take us to the foot of Mount Kailas.
Here we join the camps of other pilgrims.
It feels incomprehensible that we are here, that I
should be given the opportunity and the blessing to be
at this place. Now that we have arrived it feels almost
impossible that it could be true. The enormous impact
of our trip seems to become clear. I remember words

YO G A Life Winter 2001
s Yatra
in satsang just before we left. We are told that the
Yatra to Mount Kailas is the most difficult one to do.
Only now I understand the meaning of these words.
Arati. We are standing at the base of the Holy
Mountain; tears of release and letting go are welling
up again. I have now developed stomach cramps and
my body seems to use any possible means to
manifest release. I am overwhelmed, it seems too
much and yet it feels good.
the parikrama
We spend one day preparing for the parikrama
around Mount Kailas. We have a beautiful homa.
Even though the energies are clear and strong I find
them difficult to perceive in a specific form. I can
feel the changes within my body and emotions yet I
cannot perceive a form. It takes some time until I
come to realize that there is no form...
We set off the next day. My backpack seems to
weigh a ton and we haven’t even started climbing.
All concentration is directed to the breathing. Just
getting enough air seems to be impossible. The path
is uneven, small and needs full concentration. I can
hardly take in anything of my surroundings, I am
too busy trying to cope with breath and steps. Just
before lunch, one of our party falls ill. It is all too
much. The altitude, the physical strains. The tension
rises, yet we all have someone to focus on now. For
a split second we are a group until the egos struggle
again for their rightful place.
Siva’s energy has no mercy, we are shaken to
the very roots and the reactions are equally
violent. After lunch we find a yak for our patient
and we all carry on walking. Slowly we are
starting to climb a little. Walking and breathing
become more difficult. We have been instructed
to keep silent and to repeat our mantra.
Surprising to see that my mind finds it
impossible to focus on the nature around us.
Every now and then I stop to take in the
surroundings. Yet most of the time I have mental
arguments with members of the group...
We arrive at our camping spot and with
amazement I realize that we are staying one night
at the famous north side view of Mount Kailas. By
now my head is pounding.
Everybody is exhausted already. Yet the worst
is still to come. Only we are not aware of it. I spend
the evening waiting for the clouds to lift off the
summit of Mount Kailas. Eventually, illumined by
the full moon, Mount Kailas shows itself. Too dark
to take a picture. It feels like a present to the few of
us who are still awake.
the most difficult day
Climbing towards the pass is very difficult. We walk
slowly and stop many times. It seems as if we are
stopping mainly to allow a slower yatri to rest, yet I
am very grateful for the many stops and the slow
pace. Eventually we have to wait for a yak to come
and carry another of our party to the pass. The pace
becomes a little faster as we are moving further
towards the top. Mount Kailas is now out of our
view but the energy of Lord Siva is everywhere.
We repeat our mantra in silence, but the
concentration is now fixed firmly on trying to get
enough air into our lungs. Mentally I am ready to
give up. I can feel the anger rising within me. I am
shouting at myself for having been stupid enough to
come on such a trip in the first place. It all pushes
me close to tears. I have no time to contemplate what
the others must be feeling like. Step by step, breath
by breath we climb over rocks to get to the top. The
question ‘why?’ screams in my mind, dominating
any rational thinking. Anger, frustration, fear, all
arise and seem to push me to the edge of madness,
maybe I am mad already?
Somehow we reach the top! Hundreds of prayer
flags make it a colorful point in a mountain desert.
Lunch is ready, waiting for us. Yet no
appetite. I force myself to eat, knowing
that my body needs the food. We hang
our prayer flags up, but are soon
hurried along by our guides who
fear the weather will change. The
descent to our camping spot is
like a nightmare for most of
us. It takes forever. We have to
climb down over stones and
even when we seem to
21
M O U N T K A I L A S YAT R A
recognize the tents it takes hours. It seems like a
giant hand is moving them further away each time
we are just about to reach them. All of us are
exhausted, everybody is irritated. It is a day from
hell. I collapse in my tent too tired to go to sleep.
In my mind the day is floating pass. I am stunned
by the intensity of the mountains surrounding us
as far as the eye can see.
My mind is racing. Instead of being still, I am
faced by the impurities of my mind. I had to come
all the way to Tibet to be faced with the painful
truth and the content of my mind. Yet the
exhaustion is too big. I cannot start to reflect or
comprehend. I start to understand how deep the
Siva energy works. I start to understand that
the energy here has no form and does not allow
us to give it a form. It is too strong to describe.
We are walking around Mount Kailas in an
energy field so strong that one loses the feeling
of being an individual. The heartbeat, the breathing,
the thoughts all seem to dissolve and merge with
the energy around. No form can be given to that
energy. We are looking into the face of God, only to
see our own reflection. For a moment it all becomes
clear. No question, the truth is everywhere.
If it is true that all sins are forgiven by the act
of circumambulation of the Holy Kailas, then the
grace of the Lord is limitless and within the painful
realization lies the unconditional love of God. Both
so close together that they could be one. ■
22
PILGRIMAGE
The European
Millennium
Peace Pilgrimage
T
he European Millennium Peace
Pilgrimage started the week before
Easter, at our retreat house in Reith,
with a series of daily pujas and homas.
Sri Radhakrishna Nambudri led the
ceremonies and they were attended by Swami
Durgananda, Swami Sivadasananda, Swami
Kailasananda and the staff and guests. Sri
Radhakrishna Nambudri had carefully chosen
seven different rituals and he and Swami
Durgananda explained their spiritual meaning
and significance. Swami Durgananda also
gave lectures on the topic throughout the
week. We installed a new murti of Vana-
Durga, which was a gift from our ashram in
Neyyar Dam. Swami Sivadasananda’s classes
reinvigorated the students and day by day the
atmosphere became more peaceful.
The yatris then traveled by bus from Reith
to Vienna, where Swami Ramapriyananda and
Omkari joined the retreat. The center was
blessed to receive Sri Sant Venugopal
Goswami and his four musicians – their
presence and the beautiful program they gave
were a great inspiration. The newly decorated
center in Berlin was the next stop and here we
received a very warm welcome. Many visitors
came for the opening program, a world peace
concert, including a member of the Indian
embassy. It was a tremendous evening. Among
the guests was a group of Lithuanian students
who had traveled for more than nineteen
hours to join us. We all benefited from being
in such a peaceful and natural environment
and once again we were blessed with pujas
and divine music. The retreat finished on
Sunday with a powerful Rudra homa.
The bus then continued on its journey
joined now by Swami Atmaramananda and
the yatri Sundari from Berlin. We spent some
YO G A Life Winter 2001
time at the
Munich
center, then
traveled through
Austria and Switzerland,
a stunning journey across the
Alps and past Lake Constance, to Geneva.
Here Ananta and Narayan Chaitanya joined
us, as well as Vidya Birla, a special guest
from Bombay. The center was completely
taken over by yatris! After arriving we
managed to prepare everything just in time
for a program that same evening. Many
visitors, again including many from the
Indian community, joined us for the peace
concert and the programs held the
following day. We were very happy to
welcome Dr. Vyaas and his wife Nina,
longtime devotees of Swamiji, who stayed
with us throughout the rest of the tour.
We took to the road once again –
destination Spain – but after sixteen hours, the
first mishap struck when the bus broke down.
It was 11pm and we were still 300 kilometers
from Madrid. It took the drivers three hours to
find and repair the problem; we didn’t reach
the Madrid center until 4am the following
 23
PILGRIMAGE

morning! But our spirits rose as we were After a long distance run he managed to
welcomed by the staff and a brave group of catch up with the bus, welcomed by a large
karma yogis, who helped us unload and found round of applause! We were in high spirits
us places to sleep, so we were able to have when we reached Paris that night having
some much needed rest before the beginning treated ourselves to pizza and ice cream on Pujas, yantras and homas on
of the program – an asana class at midday. the way, and after quickly unloading we soon the European Yatra 2000
Once again we had a peace concert in the settled into a happy sleep. The programs the Reith: Devi puja
evening and during the week many students next day were inspiring, and Sri Sant Durga puja
came for the lectures given by Swami Venugopal Goswami was presented with a Kali puja
Durgananda on yantra, puja and mantra as a new microphone. Chakrabja (Vishnu) puja
means to meditation and bhakti. Dr. Vyaas gave The Paris center had organized a retreat in Sudarshana homa
a fascinating lecture on surgery in ancient Blois, to which we all headed at the weekend. Vana Durga puja
India, also sharing with us many of his It was an enjoyable two days in the Tripura Sundari puja
experiences with Swami Vishnu-devanandaji. countryside and included a candlelit concert, Nava Graha puja
Early one morning we departed for Paris. It pujas, mantra initiation, and a lecture from Dhanwanthari homa
was a very long ride, with the drivers Dr. Vyaas on ‘Stress-relief through Yoga’. He Vienna: Navayoni Chakra
cautiously steering the now repaired but and his wife Neena had celebrated their Bala Yantra
tilting bus. However, this time another mishap wedding anniversary during the yatra. In a Mahalaxmi puja
struck. After a short pit stop we suddenly very touching ceremony they honored and Berlin: Ganesha puja
realized that our new yatri from Madrid, worshipped Swami Vishnu-devanandaji and Sudarshana puja
Swami Krishnananda, was missing! He had Swami Durganandaji as their guru. The Meissen: Ganesha puja
left the bus unnoticed to go and brush his retreat finally culminated on May 21st with Siva puja
teeth, and when he returned we were gone. an inspiring Chandrika homa for world peace, Rudra homa
As soon as we realized what had happened after which everybody parted and left for Munich: Shakti Dandabadrakam
we pulled over on the motorway. Far away in different parts of the world to spread the Krishna puja
the distance we saw an orange-clad figure love, peace and energy of this journey which Hanuman puja
standing on the roadside frantically waving. had been unforgettable. ■ Geneva: Vishnu puja
Laxmi puja
Madrid: Ashta Laxmi puja
Saraswati puja
Peace Mandala / Vishnu puja
Paris: Bhuvanashwari puja
Rajeshwari puja
Brahma Vishnu Shiva Puja
Blois: Nava Graha puja
Ashtha Linga puja
Chandrika homa
24
VEDIC ASTROLOGY
Vedic Astrology,
by Stephen Quong
atsang is the starting point on the
S journey of spiritual evolution, and this is
one of the most important teachings of
all the great teachings of India.
In vedic mythology the heavenly father is
called Brahma. He had five mind-born sons,
and these sons did not want to be involved
in material creation; they just wanted to sit
in samadhi and enjoy Brahmananda, the
spiritual bliss of the Heavenly Father. Brahma
became worried that the creation would not
go on, because his own sons would not
cooperate and do their work in the world. So
he sent them for satsang with the teacher
Dakshinamurti. Dakshinamurti did not say
anything; he just sat in silence, raised his
hand in chin mudra – and that was the
satsang. Chin mudra means that when the
ego is united with God, then the three gunas
– the three qualities of existence – are under
control and seen as an integral part of the
cosmic reality. So there is no real separation
between the spiritual and the material,
between the absolute and the relative,
between Brahman and maya.
The great maharishis of India were masters
of knowledge concerning the divine Self and
the nature of cosmic reality, which is called
‘sat’. They were also masters of the natural
sciences, music, dance, agriculture, and many
other relatively mundane subjects. The
masters studied both spiritual sciences as
well as material sciences. In India
astrology is considered a spiritual
science. The Sanskrit name for
astrology, jyotisha, is made up of
two components:
‘jyoti’ meaning light,
and ‘ishta’,
knowledge or science.
So jyotisha is the
science or knowledge of
light; and light refers not only to
the physical light of the stars, but also to the
effects of this light or energy on the
consciousness of all living beings.
The study of jyotisha is an integral part of
vedic knowledge. The brahmins, the priestly
caste, studied the Vedas. After they learned
one or more of the principle Vedas, they also
studied the six secondary branches of vedic
knowledge, which are called shad vedanga.
YO G A Life Winter 2001
The sixth and most important of these
branches of vedic knowledge is jyotisha.
Jyotisha is considered the eye of the vedas,
and the other five branches correspond to
other body parts: karana – face; chandas –
legs; siksha – nose; nirukta – ears; and kalpa –
hands. Through jyotisha we can have an idea
of the future, and the nature of cosmic and
planetary influences upon a certain time and
place.
Jyotisha has been an important part of
vedic culture and religion since the beginning
of time. Modern research indicates that the
Vedas are at least eight thousand years old. But
vedic tradition states that the Vedas are
perhaps many millions of years old and that
they have a pre-historic origin. The most
ancient of the Vedas is the Rig Veda, which
mentions the sun and the moon and their
movement across the twenty-eight
constellations. There are other ancient
scriptures dedicated to the study of astronomy
and astrology such as Vedanga Jyotisha and
Surya Siddhanta.
In ancient times astronomy and astrology
were considered two branches of the same
science; the same people studied both sciences.
It was the rishis, or the brahmins, who were
the students and the protectors of this
knowledge.
The vedic tradition states that this
knowledge of astrology came directly from
Brahma, who gave it to his disciple Narada, and
Narada gave it to the seven great sages or
sapta rishi. In the succeeding time cycles these
seven rishis passed this knowledge on to their
disciples. So there is an unbroken lineage of
this knowledge directly from God to the
present time through a succession of rishis and
gurus. The study of astrology was passed on in
a similar way as the study of yoga and vedanta
– oral teachings from teacher to disciple,
passed on from generation to generation. This
succession of teachers is called guru
parampara in Sanskrit. We not only receive
knowledge from our personal teacher, but also
receive the blessings of the teacher’s teacher,
and the entire lineage of teachers, all the way
back to God.
There is always some kind of spiritual
initiation involved with the study of astrology.
Certain mantras are given to enhance intuition,

YO G A Life Winter 2001
Yoga, Spirituality
and the astrologer is encouraged or required
&
to live the life of a yogi, to
observe yama and niyama, to
practice pranayama and
meditation, and also to know
about mantras and pujas, and
have some knowledge of
ayurveda and the healing arts. All
this is in addition to the study of
astrology and astronomy.
I am sure all of you have
heard of Sri Rama. He is
considered to be the ideal king in
the history of India. His teacher,
the Maharishi Vashishta, was
considered to be an enlightened
being, a great teacher. His
grandson Parashura, also a rishi,
compiled all the ancient texts on
vedic astrology, and became
known as the grandfather of
modern vedic astrology. This happened many
thousands of years ago.
The son of Rishi Parashura was Vedavyas,
who is very famous. He is recognized as the
great scholar who compiled the Vedas, the
Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, the Brahma
Sutras and many other important scriptures.
Great honor is given to Vedavyas on Guru
Poornima, which is the full moon of July. On
that day all of one’s gurus and teachers are
worshipped and honored.
In fact, all the holidays and festivals in
India are based upon astrology. Even the
celebration of Easter in the western world is
an astrological holiday. Easter is celebrated
on the first Sunday after the new moon in
Aries. So the Christian tradition adapted the
astrological teaching of that period in
history, and converted so-called pagan
holidays into Christian holidays.
All time keeping is based upon the
movement of planets. Our entire life is
governed by time: the day is defined by one
revolution of the earth; a month is the time
from one new moon to the next new moon;
and the year is defined by the revolution of
the earth around the sun at one time. So
wherever the planets might be at any time,
they have some influence over our
consciousness.
The ancient rishis made a profound study
of the science of astrology. It was an
important part of their religion and culture,
and a very valuable tool to assist people in
attaining the four goals of human existence.
According to the vedic tradition these four
goals are dharma, which is spiritual life
purpose; artha, wealth and prosperity; kama,
pleasure or love; and moksha, spiritual
liberation.
Each of the nine planets and twelve zodiac
signs can be associated with one of these
four goals. By studying the planetary
patterns in one’s own birth chart, we can
know in a very specific way what our life
lessons are. Every astrological pattern in the
birth chart represents a specific life lesson.
The ancient textbooks on astrology say that
the birth chart is the map of our karmas from
past lifetimes. Sanchita karma can be
neutralized or transformed just by
understanding, as a human or between lives,
whilst prarabdha karma must be experienced
physically and can therefore only be balanced
by being in a human body.
Even enlightened beings and great
spiritual teachers have prarabdha karmas to
experience. The astrological patterns shown
in their birth charts will be indicative of the
external conditions of their lives. So even if a
person is a jivanmukta – completely free even
whilst in a human body and not identified
with a sense of ego – the karmas which gave
that person a physical body will still
correspond with astrological influences
indicating the external circumstances of their
life. When we study the horoscopes of
spiritual teachers, their astrology chart will
indicate what types of illnesses they might
experience, what types of disciples they
might have, whether they have a big ashram
in the city or a small ashram in the country,
whether they will be famous or not, and even
the kind of spiritual teaching they will
specialize in.
If even great spiritual teachers are
influenced by prarabdha karma, ordinary
people are even more so. By studying
astrology we can understand what our
karmic experiences will be in this life – not
just the general lessons for this life, but also
25
VEDIC ASTROLOGY
the specific timetable for the unfoldment of
these experiences. Sometimes we can note
the exact day or week when a major event
will happen. So if this forecast is of a difficult
circumstance we can engage in spiritual
practice to minimize the danger. In addition
to the understanding of the life pattern, it
was the traditional role of the astrologer to
recommend remedies or cures for any
potential problems indicated in the birth
chart.
In India the tradition was that people
would go to a sadguru for spiritual
knowledge – knowledge of the Self and ways
to realize the Self – and to an astrologer for
understanding their karmas and the most
direct path for transcending these karmas.
There is a division of responsibility between
the sadguru and the astrologer, but many
great spiritual teachers knew astrology too,
and most astrologers were knowledgeable in
spiritual philosophy.
Vedic astrology is not just for Hindus or
for people who are following the vedic
tradition. The planets affect everyone,
regardless of which country they are living
in. With a little adaptation for differences in
language and culture, vedic astrology can be
a very helpful tool in understanding our
spiritual path and the karmas which are the
obstacles to our Self-realization. Even after
we learn about the goal of life and the
spiritual practices which can help us to realize
this goal, we still have to walk the path, live
our lives and go through all the ups and
downs of daily existence. Often we do not
have much idea of what is going on and life
can sometimes appear very confusing –
especially its more mundane factors. Having
the things we need: enough money to go on
a yoga retreat, satisfying work and a good
career, harmonious human relationships
which will enhance and support our spiritual
practices, and when to have children, where
the best place to live is, what type of spiritual
practice is best what type of spiritual practice
is best – all these questions can be addressed
specifically through Vedic astrology.
Each planet represents a certain
component of our being. For example, the
Sun represents the expression of the Soul,
26
VEDIC ASTROLOGY
the Divine Self, or the Atman. It also
represents the sense of ego, which is called
"ahamkara" in Sanskrit. Ahamkara means "I
am the doer", "I am a special person".
Therefore the Sun's location in the birth
chart will symbolize both the spiritual path
for Self-realization which will be most
attractive for that person, as well as the
distortion of that path through the ego
sense.
The Moon represents the nature of the mind
and the emotions. The Moon is called soma in
Sanskrit, which means "the divine nectar of
immortality". Soma is mentioned in many of
the Vedas as being the goal of spiritual practice.
In modern times some scientists have equated
soma with psychedelic drugs. But basically
soma is a state of consciousness which is
realized through spiritual practices. When the
mind becomes peaceful and calm, it is able to
reflect the light of the Divine Self, just like the
full moon reflects the light of the sun.
The planet Mercury represents intelligence
and discrimination. Venus represents our
creative capacity, as well as our karmas for love
and marriage. Mars represents physical
strength and courage, and--very important--
Jupiter represents spirituality and religion.
Jupiter is called "Guru" in Sanskrit, which
means teacher or spiritual preceptor. So
wherever Jupiter is in the person’s birth chart,
this will be an indicator of the kind of guru they
have an attraction for, and also the kind of
religion they will have an interest in. Jupiter
will also symbolize the person’s capacity to
become a guru. And in certain zodiac signs
Jupiter represents the capacity to become a
healer or physician. Saturn represents our
capacity for renunciation, selfless service and
humility.
There are certain sections of the horoscope
called Houses, and the fifth house from the
Ascendent represents the karma for the Ishta
Devata. Ishta Devata means "the personal
form of God you have the greatest attraction
for". So if you believe you have had past lives
in India, you will probably feel an attraction
towrds one of these different forms of God,
like Ganesha, or Krishna, or Rama, or Devi.
Because the worship of a personal form of
God is so powerful, it leaves a very deep
impression in our mind, and this memory will
be with us in our next lifetime. And if we
continue to worship the same deity lifetime
after lifetime, it will make our spiritual path
much easier. So the choosing of the Ishta
Devata is considered to be very important – and
each of the nine planets represents a certain
deity. In fact each of the major deities in the
Vedic tradition controls one of the planets or
zodiac signs, and they also control the 27
important constellations.
So whatever the life lesson is (which is
symbolized by a star or a planet in a certain
zodiac sign) then the worship of a specific Vedic
deity can help us to overcome the negative
aspects of that karma. For example, in the
birthchart of Swami Sivananda, the birth star
was Bharani, and the star Bharani is ruled by
Yama, the God of Death. This does not means
that he should have worshiped Yama, but as a
doctor he saw death everywhere in his practice.
During his austerities on the banks of the
Ganges he developed tremendous detachment
from the world, because of his awareness of the
immanence of death. If we think that death
might come at any time, then we can have real
renunciation. So even though Swami Sivananda
did not worship Yama, the influence of Yama,
the God of Death, was a powerful factor in his
life. It was one of the main factors to cause him
to renounce the world and become a swami.
For other people the presiding deity of
their birth star might be Vishnu, so
experiencing the beauty of God’s presence
everywhere might be the motivation for
spiritual life. In the case of Indra, being
impressed by the profundity of spiritual
teachings might be the reason for becoming
more involved in spiritual life. So through the
study of vedic astrology we can discover
those very deep and profound underlying
factors which motivate our spiritual practice.
Vedic astrology has a close association
with ayurveda. There are three body types in
ayurveda: vata, pitta and kapha, representing
air, fire and earth. Kapha represents both
earth and water. Each of the twelve zodiac
signs corresponds to one of these doshas,
and each of the nine planets also corresponds
to one of these doshas. By a quick glance at
the horoscope, we can determine the
person’s prakriti, or body type. The planets
can also be associated with the five elements
of nature, or pancha tattva, which is another
fundamental principle of ayurveda.
The combined study of astrology and
ayurveda, or some other system of medicine,
is commonly called medical astrology. Each
part of the body has an association with the
nine planets or the twelve zodiac signs. If we
study the horoscope we can know which
types of illnesses are most probable, and also
at what age this danger might manifest. We
can also know through which level of the
body it will express itself – whether it will be
a physical, emotional or a psychological
problem, and whether it will be short-term,
chronic, or incurable. Through astrology you
can choose the best time to take medicine,
to make the medicine most effective. It is
commonly known that poisonous herbs
create more poison during the full moon, so
certain herbs are harvested in certain periods
of the month to enhance their effect.
Medicines are even mixed at certain times of
YO G A Life Winter 2001
the month and made more potent with
mantras to the deities of that moon sign. In
Indian classical music we have ragas, or
classical scales. Each of these ragas has an
association with one of the constellations.
There are some classical musicians who will
choose which raga to play based on where
the moon is that day, and by doing so the
music will have an enhanced effect.
The scope of astrology encompasses many
different areas of life. It definitely affects our
spiritual path, our health, our career, our
relationship karmas, our finances, the climate
and region we will have the greatest success
in – in fact, every area of life is pervaded by
astrological influence.
Every ancient civilization or culture had its
own form of astrology. Chinese astrology is a
very ancient science, and most of the countries
in the Middle East area have their own
astrological traditions – the Egyptians,
Babylonians, Assyrians, Hebrews, Arabs, Greeks
and Romans are just a few; and in modern
times European astrology has been highly
developed.
But it is in India that the study of
astrology has been taken to the highest
heights. Of all the systems of astrology which
are currently available for study, vedic
astrology has perhaps the greatest
distinction. It has been practiced
continuously for eight thousand years and is
still being practiced today by some very
spiritual people – with the intention of
helping people to attain spiritual liberation.
So even though it can address the material
side of life, the analysis of the material and
mundane is always seen in the context of the
bigger picture, which in the vedic tradition
is: only Brahman is real, the world is unreal,
Brahman and the world are one. Ultimately,
there is no separation between the material
and spiritual world. This perception of
separation instead of unity, is caused by the
veiling power of maya, which we are all
trying to overcome through the practice of
yoga and the study of vedanta.
May the knowledge of jyotisha assist
you on the path to unity through yoga and
Self-realization.
Om Namah Sivaya. ■
About the author
Stephen Quong (Umananda)
has studied and practiced
astrology in Asia and America
since 1970. He has traveled
extensively in India, Nepal,
and Sri Lanka, studying with many of the most
accomplished contemporary masters of vedic
astrology and palmistry.
30
TEACHERS’ TRAINING COURSE YO G A Life Winter 2001

Teachers’ Training Course

in Val Morin/July 2000
ki Morris
by Ki s

he Yoga Teachers’ Training Course in Val

T Morin, Quebec, Canada in July 2000 was

an extraordinary experience. There were
countless moments of despair and struggle
during the intensive, month-long training. Yet,
for all the hardships encountered, it has now
become a landmark in my life as well as a
boundless source of inspiration and strength.
During the first few days I found myself
resisting almost every aspect of the course – the
5.30am wake-up call,
the strict discipline, During the first few days I
the rigorous
program, the lack of found myself resisting
personal space and
time, the constant almost every aspect of the
bombardment of
theory and new course – the 5.30am wake-
ideas. It was only the up call, the strict discipline,
hatha yoga lessons
(asanas and the rigorous program, the
pranayama), taken
on the lakeside deck, lack of personal space and
which seemed to
make any sense. time...
However, my yoga
teacher in London (who took TTC in 1981), had told me
to keep my mind open and attend every class without
previous expectation or judgement. Although I failed
on this account many times, the more I trusted in my
teacher’s advice the more fruitful and interesting the
results were.
The teachings on the course were those of the
ancient yogis. I found myself in a privileged position
 31
YO G A Life Winter 2001 TEACHERS’ TRAINING COURSE

– exposed to a profound understanding of essential human that which I liked – with joy,
nature and the methods through which we can attain concentration and detachment.
peace of mind. The lessons were given by a group of benign Due to the intensive
and respectful teachers who encouraged direct experience nature of TTC you make close
rather than blind faith. The schedule was always tough and friends extremely quickly. This
challenging, yet each day I learned to drop my judgements human contact was a very
a little more in order to apply myself and reap the precious part of the course. We
enormous benefits. supported each other through the
We are all constantly seeking happiness. In the West we hard times and celebrated the
look to the outside world to fulfil this desire, hoping that a good times with impromptu
new car, relationship, house or friend will satisfy our longings. jamming sessions on drums
Yet every time our expectations are dashed. TTC directed me and guitar, in the swimming
elsewhere in the pursuit of joy – it took me on an unexpected pool and sauna, and with
journey into myself. The asanas and pranayama proved to be walks through the forest or
a means to an end, as yogis control the body in order to to the nearby village for an
conquer the mind and see beyond it to the true Self. As I illicit cup of coffee (decaf
focused on my mind during morning and evening meditation, of course). Everyone had
I became aware of its incessant activity and of how much their personal way of
energy I expended in useless getting away
worrying. TTC encourages you from the course in
to act rather than to sit around Chanting ‘I am not my order to return to it
thinking and worrying. In body, I am not my mind’ with renewed energy
Swami Sivananda’s words ‘an and enthusiasm.
ounce of practice is worth a felt very alien to begin It is said that much of
ton of theory’. It became clear the teaching on TTC is
that things are only a problem with, but the more I the planting of seeds,
if they are a problem in your that hundreds of ideas
mind. Through persistently contemplated this idea, the come into the conscious
tuning and relaxing my body, more I experienced a deep mind and understanding
and stilling my mind, I began only when the time is
to glimpse a state of inner and blissful sense of unity ready, when sufficient
peace. From this new purity, strength and
perspective I found myself able with all things clarity of mind have
to let things go when there been achieved. Already I
was nothing I could do about have noticed many shifts
them. This freed up vast reservoirs of energy which I could in my behavior and attitude since
then use in more positive ways. finishing the course. My levels of
A central part of TTC is the study of Vedanta philosophy. energy, confidence and stamina
This advocates that we are all pure consciousness, that have shot up. My mind is calm,
anything with a name or form is an illusion and that the body focused and content. I have a
and mind are merely instruments with which to realise the Self. greater sense of freedom than
At first this was a hard concept to grasp. The culture that we ever before, in that I have
are brought up in teaches us to identify with our bodies and increased my capacity to take life
minds, to prize and cultivate individuality. Chanting ‘I am not as it comes.
my body, I am not my mind’ felt very alien to begin with, but This morning I taught my first
the more I contemplated this idea, the more I experienced a yoga lesson at the Sivananda Centre
deep and blissful sense of unity with all things. in London. It felt as if someone else
Karma yoga, selfless service to humanity, was an integral was teaching the class, as if I was a
part of our daily schedule. Everyone was assigned a job to help vessel through which an energy
with the upkeep of the ashram, from working in the boutique passed from a long lineage of
to cleaning the toilets. My task was to sweep and mop the teachers to my students. This is
kitchen floor after lunch. At first I turned my nose up at it, but the beginning of something
gradually I learnt to do what I disliked with the same spirit as good. ■
33
YO G AVLife Winter
EDIC A S T R O L O 2001
GY
I Am Pain, Thy Teacher
O h man, you curse me, blame me,
You hate me and frown at me
You think I am cruel and heartless.
You try to slay me with anaesthetics,
With choloroform and bromides,
You attack me with sedatives and opiates.
You phone the doctors,
you run to the hospitals;
You fly to Vienna and hill stations.
You wire to your friends and relatives;
You approach the saints of the Himalayas
for remedies and herbs.
You do Maha Mritunjaya Japa and Havan.
You burn incense and pray – To kill the teacher
Who warns you, Who comes to help and bless you.
I am not your enemy, I am your friend,
I am a messenger from God,
I am an angel from heaven, to teach you wisdom,
To instill in your heart mercy and dispassion.
To turn your mind towards God.
To destroy your intense clinging
To things earthly and mundane,
That are perishable and illusory.
I am your guide and silent teacher;
I AM PAIN – the best thing in this world;
I am an eye-opener, soul-awakener
I am an inspirer and thriller,
I come to remind you of God,
To point to you the divine path,
To make you desist from evil ways,
To make you practise good habits;
You have really misunderstood me,
I am only the absence of pleasure,
I co-exist with pleasure;
I am the starting point of philosophy,
I am the cause of man’s exertion,
I am the cause of man’s aspirations,
I set the minds of philosophers to think,
I make the Yogis start spiritual practices,
I make the sages practise meditation,
YO G A Life Winter 2001
I make a worldly man a superman.
You failed to observe the laws of health,
The rules of hygiene and right living,
You took Rajasic and Tamasic foods,
You took meat, fish and eggs;
You were not regular in doing exercise,
You did not do Pranayama and Asanas,
You did not pray and meditate,
You were immoderate in taking food,
You did not bask in the sun,
You slept in ill-ventilated rooms,
You took too much of sweetmeats,
You drank impure water,
You hated and injured your neighbours,
You were lustful, malicious and greedy,
And so suffered strokes and heart attacks,
You married a third time,
You were a heavy smoker in the club,
You drank liquor and took drugs,
You took bribes and cheated,
You twisted the truth in courts
And thereby sent innocent men to prison,
You charged your patients heavily –
And so I come to you,
To heal, to teach, to guide.
Understand now at least
My secret and good nature,
My interest in your well-being;
Practise simple living and high thinking,
Observe the laws of health and hygiene,
Adopt a well-balanced, vegetarian diet,
Practise non-injury, truth and celibacy,
Read holy books and scriptures,
Love all and be kind to all,
Forgive and forget quickly,
Serve all with affection, See the Lord in all,
Repeat the Divine Name at all times –
It will protect and guide you,
Then I will depart and leave you.
I will not trouble you any longer.
– Swami Sivananda
34
SWAMI VISHNU-DEVANANDA
Lessons with Swamiji
by Sankara (Peter Beecham), Ottawa, Canada
any years ago, when I had just become
M acquainted with Sivananda Yoga, I
came to a point where I wanted to
make changes in my life. I had only
been to the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Camp at
Val Morin once or twice but felt
that I should go there for a weekend to see if
I could come to some decisions on some life
issues. To keep my focus I wrote
down four or five issues that I intended to
ponder during my time at the ashram and
didn’t tell anyone the purpose of my visit.
Swami Vishnu-devanandaji was at the yoga
camp but I had never met him and, as far as I
was aware, nobody knew me and I was
just an anonymous face in the crowd. Perfect
for my purposes.
I cheerfully participated in the ashram’s
daily routine of morning and evening yoga
classes and satsangs and went about my
business of trying to resolve my issues. It was
at one of these evening satsangs that an event
occurred that changed the course of my life.
That satsang was held in the main building
where the boutique is now located. There were
several dozen other people there. Swami
Vishnu-devananda was there in his wheelchair
and began to give his nightly talk to the group.
As I listened to Swamiji’s talk, it suddenly
dawned on me that Swami Vishnu-devananda,
within the context of this general talk, was
also answering the questions that I had come
up to the Yoga Camp to resolve. Not only that,
but he was answering them in the order that I
had written them down! At first, I was stunned
by this discovery. Then I was awed by his ability
to know my mind so intimately. I was also
impressed by his ability to weave his responses
to my questions seamlessly into the talk that
he was giving. Next, I was overwhelmed by the
compassion and solicitude that he
demonstrated for my struggle and the
succor that his answers
provided. Finally, I recognised his willingness
to offer himself to me as guru and to
accept me as a disciple.
When satsang ended, I waited until he had
accepted greetings and obeisance from the
other people there. As Swami Vishnu-
devananda came out of the room, I knelt down,
thanked him for his help and touched his feet.
I had met and recognised my guru. And what
happened to those issues I was struggling
YO G A Life Winter 2001
with? They dissolved; simply vanished.
Not because of the particular answers
that he gave me but rather because he
cared enough to answer at all, because
he recognized my concerns and distress
and made a compassionate response to
them. And, more importantly, because
he did so firstly in a way that I could
understand and secondly, in a way that
gave me a different, higher perspective
that clearly demonstrated that those
issues were actually non-issues. The
issues that had been so significant to
me simply dissolved in the light of
that Self-realisation to which
Swami Vishnu-devananda had so
briefly elevated me.
There are several elements to this
story, each of which could be the
subject of an extended talk, a chapter
in a book on guru-shishya relations or
a book on the philosophy and
techniques of yoga. The non-
judgement, humility and compassion that spiritual evolution, as the system of nadis and
permeated Swamiji’s talk are subjects of chakras becomes purified and the
endless books and are at the root of his being consciousness becomes attuned to them.
able to reach out to me that evening. His These siddhis are lures that continue to draw
being an instrument of God’s grace is another thousands of aspirants and about which
point. Being an instrument of God’s grace is a many books have been written.
topic that will always occupy the attention of I want to mention here the two elements
many people: how to tap into that grace, how that stood out for me during that
to use it, and why one can serve and give encounter with Swami Vishnu-devananda.
tirelessly when open to that divine grace. It was Swamiji’s ability to know in precise
Another important element is the limitation detail the contents of my mind that initially
and futility of ego, the limitation of rational captured my attention. How was it possible,
thought, and their transcendental especially in such precise detail? The siddhi
alternatives. I could write about the worldly lies outside of our normal expectations for
and transcendental benefits of total humans. To experience its application is
openness: the illusion of vulnerability and the stunning. It turns one’s world upside down
protective prison of ideas and emotions that and inside out. All prior references to the
people who feel vulnerable erect against the human condition and human potential are
world; the strength, limitless perspective and immediately seen as self-limiting obstacles
fearlessness to be had from practicing total designed to give us the illusion of control
openness; and how others are also elevated and competence. Swamiji’s brief demon -
in the face of one’s openness. stration opened my awareness and
Another important topic arising from that expanded my horizons infinitely. This was
event could be the intimacy of a guru- not to be last time that Swamiji was to do
shishya relationship: what is expected of a this for me, but those are stories for
guru and of a shishya or the dynamics of another time. His demonstration of siddhis
such a relationship. Swamiji’s ability to ‘read was something about which I felt that I had
my mind’ was a demonstration of siddhis, to find out more. It was only later that I
paranormal abilities that defy conventional came to understand that to chase siddhis
explanation but are a natural consequence of instead of seeking God was counterproductive
 35
YO G A Life Winter 2001 SWAMI VISHNU-DEVANANDA

and could result in less spiritual awareness that had the rather limiting preoccupations To be one of these is to be all of them. To
rather than more. I had mistaken some of only money and power, the second major practice one is to develop the others. I also
incidental consequences of the spiritual lesson from this initial encounter with came to understand that these attributes
journey for enlightenment itself. But at Swami Vishnu-devananda was the lesson in were indicative of the natural state of each
least I had recognised the path. humility and compassion. Here was a person person. They were not characteristics that
This demonstration of a new, all- who was an internationally recognised had to be created but rather characteristics
encompassing way of perception was certainly expert on yoga-vedanta, the head of an that were part of one’s authentic being, the
intriguing. It was also very intimidating. Here was international yoga organization that Self that had been obscured and which
a person who was capable of knowing the required his constant attention and who would reappear as one removed the
smallest detail of my thoughts. In this case, he was also in the midst of giving a talk to a obstacles to Self-awareness. These
had focused on my aspirations. He could, large group of people. The potential for ego obstacles to Self are the limiting and
however, just as easily have been aware (and aggrandizement was enormous. A tendency negative ideas that we carry around with
probably was) of all the day-to-day negativity to be dismissive and aloof would have been us, which permeate our responses to the
that was passing through my mind. We all have unsurprising. To be preoccupied would have events of our days and which, indeed, even
negative thoughts that we would not like others been natural. But Swamiji had none of determine how we perceive those events.
to know about. How would you like someone else these characteristics. Instead, he remained To practice the positive opposites of these
to know every thought that you had? They might limiting ideas is to allow our true Self to
be threatened by those thoughts or even judge come gradually to the surface and present
you as weird or unfit to associate with. Swami Itself to the world.
Vishnu-devananda, despite his awareness It is not just from our own efforts that
of all of my thoughts, good and bad, I was awed by we live as our authentic Self. It is
had decided to help me, not to judge through God’s grace and, in my case,
me. The guru is always aware of his ability to know my mind so through the grace of the guru that
where you are on the spiritual our consciousness can remain
path and why, and he or she still intimately and was overwhelmed elevated and the authentic Self be
elects to guide you. It is this lack presented to the world. To
of pretence and judgement, this by the compassion and solicitude that remember God is to keep our
total openness and absolute trust authentic Self at the forefront. As
that is a hallmark of a guru- he demonstrated for my struggle Swami Sivananda said, ‘Remember.
disciple relationship. Forget.’ Remember God. Forget the
Learning that you can function and the succor that his rest. Forget anything that is not God.
in the world with such attitudes is Ignore it. Keep bringing your mind to
another lesson that is learned gradually. answers provided the positive and to God.
What you take with you when you leave the Since that initial encounter, I have
guru and attempt to make your way in the world become a full-time teacher of yoga,
is a new openness and an absence of fear. You meditation, and stress management. I try to
have a new perspective on the world and its present Swamiji’s teachings to those
people. How people respond to you and the above the details of his personal attending my classes and seminars and to
conventions of church, state and business are circumstances and stayed true to his source relate those teachings to people’s own
less defining and thus less confining. You have a of inspiration. He singled me out as a circumstances. Swamiji’s five points, i.e.
love and compassion that was not there before. person in need and responded to that need proper exercise, proper breathing, proper
The guru’s recognition of the content of your mind unobtrusively. Who knows how many other relaxation, proper diet and positive thinking
and heart and his or her decision to help you is a people in that audience on that evening and meditation, remain the cornerstone of
demonstration of love and compassion – a model received Swamiji’s intense and com - my teachings and my sadhana. I continue to
that you can take with you into your daily life passionate attention? He had no ego, no grow personally and spiritually because of
and apply when you encounter circumstances fear, no sense of separation. He was love that initial meeting with Swami Vishnu-
that pose a threat to your self-image and a and compassion, humility and supreme devananda. And I remain eternally grateful.
challenge to your equanimity and goodwill. By awareness. This was a new model of being ■
remembering your guru’s compassion for you, to me.
you learn to act from love and not from fear, It was only later that I came to
revenge or self-interest. To paraphrase the understand that having no ego, no fear and
golden rule: do unto others as your guru has no sense of separation and to be totally
done unto you.
About the author
aware, compassionate and loving were not Sankara teaches yoga in Ottowa in Canada. He is a
For me, coming at that time from the only connected but mutually dependent. long-time devotee of Swami Vishnu-devananda
investment industry, a corporate culture There could not be one without the others. Sankara can be contacted at omprem@magma.ca
36
INDIAN ART
Indian Art
by Sri Padmanabha Dasa, H.H. Marthanda Varma
hajuraho, two hundred miles from Delhi,
K is home to eighty-eight temples which are
renowned for their erotic carvings. Many
foreigners visit Khajuraho and wonder
how erotic art can be associated with a holy
place. However, such sculpture is by no means
confined to Indian temples, and can be found
for example in St. Paul’s cathedral in London
and the church of St. Stephen in Vienna,
Austria.
On careful scrutiny all aspects of life have a
scientific and aesthetic foundation. It is a
modern misnomer that the ancients had no
science. Science makes precise all arts, and art
beautifies and enriches all science. Both
aspects are essential for a true way of life and
in India our forebears never lost sight of this in
any walk of life. In India there is a desire to
attain to perfection, and art is also often
brought in to transform a subject into
something beautiful and aesthetic.
In Indian art the symbols cannot be properly
understood without reference to Indian
philosophy and the consequent religious
attitude. Then they can be seen as signals along
the spiritual path of India’s changeless wisdom.
The belief is that human life is essentially a
spiritual progression, with its central purpose
being self-realisation. This is achieved by
breaking all the bonds of ignorance. The prayer
YO G A Life Winter 2001
of India from time immemorial has been ‘Asato
ma sat gamaya, tamaso ma jyothir gamaya’ –
Lead me from the unreal to the real, lead me
from darkness to light.
Ananda Coomaraswamy wrote in his ‘Essays
in National Idealism’, ‘The arts are all thus
sacred and designed for spiritual awakening.’
This means that the arts are not just mere
diversions or an escape from the drudgery of
life. The arts are meant to give wings to the
aspirations of the human soul; thus they have
a universal message. If we look at art in India
divorced from this philosophical background,
it loses its real meaning.
This religious approach to art does not
assume that art should be solely other-worldly
or puritanical. Religion is India is about
liberation, moksha, which is achieved through
removal of ignorance, avidya. To help achieve
this, art covers all phases and activities of an
individual’s life, seeking to create in the devotee
an attitude conducive to the attainment of the
spiritual goal. In this way a religious attitude is
infused into all the normal activities of life,
therefore eliminating the opposition between
the secular and the sacred.
In Indian religious tradition it is said that
life has four major, well-defined purposes.
These are: dharma, the practice of virtue; artha,
the acquisition of wealth; kama, the enjoyment
 37
YO G A Life Winter 2001 INDIAN ART

of the pleasures of life; and finally moksha, They are angelic figures of subtle, unearthly
liberation. This scheme makes it clear that there voluptuousness; shining forth from them is
is no attempt to reject the world. The warning their delight in the glorious impalpability of
is not against the enjoyment of worldly their bodies.’
pleasures but against the temptation to lose Art in India is fundamentally called upon to
sight of the goal by letting these pleasures symbolise subtle and profound intellectual and
become a goal in themselves. It is said that a philosophical conceptions and transcendental
human should be like the lotus flower, thriving states of experience. ■
in water but never allowing water to stick to it
or submerge it. Life should be a synthesis
between the world of spirit and the world of
matter. In India these two worlds are seen as
complementary and art must be viewed as a
reflection of this view.
In Indian art, (whether painting, music,
dance, or sculpture) we can see the whole
drama of life, with its pulsating passions and
varying moods and activities, richly
represented. So there is no contradiction
between the rich sensuousness expressed and About the author
its spiritual intention. K. Bharatha Iyer writes Major General Sri Padmanabha
‘the gods and goddesses and even the ascetic Dasa Vanchi Pala Sri Bala Rama
Buddha are conceived in the most Varma Kulasekhara Kiritapati Manney
captivatingly sensuous forms and as ever Sultan Maharaja Raja Rama Raja
youthful and radiant.’ And Henrich Zimmer, a Bahadur Shamsher Jang, GCSI, GCIE is
careful student of Indian art, writes that ‘what the Maharaja of Travancore.
may appear to the casual observer to be nude
figures, are in reality tastefully robed and be-
jewelled. Garments and ornaments are
assimilated to the forms which they adorn.
38
THE PURE PRINCIPLE YO G A Life Winter 2001

The Pure Principle

Excerpted from the recently released book by Jim Pym

“ ”
There is a principle which is pure, placed in the human mind, which
in different places and ages has had different names; it is however
pure and proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined to no
forms of religion nor excluded from any, where the heart stands
in perfect sincerity.

These words of John Woolman point the way for Quakers today to embrace religious
language, beliefs and practices from other faith traditions while remaining true to their own.
In this new century, it is vital that the world’s religions learn to understand and cooperate
with each other. These words from sacred texts and from people of different faiths, help us to
begin to see that unity which we are searching for.

from the sacred texts...

For, when I came int There is a light that shines beyond all thing
o s on earth, beyond us all,
people, I felt a secre the silent assemblies of God’s beyond the heavens, beyond the highest,
the very highest heavens. This
t power among them is the light that shines in our heart. All this
touched my heart; , which universe is in truth Brahman.
and as I gave way He is the beginning and end of life and
the evil weakening unto it I found all. As such in silence, give him
in
- Robert Barclay, Qu me and the good raised up… adoration. There is a spirit that is mind
and life, light and truth and vast
aker spaces. He contains all works and desires
and all perfumes and all tastes.
He enfolds the whole universe, and in silen
ce is loving to all. This is the
spirit that is in my heart, smaller than a grain
of canary-seed, or the kernel
of a grain of canary-seed. This is the spirit
that is in my heart, greater than
the earth, greater than the sky, greater
than heaven itself, greater than
the worlds. He contains all works and desir
Unborn, an Unmade, an es and all perfumes and tastes.
There is, O monks, an He enfolds the whole universe and in
silence is loving to all. This is the
e. If it were not so, there
Unmanifest and an Unbecom born, the made, the spirit that is in my heart, this is Brahman
.
the
would be no escape from - Chandogya Upanishad, Hindu
manifest and the become.
- The Buddha

revelation’. If
Lao Tzu says that ‘Silence is the great
inter ior silen ce we will find a deep May the time be not distant, O God, whe
we can penetrate this n all your children
within from whic h we can receive impr essions from will understand that they are brothers and
centre sisters so that, one
the moonbeam in the in spirit and one in fellowship, they
another plane. Like a calm pool reflects may be forever united
nigh t, equa lly, distu rbing oute r impressions will find before You. Then shall Your Kingdom be
stillness of the established on earth,
ythin g is understood, in a way and the word of Your prophet shall be
a resting place, for in the silence ever yourself to be analytical fulfilled: ‘The Lord will
the mind . Do not lead reign for ever and ever’.
not comprehensible by where we can transcend
tion
here for this is a divine process of transmuta a whole heart. A heart in - Prayer Book, Jewish
to the Belo ved with
the experience and offer it
well of silence, like the ego needs
the state of becoming needs this inner
it drow n in safety and be still.
the Higher Self, for only then can
- Margaret Sampson , Sufi
 39
YO G A Life Winter 2001 THE PURE PRINCIPLE

Be still and know that

tred. Hatred is
tre d is ne ve r diminished by ha I Am God Now is the tim
Ha
is is the eternal law. - Psalm 46, Jewish e
high the bann for the lover of God to rais
diminished by love. Th - The Dhammapada, Buddhist er of unity, to e
assemblages intone, in the
of the world,
and love and the verses of
to friendship
of God is one. demonstrate to all that th
If your mind is open it is always ready Thus will the e
Do not do unto be upraised on tabernacles of grace
holiness
others that which you
for anything; it is open to everything. gathering all the summits of the earth,
In the beginner’s mind there are pe
would not have them do shadow of th oples into the protective
e
unto you.
many possibilities; in the expert’s dawn over th World of Oneness. This grea
e world at the t
- Rabbi Hillel, Jewish
mind there are few. shall arise to time when th bounty will
- Shunryu Suzuki; Zen Mind, Beginner’s carry out His e lovers of God
and wide the te achings, and
fres to sc
Mind - Baha’U’llah, h, sweet scent of universa atter far
Baha’I l love.
O God!
May I treat others
As I would be treated I forgive all living beings,
What I like not for myself Let all living beings forgive me;
May I dispense not to others. All in this world are my friend,
- Abdullah Ansari, Sufi not like for
I have no enemies. another what you do
- Prayer of Forgiveness, Jain Do not approve for
yourself.
a, Zoroastrian
- Gospel of Zarathustr

into , so all human beings

of Existence, reconcile us all O God, it is Thy word that
mankind is a single nation
O Thou who art the Kernel lit from the the y are endowed with love
e, for all lamps are dignity and rights,
love of each other and of The are born free and equal in in the spirit of
act towards one another
same Light. - Rumi, Sufi and conscience and should
brotherhood.
- The Qur’an, Islam

Will ye tell others to be righteous and not practise

In the company of saints, man learns how righteousness yourself?
to turn enemies into friends,
As he becomes completely free of evil and - The Qur’an 2, 44
bears malice to none,
In the company of the good, there is no
swerving from the path,
No looking down upon anybody as evil.
Man sees all round him the Lord of Supr
eme Joy,
And freeing himself from the feverish sens The faiths of others all deserve to be
e of self,
Abandons all pride, such is the efficacy honored… by knowing them, one exalts
of fellowship with a holy man,
Whose greatness is known only to the Lord one’s own faith.
.
The servant of the Ideal is akin to the Mas - Asoka, Buddhist
ter.
- Sukhmanu, Sikh

He alone will obtain an excellent end –

Who does good to others, and knows not how to reproach them,
About the author Who is merciful to all creatures, and cherishes cattle;
And in the desert gives water to the thirsty:
Jim Pym was born and brought up a Roman Catholic. Following a crises of Who is calm and never blames any.
- Tukaram, Hindu
faith, he discovered Buddhism in his early 20s. Two years later he attended his
first Quaker meeting. He has worked at Friends House for over eighteen years.
Along with Margot Tennyson, he is the founder of the Friends Interfaith
Even in error deem not the God of the Hind
Group. With a particular interest in prayer and meditation, he is a member of us to be other than the God of the
Muslims, worship the one God, recognise
the Friends Fellowship of Healing, the National Federation of Spiritual the Enlightener. All men have the same
human form. In all men blazes the same
Healers, the World Congress of Faiths, the Alister Hardy Society (for the study divine light. Love all God’s creation, both
the whole and every grain of sand. Love
of spiritual experience) and a Buddhist/Christian group which has met for every leaf, every ray of light. Love the
animals, love the plants, love each separate
more than ten years. thing. If you love each thing then you
will perceive the mystery of God in all, then
The book The Pure Principle tackles questions that have arisen in you will thenceforth grow every day to
a fuller understanding.
more than twenty-five years of work and facilitating interfaith – Feodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazo
v
conferences and retreats for Friends and others, and shares some of the
authors discoveries. The Pure Principle is available from Sessions of York,
The Ebor Press, York YO31 9HS, England.
40
GIFT OF THE GURU
The Gift of the Guru
~ The Sivananda Yoga Life
By Srinivasan
By the grace of the all-compassionate guru, the light of the world, the remover of the endless
suffering from the tyranny of the ego bound in ignorance, I give thanks for the precious
opportunity to lead the yoga life.
wami Vishnu-devananda has brought us
S
the guru in the physical form of the
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers.
Enlightened by his devotion to the guru,
Swami Vishnuji built an infrastructure of yoga
life upon his own example of tireless selfless
service, and a pure vision of ‘Unity in diversity’.
Through Swami Vishnuji’s all encompassing
faith in the spiritual presence of the guru, in the
saintly perfection of Swami Sivananda, he gave
this vision to the world. He gave us the yoga
sadhana, a passion for his master’s liberating
writings, and a mission of selfless service of
humanity that now make up the central
ingredients of the Sivananda yoga life. Swamiji
had the gift of translating the traditional
spiritual yoga practices to be accessible to all,
no matter what national, religious or cultural
barriers may have stood in the way. From the
asanas and pranayama, to the sacred Indian
scriptures, the Sanskrit mantras and devotional
chanting, Swamiji made yoga so much more
accessible to the modern world. Thus Sivananda
yoga life is action harmonized in the vedantic
knowledge of the unity of life, skillfully
cultivated through the systematic practice of
yoga sadhana. The guru’s grace takes form
through this transforming sadhana, guided by
compassionate vision, unconditional love, and
the living example of the yoga masters.
Like many people, I spent much of my
youth in search of Truth. I studied books and
‘experimented with Truth’ in politics, religion
and relationships. Yet, habitual attachments
and prejudices, arrogance, and an
unmanageable ego stifled all my isolated
attempts. Upon completion of studies at the
University of California at Berkeley, I set off on
a more interior study of introspection, prayer
and meditation, searching for divine guidance
in the sacred natural wonders of the American
wilderness. Yet without the anchor of a
spiritual tradition to hold a steady course of
sadhana and a teacher to help remove the
impurities from my vision, instead of
establishing myself in truth and compassion, I
slipped deeper into an isolated emotional
world. After a series of hard knocks of karma, I
finally surrendered my ego enough to pray for
a teacher. Almost instantly, in what I have since
come to believe as a continuous stream of
miracles, my prayers were answered and I was
led to the Sivananda Ashram headquarters in
Val Morin, Quebec and the disciplined yoga life
of Swami Vishnu-devananda. For twenty-three
years I have walked this liberating path of
selfless service, self-discipline, self-study and
meditation – mostly under the direct guidance
of Swami Vishnuji. I do not claim to have
attained liberation or God-realization, or even
to have conquered this impulsive ego. Yet each
day that I move ahead step by step with
sadhana and service, I gain a little more control
over the mind, and by so doing my life is filled
with more peace, joy, compassion, and beauty.
The yoga life has become life’s great adventure,
a journey of love and courage amidst failures
and setbacks, a path of conscious spiritual
transformation.
Next to the masters who have trodden this
path before me, I feel like a clumsy child,
struggling to develop the courage, humility,
will-power, concentration and discrimination to
live the ‘divine life’ of yoga. Yet finding the
guiding hand and limitless compassion of the
guru at every difficult step to lead me on, I have
developed a profound patience and faith. I have
experienced the divine life as ‘skill in action’
witnessing the heroic life and liberation of
Swami Vishnu-devananda. I have known
perfection through Swamiji’s eyes of loving
devotion to his beloved master, Swami
Sivananda. I have seen a thousand miracles in
the spiritual transformations of countless
gurubais, staff and students who have been
inspired by Swamiji and his disciples to practice
this path of yoga.
The exemplary lives of these masters of
yoga clearly point to the simple nature of Truth.
The guru embodies Truth by guilelessly living
the ‘divine life’ as a natural expression of self.
Truth does not belong to anyone – not to
YO G A Life Winter 2001
Swami Vishnu-devananda or Swami
Sivananda, or to India, or to any particular
religion, or even to the vast science of yoga.
Yoga is the art of living the Love and Truth at
the source of all religions, realized as God or
Self by all saints and spiritual masters. But
realizing Truth is inseparable from living it. For
this we need a clearly marked path of yoga life.
Then, both action and experience are perfected
with absolute faith in the guru and the
sadhana, the integrated discipline of heart,
hand and intellect that he gives us. Through
the Vedantic vision of ‘unity in diversity’ the
masters call us to spiritualize the details of our
daily lives in a continual service of the divine
mission of living and teaching yoga. As Master
Sivananda was so fond of reminding us, ‘Thou
art divine! Live up to it!’ Or, as Jesus put it so
simply and clearly, ‘Love thy neighbor as thy
self.’ The yoga life calls us to cultivate the
experience of Unity and put it into action
through service, self-study, devotion and
meditation.
The yoga life develops strength, faith and
wisdom to awaken unity of vision by practicing
ceaseless selfless service as the natural
expression of our true self. Patanjali refers to the
ancient tradition of yoga life as kriya yoga in his
yoga sutras. Tapas, (conquest of mind through
self-discipline), swadhyaya, (conquest of the
mind through knowledge of the self), and
ishwara pranidhana, (conquest of the mind
through surrender of our ego before the divine
or God), are the disciplines needed to prepare
the mind for concentration, meditation and
transcendental experience or samadhi. In this
living daily sadhana, ‘an ounce of practice’ is
truly ‘worth tons of theory’. The Sivananda Yoga
Vedanta Centers have been masterfully
organized to immerse the staff and students in
the yoga life, fulfilling the dharma or mission of
the great yoga masters.
According to Patanjali’s definition, tapas
includes all sadhana, which destroy
impurities and develop the powers of body
and mind. Swami Vishnuji’s famous ‘Five

YO G A Life Winter 2001
Points for Health and Happiness’ form a
complete routine of sattvic or pure tapas.
‘proper exercise, (asana); proper breathing,
(pranayama); proper relaxation, (savasan);
proper diet, (vegetarian); positive thinking
(vedanta) and meditation, (dhyana); together
comprise a universally accessible, yet
comprehensive set of practices to destroy
impurities and develop power of body and
mind.
Swadhyaya, that study which leads to
knowledge of the self and union with one’s
spiritual ideal or Ishta devata, forms the core
of our daily Sivananda satsang. The japa
meditation, the chanting, the vedantic
reading or talk, and the universal prayers and
mantras chanted for unity and world peace,
all have been designed to help us know the
self and to free ourselves from the ignorance
of egoism. The rest of the day is devoted to
selfless service, the key to freedom from the
selfish lower nature and the pure expression
of our essential nature as the immortal self.
In this Sivananda yoga life, vedanta
philosophy is brought to life with devotion.
The practice of philosophy and devotion,
which appear opposite to the untrained
eye, are blended perfectly in the lives
and practical teachings of our masters.
Both Swami Sivananda and Swami
Vishnuji served with unconditional
love driven by the absolute courage
founded in the vedanta philosophy of
the immortal, transcendental nature
of the self. To quote Swami
Sivananda, ‘divine wisdom, Godward
devotion, universal compassion,
spiritual service and inner purity –
these are the five rays that emanate
from a jnani, a self-realized sage’.
Ishwara pranidhana is defined as the
complete surrender of the ego and its wrong
understandings, to the divine universal spirit
of Truth and Love. It is also the basis of samadhi
and all mystical experience. The guru naturally
expresses this devotion with every act, every
word, and every gesture. Through the eyes of
the guru, God is the only reality. The objects of
our attachment, as well as our fears of losing
them, are based on infatuation, superimposed
products of our ignorance. This idealistic
philosophy is experienced as practical yoga life
through the guru’s unfailing example. Finally,
through divine grace under the protection of
the guru, success in both karma yoga and
sadhana is realized on a daily basis.
The gurus, Swami Sivananda and Swami
Vishnu-devananda, have opened this classic
path of yoga life to countless hungry, waiting
souls both East and West. They have inspired
courage and faith through their faith in the
inherent divinity of all who aspire for the
Truth. From these awakened aspirants, they
have built an army of yoga teachers to spread
the essential truths of spiritual life throughout
the world. They taught that by the very act of
living yoga sadhana, we shine as amsas, or
rays of divine light, carrying the ancient yoga
message of peace, love and unity. The guru,
more than a mere man or woman, shines as
divine light bringing this message to our direct
experience, along with the sadhana needed to
establish ourselves in the divine life. Through
their pure vision and example we too become
children of light in as much as we succeed in
living the yoga life, mastering our bodies,
senses, prana, emotions and intellect to
become fit instruments of the divine.
My best understanding of the universal
role of the guru and the yoga life came from
Swami Vishnuji’s last words to me as he
departed to India for the last time from
Montreal’s Mirabel airport. Physically Swamiji
was reduced to but a shell of a man. Yet from
this frail shell shone the most divine light of
someone who had completely surrendered his
suffering to God. I believe the only thing that
kept him in his body at that time was the will
to offer his body up at the feet of the divine
Mother at the Sri Mookambika Temple in
Kollur. In the face of death, knowing that his
physical body no longer served any purpose,
Swamiji was all joy and compassion. As he was
waiting to board his plane, he was still serving
the group of devotees who accompanied him
to the airport. He called me to his side, and
though he was practically physically blind
himself, gazed into my eyes with amazing love
41
GIFT OF THE GURU
and said, ‘ Be a good father.’ He paused, and
then the divine twinkle burst forth in all
radiance and he added, ‘Be not only a good
father to Sivakami, [my daughter], and Laksmi,
[my wife], but to the whole world! The whole
world is your family.’
I could have taken these words as a call
to come forward as a knight in shining armor,
or as a prince called to take on some position
of privilege and power, as the role of guru is
so often misunderstood here in the West. But
I knew Swamiji too well. To be a good father
or mother is the most natural, universal duty
of all who would take on the responsibility to
maintain dharma in the world. Every child
must eventually take on the responsibilities of
an adult, and become a parent and thus a
guardian of Truth and order. We learn to
sacrifice personal interest for the interest of
our children. For the yogi, this universal
responsibility of caring for the family is
expanded to the work and mission of the
guru. The dharma given to each disciple
becomes a direct personal application of the
divine life. As the student grows in his or her
ability to carry out this mission, the ‘family’
grows until it includes all of humanity. This
growth is the real measure of success in
yoga life. My deepest prayer is that this
liberating dharma of Sivananda yoga
life be open to all seekers of Truth and
that we can all rise to our duties,
blessed with the necessary
discrimination, love, skill and vision to
assume our birthright, and become
instruments of the divine.
To know the guru is to see God. To see
God as Truth and love, and to live
accordingly, is the divine life. To realize God
and carry out His work is to be the guru.
Swami Vishnu-devananda saw God first and
foremost, unequivocally in his guru, Swami
Sivananda, and in so doing became the guru
himself. Thus the universal light of guru has
inspired the Sivananda yoga life, our great
masters’ mission, and their faith, teachings, and
sadhana still guide us through their legacy of
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta centers and ashrams.
■
About the author
Srinivasan is acharya of the Sivananda Yoga
Vedanta Centers in New York and Chicago
and currently based with his family at the
beautiful Sivananda Ashram Yoga Ranch in
New York’s Catskill Mountains.
42
AY U R V E D A
Health, Harmony
and Peace of Mind
Through Ayurveda
Dr. Mark Halpern
The journey toward perfect health and the journey toward
enlightenment are in many ways parallel paths. As we grow and evolve
as spirits, we learn to live in ever-greater harmony with our
environment. Harmony brings peace of mind and, according to ayurveda,
perfect health.
he term for perfect health in ayurveda
T is svastha. Literally translated svastha
means ‘to be fully established in the
Self’. Hence, when we are fully
established in knowing our true nature as
God, we express our full potential. This
represents optimal health for that person.
Ayurveda is a journey to perfect health,
peace of mind and, ultimately, to
enlightenment. By the very laws of Sankhya
philosophy, human incarnation is
disharmonious. Once incarnated, humanity
forgets its true nature as spirit and lives as
a physical being guided by the senses. This
journey is one of the pursuit of pleasure
and the avoidance of pain and suffering.
This simplistic and, as some writers have
stated, animalistic existence brings about
both physical and emotional pain and
suffering. The process of healing is the
process of remembering. When a person
remembers their true nature as spirit, they
become empowered to master the senses
and make choices that bring harmony, not
pleasure. The fruit of this action is peace of
YO G A Life Winter 2001
mind and well-being.
When we live out of harmony we suffer.
In the physical body suffering takes the
form of pain and symptoms of disease.
Ayurveda understands that these
symptoms are simply the body’s voice
communicating that we are living out of
harmony. When we change our life and re-
create a life of greater harmony, our
bodies reflect this change. There is less
suffering. The greater the change toward
harmony, the more radiant the body
becomes.
The mind is no different. It is subtler, but
the same laws apply. Symptoms of a
diseased mind include unhappiness,
depression, sadness, anxiety, anger and any
other emotion other than peace of mind.
These symptoms are also communicating
that we are living out of harmony, that
some aspect of our life is disharmonious.
Healing is the process of returning to
harmony. Once back in harmony the body
and the mind have no reason to
communicate symptoms. The body becomes

YO G A Life Winter 2001
at ease; the mind becomes at peace. In this
state, awareness reawakens to its true
nature as spirit. Self-realization has
occurred and the individual soul continues
its advance toward enlightenment. When
Self-realization occurs twenty four hours a
day, seven days a week, the door opens to
becoming a jivan mukta; a liberated soul,
and enlightenment ensues.
Ayurveda teaches us that we are all
unique individuals. We were conceived with
a unique constitution or fundamental
balance of energies that define who we are
on the physical level. It defines what we are
naturally attracted to and what causes us
to move out of balance and experience
disease. Depending on our constitution, we
thrive in a particular environment. We take
our environment in through the senses,
which are the portals to our body and
consciousness. The energies we take in
either blend with us or disrupt our
harmony. Proper diet (taste), aromas (smell),
sounds (hearing), colors (vision), and touch
are essential to maintaining internal
equilibrium. When harmonious impressions
are taken in, the body is healthy and the
mind peaceful. When disharmonious
impressions are taken in, the body and mind
suffer. Hence, ayurveda focuses on helping
individuals understand themselves as
unique beings. With that understanding, a
person can become empowered to make
choices that are in harmony with who they
are. Ayurveda teaches us that nothing is
right for everyone but everything is right
for someone. Ayurveda is the path of
understanding what is right for you.
Ayurveda also teaches us that it is not
only the intake of sensory impressions that
determines our well-being it is our lifestyle
as a whole. Proper daily regimens are
essential: a regular schedule that includes
meditation, yoga practices, abhyanga
(morning application of body oil), proper
eating habits and proper hygiene brings
about good health and peace of mind.
When combined with proper intake of
sensory impressions, the depth of the peace
and well-being we experience is infinite.
Creating a lifestyle in harmony with our
constitution is not easy but it is the most
important thing in life. The difficulty
associated with the task causes many seekers
of good health and peace of mind to give up.
But why? Do we expect peace of mind, perfect
health and enlightenment to be easy? If it
were easy we would all have it and then why
would we be here? Sankhya philosophy
teaches us that we are only here to experience
The Three Constitutional Types and Their Path Toward
Health, Harmony and Peace of Mind
Vata Individuals
The constitution of vata
individuals contains a
great deal of air and ether,
which means they tend
toward the qualities of
coldness, lightness, dryness and instability.
These qualities may be experienced as
feeling cold easily, having a thin body
structure, dry skin, a tendency to move quickly,
difficulty staying focused and
frequent changes of interests. These
individuals have a lot of interests and often
drift from teacher to teacher, job to job, and
relationship to relationship.
It is important for people with this
constitution to follow a lifestyle that
emphasizes opposite qualities. Warm or cooked
heavy foods provide nurturing and grounding.
Oil in the food and applied to the body
alleviates dryness. Regular routines and
disciplines create stability and improve focus.
Pitta Individuals
The constitution of pitta
individuals contains a
great deal of fire and a
small amount of water.
These people tend to feel
hot, have oily skin and a moderate body build.
They tend to be focused, goal oriented
individuals with a competitive and intense
creation and re-learn about ourselves as spirit.
The journey of our learning is the journey of
the soul finding its way back to God. If we
knew everything, what would there be to
experience and learn? Each of us must simply
do our best and realize that growing toward
perfect health and enlightenment takes time.
With this attitude, wherever we are on the
journey is perfect. We can love ourselves in
spite of our perceived imperfections. With
self-love comes patience. Patience is a
peaceful tool to carry on the journey toward
both perfect health and enlightenment.
Hari Om Tat Sat ■
43
AY U R V E D A
nature. Pitta individuals tend to complete what
they begin before moving on to the next goal.
They enjoy the satisfaction of
completion but experience emotional and
physical turmoil when failing or losing.
People of pitta nature are balanced by a
lifestyle that emphasizes cool and dry
impressions through the senses as well as
greater spontaneity and playfulness. For
example, raw salads and foods that are not too
spicy are best. These individuals find it easy to
adopt routines, but more playfulness and less
seriousness is needed to bring balance.
Kapha Individuals
The constitution of kapha
individuals contains great
amounts of earth and
water. These people tend
toward the qualities of
heaviness, coldness, oiliness and stability. They
tend to move slowly, act slowly and stick
with the routines they
develop. Their challenge can be in adopting
new routines, as change is difficult. These
individuals also have a tendency toward
becoming overweight and lethargic.
People of kapha nature require the qualities
of lightness, dryness and warmth to bring them
balance. Light, spicy cooked foods are best. Oils
are to be avoided. A routine emphasizing
spontaneity and movement is essential.
About the author
Dr Mark Halpern is the founder and
director of the College of Ayurveda. He is
also a founding member of the California
Association of Ayurvedic Medicine.
44
YO G A Life Winter 2001
The Beginning
by Maneka Gandhi
from the book The Rainbow and other Stories
G
o see the world. When you are done with the sea and
the mountains and the shopping malls, trek barefoot
through a corner of the world’s weariest, dreariest desert.
Should you stub your foot against something, look down
and you might be surprised by what you find. It begins as a glimmer,
a shimmer, then a fiery red flash and suddenly you realise you’re
looking at a ruby! The largest and loveliest ever beheld. Dig furiously.
You will find millions more. They lie just beneath the surface – sky
fulls, harems full, more than your greed and imagination can even
encompass. Everywhere you look there are gems. Emeralds, sapphires,
topaz, amethysts, carnelians, opals, diamonds, turquoise, garnets,
moonstones, peridots, jaspers, agates… No, it’s not a mirage, they’re
all really there – winking and blinking in the blinding sun after
centuries of being blown about and buried by the sand.
And beneath this fabulous, forgotten treasure lies buried a tale.
It is a sad story just as all stories that have autocrats and power
and greed and little intelligence are inevitably tragedies, no matter
how long they take to unfold. It begins right where you stand. Here,
in this place of scorched desolation, once stood the most fertile and
flourishing kingdom on earth – Khumarat. The weather was
equable, the soil was rich, forests grew abundantly, lakes and rivers
flowed generously and a cool breeze blew gently through the land.
Nature gave freely of her gifts and the people used them wisely and
well. Animals and trees, flowers and birds, people and water, each
creation sustained and respected the other.
And then came a new king. He wasn’t actually from Khumarat.
But the Princess Royale whose insatiable curiosity had taken her
around the world in a caravan, had met him on her travels, and fallen
instantly and hugely in love. That’s because everything about him
was huge. He was a great big man with a huge laugh, a huge
stomach, a huge shock of hair, huge grasping hands, and a huge
appetite. The princess who was a thin, bloodless little thing had
of the End
been attracted immediately to his bigness, his booming anger and
blaring laugh. When he swung her around she felt giddy, when he
held her she felt safe, enclosed in his enormous embrace. And so
Azrakhsh became king.
Once he was crowned, the princess became increasingly
irrelevant. Her bleached little voice became thinner and thinner and
her presence became more and more shadowy till she disappeared
altogether and so insignificant had been her persona that no one
thought to ask for her at all. And no one noticed that one by one all
the wise old courtiers who had all these years kept this little
kingdom so happy and healthy, began to disappear too.
They were replaced by clever young men who moved and shook
in tight little clusters all over the palace and chattered incessantly,
looking slyly over their shoulders all the while. Ideas to ‘progress’
and ‘develop’ pingponged from room to room. Whizkids and
bizkids were brought in from all over the world and to them was
entrusted the tremendous task of coming up with new and improved
solutions for all of the country’s ‘problems’.
What these ‘problems’ were, nobody was quite certain – but of
course every nation must have some. Otherwise why would they
need a king and government at all?
These little masterminds went to work, whirring and churning
furiously. They locked themselves up into little rooms and pounded
and smashed and blasted their way through hundreds of inventions.
All day long runners ran all over the palace and there was lots of
rustling and bustling as they poured in from all over the kingdom
with most urgent packages and papers. Then there was lots of
banging and clanging as they hammered away feverishly, making
all manner of widgets and gadgets and gizmos and oddrods that
went clinkety clankety boom. At last all of these were pounded and
fitted into each other so that the final contraption that emerged
resembled a bizarre gargantuan metallic creature, a sort of mix

between a kettle and a kangaroo with a bit of octopus thrown in. At
one end it had a large funnel which spiralled and curled and dipped
and dived until it ended in a row of spouts opening onto a feeder
tray. The principle on which it worked seemed simple enough.
Something was fed into the machine which reacted with the ore
inside it. An assortment of gases were then swooshed in along with
a can of instant solution and the substance crystallized and hardened
until cut and dried pieces dropped through the spouts. The special
ore for the machine had been extracted from the bottom of the
country’s main lake. The lake had been dug and tunnelled and
burrowed and furrowed till in exasperation it had given up trying
to hold its water and creatures together and had just curled up and
dried. And what about the material that was to be fed into the
machine? It came not from any far off mountain or fathoms deep
riverbed nor from any rare plant or planet. In fact the beauty of the
machine lay in the easy availability of its raw feedstock. What did
this raw material cost? Absolutely nothing – it was, literally, going
cheep cheep or, quite literally for a song. For the machine, quite
simply, ate birdcalls. The notes were poured into the funnel from
where they slid smoothly into the belly of the beast which rumbled
and shook as the various elements tumbled and jostled together.
The sound was distilled into form, and what finally emerged was a
glittering assortment of shiny jewels with different tunes and tones
producing different gems. Brilliant. Truly truly brilliant.
King Azrakhsh was overjoyed. The genius inventors preened and
swelled at their creation. They were lauded and feted and anointed
chief advisors to His Majesty. They provided him with a simple chart
that showed which song converted into which stone. For example,
the noisy twittering of parrots turned into lime-green peridots, the
melodious chip-chalp outpourings of warblers metamorphosed into
olivines, the deep koonk koonk echoing call of the crane came out as
amethyst, the kuk-kuk chattering whistles of the woodpecker became
45
STORIES FROM INDIA
garnets, the sweet fluting of the sunbird transformed into golden
amber, the creaky screeches of vultures turned into zircons, the deep
rhythmic crooning of doves became pearls, the musical trill of the
babbler converted into translucent tourmaline, the plaintive tu-hoo
of the night owl turned into milky moonstones, the swallow’s
cheerful low chit-chit became iridescent opalines, the harsh cry of
the peacock came out as glorious green-blue emeralds…
The list ran into thousands of species of birds because the climate
was so salubrious, the vegetation so abundant and the terrain so varied
that all sorts of birds had made it their home. Besides the crows and
woodpeckers, the sparrows and swallows, there were kingfishers and
cuckoos and flamingos and chickadees, tits and godwits, darters,
swifts, noddys and whistlers, whiteyes and whitethroats, rubycheeks
and rubythroats, frogmouths and pintails, pies and peewits, knots
and curlews, pigeons and wigeons, ruffs and shags, thickheads and
thickness, chats and chiffchaffs, coots and boobies, nuthatches and
loons, hornbills and spoonbills, flycatchers, bee eaters, oystercatchers,
cowbirds and goatsuckers, quails and rails, stately swans and cheeky
robins, koels and nightingales. And because there was such an
extraordinary mix and match of birds and songs, some of the jewels
that poured out were completely new. A committee was therefore set
up to name them and after great deliberation they were christened
with names like ambrosine, quisqualis, flammande, rubrica, casperite
and verdenia. Men were sent abroad to advertise their beauty and
quickly create markets for them.
But that is jumping ahead. What happened to the birds? Weasly
little men, their eyes bright with hunger and desire, poured into
the kingdom and fanned out with their nets and ladders, armed
with special badges signed by the king that gave them right of way
over the people of the land. They entered fields and forests, they hid
in the tall meadow grasses and skulked in the shallows of riverbeds,
they climbed trees and scaled rooftops. You saw one of these dark
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YO G A Life Winter 2001
shadowy creatures about and then you heard the single wailing cry
of a warbler followed by a thump as it hit the ground. Or the
despairing quaver of a nestling as its mother was snatched away
struggling and pecking at the mesh that entrapped her.
And what did the good people of Khumarat do? Nothing. They
held small village meetings and talked and talked and wrote letters
to the small village newspapers and some of them decided to go to
the king with a petition but then they all got so busy with the
harvest and new babies being born and school and work and all life’s
daily rituals that they never actually made the journey. In any case,
they reassured themselves, the king and his advisors knew best. That
was, after all, their job.
And so the plunder continued. Little by little, as the machine
gobbled up more and more birdsong, the kingdom fell silent. There
were no more dawn choruses as the first beams of light gentled the
black of night into grey, no monotonous droning to lull through
the hot haze of the day, no evocative roosting calls from the treetops
at dusk. No silly laughter, no raucous chatter, no scattered snatches,
no fragile feeble notes from far off that keep the traveller company,
no strident high-pitched calls to scare off the forest poacher, no eerie
wailing or mournful ghostly hoots to break the night’s restless sleep,
no jagged torrents of sound to welcome the rain. No gobbles and
squawks, chirrups and cronks and anxious enquiries that run from
didhedoit? to youallthere?
And what happened to these mute birds of Khumarat? Shorn of
their songs, they gradually perished. Unlike humans, birds cannot
survive without their voices. They have a poor sense of smell, and sound
is their major means of communication. Birds have huge vocabularies
and use different calls to convey different messages – there are feeding
whistles and mating cavatinas and territorial tromboning.
Crows and gulls, for example, live in groups and when one finds
food, its raucous calls summon all the others to the feast. Birds like
terns and kittiwakes live in crowded breeding colonies on cliffsides.
Parent birds returning with food hover above until they can identify
their young by their individual calls from the nest. The babies’ cries
act as homing beacons for the adult bird who then swoops down to
drop food into their gaping bills. In fact, just like in humans, among
all bird species it is the young one’s cry that alerts parents to its
hunger. Parent birds actually only feed their babies when they cry
out and open their bills wide for food. But now, no bird babies could
cry so no food was given. And that was the end of the baby birds.
They all starved to death, their mouths agape in silent screams of
hunger.
Apart from feeding, birds use their voices to recognise and locate
mates, parents, offspring, friends and enemies. Without sound, a
bird cannot intimate another of its intentions, feelings, direction or
even sex. Contact calls are recognisable by all other members of the
species. Without them the group will fall apart. For instance, when
a flock of birds descends on a field to eat, after feeding as the flock
readies to leave, the bird in front starts to call and each bird in turn
replies signalling its readiness to fly. When the last bird responds,
the flock streams away. Should a laggard be left behind, it flies up
and continues to call till it is able to make contact with the flock
which will then come back even in midflight to pick up its straying
member. This ensures that birds that belong together stay together.
But now, minus any sound, flocks broke up in confusion and lost,
lonely birds whirled round and round in tight, anxious circles till
they dropped dead of exhaustion.
Nor could birds locate their nests again. Because, when one
partner leaves in search of food, upon return it gives a landing call
which is picked up only by its mate who then guides it back using
a persistent, resonating call until it is safely back in the nest.
Similarly, when birds like motmots and barbets go out in pairs to
find food, they keep in touch through the dense undergrowth with
a distinctive duet. Parties of songbirds do the same as they work
their way through the foliage of a wood. But now, suddenly struck
dumb, they lost each other and their nests and died homeless and
abandoned. Similarly, raptor fledglings just learning to fly could
not return to the safety of their nests after testing their wings. This
is because parents guard their homes jealously and young ones must
identify themselves through a certain call. In the absence of this
call, any approaching bird is treated as an intruder, attacked and
either killed or driven away. So all the eagle and kite babies were
killed and the entire species wiped out.
Little by little, as the machine
gobbled up more and more
birdsong, the kingdom fell silent.
Birds also use sound to establish boundaries. This saves the time
and energy which would otherwise be wasted in fighting over
territory. Each bird demarcates its area with a call. Male birds call to
attract females and warn off other males. But with their voices
squeezed out of them bird rivals stumbled upon each other all the
time and were forced to fight endlessly. Grimly and silently,
adversaries weaved through the air, making short and fierce sorties

towards each other till both fell to the ground and lay there gasping
in the heat, too tired to find food or water or anything. None of them
knew any more where their homes lay nor which area belonged to
whom. But the fighting and killing continued all the same.
Apart from protecting birds from each other, sound also serves
as a warning system for birds against other creatures. All small birds
use abrupt alarm calls to alert the attention of other birds to a
predator’s stealthy approach and ruin its chances of a surprise attack.
Shorn of this vital protection, birds fell easy prey to wild animals,
and snakes and cats had a field day.
Sound is also a component of a bird’s mating ritual and among
the most attractive bird sounds are the wooing cooing calls with
which males must win their mates. These range from silky seductive
yodels to brassy brazen trumpeting, florid flouncy falsettos, rough
gruff cronks, sharp insistent honks, brusque bristly plunks, faltering
fluttering burbles and swollen mellifluous sobbing. Each male bird
courts the female with his melody until she picks the song she likes
best and its singer. But if no one serenades the female, she remains
single. So now in the absence of any song, birds no longer courted
or mated or nested or had babies or families.
Even birds that were already paired, forgot how to make or lay
eggs. Songs are an integral part of the breeding cycle. They first get
the female into the mood. Then they spur egg laying. Female doves,
for instance, need the cooing of their mates to stimulate the
development of their eggs while female canaries will build better
nests and lay more eggs if more cadenzas are sung by their mates
who invent quite wonderful and complicated tunes to ‘egg’ them
on. But now in speechless protest birds gave up breeding altogether.
Hungry and confused, they lost their homes and children and
memory and died fighting imaginary battles in a land they could
not recognise as their own any more. And slowly and silently the
birds disappeared altogether.
Not that anyone noticed or cared because they were so bedazzled
by what was taking place all around them. Everywhere you looked
there were mountains of jewels. Livid purple-black amandines,
honey-yellow amber, iridescent aventurines, flaming cornelians,
translucent citrines, celestial opals, greasy jaspers, albino moonstones,
smoky topazes and spinels, diamonds, zircons, rubies, sapphires,
pearls… they spilled out of the palace and its grounds in glorious
profusion. All day labourers lugged them out by the sackful and
threw them onto unwieldy heaps that grew and grew till they spread
across every village in the land. Miles and miles of piles and piles. Of
course no one was allowed to touch any because they all belonged to
the king. Big burly men stood guard over each precious mound.
Petty pilferers were locked up for life. But even then nobody minded.
For what did it matter? Soon these jewels would be sold and they
would make everybody rich beyond belief. And sold they were, all
the time, with all the money going into the king’s pet projects – big
buildings, big bridges, big dams, big power plants. As the money
multiplied, so did the king’s appetite. Villagers breathed and choked
on cement dust as skyscrapers were built and rebuilt to make them
even larger and grander. The woodlands around the villages were cut
down for smoking, belching factories that produced essentials like
printed plastic umbrellas, canned confectionery, hair-dyes and pimple
creams, all of which disappeared to foreign markets to earn yet more
money. And did the people of Khumarat get any richer? Not a whit.
But they continued to live in hope, and when the gluttonous king
and his garrulous group of imported advisors came by on their tours,
they were still hailed and cheered lustily. Even the prisoners who had
been locked up in stockades outside each village for attempting to
47
STORIES FROM INDIA
steal a stone or two, applauded. No one remembered the birds or
mourned their passing.
At least not in the human world. Not yet. But everywhere else
they were deeply missed. Buffaloes missed their daily grooming,
having their lice and fleas tweaked off carefully; snakes missed their
breakfast eggs; squirrels missed the prefab shelters that birds’ nests
offered. With the birds gone there was no one to carry seeds and
distribute pollen, there was no crazy fluttering and flapping to cool
the flowers, no pretty beaks dipping into swollen cups of nectar.
The flowers grew lonely and began to wilt and die too. And along
with the flowers went all the myriad and magical insects that live
on them and unseen by us enrich the soil, ploughing and turning it
With the birds gone there was no one
to carry seeds and distribute pollen,
there was no crazy
fluttering and flapping to cool the
flowers, no pretty beaks
dipping into swollen cups of nectar.
to make it fertile. With no pollen or insects to feed on, soon there
were no more bees and butterflies so even fewer plants pollinated
and regenerated. The once dense green woods began to shrink and
shrivel. And as the tree cover diminished, the rainfall reduced too.
The earth could no longer sprout food so generously. Fruit trees
became bare, wild grasses and berries grew scarce. The animals
began to disappear as well. Frogs could no longer find insects to eat,
snakes could no longer find frogs and so on. An irreversible chain of
destruction had been set into motion. And as plant and animal
species dwindled and died away, their place was taken by tough
survivors like weeds, rodents, mosquitoes and locusts that
multiplied to fill up the emptiness. And these gobbled up all the
available land and food so that famine spread.
As they lost their habitat, animals were forced to wander afield
in search of food. Monkeys with hungry babies clinging to their
bellies risked their lives foraying into human territory to snatch a
piece of bread here, a bit of biscuit there. Timid deer steeled
themselves to venture into fields, hoping for a little grass. Elephants
and rhinos were forced to flee as jungles turned into barren swamps.
Often this trespassing cost the animals their lives as they were
electrocuted by wires, stoned and shooed off. Worst of all, the
animals offended the sensibilities of the king and his court. ‘Animals
have no place in a civilised modern country. We must destroy this
menace,’ they shrieked. So the animals were declared ‘vermin’ and
the same ghastly ghouls who had finished off the birds now rubbed
their hands and set about their new task with even greater relish.
And so these desperate animals were hunted down and killed one
by one. After the deer and monkeys were gone, it was the turn of
the big cats. With no food left in the jungle and very little jungle
left either, lions and tigers, cheetahs and panthers, leopards and
wolves and foxes had no choice but to puck on one another or maybe
a passing human. They were promptly declared ‘man-eaters’ and
ordered to be exterminated as well. Soon the forest was empty of all
its animals. The woods began to wither and waste away. And thus it
48
YO G A Life Winter 2001
came about that the dying of the birds brought in a brooding
wasteland where nothing grew and nothing could survive.
But did the foolish greedy king care? No, not yet. The weather
began to turn. With no trees or even scrub to slow them down or
soften their lashing, marauding winds whipped through the land.
These winds blew and blew. They wailed like funeral mourners,
chasing people indoors, and then buffeting and banging
against the doors. They swept up the sands and scattered
them all across the country. The sparkling clear waters
of the lakes and rivers which till now had been
brimming with life started to dry up. They were
being choked by the savage winds that tore over
the ravaged land, swirling sand into the lakes and
brooks, streams and tributaries, and silting them
all up. So while the kingdom was awash in gems
and jewels, there was now neither water nor
vegetation. But cocooned in his castle, neither the
king nor his courtiers heard the wind howling or
felt its sting. All day long hungry children cried
piteously, adding their howls to that of the savage
winds. Finally the wailing reached such an unbearable
pitch that it even reached the palace.
‘What do these ungrateful people want?’ pouted the king.
‘Isn’t Khumarat the richest nation in the world? Haven’t we brought
in more wealth than they could ever dream about? Are we not the
envy of the whole world whose ambassadors constantly beg us to create
similar machines for them?’ And he went back to making money.
But the princess understood. Seated at her lonely lookout she had
watched with dismay as her beloved green country turned into a
sullen brown scar. She had trembled with fear as the desolate barren
landscape first seen on the distant horizon came creeping right up to
the palace wall, swallowing everything in its wake. Instead of
becoming happier and healthier, her people were shrivelled and
sallow with hollow cheeks and hollow coughs. ‘What have I done,
what have I done,’ despaired the princess. More important, what
should she do now, for something just had to be done and there was
no one else to do it. The king and his courtiers were too busy
churning out and counting up sparkling jewels to be bothered.
So mustering up all her courage, the princess managed to squeeze
out a strangle muffled whispery wheeze addressed to her husband.
‘Please, dear,’ she choked, ‘my people are dying. They need food, not
diamonds. They need grain and water. Please give them back their
rivers and forests.’
‘Nonsense, girl, can’t you see how wealthy we’ve become? Your
people are just a bunch of miserable complainers.’ And he tried
unsuccessfully to pull her onto his lap for he had become so
monstrously swollen and engorged with gluttony that he could no
longer move at all or even balance properly. His small close-set eyes
had disappeared into folds of flab, his brain had been swaddled by
suet and his tiny heart had been buried and compressed by
mammoth mounds of flesh. The princess shuddered. This was the
man she had inflicted on her people.
‘Please sir,’ she persisted, her voice growing a shade stronger, ‘I’d
like my country back the way it was.’
‘That’s not possible,’ said Azrakhsh tetchily. ‘I cannot bring back
the rivers and forests. And that’s the end of that.’ But the princess
would not go away. Her accusing eyes followed him everywhere, her
voice grew shriller every day.
‘All right woman, I’m tired of your nagging. Let’s just buy what
we need from the other kingdoms.’
And so for a time an uneasy peace prevailed as jewels were bartered
for food and essentials. But pretty soon the jewels began to run out
too. The vast stores of birdsong had been gradually exhausted and
now there were no more birds to replenish it. The outsize overworked
machine creaked to a halt and then gratefully collapsed in a heap of
nuts, bolts and scrap metal. The king was livid, his courtiers
scurried for cover. But the princess pursued him relentlessly –
her eyes now flintlike, jagged steel.
‘Well, we still have our factories, don’t we? We’ll
just stop exporting and use the stuff here’ blustered
the king, avoiding her gaze. But there was only so
much plastic and pimple cream that Khumarat
needed. Besides, without raw materials like wood
and coal and water, even these factories couldn’t
operate very much longer and soon they too
shuddered to a standstill.
The princess’s eyes blazed fire and her voice
dripped venom. ‘I’ll tell you what,’ faltered the fat
king, ‘we’ll just ask the other kingdoms for some
trees and lakes.’
But there was none for the asking. All the rulers of
all the other lands refused to part with a single stick or
stream. Or even birds to feed the machine if it was repaired.
‘We sold you food and water as long as your rubies and diamonds
lasted,’ they said, ‘but we will not give you our water and woods. You
will just have to create your own.’
So he snapped his fat fingers and ordered his clever courtiers to
invent rivers and jungles.
‘No more jewels,’ he screamed. ‘Start making water and woods.’
‘With what?’ they cried back. ‘We need rain to have trees. We
need trees to bring rain. How to begin when there is neither?’
‘All right then just grow food and grass,’ the king insisted.
But not all their cunning could do that. ‘We need fertile soil to
grow crops. We need manure to fertilise the soil. We need animals to
produce manure. We need plants to feed animals. We need seeds to
grow plants. We need birds to bring seeds. And we have no birds left
which is why we got into this mess in the first place.’
Too late these quickfix-its realised the connectedness of all life,
how each bug, beetle, butterfly and bird is part of an intricate design,
and that in its survival lies our own.
One night Azrakhsh and his men simply disappeared into the
darkness. No one ever heard from them again. A few rumors wafted
in of the king having built himself a huge palace several kingdoms
away but everyone was too exhausted to care. A few villagers straggled
across the borders but most were too hungry and tired to make the
journey. The princess locked herself into her room and was never seen
again. Her palace and the rest of the kingdom slowly sank below sand
and Khumarat vanished forever.
Maneka Gandhi is one of India’s leading environmentalists and a
well-known animal activist. She is the chairperson of People For
Animals as well as Rugmark, an NGO which
rescues bonded children. A crusader for vegetarianism and the
author of books on subjects as diverse as mythology,
etymology and animals, Maneka Gandhi is also a columnist, and a
television and radio personality. Maneka Gandhi has been a minister
in three Indian governments.
The Rainbow & Other Stories is available from all good
bookstores in India.
49
PRISON PROJECT YO G A Life Winter 2001

Prison Project Update...

he project is going extremely well. counsellor, who gave me a VIP tour of the prison, including

T
Swami Padmapadananda

Donations continue to pour in
steadily, letters are abundant and
those prisoners fortunate enough to
have classes in their correctional facilities
are advancing beautifully. Occasionally I
receive news from Sivananda trained
teachers of classes they are giving in both male and female
prisons. If you are doing this or know of someone else who is,
please let me know so that we can keep a record, and get a
sense of how widespread our teachings are.
We were invited to give talks on Hinduism and yoga at a
local prison, to a very lively theological group there.
They loved the talk and the asana demonstration and could
hardly wait to ask a great number of questions. One of the
participants is now in communication with me and is
interested in delving into sadhana seriously.
In May I visited Emilio, a prisoner in Virginia, for the
second time. This time I was greeted at the gate by his
the inmates’ dormitories and a personal introduction to the
prison head and several officers. I was always addressed as
‘Swamiji’, which is quite a change for them from the usual
‘Father’ or ‘Brother’ terminology. I was happy, even a little
incredulous, to feel my different tradition so respectfully
accepted, considering the area is part of ‘bible belt’ country.
Emilio and I sat alone in a private office and had a
wonderful conversation. We sang bhajans and talked of
Master and Swamiji amongst other things. Before my
departure Emilio received mantra initiation and the name
Hanuman. One officer touched my heart indelibly when he
told me that he burns a candle at his home twenty-four
hours a day in the hope of Emilio’s parole. Hanuman
mentioned he could hardly wait to come to the Yoga Ranch
and share in the fullness of ashram life.
On July 12th after many years of incarceration, as if in a
dream, Emilio was transferred to a work centre. Here there
are no iron bars. It is the last stop before going home. ■

Letters from Prisoners

a
Beloved Brother Swami Padmapadananda, Dear Swami Padmapadanand booklet ‘Ask
eive your letter, as well as the
Thank you again for your kind and caring words of inspiration I was very pleased to rec answ ere d some questions I
let immensely, which
and spiritual comfort… Bless you! Swamiji!’ I enjoyed the book ng spiritual guidance. I
bee n curious about. I am very interested in receivi
I’ve been maintaining my peace and harmony on a daily basis. had of me still does not
that my situation is the result of my karma, yet part
Though there is always a flux of mixed energies here, including kno w physical level, but still
g something on a mental or
much darkness and foolishness, I am continuing to allow my true accept this. It’s like knowin A man is trapped inside
dge on the spiritual plane.
divine Self to remain in control; to daily anchor ‘mega-tons’ of not appreciating this knowle cannot escape and yet he
possible exit; he knows he
spiritual light, love and compassion. of a concrete box with no mind there is still a
because deep inside of his
The dorm experience can be quite challenging and I crave quiet beats and kicks the walls, karma. I must learn
and the concrete box is my
solitude. But I do have little moments to meditate, pray and spark of hope. I am that man I can purify myself.
us on the present in which
chant. I am practising self-mastery of my thoughts, emotions and to accept my karma and foc
from you again.
words. Thus, instead of ‘entering into, then exiting from’, a I look forward to hearing
blissful, loving state, I’m practising actually being an embodiment Sincerely, J.M., Texas
of Buddha, or a bodhisatva.
After my release, I hope to know the Grass Valley Ashram on
a more personal basis. (I think I already mentioned my release A Passing Note by John Randall Pope, Florida State Prison
date of mid 2001.) Perhaps one day I will come to your Today at breakfast, there was no spoon with my food tray. The grits were rapidly getting
ashram in Woodbourne and meet with you and others there. My cold and my desire for cereal and peanut butter (I’m a vegan) was at an all-time high as I
dear brother, I appreciate your spiritual love. Thank you for your had done japa and meditation for two and a half hours beforehand. The mind jumped up
correspondence. I am truly grateful for your heart of love. May saying, ‘I ought to shout to the correctional officer!’ Or, ‘I ought to wait until they pick
Spirit continue to bless you and all the people at the up trays!’ But the watcher watched and listened. Then the seer decided to use an old
International Sivananda Yoga Centres. Peace unto you! cup, tearing a piece off and using it as a spoon. How else would the body have hot grits
Your brother serving Spirit in Corcoran for breakfast, instead of letting the mind argue about it? Once a friend asked me, ‘John,
D.B., California. do you know where the mind comes from?’ I don’t know where the mind comes from, but
I know from my experience of life, that it has caused me to get into more trouble than I
care to mention. Yes! The mind is always trying to squeeze itself into the picture – I
would rather it find a corner and be quiet. Just be quiet. Peace, peace and peace.