Essence of Yoga

Who is Krishna besides "Almight Supreme" ?

(Copied from a facebook page - HolyVedas / Works for Swamy Vivekananda)

Great Sannyasin

He was the most wonderful Sannyasin, and the most wonderful householder in one; He had the most wonderful amount of Rajas, power, and was at the same time living in the midst of the most wonderful renunciation.

He is the first man, way before Buddha, to open the door of religion to every caste. That wonderful mind! That tremendously active life! Buddha's activity was on one plane, the plane of teaching. He could not keep his wife and child and become a teacher at the same time. 

Calm and Sedate

Krishna preached in the midst of the battlefield. "He who in the midst of intense activity finds himself in the greatest calmness, and in the greatest peace finds intense activity, that is the greatest Yogi as well as the wisest man." It means nothing to this man — the flying of missiles about him. Calm and sedate he goes on discussing the problems of life and death. Each one of the prophets is the best commentary on his own teaching. 

Essence of life :The Bhagavad Gita 

Than the Gita no better commentary on the Vedas has been written or can be written. The essence of the Shrutis, or of the Upanishads , is hard to be understood, seeing that there are so many commentators, each one trying to interpret in his own way. Then the Lord Himself comes, He who is the inspirer of the Shrutis, to show us the meaning of them, as the preacher of the Gita, and today India wants nothing better, the world wants nothing better than that method of interpretation. What you find in the Gita there is no attempt at torturing any one of them. They are all right, says the Lord; for slowly and gradually the human soul rises up and up, step after step, from the gross to the fine, from the fine to the finer, until it reaches the Absolute, the goal. That is what is in the Gita. 

If we study the Upanishads we notice, in wandering through the mazes of many irrelevant subjects, the sudden introduction of the discussion of a great truth, just as in the midst of a huge wilderness a traveller unexpectedly comes across here and there an exquisitely beautiful rose, with its leaves, thorns, roots, all entangled.

Compared with that, the Gita is like these truths beautifully arranged together in their proper places — like a fine garland or a bouquet of the choicest flowers. The Upanishads deal elaborately with Shraddhâ in many places, but hardly mention Bhakti. In the Gita, on the other hand, the subject of Bhakti is not only again and again dealt with, but in it, the innate spirit of Bhakti has attained its culmination. 

 Karma Vs Gnana

When the Gita was first preached, there was then going on a great controversy between two sects. One party considered the Vedic Yajnas and animal sacrifices and such like Karmas to constitute the whole of religion. The other preached that the killing of numberless horses and cattle cannot be called religion. The people belonging to the latter party were mostly Sannyâsins and followers of Jnâna. They believed that the giving up of all work and the gaining of the knowledge of the Self was the only path to Moksha.

So the great struggle began in India and it comes to one of its culminating points in the Gita. When it was causing fear that all India was going to be broken up between [the] two ... [groups], there rose this man Krishna, and in the Gita he tries to reconcile the ceremony and the philosophy of the priests and the people. By the preaching of His great doctrine of work without motive, the Author of the Gita set at rest the disputes of these two antagonistic sects.

Even the Karma Kanda is taken up, and it is shown that although it cannot give salvation direct; but only indirectly, yet that is also valid; images are valid indirectly; ceremonies, forms, everything is valid only with one condition, purity of the heart. For worship is valid and leads to the goal if the heart is pure and the heart is sincere; and all these various modes of worship are necessary, else why should they be there? 

They are the outcome of the necessity of the human soul. They are all here to satisfy the hankering and thirst of different classes of human minds, and you need not preach against them. The day when that necessity will cease, they will vanish along with the cessation of that necessity; and so long as that necessity remains, they must be there in spite of your preaching, in spite of your criticism. 

You may bring the sword or the gun into play, you may deluge the world with human blood, but so long as there is a necessity for idols, they must remain. These forms, and all the various steps in religion will remain, and we understand from the Lord Shri Krishna why they should.

"Even if you have knowledge, do not disturb the childlike faith of the ignorant. On the other hand, go down to their level and gradually bring them up. " (Gita 26.29).That is a very powerful idea, and it has become the ideal in India. That is why you can see a great philosopher going into a temple and worshipping images. It is not hypocrisy.

(To be continued....)

Everything about Gayathri Mantra

1) How many dieties are mentioned in Gayatri mantra and what is the best time to recite Gayatri mantra ?

There are 26 gods in Gayatri mantra 
tat - ganesh
sa - Narasimha
vi - vishnu
tu - siva
va - krishna
re - radha
Ni - lakshmi
yam - agni
bha - indra
Rga - saraswati
dE - durga
va - hanuman
sya - prithvi
dhee - surya
ma - Sriram
hi - seetha
dhi -  chandra
yo – yama
ya - brahma
na - varuna
cho - hayagreeva
da - hamsa
yaat – tulasi 

"uttamaa - taara kopitaa atridhaamata" -  best time for chanting Gayatri mantra is when stars are  still seen in sky before sunrise,
 "madhyamaa – soorya-sahitaa praataha sandhya" - medium time is when stars meet sun in the morning and in the evening.
 "adhama  lupta taarakaa"  - worst time is after stars disappear and only sun remains in sky

That’s why ancestors practice mantras  in  'braha muhurtam \ ' around 4am. 

"ashtottaram sahasram va, ashtottara satam tu, va, ashtaavimsati revaada gatarrim dasakam japet" 

One should chant 1008 times, or 108 time of 28 times or at least 10 times a day.

agnirmukham, brahmasirah vishnur hridayam, rudrassikha

agnirmukham,  - Gayatri has fire in face,
brahmasirah  - brahma the creator in forehead,
vishnur hridayam  - vishnu the protector in heart and
rudrassikha - Siva the destroyer on top of head.

So its a combination of all gods.

2. How many times  Gayatri Mantra should be chanted ?

3 times a day.

  a) 4 to 8 AM, 4 to 8 PM are Saattvik times.
  b) 8AM to 4PM is Raajsik.
  c) 8PM to 4AM is Taamasik.

The best time to chant Gayatri is around 6AM, 12 Noon and 6PM.  

Goddess Gayatri confers the boon of
Intelligence as Gayatri,
Protection as Savitri and
Learning as Saraswati.
Gayatri is therefore called Sarvadevata Swarupini.  

By chanting at least twice a day - morning and evening - the sin  committed unknowingly that day are destroyed and left over Karma is burnt. The person gets closer and closer to Divinity.Chant the Mantra 3 times when you are having a bath - it will serve the dual purpose of chanting as well as performing Abisheka to the Mantra.

Chant 3 times before eating - you would have not only purified the food, but also offered the food to the Mantra.
If you do it every day, you need not chant any other Mantra. It protects you from calamities and confers upon you intelligence


PS : Shamelessly but respectfully copied form Quora !

An interesting story

Here is an interesting story which blowed my mind ( Shamelessly but respectfully copied form Quora !)

A wealthy old lady decides to go on a photo safari in Africa, taking her faithful aged poodle named Cuddles, along for the company. 

One day the poodle starts chasing butterflies and before long, Cuddles discovers that he's lost. Wandering about, he notices a leopard heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch.



The old poodle thinks, 'Oh, oh! I'm in deep doo-doo now!' Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the leopard is about to leap the old poodle exclaims loudly, 'Boy, that was one delicious leopard! I wonder if there are
any more around here?'

Hearing this, the young leopard halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees. 'Whew!' says the leopard, 'That was close! That old poodle nearly had me!'

Meanwhile, a monkey who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard. So off he goes, but the old poodle sees him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figures that something must be up. The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the leopard.


The young leopard is furious at being made a fool of and says, 'Here, monkey, hop on my back and see what's going to happen to that conniving canine!

Now, the old poodle sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back and thinks, 'What am I going to do now?', but instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn't seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old poodle says.

'Where's that damn monkey? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another leopard!

Sanatan Dharma (An eternal way of living) culture & practices

1) Rangoli with rice floor

Ever wondered why do our moms and aunts decorate the front entrance of our house with rice flour ? I though below explanation fit our understanding.

Rangoli with rice floor, in front of every household is done with the intention of feeding the ants.

2) What are the uses of a cow besides milk,ghee,butter etc ?

 Cow dung is different from  the manure.

 The cow dung is the only dung on which the dung beetles “geotrupes   stercorarius” breed. These beetles  make  small tunnels  under the dung and carry the dung into the earth and stores it. 

     These tunnels made by them,house earthworms, wherever there is high beetle activity  there is an increase in earthworm  breeding ,this increases the water infiltration on an average of 129% each extra inch. (25mm) of water absorbed 27225 gallons/ per acre (254530, 1/hc) of water to the soil reducing both flooding and drought . All this apart from increasing the fertility of the soil.

3) Why should we read "Mahabharat" ?

Chandra means moon.Moon is the ruler of the MIND (chandrama manso jaayathe..) according to Vedas. 
Mahabharat deals with the different aspects of the MIND, through each character in the story. The whole story is about play of the faculties of the MIND.

The story especially  is meant for us to analyse human mind,its actions and reactions. If one hangs on to the story aspect without getting to underlying theories,toil of our Rishies who have crafted these theories into stories will be completely lost. They are NOT MORAL stories or dictation of a RELIGION. They are stories of humans with all their plus and minus points, setting one to THINK and make proper choices.. 

4) How do we explain the concept of "Rebirth/ Reincarnation" scientifically ?

Universe is made of two things matter and energy. The law of physics states that matter can be created and destroyed, while energy cannot be created nor destroyed. But energy can be transferred from matter(form) to matter (form). This sprit or athma or soul as we call it is this ENERGY.
When the physical body  (matter) dies , the energy /athman/soul leaves the body/matter and enters another matter/body , this transfer of energy from one matter to another matter  is what we call REBIRTH.

Now what is Karma? karma is action, which decides the vibratory frequency in the energy.Good karma increases the frequency while bad karma decreases the frequency. Even a thought, good /bad has the same effect on matter (body).

5) Why do people worship an Idol (India) ?

Worshipping an Idol serves as a primary tool to many who need it as medium to access the divinity. This process methodically takes one, from Akara  (form) to Nirakara ( Formless ) 

This, methodical learning brings in a maturity to understand ,and accept that both (FORM and  FORMLESS ) are a part of one’s growing.Jumping to the Formless, without understanding results in intolerance.

 Evolutionary status of every man is different.Hence one chooses the medium which is most suitable for his/her progress. This is the accomodative thought of Sanathana Dharma.  Sanatan dharma believes every soul should grow at its own pace. Imposition of any thought is against its ethos. 

This is the reason there is no One single HOLY BOOK for Hinduism. You find MULTIPLE methods of teachings through  Shruthis ,Smrithis  Puranas, Rituals etc all helping a gradual progress leading them to the ultimate Truth./ Paramathman/Bramhan .

PS :Shamelessly but respectfully copied from various sources such as Quora, twitter , facebook and other websites