Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐         🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺                        🌿Chapter - 2🌿              ~ The Five Principles ~                      🌱 Day - 10 🌱 💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐 क्षमार्जवदयातोषत्यं पीयूषवद् भज It is easy to say, "Just drop them". But how? By forgiveness. क्षमा. When a wrong happens towards you or you are aware that you have erred, what is the most difficult for you? The hardest is to forgive yourself. You are unable to excuse yourself. This thing disturbs you and bothers you. The wrong done was not much, but the unforgivingness towards oneself bothers you forever. क्षमा, the first thing that is like nectar for you. Forgive yourself. Some वासना, impressions, were responsible for your actions. Some good to someone made someone else to grow. It was all conductive in some way, so do not brood o...

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐         🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺                        🌿Chapter - 2🌿            ~ The Five Principles ~                      🌱 Day - 9 🌱                       💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐 It is the same with the sense of touch. People go on with it even when they have become old. They can go on looking at sex books. Their minds are obsessed with it, even though they have become very old. Either you get steeped in sex or you are against sex. In either case, the mind is obsessed with it. Those who are totally against it are always on the lookout for someone talking about it. If a boy is talking to a girl, they immediately start getting suspicious. Let them do whatever they want to do. Why are you bothered? This is because your mind is obsessed with it...

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐         🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺                        🌿Chapter - 2🌿              ~ The Five Principles ~                      🌱 Day - 8 🌱                       💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐 मुक्तिमिच्छसि चेत्तात  Ashtavakra said that if Janaka really desired liberation and freedom, they are achieved only after a certain degree of awakening. One gets tired of habits. Alcoholics are so tired of alcohol. It does not make them any better but they feel bound by it. It's very fortunate if this very desire has arisen. Know that you are eligible. You are chosen one. If even the slightest desire to be free has arisen in you, you should pat yourself on back, you are very lucky. Billions of lives on this planet don't have this blessing. They do not ...

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐         🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺                        🌿Chapter - 2🌿            ~ The Five Principles ~                      🌱 Day - 7 🌱 💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐 अष्टावक्र उवाच मुक्तिमिच्छसि चेत्तात विषयान् विषवत्त्यज । क्षमार्जवदयातोषसत्यं पीयूषवद् भज ॥ न पृथ्वी न जलं नाग्निर्न वायुर्द्यौर्न वा भवान् । एषां साक्षिणमात्मानं चिद्रूपं विद्धि मुक्तये ॥ यदि देहं पृथक्कृत्य चिति विश्राम्य तिष्ठसि । अधुनैव सुखी शान्तो बन्धमुक्तो भविष्यसि ॥ Ashtavakra started speaking because the question was proper, asked in the proper manner and at the right time, and Janaka is eligible to receive the answer. Janaka wanted freedom immediately. What restricted him? Why did he want freedom? He was living like anybody else, but everyone did not seem to want freedom. Why did this man want freedom? Have you ever thought about...

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐         🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺                        🌿Chapter - 1🌿                   ~ Introduction ~                     🌱 Day - 6 🌱                      💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐 Ashtavakra was received by the king in the palace, and was offered a very high seat. Then Janaka asked the question: Katham jnanamavapnoti katham muktibhavishyati. Vairagyam cha katham praptametad bruhi mama prabho. Janaka addressed Ashtavkra as 'My dear Lord'. Many people can fake this respect and say, 'Oh, you are God. You are the Lord.' A feeling of closeness is essential. Janaka said that respect and love flow together in a discipline. In the very nature of discipline there should not just be respect, but love, too. Because although respect is there, so...

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐         🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺                        🌿Chapter - 1🌿                   ~ Introduction ~                      🌱 Day - 5 🌱                       💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐 There Is a story about Mullah Nasruddin, Mullah was on his deathbed and the priest came. The priest told Mullah to repent for all the sins he has committed, as he was going to die. Mullah replied, 'Don't disturb me, I'm already doing that! I am repenting for the sins I have not committed. Life is so short; it is ending. I could have done much more! Anyway, I am going away from here. Who knows whether there is a heaven or a hell? Who cares! At least I could have committed these sins! I am repenting for what I have not done'. We regret for what we have...

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐         🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺                        🌿Chapter - 1🌿                   ~ Introduction ~                     🌱 Day - 4 🌱                      💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐 The third step is culturing the mind. One who has never meditated has no right too even touch the book of Ashtavakra. One who has never experienced stillness of mind at any time, even for a few minutes or hours and one who has not had restful alertness, should not touch this book or go anywhere near this knowledge. Then, it can become dangerous - dangerous in the sense that one can easily make a concept out of this. It can create false notions in a person's mind, i.e. without knowing anything, he will think that he knows it all. Unfortunately, this has happ...

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐         🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺                        🌿Chapter - 1🌿                   ~ Introduction ~                      🌱 Day - 3 🌱                       💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐 A gentleman said he had been eating only raw vegetables for many, many months. Eating only raw vegetables! Then, his body could not accept anything else. If someone has only been drinking milk all the time, his body is used to that only. It cannot have anything else. They have restricted the body's digestive ability i.e. it's elasticity and the ability to accommodate itself is gone. It is the same thing with asanas. If you are not used to sitting cross-legged, your joints become very stiff after some time. You cannot do it at all! Start sitting cross...

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘`🌾☘💐         🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺                        🌿Chapter - 1🌿                   ~ Introduction ~                     🌱 Day - 2 🌱 💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐 The Qualifications In order to receive anything, you need to qualify for it. If you receive a dress, the dress should fit you. Otherwise, it is of no use having such a dress. If you receive food, the food should be edible. Otherwise what is the use of having such food? Similarly, with something to drink; you should be able to drink it and hold it in your system. Otherwise, however wonderful it is, it will be of no use to you. Knowledge and relevance. An event or instance has reference. And wherever there is life, there is reverence. Without these three principles - knowledge, relevance & reverence, life cannot evolve. So also...

🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹                          🌀CHAPTER - 5🌀      ~Overcoming Obstacles ~                 🌀DAY - 40🌀 🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷 There are five types of dreams. The first are those that are fulfilment of your cravings and your unfulfilled desires. You may want to have an ice-cream or a pizza but you postpone it. Then, when you are asleep you have a dream in which you are eating a pizza or having a big scoop of ice-cream. You may have wanted to go for a walk with somebody and you could not do it. And then you dream that you are in such a walk. Your latent desires come up in dreams. Desires and fears are seen in dreams.            The second type of dream is when there is some stress released from the past. Past experiences are seen in such dreams.            The third type is an ...

🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹                          🌀CHAPTER - 5🌀      ~Overcoming Obstacles ~                 🌀DAY - 39🌀 🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷 " स्वप्ननिद्राज्ञानालम्बनं वा " " Swapna nidra gyana aalambanam vaa. "            It means the knowledge of sleep and dreams. This is very interesting. You sleep all your life but have never met your sleep. This is the irony. It is like a person who has lived all his life having millions with him but who did not know how to spend them and lived in poverty. It is like a person who is sitting at a dining table with a very delicious meal but who does not know that it is a meal. He does not know how to eat it and he is starving to death. The same is true with our life, too. There is sleep here but we do not know what it is. We dream every day and we have not known what dreams are. ...

🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹                          🌀CHAPTER - 5🌀      ~Overcoming Obstacles ~                 🌀DAY - 38🌀 🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷 " वीतरागविषयं वा चित्तम् " " Veetaraaga vishayam vaa chittam. "            Keep your mind engaged in the thoughts of the Enlightened. Your mind is like water. Your mind like water because, just as water assumes the shape of its container, your mind becomes like the thought you engage in. It develops all the qualities of whatever you put into it, namely, your thoughts.            So, in the next sutra Patanjali says वीतरागविषयं वा चित्तम् । Veetaraaga is one. If you think of a calm person, then your mind also begins to assume his qualities. It starts feeling that peace and that quietness. This is because mind is like air. It is energy and is all pervadin...

🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹                          🌀CHAPTER - 5🌀      ~Overcoming Obstacles ~                 🌀DAY - 37🌀 🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷 " ज्योतिष्मती प्रज्ञा ज्योतिष्मती प्रज्ञा " "Jyotishmati pragya, Jyotishmati pragya"            Consider your mind as a light, as a flame. Your consciousness is a flame. Your mind is a flame. You may forget this. Your entire body is functioning because of the presence of the mind as a flame in you. Otherwise, you will be like an unlit candle. What is a flame? How does a flame work? A flame burns because of oxygen. There is a combination of matter and oxygen and a flame comes into being.            What is life? Life is also the same. It uses oxygen and lives on some matter. Just as a flame lives on the wax, the wick and oxygen, your life and the mind us...

🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹                          🌀CHAPTER - 5🌀      ~Overcoming Obstacles ~                 🌀DAY - 36🌀 🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷 " विशोका वा ज्योतिष्मती " " Vishokaa vaa jyotishmati "  The next sutra,            If you are, even for a few moments, with a person who is very unhappy and sad then you also start feeling depressed. And if you are with someone who is very joyful and is bubbling with joy and enthusiasm, then you start feeling joyful, too. You have trained your mind to be happy or unhappy. If you have acquired the habit of being unhappy, then it becomes your second nature. You feel at home having a long face all the time. You would see this in the senior citizens homes. The very old people there have the habit of complaining. They just go on complaining, even when there is nothing to complain ab...

🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹                          🌀CHAPTER - 5🌀      ~Overcoming Obstacles ~                 🌀DAY - 35🌀 🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷 "मैत्रीकरूणामुदितोपेक्षाणां सुखदुःखपुन्यापुन्यविषयाणां भावनातश्चि्त्तप्रसादनम्" " Maitri karunaa mudito upekshaanaam sukha dukha punya apunya vishayaanaam bhaavanaatah chitta prasaadanam "            Patanjali knew the human mind very well. And he knew all the crooks and bumps in it. He knew that it could not have the same feeling towards everybody all the time. Feelings can be developed and they keep changing, too. So he said that we should have feelings of friendliness, compassion, joy, happiness, etc. And ignore or have upeksha - indifference for the sinful things. If this is done, our chitta, our mind would be pleasant. Chitta prasaadanam - it will become graceful, gracious. In ...

🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹                          🌀CHAPTER - 5🌀      ~Overcoming Obstacles ~                 🌀DAY - 34🌀 🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷 And we should be happy with people who are doing good job, who are meritorious, who have lots of merit and who are blessed. We should become one with them; feel that we are doing the good job with them. Then, the sense of competition disappears and jealousy subsidies. The tendency to find fault with people who are doing good things will disappear. People have a tendency to find faults if someone is good and blessed or meritorious and doing some good work. At least they have done whatever they have done! The persons, who complain, normally, would not have done much themselves. Criticism comes from people who do not work. They just criticize others. We should not find fault with people who are doing some good work...

🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹                          🌀CHAPTER - 5🌀      ~Overcoming Obstacles ~                 🌀DAY - 33🌀 🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷 "मैत्रीकरूणामुदितोपेक्षाणां सुखदुःखपुन्यापुन्यविषयाणां भावनातश्चि्त्तप्रसादनम्" Patanjali said that there can be only four types of people in the world - people who are happy, those who are unhappy, those engaged in good and meritorious acts, and those engaged in bad and demonic acts. Happy people, unhappy people, meritorious and blessed people and sinful people - the four categories. And how do you deal with them?            Patanjali said to have maitri - friendliness with all those who are happy. If you do not, you will be jealous. You are jealous of people who are happier than you. But if you feel that you own them and that they belong to you, it does not bother you when they ar...

🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹                          🌀CHAPTER - 5🌀      ~Overcoming Obstacles ~                 🌀DAY - 32🌀 🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷 We have considered the nine possible obstacles in the path of Yoga. There is no tenth obstacle. Every possible obstacle has been included in these nine categories.            Patanjali was a scientist. In just a few words, he had said all that was to be said; that needed to be said. Along with these nine obstacles, the five indications, or signs of a disturbed mind are mentioned. That is dukha - sadness, dourmanasya - bitterness, angamejayatva - restlessness in the body, or lack of co-ordination in the body, bhrantidarshan - hallucination and irregular breathing - imbalance of your incoming and outgoing breath.            When you are happy, or excited,...

🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹                          🌀CHAPTER - 4🌀                ~ Who Is God ~                 🌀DAY - 31🌀 🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷 These obstructions and obstacles cause dukha, sorrow. Dourmanasya means bitterness in the mind. Dukha or sadness gives way to bitterness, dourmanasya. You do not feel good with anybody. There is bitterness with others and there is bitterness with oneself.            Angamejayatva comes next. It means that your body is not obeying you; just like a drunkard. A drunkard wants to go to the left but his body takes him to the right. He wants to walk straight, but his body goes haywire. He tries to hold his glass but goes on putting his hand on the table away from the glass. This lack of coordination between the body and the mind is Angamejayatva. The body does no...

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐         🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺                        🌿Chapter - 1🌿                   ~ Introduction ~                      🌱 Day - 1 🌱                       💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐 Thousands of years ago, there reigned a king called Janaka, who had attained the highest knowledge. However, he was curious and wanted to know more despite being fully engaged in the regular duties of a king. One evening he was holding court where his subjects were talking about their problems. Reports were being read from different parts of his kingdom(so it must have been a little boring). While listening to the reports, Janaka dozed off. In his sleep he saw a famine and loss of grains, fields and cattle. Everything was lost! He became a pauper and...