Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

Kosa means “layer of mind.” There are five layers of the human mind, in addition to the physical body, which – although technically not a kosa itself – is given the name Arnamaya (“food”) Kosa. Its natural means of development is through diet and physical exercise. In Ananda Marga practice it is also developed through asanas, Tandava and Kaoshikii. 1.The Crude Mind is called the Kamamaya Kosa. Kama means “ desire.” It is this most superficial layer of mind that is responsible for attraction and aversion to sensory stimuli, and the physical reactions to those stimuli. It is developed naturally through physical clash, and for sadhakas (spiritual practitioners) by following Yama and Niyama. 2.The Subtle Mind is called the Manomaya Kosa. Man means “to think”, and it is this layer of mind which gives the experience of pleasure and pain through thought, memory and dreams. This kosa is developed naturally through physical clash, and in Ananda Marga sadhana by pranayama with cosmic...

Did you know that people who meditate are much happier and healthier than everyone else?  It's true. And they have greatly extended life spans, too. As a matter of fact, there have been numerous studies showing that meditation dramatically reduces, and even reverses disease of all types. You know about Nirvikalpa Samadhi, which is eternal. Other types of Samadhi that are not eternal, that are impermanent with breaks, two names; Anandanugat and Atmikanugat (Asmitanugat). Ananda that glow and Atmika that pure consciousness. The Vedic concept of dhayna or meditation seems to have evolved gradually with the emergence of Upanishadic thought and the idea that man personified the entire universe within himself and by himself and that hidden deep within him was an eternal principle that was Universal Self in its individual aspect. Either man (purusha) was a projection of the universe in its own mode or the universe was a projection of the individual self (purusha) in its own fo...

The average person processes over 60'000 separate thoughts per day, of which 90% occur subconsciously. Automatic thoughts are produced by our subconscious mind and continue to execute without the involvement of our conscious mind. Think about how many things you just do, day in day out, without even consciously thinking about it. These automatic thoughts are like mini computer programs in our subconscious minds. They automatically come into action as a response to stimuli in our environment. While many automatic thoughts are positive, some of them can create undesirable limitations in terms of your ability to evolve, progress and reach significant personal goals in your life – you could call them “success blockers”. They simply prevent you from progressing in areas where you'd like to succeed. Automatic thoughts determine your thought patterns, attitudes and behaviors. The reactions you then observe from your environment validate your thoughts. A key observation is ...

Question - Gurudev, when and how many times should I meditate? Gurudev Sri Sri - To the extent that even if you had to forsake food, then do so, but do not leave meditation. The more regular you are with meditation, the greater the depths you will achieve. Meditation is such a subtle phenomenon that, it takes months to become strong, but neglect it and within a few days it will wilt like a delicate flower. Meditation requires a lot of discipline and consistency. If you sleep a little less for one day, you don't lose much. Anyone can be without sleep for 5 to 7 days. If you miss one meal it is still okay, a human being can survive without food for upto three months. You can survive without food and water for many days. Your important work? They cannot be that important that you do not get any time to meditate, but your mind tells you that this work is extremely important. Usually people give importance only to these trivial things. And they think that even I don't meditate for o...

Question - Gurudev, why is that certain desires how much ever I want and pray for, it doesn't get manifested in life? Gurudev Sri Sri - When a 2 year old child asked for toys, his mother gave him. When he asked for a knife, she refused to give. In life, when you get what you want, there's a reason. If not, there's also a reason. The nature is intelligent. The divine is intelligent. If someone has refused something to you, know that the divine came in that person's form to teach you something higher. If someone praised you and helped you, the same divine came in that person's form to inspire you. Wake up. God is love. It resides within everyone and in every part of the creation. There's an unseen hand working for you all the time. Just remember how fortunate you all are and know that only the best.

Question - Gurudev, sometimes while doing seva I lose interest. How to avoid this and what could be the reason for this? Gurudev Sri Sri - Live life with moderation and balance. When you try to avoid the situation, it persists. Upanishads say tat vananeeta upasita', worship the Lord as if He is a forest. A forest has everything - tiger, sheep, cow, parrot, crow, flowers and thorns. It is always in balance. We never see imbalance in a forest. It is complete in itself. It is pure and there is place for everybody in it. Worship the Divine as if He is a forest, with fullness and equanimity. Similarly, in life there is happiness sometimes and sometimes sorrow. When one tries to escape from a situation then it persists. Thus, there is the first principle of The Art of Living' accept people and situations as they are. This is the path of nivritti, when vou have to be established within yourself. When we are established within ourselves, our capabilities, strengths, intellect and enthu...

Question - Gurudev, often at the work place when there are a lot of pending things to do, the mind becomes restless and we feel lost and do not know what is happening. At such times what to do? Gurudev Sri Sri - Make a list of all that you have to do and then prioritize. And in between those priorities, keep meditation as one item. You must have the faith that all your wishes will be fulfilled, and with that feeling sit for meditation for a little while. Lord Krishna has promised that 'One who directs his mind and intellect towards Me, I am always close to him and he is always close to me.' So just remember this. We must take a resolve to meditate every day for a little while. Then God will surely fulfill our prayers. In fact then we have the right to demand as well. It is like, when you collect enough points, you can then claim those points. So when you do seva, then you get points which you can claim. Many times when I go to some Satsang outside, people blackmail me in this w...

Question - Gurudev, we have heard that Navratri is the triumph of Sattva over Rajas and Tamas. But are not all the three Gunas equally important for life to exist? How can we favour one over the other? Gurudev Sri Sri - No, it is always like that. One of the three will dominate. Sattva is always there in everybody, and so is Rajas and Tamas. All the three Gunas always exist together. But what dominates is what makes the difference. If Tamoguna dominates, there is misery. When Rajoguna dominates, there are conflicts. When Satguna dominates, there is awareness, knowledge and happiness. You should observe which is dominating, since that is what gives quality to that time.

Weekly Knowledge 148 Bangalore Ashram 09 Apr 1998 India Tarka, Vitarka And Kutarka To know yourself or to judge your actions you need to know Tarka, Vitarka and Kutarka. Kutarka is wrong logic. Most people apply this logic and get caught up in ignorance. For example : The door is half open means the door is half closed. Therefore, the door is fully open means the door is fully closed! Or: God is Love. Love is Blind. Therefore, God is Blind!!! Tarka is sequential logical understanding; it increases scientific knowledge. When sequential logical understanding changes, then scientific conclusions change. For example: Pesticides and antibiotics were considered to be very useful in the past, and are now proven to be more harmful. In tarka, the paradigm changes. Vitarka is asking questions to which there are no evident answers....Who am I? Where am I? What do I really want? These philosophically appealing questions bring forth spiritual knowledge, increase your awareness and bring about ...

Bad Antogast, Germany 2023-05-26 Q. Gurudev, our longing to meet you, see you, talk to you remains even after meeting you. Is there a way we can take a piece of you with us when we go back? That's what I give everyone, peace. Longing is not longing if it gets quenched. Longing and love are two sides of the same coin. One cannot exist without the other. No ques Gurudev: all the questions will lead you only to some distance. Relax, for a short while, every now and then. When you relax and let go, things happen on their own. Exhaustion comes with the doership. Q. How to get rid of past karma? Don't worry about it. If you violated some traffic rule, you'll get a ticket, pay it and move on.  You have to go through certain Karma. Some karma get nullified by the practices, meditation, kriya, satsang, knowledge.  Q. Should one meditate everyday irrespective of how one is feeling? Yes! Q. Mind is going in various directions. How to decide when I can't decide? Me tell...

Weekly Knowledge 147  Calcutta 02 Apr 1998  India Impression And Expression Do not make an effort to impress others, or to express yourself. Your effort to express yourself becomes an impediment. Your effort to impress someone also becomes futile. If you do not try to impress, expression comes naturally. When you come from the self, your expression is perfect and your impression lasts for ages. Often you don't seem to have a control over your impressions and expressions. Wisdom is selecting your impressions and expressions. Enlightenment is when you do not take any impressions at all, whether good or bad. Then you "master" the art of expression. Many impressions in the mind cause: - Confusion - Distraction - Chaos - Lack of focus - and finally, derangement of the mind. Nature has inbuilt in us a system through which it releases some of the impressions - through dreams, and through meditation. Excessive expression loses the depth and luster, the serenity of yourself. Medit...

Weekly Knowledge 146 Lake Side,Chandigarh 26 Mar 1998 India Dreams When something is unbelievably beautiful or joyful, you wonder whether it is a dream. Often, what you perceive as reality is not joyful and so when misery is there, you never wonder if it is a dream. You are sure it is real. This is knowing the real as unreal and unreal as real. In fact, all the miseries are unreal. A wise man knows that happiness is real, as it is one's very nature. Unhappiness is unreal as it is inflicted by memory. When you see everything as a dream, then you abide in your true nature. Payal asks : "What about a nightmare?" Sri Sri : A nightmare is a dream mistaken as reality. There is no confusion in a dream at all. Keep wondering whether all this is a dream and you'll wake up to the real. 🌸Jai Guru Dev🌸 साप्ताहिक ज्ञानपत्र १४६ १९ मार्च, १९९८ झील के किनारे , चंडीगढ़, भारत स्वप्न जब कोई चीज अत्यंत खूबसूरत या आनंदमय होती है, तुम अचम्भा करते कि यह सपना तो नही। जि...

Weekly Knowledge 145 Rishikesh 19 Mar 1998 India Inside Out Often people say, "Be the same inside as out". I ask you, how is this possible? Inside you are a vast ocean, infinite sky; what you can show outside is only a tiny bit of it. Outside you are finite, just a small limited form, a normal stupid person! All that you are, the love, the beauty, the compassion, the Divinity, doesn't show up fully. What shows up is the crust of behaviors. Ask yourself, "Are you really your behaviors? Are you just your behavioral patterns"? No....... Don't mistake this crust for your inside. Neither take the limited body/mind complex as your inside nor show your Infinite Lordship outside, for Divinity is not easily understood. Let there be some mystery. DON'T BE THE SAME INSIDE AND OUT!! Jai Guru Dev   साप्ताहिक ज्ञानपत्र १४५ १९ मार्च, १९९८ ऋषिकेश , भारत अंदर-बहार अक्सर व्यक्ति कहते है , "बाहर भी वैसे ही रहो जैसे तुम अंदर हो।" मैं पूछता हूँ...

Weekly Knowledge 139 Kauai, Hawaii 03 Feb 1998  USA Devotion And Organization Organization is control. Devotion is chaos! Organization needs attention to details, a material awareness. Organization is being worldly. Devotion is getting lost, forgetting the world, being in ecstasy. These are opposite in nature. They don't go together, yet they cannot be apart or exist without each other. No organization can arise without devotion. When there is so much devotion, you simply want to organize.  Devotion brings faith, compassion, and responsibility. With responsibility and caring, you want to give knowledge, wisdom, and love. Then organization happens. So organization exists through devotion. If you are devoted, you won't just sit. The nature of devotion is to give. If you think you are devoted and you are not caring for the world, then you are merely selfish. Real devotion means being one with the Divine, and the Divine cares for the world. Often you lose devotion in organizin...

Weekly Knowledge 138 Santa Monica, California 28 Jan 1998  USA False Security False securities do not allow your faith to grow. When you have dropped your securities, then your faith grows. When you buffer your life with securities, you keep the faith away. It is the faith that brings perfection in you. Faith is the greatest security. If you have all the material securities and not have faith, you will still reel in fear. You have to let go of all possessions in the mind. False security is keeping things where they don't belong. It is an illusion of security because of having a job, a house, friends. Keep the house where it belongs, not in the mind. Keep the money in the bank or in the pocket, not in the mind. Keep friends and family where they belong, not in the mind. The Divine is your only security. Faith is realizing that you always get what you need. Faith is giving the Divine a chance to act. Your body belongs to the world. Your spirit belongs to the Divine. 🌸Jai Guru D...

Everything you want in life is waiting for You - An inch outside your Comfort Zone and an inch inside your Effort Zone Our mind has Different sections - conscious mind, subconscious mind and there is filter between the two which separates them. Now this filter has a lot of work to do. Whatever we see,conceive, perceive through out the day by conscious mind passes through critical filter to reach our sub-conscious mind. This critical filter decides what has to go to sub-conscious mind for storage and what needs to be discarded. This process happens when we go off to sleep. Now if we don't get sound sleep or are not relaxed, this critical filter gets overloaded and becomes sluggish.On top of that everyday we keep adding on to it and we keep feeling stressed, lack of concentration, tired, low....  When we meditate, we are cleansing and rejuvenating this filter so that it works at it's optimum and when we get up in the morning, we are ready for new experiences in a better manner. D...

In Hindu and yogic philosophy, kriya shakti is the power to act. Derived from Sanskrit, kriya means action and shakti means intelligent energy. Kriya-Shakti is the Shakti of manifestation, creativity, and inspiration. Kriya shakti is one of three parts of the creative cosmic power called shakti.  The other two parts are iccha shakti (willpower) and jnana shakti (the power to know). Beyond mundane desires of food and shelter, the greatest desire in any being is to be free from bondage. When the desire is to move towards the divine, towards highest knowledge, it is said that, the power of desire with devotion, becomes one with kundalini, the power of wisdom. Infact, Kundalini-Shakti is the most significant form of Shakti. Consciousness + Energy = Knowledge Jnana-Shakti is the Shakti of the mind: of thought, wisdom and intuition. Iccha-Shakti is the Shakti of our will, action and intention. Iccha Shakti forms the very basis of our existence. We need to develop the right attitude towar...

Reiki is a Japanese healing technique which is administered by "laying on hands" and is based on the idea that an unseen "life force energy" flows through us and is what causes us to be alive (prana). Reiki treats the whole person including body, emotions, mind and spirit creating many beneficial effects that include relaxation and feelings of peace, security and wellbeing. We are in a transition phase of expansion in the realm of experiencing higher consciousness as "multidimensional" human beings living on planet Earth. Ascension is a change in the energetic frequency pattern held in one dimensional space which, when absorbed and activated in the layers of the planetary and human bio-energetic field (aura), activates its DNA template instruction set. It clearly means that man is in the process of evolution.  Reiki heals on the physical, emotional and mental levels and brings about change on the spiritual level. The initiation process at Reiki...

Hearing is the unconscious act of letting sound enter your ear. It requires no focus, no attention, and no effort on your end. But Listening is quite the opposite. It is conscious and purposeful and requires your attention, focus, and effort. This is a very important distinction because listening is a critical part of success in the future of work. Improve your signal to noise ratio, get away from the external noise we hear all the time and concentrate on the inner signal. Our inner speech / self-talk what creates our outer reality. We often have a feeling or a sense of something, but very quickly, our logical mind kicks in to try to understand and comprehend what we feel. Like with anything in life, practice makes permanent. It takes time to grow and nurture your inner voice, especially if you’ve ignored it or pushed it to the side for some time now.  The more you listen and honest your skills, the better and faster you will become at hearing and listening to your intu...

I am an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist surgeon by profession. I had been to Amritsar in 1999, where I fell sick and had a reaction to a medication that led to liver damage, raised my enzymes and caused drug induced depression.  I was physically very weak. Just then an angel came by as a patient and talked to me about Art of Living. I took the course and started practicing the Sudarshan Kriya regularly. To my amazement, I noticed I had recovered in six months though people with ailments like mine take years to recover. I continued my sadhana and weekly long kriya until 2004 but later due to my busy schedule the practice became less frequent. In 2008, I again felt I needed regular practice of Sudarshan Kriya to keep myself fit and healthy.  As a physician I believed in this practice because I had seen how it benefitted me personally. Some of my patients who were regular in their sadhana and practiced ujjai (breathing technique) had much ease delivering their baby.  Recently...

https://www.facebook.com/myplantdiaries?mibextid=ZbWKwL The upcoming week is dedicated to the study of plants from the Anacardiaceae family, which is popularly known as the Cashew Family. 🌷Most members of Anacardiaceae are native to tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Several species are economically important fruit and nut crops.  🌷Members are mostly trees or shrubs 🌷Members of the family have resin ducts and tannin sacs in the bark and characteristically exude gums and resins that become black when exposed to air. These might be source of useful oils, resins, and lacquers. 🌷The leaves vary diversely and are usually deciduous, alternately arranged, lack stipules, may be simple or compound leaves that are mostly imparipinnate  🌷Many species are dioecious, meaning male and female flowers are produced on different individual plants. 🌷Flowers are often tiny, and produced in terminal panicles. Individual flowers usually have bracts. 🌷Most members produce edible fru...