Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

Chapter 10 - The Eight Limbs Of Yoga  Day 84 There are the five yamas, and then the five niyamas. The niyamas are, Shaucha is physical purity, keeping oneself clean. People may not take a bath for several days and wear perfumes. This is not cleanliness.  Water should run in and on this body - both inside and outside. You have to drink enough water and let it run through the system. Water is the greatest purifier for this physical body. There needs to be cleanliness in the atmosphere and in the environment.  If you are used to being unclean, you do not feel anything if you are. You can see this in the slums. The people there do not mind living in very dirty conditions, with garbage all around. It just does not register in their consciousness.  They are used to it. In the same way, you get used to being unclean, and keeping your room unclean, etc. It starts with your postponing your bath one day or wearing the clothes that you wore the previous day.  A...

Chapter 10 - The Eight Limbs Of Yoga  Day 83  When you give things to people, it brings back something to you. There are some good vibrations and this makes you happy. If you are very unhappy one day, then give away something or give some gifts to somebody. Then, your consciousness will change, shift and sometimes when you accept gifts from someone, you will feel unhappy.  In the ancient days, they knew this science very well. They used to call wise people to their homes and give them food and gifts. And, when they accepted, they would give one more offering. This was to show thankfulness to the wise people for having accepted their offering. This was called dakshina. So, if someone accepts a gift, then the giver should be thankful. This is called dakshina. The giver is thankful because they are not just taking something. The acceptors are giving back their mind and taking away certain impressions or karmas of the past from the giver's mind.  Non acceptan...

Chapter 10 - The Eight Limbs Of Yoga  Day 85  Santosha - contentment and happiness. Happiness is an attitude. If you are used to being unhappy, you will grumble and be unhappy even in the best situations. Nothing can make you happy in the world. What happens when you are happy, when you smile?  There is much relaxation on your face - in the muscles of the face, in the head, etc. There is freedom, joy and relaxation and if you have trained your muscles and your nervous system to be unhappy, then there will be knots and stressed in your face.  There will be stiffness in your head and in your body and you will remain unhappy irrespective of the situation, surrounding, etc. Santosha is a practice. Being happy is a practice.  Unconditional happiness is a practice. You need to decide that you are going to smile, no matter what happens. You need to feel that everyone and everything is going to die and disappear, anyway. So, you do not care. You need to feel...

Chapter 10 - The Eight Limbs Of Yoga  Day 82 When you do not accumulate then you get knowledge of previous births and knowledge of different species. The communication in you improves. When a person wants more and more, he just thinks of himself and is obsessed with fear. He does not know the eternal value of life.  Life has been there from ages and will continue for ages to come. Non accumulation means confidence in one's existence and in one's ability, and having knowledge of one's self. If you know how to make bread, then you will not go in making bread for a week and then store it for a year in your room.  It will become stale and inedible. In China, there is a proverb, "What you give, you gain more. Whatever you scatter, you will have it all. You lose what you hold on to." When you scatter, it all comes back to you. Everything is yours and you are all over.  A person who is very afraid of himself and who has no idea of his strength is very stingy....

Chapter 10 - The Eight Limbs Of Yoga  Day 81  Brahmacharya, usually means celibacy. Celibacy brings you a lot of strength. Brahmacharya has a bigger and deeper meaning than just celibacy. Brahma means infinity, charya means moving in the infinity. You move like a glow of light when you know your vast nature and consider yourself not to be just the body.  This is when celibacy naturally happens. When you are sitting in deep meditation, you do not feel you are a body and that you are a lump of heavy weight - eighty pounds, ninety pounds, one hundred pound body. You feel so light. You feel as though you are like a feather. When you walk you do not feel the weight of your body. You feel more space.  The more joyful you are, the less do you feel the body. The more you are in infinite consciousness, the lesser will you feel the tension, or the physical bodily weight, or presence. That is Brahmacharya. Our consciousness expanded to the infinite and moving in the...

Chapter 10 - The Eight Limbs Of Yoga  Day 80  Following Satya is to be with "what is." To be truthful in one's life, one's presence, one's mind, one's heart - not in your words but in your intention. Are your intentions straight forward and clear? Or are you hiding something behind them?  Is there some other hook you are keeping? That indicates truth. The second principle, yama, is the clarity in your intention and openness in your approach, the truth. Third yama, is asteya, not stealing. You may admire somebody's voice and wish you had a good one.  You have already stolen it. You may admire someone's looks and wish you looked like her. You have already stolen her looks. This creates jealousy and a desire to have something that you admire. This is the reason why people steal.  Asteya eliminates jealousy and the tendency to steal. People steal many things. Some people steal someone else's plans, other steal techniques. Then, again, someo...

Chapter 10 - The Eight Limbs Of Yoga  Day 79  All your actions will become fruitful, if you are established in truth. The actions of many people don't bring about results because there is no truth-consciousness in them. The fruit of an action will follow immediately when there is no truth consciousness. There is success in actions and truth is not just the words.  It is the quality of the consciousness, of straight forwardness. Even if you are telling a lie and you are bold enough to say that you are telling a lie then you are speaking truth. When you tell a lie, your consciousness is not solid. It is not straight forward. There is no strength in it.  Success comes easily to a person who's committed to truth, who is committed to "what is" - the presence of being. It is not that he will not encounter failures. He may encounter failure, but he will win. Satyameva jayate, is a slogan, like, “We trust in God” which is written on the American currency notes. I...

Chapter 10 - The Eight Limbs Of Yoga  Day 78  If you are established in non violence, violence will be dropped in your very presence by other creatures. Someone may plan to attack you. But, as soon as they come near you, they will feel your vibration which is totally non violent. Then, they will stop being violent. The contemporary of Buddha was Mahaveera. He was the promoter of the Jain religion. He emphasized ahimsa. It is said that people up to 20 kms around him would drop their violence. And, that, even thorns would not prick anybody.  They would become soft and be flat on the ground to avoid pricking anybody. If you are established in non violence, other creatures will drop violence in your presence. Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji  PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS 

Chapter 10 - The Eight Limbs Of Yoga  Day 77  Yama is the first limb. What are yamas? Ahimsa satya asteya brahmacharya aparigraha. These are five yamas :  1. Ahimsa - non violence 2. Satya - truth 3. Asteya - stealing 4. Brahmacharya - moving in Barhman, moving in bigness  5. Aprigraha - non accumulation These are the greatest vows because it is applicable at all times, in all places and for all people. There are certain laws which apply just to certain people, or times. An animal is violent for some reason. The wild animals hunt only when they are hungry. They do not hunt just for pleasure but the human beings do. They go hunting for no reason.  A python eats one rat a month and sleeps for the rest of the month. Just one rat a month is good enough for it though it is scary and dangerous. If it swallows a goat or eats something bigger, it will not harm or kill any animal for several months. But human beings in the name of God, in the name of love, ki...

Chapter 10 - The Eight Limbs Of Yoga  Day 76 Human consciousness is like a seed. A seed has the possibility of a tree, of branches, of leaves, flowers and fruits, of multiplication, etc. So does the human mind. A seed needs a proper soil, proper conditions, sunlight and water to sprout and blossom on its possibility.  It is the same with the human consciousness, the human mind. Either the seed can be dormant for many years, keeping its sprouting and developing possibilities within itself or it can start sprouting and growing right away. The sprouting of this seed of human consciousness is viveka - discrimination and wisdom.  Freedom comes with viveka, or discrimination. All other species in this creation are completely governed by nature. They do not need discrimination nor do they have freedom. So they never break the laws of nature. The human l consciousness and the human mind have been given this freedom. So, it has also been given discrimination.  It ...

Chapter 9 - Eliminating The Cause Of Pain Day 75 If you think these vrtittis are yours, it is ignorance. And what is the way to come out of the ignorance - a definite understanding and knowledge in the mind that the body is undergoing changes all the time, that the world is undergoing changes all the time, that the entire universe, in the form of fluids, is in a state of fluidity - it is all full of changes and is going on, on its own, according to its nature. The definite knowledge that you are not the body, that you are the Self, that you are the space, that you are imperishable, untouched and untamed by the prakriti and the world around you, that the body is all hollow and empty, and every particle in this body is ever changing, and that the mind is ever changing is the way to get out of this cycle. Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji  PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS 

Chapter 9 - Eliminating The Cause Of Pain  Day 74  There is a power of nature in these sutras and we should really go deep into them. Your body is made up of the three gunas - sattva, rajas and tamas, and they influence your thoughts, behavioral patterns, etc. Many things may happen in the world and the gunas attract, accordingly, the events, situations and circumstances around you.  When the tamasic guna dominates, it creates more dullness, sleep and lethargy in you. When the rajasic guna is dominating, your mind is restless and full of desires. And if the mind is dominated by sattva guna, it is very alert, sharp, joyful and enthusiastic. All these qualities emerge.  Now, when these three gunas influence you, according to their nature, time, place, etc, you tend to identify yourself with the effect of that influence. You may begin to feel that you are a dull and lethargic person, that you have many negative qualities. This is ignorance.  You should ...

Chapter 9 - Eliminating The Cause Of Pain  Day 73 The Self, though it is ever pure and unstained, is just a witness. However, when it becomes one with the buddhi, the intellect, then it gets coloured. It seems coloured. It seems just like somebody who, stuck in their own intellect, continues to be with their thoughts and ideas, as though they are their own.  They suffer a lot as a result of this. The Self is the center of the whole creation. Though this world does not exist for the one who is realized and enlightened the way it does for the enlightened, it continues to exist with its opposites. There is no more suffering for the one who is awakened in knowledge.  The world appears completely different and all of this creation is filled with bliss, or part of the Self. But, for the others, it exists as they see it. So, you may not be considering this world separate from your Self, but as a part of your Self. It does not exists for you, but for others it does ex...