Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

Neelakandeswarar Temple is a Hindu Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva located at Erukkattampuliyur (Thirukoodalaiyathoor Village) in Cuddalore District of Tamilnadu. Now this village is called as Rajendra Pattinam which has no relation to the original name. The Temple is also called as Kumaraswamy and Virar Mulaiyammai Temple / Thirukumaresar Temple / Erukkattampuliyur Temple / Rajendirapattinam Temple. Presiding Deity is called as Neelakandeswarar / Suvethaaranyeswarar / Thirukumaresar. Mother is called as Neelamalar Kanni / Virar Mulaiyammai / Abeethakuja Nayagi / Neelorbalaambal. The temple complex covers around half acre and entered through a five tiered gopuram, the main gateway. The temple has many shrines, with those of Thirukumaresar and his consorts Verumulai Amman, being the most prominent. All the shrines of the temple are enclosed in large concentric rectangular granite walls. The original complex is believed to have been built by Cholas, while the present masonry structure was...

Q: Gurudev, Buddhists say they do not believe in God. Even Lord Buddha said that we must not worship idols. Now He too was an enlightened being, so what did he mean by that? Sri Sri: Lord Buddha never talked about God. He never really entertained any discussion on God. What He said was – the first thing is to realize that there is misery. People keep denying there is misery, many don’t even recognize it. Many a time if you talk to a sick person, he will say “I’m perfectly healthy and fine”. The more egoistic the person, the greater is the denial. Many times people are very miserable from within, but they wear a mask of cheerfulness or even act confident and dominating on the outside. They will keep pretending as if everything is fine, yet you can see the misery drip from their faces. Every part of their body reflects anger, bitterness, hatred and misery. This is what Lord Buddha has said – that there is misery. Recognize it, and then there are remedies for it. If someone sa...

 In Sanskrit, Upanishad means sitting close – sitting close to the Master, not just physically, but also mentally. It signifies the finite getting close to the infinite, the known reaching out to the unknown. The Upanishads are dialogues between the Master and student from ages ago. There are nearly 100 Upanishads available today out of which eleven are very important. The Master is the embodiment of wisdom and the student represents a spiritual seeker eager to come closer to wisdom. There are so many levels of conflict in the universe. Despite these conflicts how does one get mentally close? First, we invoke peace. One can only come mentally close when there is peace. Where there is mistrust and doubt, there can be no transfer or exchange of knowledge. Thus, all of the Upanishads begin with a prayer for three types of peace: - “Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti” (Shanti is a sanskrit word meaning peace.) “Let us have peace at the physical level, at the level of thoughts and emotions, and ...

There is a beautiful story in the Upanishads which goes, “On the tree of this universe, there are two birds sitting – one is enjoying the fruit, the other is just watching, like a witness”. This story indicates the two aspects in you, that is, the doer and the non-doer. There is one aspect of you that is performing all actions And there is another aspect in you that is not doing anything (the seer) Now you might ask, “How?” On one level, you find that you are changing. Your thoughts are changing, your emotions are changing, your body is changing. Yet at another, deeper level, there is something in you that is not changing at all, it is the same. That is how you know that you are changing. So, you are a combination of both, the change and the non-change, the tangible and the intangible. Similarly, you are both the doer and the non-doer. When to Turn towards Non-doership When you are in activity, you are a doer; when you are retiring, or when you are getting into meditation, ...

There are two basic instincts in human beings and they have been with you in all your lives. -Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji There are two basic instincts in human beings, one is food and the other is sex. These have been with you in all your lives, when you were an animal and now as a human being. You are born of these two: food and sex. It is so beautiful that in this country (India) both connected with the Divine. The food is connected with God. In the Upanishads, it is said "Food is God." When you consider food as God, you will not overeat. Not only do you fill food, but you eat with such honor. No festival in India passes without food. And when you go to the temple, the first thing they give is a little bit of Prasad. Prasad is just some food that is given. Without Prasad there is no pilgrimage or festival. The food is connected with God. Similarly, sex is also connected with God. Otherwise, you keep sex separate and think that this is my material life and th...