The teacher is trying to teach all the children so that slowly
they understand and learn the alphabet. Similarly,
when it comes to religion, you start from somewhere.
So for someone the journey begins from a temple,
for others from a mosque and for yet others from a church
I read the story of a man who was looking for a guru. He saw an ascetic sitting under a tree and went close to him. “Can you tell me who is the best guru
"Light and darkness can never exist together.
where there is light, there can be no darkness - and where there is darkness,
there can be no light and your mind is darkness personfied! that is why it is said you must free yourself of your mind."
Alhat Ed Din was a very famous sheikh who lived in Crimea. He had several disciples. One night, when he was sitting by a pond, a sufi named Shams Tabreez passed by. Seeing Alhat Ed Din, he wondered what he was doing sitting next to the pond at night. So he went near him and asked, “Mister, what are you doing? Who are you?” The man replied, “I am Sheikh Alhat Ed Din and I am meditating on the shadow of the moon in this water.”
Shams Tabreez asked, “Do you have a boil on your neck that you are finding it difficult to look up at the moon? The real moon is visible in the sky and you are looking for the shadow in the pond!” Alhat Ed Din raised his head - and what did he see? - the radiant face of Shams Tabreez in the moonlight. Automatically his head bowed in reverence.
She is a sufi when she speaks on Sufism;
a rishi when she speaks on the upanishads and the Geeta; a Shankrachraya; a Buddha; a Zen Master; a poetess; a singer.
Gurumaa is all of these and yet, she is none of these!
Mesmerizing persona, piercing eyes, a crystal clear mind, the wisdom of the ages and a beautiful demeanour - such is the personality of Anandmurti Gurumaa. Defying definition, pragmatic, realistic, of liberal views, she is open-minded like the sky and intense like space. Gurumaa had a wonderful childhood - when other children were learning nursery rhymes, she was listening to the philosophy of Vedanta. While other children dreamt of dolls and cars, she was learning the art of awakening from dreams. A bubbly spirited teenager, she was not seen with girls of her age but with yogis and gurus. Meditating and lovingly serving spiritual masters
My consciousness has never associated itself with this temporary body. Before I came to this earth, 'I' was the same. As a little girl, 'I' was the same. I grew to womanhood but still 'I' was the same. When the family I was born to arranged this body's marriage, 'I' was the same. Even afterwards, though the dance of creation changes around me in the hall of eternity, 'I' shall be the same.
India is a country which is fortunate to have witnessed her daughters rise to be great mystics. A person strives to learn the intricacies of religion, practices it diligently and then after many years may reach the zenith of spirituality. But there are some individuals who are born with all the prerequisites, a great mind and a high level of consciousness.
O Allah! if I worship you for fear of hell
Burn me in hell
If I worship you in hope of paradise
Exclude me from paradise
But if I worship you for your own sake
Grudge me not your everlasting beauty
When asked by Sheikh Hasan-al-Basri how she discovered the secret, she responded: “You know of the how, but I know of the how-less.”
Lalleshwari was a great poet-saint of Kashmir. Her life is shrouded in mystery, miracle and legend - and much of what we know of her is through the oral tradition. 'Lalla Vakyani' (1920) by Sir George Abraham Grierson and Lionel D. Barnett Litt. D., is the only scholarly work on the subject to date. The earliest recorded mention of Lalleshwari is in 'Asrar-ul-Abrar' by Baba Dawud Mishtaki written in 1654. Sanskrit documents dated earlier do not mention her at all, neither is there any mention of her in Kalhan's Rajtaringini, or in any other chronicle till 1746 - may be because these were records of political events and not of social history.
Some leave their home, some the hermitage but the restless mind knows no rest so watch your breath, day and night and stay where you are.
A German Catholic mystic On March 5, 1926, the first Friday of Lent, the first stigmata or sacred wounds of Christ appeared slightly above her heart. She kept it secret, confident it would be healed. This wound is believed to represent the spot where Longinus speared Jesus Christ while on the cross.
one of the most fascinating modern day catholic mystic and stigmatic - was born on April 8th 1898 in Northern Bavaria, Germany
Yoga Nidra releases all types of tensions- muscular, emotional and mental tensions.
Every human being is endowed with great potentialities but one need to have awareness and training to explore this inner treasure. Yoga Nidra is the way to turn inwards and bring consciousness to the constant flow of life happening within and rise higher within and without. It is the scientific way to eliminate the root cause of all negativities like stress related disorders, ailments like hypertension, depression, asthma, digestive disorders, etc which drain our life energy.
Yoga Nidra is an ancient tantric method, which can open new capacities of the mind. Stress, frustrations, insomnia, and psychosomatic diseases which have become part of modern man’s life, are being caused by our unstable mind. Unknowingly, we hurt ourselves
Parvati insisted to Lord Shiva to tell her the secret of His immortality. So, Lord Shiva embarked upon finding a place where no living being could reach and that only Parvati hears and stumbled upon a huge cave.
The trek from Pahalgam to Amarnath Cave is on an ancient route. It takes four days to cover this 45-kilometre route which can at times be hazardous, if not intimidating. But when you know that you are in the lap of the captivating Himalayas and that thousands, perhaps millions of people, have walked on this path for centuries, and are still doing the same, it gives you an inner strength to move on. On this path have walked great saints like Shankaracharya, Swami Vivekananda and Swami Ramtirtha. On this path have walked the old and young, and will continue to do so for centuries to come.
There is an air of timelessness about the place. Everything here is so old and so new – the path, the journey, the hills, the glaciers, the cave, and the lingam. This is the place where legends are as old as the hills around you.
The “I’’ with whom we are associated is illusionary ‘I’. The ‘I’ we know has more to do with mind or body and the reality is this that our real ‘I’ remains very much obscure.
True self is without a boundary, all pervasive. In terms of existence, there isn’t any boundary, but on the level of mind, body and speech, we divide the existence into me, you and them.
I have relationship with body, senses, mind, intellect – these are so close but so far from the self.
Entwined with one another and yet so very much separate. Can you see the line of demarcation where body ends and mind begins or mind ends and self begins? Mind is a subtle form of matter and body is a gross form of subtle or the mind. Mind and matter are not different from one another. A quantum physicist would say that matter and energy are not two different entities.
Zikr, a glittering event of love to celebrate the 800th Birth Anniversary of Hazrat Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi in India has been organised by Rishi Chaitanya Trust in association with Turkish Embassy and in co-association with Gurumaa Vani. The highlight of the opening event was the launch by the Guests of Honour of the special audio CD, titled "Zikr", produced by Mystica Music and composed by India's leading neyzen and musicologist Kaanchman Babbar.
It was probably the most talked-about event of the month. A large crowd had already gathered outside the Kamani Auditorium in New Delhi on the evening of 14th February 2007, waiting to enter and watch for themselves the towering personality of Anandmurti Gurumaa and the dervishes who were especially brought from the interiors of Turkey.
To a hall packed and under the glaring lights of the media, Guests of Honour, Dr Karan Singh, President, ICCR and Sarod Maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, along with Turkish Ambassador in India, HE Halil Akinci, marked the start of the 800th Birth Anniversary of Hazrat Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi in India.
In our modern world, we often define ourselves in terms of our relationships with others but forget the relationship that we share with our inner selves. Solitude is the best way to get to know ourselves.
Does being alone sometime give you a very deep and rare sense of contentment? If yes, then consider yourself fortunate enough to enjoy such state of bliss called Solitude. There is an important distinction to be established right off the bat. There is a world of difference between solitude and loneliness, though the two terms are often used interchangeably. From the outside, solitude and loneliness look a lot alike. Both are characterized by solitariness. But all resemblance ends here.
Very often, we mistake solitude with loneliness. Its only when we experience solitude in the true sense that we discover the difference. Loneliness is marked by a sense of isolation. Solitude, on the other hand, is a state of being alone without being lonely and can lead to self-awareness.
God isn't far away from us, but in us, within us as well as beyond us.
As every human being is divine, every human being can be called God. You too are God; all of us are God.
God is not the name of an entity, which is away from us, living somewhere in the sky, in some far, remote place in the cosmos. For the seers who understood the Truth, God is Truth.
Truth and God are synonyms; when I say God it means Truth, when I say Truth it means God. God exists in every core of an atom. This means that this whole universe is a manifestation of that very God, that very existence. Thus, each and every thing as well as the forms which we are seeing is the form of the divinity. The seers of this land loved and worshipped each and every form as God. The vision of God is not limited. It was limitless, which was beyond the boundaries of human mind.
Rumi's words are: `Empty yourself from within -- like a ney -- so that, just as the Prophet kept his lips on one end of the ney and the Almighty's songs began coming out from the other end, similarly, the ney of your heart be emptied of vanity, His songs begin echoing'. There is pain, suffering and appeal, like in a `sigh!' in Zikr.
It was this Rumi who taught a new way of performing Zikr. Zikr that is performed in the standing position! Zikr, in which, for the first time music was used within the four walls of Islam.
The way Zikr is done is really nice. Eight to ten people stand in a close circle. Keeping one hand on the other, they place it loosely near the stomach. Now, why in this circular manner? The ney is round; our backbone is also round. So, they stand in a circle and recite the mantra. When they speak deeply, all their energies keep getting collected at one place.
The most beautiful part is when, during the Zikr of Hayee, the sheikh picks up the duf (tambourine) and goes into the center of the circle. He keeps playing his duf and the sound of `Hayee’ carries on with it.
