When you watch the thoughts passing through your mind by being the witness rather than getting caught up in them, is this the same as what is meant by the expression, “Offering it up to God?” Yes, you can look at it in this way. One approach is what we can call the...
VedantaWorks recently released their third podcast series: The Raja Yoga classes of Swami Vivekananda. VedantaWorks is dedicated to the teachings of Vedanta, the basic philosophy of Hinduism as expressed through Swami Vivekananda. Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) was an...
The Fourfold Sadhana of Jnana Yoga consists of viveka, vairagya, shadshampat or sixfold virtues and mumukshutva or strong yearning for liberation. Viveka dawns in one who, through the grace of God, has done virtuous actions in their previous births as offerings unto...
In this inspiring video, Ram Dass speaks about "The Freedom of Being Nobody." After Skool is a YouTube channel with the goal of empowering the individual and delivering profound ideas through art. In this video, After Skool animates the words and wisdom as Ram Dass...
The first thing I love about Yoga is that it’s something you can do when everything else out there is falling apart. I know this has brought many people to Yoga. It’s a way to assert your own power and control over your life, even when you seem powerless to change...
As someone who enjoys crafting, the advertisement for the “Original Magic Mat” (a die-cutting crafting aid), suddenly took on an entirely new meaning after experiencing Yoga teacher training. I’ve seen this ad before, but I’ve never thought about anything more than...
Independence implies a freedom from being controlled or unduly influenced by an outside source. Spiritual independence suggests the freedom to live in harmony with the spiritual truth at the heart of our being. It implies freedom from depending on any outside source...
I often quote Avvaiyar, a very great saintly female poet from South India. She was clever with her use of words and never wasted any. Just a few words were enough to give you a great message. Somebody asked her, “How can I arrive at my home?” or in other words, “How...
David Godman (his family’s actual surname!) read a book in 1974 about the great sage and jnani, Sri Ramana Maharshi, and two years later traveled to his ashram in India. Since then, he has lived almost continuously in Tiruvannamalai, the town where Sri Ramana spent...
Essentially, there is only the One—and it’s real. But, its expressions vary and that’s the unreal part. So, really you are spirit, but when you express yourself in a human body, you become a human being. And when you express yourself in a young human body you become a...
It’s alright to have a nice body, nice ideas, nice learning, and a lot of money. As long as you have a lot of money in the bank you call yourself rich. When the money goes away, immediately you change your label: I am poor now. You identify yourself with the money in...
It’s nearly impossible to calm the waves of the mind completely, but we can learn to dive under them. You don’t have to make all the waves calm. The Bhagavad Gita says that the mind gets tossed like a boat on the surface of wavy water. It’s very hard to keep the mind...
Swami Satchidananda: We all have a witness in our own system. That’s what you call the Self. It is a constant witness. What is it witnessing? It witnesses the play of the mind. The mind constantly creates drama. When you go to a movie theater, what do you do? You sit...
To become somebody, you have to know what that somebody is. If you don’t know, how can you become that? I often give the example of seeing your own face in a mirror. We have never actually seen ourselves. When you stand in front of a mirror, whom do you see? You only...
• Remember the Truth — above all, the spiritual path is about remembering, since all the problems originate with forgetting Who You Are! • According to Sri Swami Satchidananda, the best way to overcome the bondage of delusion is to “Always remember and din into your...
Witnessing, a key spiritual practice in Jnana Yoga, involves taking the position of a neutral observer to the whole range of our experience: physical sensations, perceptions, thoughts and emotions. It can be practiced as a meditation technique in which one...