Who is the Sufferer?

Who is the Sufferer?

I know it sounds hard, but we must remember that when we go through, or see, suffering it is not the Immortal Self that suffers. Who is the sufferer then? It is the mind that goes through all the changes—the little ego, guided by vasanas, wrong thinking, and...

read more
You are Light!

You are Light!

Let us know that in Truth you are the Divine Image, the image of God. Somehow the veil of the ego prevents you from realizing this. Just remove that veil. It is that veil that is the basis for all these mental dramas. It creates all kinds of problems, troubles,...

read more
The Real Yoga

The Real Yoga

The essential teaching and goal of Yoga is to make the mind calm. “Yoga chitta vritti nirodha,” says the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. That means that Yoga is the calming of the waves created in the chitta, the mind by keeping the mind balanced under all conditions. In...

read more
Yoga Nidra: A Gateway to Samadhi

Yoga Nidra: A Gateway to Samadhi

Yoga Nidra is yogic sleep. But, it’s a sort of sleepless sleep. You are awake and at the same time you are sleeping. The scriptures call it “jagrat sushupti,” awakened sleep. You sleep, but you don’t sleep. During regular sleep, you sleep but you don’t know that...

read more
Awakening from the Dream

Awakening from the Dream

Someone asked me the question: “I feel selfish and troubled all the time. Why is it so hard to feel peaceful all the time if it’s my true nature?” Well, that question cannot be answered with words but can be realized. How? By knowing the Knower, being the Be-er. Now,...

read more
Putting Our Ahimsa Where Our Mouth Is

Putting Our Ahimsa Where Our Mouth Is

In the early 1970s, I was in the dance department at the University of California, Berkeley, and right when I passed from my apartment to the campus, there was the Integral Yoga Institute. I went in there, long story short, to take a Yoga class. The postures were...

read more
Be the Centerpoint

Be the Centerpoint

We all look for excitement, thinking that it is a plus. But what is a plus? A minus crossed. A pendulum won’t swing to the plus side and remain there. When it swings to one side, it automatically has to come back to the other. When you want excitement, and swing to...

read more
Karma Yoga: Yoga of Action

Karma Yoga: Yoga of Action

The Himalayas are indeed a crown and spread their victory flag in the sky. The Indian Ocean, in the south, acts as though it washes the feet of the emperor. In between, a thriving sun of culture has been shining for thousands of years over the waves of the Ganga and...

read more
Gurus and Spiritual Experiences

Gurus and Spiritual Experiences

A questioner asks: Swamiji, what about Gurus like Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa? We read that he touched his disciple Swami Vivekananda and Vivekananda had a spiritual experience. Was Vivekananda just opening up something from within himself or did Sri Ramakrishna...

read more
Spiritual Independence

Spiritual Independence

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...

read more