The Gift of Vedic Lifestyle

Swami Vivekananda in one of his speeches once said "I am one of the proudest men ever born , but let me tell you frankly .It is not for myself , but on account of my ancestry .The more I have studied the past , the more I have looked back , more and more this pride come to me , and it has given me the strength and courage of conviction ,raised me from the dust of the earth , and set me working out that great plan laid out by those great ancestors of ours."

The Vedic culture that many Indians take for granted sometimes is one of the most precious gifts we are born with, as Indians. We simply take for granted the spiritual atmosphere we are brought up with. The chants that reverberate in many Indian homes, traditional sarees worn by the elderly ladies in the house, the kolam on freshly watered frontyards (designs made with flour), the fresh mango leaves that are used for decorating the entrances, the prayer alters/rooms dedicated for prayers, the evening bhajans that are played during sunset.... we take all this for granted.

It's not just taking it for granted, many so-called "modern" youth even dislike all this, in the name of blind belief or "too traditional!". Probably it's because the modern minds do not understand the science behind all this or probably because the western comforts seem too luring in front of these traditional rituals.

It is however interesting that the west is now slowly openly acknowledging the ancient Vedic wisdom. When a bunch of US guys started selling bottles of energised water in the brand name H2OM (more about H2OM here), then the word is all awed by it, including media and impactful channels like Time. In the link above, you can even see a list of celebrities posing with the bottles of H2OM water. They even have different bottles for energising different "Chakras". This is based on the scientific studies by Dr. Masuro Emoto on the effect of chants and other emotions on samples of water.

Now, if we sit back and see - the Kumbha Melas (the largest gathering of humanity on Planet Earth that can be captured by satellite images) have been happening from thousads of years based on the same concept of water being energised by the vibrations and energy of many spiritual masters meeting on the banks of the holy rivers. Infact this is why rivers like Ganga, although polluted externally are still considered "holy" and daily prayers are offered to them.

Swamiji is restoring this lost spirit of the Vedic lifestyle back into the world. He says "Bharat (India) is not just a geographical piece of land, but a lifestyle. So all those leading this lifestyle are Indians". True to His words, He is giving an opportunity for people from various countries and backgrounds an opportunity to experience and live this beautiful Vedic lifestyle that is slipping away from our hands. In His recent stunning program Life Bliss Engineering (LBE), one can see young pariticpants from world over enthusiastically participating in a range of activities starting from Vedic rituals, Sanskrit chanting, Vedic Astrology, Yoga to learning how to wear the Vedic costume of saree/dhoti, making flower garlands for deities, putting kolam etc. They are taught not just the science behind each of them, but are made to experience these truths in the energy field of living enlightened master. They are not mere rituals but techniques for enligthenment.

When we visited the Bidadi Ashram for Guru Purnima, we could see the faces of the LBE participants glowing and radiant, soaked in bliss. If you get a chance to attend the next LBE, please don't miss it. More details about the LBE program here: http://www.dhyanapeetam.org/web/international_LBE_1.asp

Blissful Morning

Anywhere in the world, the first thing that comes on TV in the morning is news. The newspaper boy comes and delivers it early in the morning. Infact in many countries, some kind of abridged version of the newspaper is given free to people in public transport like buses and subways.

That is the first thing that we generally do.. get ourselves updated with news from around the world. And that is the reason why so many channels, whether they are news channels or entertainment channels, show news only during the morning time slots.

Now coming to the contents of what we receive during the morning hours... war in some country.. so many people killed.. petrol prices rising.. inflation rates rising.. economy slowing.. more unemployment.. so and so defeated someone to get rank 1.. etc. etc.

If we carefully analyze the news, most news if not all, continuously adds to our negative feelings. If there is an act of terrorism somewhere, we start feeling hatred to that group. If someone defeats someone else, we get angry about the defeat. If inflation rate, property prices, petrol prices are rising, there is an immediate sense of sadness, fear or anger in us. Whether or not our feeling like that affects the concerned party, I don't know but one thing is for certain - we are continuously feeding ourselves with negativities.

Let me tell you something really scientific. It has been proven scientifically that there is continuous electrical activity that happens in our brain and different kinds of brain waves are generated. Of particular interest are alpha and beta waves. Beta waves are generated when we are in a state of stress, tension or in more general terms when we are in a state of continuous activity. Alpha waves demonstrate the creativity aspect of ourselves. Our ability to learn and grasp things is affected by these waves. These are the soothing waves. They bring deep peace and calmness in us. The brain wave patterns of children shows alpha waves mainly and for adults, it is beta waves. That is the reason why children are more creative and pick up creative things like music, painting, arts, languages etc. faster than adults.

Now here is the most important point - in adults, the brain wave patterns are predominantly alpha waves during morning time. It simply means that in the morning, our natural tendency is to be calm and blissful. But what do we do? We continuously feed ourselves with junk.

This precisely the reason why in Vedic culture the morning starts with a chants called Suprabhaatam. In all temples in India, the first thing that they play are these chants. As discussed in our previous post on chants, the sounds that are generated while reciting chants have tremendous effects on us. In India, especially in villages, we see temples playing these chants on loudspeakers. This is done so that early in the morning when we wake up, at least for a few minutes we can experience the deep inner peace and silence. Same goes with why simple rituals and prayers or puja are done early in the morning. All these are tools for us to enter into a deep silence and experience that bliss.

Only now science is studying the brain wave patterns. The importance of 'Brahmi muhurtam' or morning time is very well researched and described in Vedic scriptures thousands of years ago by enlightened masters and there was lifestyle that evolved on these concepts. In many parts of India, especially in villages, people still follow them and live blissfully with whatever they have.

We so called 'modern' people have the tendency to ridicule ancient practices such as this, calling them baseless, illogical and unscientific. We boast of our sophisticated city lifestyle but all this lifestyle is doing is to keep us continuously in a state of tension, stress and surround us with negativities.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda describes how beautifully people live in Indian villages and describes Vedic lifestyle as way to infuse life into everything we do. There is a beautiful meditation Swamiji asks us to do early in the morning. As soon as you get up, touch every part of the part, from head to toe and express love and gratitude to each and every part. Touch and tell each part - thank you and I love you. You will simply see how your body reacts especially when we do it early in the morning.

So, enjoy the blissful morning sun with peace and calmness...

Vedic Chants... Useless? Think Again.

For most so-called modern people, especially youth, when we are told the word, "chants", thats it. We immediately call it religious and useless. We dismiss the chants instantly. We do not even want to listen to them. We feel our so-called modern image does not go well with the chants. Ironically, this syndrome is seen more in Indians.

To those of us who reject chants in the name of religion or tradition, a simple question, 'have we ever wondered why so many Sanskrit chants were written in the first place? Why were they written in a particular way? Why do they sound in a particular way? Why one comes after the other? What is their significance?'
No! we do not even want to think about these questions, simply because we want to be modern, we want to be non-religious, we want to be scientific. Let me tell you, the sounds of these chants, the structure of these chants are more scientific than modern day quantum physics. Modern day scientists are currently working on the power of these chants, the effects of these chants on human mind-body system.

The people, who designed and wrote these chants, developed them in high states of consciousness. The mere sounds of these chants create vibrations, which have healing and cleansing properties; there are enough scientific evidences to prove this. Many emotional disorders and depression can be healed by the vibrations of these chants. Lifestyle diseases like diabetics, blood pressure, ulcers etc. are being tackled with these vibrations. Experiments have shown that plants that grow better amidst chants. If all this is not modern then I doubt what is?

Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, 'Every language tires us when we speak in that language. Sanskrit is the only language which creates sounds, which creates vibrations that energizes us when we speak it. Sanskrit language is not just linguistic which was created for the sake of transmitting an idea or concept. It has phonetic importance also. The very vibrations that are generated have power on you. And being in the sound of the Vedic chants is an easy way to experience the power these vibrations.'

And we reject them just because our fast paced modern lifestyle does not think them to be cool enough for us. We are ready to listen to music in Arabic or Spanish or Chinese, languages which we don't even understand. Even worse we listen to songs with heavy music, songs where we can't even make out whether it is a music or noise, sounds which create terrible effects in our system but we cannot sit down and listen few minutes of Sanskrit chants. Simply because these chants are not modern enough; we think they are not scientific enough.

Just being in the vibrations generated by the chants can do wonders in our system. The only thing that is stopping us modern people from even trying this is our mind and ego. Drop that mind, drop our so called modern image for a few minutes, so that we can allow these sounds to work on us. Let me leave you with a beautiful video on this topic in our Master's own words.

Simple it sounds, yet so powerful it is!!

Yesterday during a coffee break with my colleagues, my feet accidentally touched my colleague and my immediate reaction was to say sorry (of course in an Indian style). We might have seen, especially with Indians, when something/someone comes in their way and if accidentally their legs/feet touch the person or things like books, vessels, etc. we bow down, touch the person/thing and do a little prayer.

Of course, this might seem stupid to outsiders. Why should someone pray if his/her legs touch a book or a person? Socially, our legs touching an elder shows disrespect. Again society instills fear in children saying if your legs touch books, you will not study well.

These are surely social reasons. But I was thinking there should be some deeper meaning to all this. It seems to have been present in Vedic lifestyle for a long time. Society cannot come up with a new concept. It can only twist an existing concept to suit its needs. So there should be some deeper meaning to it. Paramahamsa Nithyananda says Vedas are true knowledge and following Vedic lifestyle leads one to enlightenment. If that is the case, how does this seemingly social practice fit in the path enlightenment?

Paramahamsa Nithyananda recalling His first enlightenment experience says, 'when the experience happened, I found myself in everything around me. I was not able to eat food because in that food also I saw myself. How can I eat myself?' He says that an enlightened being sees the Divine, the Self, Himself or Herself in everything and everyone.

And this is precisely what is inculcated in children in the practice that I described above but with a twisted meaning to it :) If we remove the societal reasons to the practice, we can unearth a beautiful meaning to the whole practice of seeing God or Divine or our own Self in each and everything around. By touching them and praying we are respecting our own Self or the Divinity in them. Beautiful isn't it?

Now, people who do not understand call this stupid but once we understand what and why behind it, we see that everything that was a part Vedic lifestyle leads one to enlightenment. The whole Vedic lifestyle was such that every little action would turn the thoughts and energy towards the divine, and realizing It. Paramahamsa Nithyananda says Veda means true knowledge, that knowledge with has not been corrupted by the mind. He says, 'when we don't interfere and let the mind rest, true knowledge or Veda happens.'

Such simple things, yet so powerful and deep; our intellect does not allow us to believe that people actually get enlightened by following something as simple as that. Infact this is a powerful Shiva Sutra in which one goes beyond the limits of the body and sees everything and everyone around as the one. Let me leave you with a beautiful video where Paramahamsa Nithyananda talks about a mystical experience that He witnessed during His wandering days...

India ... the spiritual incubator

Last week, we were in Paramahamsa Nithyananda's ashram in India for His birthday celebrations. Though indescribable, we have tried our best to give a gist of what it was like to be in the energy field of a living enlightened master for just a few days. Everyone in the ashram was blissed out totally, dancing, singing, jumping in ecstasy, completely immersed in the energy.

Anyways, after the birthday celebrations, we left the ashram to my parents' place by train. Its an overnight journey. I found myself allocated to the middle berth and on the lower berth, I found a long haired, bermuda-t-shirt clad westerner lost in his own world. As soon as he saw me, he turned his head, his attention on the book I was reading- Sri Sharada Devi - The Holy Mother. He smiled and immediately said, 'that's a nice book.'

Why am I quoting this incident? This incident brought back one of my very old questions. Why is it that any person from any part of the world comes to India in search for deeper truths? Why do seekers of the Ultimate Truth think India is the place where there is an answer? This guy is not just touring India. He is certainly come to India for something more because he knows and read about masters like Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Sharada Devi.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda declares, "India is the spiritual incubator of the world." There is no doubt about it. Several enlightened masters and beings happened in India, Krishna, Buddha, Mahavira, Patanjali, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Vivekananda, Sharada Devi, Ramana Maharshi, Annamalai Swami, Sai Baba, Osho, Ajja, Paramahamsa Nithyananda ... the list goes on and on. There are thousands of enlightened masters and beings sitting in remote corners of India who are not even known to common people.

India is a culmination of the energy of these enlightened masters and it is this energy that strikes a chord with the seekers from the rest of the world. Osho puts it beautifully, "India is not just a geography or history. It is not only a nation, a country, a mere piece of land. It is something more: it is a metaphor, poetry, something invisible but very tangible. It is vibrating with certain energy fields that no other country can claim."

That is India. In terms of materialistic possessions, India may be termed as developing but in spiritual possessions, India is the only developed country. The people of so-called developed countries turn to India when everything external fails to fulfill the deepest inner craving for the Ultimate Truth.

India is a metaphor for the Ultimate Truth; India is a beautiful poetry penned down by the energies of the enlightened masters; India is a colorful painting with strokes of energy made by these masters and India is a culmination of the faith, hope and trust of a billion people on this Ultimate Truth in one way or the other.

Where words fail...

Last week, this blog saw no posts for two reasons. One is that we were at Bidadi ashram for Swamiji's birthday celebrations, away from internet and secondly, we were in the space of no-words! Truly, words fail to describe the silence and the depth of it that one experiences in the energy field of Swami Nithyananda at Bidadi. Anyway, here is an attempt to share my experiences there.

The ashram at Bidadi has many layers of significance, in the physical and the metaphysical planes. My favorite spot in the ashram is the banyan tree. The 600 year old banyan tree built on an ageless cave, the samadhi on an enlightened master takes you to eternity. It is amazing to see so many creatures live in harmony there - squirrels, owls, mynas, snakes, bugs, beetles, ants, rats... As Swamiji puts it, just being at the banyan tree is meditation, one has to experience it. If you get a chance, don't miss it.

The cave at the banyan tree had a swayambhu (self formed) shiva linga, which has now been consecrated at the Anandeshwara temple. This temple whose deities have been infused with life energy by the master Himself resonates with a high frequency. The unique thing about Swami's temples is that everyone is allowed to touch and interact with the deities.

The most ironic thing was that although there were so many people who had come down for the celebrations, amidst the noise there was silence, amidst the chaos there was a strange order, amidst the diversity there was a common bond.

We all got to do 'firewalking' as part of the celebrations. It is an amazing cleansing activity and an opportunity to see how much ours fears are a projection of our minds. All of us walked on burning coal so effortlessly just because of the assurance that the master is sitting in front of us blessing us. It's amazing! no blisters, no burns, no nothing! When we offer our fears and negativities at the feet of the master, it is so liberating! Nothing can burn us then :)

There is so much that happened in that short span of a few days at ashram. A deep alchemy! It is said that there are 5 moods that one can relate with God with - that of a mother to God, a child to God, a servant to God, a friend to God and a beloved to God. It is also said that the relationship with the master is deeper than all these 5 put together! Indeed it's true - for those of us who are fortunate to taste even a bit of this deep relationship can attest to this. The master-disciple relationship is so sweet, so deep, words always fail to describe it.

In deepest gratitude to Swamiji...