Hmmm...

....New Year

New Year is happening all around me, celebrations with crackers, serial lights, church service, temple prayers, people with happy faces moving here and there.

Darkness and light

(Pictures are the Bay of Bengal near Tiger's Cave, Chennai and the evening sky on the other side of the waters!)

Climbing...

...Mountains

Even as my memories of the Himalayas may not fade in this lifetime, I am trekking each month as if the mountains are calling me for regular visits. The whole lot of news stories with photographs I have taken of the Himalayas are yet to get exhausted in The Hindu, but the lure of the mountains is hugging me close to them more often.
Last Deepavali, I was away at Yelagiri for two days, when I climbed the Swami Malai, a three-hour trek up and down. My guides insisted on taking me through the road not taken and I climbed up rocks, drinking cool water out of a spring, before I reached the top with a Shiva temple there.
Last month, I knew what it was to have an adventure when I climbed the Parvatamalai. Till one point, the trekking stops and from the rocky 'Gadapparai,' it is a climb up metal ladders, holding iron chains or rods, with feet firm on the rocks and faith firm at heart. At one point, the fear was unbearable as all around there is open space and all one has to hold on were there in two hands and two toes. The fear turned out into a song, a bhajan - Om Namah Shivaya - Prana Priyaya Parameshwaraya Mrityunjayaya Namah Om. Fear vanished and cheer set in as I soon reached the top.
Now it's another month since and I might be trekking in the Velliangiri hills at Coimbatore.
Till then....Good Bye!
(Photos: A face of the mountain at Parvathamalai resembles that of a goddess, a tea vendor told me. The boating with the background of dark clouds gathering for a good shower at the lake in Yelagiri.)

Himalaye Tu Kedaram

Ghushmesham Cha Shivalaye

It has been quite a long time indeed since I wrote anything on my blog. And the reason is this. I was away for 13 days, out of which I spent nine full days and nights wandering in the Himalayan mountains. All my planning stopped with New Delhi. From there on, my silent sojourn was plan-free. No schedules. No particular focus on seeing or doing something. But just taking it as it came along.
Taking things as it came by, I went alone jumping in and out of public buses, travelling on road for a whole day at a stretch, flowing from place to place and experiencing the expansive bliss of all that I saw along the way.
The spark began when my friend dangled a tour schedule book of the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam, Uttaranchal Tourism. I was truly inspired by the mere names of Badrinath, Kedar Nath, Adi Kailash, Manasarovar, Kailash and anything that had to do with the Himalayas. I immediately began to check out the tour possibilities and found that I could make it for the New Delhi - Badrinath - Kedarnath one. I checked out with the GMVN and was disappointed when on all the days that were possible for me, there was no quorum to conduct the tour.

It was my Guru, Swami Akshara who gave me the strength, courage and inspiration when he said, "You don't need a tour operator to take you to the Himalayas!"
I saw some light and I decided to go it alone. And right from the time I landed at the New Delhi Airport, till I returned after the nine days of Navaratri to the same place, the whole process was happening as if on some great divine master plan.
At the end of it all I discovered, it is not just during the nine days that such a plan is operative, but through all the time that has gone by, and all the time that is yet to come.
And so I am here, sharing my experiences and photos with you, through this blog.
The picture in this post is the vimana of the Jyotirlinga Temple of Kedarnath, accessible at the end of a 14 kilometre trek from Gaurikund. In the background are the mountain peaks glowing like gold in the morning sun.

Vande Mataram...

....the force of the nation

With the "I will sing - I won't sing," controversy going around the National Song, Vande Mataram, I go back to the days when I was chanting the two words as a Mantra. Today,
September 7, they say is the centenary of the song and my way of celebrating it was by singing it all to myself at home and revelling in its lilting music and devotion. This was by the way, my first song on the microphone, when I sang it together with my friend Kavitha Thampi in the sports ground of my school C.S.I. Ewart Matriculation Higher Secondary School, in class VIII. The reverberations of the song on that day, nearly three decades ago, still ring in my ears.
I found a book by Sri Aurobindo on Bankim-Tilak-Dayananda in my collection. There I found a translation of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's Bande Mataram, original Bengali.
Besides the words that are commonly known to the public, the poem is in praise of Mother India, signified as the powerful voice of millions, the strength and wisdom.

Sapta Koti Kanta Kalakala Ninada Karale
Dwisaptakoti Bhujairdhrutha Kharakaravale
Abala Kena Ma Eta Bale!

Bahubala Dharinim Namami Tarinim
Ripudala Varinim Mataram
Tumi Vidya Tumi Dharma
Tumi Hridi Tumi Marma
Twam Hi Pranah Sharira
Bahute Tumi Ma Shakti
Hrudaya Tumi Ma Bhakti
Tomarayi Pratima Gadi Mandire Mandire

Twam Hi Durga Dashapraharana Dharini
Kamala Kamala Dala Viharini
Vani Vidyadayini Namami Twam
Namami Kamalam Amalam Atulam
Sujalam Suphalam Mataram,
Vande Mataram
Shyamalam Saralam Susmitam Bhushitham
Dharanim Bharanim Mataram!

******
I offer my salute to the song that moved millions.
*****

Little children singing

...God Delights to Hear

It is my third year into my interaction with a bunch of these little chirpy children at the Aksharabhyas every Saturday. And what a divine experience it has been. I remember hearing them for the first time. They were quietly sitting and singing some bhajan and the mood was elevating. Soon after they broke into a dance and action to sing their favourite bhajan 'Thondhi Ganapathi Va Va Va,' in Tamil and with greater action in Hindi, 'Kha the bhi Ram Kaho...Peethe bhi Ram Kaho...' sitting, standing, turning around with several histrionics combined. When they began dancing, the whole dynamics of the energy in the room changed and I could feel a different presence, a different vibration dancing through the room.
And these young children are so quick to understand too. When we sing, "Bham Bham Bhola,' I will ask, "Where is Shiva? Is he in the Himalayas? In Mount Kailash, doing Tapas?" They will not take a moment to reply - "No....Inside us."
The same is the reply for what ever I ask them. They never make a mistake in that...god is everywhere, god is here, god is there, god is outside and most importantly god is inside.
Contemplating on the word Aksharabhyas, I found that Akshara is a group of letters beginning with A and ending with Ksha. It also means the soul...that which is beyond destruction. That Akshara, is the word of God. And Abhyas is to practice again and again and again. Practice is required because in case of an emergency, the knowledge has to happen in an instant. And preparation for war has to happen during times of peace. And the times of crisis where the divine word has to be called for armour and weapons is the war here. And practice for that ushering has to happen during times of peace...that is when there is no crisis, no troubles and no problems in life...exactly at the time of life that these children are in - growing from bliss to bliss.

The Freedom...

...of Consciousness

I am breaking a long period of self-imposed silence on my blog on this Independence Day when, happy or not, there seems to be a smile on people's faces that I see, wearing the tri-colour badge, hoisting flags or just enjoying a national holiday.
August 15, 1947 is Independence Day indeed. But that is only one facet of Independence we are talking about. Political independence, from the British Rule when symbolically, the Union Jack went down and the tri-colour of Sanyas, Peace and Prosperity, with the wheel of Dharma representing the core values of India, fluttered in the night air, 59 years ago.
But is that all. Indeed not. If we are talking of a spiritual emanicipation, a freedom of the mind, then India has never been in bondage. She has lost small battles, but has eventually won the war of life.
And India I speak of here is not a country with geographical boundaries and physical features, but a state of mind. But this knowledge of what is true freedom, the experience of what it means to be free...still is contained in the hearts of a miniscule per cent of the population. Even though they are expressing themselves, the sleeping hordes, ruled by Tamas is unable to open its eyes and receive the truth.
It is when it becomes the knowledge and the reality of the masses, whether in Chandigarh or Chennai, Mumbai or Madurai, Kashmir or Kanyakumari, when people walk on the roads conscious of their true self, when they talk to each other in the spirit of 'Tat Twam Asi,' in the awareness that matter is just condensed Consciousness, the truth of their being sons of the soil - a drop of that nectar - Amritasya Putraha...till that time comes, the struggle for the real freedom will continue...

Guru

...Paduka

Anantha Samsara Samudra Tara

Naukayitabhyam Guru Bhakthidabhyam

Vairagya Samrajyatha Pujanabhyam

Namo Namah Shri Guru Padukabhyam.

One of the most beautiful eight verses of the Guru Paduka Stotram (Praise of the feet of the Guru) that has inspired and continues to inspire me. Sung in lilting chants, the verses never fail to transport one to the essence of the word Guru. Gu - Darkness and Ru one who dispels it. Guru also means something that is very heavy.

The essence of the eight verses means I worship the feet of the Guru that sails me through the ocean of Sansara as if in a boat.

When I wondered about the words. 'Guru's Feet,' while chanting the most powerful mantras of the Guru Puja, I realised that feet are not exactly the to parts of the body that touch the ground. They are indeed the bearers of the whole being of the Guru, rooting his body and mind that travels aloft in inter-galactic space, down on the earth so we may be able to perceive them with our earthly senses.

There is no darkness if there is no light too. So what darkness does the Guru dispel. The darkness of misconception that everything is divided and separate - the cause for all the illusion, confusion, desparation, boredom, failure, depression or anything that drags us down.

When there are moments I have gone through all these kinds of degrading emotions, I discovered that all I have to do is chant the name of my Guru, breathe in deeply, letting the breath pierce through the conflicting mind and touch the ocean of stillness not so deep within.

And so life goes on....

Happy....

...birthday Swamiji

For those who have been following my blog since its birth in April 2005 might have noticed the metamorphosis of the title from Aham to Aksharoham to Akshara now. A reader asked me if it refers to Swami Akshara. Indeed it does and I am today happy to join many, many others like me in celebrating his birthday to follow in another hour on June 12.
I invite the readers today to go back to my post on June 12 last year as I present to you a poem I wrote on my Guru, Swami Akshara in January 2004 as my offering for his birthday.

Namaste

"Namaste," he will welcome,
With eyes sparkling without
And placid compassion deep within
His gaze will draw you with reverence
Into the silence that's his home eternal
Swami Akshara they call him
But for many earthlings like me
Gathered around this radiant sun
Swamiji he is, who dispels all darkness.
Like a rock in the sculptor's hand
With just a tiny chisel - working miracles
We find ourselves getting transformed
With his gentle touch from space afar.
"Expand," he would shout
When we go with a mind so shrunken
"Withdraw," he would command
When restless, we want to overdo.
Sometimes it is a pat on the back
And at other times, a rap on the knuckles
But with whatever Swamiji does or says
It's from his love for our tiny selves.

When we laugh, he laughs with us
And in distress, you can trust he's just around
But once caught in his net of love
There's no escape for
He says, "I am with you."
From empty space came he
This Akshara, the invincible emptiness
The nothing that's everything
Is in human form for us to touch and see.
"Look at the space beyond
But don't forget that tiny flower beneath
In everything lies the divine
In all that you see and cannot too."
This is all he says

Through many a talk

And by the thousands they wait

To hear the speech of silence

Many call him a Sathguru

"But I'm Guru to none," says he.

And this infinity walks in flesh and blood

To unite the space across minds.

Some see him as Sankara

For some, he's Christ in form

But Wahe Guru or Allah

The source is one, says he.

His form is Satchitananda

But he can touch you like the wind

Like the rays of the summer sun

The conflicting mind scoots at the thought of him.

To those who close their eyes

He says, "Open and see the divine."

For others who never could shut them

He says, "Sit and feel him within."

My Guru Akshara has a way for each

He plays with us and dines too

But watch out he will not spare

Till the light eternal you do become.

- Swahilya

The battle...

...of the sexes

I really wanted to find a beautiful picture to match this post which is a request from Robbie, and thought this was the best!
When we talk of the male and the female sex, it is not even at the level of the mind, leave alone the soul, which is neither male nor female, tall nor short, good nor bad, but one homogenous matrix that is present in everything and everywhere.
The battle if any is just at the physical level and the gross mind, very close to the body level of thinking.
And what we think is a battle, is indeed not so too. It is a struggle for evolution. And evolution, growth and progress can happen only when there is a challenge to the present conditions. Speaking from my own experience, I have heard people complain: Oh what womanhood, so many trials and tribulations, so many people to answer to, so much to bear with resilience and silence..." But any amount of withstanding of challenges thrown at you from whatever direction is to strengthen one's own experience to get back to the now. And whoever has the most of it, is indeed fortunate.

And it ought to be a battle of the sexes, because that is the major factor separating human from human, besides many other smaller or bigger factors such as caste, language, religion or nationality.
When the point of view shifts to the physical, the gross mind, the battle is bound to be. But when the focus shifts to the consciousness within, then there is no battle. If any wound is inflicted upon, it is for one's own growth, one's own progress. How else is one to realise the sad state of affairs one has been caught in. If there is no fight, there is no struggle, there is no pain, there is no existence.
The battle of the sexes, is the very essence of Sansar which has to be observed and transcended. It is inevitable. It is necessary, if the world has to turn round and round.

Swahilya's

....Kutir

I am aware my blog has been stagnating since Tamil New Year, when I posted 'An Ode to Akshara Griha.' Well, the reason for this delay is 'Swahilya's Kutir.' In the heart of the bustling city of Chennai, in a corner space is this little kutir that I stay, colourful screens constantly fluttering in the wind, wind chimes, chirping music by the birds and squeaking squirrels, breaking the silence surrounding the solitude.
'Ashram' is a place where one just comes, to relax, let the agitations of body and mind settle down, get refreshed and rejuvenated and get charged to face the world with more and more of divine inspiration. It was my wish that I should stay in an ashram - and that has now happened in a very small place, just where I stay, an ashram in miniature model.
This is a place where the old meets the new, the most ancient building space, named Gitalaya, because the owners were brought up on the Bhagavad Gita, built during the year of Indian Independence. Modern with the use of simple gadgets that help in the fast-paced lifestyle.
Symbolic of all that meditation is all about, being rooted and at the same time expressing as the most freshest of flowers and leaves, branching out into space. It is a blending of Sansar and Sanyas, almost at the threshold, where the hectic work of family and office go on side by side with the silence of travelling inward into my own self.

And there's just one thing left with me to offer at the end of it all, myself with gratitude.

*****

An ode to...

Akshara Griha

Akshara Griha was the name I gave my house, which came to me by nothing other than sheer grace. It was when I needed a piece of land to call my own, I searched and then sat down, giving up everything and surrendering. The house that was waiting two years unoccupied, happened like a miracle, through random casual conversations, in just a week's time.

But the moment I stepped in, the beauty with which pictures, photographs and statues and pieces of art and material use found their place, showed to me the conscious presence of the all within four walls.

It was a conscious entity by itself, I saw. It had its period of cacophony and eutrophy and abundant moments of symphony and order, following a conscious pattern. There were times when I went far, far away from my home only to return and find that the moment I step in, I feel quiet, meditative, peaceful, the undescribable presence filling me up.

Letting open the door facing east brought in a piece of the Universe every morning and how many an opportunity to realise the divine presence has the door lens, the boiling tea in the kitchen, the lamps and incense in the meditation space, the soft winds from the living room, the hot water from the geyser, the synchrony of space and matter in the walls and the self-tidying process of nature in the sleeping room, the calling bell which sings Om Namah Shivaya, Jai Jai Ram Jai Shri Ram and the Gayatri Mantra, has never failed to let me know who is it that knocks at the door.

Today, I had to move out of that place to another place in my city and I find it is the same space, the same music, the same synchrony, the same silence and in fact, more and more of it. My journey through time and space continues and Akshara Griha was an important milestone.

What is...

...and should be

The past two days my mind was tossed about with a Hamletian confusion of a different kind - it was not thankfully a question of 'To be or not to be,' but between 'What is and what should be.'
Though in reality I know that everything is one spiritual essence, there is always a nagging botheration of missing something dear in space and time.
I put it across to my Guru, Swami Akshara, when he happened to make a rare appearance on my chat box as he does to many a disciple. It was one of the most liberating Satsanghs I had when his reply to my expressions of a confusion led me to a confluence in the end.
Those words which I noted down, I have etched them and have his permission to share it with you: "The distance between 'what is' and 'what should be' is the cause for all misery. That's called 'Bondage.' And freedom from that is known as 'Liberation.' What is' = Present. 'What Should be' = Future. 'What should have been' = Past. People get trapped in the last two, mostly.
'What should be' leads to anxieties and fantasies. 'What should have been' leads to regrets. And 'What is' leads to truth, fulfilment. The mind is denying the present and seeking the absent."
Even as I was reading them, I watched how my mind tried to escape into the future of what should be, or in the past of what was once and how it wouldn't sit now in the present moment.
It was a liberating revelation.

Presence...

...Experience

These last few days have been a glimpst of the experience of uninterrupted presence in my life. While practising Yoga, I saw that the moving of the body is to experience the presence outside as much as I can stretch and bend. Pranayama is to experience the presence within, through the air we breathe and finding out where the air stops and gets back. Knowledge is to study the presence of the divine in the space within the mind. Nada Yoga is to see and experience the presence in the silence at the end of and through every sound. That silence and space is a holder for the presence.
Everything holds the presence. The presence holds everything in it. It doesn't matter if we win or lose, slip and fall and rise again, the presence is always there and the same. Just experiencing, like these trees.

Mouna Guru...

...Dakshinamoorthy

It was in the stillness of this lake
In a remote verdant village called Kattupalli
Off the hustle and bustle of industrial north Madras
I discovered the Lord of Silence
Mouna Guru Dakshinamoorthy
Seated quietly in meditation
This village faced several threats
Its ecosystems were gearing
To get absorbed into petrochemical "parks"
But the media intervened in time
And the scientists, environmentalists
Stakeholders and many others followed
The project was shelved
But the threat is still there
The threat, that the stillness
Quietitude and meditation
Of this beautiful village
Will soon be robbed, looms large
It is my dream
That here should happen
An ecological park and bio-research station
To cater to the need of students and scientists
And for those like me who
Touch and feel silence
A beautiful Ashram
Where there is space and time
For meditation and silence.

- Swahilya.

Maha...

...Shivaratri

The time has come
To meditate upon the formless
Called by many with many names
God, Energy, Being, Self,
Allah, Christ, Omkar or Shiva
Silence, Nothing, Everything,
Zen and the Tao
The cosmic one that manifests as many
Many forms and names
All of the one essence
Whose presence they say
Will be felt in abundance
On the Mahashivaratri
The day of penance for the Yogis
To celebrate the day of the
Lord of the Yogis
Shiva, they call him
The planets aligned so
To keep the spine erect
All night from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Seated in meditation, chanting or singing
Doing nothing, but just remember the presence
It is no new presence or happening
But a conducive atmosphere
To experience the one
That is already within
Dormant and unnoticed.

- Swahilya

Love...

...is like a garden

To love is like
Tending a garden
Tilling the soil
Pouring in the required
Water for the moisture
Allowing sunlight
And fresh air
The love just remains
But there is also a love
Where one merges
With the Universe
There no tilling
Nurturing
Nor nourishing
Is required
And in this love
There are not just gardens
But whole lush forests
With all the beautiful animals
The giant mountains
The flowing rivers
Rushing cataracts
Wide oceans and placid lakes
Green fields dancing in the breeze
All beneath the roof of
A beautiful sky
Bedecked with the sun and moon
And all those stars
The love of abandon
Is as wide and deep
Infinite and eternal
As the Universe.

- Swahilya

Nadopasana...

....surrounded by a world of music

As music closes in on me
Listening to chants of Shiva
And my most favourite bhajan
Gourangu Ardhangu Gangatharange
Again and again on my walkman
As I drive through the four directions
Of this lively city
I see that music is a zone of subtle vibrations
That lies deep deep within my being
Listening or singing connects me
The height of the body is just
Five feet plus
But the mind's height has no expanse
It is infinite
And music keeps me united ever
With that eternity.
Feet on the ground
Yet mind in the high zones
Of silence and bliss
I move on and on.
- Swahilya

The test...

....of truth

My blog is the first thing on my mind
Whenever I think about writing
But getting the time to sit quietly
To simply write what I feel
Is getting rare as I spin
Around the city from morning to night
When my mind gets full of things to do
I can almost see its fabric being stretched
Breaking into splinters
Then I remind myself
Lots of things to be done
That's alright
The problem is when I am planning
For the next moment
So I am practising the art
Of living in this moment
Living it the best
That will be the greatest achievement
And the rest shall take care of itself
In this way I am enjoying what I do
As I did this drama
Of Raja Harishchandra
Staged by the boys
Of the Sri Ramakrishna Students' Home
The story of the king
Who stood for truth
At the cost of his kingdom
His child, his wife, his everything
The little children acted
Yet their voices had the ring of truth
That sent my energy surging through
As I watched the, I was being in that Truth.
- Swahilya

Meera...

and her Krishna

This Krishna was a gift
From my Guru
To Ojasvin, my son
Who also made a golden cap
And painted it blue
To crown his peacock feathered head
There was another gift from me
To my other son, Omjasvin
She was a beautiful Meera
With her tampura
In ecstatic meditation
Whenever I dusted the shelves
And rearranged the conscious dolls
Meera would find her place
Near her Krishna
Once when we shifted homes
The Krishna was intact
But the Meera was broken
Yet, not having the mind
To cast her to the dust bin
I put her on the kitchen shelf
There the broken and shattered
Meera, sits alone in Tapas
This time around
She did not insist on
A seat next to Krishna
I clicked her too
For this post
But some how
An error deleted her
Methinks, she has lost her self
And merged into her beloved Lord
And is no longer a separate Meera
But just Krishna alone.

- Swahilya

The Yogi...

...and the dancer

He is the Lord of Space
Seated in the realms of Silence
He is my guardian deity
Shiva he is called by many
But all names and forms
Belong just to him
The formless too is he
When he sits
He is a picture of bliss
But when he lets go
Even of his sitting
And begins to dance
The dance of ecstasy
Beating at his little damaru
It is the dance of liberation
It is the dance of the Universe
When Destruction, Creation and Preservation
Follow one after another
Ever changing, ever blissful.
He is the form of the formless
He is the everything
Born out of nothing.
He is Space.
He is Silence.
He is the Dancer
and the Dancing
And the Dance
He is Nataraja
He is Shambho
He is Mahadeva
He is Shiva.
And his abode
Is in a tiny cave
Within my heart.

- Swahilya.

Thank you...

....for the restful night

When darkness appears
Moving away from light
It's a glorious time indeed
When all activities quieten down
The senses withdraw
And sleep blooms
In the silence of night
Preparing the soul
For yet another blossom
Welcoming the cheerful
Face of the morning sun
Yet one more time.

Flowers...

... of the soul


As I wait for the flower to bloom on this screen
These few words I type
The essence of the plant
That lay embedded within
For millions and millions of years
Expresses as a flower.

The soul of the human
Lies deep deep within
Finding expression
One here, one there
Over many lifetimes

There is yet a time to come
When blooms of consciousness
Will smile all over this beautiful Earth
And a time when all we can see
Is love, laughter and light.

The time will come
Just like this flower
That was hidden within
And smiles from nowhere.
- Swahilya.

Contemplations...

....above the clouds

The plane was up in the saphire blue sky
Spreading over like a silky canopy
The sun was shining bright
Illuminating an ocean of fluffy clouds beneath
A perfect example of the world of Maya
Now here, now there, but not anywhere
Appears as if it is
But in fact is not
Yet a beautiful to meet the eye
There is bliss, joy and light above
But just below
The clouds form a thick roof
Shutting out the light of the sun
Smothering the Earth in darkness
Dull and gloomy on the other end
Bright and sunny above
It is just about letting in light
Or shutting it out.

- Swahilya.

Some paintings....

....to ponder while I get back home

There are quite a lot of them here, just filling up with the joy of colours as I will be away from the computer for the next three days from tomorrow.
I enjoyed my stay in the United States and conversations with my blog friends.
1. A friend Rugma painted this while I was painting in meditation.
2. Painting of what my Guru, Swami Akshara once took out a paper and drew.
3. A vision of what I once saw when I looked into my bike's rearview mirror - I am That.
4. Shiva, the Lord of Yoga.
5. The crown chakra - Sahasrara.
6. Aagnya, the chakra between the eyebrows.
7. Vishuddhi - The energy centre at the throat.
8. Anahata - The heart centre.
9. Manipura: Fire centre in the navel
10. Swadhishtana: One's own seat of energy
11. Muladhara: Where one's roots are located
12. The Om in the end is hand-drawn out of blood that spilt
following a minor injury! My painter's mind saw it as yet another colour,
immediately reached out for a paper and painted it with the tip of my finger.

'Monkeys...

...live in Yoga."

It is indeed the grace and blessings of Hanuman, the Monkey God of India, who has given me this beautiful opportunity to write about him, following my comment, 'Monkeys live in Yoga,' in a post at Warrior Geezer.
When I said, I would write on this, little did I realise that I would post this beautiful picture of Hanuman in meditation as Yoga Anjaneya (he is called Anjaneya as he was the son of Anjana Devi) and Rishab or Nandi the divine bull, who is considered by some as a manifestation of Hanuman. And all this is so beautifully happening at a time when people in India are now celebrating Hanuman Jayanthi, the birth of Hanuman.
When I said, 'Monkeys live in Yoga,' I meant not just monkeys, but all forms of animal, plant and everything else about the Universe is existing in meditation. There is a beautiful line in Sanskrit, Dhyayativa Prithvi, Dhyayativa Parvataha, Dhyayativa Sagaraha,' which means, 'It is as if the Earth is in Meditation, the mountains are in meditation and the oceans are in meditation.' In just the same way monkeys are in meditation. Living in Yoga, is living in total union with the cosmic energy and everything that moves or stays in this Universe is living in Yoga, even the human mind. The difference lies in just the Awareness of one's existence in meditation.
When I say monkeys live in Yoga, I mean, a monkey eats when it wants to eat, sleeps when it wants to sleep, jumps when it wants to jump or just do as it pleases and that's just what it is designed for - nothing more nothing less.
It is seeing monkeys, crocodiles, snakes, cats, dogs, cranes and peacocks that the Yogis and masters of various martial arts devised bodily poses and methods of breathing that goes into the vast body of literature and practice of Hatha Yoga and Pranayama. They don't need to practice Yoga, because they are already living it. It is human beings who have to practice Yoga, observing and learning from the Universe as they have the equipment called mind, which has evolved out of the animal existence, which is invisible and hence not known and understood.
When the highest principle of the divine consciousness manifests in animals, they become self-realised souls, transcending even the human mind and examples of such beings that are venerated and worshipped till date are Hanuman and Nandi.
A compilation of discourses of my Guru, Swami Akshara on the qualities of the Hanuman mind, is published as a book called, 'Hanuman The Hero In You,' by the Akshara Foundations. It is a wonderful book to read, unfolding the positive qualities that becomes of a mind, which does not spring at the outside world, but is quiet and turned to the eternal inner silence of the soul. The power of Hanuman and Nandi can be might, when expressed, but in quiet composure the mind is a great reservoir of energy when it is merged with the soul.
In the words of Sri Aurobindo, All Life is Yoga. Everything is happening in tune with the flow of cosmic energies, but our individual life is able to experience that flow only when it is aware of the flow and not fighting against it.

Om Agni...

...Swaha-a

I thank George Breed for sending me back to a subject of meditation - talking about a part of myself which gave me this name from my Guru, Swami Akshara. I just browsed through various sites searching for the name Swaha. They all speak of the same mythological story of the celestial nymph who is also the daughter of Daksha, who became immortal when she married Brahma's eldest son Agni. They also say that Skanda, the Hindu war deity is her son.
Swa-ha - also means 'I offer.' Swaha is the feminine shakti or energy of Agni, the god of fire, who manifests as the sun in space, lightning in the sky and fire on earth. Her nature is to absorb negativities and purify. In Yagnyas of oblations and offerings of all kinds - cloths, cereals, grains, fruits, flowers and also prayers, made to fire created in a pit called 'Homa Kund' amid sacred chants of Mantras, end each time with 'Swaha-a'. It requires the feminine energy of love and compassion to decimate the gross offerings into the fire, convert them into subtle vibrations that will unite the one who offers to the Universe to which it is being offered. Just as heat converts water into vapour, Swaha makes the gross offerings and turns them into subtle foods fit for consumption of the gods. She is the silent being that connects the gross world of matter to the subtle world of the spirit.
The mantras to all gods - like Om Vada Vada Vakvadinyai Namah Swaha - to Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning, Om Namo Bhagavate Dhanvantraye Amrutakalasha Hasthaya Sarvamaya Vinashanaya Trailokya Nathaya Vishnave Swaha," to Dhanvantri, an avatar of Vishnu and the Lord of Medicine, many mantras from the Upanishads - they end with Swaha, who takes the chants to the gods decimating them into subtle vibrations.
But just pronouncing the name 'Swa-ha' as a chant, contains in it tremendous energy, opening the channels that connect the mind to the cosmos.

The tree

...and the sky

Trees are poems

That God paints

On the Sky

Said a great soul

I see them trees

Taking from the Earth

Growing in Greatness

And offering what they have

With arms thrown wide

Into the vast sky

Beneath the smiling Sun.

- Swahilya.

Happy...

...New Year

When sparkling electric lights
Pines and red ribbons decorate homes
And massive, colourful pyrotechnics
Go up into the black night sky over Chicago
I celebrate this new year with
Millions and millions and millions
Of people around the world
My prayer is to
Experience the newness
Of a life lived
Moment to moment
Breath by breath
Step by Step
A life of Awareness
Asatoma Sadgamaya
May I always move from
The transient untruth
To the Ever permanent
Indestructible Truth
Tamasorma Jyotirgamaya
From darkess
Into the light of Consciousness
Mrityorma Amritam Gamaya
From the ignorance in mortality
To the Wisdom of my Immortal Being
May I Live
Now, just this moment
No past, no future
But just now in Eternity
Fully as the Universe.

- Swahilya.