The
mind has been under the influence of maya
since eternity, hence it is impure. Humbly shed tears of selfless love in the separation
from Shree Krishna, and in this way wash the dirt of the mind and make it pure.
***********
Have
a firm understanding in your intellect that there is no joy or sorrow in this
world. When you think that worldly objects are the source of happiness, then in
their absence, you will feel sad. Accept this fact that there is no real
happiness in the world.*************
Charity is good for the soul. By donating some
of your wealth you lessen your worldly attachments, thereby taking the
essential step towards increasing your attachment to God.
***********
The worthiest and noblest of all recipients
is a Divine personality, a Saint, a true Guru.
When you donate to Him, you take giant steps towards getting closer to
God. He has nothing to give you but love for God. Thus, you, the giver, are not
really the donor, but the recipient.
***********
In Bhagavad
Gita, the primary message is "Do
your duty in the world, but keep your mind attached to Shree Krishna." The mind
should be constantly thinking about God while performing worldly duties.
***********
Just
as we keep the mind detached from most of the work we perform, in the same way
we keep it detached from most individuals of the world. The attachment of our mind is reserved only
for a handful of people such as our parents, children, husband, wife, brothers,
sisters, and so on. With the rest of the
world, we only behave politely. Now if
we sever the attachment with even these few people, there will be no difficulty
for us in attaining God.
***********
|
Announcements
Swamiji USA Tour 2010
Devotees from USA will love this exciting news item! Swami Mukundananda's USA Tour 2010 planning has started.
Along
with enlightening lectures, the program offers Yoga and Meditation
sessions to provide a holistic treat for body, mind, and soul.
The
tour starts with East Coast programs from the first week of May
and will continue through October, covering most of the major cities
across USA.
Featured Video
Spirituality for Managers
Swamiji was invited to IIM, Kolkata to speak on the subject of "Spirituality
for Managers", on the occasion of the silver jubilee reunion of the alumni association.
Click here to view lecture
|
Upcoming Events
Swamiji's Delhi Tour
Patel Nagar, New Delhi March 8th - 14th
IP Extention, Delhi March 16th - 24th
Ashok Vihar, New Delhi March 26th
Vikas Puri March 27th - April 5th
Haridwar Sadhana Shivir April 23rd - 25th
|
Current News
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Stay Connected
Check out the latest lectures, yoga and meditation videos, bhajans, subtle body
relaxation and much more on our YouTube channel!
|
The Editor Jagadguru Kripalu Yog
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| |
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Welcome to the Jagadguru Kripalu Yog e-Magazine |
Who Am I ? by Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj
Continuing from the previous article...
The consciousness within the individual soul has been provided by God. The individual soul is always connected to God.
nityo
nityānāṁ chetanaśhchetanānāmeko bahoonāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān
tatkāraṇaṁ
sāṁkhyayogādhigamyaṁ jñātvā devaṁ muchyate sarvapāśhaiḥ
The Vedas declare that it is
God Himself who gives consciousness to all living beings. Moreover, God is the one who powers the intellect.
The Upanishads reiterate
this message. God empowers the sense organs, the
mind and the intellect. Equipped with
God's power, these three faculties perform their respective functions.
The Vedas say that there are
two kinds of doers. One is the Prayojya Karta (actual doer) and the other is the Prayojak Karta
(motivating doer). God is the motivator,
and the individual being is the actual doer.
In other words, God gives power to the senses, mind and intellect to
perform actions. But what use will the
individual make of that power?
svatantraḥ
kriyamāṇe vai kṛito bhagavatā vidā
The individual soul
possesses a certain degree of freedom; it is free to perform actions. God has
given us powers. However, there are limitations on these powers. He does not disturb us as we perform actions, nor does He
disclose that He is observing us and making notes of these actions. Had the Vedas not told us this truth, we would
never have found out!
We are free to use our
senses, mind and intellect in the right direction or in the wrong
one. So, when it is said that God is the doer, it
means that He has given us the power.
How can we think or act if He does not provide us with the power
to do so? Since we are the actual "doers", we are also punished
at times for our sinful deeds.
Let us now examine the third
difference between God and the individual soul.
God is Omnipotent; He has all powers, and the individual soul has very
few. There are hundreds of such
differences between Him and the soul.
It is true that there is no
difference between the individual soul and God, and it is also true that there
are differences between them. This is
the marginal characteristic. Why is it
called the marginal power? One of God's own
powers is the individual soul. Two are
two more powers: one is para shakti,
and another one is maya shakti. In between these two is the individual soul.
We have already learnt earlier that para
shakti is also known as svaroop
shakti or yogmaya shakti.
The individual soul, which
is conscious, cannot be a part of maya,
which is devoid of consciousness. Thus,
the individual soul is neither a part of maya
shakti, nor is it a part of svaroop
shakti. It is between both these
powers, like trishanku. This is why it is called tatastha shakti, i.e. Marginal power.
This is better understood
with a real-life example. The river has
a 'tat', i.e. riverbank. The shoreline has water as well as a part of
the earth. You can give it both
names. Let us define a shoreline. It is
the final limit of land which contains both earth and water. At the same time, it is separate from both
earth and water. So, the soul is not
like God who is the all-witnessing, all-controlling, all-governing, all-loving,
all-powerful and almighty Lord. He has unlimited
consciousness. The individual soul is
not the same, and this means that it is not a part of para shakti. And maya is devoid of consciousness, and the
individual soul is conscious. This means
that it is not a part of maya.
mamaivānśho
jīvaloke jīvabhootaḥ sanātanaḥ
The
Geeta says that the soul is a fraction of God.
The Bhagavad Geeta also says
-
gatirbhartā
prabhuḥ sākṣhī nivāsaḥ śharaṇaṁ suhṛit
The Geeta says that God is
our 'everything'. This is why we are His
fractions.
The Ramayan also says the
same. Why is the individual soul called
a fraction? Fraction means a piece. Let us take a cloth and
rip it up. What we get is a piece of that cloth. Now, can
God be divided into pieces? Can anyone in the world prove that
God is
divisible?
How can God be divided? It would mean that God is limited. God cannot be divided. He is called 'Akhand'. He is
indivisible. Every saint has said that
God cannot be divided. The individual
soul is not a piece of God. If it were,
it would not be eternal. It would mean
that it became a piece of God one day.
Moreover, the Vedas say that God is indivisible; this is a definition of
God. Therefore, there is no question of
the individual soul being a piece of God.
Then, what is it?
shaktitatve
naivāṁśhatvaṁ vyaṁjayati
It is a power of God. Jeev Shakti. A Power called jeev, individual soul. This
is why it is called a fraction. It is
called a fraction from the point of view of being a power, not a piece. If the soul were a piece of God, it would be
just like God. Drink ten glasses of
nectar or a little drop; you will surely attain the benefits of drinking nectar. If we were direct pieces of God, we would
have in our possession the bliss and knowledge that God has. We would then have all the properties that
God possesses. What difference does it
make whether a touchstone weighs twenty pounds or ten grams? As long as the
touchstone makes contact with iron, it will surely turn into gold.
So, it is from the point of
view of being a power of God that we are called fractions of God.
You can refer to the soul as
a fraction of God, or a power of God.
The question is, why is it called as a marginal power of God? Where does this power live? Because, para
shakti lives inside of God. And maya is the external power, which lives
outside of God. No, that is not true. None of God's powers can live outside of
God. No power can live outside of the
powerful. What power does fire
have? It has the power to burn and to
enlighten. Now, try to remove this
property away from fire. Try taking the
power of enlightening out of fire.
Impossible; you would not be able to do it. Both these powers will always be inside
fire. The power of burning cannot do its
work when it is separated from fire. In
the same way, no power of God can live outside of God. Not even maya. But maya
has created such a big world. What power
does maya, devoid of consciousness,
have?
jāsu
satyatā te jaṛa māya
It is the power of God that
is making maya do all this work. What power is that? The same svaroop
shakti, para shakti, chit shakti; it has many names. God makes maya
work on the strength of para shakti.
Thus, God makes maya work with the strength of para shakti. And that is the reason why, there is no person,
no yogi, no ascetic in countless universes who has ever, or who will ever be
able to defeat maya. Why?
Because, maya is governed by para shakti. Only the one who can defeat para shakti, can defeat maya.
Now, who except for God, can anyone defeat para shakti? This is why the
condition -
māmeva
ye prapadyante māyāmetāṁ taranti te
The Bhagavat says that it is
only with God's grace that one can gain freedom from maya. Without His grace, the
ones who attain knowledge of the 'self', even they fall. Maya shakti
belongs to God. God says very cleverly
to Arjun,
daivī hyeṣhā guṇamayī
"This maya,
with the three modes, is Divine, it is very powerful." Arjun says, "So what! If maya
is strong, I am also in possession of the Gandeeva bow." God says, "Mama maya," i.e. "My maya."
Jagadguru Kripaluji Maharaj
says, if it is 'Yours' (God), only 'You' can defeat it. No one is powerful enough to defeat maya.
If someone has defeated maya,
he has defeated 'You'. Then what else is
left to do? There have been many demons
who have ruled over the three universes, they, who could imprison Indra and made
even Brahma run for help. But even they
could not defeat maya.
So, the external power, maya is governed by God's svaroop shakti or yogmaya, and empowered by svaroop
shakti, this world is created by maya. This is the reason why maya has full control of the individual soul. It is svaroopavarika
maya. There are two kinds of maya:
gunavarika maya and svaroopavarika maya. Both are governed by God's yogmaya.
All powers of God live inside of God.
Conclusion: maya shakti
lives inside of God, as do jeev shakti
and para shakti. But neither maya shakti nor jeev shakti
are in touch with God. Only para shakti is. That is the only difference. Maya
lives in God, but is separate from God.
The individual soul lives inside of God, but is separate from God. Only svaroop
shakti is the power that is always connected to God.
So, the natural
characteristic of the soul is that it is a marginal power of God. There is a
difference, as well as non-difference between God and the individual soul. The marginal characteristic of the individual
soul is that it is an eternal servant of God. |
Secrets of Spiritual Sadhana by Swami Mukundananda
Continuing from the last month...
These are the next lines of the series "Sadhana Karu Pyare".
dhyān binu sab sādhanā hai, prāṇ binu tanu pyāre
man ko jo bhāye banā lo, roop vaisā pyāre
sāmane hari ko biṭhā kar, sādhanā karu pyāre
How do we meditate upon God? We have two options. Devotees are of two types - one who loves God
in His formless aspect and the other who loves God in His personal form. If we love God in His formless aspect, the
affinity and closeness with God is lost because you would never be able see
your Beloved, massage His lotus feet, fan Him, nor be able to serve Him. You would
only try to concentrate on some source of light. It is not possible to experience the sweet Divine
nectar, which one can get from His personal form. Even the devotees of the formless aspect very
naturally take the support of a personal form of God in their meditation.
Members of 'Arya
Samaj' strongly believe that God does not exist in His personal form, but they
have a photo of Swami Dayanand Saraswati in their homes. Swami Vivekananda was a
great devotee of Maa Kali, and
preached throughout India.
On one of his tours, he stayed at the
palace of the king of Alwar in Rajasthan. The king was a member of 'Arya Samaj', and was completely
against the personal form of God. He
started arguing with Swami Vivekananda that God does not have a personal form, it
is a misconception, and we just make idols of God.
Swami Vivekananda saw a big photo of Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the guru of
the king, hanging on the wall. He removed
the photo, threw it on the floor and placed his feet on it. The king was angry, and prepared to slap Swami
Vivekananda! Swamiji asked the king - "Why are you upset? You are against idol
worship. Then this photo is not your Guru. Your Guru is different; this is just a piece
of paper. By trampling the paper, I have
insulted Maa Saraswati, but that does
not mean you can slap me! You wanted to slap me because you see your Guruji's
presence in this photo. Hence, even you
are doing idol worship."
Which devotee does not perform idol worship?
Christians remember and pray using the holy cross. Allah is everywhere, yet Muslims turn to the west
to offer their daily namaaz (prayer).
Why is it so? They remember the kabbah,
which acts a point of holy reference. This
means even they engage in idol worship. Without the support of a form, it is not
possible to concentrate or fix the mind. If we remember the beautiful form of Shree
Krishna, His pastimes and His Divine abode as described in the scriptures, it
will be advantageous to us. This way, we
can take the support of His name, form, pastimes, virtues and abode.
A believer in the formless aspect of God can ask, "If
you imagine the personal form of God (in your mind), He is not the true
God. The true God is Divine and our mind is material.
With this mind, how can we meditate upon
God?" A worshipper of the personal form
of God answers, "People who believe in His formless aspect, concentrate
on a
source of light, which is also material by nature. It is not the
true light of Divine God. The human mind cannot reach the Divine
light
by itself."
go
gochar jahaṁ lagī man jāī, so sab māyā jānehu bhāī
Wherever
and whatever the mind thinks, it is related to this material world and God is
beyond the realm of matter.
rām svaroop tumhār vachan agochar buddhi par
God
is beyond human intellect. It does not matter if we worship Him in his
personal
form or His formless aspect, the human mind cannot meditate on the true
God. Then how can we attain our goal? God says, "Do
not to worry - I am causelessly merciful, whatever grace I have
bestowed upon you,
utilize it with care, then I will bestow more". God says, "Create
Divine feelings in your material
mind (Roop-dhyan). Just do that and I will provide the Divine energy
to your mind. With My Divine energy,
your material mind will become Divine.
In meditation
(Roop-dhyan), feelings are the most
important. Meditate on any form of God
you like. For example, some people like Shree
Krishna as a child, while others like Him in His adult form. We can find different deities of Jaganathji and Ganeshji, but it is not that only one particular form of the deity
will help us reach God and rest cannot help us reach Him. God always notes the sentiments and feeling
that we have in our heart.
na kāṣhṭhe vidyate devo na śhilāyāṁ na mṛitsu cha
bhāve hī vidyate devastasmāt bhāvaṁ samācharet
God only notes your feelings. Even if you meditate upon the black and round Shaligram with the true sentiments that it
is God, He will give you its Divine fruit. Shree Kripaluji
Maharaj says that it is very difficult to meditate in this material world
but there is nothing to worry. Shree Maharajji says, "Try to imagine your
father's face. You will not be able to
imagine the exact face, because you have never watched him so closely. Now, if you cannot imagine the exact face, it means
you are not able to picturize your father;
it is some other image. But God is
causelessly merciful. He accepts any face
you can imagine with your material mind. He says, "Just create Divine feelings and
sentiments. Try to develop your love for
Me. The rest is left to Guru and God. It is their duty to grace you with a Divine
mind and bestow Their Divine vision."
Hence, Shree Kripaluji Maharaj
tells us to first "picturize" God in front us and then meditate upon Him. Using our material mind, we must imagine God
to be in front of us, and only then start to meditate on His form, virtues,
pastimes and abodes.
param vyākulatā baṛhāo, hari
daras kī pyāre
What is the next step after meditating on God? We have now seated God in front of us, what next?
We must now build a yearning to see Him. When will I be able to hear His sweet voice?
When will I smell the fragrance that surrounds Him? When can I embrace Him? When
will I be able to relish his leftover food? Let your five senses become eager
to attain God. All the five senses are inclined towards the materialist world, maya. Now, if we divert these five
senses toward God, it is called bhakti.
After diverting your mind, increase the longing to meet God by a thousand
times. The intensity of the longing should reach such a level as described by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu:
yugāyataṁ
nimeṣheṇa chakṣhuśhā prāvṛiṣhāyitaṁ śhunyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ govinda viraheṇa
me
Who can teach the worship of Shree Krishna better than Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji, who is
another form of Shree Radhaji? He taught us how to increase the longing to
meet God. He stayed at Gambhira, a place
in Jagannath Puri for 18 years. For 6
years, he performed parikramas in
Puri, and undertook long padyatras to Vrindaban and South
India, and freely met people.
But in his last 12 years, Mahaprabhuji lived alone, relishing the
sentiment of separation from Shree Krishna. He says in his Shikshastak, "O Govind! I
have become so anxious for Your darshan
that without You, each moment seems like an eon. In separation, my heart melts
for You, and tears flow from my eyes. This
whole world is appearing void without You."
Using this as an inspiration, we must increase our longing
to meet God. This is the only way to
purify our heart. The gyani tell the bhakt,
"You need to leave your desires, but you are not able to do
so". But the devotee says that you do not
have to leave your desires. Instead, divert them towards God. If we
abandon the
desire to attain God, then our love for God will also come to an end.
The desire to attain God is not harmful. It is praiseworthy
and should be enhanced
manifold. Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says, "Divert
anger, greed and desire towards God and increase its intensity. The
more you
increase the intensity of these feelings towards God, the more your
heart is
purified."
yā anurāgī chit kī gati samujhai nahiṁ koy,
jyoṁ jyoṁ ḍoobai
śhyām rang tyoṁ tyoṁ ujjval hoy
When
the intensity of our love for God increases, the heart and the mind are enlightened.
They are purified. This is the reason why
God-realized Saints say :
he dev he dayita he bhuvanaika bandho, he Kṛiṣhṇa he chapala
he karuṇaika sindho
he nātha he ramaṇa he nayanābhirāma hā hā kadānubhavitāsi
padam drishor me
In
this verse, the devotee is expressing his intense yearning, "O God! When will I
be able to see You?"
What
is the criteria to judge if we are progressing in our devotion? The answer is that, we must note our love and longing
to meet God. More the longing, the
closer you are to your goal.
There was a Sufi saint
called Farid. When people asked him how
to reach God, he used to take them to the river and ask them to take a
bath. He then used to jump into the water along with
the other person. Faridji would then
forcefully immerse the other person's head into the water for about
half a
minute. The person would struggle, but
he would not release him. He would only
let him go after a minute. When the
person came out of the water, he would be highly relieved to breathe
fresh air. Faridji would ask, "What happened?" The
person would answer, "If you had kept me in the water for another
moment, I
would have suffocated and died." Faridji would say, "This is the
answer to your
question.""You
will be able see God when you feel that, without God's vision, your life airs
will leave your body." God and Guru are
waiting for you to reach this stage.
Jagadguru
Shree Kripaluji Maharaj has said:
darde dil itanā pasand āyā use,
ki maiṁne jab ki āh usane vāh ki
This
means, "My Divine Beloved liked the pain of separation so much, that when I
exclaimed "Aah!" (in separation) he appreciated, "Waah!" in satisfaction." Our heart and mind gets purified by this pain
of separation from God. In the last line
of our daily prayer, we say:
he jīvandhan! Ab to tumhāre
prem ke binā yaha jīvan mṛityu se bhī adhik bhayānak hai
This
means: "O My soul Beloved! Without Your
love, this life has become more horrifying than death."
Jagadguru
Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says that he knows we will not be able to develop such
deep sentiments in the beginning. But at
least we can do roop dhyan meditation.
With sincerity, we should pray to
increase our longing for God and make it our goal. |
Bal-Mukund Showcase
Bal-Mukund welcomes all contributions of
creative works from children in different areas including poetry, moral
stories, art work, etc. Their work may be show cased on the JKYog website.
Moral Story - Unity is Strength
Once upon a time, there lived a flock of doves that flew
from place to place in search of food. Their
king, a big, plump dove, led them. One
day, the flock had flown a long distance and all the birds were very
tired. The dove king encouraged them to
fly a little further since they had still not found anything to eat.
A
small dove flew ahead and found some rice scattered
beneath a banyan tree. Soon all the doves followed her there and began
to eat. As they were pecking the grain contentedly, a
net fell over them suddenly, and they were all trapped. The doves
desperately fluttered their wings and struggled to get out,
but it was of no use. The strong strings
of the net had them well and truly trapped.
Then the dove king had an idea. He told all the the doves to fly up together
at once, thus ligting the net along with them. "None of us can free ourselves
from this net alone." He said, "but if we are united, our strength will help
set us free. Let us cooperate with each
other."
The doves immediately obeyed their king. Each dove picked up a small portion of the
net and the entire flock soared into the sky, carrying the net with them.
The hunter locked up in astonishment as he saw his net rise
into the air with the flock of doves. He
waved his club and tried to run behind them, but the birds soon soared out of
sight. They flew high over rivers and
valleys till they come to a hill near a city of temples. It was the home of a mouse who was a faithful
friend of the dove king. The king was
sure that his friend would help him.
When the mouse heard the loud noise made by the approaching
doves, he hid in alarm. The dove king
called out to him gently, and the mouse peered out of his hole cautiously.
"We have been trapped in the folds of this strong net," the
dove king explained, "and you are the only one who can set us free by gnawing
the net with your sharp teeth. Please
help us, dear friend!"
"I'll be glad to help you." Said the mouse, "and I shall
set you free first, noble king."
"No!" said the dove king with a shake of his head. "You
must free my subjects first!"
The mouse looked at the gracious dove king admiringly and
nodded. Then he began to gnaw the net.
Soon all the doves were freed and as they soared into the sky behind
their king, they praised his wisdom and generosity. He had shown them that working together in
unity and thinking about the welfare of others brings happiness to all.
|
Question: Radhey Radhey Swamiji, It is really a pleasure listening
to you, and thank you very much for giving us such deep knowledge in simple
language so that souls like us can understand it. I have one question, "Why did God create maya, when He wanted us to love Him. He
created this world and moved us out from his Mahodar, or stomach, to enjoy His love. But because of maya we forget him and
suffer."
Answer:
To enable all readers to comprehend your question, let me first
explain its context. The Vedic
philosophy states that creation follows successive cycles of srishti, sthiti and pralaya, or
creation, maintenance and dissolution.
Upon dissolution, the entire material energy and all the materially
conditioned souls go into a latent state, and reside in the stomach, or mahodar, of God. Then, at the time of creation, the material energy unwinds itself,
and the world comes into existence. The souls
are again placed in appropriate bodies in this world, based upon their accumulated
stock of sanchit karmas.
Now, to rephrase your question, you have asked that when God
creates the world, in order for us to be able to love Him, and brings us into
it from His mahodar, then why does He
create maya alongside, which puts us in forgetfulness of Him and makes us
suffer? This question has puzzled
innumerable philosophers in history, with the paradox that if God is all good,
then why has he created something bad like maya, that gives souls the
opportunity to deviate from the true path and commit sin. The answer to this cannot be comprehended
totally before God-realization. However,
an attempt can definitely be made.
Let me tell you a story in this
regard. There was once a very rich man,
who had a fifteen-year old son. One day,
the son was alone in his father's office, when he saw a fifteen-year old
newspaper. It had an article titled,
"Billionaire adopts orphan child". The
boy was stunned to see his father's name mentioned there. When his father returned, the son accosted him,
"Father is this article true?"
The father replied, "My son! It is
true."
"Does that mean I am not your
child?"
"That is right, you are not my child."
The son was shocked. "Then why did you adopt me?"
The father explained, "I had no shortage of money, and
everything that money could buy.
However, I did not have anyone with whom I could share my wealth. I adopted you so that I could give you
everything that I possess."
Similarly, God is perfect and complete in Himself, and the
possessor of unlimited opulences. He
creates us so that He may be able to share that He possesses with us all. However, He can only do that when we truly
love Him. And, to enable us to love Him, He has created
us with a free will. A machine cannot
love. Only that creature can love who
possesses a free will.
Those souls who have exercised their free will in loving God,
are with Him in His eternal abode. We
conditioned souls are here in the material realm because we exercised our free
will to turn our backs towards Him. So
for us Bhagavad vimukh souls, God has
created this realm of maya, where we can live under the illusion that we are
separate from Him. However, this maya
energy performs various tasks. It
provides us with allurements to enjoy in forgetfulness of God.
But it also keeps troubling the
soul through the three-fold miseries, to encourage it to decide to love
God. Thanks to the slaps we receive from maya, if we can realize
our folly, and exercise our free will to love God, we can attain His Divine abode
for the rest of eternity. We do not
realize this favor that maya is to doing, and we blame it for our miseries. So, maya is not our enemy; it is in fact our
well-wisher, and a servant of God.
Swamiji
answers selected questions related to Yog, Spirituality and Philosophy every
month on our e-Magazine.
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Trivia Time
Ayurveda (the
'science of life') is a system of traditional medicine native to the Indian
Subcontinent and practiced in other parts of the world as a form of alternative
medicine. In Sanskrit, the word Ayurveda consists of the words āyus, meaning 'life', and veda,
meaning 'related to knowledge' or 'science'. Evolving throughout its history, Ayurveda
remains an influential system of medicine in South Asia. The earliest literature of
Ayurveda appeared during the Vedic period in India. The Sushruta Samhita and the Charaka Samhita were influential works on
traditional medicine during this era. Ayurvedic practitioners also identified a
number of medicinal preparations and surgical procedures for curing various
ailments and diseases.
Ayurveda is
considered to be a form of complementary and alternative medicine within the western
world, where several of its methods, such as the use of herbs, massage, and Yoga
as exercise or alternative medicine, are applied on their own as a form of
treatment.
Dhanvantari
is said to be an avatar of Vishnu from the Hindu tradition and God of Ayurvedic
medicine. Dhanvantari was an early
Indian medical practitioner and one of the world's first surgeons. Based on
Vedic traditions, he is regarded as the source of Ayurveda. He perfected many
herbal based cures and natural remedies and was credited with the discovery of
the antiseptic properties of turmeric and the preservative properties of salt
which he incorporated in his cures.
In contrast to the
western view, Ayurveda has been the principal power of holistic healing, whose
techniques were revealed by God and handed down through time. Ancient sages and
medical practitioners followed the Ayurvedic system of medicine with great
devotion and immense success.
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Jagadguru Kripalu Yog
Konasan
Method
Stand-up straight. Keep a distance of about 3 to 4 feet
between the legs. Raise both arms sideways to your shoulder level, palms
facing downward. Inhale (Radhey) in this position. While exhaling (Shyam),
twist and bend diagonally right from your waist. Touch your right foot with
your left hand; right
hand will slowly move into a vertical position, above the shoulder.
Turn your head right and look up towards your hand. Remain in this position for
five seconds. Gently come back to the initial position. Repeat 5 times in both
directions.
Benefits
It tones
the entire body. It exercises the muscles of the waist and legs. It improves
digestion, stimulates your appetite, and alleviates constipation. It
is very useful for women. It tones the reproductive organs. It helps to reduce
extra fat
from the abdominal area.
Contra-indication
People
with severe back conditions should not practice this asan.
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