Bhagwat Gita 1st Chapter Summry

10 CHAPTER 01, SUMMARY

Surya Namaskar More Than Weight Loss By Diet

• Importance of balance and core workouts
Suryanamaskar can do to your body what months of dieting cannot. And it can do to your mind what no spiritual discourse can.

Not surprising, the world is going crackers over this ancient yogic tradition of worshipping the rising sun. What with the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Victoria Beckham and Kareena Kapoor endorsing it over gym workouts and bizarre diets.

From improving your posture, strengthening muscles to whittling extra inches around the waist, the benefits of Suryanamaskar are many, provided you adapt it the right way. A set of 12 fixed, cyclic postures define Suryanamaskar which when performed repeatedly at an easy pace can bring a sense of well being, almost immediately. However, those with a heart condition, arthritis or slip-disk, need their doctor's consent before starting the routine. Suryanamaskar's surging popularity notwithstanding, jumpstarting a schedule is most definitely not the best thing to do for a fitness novice. If you have been gravely out of form in a way that you haven't stretched your muscles in ages, first give your body some time to open up, which you can do with some flexibility and stamina-building exercises before embarking on the more arduous 'Suryanamaskar'.

And once your body has registered a certain fitness level, you can begin with a set of three Suryanamaskars in the first instance and increase it to five then ten and more depending on your stamina. Anymore than clocking up numbers, it is important to get each posture right, for the very essence of this yogic ritual lies in perfecting every move. To say the least, it can be an uphill task for beginners. But our expert-backed warm-up exercises are sure to make Suryanamaskar less strenuous and ever so graceful.

1. Neck: Breathe in while you turn your neck to the right and breathe out as you come back to the starting position. Again, breathe in while turning your neck to the left and breathe out in the centre. Repeat this movement thrice. Rotate your neck first clockwise and then anti-clockwise.

2. Arm and shoulder: Stretch your arms out in front of your chest and move your palms up and down, then sideways. Further on, rotate your fist clockwise and anti-clockwise. To relax your arms, place your palm on your shoulder and move your shoulders first clockwise then anti-clockwise.

3. Knee: Bend forwards with your palms resting on your knees, join your knees and move forwards and backwards. End the routine by rotating your knees clockwise and anti-clockwise.

4. Stomach and back: Interlock your fingers over your chest and slowly raise your hands upwards while you breathe in and stand on your toes. Return to Position 1 as you breathe out. Repeat this cycle three times.

5. Legs and waist: Stretch your legs wide in standing position, touch you left toe with the right hand, then the right toe with the left. Keep your knees straight while you do so. Repeat a few times.

By now your body is suitably warmed up to begin the Suryanamaskar routine. Here is a step-by-step account of the 12 postures. Don't try this routine on a mat, you are better off on the bare floor or on the grass.

Posture 1# Stand erect, ideally facing the morning sun. Fold your hands in prayer close to your chest and chant 'Om Suryadevaya Namah' thrice.

Posture 2# With your hands together raise your arms up in the air while you breathe in. Bend over backwards forming an arch from the hands to your feet. The flexibility of the spine is ensured in this posture.

Posture 3# Bring your hands down while you breathe out to touch the floor on either side of your feet. In this posture, it is imperative to keep your knees straight as you bend forward from the waist, and your head as close as possible to the knee. This posture helps melt the excess fat around the stomach by aiding digestion.

Posture 4# While breathing in, put your hands flush with the floor and lower your hips and stretch your left leg back, allowing it to balance on your toes, and your right leg bent in a crouching stance. With your hands firmly on the ground and your arms straight as a die, raise your head upwards to face the sky. This one is for the flexibility of spine and leg muscles, and boosts immunity from diseases.

Posture 5# As you breathe out, let your hands stay firmly on the ground and push your right leg back parallel to the left. Make sure your feet firmly touch the ground and your hip raised high. With your arms and knees straight lower your head to face your navel.

Posture 6# Hold your breath as you bring your hips down while keeping your hands and feet in the same position, and stretch your whole body near the floor. With your face downward, bring your chest and knees to lightly brush the floor, and hold your hips slightly high. At this juncture, 8 points of your body are touching the floor - your palms, forehead, chest, knees and toes.

Posture 7# This posture is a mere extension of Posture 6, in that you breathe in and straighten your arms and lift your chest upward in an arching stance, and your head thrown back facing the sky. Your arms, at this point, carry the weight of your body, with you knees and toes resting on the floor.

Posture 8# Bring your body back to Posture 5 by raising your hips and lowering your chest and head. Keep your arms and knees straight while you do so, and place your feet flush with the floor. Then lower you head to face your navel.

Posture 9# As you breathe in, return to a similar position as Posture 4, only this time you will be crouching on the left knee and stretching back your right leg. Place your hands firmly on the ground, and with the weight of your body on your arms move your chest forward and arch your head up to face the sky.

Posture 10# From here, flow back to Posture 3 while keeping your hands flush with the floor and bringing your right foot side by side with your left one. As you straighten your knee, raise your back to arch in a standing position with your head as close as possible to the knee and your hands on either side of your feet.

Posture 11# Take a deep breathe and raise your arms up in the air as you straighten your back and gradually bend over backwards, akin to Posture 2. Your knees stay straight all the while.

Posture 12# Bring yourself to Posture 1 from here with your hands folded before your chest in prayer, and your spine erect, your knees straight and your eyes shut in meditation.

With Posture 12 you complete one full circle of Suryanamaskar. From here you can flow back to Posture 2 to continue the routine. However, always follow up your Suryanamaskar regime with Savasana, better known as Corpse Pose. In this posture, you lay down on the floor with your legs and arms apart, your palms facing the sky, and eyes deep shut. Breathe in and out heavily and try to focus your thoughts on something happy. Stay on this way for a few minutes and you will feel a sense of calm run down your body like a drug.

Weight loss is just one consequence; you can so much as put your life together with this ancient yogic tradition.

Self And Brahman

Swami Parmarthananda
Krishna’s imparting the fundamental, yet profound, truth of the immortal essence inherent in each one of us, enabling further meditation and internalisation of this knowledge was the theme of a discourse on Gita by Swami Paramartananda.

The spiritual quest of the Jivatma begins with his identification with the undying Self, the Jiva swaroopa, and not the impermanent body. The body is a temporary vehicle for attaining salvation and gets discarded when it gets worn out, and the Jivatma pursues his journey in a new one. The consciousness in a realised soul constantly vibrates with this reality so that worldly affairs are handled with Viveka (discrimination) and Vairagya (detachment). This truth alone brings equanimity to the Jivatma engulfed in the dilemma of worldly existence as exemplified by Arjuna’s realisation in the battle field that he is nothing but a tool in the greater and grander design of the Almighty.

Krishna emphasises that the body and the sense organs including the mind and the intellect are mere instruments of transaction to operate in this world. Understanding the Iswara swaroopa initiates wisdom in the Jivatma who learns to transcend the form to reach out for His infinite glory. It is impossible to grasp the infinite straight away. A child learns the concept of numbers by counting with the fingers and it is a long journey before the idea of infinity in mathematical terms is understood. Likewise, the popular notion of God based on scriptures and the stories of the Puranas suggesting the pluralistic, localised and a finite concept of God needs to be further evolved.

These projections merely serve to indicate His infinity. However, God is much more than what is represented in the Puranas. He cannot be contained in one form. Krishna elucidates the concept of the all pervading, all knowing, omnipotent, infinite and eternal Supreme Brahman. For a true seeker, humility should take root in his consciousness that fosters a holistic growth at the emotional, spiritual, intellectual and rational levels. Though devotion is considered to help initially to fulfil one’s worldly desires, it is capable of conferring the highest benefit of Jnana.

Svetaketu

Svetaketu
It happened in Upanishadic days that one young boy, Svetaketu, was sent by his father to a gurukul, to a family of an enlightened master, to learn. He learned everything that could be learned, he memorized all the Vedas and all the science available in those days. He became proficient in them, he became a great scholar; his fame started spreading all over the country. Then there was nothing else to be taught, so the master said, ”You have known all that can be taught. Now you can go back.”

Thinking that everything had happened and there was nothing else – because whatsoever the master knew, he also knew, and the master had taught him everything – Svetaketu went back. Of course with great pride and ego, he came back to his father. When he was entering the village his father, Uddalak, looked out of the window at his son coming back from the university. He saw the way he was walking – very proudly, the way he was holding his head – in a very egoistic way, the way he was looking all around – very self-conscious that he knew.

The father became sad and depressed, because this is not the way of one who really knows, this is not the way of one who has come to know the supreme knowledge. The son entered the house. He was thinking that his father would be very happy – he had become one of the suprememost scholars of the country; he was known everywhere, respected everywhere – but he saw that the father was sad, so he asked, ”Why are you sad?”

The father said, ”Only one question I have to ask you. Have you learned that by learning which there is no need to learn anything any more? Have you known that by knowing which all suffering ceases? Have you been taught that which cannot be taught?”

The boy also became sad. He said, ”No. Whatsoever I know has been taught to me, and I can teach it to anybody who is ready to learn.”

The father said, ”Then you go back and ask your master that you be taught that which cannot be taught.”

The boy said, ”But that is absurd. If it cannot be taught, how can the master teach me?”

The father said, ”That is the art of the master: he can teach you that which cannot be taught. You go back.”

He went back. Bowing down to his master’s feet, he said, ”My father has sent me for an absolutely absurd thing. Now I don’t know where I am and what I am asking you. My father has told me to come back and return only when I have learned that which cannot be learned, when I have been taught that which cannot be taught. What is it? What is this? You never told me about it.”

The master said, ”Unless one inquires, it cannot be told; you never inquired about it. But now you

are starting a totally different journey. And remember, it cannot be taught, so it is very delicate; only indirectly will I help you. Do one thing: take all the animals of my gurukul – there were at least four hundred cows, bulls and other animals – and go to the deepest forest possible where nobody ever comes and moves. Live with these animals in silence. Don’t talk, because these animals cannot understand any language. So remain silent, and when just by reproduction these four hundred animals have become one thousand, then come back.”

It was going to be a long time – until four hundred animals had become one thousand. And he was to go without saying anything, without arguing, without asking, ”What are you telling me to do? Where will it lead?” He was to just live with animals and trees and rocks; not talking, and forgetting the human world completely. Because your mind is a human creation, if you live with human beings the mind is continuously fed. They say something, you say something – the mind goes on learning, it goes on revolving.

”So go,” the master said, ”to the hills, to the forest. Live alone. Don’t talk. And there is no use in thinking, because these animals won’t understand even your thinking. Drop all your scholarship here.”

Svetaketu followed. He went to the forest and lived with the animals for many years. For a few days thoughts remained there in the mind – the same thoughts repeating themselves again and again. Then it became boring.

If new thoughts are not felt, then you will become aware that the mind is just repetitive, just a mechanical repetition; it goes on in a rut. And there was no way to get new knowledge. With new knowledge the mind is always happy, because there is something again to grind, something again to work out; the mechanism goes on moving.

Svetaketu became aware. There were four hundred animals, birds, other wild animals, trees, rocks, rivers and streams, but no man and no possibility of any human communication. There was no use in being very egoistic, because these animals didn’t know what type of great scholar this Svetaketu was. They didn’t consider him at all; they didn’t look at him with respect, so by and by the pride disappeared, because it was futile and it even looked foolish to walk in a prideful way with the animals.

Even Svetaketu started feeling, ”If I remain egoistic these animals will laugh at me – so what am I doing?” Sitting under the trees, sleeping near the streams, by and by his mind became silent. The story is beautiful. The years passed and his mind became so silent that Svetaketu completely forgot when he had to return. He became so silent that even this idea was not there. The past dropped completely, and with the dropping of the past the future drops, because the future is nothing but a projection of the past – just the past reaching into the future.

So he forgot what the master had said, he forgot when he had to return. There was no when and where, he was just here and now. He lived in the moment just like the animals, he became a cow. The story says that when the animals became one thousand, they started feeling uncomfortable. They were waiting for Svetaketu to take them back to the ashram and he had forgotten, so one day the cows decided to speak to Svetaketu and they said,

”Now it is time enough, and we remember that the master had said that you must come back when the animals became one thousand, and you have completely forgotten. Now is the time and we must go back. We have become one thousand.”

So Svetaketu went back with the animals. The master looked from the door of his hut at Svetaketu coming with one thousand animals, and he said to his other disciples, ”Look, one thousand and one animals are coming.” Svetaketu had become such a silent being – no ego, no self-consciousness, just moving with the animals as one of them.

The master came to receive him; the master was dancing, ecstatic. He embraced Svetaketu and he said, ”Now there is nothing to say to you – you have already known. Why have you come? There is no need to come now, there is nothing to be taught. You have already known.”
Svetaketu said, ”Just to pay my respects, just to touch your feet, just to be grateful. It has happened, and you have taught me that which cannot be taught.”

This is what a master is to do:
create a situation in which the thing happens.
To only indirect effort can be made, indirect help, indirect guidance.
And wherever direct guidance is given, wherever your mind is taught, it is not religion.
Merging with Nature is true knowledge.

--

Sermon of Kapila

The Lord who is birthless takes many births,” say the scriptures. His infinite glory and compassion stand revealed during the periods of descent He undertakes. He establishes dharma and destroys adharma, and reinforces His instruction to redeem people caught in samsara.

The sermon of Kapila to His mother Devahuti is a concise but comprehensive discussion of the individual’s quest for Self-knowledge through jnana and bhakti which are subtle attributes of human experience, pointed out Srimati Prema Pandurang in a discourse. The philosophical exposition also expounds the grand design of cosmic creation.

The first tenet of Kapila’s teaching is that one should seek the company of saints and sages who are venerated for their selfless nature. The only aim in the life of such realised souls is to save the people from the clutches of samsara where good and evil coexist in a state of constant tension. The veil of Maya is powerful and tempts even those with good propensities to believe in the attractions of the world. The situation is further strengthened because the senses in human beings are turned outwards and are thus preoccupied with worldly affairs. The turmoil in our daily life keeps us on tenterhooks at all times. Since the mind is the cause of both bondage and liberation in human beings, the only way to turn it inward is to seek the company of the pious.

A God-centric atmosphere enables one to pause to analyse the purpose of existence, and try to identify the permanent against all that is evanescent in life. Devotion supported by knowledge and renunciation is gained by listening to the Lord’s glory. When the choice to renounce worldly attractions is made, bhakti bhava begins to take root in the individual’s consciousness. The aspirant becomes unperturbed by anything because of total self-surrender to the Lord.

Kapila advises people to cultivate a generous heart towards all beings. This is possible if one realises that God is the Supreme Lord of all Nature and of individual souls and that all belongs to God. .

Infinipath

A few scoops from last infinipath: 06th October 2013
Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. It is important that the mental restlessness should be patiently executed in the physical domain, for an idea to culminate into reality.

In the time that you are not investing in satiating the emotional needs of your valued customers, your competitor is doing that. It is all about mind share in the market.

Investment of quality time with your children is the greatest investment you can make in the becoming of your children. Unless you listen to them enough, they will not listen to you.

There are times in life where consequences are purely random and cosmic and sometimes those are the most beautiful periods of life; your life goes through a quantum leap. Consider yourself blessed and be grateful.

When you are not able to control the consequences of your life, you consider them as tough times. Use your contemplative intelligence and choose one of the three (CAR) to preserve your peace.
1. Change the changeable.
2. Accept the unchangeable.
3. Remove yourself from the unacceptable.

Growth is when your life moves from maximum effort giving you minimum results to minimum effort giving you maximum results.

Gift of Existence

What do you gain by Prayer...?

Best answer given by Swami Vivekananda:

"I gained nothing, In fact I Lost, Anger, Depression, Jealousy, Irritation & Insecurity.."

Gift of Existence
There lived a Sadhu who regularly used to give discourses. One day at the end of the discourse he was talking of being grateful to existence. "Operate from a space of gratitude, `Kritajna'. This will allow us to expand.'' a beggar was sitting in a corner and listening to the discourse, he came up to the Sadhu and said, "Maharaj, your talk was great. But one thing I am not able to do. You said to be grateful to the existence because it has always showered benediction on you. Sorry! But, existence has not given me anything. I am struggling even for one roti''.
The Sadhu said,"I agree with you, I will give you two lacks, right here, will you be grateful?" The beggar was thrilled.

"But I want something in return from you'', said the Sadhu. "I do not have anything, what can I give you? If I have something I will definitely give you.'' said the beggar.
"I won't ask you anything that you do not have'', said the Sadhu. The agreement was made.The Sadhu said, "I will make arrangements for the two lacks; you please give me both your eyes."

The beggar was astonished. "What will I do with these two lacks without my eyes! I don't agree to the deal,'' he said. "I prefer my two eyes to the two lacks''.
The Sadhu said, "but you said you don't have anything and were cursing existence."

This is a beautiful story. Two eyes he had, then two hands, two legs, stomach etc., He is already a multi millionaire. But all these gifts we do not see. For the beggar, money was very important.That we can see is such a great gift of existence. We can hear. We can walk. All are great gifts. If you say you are unhappy, it is ridiculous. In fact we should dance and celebrate that existence has given us so many gifts.

We are normally focused on what is missing in life. The moment you start operating from what you don't have, whatever you have also go into darkness.
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Communism and Spirituality

Communism has three goals.

To check the greed of feudal and capitalistic societies.
To check the fanaticism and fundamentalism of religious communities.
To care for and share with the needy.

Only spirituality can bring fulfillment to communism.

Only spirituality can check greed and open up the hearts ofthe rich to help the needy.
Only spirituality can check the fanaticism and fundamentalism of religious groups and create a sense of belongingness in the whole world.
Only spirituality brings up the tendency to care and share in one's life.
Only spirituality can bring about open mindedness and a progressive attitude.

Communism cannot fulfill its goals without spirituality.
It is impossible and time has proved it.

Spirituality nourishes communism.
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Question: If you have a Guru do you need luck?
Sri Sri: You need luck to have a Guru! (Laughter)