YOUR VERY BREATHING IS PRAYER

SELF-CONTROL IS KEY

“The intellect is incapable of discriminating between right and wrong and is also connected with an uncontrollable mind, it is like a charioteer who has to deal with uncontrollable, vicious horses.” – Katha Upanishad (Ancient Hindu Scriptures)

If a person cannot judge right from wrong, he is at the mercy of his impulses. He may then do and say things that he should not, things that are obviously wrong and are more likely than not to do him harm. If, over this, he has an uncontrollable mind, his misery will be endless. He will be like a charioteer who himself is silly and ignorant, and has to, in addition, deal with very wicked and uncontrollable horses.

The emphasis here is on your ‘judgment’ as well as your ‘ability to control your mind’. Sorrow to you if you lack in both.

“When a person has a discriminating intellect, and has that intellect always joined to a mind that is under control, and his senses are also under control, then he is like a charioteer who has well-trained horses to handle.” – Katha Upanishad (Ancient Hindu Scriptures)

Self-control is the key to spiritual progress. First and foremost, you have to have a good, discriminating intellect. The next thing you need is a mind that is always ‘under control’. When a ‘discriminating intellect’ works in conjunction with a ‘controlled mind’, you are as a happy charioteer enjoying the services of good and well-trained horses. Now your mind and your senses can never mislead you, and your progress towards Self-knowledge is assured. Once you attain Self-knowledge, you are no longer a victim of worldly temptations (the causes of sorrow). You are then an “ideal” person.

“He whose intellect is not able to discriminate between right and wrong, and whose uncontrolled mind lets his senses run after impure things (i.e. things detrimental to spiritual progress) – such a person can never attain Self-knowledge. On the contrary, he gets caught in the cycle of birth and death.” – Katha Upanishad (Ancient Hindu Scriptures)

This verse discusses what happens when a person is not able to decide between what is right and what is wrong. That means he has a weak intellect.

Invariably such a person cannot control his mind. He is not his own master. His mind is his master, and thus he will always run after things that will hurt him spiritually. He cannot help it. His ambition at one time might have been to attain Self-knowledge, but with such a weak intellect and consequent preoccupation with sense pleasures, he will drift away from his original goal. He will move in the other direction – to the world. Birth and death will thus be his destiny.

We need to learn to control ourselves, we might live to regret certain actions we have taken in the moment of delusion and upset.

Extract from the upcoming book – A CONVERSATION WITH DEATH (Katha Upanishad) Compiled by Joy Nandy

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See yourself which is the source of all wealth, possessions and power

'OUR REAL IDENTITY' is a "MUST READ" book that unveils the truth about what a human being is made of and what he is not, and how knowing his real identity is the deciding factor between living a happy and peaceful life on earth or a hellish one.

Not knowing Our Real Identity is the root cause of every one of our problems in life, but when we realise who we are truly, this world of sorrow becomes one of eternal bliss.

This is a small book that has the Ultimate Knowledge of life that also explains the Goal of Life which leads us from darkness into illumination.

It is based on the teachings of the ashram and the great Sri Sankaracharya's 'Vivekacudamani – The Crest Jewel of Discrimination'. He is the Guru of gurus. It preaches that man should 'discriminate' between what is real and what is unreal, starting with himself, in order to live a happy and peaceful life. The realisation that a person's identity is not made up of his body or mind and in anything else that he possesses, including his education and status in life, is what liberates a person and gives him or her eternal joy, making this world of pain and sorrow into a blissful one.

This book contains some of the greatest wisdom from some of the greatest minds beyond the ancient times, that is now specially reproduced for the modern man to deliberate upon and apply in his life to make his human life purposeful and meaningful. Everyone should read it for his or her own sake, no one else is done a favour because he or she is who will enjoy happiness.

You may order your copy from us, or you may pick up your copy from one of the many Indian Restaurants or Cash & Carry's who promote our books. Please do, it was created with you in mind. Thank you.

Orders - nandybooks@gmail.com

joynandy.com

TOP ARTICLE: WHY IS THE HINDU THE LOSER IN SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE

As much as a proud Hindu would like to proclaim that he is born to the oldest religion on earth, he is yet deprived of its wisdom compared to the other main religions.

How is this so?

When a Christian goes to the Church, the Priest/Pastor may mention a few hymns in Latin from the Holy Bible and later translated to simple English and explain the values and meaning of the hymns to him.

When the Muslim visits the Mosque, he attends a prayer. The meaning of the Arabic verses or ayat are later explained by an Imam in simple Malay, so the devotee understands. These verses are from the Holy Quran.

However, when the Hindu goes to the Temple, he vaguely 'hears' some mantras chanted in Sanskrit by a Priest (when the priest offers prayers to a deity).

The priest does not translate the valuable meaning of the mantras into any language a Hindu devotee can understand (it doesn’t matter anyway, he was chanting to the deity). The Hindu leaves the temple thinking this is all that's required of him and is happy. He leaves the temple no wiser than when he walked in. He firmly believes in the ‘magic’ of “God” – that his prayers will be answered by magic. There is nothing else for him to do on his part.

Just like the hymns and ayat, the mantras are where the "Knowledge for Man" resides.

This is why only in Hinduism we have temples with priests, and ashrams with gurus. Two separate places. You will not find gurus at temples, and similarly you will not find priests at ashrams. Two separate sets of people with opposing beliefs. The temple priests are for deity worship; the gurus for spiritual knowledge – the understanding of the “I” in us, “realising the God within” and the destruction of the false ego in Man. The mantras are chanted in both these places and are mostly the same in meaning, but at the temple the meaning of the glorious mantras are never explained (unlike the Mosque and Church), whilst at the ashram this is all that is explained from the Bhagavad Gita/Vedas.

The Sanskrit language originally had only 36 phonemes, the words of the originally 700, now c400 slokas or verses all originated from only 36 phonemes – yet the meaning of each of them, the Knowledge for Man, is immense and what is required for Man to live a life in peace, happiness and abundance.

The Magic is in the Slokas/Mantras.

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"IT IS WELL-WRITTEN" SAID THE GURU

This was what the guru who taught the author of 'Life At An Ashram In India', Joy Nandy, had to say about disciple's book.

If you would like to learn what is taught at Jnana Ashrams (Knowledge Ashrams), and to have a glimpse of what life is like at an ashram, please send your orders to - nandybooks@gmail.com.

What other readers have said about the book:

"I just finished reading the book (Life At An Ashram In India), what can I Say? IT IS AWESOME!! Hope you write more books and share with us."

"It has so much to teach and clarify to people."

"It has been a great eye-opener on many perspectives. Indeed a book that has not been written before. Hope you are blessed with many more publications."

"I have just finished reading the book – very inspiring indeed! I really like the book 'Life At An Ashram In India'."

"This book is one-of-a-kind and everyone should read it."

"It has many light-bulb moments."

www.joynandy.com

TO BE UNAFFECTED IS JOY

All conditions in life, good or bad, are within our control to either engage with them or not. All sense objects (material things, includes people) are merely objects until the mind engages with these objects and decides if they are good or bad, happy or sad, – only then do they become alive (in the mind).

If the mind does not engage with something that will create thoughts and ideas, it remains in a state of peace. Hence, all agitations are only in the ‘mind’. This is why meditation is very popular – to silence the mind and disengage from all material thoughts. The counting of beads (japa), practised in most religions, is also for this purpose – to silence or pull away the mind from all material thoughts, and to keep it focused on something, or God.

Bhagavad Gita says:

“Notions of heat and cold, of pain and pleasure are born, O son of Kunti (Arjuna), by only the contact of the senses with their objects. They have a beginning and an end. They are impermanent in nature. Try to rise above them O scion of Bharata (Arjuna), and learn to tolerate them without being affected”. – Chapter 2, Verse 14

It is our choice to perceive something as good or bad, but Truth reveals that there are no ‘opposites’ in life; it is only the workings of the mind. The mind creates the ‘duality’ in everything like hot and cold, pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, etc. and we should not be affected by either, because they are fleeting or temporary, “they have a beginning and an end”.

We should not desire or be attached to anything ‘temporary’ because we will be sad when they go or leave us. To be free from these emotions is to be liberated. To do this is to realise “who” we really are, as the ‘Self’ or ‘Soul’, then it is possible.

The mind cannot help us in this journey of Self Realisation, here the mind shall be used only as a means or vehicle to “take in” this great Knowledge, already known by the Soul, and connect them. That is its job. When this “connection” is made and is firmly established, than one is “Established in Spirit” – which is permanent, desireless, and unattached to anything and anyone, content on Its own, because it is ‘Spirit’.

The Soul has no 'cause' to be happy, it is blissful on its own, but the mind has a 'cause' in order to be happy. So the Soul is happy without a cause. It needs no reason for its Joy.

Therefore, this Knowledge will burn the ignorance in man to make him see the Truth of life, its goal and the path to take. And would you believe it? After all this time, I have been told by the guru that the Goal of Life is just to be "Happy", and the way to be happy is to be "Unaffected" by the dualities of this world. Nothing else.

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WE ARE NOT OUR ILLNESSES

When we do not feel well, we often say, “I am not well” or “I have this or that (illness)”. But if we are not our bodies, then we are not our illnesses too!

Because man is not his body, but his Soul, how can he be unwell or be struck by any kind of disease that happens to his body?

It is only the body that has become contaminated somehow, but never the Self. It is right to say, “My body is not feeling well, etc.” but never say, “I am not feeling well” because health does not play any role with the great Soul – It is ‘Spirit’.

Sages say that we have to be careful when saying words such as the above because we might believe them (as we have), and then the being or spirit also starts to feel weak. The spirit of a person is separate from his body. This is Spirit, so it cannot be physically contained, contaminated or trapped in anyway. It exists in the human body as the spirit that lights up the faculties of the body, but never mistake the Spirit or Self for the limited and puny body.

Birth, childhood, adulthood, old age, disease and death, are the stages of life on earth by Cosmic design for every being. These are all given to the body only, not to the Self. The Self is not the body.

“As the embodied Soul continuously passes in this body from childhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A wise person is not bewildered by such a change.” – Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 13

Since we are not our bodies, and birthless and deathless also, we are not some physical organism that is susceptible to any kind of germs or diseases – It is not like a human body that can fall ill. Nothing on earth can possibly touch the real Self of an individual – It is that powerful and incredible, and must be understood well.

“For the Soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He (Soul) has not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever existing, and primeval. He does not die when the body is slain.” – Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 20

Simply by the power of the realisation that “I am not the body or mind” we get to overcome the setbacks or limitations of the body and mind. We may choose to say, “I am unwell” and let the spirit feel weakened by this false and ignorant statement, or we could choose to say, “I am not the body, I am immortal. Ever blissful and free. Nothing can contaminate me, I am in control of my body and mind…etc.” – which is the Absolute Truth. We can wield the mind in anyway we want to, it is only the “words” we say to ourselves, let them be right and wise.

"He who beholds the imperishable Supreme Lord, existing equally in all perishable beings, realizes the truth." – Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 13, Sloka 27

We can see now why thinking (ignorantly) that we are our bodies can bring us sadness and sorrow, but thinking we are the great Soul, literally liberates us and leads us to joy! (No matter what our bodily condition is).

“A person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the Soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.” – Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 22

* Extract from the book 'OUR REAL IDENTITY' (Not Knowing Our Real Identity Is The Root of All Problems In Life), by Joy Nandy

THE REAL MEANING OF "WORK IS WORSHIP"

Many of us have heard the saying, "Work Is Worship", especially in Hindu Spiritual studies. But what does this really mean?

Does it mean that we should install little altars at our offices? What does it really mean to anyone?

I have found that the wise lines that great and wise people and gurus who coin up these lines, are able to concise lengthy text and understanding of the Scriptures, before they are able to present such lofty thoughts in marvellous bite-size expressions. Yet, the true meaning, of how they came about summarising, through deep cognizance to arrive at their conclusions, will never be known by readers of such wisdom today. 

We tend to simply take the meaning of any saying as they are, and think that our brilliant minds have the ability to cognize or understand everything. Wrong. There are two different kinds of minds at work here, – purified and unpurified. The unpurified mind thinks that it can easily work out the thoughts of a purified mind, that of a sage for an example, but it is impossible. They exists in two completely different realms or worlds.

Sages and enlightened people know that the mind is the cause of all of man's problems. Spiritual studies lead a student to recognise this, and to take the steps to do everything to curtail this mind. This means that gurus and spiritual people no longer live-off their minds. The first thing that any student will be told by his guru is that he is not his mind or body. The guru then provides ancient spiritual knowledge to enlighten the student on this fact. 

So, the lines of wisdom that we receive these days, and understand them by our unenlightened or unpurified minds, are completely different in meaning of that of the speakers of these lines, who are enlightened beings, such as Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore, who both made similar statements – "Work Is Worship". This is also why everyone needs a spiritual counsellor or guru in his or her life.

Why is work worship, then?

This requires a deeper explanation and understanding, and it is one that should not be taken lightly either. There is an end goal to achieve for all of us. And to get to this goal, we have to perform selfless work. This why we have to consider any work we do as worship.

What is the end goal?

The end goal or "Ultimate Goal", as it is called in the Hindu Scriptures, is "Moksha", or "Liberation". This is a state when the soul is fully liberated and is never to be reborn again. But why do we not want the soul to be reborn? It is because every soul that is on earth is only here to serve Its Karma, it is a punishment. This is why life seems to be a suffering in general, where peace is not a permanent feature in it. The state of Liberation provides Eternal Bliss, and Moksha or Liberation is something we should all achieve while we are alive, and it benefits the hereafter – where the Soul gets to return Home.

"Karma" means "deeds" or "work" in Sanskrit. This means that the reason why we are here on earth is caused by our "misdeeds" or "bad deeds" in our past and present lives. We have had millions of rebirths on earth, but only to suffer. Therefore, if Karma brought us here to suffer, Karma also provides the way out of this suffering, as it is stated in the Hindu Scriptures. By replacing our "bad thoughts and deeds" with "good thoughts and deeds", man gets to exhaust his Karma. Then life on earth, and after, is Nirvana. The end of all suffering and sorrow. 'Karma Yoga' states that inaction is impossible, that man is always performing some kind of action, even if simply breathing.

Now, because we have always been doing work for selfish motifs, which created our Karma, and this happens dues to our selfish desires; we now simply have to do the reverse of all this. We have to perform selfless work, only. This means that every single task or job that we do, even our professional jobs, we should do it to the best of our abilities as if it is a dedication to God. We should be conscious that we are carrying out our tasks or work, only to exhaust our Karma. This is a great time to do 'favours' to every and anybody, even strangers. We exhaust even more Karma when we help people we do not know. While we are performing this "alleged" 'Selfless work', it is good to remember that we are not doing anyone any favours but ourselves, because all these selfless work and actions will only benefit ourselves and no one else, in the end.

But how is it a "worship"?

When it comes to any kind of "worship", there is usually some kind of personality involved. In this case, it is Godhead. The verse in the Bhagavad Gita (Hindu Holy Book) says, "To work alone you have competence, but never to enjoy the fruits thereof". We should not do any work or task with the aim of enjoying the benefits or fruits of our own labour. Now, remember, we are here because of Karma, and the cause of Karma and our suffering is 'selfish work' with an aim for personal benefits ignited by 'desire'. So, the Lord says that we have the ability only to perform our now "righteous actions" only. We should not think, speak, and do harm or hurt anyone or anything that lives. These actions shall be the 'opposite' of our previous actions in all our previous lives, and this shall set man free in his own mind and heart, exhausting all his Karma.

"Karma" itself is a 'divine' thing, it is not man-made. So, since it is this "divine force" that has brought us here to earth to suffer, then don't you think that it is this same "divine force" that is also capable of removing or exhausting our Karma debts? Yes, it is so.

The "Soul", which is the real identity of a man, was never born and can never die. It is not something that is material, such as the body and the mind – it is 'Spirit'. Hence, this 'Spirit' is formless. This formless spirit never ever took birth and will never ever die, it keeps using all kinds of bodies, including animals and insects, (subject to how nasty we have been to other people), and keeps getting reborn on earth, – only to suffer.

So, when we do any work that we do, we must think of whom we are doing this task for, and as it turns out, since we are all prisoners or Karma, and God is the ultimate 'Taskmaster' and 'Sanctioner', we therefore, have to please Him, by dedicating every single task or job of ours to God.

Now, this is why, "Work Is Worship".

by Joy Nandy

– more stuff worth reading here

WHERE IS GOD WHEN WE LEAVE THE TEMPLE?

Today, there are many young and elderly people alike who do not experience the inner solace they desire just with temple visits; and when we are older, temple visits may also be a torture when we become weak and immobile. How do we access God then?

Prayers at temples seem impersonal where we need a ‘middleman’, so to speak, to convey our gratitude and requests to God. But this can’t be true. God created all equally, we are His children. He is the father of all of us, so why should we not have a direct path to Him? Jnana Yoga tells us that we in fact do and shows us the path with detailed information that we can read and apply that God is personal as He is impersonal. It is a step-by-step guide to understand and living life in the best possible way, free of sorrow and suffering by realising that the doer of everything is God.

Many Hindus are not aware of the various paths to reach God and believe that temples are the only way to do so. At the ashram the guru asked us, “If you believe that God resides only in temples, then what happens when you leave the temple? Does it mean that God is no longer with you?”

Good question guru!

This got me thinking, and it is true. We all know that God is omnipresent (present everywhere at the same time), omnipotent (unlimited power) and omniscient (knowing everything). God is EVERYWHERE!

We get to understand this ‘knowledge’ not the way we understand the hundreds of wonderful wise posts we find on social media, but we are explained how everything works and who we are truly as spirits with all the connections – no gaps, so understanding this subject become completely coherent for the mind.

It is packed with comprehensive messages and thoughts that anyone seeking Truth and the meaning of life will enjoy. And I only found this out, as one of the many revelations, by reading the Hindu scriptures.

It said that the Bhagavad Gita burns the ignorance in man and by that also burns the ropes of entanglement, setting him free. The Bhagavad Gita is ‘Jnana Yoga’. It is also said in the Gita that reading the Holy Gita is an austerity or sacrifice, and one’s karma will also be eliminated by His grace. Just by reading one get’s to remove karma, so the benefit of the ‘knowledge’ itself seems like a huge bonus to man. For those seeking liberation from worldly bondage, and a direct and personalised access to God should opt for this path.

– Joy Nandy

YOGA MEANS UNION WITH GOD – ULTIMATELY

 The word “Yoga” means “Union with the highest Nature (or Being or Soul or Self or God)”. (The word “Nature” in Sanskrit is “Prakriti”, which also refers to God, Nature being his field or body; also His proof of existence.)

The four paths to reach God in Hinduism are: 1. Jnana Yoga (Path of Knowledge); 2. Bhakti Yoga (Devotional Path); 3. Karma Yoga (Selfless-service/Seva), and 4. Raja Yoga (Meditative Path).

We note that each one of these paths ends with the word “Yoga”. This means that whichever path we take out of the four paths, we must always have the “higher force” or, simply, God, in mind, with the knowledge that – “Whatever I am doing here, I am doing it only for You (God) and not for my personal gratification or rewards”.

We have to think this way because we are here on earth only to repay our Karma dues – we have to make right what we have done wrong to others. Our faults in our past lives and also the present life where we can accrued Karma debts is in the areas of ‘thought’, ‘speech’ and ‘action’. It is only through one or all of these ways that we may hurt someone emotionally or physically, and it all begins with the ‘mind’.

Therefore, to repair our bad deeds, we have to do the opposite of what we have been doing in so many millions of our births – do right and good deeds. While doing these ‘good deeds’, not once must we think that “I am doing this by myself and for myself (or the one’s I love), etc.”, this means it is not “Selfless service”, it is selfish service.

We must think, “While I am doing this task or job or action, my only hope is that I get to receive the Lord’s blessings in pardoning and removing my Karma so that I may escape the cycle of rebirths into this world of suffering and achieve the state of Eternal Blissfulness, here today and ever after”. Isn’t this motivation enough for anyone to take this path instead of coming back to earth (in one form or another) only to suffer?

So, “Karma” is not a man-made thing and everyone believes in it. It must to be something ‘spiritual’ then, and if it is ‘spiritual’, we can only work with a ‘spiritual force’ to help remove it, otherwise we are stuck in it, like we are right now, this minute.

From the second we wake up, till the moment we rest our heads on our pillows, God has granted us the breath to do whatever we did through each day. Understanding that He, in fact, is the “doer” of “everything”, as it is stated in the Hindu Scriptures, makes us realise who is in control of the events of life and our very existence. Everything depends on the Supreme. If He is the One who gave us breath, then what ever we think that we are doing, by our own doing, is known as ‘ignorance’ in the Sacred texts, because He is the “doer” and creator of all that we see and do not see, hear touch or feel.

We cannot follow any path, that is meant to reach God, without having God in mind, and we are meant to have Him in our minds all-the-time, non-stop, constantly. And this “union” between the individual “Self” or “Soul” with the “Super Self” or “Super Soul” or “Paramatma” or “Brahman” or “Godhead” or simply, “God” (as we prefer to call Him), that is created through the ‘mind’, leads to our liberation. Moksha.

This is the “Union” that “Yoga” means – “a mental connection/union with God” or “Meditation on God” or “Mind converged in God”, without which it is impossible to liberate a soul. This makes this “Yoga” part the most important part to achieve liberation or Moksha and must be properly understood to apply whilst performing all our prescribed actions and good and righteous duties [good Karma] (in the name of the Lord).

“For one who wishes to establish himself in the divinity of Yoga, O Arjuna, he must follow the method of doing Karma [all work] without desires [not for their fruits/rewards] of any sort [selfless-service/karma yoga]. For, giving up all worldly thoughts is the path that will lead you to being fully and truly established in Yoga [union with the Supreme]. Dear Arjuna, while trying to be come a Yogi perform Karma [action/work] without any desires [unattached Karma]. After you have become a true Yogi, resign yourself from all attachments to the world).” – Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 6, Verse 3

An article on “The Meaning & Purpose of Yoga” by Bhole Prabhu, on the internet explains: “The most important teaching of yoga has to do with our nature as human beings. It states that our “true nature” goes far beyond the limits of the human mind and personality – that instead, our human potential is infinite and transcends our individual minds and our sense of Self. The very word “Yoga” makes reference to this. The root, “Yuj” (meaning “Unity” or “Yoke”), indicates that the purpose of yoga is to unite ourselves with our highest nature. This re-integration is accomplished through the practices of the various Yoga disciplines (Jnana, Bhakti, Karma, Raja). Until this re-integration (union) takes place, we identify ourselves with our limitations – the limitations of the body, mind and sense. Thus we feel incomplete and limited, and are subject to things of sorrow, insecurity, fear, and separation, because we have separated ourselves from the experience of the whole”.

As you can see from the above explanation of the word “Yoga”, nowhere does it mention stretching or pulling our body parts; instead, it talks about a connection to be made, or a ‘union’ if you like, through the mind, then Soul. An infinite amount of body or muscular stretches will not liberate anyone nor make him spiritual because Yoga is a mental thing.

Joy Nandy