I could sit still in the meditation class a little longer today thought my mind was not ofcourse :). I wish they gave more directions on how to meditate because if it were that easy to just 'sit and meditate' i would'nt be here! I really wanted to have a bath before the yoga class so I skipped the aarti and ran for a bath. I was a few minutes late for the karma yoga staff meeting and Kailas seemed a bit upset. Whats the deal with no bath and such a strict staff meeting?!
The yoga class was taken by mr.squinty who yelled at me yesterday. I am these days losing more and more respect for the yoga teachers. None of them seem to be calm or egoless or a true yoga teacher. They are just people who learnt to bend their bodies and are teaching us to exercise thats it. He was atleast not restless like yesterday and was trying to talk slowly. There was a vedanta class towards the end. OMG this guy doesnt know shit about anything. He was literally reading out from a book which was lying around. When students asked him the meaning of Om or kirtans or karma dharma he knew NOTHING. And he looked pretty upset that questions were being asked. I ended up answering all the questions. Most of the answers come naturally to me as if it is the most obvious thing. I have never read anything about them before. A student asked is it Om or AUM. I thought it was more likely AUM and the sound needs to come from our stomachs from the manipura chakra all the way to the third eye. It is like a massage to all the chakras. Another student asked why is it called the sound of the universe. I said it could be because it is the frequency at which all the chakras within us vibrate and also the natural sound of everything in the space or plants or other beings. So it is the primal sound which resonates within us and connects all of us. I , you, plants , animals, rocks even are all the same. There is no difference. Q.3 was what are kirtans and why should we sing them?. I believe the language sanskrit was written such that the syllables match all the chakras. The pronunciation is such that all our chakras vibrate and get activated. Also the 'gods' whom we sing praises of should not be externalized. Rather if one understands the significance of each god and the quality he/she represents, it is easier to concentrate and pray for these qualities within you. For example hanuman the monkey god makes no sense for the world. But all our puranas were written in the form of stories and it is upto interpret then and get the meaning out. The monkey god represents the mind which is like a monkey. It is a horrible master but can be the best servant. Hanuman in the Ramayana is shown to be the most devoted servant of Lord Rama. He doesnt know what he is capable of and he needs to be told what he can do. When told by Lord Rama to fly over the seven seas to get Sita he thought it was impossible, but when give the direction he multiplies in size and flies to the Lanka. Similarly our mind is the worst master but can be an excellent servant to us. The capacity of the mind is limitless and we need to remind it what it is capable of. So when praying to Hanuman, our mind in effect, we can pray and feel blessed with strength and courage and will power. A tune obviously in some chants is very good and has a lasting effect on you such that it plays in your mind the whole day. I also always wondered why we have 300 crore gods! I feel maybe it was convenience? It is difficult to remember soo many qualities we need and pray to one god for ALL of them?. So I feel for every negative quality that could exist in us, there is a positive quality and we gave that quality a shape and form and pray to it.
Anyhow it was interesting and there was lot more trivial questions that squinty didnt know anything about. I went out and asked Kailas for a meditation guide and he gave me some papers to read about it. Maybe if I kept repeating it it will sink in more to space the mind.
I had to help in the kitchen cleaning and bathroom cleaning. I was feeling eww at bathroom cleaning at first but it was not too bad. People here are more clean anyway they were not that dirty because they are cleaned everyday. The kitchen cleaning was pretty tedious but it got over soon with a lot of help. I am writing this blog after 2 days so I dont remember much of daybefore than the important parts.
I think we just had the satsang and we went to sleep :D. I was thinking about Krishna and his form and I liked to think that the sound of flute he plays which is supposed to be very divine is the sound of our soul. And that we are like the flute, instrument in god's hands and we should be hollow like the flute with no ego. Just saying not to have ego is so simple but it is so hard to follow as we identify with our mind and body so much and it is very hard for me as well at this point......
The yoga class was taken by mr.squinty who yelled at me yesterday. I am these days losing more and more respect for the yoga teachers. None of them seem to be calm or egoless or a true yoga teacher. They are just people who learnt to bend their bodies and are teaching us to exercise thats it. He was atleast not restless like yesterday and was trying to talk slowly. There was a vedanta class towards the end. OMG this guy doesnt know shit about anything. He was literally reading out from a book which was lying around. When students asked him the meaning of Om or kirtans or karma dharma he knew NOTHING. And he looked pretty upset that questions were being asked. I ended up answering all the questions. Most of the answers come naturally to me as if it is the most obvious thing. I have never read anything about them before. A student asked is it Om or AUM. I thought it was more likely AUM and the sound needs to come from our stomachs from the manipura chakra all the way to the third eye. It is like a massage to all the chakras. Another student asked why is it called the sound of the universe. I said it could be because it is the frequency at which all the chakras within us vibrate and also the natural sound of everything in the space or plants or other beings. So it is the primal sound which resonates within us and connects all of us. I , you, plants , animals, rocks even are all the same. There is no difference. Q.3 was what are kirtans and why should we sing them?. I believe the language sanskrit was written such that the syllables match all the chakras. The pronunciation is such that all our chakras vibrate and get activated. Also the 'gods' whom we sing praises of should not be externalized. Rather if one understands the significance of each god and the quality he/she represents, it is easier to concentrate and pray for these qualities within you. For example hanuman the monkey god makes no sense for the world. But all our puranas were written in the form of stories and it is upto interpret then and get the meaning out. The monkey god represents the mind which is like a monkey. It is a horrible master but can be the best servant. Hanuman in the Ramayana is shown to be the most devoted servant of Lord Rama. He doesnt know what he is capable of and he needs to be told what he can do. When told by Lord Rama to fly over the seven seas to get Sita he thought it was impossible, but when give the direction he multiplies in size and flies to the Lanka. Similarly our mind is the worst master but can be an excellent servant to us. The capacity of the mind is limitless and we need to remind it what it is capable of. So when praying to Hanuman, our mind in effect, we can pray and feel blessed with strength and courage and will power. A tune obviously in some chants is very good and has a lasting effect on you such that it plays in your mind the whole day. I also always wondered why we have 300 crore gods! I feel maybe it was convenience? It is difficult to remember soo many qualities we need and pray to one god for ALL of them?. So I feel for every negative quality that could exist in us, there is a positive quality and we gave that quality a shape and form and pray to it.
Anyhow it was interesting and there was lot more trivial questions that squinty didnt know anything about. I went out and asked Kailas for a meditation guide and he gave me some papers to read about it. Maybe if I kept repeating it it will sink in more to space the mind.
I had to help in the kitchen cleaning and bathroom cleaning. I was feeling eww at bathroom cleaning at first but it was not too bad. People here are more clean anyway they were not that dirty because they are cleaned everyday. The kitchen cleaning was pretty tedious but it got over soon with a lot of help. I am writing this blog after 2 days so I dont remember much of daybefore than the important parts.
I think we just had the satsang and we went to sleep :D. I was thinking about Krishna and his form and I liked to think that the sound of flute he plays which is supposed to be very divine is the sound of our soul. And that we are like the flute, instrument in god's hands and we should be hollow like the flute with no ego. Just saying not to have ego is so simple but it is so hard to follow as we identify with our mind and body so much and it is very hard for me as well at this point......
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