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ISHA YOGA, NEW DELHI
FEBRUARY 2008
SATHSANG SCHEDULE
NOIDA: Saturday 2nd Feb 2008 at 6-8pm.
Venue: Villa 1, ATS Greens I, Sector 50, Noida.
NEW DELHI: Sunday 3rd Feb 2008 at 8-10am.
Venue: Lok Kala Manch, Lodhi Road Institutional Area. Behind Sai Mandir.
GURGAON: Sunday 3rd Feb 2008 at 6-8pm.
Venue: Block A, Flat 2005, Devender Vihar, Sector 56, Gurgaon. Directions – 9899700180
Venue: Block A, Flat 2005, Devender Vihar, Sector 56, Gurgaon. Directions – 9899700180
Awakening the formless divine within is the purpose of Isha, and the very purpose of life itself. It is important to commit time to reaffirm our truth and work toward this possibility in the company of those who can support us. Attend Sathsang even if you haven’t been doing your practices regularly. We can help you get back on track. Please come with an empty stomach so you are able to do the practices.
Pranam,
Volunteers
Isha Foundation
After a long wait I managed to visit Isha Yoga Center on 15 January, 2008 (on the day of Pongal).
It was a great ride from city centre to the Dhyanalingam…with the road covered on both sides by complete greenery. It was a great feeling to watch the mountains getting closer and closer as you reach Dhyanalingam.
We were welcomed by the volunteers at the entrance and they patiently briefed us about the place and what exactly we need to do.
Since photos were not allowed inside the temple, we took some pictures outside…
Welcome View of Naagam (Snake)
Me outside Dhyanalingam
For complete official gallery check Dhyanalingam Gallery.
After that we (me, Mom and Dad) went to the Theerthakund had a great experience inside the theerthakund. When I went, as soon as I entered into the water a powerful shock went through my body (well the water was very chill… 
)
As I got down the steps, for each and every step there were different reactions in the body as slowly part of our body was getting immersed into the water.
In the fourth step I stood for a long time as the water was very cold and the current was heavy. But I immersed into the water at the fourth step, only to get my body inure with the cold. After that went to the last step and reached the lingam in the centre.
After few minutes left the place and got ready to enter Dhyanalingam. Once again we were welcomed by volunteers with their warm smile and they explained what to do inside Dhyanalingam. We spent at least 30 to 40 minutes inside and then left for shopping
I bought nice calendars, some CDs and T-shirt from the shop.
Started at around 7 pm and reached the place where we were staying (inside the city) by around 8 pm.
On the whole, the trip was pure fun with lots of fantastic experiences. Expected to be there again very soon…check this blog for more updates
Pranams
Warm greetings from Isha Home School! We are pleased to announce that admissions for the 2008-2009 Academic Year is now open. The application and accompanying procedures are posted on our website at www.ishahomeschool.org/applications.html
Here you will find a link to the admission procedures and a link for the application.
Please note: Application forms and accompanying documents must be submitted to the above address on or before 31st January 2008. Kindly pass on this information to anyone whom you know who may be interested in enrolling their children. For further information, kindly contact the office at +91-422-2515444 or homeschool@ishafoundation.org
With warmest regards,
Maa Pratapi
(for Isha Home School)
PS. More detailed information about Isha Home School is provided below and can be accessed at www.ishahomeschool.org
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| ————————————————————————————————– “Education is about making the child grow with an uncluttered intelligence. An intelligence that is not identified and entangled in culture, religion, ideology, or prejudice will naturally lead to ultimate blossoming of the individual” – Sadhguru Isha Home School is the long-time vision and dream of Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, a yogi and a profound mystic of our times. The school offers a challenging and stimulating environment for the inner blossoming and well-rounded development of the child. Distinguishing Features: |
After a long wait, finally I was fortunate enough to attend the first Inner Engineering program @ Noida. I stay in Sector 62, Noida and it was really difficult for me to attend the program in Delhi.
On the outset, before attending the program, I had a huge doubt in my mind, “How am I going to attend all the classes @ 6 AM?”. Luckily I made it in time for all seven days Some days at 5.50 AM, 5.55 AM and very few days at sharp 6 AM 
When I was talking with one of the senior meditators in Delhi (fondly called as Thambi Anna), he told me once that waking up early is not that difficult and there will be a day when you will be the Alarm for your timer
The next day, I kept the alarm at 4.45 AM and astonishingly I woke up early and when I saw the timer it was 4.43 AM Well, the rest of the day was blissful
There were many other such instances (experiences) where I can really see the difference in me. Keep checking this blog for more updates…
View the picture taken during the initiation day HERE.
Do add your comments…
The second Inner Engineering program @ Noida is slated to happen from Feb 20 (Wednesday) to Feb 26 (Tuesday). The venue is not yet fixed.
To view the latest updates about the program, please visit Isha Yoga Website.
Questioner:
How can we expand the love within our hearts?
Sadhguru:
Beyond this identity you call as “myself” is a certain amount of energy functioning in a certain way. What kind of expression this energy finds is what your life is right now. This energy, this moment, can become love, joy, misery, or hatred. This same energy can become ecstasy. Yes? At different points in your life you have felt this same energy finding expression in different ways. How did your energy find expression in different ways? Whichever way the external situations were, accordingly, you reacted to that. Or in other words, your life energies are in deep enslavement to the external situation.
As long as your life energies are in deep enslavement with the outside, you are bound to live like an accidental person. If situations around you are conducive, you are loving. If situations around you are boiling, you also boil. The basic aspect of being human means that everything in you should happen by choice not by compulsion. If you had a choice as to what kind of expression this energy should find right now what expression would you offer it? Love and joy- there’s no question about it. Nobody needs to teach you to choose to be joyous. That life has already chosen. Finding a conscious expression to your life energies is the important aspect of being here as a human being.
Questioner:
Dear Sadhguru, is it possible to go into meditation for long durations? How does it help our spiritual growth?
Sadhguru:
A lot of people meditate for years. This is possible because people go off into different kinds of samadhis. These samadhis, by themselves have no great significance in terms of Realization. Experiencing a certain type of samadhi, doesn’t mean you are released from Existence. It is just a new level of experience.
It is like when you were a child, you had one level of experience, once you moved into your adulthood, you have another level of experience. The same things that you have experienced at a particular point in your life, after a few years, you experience them in a totally different way. So, you have moved from one level of experience to another level of experience.
Samadhis are just like this. You are moving from one level of experience to another level of experience in a much more significant and deeper sense. Still, it is just another level of experience.
Somebody may go into a certain level of samadhi and stay there for years because it is enjoyable. There is no space or time. There are no bodily problems. He has broken the physical and psychological barriers to some extent. But this is only temporary. The moment he comes out, again he gets hungry, he has to sleep, and again everything comes back.
Samadhi definitely has its benefits. There are many things it has to offer for an individual, but this doesn’t really take you any closer to Realization, as such. Compared to a man who is sober, a man who is slightly drunk, has a different level of experience, but he has to come down at some point. All samadhis, I would say, are a way of getting high without any external chemicals. Now, by going into these states, it opens up a new dimension for you, but it doesn’t leave any great transformation behind. It doesn’t leave you permanently transformed.
You have not moved into another reality. In the same reality, your level of experiences has deepened. You have experienced the same things in a little deeper sense. You have not become free from the mind.
Now, somebody meditates for 12 years and comes out. Even after 12 years, he may not be a realized being, but, maybe he is a little closer. When you go into another reality and stay there for long hours or long years, the grip of this reality is broken on you. Now, you have come to a experiential understanding that, this is not it. Not just an intellectual understanding, you have seen experientially that this is not it. That is the whole purpose of long meditations, staying there for very long. But most realized beings never went into samadhi states.
Gautama never sat for 12 years in one place, you know. Many of his disciples, many Buddhist monks went off into very long meditations. They never came out for years together, but Gautama himself never went, because he saw it is not necessary.
He practiced and experienced all the eight kinds of samadhis before his enlightenment and he discarded them. He said, “This is not it”. This is not going to take you any closer to realization. It is just moving into a higher level of experience and probably you will get more caught up, because it is more beautiful than the current reality.
If the goal is set, if you’ve made realization the top priority in your life, then every thing else which doesn’t take you one step closer is meaningless. Isn’t it? Let’s say you are climbing the Mount Everest, you will not take one step sideways, because every ounce of energy is needed. Now, if you have to transcend your own consciousness, you need every ounce of what you have and it’s not enough. So, any action that we perform, we don’t want it to be a sidewinder.
Questioner:
Sir, we all have weaknesses we don’t like. Something like smoking, or getting angry. We don’t like them, but we have them. How can we work on them?
Sadhguru:
See, the more you say “I don’t want something”, that becomes the basis of your mind. If you say “I don’t want something”, that will rule your mind, isn’t it? As an experiment, right now, nobody should think about monkeys for the next 10 seconds. Hmm, try it…only monkeys come to your mind, isn’t it? This is the nature of your mind. You can’t do anything head-on with your mind. You need to understand the process of your mind and see what to do with it.
Now, people are always coming and saying “I want to give up smoking what should I do?” I tell them, “You are not smoking right now. why would you smoke? Your body is not that kind of machine which smokes; automobiles do, but not your body. If you don’t want to smoke, don’t smoke”. Then they say, ”No, no, I am a smoker I am trying to give up smoking and it’s not working”.
The question is not about smoking or not smoking. It happened like this. One day a man who was friends with his neighbor, a lady, just drove with her and parked somewhere and suddenly his hands were all over her. She said, “You fool! What are you doing? I thought you are a decent fellow and I came with you, what is this nonsense?” He said, “No, I gave up smoking.” (laughs)
If you compulsively give up something, this is what will happen to you. It will take shape in some other way. Now, what is it that you are trying to do with smoking? One thing is probably you are down, you are trying to stimulate yourself with nicotine, or psychologically you feel incomplete. By holding a cigarette in your hand, you feel little more, you know, brave, man-like. Kids start smoking because they want to grow up soon, yes? A 10-year-old kid wants to smoke because he wants to become a man instantly. When he just inhales and blows it into somebody’s face, it feels like a man. Not anymore, but it was so 10 years ago.
It happened like this, there was a Sufi saint called Ibrahim. You have heard of Ibrahim? In his ashram or his center, two disciples were sitting very morose in the garden one evening and one said to the other, “I want to smoke but we are on a spiritual path, how to smoke?” The other one said “Even I want to smoke; I don’t know what to do”.
Then they decided, “Let us go and ask the master whether we can smoke or not”, because in the past, there have been many Sufi saints who were continuously smoking. So next day evening, one disciple was sitting in the same spot in the garden, totally miserable, the other disciple came smoking. He said, “Hey! Why are you smoking? Master told me not to smoke” So the other disciple asked, “What did you ask him?” “I asked him if I can smoke when I am meditating”. He said “No”. “That’s your problem”, said the second monk. I asked him whether I can meditate when I am smoking, and he told me go ahead. (laughs)
So don’t try to give it up, bring awareness into your life. Bring awareness to every aspect of your life; you will see everything that is not necessary will simply fall by the wayside. If you try to give it up, you’ll only struggle.
Even if you manage to give it up, probably you will cause more damage to yourself smoking in your dream than actually smoking. Yes. If you give up something that you want to do, in your dreams you will smoke a huge cigarette. Isn’t it? These things are not necessary, please see that something else is lacking. That is why you built these habits. If you go little deeper and bring a little awareness to your own nature, these things will just disappear.
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