​As we delve deeper into Tantra, it is essential to recognize that this spiritual path is highly adaptable and can be tailored to individual needs and preferences. This adaptability has contributed to its ongoing appeal and relevance in contemporary spiritual circles.

​One of the key principles in Tantra is the cultivation of awareness, both of oneself and of the present moment. This heightened awareness is achieved through practices such as meditation, breathwork, and yoga, which help to quiet the mind and bring our attention to the here and now. By cultivating this mindful presence, we can develop greater insight into our own patterns and habits, allowing us to make more conscious choices in our lives.

Another important aspect of Tantra is the emphasis on personal empowerment and self-discovery. Unlike some spiritual traditions that place authority in the hands of an external figure, Tantra encourages individuals to explore their inner landscape and trust their intuition.

This self-reliance is empowering and allows practitioners to take responsibility for their own spiritual growth and development.

Additionally, Tantra encourages the cultivation of loving-kindness and compassion, both for ourselves and for others. By embracing and accepting all aspects of our being, including our shadows and imperfections, we can develop a more compassionate and non-judgmental approach to life. This, in turn, helps to foster deeper connections with others, as we recognize the shared humanity that unites us all.

Tantra also teaches that the body is a temple, and that physical pleasure and sensuality can be a gateway to the divine. This holistic approach to spirituality, which includes rather than shuns the body, can be a refreshing alternative for those who have felt disconnected or repressed within more ascetic or puritanical spiritual traditions.

​Tantra has been embraced by the modern wellness movement, with its practices and principles being incorporated into various forms of therapy, coaching, and self-help programs. This has led to a proliferation of Tantra-inspired workshops, retreats, and courses, offering individuals the opportunity to explore this ancient wisdom in a contemporary context.

It is important to approach Tantra with an open mind and heart, and to recognize that it is a diverse and multi-dimensional practice that cannot be reduced to any single aspect or stereotype. By doing so, we can appreciate the depth and richness of this ancient tradition and discover how it can help us to transform our lives and awaken to our true potential.

The term "Rudraksha" has its roots in Sanskrit, combining "Rudra" (a name for Lord Shiva) and "Aksha" (meaning "eye" or "teardrop").

According to ancient Vedic (Hindu) scriptures, Lord Shiva went into deep meditation for the benefit of all living beings. Upon emerging from his meditative state, he shed a single tear of compassion, which fell to the earth and gave birth to the Rudraksha tree.

​The beads from this tree have since been considered sacred, symbolizing the divine connection between humanity and the cosmos.

Rudraksha beads come in various sizes and forms, with the most common being the five-faced (Panchamukhi) bead.

The number of faces, or "Mukhis," determines the unique properties and benefits of each Rudraksha.

​These beads are believed to possess powerful spiritual energy, which helps to balance the body's various chakras, enhance one's meditative practices, and facilitate spiritual growth.

The sacred beads are often worn as a necklace or bracelet, allowing the wearer to harness their spiritual power and attain inner peace. By wearing Rudraksha beads close to the skin, one can experience their healing and transformative energy, which is believed to:

1. Improve Concentration and Focus: Rudraksha beads are said to help calm the mind, enhance concentration, and improve one's ability to focus during meditation or daily activities.
2. Balance Energy and Chakras: The beads are believed to cleanse and balance the body's energy centers, harmonizing the flow of vital energy and promoting overall well-being.
3. Enhance Spiritual Growth: Wearing Rudraksha beads can elevate one's spiritual practices, facilitating a deeper connection with the divine and encouraging spiritual awakening.
4. Offer Protection: The beads are known for their protective qualities, shielding the wearer from negative energies and creating a powerful aura of spiritual strength.

To ensure that your Rudraksha beads maintain their spiritual potency, it is essential to care for them properly.

​This involves regular cleaning, oiling, and avoiding exposure to harsh chemicals or excessive heat. By treating your Rudraksha beads with respect and devotion, you can tap into their full spiritual potential and experience their transformative power.

In essence, Rudraksha beads offer a unique and powerful tool for spiritual growth, inner transformation, and self-discovery. By incorporating these sacred beads into your spiritual practice, you can deepen your connection with the divine, awaken your inner potential, and embark on a journey of healing and enlightenment.

Rudraksha is a gift from the divine, a testament to the boundless compassion and grace of Lord Shiva, and a reminder of the spiritual path that lies within each of us.

​You may be asking yourself if happiness is a state of mind, or if it is a feeling. Happiness as a feeling is transient - it lasts only for a moment or even a day and then is replaced by another feeling. It is therefore important to recognize happiness as a choice you make every day. 

You can choose happiness by choosing to think positively and focus on the positives in your life.

Develop a "thermostat" kind of mindset. This kind of mind does not rely on external things to make you happy. It is based on internal happiness. You choose to be happy even when you face adversity. In this way, you do not let negative circumstances affect your happiness. You believe that you are in control of your own worldview. You can choose to see the good or bad in every situation. 

For example, if you are unhappy with your work, you can focus on the positive aspects (like it helps you to pay your bills) instead of dwelling on the negative parts. 

People who practice mindfulness can find happiness by surrounding themselves with people who think differently than them. They learn to become comfortable with stillness, which is where the brain does its most powerful work. 

What helps further is that, those who are happy tend to cultivate deep human connections with other people. These connections lead to opportunity and possibility, leading to more external 'happy feeling' scenarios. 

Ultimately, happiness is a state of mind, which needs to be traversed like we do any journey and not look out for it, as if it is a destination! Happiness can be cultivated. 

Categories: 
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​Our world as we experience it, is shaped by our beliefs. Though at an apparent level, it may seem like our experiences shape our beliefs, that is not entirely true. Since there are very few situations that people are able to view objectively. Most of the time, people add subjective meaning to their experience and this subjective extrapolation is entirely influenced by their beliefs!
 
When you are experiencing high levels of anxiety, you will start to see things develop that further substantiate your intense level of stress. In other words, if you are feeling anxious about something, you will see that situation as being negative and anxiety-causing. If you are constantly thinking about what is going to happen next, you will see the world as being full of negative situations.

Whether you know it or not, your beliefs play a big part in your life. They determine how you think, behave, and experience life. If you believe you are deserving of a certain position, you will go after it. If you believe you are capable of getting a certain job, then your deep confidence will radiate in your personality, and this will allow you to do better in the interview. 
If your beliefs prevent you from achieving your goals, then you can change them and manifest your dreams. 

Write down your core beliefs and challenge all the negative ones. As you do this, you will realize that you have added a lot of negative-subjective emphasis to what is seemingly a one or two off incident. 

For e.g. just because your two past relationships failed miserably, does not mean that you do are unlucky in love. It simply means that you came across two individuals who were not compatible with your views and expectations for a relationship. That is all… 

When you start to observe your experiences with this kind of objectivity, you will find that you have 'acquired' these beliefs… from your friends and family, your culture, and your own self-talk. 
 
So, if you have acquired these limiting negative beliefs, then you can also surely let them go and choose to acquire positive beliefs that will help you to accomplish your goals and live a happier life. 
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Once you start challenging your negative thoughts and start to actively change them, you will start seeing deep transformation. Soon you will see that your beliefs, which ultimately are nothing but deep core subconscious thoughts, will begin to reflect your new positive way of thinking. Soon, your new beliefs will become your new reality… a happier reality.

Categories:
Ancient Wisdom,     Global Vedic Wisdom  and   Self Development
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​When we think of the symbolism and meaning of Lord Narsimha (a deity from the Vedic tradition… and each deity represents a cosmic energy form)… we realize that when extreme detrimental behaviors become the new-norm, and people are selfish and violent… then there is a phase of even worse fierceness, before things are set back to serene calmness.

If you are not familiar with Lord Narsimha, the Vedic Archetype of Evolution & Divine Justice, then you may want to check out: 

 ​In general it is a good idea to keep a calm head and think things thru before acting, but particularly over the next few day… atleast for a few weeks ahead, be sure to keep a calm head. Do not let external events shake you up… but think thru carefully to see how you can best act in any given situation to bring about the best results… for yourself and others!

Even though, as humanity or should I say conglomerate of nations, we are shifting back from globalization to nationalization, we still need to remember that if we are connected… not because of economic or political affiliations but because that is the nature of Nature!

If you have not read my special message for this upcoming Lunar Eclipse on May 15-16, 2022 then, check out:   ​Special message for the lunar eclipse...

​Buddhism was established in India in 563-483 B.C.E. by Siddhartha Gautama. It spread over the next millennia throughout Asia and the rest of the world. Buddhists believe life is a cycle of suffering and rebirth. It is possible to achieve enlightenment (nirvana) if you are able to free yourself from this "repeated cycle of birth and death"!

Buddhism provided a "middle way" of attaining nirvana, i.e. enlightenment. Enlightenment is the profound realization of the meaning of life,  which annihilates  suffering to further lead to moksha, which is freedom from the repeated cycles of birth and death.

This way of Gautama, The Buddha (The Realized One), which is what Buddhism represents, allows one to walk the spiritual path using neither extremes- of spiritual practice or materialistic living. It is the middle path where one neither indulges in extreme asceticism nor in extreme material pursuits!

​Tantra is one of the path towards liberation.  It is believed that the real spirituality started off with Tantra.  The path is not advised for all the levels of people in the society like the other path – karma yoga, bhakti yoga, etc.  

The basic objective of Tantra is to liberate the soul by expanding the consciousness.  Unlike other practices, tantric path can be followed only under the guidance of a spiritual master who has attained self-realization. Guru initiates the disciple to this path through “diksha”. 

​This is for highly evolved spiritual aspirants who are competent enough who can fight with the nether forces of ignorance in the self.  But that doesn’t mean that one who has passion towards tantric path cannot follow this route for the self-realization.

​For any type of aspirant, tantra finds the right starting place for him.  It naturally means, the aspirant has to perform the practices based on his level of understanding about himself.  Controlling the mind through the control of senses are the ways of tantra. 

The way of tantra is to understand the functioning of the mind in various situations, without the help of senses. From the scientific perspective, it is detaching the matter from consciousness.

One has to come out of the body consciousness in order to experience the self.  It is based on the principle of Shiva and Shakti – the consciousness and the energy manifested through the body. Existence is the combination of both the energy and consciousness. To reveal the real nature of the mind, it is necessary to free the mind from the past impressions, the unimportant knowledge, samskaras, etc. 

The entire human existence is based on two forces – prana and mind. These two forces are responsible for action, life and knowledge. Whenever there is a problem with the balancing of these two forces, there arises problems throughout the life. These two forces symbolize the ida and pingala nadis (energy channels). 

All these concepts are described in tantra by the ancient sages. Tantra is basically expansion of the mind and then liberation of the soul. When the mind is expanded towards several other planes of existence, mind starts experiencing the internal consciousness. This process increases the internal awareness by liberating the mind from its unlimited functionality.  

As a result of the intense spiritual practices performed by the spiritual aspirant performed under a guru, he evolves to the higher planes or existence there by expanding the consciousness. 

The serpent power symbolizing the human consciousness called as Kundalini shakti is awakened gradually as the aspirant goes forward in this spiritual practice. Starting with hatha yoga, the practices involves kriyas (physical purification), yoga, meditation practice, japa, etc. Yoga is part of tantra. 

We all know that in order to succeed at anything- it is not just about knowing the right skills or being in a suitable situation, but it is the timing of an event. As they say- it is very important to be at the right place, at the right time!! 

But then again, most of us are not very familiar and do not have easy access to esoteric sciences like astrology and so on. So, how can we still benefit from this?
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I have written about this in length with all the Vedic information details in couple of articles in the Vedic Wisdom blog but given the importance of this information- I wanted it to reach a wider audience, so I am posting the key Abhijeet Hora timing information here, on this general blog. I will spare you all the Vedic Astrology details- as the casual non-familiar reader.   :-)

​If you would like more information on Abhijeet Nakshatra, then check out What is the Abhijeet Nakshatra? Understanding the power of the Abhijeet Nakshatra- to become the Final and Supremely Victorious One!!

This is what you need to do: check online for a Panchang- it is a Vedic calendar. It may seem very daunting, but don’t worry- I will tell you what exactly it is that you need to look for… then it gets easy.

For ease of use, I tend to use Drik Panchang, but frankly you can use any application that provides correct hora (time-segment) calculations.

• Next- make sure that it reflects the location that we are physically present. Most of these applications have some Indian city as their default location. Be sure to change it to your location.
• Then next look for the Daily Panchang section. By default, many of these applications show monthly Panchang.
• Finally- look for the section that says Muhurta (loosely translated to ‘timing’). Here, look out for Abhijeet Muhurta. Viola- as simple as that. The time span it provides is the Abhijeet hora segment of the day. Now, if you are someone who needs to do some work during the night, particularly in our globally connected economy, then look out for Nishita Kaal. This is the Abhijeet hora segment for the nighttime.
• You will find that the Abhijeet hora usually lasts for around 48 minutes or so- but depending on if it is summer or winter (i.e., longer, or shorter days) it will expand or contract this hora time.

Now try to initiate important activity during this time. For e.g., you want to register a new domain name for your online shop, or you are going over to meet a potential client for the first time then- you can do it during these times.
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This way, irrespective of many other cosmic-energetic challenges that could be present on that day, you will be able to carry out your activity at the “best possible time”. 

Now keep in mind that Abhijeet muhurta is not good for all activities and also on Wednesday, it forms a ‘not-so-nice’ sticky aspect.

​So, if what you are planning is a very important life activity like marriage or moving homes etc. then it is advisable to obtain a more professional opinion from someone who is familiar with finding favorable muhurta- but for simple, practical help with timing events and for most part (minus Wednesday), you should be able to utilize the power of the Abhijeet nakshatra (lunar constellation) to attain victory and success in your endeavors.

Categories: 
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​In English we address the consciousness essence of man as soul. So the question that comes to many is if that be the case, then how come we are all the same and considered to be similar to our creator. I.e. we are all supposed to be similar and at the same time are very different and have our own individual tendencies which we carry thru many lifetimes.

The original Sanskrit word helps us understand this better. Soul or Atma is our consciousness-essence and for a manifested individual it is called as Jivatma (sometimes also written as Jeevatma). Jivatma is made of two words, Jiv (or Jeev) and Atma.

The “Atma” part of the Jivatma, is the microcosmic representation of the macrocosmic divine Consciousness. It is the same in essence and so at this level we are all the same.

Then what makes each one of us unique in our soul journeys is the Jeev part. If you have read the article on our numerous bodies then you understand that we carry all our karmas and samskars (i.e. karmic memory impressions) in our Causal body.

​This causal body makes up the Jeev part of the Jivatma. Since each one of us have had different experiences and our interpretations of life scenarios and resulting actions have been different; we each have our individual Causal body and in this way are an “individual Jeev”. The word Jeev in its most literal sense means a “living form”. Such a living form or Jeev is our basic individual identity.

When we speak of cleansing our karmas and learning our lessons, we are basically working on this part of ourselves. As we progress, we come to the stage of “Enlightenment” which is nothing but true understanding that even this existence of “Jeev or Life-Form” exists because of the delusion of Maya (what maintains the manifestation of separateness and duality).

At this point one is truly aware of the Atma aspect of one’s being. I.e. one is truly aware of our “Atmic Self”- this is nothing but a microcosmic drop of the macrocosmic Consciousness.

But till one is living a physical life, Enlightenment is as high an energetic state one can be in- since without letting the body go, which includes the Causal form and Jeev aspect, one cannot truly and completely merge in the macrocosmic Consciousness. This requires not just the awareness of one’s Atma but also detachment from one’s “Jeev-self”.

​If one has reached that stage of realization, then at the end of that lifetime, their Jeev would drop off! I.e. their Causal body along with its karmas and samskars would get dropped off and their Atma, their very essence will merge with the macrocosmic Consciousness. This is called moksha. It is ONLY after moksha that one will not be entangled with any further cycles of birth and death- since there is no “jeev- karmic causual body” creating the need for further births (and deaths)!

What I have observed is there are several folks who reach Enlightenment in their lifetime and continue on their “Soul Energy (Atmic) journey” for further understanding and awareness of their Cosmic self. Such folks are at higher energy states than of Enlightenment, but since they still have their physical life-form, it is imperative that they continue to lead their lives with non-action, i.e. without incurring any karma or creating any further karmic samskars. If they are able to do so, then at the end of that life-time they can reach Moksha.

In case, they incur karma or get caught in any delusions of the Maya, then their causal body will not drop off at death and will continue with their Atma- leading to further cycles of birth and death.

So, along with understanding one’s true nature of “Consciousness” it is important for us to lead our life in non-action: i.e. action which does not incur karma or create any forms of “attachment”! We will address this concept of Non-Action in another post.

​Categories:
Ancient Wisdom,   Ascension,   Conscious Living,  Karma, Global Vedic Wisdom, Sounds And Mantras, Spiritual Awareness   and   Tantra
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