by Swami Sitaramananda | Jun 20, 2015 | 4 Paths of Yoga
1) What is the source of all mental problems?
All mental problems are spiritual problems coming from the lack of connection to the source and the absence of the sense of meaning to peoples life; believing themselves to be separate and competing with each other, identifying with their mind and emotions. The idea is the body and mind are only instruments of consciousness. If the body and mind become purified then it can reflect the light. So yoga helps the purification and this will bring the clear reflection of our consciousness, which will remove all mental problems.
2) Why modern science and technology are not capable of solving human beings problems?
Science and technology help material life and physical life, but cannot address spiritual questions. Spiritual growth and scientific growth need to go hand in hand otherwise technological growth will be at the expense of spiritual growth. In other words, we become slaves of technology and become more disconnected towards nature. This is not good.
3) How can we control our monkey mind?
Children need to learn to concentrate in general; but adults need to teach them to concentrate, so their minds can become calm and they can connect with themselves. In order to calm the mind we need to concentrate on mantra with a feeling of self-surrender to a higher power. So, there are three aspects: a concentration practice, a devotional practice of self-surrendering, and understanding that the mind and emotions are only instruments, which consciousness needs gain control over. We need to teach children the mind is not their true nature, that they are pure consciousness, on the journey from imperfection to perfection, using the mind as an instrument of experience, and learning to build their capacity to adjust their fluctuating positive and negative attitudes to a steady calm attitude.
4) What is mind? Where is it located? And how does it work?
Please refer to the chapter in the book Essentials of Yoga Practice and Philosophy about the mechanics of the mind. It is difficult to control the mind because we are not aware the mind is not who we are. In answering the previous question we spoke about the mind as an instrument to gain experience and readjust our attitude to calmness so we can reflect our true nature. If we don’t understand this and only react to the mind perceptions; it’s like driving a car without a driver in the driver seat and the car is out of control.
5) What is your suggestion to release all tensions of the mind?
To release tensions we need to learn to adapt and adjust. One can only adapt, adjust and let go if one doesn’t identify with the mind. It comes back to the question to understand that the mind is not you, and that you are pure consciousness. Meditation is definitely helpful because it gives you the direct experience of consciousness when the mind is no longer operating.
6) What is the best way to focus our mind?
The best are Bhakti Yoga techniques, to focus on mantra which is pure sound with a feeling of acceptance and self-surrender.
7) Why human mind is always busy? Human mind is busy because we think that we know, we think that we can solve our problems ourselves, we think that satisfaction of desires will lead to contentment; but satisfaction of desire brings more desires. Desires leads to the continuous revolving in the wheel of karma, of life and death, without peace and lasting happiness. So the yogic teaching tells us to calm the mind and control the mind to connect with the true Self that is beyond desires and that is the source of all happiness.
8) How yoga instructors can get to know about the secrets of the mind? Yoga instructors need to learn more about yoga psychology and philosophy by studying scriptures to remember the Self, having Satsanga listening to people of wisdom, studying their own mind and performing self inquiry learning not to fall in the trap of their own mind, meditation to have the direct experience of Truth, and by selfless service helping and counseling other’s suffering minds to understand better the process of detachment.
9) How can we focus on only positive things?
To focus exclusively on the positive as this will block out all the negative. Also learn to switch negative to positive by the practice of the 4 classical paths of Yoga. Karma Yoga teaches you to be selfless and adaptable; Bhakti Yoga teaches you to surrender to God’s will and accepting; Raja Yoga teaches you to replace negative thoughts and emotions with the opposite and to concentrate the mind, Hatha Yoga teaches you to channel and balance energies, and Jnana Yoga teaches you to see Unity, the Self in All.
10) What’s your suggestion to alleviate the pain and suffering of human beings?
Raja Yoga scriptures talk about 2 things to alleviate pains and sufferings (afflictions):
1. Concentration – on positive and uplifting object like a mantra and
2. Detachment towards everything else.
11) How much yoga practices can improve the quality of human beings life?
Yoga practices definitely help to alleviate the pains and sufferings by giving people calmness, strength, and detachment so they have Self Knowledge. Their quality of life will improve 100% as they come to understand the source of their sufferings and will not go on repeating the same mistakes in ignorance.
12) What’s your idea about the purpose of yoga seekers life?
The Yoga seekers want peace and Self Realization. Swami Sivananda said until the water of the rivers reach the ocean, we will not be at peace because we are like these rivers whose destination is to merge with the ocean. So Yoga practitioners need to keep practicing and refining their knowledge until the ultimate goal of Self Realization is attained; which is realizing that the individual self and God or the universal consciousness are One.
13) What should we do to have an ideal life without stress and tension?
Stress and tension are unavoidable but if you adopt the attitude of a Karma yogi, offering all results of action to God, you will alleviate stress, because the sense of doer ship will be less and the sense of gaining and loosing will be less. Karma yoga attitude combined with the Bhakti Yoga attitude of surrender and acceptance are helpful. Additionally, keeping the mind strong and stable in Raja Yoga and staying detached, remembering all is all the time perfect, like a Jnana Yogi.
14) What’s your suggestion to guide the youth in right path which is spiritual?
For youth, you can present asana as healthy exercise first. Pranayama and the rest of the five points of yoga can then be explained. In India people offer yoga as competition for young people and yoga is presented like a sport.
15) In an interview with Daneshe Yoga magazine in 2000, we talked about Raja yoga and Hatha yoga…so due to all changes since 2000, we face more sad events so would you please tell us how can we end up all sorrows in the world? All the problems you talk about are perennial; so what I said in 2000 and the situation now is the same. I am happy to hear that they are 300 yoga teachers and 500,000 yoga practitioners in Iran and that you are continuing to bring people to yoga. I believe that underneath the negativities that one might perceive in our world there is a consciousness revolution that is happening with millions of people practicing yoga in throughout the world. Recently the United Nations adopted international yoga day as June 21st.
16) Have you ever think about traveling to Iran? What’s your idea about Iranians?
I have never been to Iran but the people I have met from Persian culture are very spiritual. I myself will not be able to go to Iran in the close future but I am sending my prayers and good wishes to you all and invite students to join my webinar, online teaching, if they can. I am presently teaching yoga in Asia as well as I am of Asian origin. Please ask people to check our website www.sivanandayogafarm.org for the date and time of upcoming webinars, to access the previously presented webinar recordings, and for the schedule of when and where I will be teaching.
17) What’s your message to Daneshe Yoga Magazines readers?
The final message to all thereaders is the message of Sivananda, “Serve, love, give, purify, meditate, realize” and the message of Swami Vishnudevananda of, “Unity in diversity.” Om Tat Sat.
by Swami Sitaramananda | Oct 26, 2014 | 4 Paths of Yoga
Understanding your vehicle: the 3 bodies and 5 layers.
This is a concept in yoga that you need to master because without that you cannot understand the teachings. The teaching is that you are not just the physical body, but also the subtle bodies. You have 3 bodies or vehicles. Subtle is comprised of 3 layers. You have to distinguish.
The main thing you need to understand is the 3 bodies. What that means? You function at 3 different levels.
- One is the physical body (level), the gross body. The physical body is needed to function in the physical world in the awakened state. When you are awake, you are centered in the physical body.
- Second is the astral body, the subtle body that is very connected to the physical body. You use it in the Dream state when you are sleeping and you are dreaming.
- Then third the Causal body is our core functioning. It is also called the seed body. From the seed comes the tree and the leaves. If you dig under tree, you will not find the seed because the seed has become the tree. The causal body is the reason, the core reason of our existence. That means within you there is a core reason why this body and this mind come about. In the same manner, from a banana seed comes a banana tree. And from the banana tree comes the fruit. Can a coconut tree come from a banana seed? No. This means that we have specific reason for our existence and why we are born in a body which is different from one another, and also our mind. That is the reason why we are born is different from one another.
To understand prana you have to understand these different instruments, because you will see that sometimes you don’t know very well and you put too much energy into one and not enough into the other and that is a problem. Yoga helps you to balance and harmonize the energy that goes through all the different instruments or bodies.
Astral Body
Now divide the subtle portion, the astral body, into 3 more layers. These layers are connected. Here we examine the energies of our mind.
- One layer is called the vital air or energy, the pranic sheath. The technical name is the Pranayama Kosha. Here are the feelings of thirst, hunger, heat, and cold. When you are hungry your whole system changes, or when you are thirsty. At that moment of feeling hungry or thirsty you are functioning out of the vital energy body.
- Next comes the mental, emotional energies layer. For some, the emotional energy is very active and can take over everything. The mental body (the emotions) is linked with the senses. The emotional energy can be very active and also very conflicted, overpowering and can also be blocked which creates problem with the vital energy sheath. The emotional energy affects the vital energy sheath. For example if you have fear in your emotional sheath you become cold. If you have anger you become hot.
- The last layer of our astral body is called the intellectual energy layer which is linked to the ego. The ego is also energy. Everything is energy. It takes a lot of energy to be egoistic. Once the energy of ego is there it blocks everything else. It veils the picture.
We are an energy being, very complex. The Physical body is very gross. There is subtle energies playing in our life all the time. We need to know how to balance (harmonize) the energy in all layers of our existence. We need to learn to increase its wavelength. We need to learn to make it work for you. What does this mean? It means make it more worth it. More energy, more power and this will make you free. Yoga is the practice that will set you free. How are you going to do it?
Understanding the subtle
Number 1, you have to understand that you are not this gross body. Get out of the idea that you are this gross body living in this gross world. Here in the ashram we never mention the body. The understanding and training in the world is based on the physical. What you see is the picture of reality. It is what you are. But here is an esoteric school. It is a yogi school. Yoga is a science 1000 years old. The teachings here come from the sages who have much more understanding of what is life. They say the physical is only the gross end of it. The more you can go to the subtle and manipulate things from the subtle level, the more you can understand and be aware and the more powerful it is, because subtle is more powerful than gross. Example, shouting is gross, thinking is subtle. If you tell somebody that you love them they hear you but if you think that you love them it is more powerful.
The core, subtlest of all, above it all is the Self. This is the pure consciousness of who you are. This is the Source of all prana of the universe and it is there for its own purpose. That is a good thing to know. That means the energy is everywhere, but sometimes we feel disconnected and cut off, because we are not driving our vehicles properly or tuning ourselves to the energy of the Universe properly. That is why, we feel unfulfilled and imbalanced. We need to balance the physical and the spiritual. We are not balanced, that is why we are feeling disconnected.
by Swami Sitaramananda | Oct 20, 2014 | 4 Paths of Yoga
Balancing the energies
The practice of Yoga aims to achieve inner balance. Hatha (Ha Tha) Yoga is balance between the sun and the moon energy. It is the balance between the hot and cold, active and passive, male and female, yin and yang. We need to learn to regulate our energy and understand that all of our problems are coming from the imbalance of energy. Imbalance of energy is manifested in personalities. We can alleviate the imbalance of personality through regulating our energy.
When we are imbalanced, it is like we see reality lopsided because we have a lopsided vision. The imbalance is often times between the emotions and the intellect, that means a person would be left brain dominant or right brain dominant.
Left Brain
A left brain dominant person would not have connection to their emotions . You can say the emotions are stuck, or they cannot feel them because the left side of the personality is dominating the right side, so the person’s behavior is more rigid as everything has to go through the reasoning. They cannot be spontaneous, they have difficulty to practice empathy, either for one’s self or for others. Empathy means putting yourself in the skin of somebody, and understanding the feeling and the experience of somebody, or even putting yourself in your own skin as well and have the feeling for one’s own self, and know how to harmonize our emotions and to adapt. The person can appear self- absorbed . In fact any imbalance either emotional or intellectual brings about self -absorption. Tuning means adjusting , adapting, harmonizing, moderating . You would say “this is the right thing, the right tone, the right attitude , the right reaction”. In the absence of tuning, there will be unhappiness, lack of touch of one’s emotions, there can be self violence, self torture, self denial, addiction, intolerance, fanaticism , abuse, passive aggressive attitude, emotional outburst and emotional repression, incapacity to stop and to regulate yourself back or know what is right and wrong for yourself. It can create difficulties to oneself and to others because it only sees one side of the picture , the logical side. But the truth is life is not just logical, life is not just black or white.
Right Brain
A right brain dominant person would be immersed in their emotions, their likes and dislikes. They would think: “I like this until I die or I dislike this until something or myself will be destroyed. “ The emotions swing and the mind is up and down, all this or all that.
Finding the balance
If we are alternating between Right and Left brain behavior, it is not called balance. It is just compensation and not balance.
A balanced person is a Yogi who has achieved equanimity of mind because they have found themselves and they can be adapting to situations and to people without loosing their sense of Self.
That person is basically calm in all conditions, they do not get excited about anything , neither get despondent about anything. They are content and go about their life, centered in the Self, not living life to attract attention or to prove something.
We need to be aware that an exceptional person that stands out from the crowd is not necessarily balanced but often, they are so imbalanced that they create their mark in history because of their imbalances.
We are not born perfect, so we all need to regulate ourselves through Yoga.
What to do?
First we need to recognize that our unhappiness comes from our imbalanced state and not coming from anyone else. Grief and blame come from our lack of recognition that this difficulty comes from our own outlook . Integral Yoga practice gives you a little bit of reprieve because it balances the two hemispheres of the brain and awakens the Self Knowledge . Yoga practice by helping you to recognize your strength and weakness, by regulating your energy , acts as a pain preventative measure and a self renewal tonic.
Your new balanced Self: Practiced regularly, it prevents you from returning to your habitual mode of imbalance – falsely identified to be your own Self . When you grow in Yoga, you slowly change your patterns and feel gradually very different as if you are losing yourself, but in fact you are regaining your own True Glorious Radiant Self.
© Swami Sitaramananda 2014 No part of this article may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the author.
by Swami Sitaramananda | Oct 20, 2014 | 4 Paths of Yoga
What is Sadhana?
Sadhana is systematic, conscious, spiritual practice that is done in order to change consciousness. It doesn’t mean something that you do when you feel like it, and when you don’t feel like it, you do not do it – that is not sadhana. Sadhana means you have to go against the subconscious, lower mind, and do it anyway, whether you like it or not. That means you are using your conscious mind, and even if you do not like it in the beginning, eventually, your consciousness will change. It takes a long time.
Just because you do discipline does not mean you are necessarily doing sadhana. For example, if you train to be a ballet dancer, it is also a very rigorous training that requires a lot of discipline. It can be very painful, and it is a difficult skill to develop. But that is not sadhana, because it does not change consciousness. Sadhana has to change your consciousness.
You have to understand what is Sadhana. In Sivananda Yoga, we often refer to doing our asanas and pranayama as ‘doing our sadhana’, but this is not really correct. The reason for this is that Swami Vishnudevanandaji taught us that we need to start by Hatha Yoga. Also, as staff, the young people need to do hatha yoga daily in order to sublimate the emotional and sexual energy. Otherwise, after a few days, weeks or months, they will be gone. Karma Yoga, when done properly, also will sublimate the energy, because it comes together with bhakti yoga. But most of the time, we are not doing real Karma Yoga – we are just doing jobs.
The 1st Sadhana: Karma Yoga
Swami Vishnudevanandaji used to give the example that there is a person doing pranayama, and nearby, someone is crying for help. At that time, you should stop doing your pranayama, and go and help the other person, because the reason for doing pranayama is to remove the blockages in your astral body in your energy channels that comes from selfishness.That’s why Karma Yoga is the first, most important sadhana.
Sadhana in the 4 paths of Yoga
Karma Yoga is when you do action selflessly, with consciousness, without expectation of result, or by giving up of the results of action. Karma Yoga has to come together with Bhakti Yoga. Bhakti Yoga means that you do things for God, with love in your heart and the understanding that God is everywhere. It has to be done with joy and enthusiasm. When you do Karma Yoga, you may feel that nobody recognizes your work, or you may be grumbling inside because you feel that somebody else is making you do the work. But if it is real Karma Yoga (selfless action), you should not feel upset by external changes, such as a change in your supervisor, or by external feedback, positive or negative, from others regarding your work. You should just do for others, selflessly, with love and the understanding that you are serving your own Self.
Raja Yoga means you have to practice Yamas, Niyamas, concentration and meditation. Jnana Yoga is the final stage – in daily life, it means that you have to practice Karma Yoga, with love of God, with concentration, ethics, meditation, and with the understanding that you serve the Self in all. Also it means that you detach and recognize that everything that you are doing is not really important, because this is all maya.
© Swami Sitaramananda 2014 No part of this article may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the author.
by Swami Sitaramananda | Oct 20, 2014 | 4 Paths of Yoga
The majority of us suffer from too many distractions. There are too many choices, too many products, too many nice things to do, too many possibilities. We are suffering from too much freedom and too many choices. We become scattered and lose strength, faith and stability in this increasing pursuit of external happiness. We hanker after experiences from one thing to the next.
One thought at a time
The mind becomes weak if it does not develop the capacity to concentrate, which is the capacity to resist the many temptations to change. The mind becomes stronger by focusing and committing to one point, one thing, one task, one love. Keep a simple and focused life with less needs and desires. Concentration is the practice to hold one thought in mind for a period of time, digging a deeper groove and going beyond the superficial illusion of names and forms.
We are not yet capable to see the Unity in Diversity, and the imagination of the mind still captivates us as we compare one thing to another thing, swinging between the things we like and dislike. However we can improve our chances to find lasting peace by at least learning to concentrate, to gather ourselves together and resist the mind’s allurements for as long as we can. We can develop strength day by day.
Concentration and commitment feel good and give us peace but we need to know that we will eventually feel dry, bored and incapable to yield interest as before, as eventually the object of concentration will lose its attractiveness and will become habitual. This applies to relationship and to work as well.
Spark it up
What to do? Keep going but spark up your life! At that time, we must resist dropping the ball and losing all our past efforts and discipline. This is achieved by endeavoring to find new interest in the same object of focus, by going deeper to better understand and to discover new aspects in it. The Divine Mother has many faces! Changes do not need to be radical, one needs to keep the core interest, remain on the path, fundamentally not switching the path, not dropping all past efforts and fall to re-questioning everything – but consciously making some little changes just to spark it up. A little change in routine, a little change in food, in destination, in the small way of doing things will be enough to bring back zest and zeal.
Remain strong, enjoy your strength, your focus, and yourself with an unruffled mind that has become steady, dwelling in the truth of who you are and no longer on the imagination nor desires.
Remain Established in the Self
Overall, resist the temptation to doubt yourself when you are on the right path. Know this is part of the path, a little attitude adjustment and new challenges. Rejoice in your Self within. Know that others might doubt you and not recognize your achievement but remain strong within the truth of your heart. Choose well what you focus on, not a negative unwholesome object of obsession or addiction, but a pure energy, the name and form of the Divine, and gear yourself steadily towards it in constant remembrance. Dedicate and Love That because it will reveal your inner treasures. Follow your bliss!
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti,
© Swami Sitaramananda 2014 No part of this article may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the author.
by Swami Sitaramananda | Oct 20, 2014 | 4 Paths of Yoga
In Yoga we say that we are comprised of body, mind and spirit, so therefore, if you want to be healthy, you have to be healthy in body, mind and spirit. Health is not only physical. Actually, if you are healthy in spirit you will be healthy in mind and body, not the reverse. Sometimes we think that the body is not healthy therefore I am depressed, but you have to think reverse: the mind is not healthy, that’s why my body is not healthy that’s why I become depressed. If you ask your self, am I healthy in body, mind, and spirit? That’s the right way to think.
What constitutes physical health?
Swami Sivananda our SatGuru, was a medical doctor. His definition of physical health was: all organs of the body functioning in an optimum manner, under the intelligent governance of the mind. That means, we are equipped with all the organs of the body and they have to function perfectly, optimally, but under the intelligent control of you, of your mind. The organs have to function, but by your lifestyle, what you eat, what you do, you make sure that your organs function well. So if you ask yourself, “Am I healthy physically?” you have to consider the mind working with the body, and think: “what do I do to regulate it, what do I do to make it better?” Change your diet, change your lifestyle, change your exercise, take supplements, do whatever you need to make sure it is working. Yoga, is the best thing to make it work, because yoga asanas work on all the body systems together.
Stressed Out = Not Healthy
If you ask yourself “Am I healthy mentally?” then you have to consider a few things. If you are healthy mentally, the mind has to be strong, the mind has to be calm, and the mind has to be without negative thoughts or emotions. If you are addicted and craving all the time then you are not healthy mentally. If you are angry, upset, grieving, depressed all the time, them you are not healthy mentally. If your mind is so distracted, that you cannot focus, then know that you are not healthy mentally. You are using energy. Because when we talk about the mind we also talk about your level of energy, in yoga energy is not physical, yoga energy is subtle, it is absolutely connected to the mind. So your level of energy is very important. That means you have to have energy, so all the time you have to check in and find out: do I have energy? My energy is up? my energy is down? And you have to know that negative thoughts and feelings bring your energy down while positive thoughts give you energy. When you are stressed out, you are not healthy, mentally your energy is squeezed. You don’t have enough energy to handle difficulties in life. The difficulty of the whole set up of the body and mind is incapable of responding to demands, what ever the demands may be. External or internal. The thought is too big, the emotion is too big. You don’t have a solution for it, so you get stressed. When you have stress, you lose more energy. So you try to deal with the stress by taking external things that give you support; drugs or alcohol, or anything to deal with the stress. That stresses you more because it weakens the system. It makes the system too weak to deal with it. If you do that a lot then you have a crutch. The system constantly has to be propped up. But if you stay healthy; that means health is your natural state, then you have all the resources to be healthy. You have all the inner resources to deal with your problems.
Sometimes you think, “But my problem is bigger than yours, so it’s nice for you to sit there and say – but you are not in my situation. My problem is bigger that’s why I am stressed, that’s normal.” Not true. The truth is everyone has their stress. The truth is every life is difficult. The truth is the amount of stress, of difficulty, is always tailor cut to who we are, and what we are capable of. The way we cope with our stress will determine who we are.
Control your mind and charge your energy
Energy is unlimited in the universe. That means you can channel that energy in. That means your potential is unlimited. That means you have the whole universe to back you up. You just have to know how to use the support that you have. And not shut it off. Sometimes we need help, and at the same time we close the door. Educate yourself on how to deal with energy, educate yourself on how to control your mind, so your own thoughts aren’t blocking you, is the practice of yoga. Yoga is more than asanas, more than exercise. Exercise, relaxation is excellent for physical and mental health, but the deeper aspects of yoga teach you how to balance your energy, charge your energy, control your mind and how to tune into the infinite source of energy and power. I encourage you to study yoga, not just in the superficial aspects, but really study deeply.
So, are you healthy mentally? Then you have to have energy. You have to be positive. You have to be on top of your life, on top of yourself not dragging behind, not thinking life is passing you by, not thinking that you are not in the life you deserve, not thinking that you are a victim of circumstances, not thinking that someone is better than you, not thinking that the life you lead is not good. Anything negative that you think makes you unhealthy. So when you are healthy mentally you are centered, balanced, in harmony with everything, in harmony with your life. The life you have is the life you always wanted, the life you have is the life God has given you, that is a healthy state of mind. Focused. You have to be focused. Not distracted, not restless, not desirous, not running around, confused. This is mental health.
Spiritual health
That is more difficult to figure out. Spiritual health is when you feel in complete harmony with life and with God. God is the perfection you feel within you. When you are spiritually healthy, you have the idea that you and God are very close, you and God are one. That means that perfection, or that infinite power of God is with you. Most of us are not like that, right? We struggle and struggle against life, we question, we drag ourselves, we don’t know why we are living, we suffer, have misery, questioning all the time – with glimpses of happiness, followed by stretches of misery. Spiritual health means you are always happy. Can you imagine that state of mind, all the time joyful and all the time happy? All the time? You experience it from time to time. That’s when you are healthy.
So you see, health is a big topic. Yoga teaches you this. It is necessary to study Yoga philosophy to understand who you are in reality. If you think you are something you are not, you are not healthy. That’s why your concept of who you are is capital to your health. If your concept is unhealthy then your actions and thoughts constantly confirm you are not the person you think you are. If you understand who you are everything is fine. You start to act healthy, think healthy, behave healthy. You can take any amount of supplements or herbs, get a massage, or anything, but if you don’t have a healthy concept of yourself, you just miss the point. Health is in your hands. No doctor or anyone can help you, really. All the doctors can forgive me. Doctors can be helpful when something goes wrong, because they know the different systems of the body. More or less, they can help regulate it. We are body mind spirit all connected, but the body is subservient to the mind and the mind is subservient to the spirit. Spirit is supreme. This is basic, you have to turn it around. If you think of the body first, then you miss out, because the body is only what you see externally. What you don’t see is the energy and the mind. What makes the energy in the mind the way it is, is your spirit, called your sense of self, or your inner connection with your spiritual self, or your connection to the divine, your connection to God. It’s all connected.
The body can heal itself
So if you have that connection to God, then the mind will not be out of control, you will understand your challenges in life, and you will not create new confusion; you will be content, happy and in harmony. Not self-creating problems or self-sabotage. We do those things because we cannot connect with the intelligence of the spirit within us. The body will be healthy because the body is connected to the energy. It’s incredible. You have seen spiritual healers- they heal. Doctors check things out, and say they cannot help you; and then you have a miracle healing, the healer will switch something and all of a sudden everything becomes aligned, and things that are not perfect disappear, because you have the trust and faith that spirit is powerful and it heals you.
In summary, when you talk about health, talk about physical, mental, and spiritual health. Spiritual health is most important, because it governs the body and mind. Know that your life is perfect, no matter how it is, know that challenge is normal, because it makes you stronger and that’s how you become healthy. So know that there are things that you can do in order to be stronger, and positive, know that infinite energy is there for you, but you have to learn how to access it, know that most of your problems are self-created. Not most – all of your problems. All. Not your husband, not your boss, not your neighbor. It is self-created. That means, if something negative happens, you have the tendency to blame others. If you can change something – do it, if you cannot change something, accept it, because everything is always perfect. It’s you who needs the training. The situations are there for you to be trained. But everything is perfect. So you want to find that perfection and that perfect health? You need to work on yourself. You need to have the right idea. You cannot think the world is at your feet and you can do whatever you like and you’ll be healthy. That’s the bottom line.
Transcription of a satsang talk at the Yoga Farm dec.3, 2006 by Swami Sitaramananda
© Swami Sitaramananda 2014 No part of this article may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the author.
