Journey from Here to Eternity

by Swami Sitaramananda | Nov 20, 2013 | Karma Yoga

Ashram as a Spiritual Haven

Master Sivananda said that “one ounce of practice equals tons of theory.”  Swami Vishnudevanandaji not only gives us the teachings but also provides the camp ground to bring everything we learned into practice.

He created the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers and Ashrams in many locations throughout the world to allow Yoga practitioners from all walks of life to practice selflessness and to apply the spiritual principles in daily life.

Many Yoga students, seekers after Truth have decided to take refuge in this spiritual haven and school, not to run away from life and responsibilities, but in fact to face it with fortitude and concentration, with a good heart and good intention.  They started the search with the clear idea that, “I know that I do not know,” and became a seeker.

Heaven is not “later on” or somewhere else. It is now and here.

Karma Yoga in the Ashram

Karma yogis in the Ashram have the chance to practice this by focusing on the task at hand, keeping the mind positive, optimistic, patient and smiling, and learning to bear all difficulties with equanimity and balance.

90-95% of the practice is the forbearance practice. How will this manifest? If we have a desire and we do not get to satisfy our desire, we suffer. By bearing the suffering and waiting and in the meanwhile doing right actions, we are working out the karma and we are given the direct experience of the truth of selflessness and the truth of calmness in adversities. We are not a victim.

Keep bearing a good countenance, keep practicing a good asana-straight and balanced posture–in all situations. A good body posture at all times shows a good approach to Self realization as inside and outside is the same. It shows equanimity, balanced mental attitude and self-confidence.

Most of the time we do not know what we are doing, why things are this way or that way. But we need to bear it all:

• the frustrations,
• the expectations,
• the peculiarities of people we interact with.

We think we are bearing other peoples’ imperfections and oddities but in fact there is only one thing that we bear:

• the sufferings coming from our own mind, past and present.

This is called karmic suffering. By bearing, and at the same time trying to adopt a positive attitude, we are working out our karma. By practicing Swami Sivananda’s motto, ‘Adapt, adjust, accommodate,” we learn to bend our ego and to remain detached. This will lead us to wisdom and to karmic release.

Yogic Methods to face our Karma

In the Ashram or Gurukula, we are being helped in the journey by the life example and the strength of the Teacher that is concentrated and clear, with no selfish motives. In this way it helps us to see ourselves and our impurities.

We can practice many methods to face the karma:

• we can either see the obstacle or the problem as Divine will and accept it, or
• by negating it, keep uplifting the mind by thinking of the perfect Self, or
• by working on calming the mind and replacing negative thinking with its opposite positive thought.

All these yogic methods are taught theoretically but also practically and daily in the Ashram as the karma is playing out one moment at a time and we need to be in the Here and Now and practice ‘D.I.N.’ as per Swami Sivananda’s teaching – Do-It-Now, to be at once  eternally good, happy and peaceful.

The Eternal is Now. There is no world, no in nor out, no friend nor foe.

The Yogi keeps the right attitude towards life and action, working on themselves with God/Guru as the witness to move from now to Eternity.

© Swami Sitaramananda 2018 No part of this article may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the author.

Karmic Relationships

by Swami Sitaramananda | Jan 20, 2013 | Karma Yoga

All relationships come through your life, flow through your life, and flow out of your life.

• Sometimes you are doing something good for them,
• sometimes they have insulted you,
• sometimes they praise you,
• sometimes they need you, and
• sometimes they don’t need you; they go in and they go out.

The practice of Yoga of relationships is the practice of detachment in relationships. This means to feel that all these comings and goings do not really matter, because it’s not about you personally anymore, but is about God, or something way beyond your understanding or liking and disliking.

The idea is to empty the karmic bank balance, and to pay all of these karmic relationship debts here.

Serve the Self in others

The fact is, all of these situations show up in your life and all of these people show up in your life; all of these different scenarios are nothing but your lessons (your “karmic debts”)  about relationships. The relationships with others are playing the role of mirrors to your own idea of your own Self.  In conscious relationships, you only have one attitude: “I am going to serve you because I am going to serve God in you.”

Suffering doesn’t matter, because it is selfless service. It is that one way of seeing things which will work out all relationship issues. You don’t have to go through and figure out what happens in every case. You just have to learn that there is only One Self, the Atman, appearing as many. There is no other, there is only the Self.  The only thing that you learn is that other people are your own self.  The Self is the Self and that is it.

Seeing separation

If you do not learn this, you always say this person and me, or that person and me.  You compare one relationship to another: this is a different case, this is a different case and you refer to your me all of the time. You will go through ten thousand situations and you will get upset and frightened.  You will swing between attraction and the opposite scenario of repulsion; you will get all the colors of this karmic relationship.

Once you understand what this karma of relationship is about, however, you will keep constantly remembering: There is no separate self,  there is no other, I think there is another, but there is no other.  The Self is the Self.  The moment you really understand this, you finish your karmic debts.

• Karma Yoga is about selfless service.
• You just serve.
• Selfless means without any idea of what you are doing–you just serve.
• Your only wish is to serve, and you don’t want anything out of it.
• You understand that we cannot solve the problem on the same level of consciousness that created the problem,
• so whatever we say about something will always be wrong–because it will always be a learning lesson.
• Maybe you will refine your ideas about how you think about things,
• but the best attitude is to just adopt the general attitude that the Self is the Self.
• Then you will have peace of mind and stop comparing yourself with others.
• There is only God, which comes in different forms and shapes.
• I am just serving God in all and that is it.

© Swami Sitaramananda 2014 No part of this article may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the author.