The Laws That Govern Life

The Laws That Govern Life

God created all the worlds and endowed them with laws to govern them. These laws govern everything from nature to the consequences of our actions and our perspective. Among the spiritual laws that govern life, three play the most prominent part in our life. They are maya, karma and anava. 

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Yogic Personal Development Seminar 2: Willpower Pt.1

Part One: Desire, Willpower's Energy Generator

Seminars Two, Three and Four of the Yogic Personal Development Seminars are dedicated to the study of willpower. Willpower is a most crucial element in making all things happen in life whether they be for material or spiritual purposes. Willpower is comprised of three faculties and states of mind. They are desire, determination and discipline. In this first part, Desire is subject of exploration.

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The Recession from a Spiritual Perspective

I thought I would meditate on the current economic downturn to gain an inner perspective on this global situation. An inner perspective is looking at something from the 'inside out' as my guru used to say. The 'inside out' perspective is a meditative perspective. It can reveal surprising information and insight into a subject or situation that would otherwise escape us, as this perspective draws directly for the Omniscience of God.

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The Gayatri Mantra

The Gayatri mantra is a popular Vedic mantra. Gayatri is the mythical goddess of dawn. She represents the Sun as it rises. This mantra is a supplication to God to help us in our life. The Gayatri mantra is described in the Vedas to be used in a ceremony called the sandhya vandanam. Sandhya vandanam is performed in the morning as the first prayer after one bathes. In the old days people went to the rivers or the large temple water tanks for their bath. After their bath and before leaving the river (or any body of water) devotees will perform sandhya vandanam. The Vedas give these instructions on how to perform sandhya vandanam:

Standing knee deep in water while facing the rising sun, water is collected with both palms together. Then the while chanting the Gayatri mantra the water is slowly poured back into the river. This is repeated three times.

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Can women chant the Gayatri mantra?

A friend asked:

Why is there controversy over whether females can recite the Gayatri? Also, why do some people believe that you must have a "pure" body to recite the Gayatri i.e you must not eat meat, etc?

I am asking because I had discussed with a Hindu priest at the temple here that I like the Gayatri mantra (this was sometime last year) and he seemed to be shocked, and he said that it was not advisable for women to chant this mantra, and that it has adverse effects if they do. I then Googled it, and there were alot of conflicting information on the Web.

Read my response to this question here.

Flying A Kite

Kite Flying Isn't As Easy As It Seems

One of my 20009 new year resolutions was to fly a kite. The last time I had flown a kite was maybe 20 years ago. It didn't fare to well at it then. I ran with the kite, it flew and gained altitude quickly but fell to the ground just as quickly when I stopped running. Not enough wind perhaps.

This time around, I was at a beach. With my more mature understanding of the science of upwind and downwind, this time I was sure to succeed at getting the kite up. I was with my friends and their family in the island of Pangkor off the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. It was a holiday get together but I took the opportunity to have fun with teaching yoga to my enthusiastic young students, children of my friends. I wasn't planning on the fulfilling my kite flying commitment but Kala had bought a kite for her kids to try it out.

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The Hidden Worlds

All religions teach about places we go to after death. Scriptures describe the two main places we may enter as heaven and hell. Heaven is a beautiful and divine place and a place where only righteous people live together with angelic beings and God. All things good and enjoyable are experienced in Heaven. It is a blissful place free from suffering. Hell on the other hand is a dark place. A place of torment, pain and suffering. The company in hell consists of those who lived sinful lives on Earth. It is obviously a place to avoid. This is generally used as a motivation by many religions to persuade its followers to live by the tenants of their religion and to do good to earn their place in heaven. According to Hinduism sum of the quality of our actions on Earth determine whether we go to heaven or hell.

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