SathyaSaiMemories and Children Of Light

Les Vacances – Inspirational Quotations

E.D. — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:42:23 +0000

A good hobby, one I thoroughly recommend to you all, is creating you tubes. It’s a good way to relax and an excellent way to enjoy photographs. This youtube is a collection of my favourite photographs taken last year. Most were taken this winter on cold, wet afternoons, when people generally do not visit the beach. The joy and freedom of being alone on the beach is so fantastical that I cannot even begin to describe it. The soft wet sand beneath my feet, the cool ocean breezes coming in from the ocean, all hold their own special song. The music of waves dancing on the shore-line, like frothy bubbles, they whip around my feet, then slip back into the ocean again and the song of the waves, for a moment, recedes. Then, more often than not, another even bigger wave gathers speed out at sea and comes lashing on to the shore with such great force, I have to stand way back. Whatever the size of the wave, the ocean song is always beautiful. I hope I have caught some of the magic of the sea in this youtube. Enjoy.

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Quand on n’aime pas trop, on n’aime pas assez.

BUSSY-RABUTIN, Maximes d’Amour pour les femmes dans le Recueil de Sercy

When you don’t love too much, you don’t love enough.

Light On Arnaud Desjardins – Children Of Light

E.D. — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:16:31 +0000

One day someone asked me, “How can I progress in spite of everyday difficulties?” I gave the somewhat hard answer, “How can you get to the second floor in spite of the stairs?” So the real question on the path is: “How can I progress on the Way thanks to every day difficulties.”

– Arnaud Desjardins

Brilliant!

My thanks to Michel Tardieu for this wonderful website and introducing me to French Advaita Vedanta Master Arnaud Desjardins. My impression of him is that he was the “real deal” (he passed away just last year) and that one on the advaitan path could learn so much from such a wise and good-hearted teacher.

http://www.arnauddesjardinsdvds.com/index.php?page=04&lg=e - This website contains excerpts from dvd clips of talks given by Arnaud Desjardin.

About Arnaud Desjardin’s Guru

Swami Prajnanpad was a traditional Hindu monk who lived on a tiny ashram outside of Calcutta. He was virtually unknown outside of his small circle of students. Prior to this while teaching science at the University level, Swamiji discovered and studied the work of Sigmund Freud. He later incorporated critical elements of early psychoanalysis into the traditional spiritual path of non-dualism that he offered. Arnaud absorbed Swami Prajnanpad’s precise and potent Advaita Vedanta teachings over a period of nine years and was then sent to teach in his own right. For the following thirty years Arnaud guided his body of students, which grew to be about 2000 in number, and inspired other teachers and students from many different paths. Arnaud left his body in August of 2011, though his widespread influence continues to inspire practitioners all over the world. His wisdom and instruction are sought through his French books and films as well as these teachings in English. His senior students sustain his ashrams in France and Canada and continue making Arnaud and Swami Prajnanpad’s teachings available.

Arnaud Desjardin Speaking to Enlightenment Magazine

Though Sri Mataji Anandamayi Ma was not, strictly speaking, my guru, she certainly played a major role, to say the least, in my life and my sadhana [spiritual practice]. In fact, she still does today. Her memory is alive deep within my heart and there are several pictures of her on the walls of the ashram where I now teach.From my first physical encounter with her, in 1959, to the day in 1965 when she gave me her blessing to go to Sri Swami Prajnanpad (1891-1974), a relatively unknown master who was to become my guru—though I’d rather say of whom I gradually became the disciple—I considered Mataji as my guru. During those years, I repeatedly stayed with her for extended periods of time. Even after meeting Swami Prajnanpad, I always felt her active influence and kept visiting her, up to my last trip to India a few years before she left her body.To state things simply, I could say that, though in the course of my search and travels I have had the privilege to closely approach quite a few extraordinary beings—Tibetans, Sufis, Hindu gurus and Zen masters, many of whom left a deep imprint in my heart—to me Anandamayi Ma was and remains the embodiment of transcendence, the living proof of the actual existence of a transcendental reality. “Extraordinary,” “superhuman,” “divine”. . . I still feel today that no adjective is big enough to describe her presence, particularly when I met her, in the full blossoming of her radiance. I could barely believe that such a being could walk the earth in a human form, and I have no difficulty understanding how a whole theology was developed around her. I never, never met a sage whose divine appearance I admired so much. In truth, I admired her beyond all words.Thousands of pilgrims were of course similarly touched by her extraordinary presence, but I’d rather insist here on another aspect of Mataji: the relentless way in which she sometimes crucified the ego of those who wanted more than her occasional blessing. In fact, in her ashram, there was a very clear distinction between two kinds of visitors: those who came for her darshan [personal audience] and who received a warm welcome, and those who insisted on being considered her disciples, who were challenged and put on edge, to the limit of what they were able to bear—but never beyond. No guru wants to bring someone to absolute despair or to leaving the path because of unbearable trials. During the years when Denise Desjardins and myself were spending several months within the ashram as candidates to discipleship rather than as mere visitors, we went through a lot of that “special treatment.”Of course I realize, as I am about to recall a few examples of that treatment, that these stories may look very innocent, not so terrible to casual readers. The truth is, it is always easy to hear descriptions of someone else’s sadhana and to imagine: “Oh, had I been in this situation, I would not have been affected in such a way. I would have immediately taken it as a lesson, a challenge to my ego, etc. . . .” When you actually are tested, when your mind and ego are being provoked through situations which sometimes are in themselves very simple disappointments and difficulties, you are not hearing a story anymore. You’re in the fire, plunged into what constitutes the essence of all sadhanas: a persistent, sometimes harsh challenging of your ego and mind through situations which call into question your present identifications and attachments.

In those years, I was a professional filmmaker, working for French television. One of the things Mataji used to crucify my ego and teach me was the film I was shooting in her ashram. She sometimes granted me exceptional opportunities and then caused me to waste my last rolls, which I had very much been counting on. This was hard to accept. Following the advice of one of her ashramites, I had preciously saved three rolls of film until the very end of my stay. This had caused me to renounce shooting scenes which could have been important. Then, during those last days, every time I started filming, Anandamayi Ma, in front of everybody, either turned her head or winced. This was all the more cruel to me since I believed the person who had asked me to save those rolls had been inspired by Ma. Eventually, Ma only allowed me to shoot one roll. As this was after sunset, I was convinced there would be no visible image on the film. Incredible as it may seem, there was something: three of what may well be the most beautiful shots of the whole film, where Ma can be seen at night surrounded by a few disciples. These miraculous forty seconds were worth the sacrifice of those three rolls. Once she asked me to project the images which to me were most precious with some worn-out Indian equipment, when I knew for sure that it would irremediably damage the film.

I also remember a particular incident. I had always dreamed of meeting what I then called true yogis—not yoga teachers, but yogis having attained mastery over certain energies or developed certain powers. To me, those yogis embodied the whole legend of India. They lived in the high valley of the Ganges where I had not yet been able to go, since the Indian government had not granted me the special permit then necessary to travel to that region. One of those famous yogis was about to come down to the plains to visit Anandamayi Ma. On this very day, Ma asked me if I could travel with my Land Rover to a distance of some 150 kilometers where I was to pick up some luggage and bring it back. The roads were not tarred, it was raining, there was mud all over, so that when I left the ashram, the yogi had not arrived, and when I came back, he had already left. To me, at the time, this was a terrible disappointment indeed, a broken dream.

Every time my ego desperately wanted to be acknowledged by Ma, circumstances were such that I could not see her privately for weeks. But once, when, after having gone through what one usually calls intense pain, I at last changed my inner attitude, she herself took me for a ride in the car. I was alone with her, the driver, and a great pundit whom I very much admired. She had me sit next to her and did not allow anyone else to go with us.

We often had the impression that others were also brought to teach us and that the whole world was consciously or unconsciously serving Mother’s purpose. She was an incredible source of energy, the center of a huge activity.

It is difficult to imagine what surrender to Anandamayi Ma, as some of her closest disciples were living it, could mean. I remember one monk whose ideal of life was to meditate. He had been meditating in an isolated ashram in the Himalayas and was very happy, until Ma appointed him as the swami in charge of the Delhi ashram. Every day, he had to deal with curious visitors, Europeans, people from the embassies and consulates. He was forced to be no longer a meditator but an administrator, immersed head to toe in active life—the exact opposite of what he had been aspiring to. He was working twenty hours a day and I even once saw him slowly fall down. He had simply fallen asleep while walking. Just contemplating Anandamayi’s radiant smile, one could not imagine the pressure she put on some—in the name of ultimate freedom.

To conclude, I’d like to say that, remembering Ma as well as my guru, Swami Prajnanpad, I feel especially grateful for the occasions when they caused me pain, when they brought suffering to my ego. They, of course, never did me any harm. On the contrary, everything they did, whether they smiled or were angry at me, served my ultimate good. But they certainly made me feel severely hurt at times.

And the truth is, one cannot make any progress in one’s sadhana if one’s ego and mind are not sometimes painfully shaken.

Arnaud Desjardins is the author of many books, including two which have been translated into English: Toward the Fullness of Life (Threshold Books) and The Jump Into Life: Moving Beyond Fear (Hohm Press). He resides and teaches at his ashram, Hauteville, in the south of France. (died in 2011)

-Source Enlightenment Magazine

An adult is one who has lost the grace, the freshness, the innocence of the child, who is no longer capable of feeling pure joy, who makes everything complicated, who spreads suffering everywhere, who is afraid of being happy, and who, because it is easier to bear, has gone back to sleep. The wise man is a happy child. ~ Arnaud Desjardins

The Source Of Vedanta – Inspirational Quotations

E.D. — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:53:24 +0000

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥~Divine Inspirations ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Vedanta teaches Oneness of Existence,Unity in Diversity. Also teaches that God is infinite existence, infinite consciousness, and infinite bliss. The term for this impersonal, transcendent reality is Brahman, the divine ground of being. Yet Vedanta also maintains that God can be personal as well, assuming human form in every age.

Most importantly, God dwells within our own hearts as the divine Self or Atman. The Atman is never born nor will it ever die. Neither stained by our failings nor affected by the fluctuations of the body or mind, the Atman is not subject to our grief or despair or disease or ignorance. Pure, perfect, free from limitations, the Atman, Vedanta declares, is one with Brahman. The greatest temple of God lies within the human heart.

♥♥♥♥♥~Divine Inspirations ♥♥♥♥♥

The Source Of Vedanta

There is a story in Mundaka Upaishad that runs like this: Once in a tree there were two birds, one at the upper branch, serene, majestic and divine, and the other at a lower branch, restlessly pecking fruits, sometimes sweet sometimes bitter. Every time, when the restless bird ate a bitter fruit, it looked at the upper bird and climbed a branch up. This occurred a number of times and eventually the bird reached the topmost branch. There it was not able to differentiate itself from the divine bird, and then it learned that there was only one bird in the tree, the upper bird, which is described as divine, the real form of the other restless bird. This is the thought of Vedanta. The fruits in the story are Karma, the restless bird denotes a human soul, and the majestic bird denotes the Absolute. ~ Wikipedia…

♥♥♥♥♥~Divine Inspirations ♥♥♥♥♥

Just added a wonderful website with old bhajans sung by the incredible Anandamayi Ma. This is a real treat for me. I must thank my friend, Michel Tardieu for this wonderful piece of history.

http://chronophonix.blogspot.com/2011/11/le-rire-de-ma.html

Click the link above, then follow down the page to the music sections with a list of bhajans, and “Menu.” Then press the bhajan button. There are several bhajans to choose from. You will also hear Ma’s explosive laugh after the first two bhajans. I don’t know what the joke is about, I cannot tell. She is really having fun with her bhajans though and her laugh is quite hilarious. The first bhajan is Ram Ram Ram, He Baghavan, Hari Bol, Sita Ram, and one more…

Light On Vivekananda – Children Of Light

E.D. — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:31:35 +0000

“That the mind itself has a higher state of existence, beyond reason, a superconscious state, and that when the mind gets to that higher state, then this knowledge beyond reasoning comes. All the different steps in yoga are intended to bring us scientifically to the superconscious state of Samadhi… Just as unconscious work is beneath consciousness, so there is another work which is above consciousness, and which, also, is not accompanied with the feeling of egoism… There is no feeling of I, and yet the mind works, desireless, free from restlessness, objectless, bodiless. Then the truth shines in its full effulgence, and we know ourselves—–for Samadhi lies potential in us all—- for what we truly are, free, immortal, omnipotent, loosed from the finite, and its contrasts of good and evil altogether, and identical with the Atman or Universal Soul.” ~ Vivekananda Raja Yoga, London, 1899 ~ photo source: NOWIE

♪♪ღ♪ღღღBeautiful Reflectionsღღღ♪♪ღ♪♪

photo by Nowie

After long searches here and there, in temples and in churches, in earths and in heavens, at last you come back, completing the circle from where you started, to your own soul and find that He for whom you have been seeking all over the world, for whom you have been weeping and praying in churches and temples, on whom you were looking as the mystery of all mysteries shrouded in the clouds, is nearest of the near, is your own Self, the reality of your life, body, and soul. That is your own nature. Assert it, manifest it. Not to become pure, you are pure already. You are not to be perfect, you are that already. Nature is like that screen which is hiding the reality beyond. Every good thought that you think or act upon is simply tearing the veil, as it were; and the purity, the Infinity, the God behind, manifests Itself more and more.

~Swami Vivekananda

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♪♪ღ♪ღღღBeautiful Reflectionsღღღ♪♪ღ♪♪

Biography

A spiritual genius of commanding intellect and power, Vivekananda crammed immense labor and achievement into his short life, 1863-1902. Born in the Datta family of Calcutta, the youthful Vivekananda embraced the agnostic philosophies of the Western mind along with the worship of science.

At the same time, vehement in his desire to know the truth about God, he questioned people of holy reputation, asking them if they had seen God. He found such a person in Sri Ramakrishna, who became his master, allayed his doubts, gave him God vision, and transformed him into sage and prophet with authority to teach.

After Sri Ramakrishna’s death, Vivekananda renounced the world and criss-crossed India as a wandering monk. His mounting compassion for India’s people drove him to seek their material help from the West. Accepting an opportunity to represent Hinduism at Chicago’s Parliament of Religions in 1893, Vivekananda won instant celebrity in America and a ready forum for his spiritual teaching.

For three years he spread the Vedanta philosophy and religion in America and England and then returned to India to found the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. Exhorting his nation to spiritual greatness, he wakened India to a new national consciousness. He died July 4, 1902, after a second, much shorter sojourn in the West. His lectures and writings have been gathered into nine volumes. -Souce: Vivekananda Once Swami Vivekananda was in a certain town to give spiritual discourses. People recognised in him a great monk and profound scholar. They listened to his discourses with rapt attention for about three days. Every day, when the discourse came to an end, some people used to gather around him to ask about certain subtle points on Sadhana, Ethics and Sastras. Students were eager to know about national regeneration and the solutions he could suggest. ~ Vivekananda Vedanta Centre, Boston.

♪♪ღ♪ღღღBeautiful Reflectionsღღღ♪♪ღ♪♪

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Here is a wonderful story about Swami Vivekananda:

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Once Swami Vivekananda was in a certain town to give spiritual discourses. People recognised in him a great monk and profound scholar. They listened to his discourses with rapt attention for about three days. Every day, when the discourse came to an end, some people used to gather around him to ask about certain subtle points on Sadhana, Ethics and Sastras. Students were eager to know about national regeneration and the solutions he could suggest.

There was an old man sitting in a corner observing Vivekananda with avidity but could not speak one word. He was there for all three days, waiting for a chance to be near the monk. On the third day he made bold, went to him and said:

“Son! Shall I bring you something to eat? These people never gave you anything nor did they give you time to relax and think about your food. I shall run and be back with food and drink for you.”

Vivekananda was greatly touched by the loving words spoken by the old man. He said with a beaming smile:

“Come, let us go together to your place to eat and drink.”

Blessed indeed was the old man for he had sympathy and consideration for a fellow human being. He was ready to render loving service to the monk. This indeed is true devotion and he is indeed a true devotee.

Ladies Only – More Sathya Sai Memories

E.D. — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:58:52 +0000

For ladies only, here’s a few beautiful reflections of darshan with Swami from years ago. I particularly love this chant, with its deeply profound message of hope and peace. A chant I could listen to time and time over. The old photos, I found in Sai Communities some time ago. I was surprised to find many of the ladies in the photos are still living in or around the ashram. Perhaps I should say ‘were,’ for time has moved on and many have left India altogether, since 2010 when I last visited…

anyway enjoy!

♥] [♥] [♥] .♥ಌڿڰۣ N░A░M░A░S T░E’♥ ॐ♥[♥] [♥] [♥]

Women are the mothers of the coming generation; they are the teachers of that generation, during the first five years of life. The mother is the first of the five Maathas (Mothers), that the Indian child encounters: Dheha-maatha (the mother that gave birth to this body); Go-maatha (the cow that gives sustaining milk); Bhoo-maatha (the land that grows the crops which feed the body); Dhesa-maatha (the Native country that gives protection, care, love, rights and chances to serve and elevate oneself to one’s full height), and Vedha-maatha (the heritage of spiritual treasure that reveals the aim and purpose of human life and takes one step by step, towards the Goal of Self-realisation). The Dhehamaatha must reveal to the child the glories of all the other four; so her responsibility is the greatest and most crucial.

Sathya Sai Speaks Vol 8, Chapter 26 ‘The Five Mothers’