Swami Sivananda on Bhakti

Photo taken of me by Eileen Escarda during an early morning sadhana, with Snatam Kaur at Blue Spirit in Costa Rica, 2011.

"Bhakti is resting on God.  Bhakti is flow of devotion like the flow of a river.  Bhakti is continuity of devotion, just as there is continuity in the flow of oil from one vessel to another vessel.  Bhakti is attraction of the Jiva to the Lord, juist as there is attraction of the needle to the magnet.
"Bhakti is love for love's sake.  The devotee wants God and God alone.  There is no selfish expectation here.  There is no fear also...He feels, believes, conceives and imagines that his Ishtam is an ocean of love or Prema.
"Bhakti transmuts man into Divinity.  It intoxicates the devotee with divine Prema.  It gives him eternal satisfaction.  It makes him perfect.  It weans the mind from the sensual objects.  It makes him rejoice in God.
"Emotional excitement is not devotion to God.  Devotion is pure love.  Fanaticism is not devotion.  It is frenzy.  It is mere excitement.
"Bhakti is not emotionalism, but is the tuning of the will as well as the intellect towards the Divine.  It is supreme love of God.  It blossoms afterwards into Jnana.  It leads to immortality or God-realisation.
"Bhakti is the direct approach to the ideal through the heart.  Love is natural to everybody."

"Bhakti is open to all.  Bhakti can be practiced under all conditions and by all alike.  Learning, austere penance, study of the Vedas and brilliant intellect sre not needed for the attainment of Bhakti or devotion.  What is wanted is constant and living remembrance of God, coupled with faith.  That is the reason why the path of Bhakti is available for everyone."

"The easiest approach to God.  Bhakti is easier than any other way of approach to God.  In Jnana and Yoga, there is the risk of a fall.  In the path of devotion, there is no risk as the devotee receives full support and help form God.  Those who tread the path of Jnana and Yoga are liable to become proud of their powers and wisdom.  Bhaktas are humble.  Humility is the foundation of Bhakti Yoga.  Jnana Yoga is the Yoga of wisdom.  It is the path of analysis and rejection. It is the path of endless negation.  This is a very difficult path.  Raja Yoga also is difficult.  It is like stilling the waves of the ocean.  You will have to still all the thought-waves.  Karma Yoga also is difficult.  It is like climbing to the highest peak.  You need tremendous will-power.  Bhakti Yoga alone is easy.  The Lord is stretching his hands to lift you up from the mire of Samsara.  You will have to grasp his hand firmly.  But, one thing is absolutely essential here.  You should not have any other thought than that of God and God alone.
"The child thinks of the mother alone.  A passionate husband thinks of his wife and wife alone.  A greedy man thinks of his money and money alone.  Even so, the devotee should entertain in his heart the picture of his Ishtam and Ishtam alone.  Then he can have Darshan of God easily.
"Objects are enemies of God.  Sons, wife, property, cattle, houses, friends and relatives are enemies of God.  You must cherish perfect indifference to these objects.
"You must not think of the body and its wants too much.  Thought of body, thoughts of food, thoughts of wife and children make you forget God.  You cannot have thought of God if you have thoughts of Anatma things."
"Desire obstructs the growth of devotion.  Devotion to the Lord increases when mundane desires are renounced.  Renunciation is the very essence of devotional love.  Divine love has no element of desire in it."
"People put a question: 'How can we love God whom we have not seen?'
"Live in the company of saints.  Hear the Lilas of God.  Study the sacred scriptures.  Worship Him first in his several forms as manifested in the World.  Worship any image or picture of the Lord or the Guru. Recite His Name.  Sing His glories.  Stay for one year in Ayodhya or Brindavan, Chitrakuta or Pandharpur, Benares or Ananda Kutir.  You will develop love for God.
"Every act must be done that awakens the emotion of Bhakti.  Keep the Puja room clean.  Decorate the room.  Burn the incense.  Light a lamp.  Keep a clean seat.  Bathe.  Wear clean clothes.  Apply vibhuti or bhasma and kumkum on the forehead.  Wera rudraksha or tulasi mall.  All these produce a benign influence on the mind and elevate the mind.  They generate piety.  They help to create the necessary Bhava or feeling to invoke the Deity that you want to worship. The mind will be easily concentrated.
"Practice of right conduct, Satsanga, Japa, Smarana, Kirtan, prayer, worship, service of saints, residence in places of pilgrimage, service of the poor and the sick with divine brave, observance of Varnasramaduties, offering of all actions and their fruits to the Lord, feeling the presence of the Lord in all beings, prostrations before the images of the saints, renunciation of early enjoyments and wealth, charity, austerities and vows, practice of Ahimsa, Satyam and Brahmacharya--all these will help you to develop Bhakti."

"Kindle love divine in thy heart, for this is the immediate way to the kingdom of God.  Pray to the Lord.  Sing His glory.  Recite His Name.  Become a channel of His grace.  Seek His will.  Do His will.  Surrender to His will.  You will become one with the cosmic will.  Surender unto the Lord.  He will become your charioteer on the field of life.  He will drive your chariot well.  You will reach your destination, the Abode of the Immortal Self."

God by Swami Sivananda

Excerpts from the book, Bliss Divine, by Swami Sivananda.

"Who is God?  What is God?  Is there a God?  Where is God?  How to realize God?  Man wants an answer to these eternal questions.  Certainly there is God. God exists. He is the only reality. God is your creator, savior and redeemer.  He is all-pervading. He dwells in your heart. He is always near you. He is nearer to you than your jugular vein or nose. He loves you. He can talk to you. You cannot find God by the intellect. But, you can find Him by feeling, meditation, experience and realization."

"The jasmine does not speak, but it wafts its fragrance everywhere.  The lighthouse sounds no drum, but sends its friendly light to the mariner.  The Unseen beats no gong, but Its omnipresence is felt by the dispassionate and discriminating sage.
"Behind all name and forms is the one nameless, formless Essence.  Behind all governors is the one Supreme Governor of governors.  Behind all lights is the one Light of lights.  Behind all sounds, there is the soundless Supreme Silence.  Behind all teachers is the one Supreme Guru of Gurus.
"Behind all these perishable objects is the one imperishable Absolute.  Behind all these motions is the one motionless Infinite.  Behind time, minutes and days is the one timeless Eternity.  Behind hatred, riots and wars is the one hidden Love.
"God is the totality of all that exists, both animate and inanimate, sentient and insentient.  He is free from ills and limitations.  He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.  He has no beginning, middle or end.  He is the indweller in all beings.  He controls from within.
"God is all in all.  God is the only reality in this universe.  The existence of things is by the light of God.
"God is ever living.  All depend on him.  He is not depending on any.  He is the Truth.
"God is the end or goal of all Yoga Sadhanas.  He is the centre towards which all things strive.  He is the highest purpose or highest good in the world.  You have the urge of hunger.  There is food to appease the hunger.  You have the urge of thirst.  There is water to quench the thirst.  There is the urge to be always happy.  There must be something to satisfy this urge.  This something is God, an embodiment of happiness.  God, Immortality, Freedom, Perfection, Peace, Bliss, Love are synonymous terms."

"What is God?  It is hard to tell.  But, when I look at the Ganga, I know it is God.  When I see jasmine, I know it is God.  When I behold the blue sky, I know it is God.  When I hear the chirping of birds, I know it is God.  When I tast honey, I know it is God.
"The Supreme is indefinable, though scholars give intellectual accounts of It which are not absolutely true.
"Every man has his own conception of God...The greatest and most important thing in all the world is to get a right concept of God, because your belief about God governs your entire your life."

"Is there a God?  God is beyond human imagination, but he is a living reality.  Brahman is no metaphysical abstraction.  It is the fullest and the most real being.  The existence of God cannot be proved by scientific experimentation.  The Absolute baffles the mind of even the greatest scholar.  It eludes the grasp of even the mightiest intellect.  It is experiences as pure consciousness, where intellect dies, scholarship perishes, and the entire being itself is completely lost in It.  All is lost, and all is found...Though you do not see the stars in the daytime, yet they do exist.  Though you cannot see the sun during a cloudy day, yet it does exist.  Even so, though you cannot see God with these physical eyes, yet He does exist.  If you get the divine eye or the eye of intuition by the practice of meditation, you will behold him."

"Where is God?  There is nowhere where He is not.  Just as one thread penetrates all the flowers in a garland, so also, one Self penetrates all these living beings.  He is hidden in all beings and forms, like oil in seed, butter in milk, mind in brain, Prana in the body, fetus in the womb, sun behind the clouds, fire in wood, vapor in the atmosphere, salt in water, scent in flowers, sound in the gramophone records, gold in quartz, microbes in blood.
"God dwells in all beings as life and consciousness...Feel his presence everywhere...God pervades the entire universe.  He walks in the garbs of a beggar.  He moans is pain in the guise of the sick.  He wanders in the forest clad in rags.  Open your eyes.  See Him in all.  Serve all.  Love all.
"Feel the Divine Presence everywhere--in every form, in every thought, in every feeling and in every sentiment, in every movement, in every emotion.
"God, seen through the senses, is matter.  God, seen through the intellect, is mind.  God, seen through the spirit, is Atman or the Self.
"Thou art indwelt by the Lord.  He is the inner ruler, Antaryamin, guarding and controlling your life.  He is in you and you are in Him.  He is quite close to you.  He is not very far, but is nearer to you than you are to yourself.  You were thinking in the beginning that He could be found only in Mount Kailas, Ramesvaram, Mecca, Jerusalem, sky or heaven.  You had very vague ideas.  This body is His moving temple.  The sanctum santorum is the chamber of your own heart.  Close your eyes.  Withdraw from the sensual objects.  Search Him in thy heart with one-pointed mind, devotion and pure love.  You will surely find him."

"How to realise God?  God is a question of supply and demand.  If you really yearn for His Darshan, He will reveal Himself to you in an instant."

30 Day Cleanse! Version 2.0

Cleansing from consumption

I just completed my first blogging 30 Day Cleanse!  It was so therapeutic I'm going straight into another one.  My first thirty days focused on calorie consumption and a bit on caloric expenditure as well.  I was cleansing my gastrointestinal tract, my organs of assimilation and detoxification such as the liver, kidneys and skin.  The sense organ at play was the tongue and the organ of action the feet.  For the next thirty days I will be focussing on my consumption of media and commodity...I will be cleansing my eyes, ears and mind and filling the gap with my own production of creativity and the consumption of more traditional art.  I will also be cleansing my pocketbooks, eliminating needless expenditures. I will utilize the same tier system, beginning with tier one: two 30 minute media blocks per day when I can use the Internet and a tight budget of necessary household or business purchases only.

Watch me Grow!

High altitude strawberries I discovered at Machu Picchu

Beet and Cashew Cheese Stack

4 Medium-Large Beets

1 cup Raw Cashews soaked 2 hours, will yield about 1 1/2 cups soaked cashews

Tabelspoon Olive Oil

Big handful fresh Basil

1/4 cup Water

Salt and Pepper

You need to find some good sized beets for this recipe, I happened to use golden beets because the red beets available were very small.  This would make for a beautiful Christmas dish with red beets the way the green colored cashew cheese layers between, but it was also lovely with the golden beets.  The beets were gently boiled until soft, about 40 minutes, and then peeled and cooled (I put them in the freezer for ten minutes).  They are then sliced into three or four horizontal sections.  Gently slice your bottom slice so your beet stands up well.

To make your Cashew Cheese, combine the rest of the ingredients, soaked and strained Cashews, olive oil, Basil, salt and pepper in a food processor or blender adding the water gradually to cut the consistency you like, you may use more or less water. 

To assemble salad lay down a small bed of lettuce, I'd choose something delicate like arugula or spinach, and place the bottom layer of your beet in the center.  Put a spoonful of cheese on top, a layer of beet on top of that, continuing until you've reassembled your beet.

I'll post a photo asap

Mung Bean Coconut Soup

While playing on Pinterest I found this beautiful recipe for Green Lentil Soup and used it as a base for this Mung Bean Soup.  I used more Indian spices and think of my soup as an Indian version of a French recipe.  I would normally do the spices in the beginning, but do agree with this recipe that by adding the spices in separate after the soup has cooked awhile gives it lots of flavor.  I also used canned coconut cream instead of milk (because I ran out and that's all the store was carrying on a Sunday morning) and that made the soup wonderfully rich and creamy.

6 cups Vegetable Stock
1 1/2 cups Sprouted Mung Beans
Ghee
1/2 Onion chopped
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
1/4 teaspoon each of cumin seed, cumin powder, turmeric, salt and pepper
2 Garlic Cloves
Can of Coconut Cream or Coconut Milk
2 hands full of Spinach

In a pot bring to boil the stock and beans, if you have sprouted the beans it only needs to cook a little while, but if you are using dry beans you must first cook them 35-45 minutes to soften them.  Once you've got the broth and beans simmering (or after awhile if you are making dry beans) in a separate pan heat a tablespoon of Ghee or some other type of oil and add your mustard seed until they begin to pop.  Then add the onions and after a minute the rest of your spices and sauté, stirring occasionally for about 3 minutes.  Add your garlic, minced or pressed, and continue to sauté over medium heat, stirring occasionally until cartelized, about ten minutes.  Add this onion mixture to the soup as well as the can of coconut and simmer 5 minutes.  Add the spinach just before serving and season with salt and pepper to taste.

I'll post a photo ASAP.

Healthy Cooking Class

This event took place already, the first such cooking class.  Lots of fun and I am so grateful to those who came! We learned some tools and techniques to feed ourselves healthy food.  Please click on the subjects to read more.

Menu
Ghee
Sprouts
Fresh Juices we made a green juice of Celery, Cucumber, Beet Greens, Lime and Ginger
Raw Hummus
Mung Bean Coconut Soup
Kitchari of Brown Rice and Mung Bean
Kitchari of Lentil and Basmati Rice
Beet-and-cashew-cheese-stack
Chocolate Cream Pie with Graham Cracker Crust

Pinterest board for class ideas

Before We Forget!

Divine representations of our own inner light,
Lakshmi, Ganesha & Saraswati. 

What a blessing the recent command from Swami Sita, "Go out and create Spiritual Community!"  I listened and a few months later a few of us have gathered on the first and third Tuesdays of each month from 7:30pm- 8:45pm.  An important part of our Satsanga, or spiritual gathering, is the reading from a divine or inspired text.  I have been choosing each reading from Bliss Divine by Swami Sivananda.  On the first meeting we read the chapter on Satsanga, at the next meeting we read Prayer, third meeting we read Bhakti and fourth meeting, yesterday, we read God.  At present publication I have reflected upon Satsang, and and to remind and encourage myself to write blogs on each of these subjects....which I've almost completed, only Prayer remains!  Enjoy and I hope to see you tonight for Satsang...the reading is on Fear!