Get Involved and Get Fulfilled

There are many ways to be involved with the Divine Art of Yoga Center ashram, no matter where you live:

Satsang

• Spiritual discourses
• Bhajans (devotional songs)
• Community meal
• Food prep and other assistance

Yoga

• Senior and beginner
• Intermediate
• Private

Donations

• New Yoga Hall
• Ashram
• Kathmandu ashram (for the elderly and orphans)

Pranayam (yogic breathing, Om-chanting, meditation)

Group meditation sessions

Seva* opportunities

• Cleaning
• Gardening
• Repairs
• Various chores

Fundraising drive for the new Yoga Hall

JIVANTA – monthly women’s empowerment group meeting

Weekly Satsang audio recordings – get it free on WhatsApp

Ashram blog

• Enjoy & study satsangs and other posts
• Contribute your own spiritual post

Hindi language lessons (coming soon)

Bhajan (devotional song) lessons

Tabla & harmonium lessons

Children’s programs (plays & activities)

Illustrators (for Divine Stories book)

Translators (for satsangs)

Travel to Nepal ashrams for seva*

*Seva is a Sanskrit word meaning “selfless service” or work performed without any thought of reward or repayment to help one's spiritual growth and at the same time contribute to the improvement of a community

CD Shuffle - Satsang

Satsang from Baiji, including some content she added later:

"Once there was a CD with many songs on it.

That CD met another CD, who also had many songs.

They got married.

The next morning, one CD started playing a song.

The other CD played a different song.

Both CD's are coexisting, but it's very challenging when they're playing different songs at the same time.

After one year, there is another CD, a third one.

The first CD thought, “Now this is the time! This CD is blank, so I will fill it with whatever I like.”

The #2 CD thought, “This is the time. I married CD #1 and couldn’t do anything there... now I have the chance to fill the new one with whatever I want.”

But when they tried, they found the third CD was already recorded. There was no space available. The new CD was already full.

How did this happen? Nobody did anything.

We don’t know where it’s been before it came to us.

Just like our souls - the lives we lived before are unknown to us. They gave us our personality, our preferences, our karma. 

What is the age of our clothes? One month, or two years perhaps?

There is another “cloth” we wear; our body. How old is that?

30, 40, 50, 60, 70+ years?

This is the age of our “clothes.” The first layer, 1-2 years. The second layer, 40 or 80 years.

But what is our actual age?

WHO were we before this birth?

Whoever we were, perhaps those parents recorded onto our CD – they already filled it.

Before that birth, the other parents filled it.

All the time we spend trying to fill the "child" CD, wondering, why doesn’t it match us? 

As parents, we think our children should listen to us, to act according to what we say, but it's good to remember their CD has already been filled.

(One lady said she loved rice pudding, but only the last part at the bottom of the bowl, which she liked to lick. Because of that, she thinks she was a cat in her last life.)

There will be disturbance if all CD's are playing at the same time. We need to let everyone play their song, one at a time, to fully appreciate them. Every one has a different meaning that will benefit us all."

In Relationships, Where Does Happiness Come From?

From a satsang by Gautum Baiji about "finding happiness":

When two people get married, they both think, “Now I will be happy.”

He thinks, “I am marrying her and I will get happiness from her.”

She thinks, “I am marrying him and I will get happiness from him.”

So who is giving all this happiness?

Moral: Only look to yourself for happiness. And when in doubt, you can get happiness by giving it.

Let Ego GO, Let the Sun IN

Satsang from Gautum Baiji:

"The sun can give us light and heat.
But when the clouds come, the sun cannot reach us.
The clouds blocks the sun rays.

So even though the sun has all that power, because of the clouds, we cannot get much heat or light.

It's the same with our life:

When the cloud of egoism covers our soul
We cannot get the light of God
which is out there shining

If that cloud of egoism comes, we cannot get the light of God fully
Although we can remove it through meditation

And we all know when there is no sunshine, we feel cold
Sometimes there is a mental effect

But if the sun is there, even in the early morning, we feel good.
And warm

The same thing happens with spirituality

Through knowledge
We get the power of discernment
It's heightened, in fact

We can then decide better what's good for us

We can see more clearly

President Barack Obama and India - Photos

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have a colorful history with India.

Obama Carries Hanuman as his Lucky charm

President of the United States Barack Obama receives a red shawl from a Hindu priest from Sri Siva Vishnu Temple in Lanham, Maryland (October 2009)

A little humor

Ego vs Soul; False Self vs True Self

Where Can I Find Happiness?

With thanks to Reena Patel

This story is about a beautiful, expensively dressed lady who complained to her psychiatrist that she felt that her whole life was empty, it had no meaning.

So, the lady went to visit a counselor to seek out happiness.

The counselor called over the old lady who cleaned the office floors.

The counselor then said to the rich lady "I'm going to ask Mary here to tell you how she found happiness. All I want you to do is listen to her."

So the old lady put down her broom and sat on a chair and told her story:

"Well, my husband died of malaria and three months later my only son was killed by a car. I had nobody. I had nothing left. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat, I never smiled at anyone, I even thought of taking my own life. Then one evening a little kitten followed me home from work. Somehow I felt sorry for that kitten. It was cold outside, so I decided to let the kitten in. I got some milk, and the kitten licked the plate clean. Then it purred and rubbed against my leg and, for the first time in months, I smiled.

Then I stopped to think, if helping a little kitten could make me smile, maybe doing something for people could make me happy.

So, the next day I baked some biscuits and took them to a neighbor who was sick in bed.

Every day I tried to do something nice for someone. It made me so happy to see them happy.

Today, I don't know of anybody who sleeps and eats better than I do.

I've found happiness, by giving it to others."

When she heard this, the rich lady cried. She had everything that money could buy, but she had lost the things which money cannot buy.

The beauty of life does not depend on how happy you are; but on how happy others can be because of you...

Happiness is not a destination, it's a journey. 

Happiness is not tomorrow, it is now. 

Happiness is not dependency, it is a decision. 
Happiness is what you are, not what you have.

We Can Do No Harm

"He alone sees truly who sees the Lord
the same in every creature...
seeing the same Lord everywhere,
he does not harm himself or others."

Krishna quote from The Bhagavad Gita

An Egg Broken From the Inside is Better

Dr. Ashok Modh was in La Habra for Holi Festival and in his satsang, he discussed how we could do good things in our life. The festival of colors and colored Easter eggs provided a nice metaphor:

"When an egg is broken from the outside, you lose a life.

But the same egg, when it opens from within... a new life begins.

Goodness has to happen within you, not by somebody saying it.

How best to achieve that?

By yoga

Meditation

Bhajan

and satsang.

Bhajan and satsang in particular creates the environment within us to create something good.

We Can Only Know The Holy Name Through Inner Experience

The baijis teach spirituality, not religious practices. What is the proof of this?

It is in their teaching of the Holy Name. That we should discover it inside ourselves, and always keep it in mind because it brings lasting peace.

But what is the Holy Name?

Is it God? Rama? Spirit? The Universe? Om?

The answer, actually, cannot be spoken in words of English, Hindi, Gujarati, or even Sanskrit. 

Nonetheless, it is inside of us.

It's the language of the connection we have with the Infinite. It is most easily realized when we meditate, because we are putting all thoughts aside and communing with the All.

It's a language of sorts, but there are no words. We are like a drop of rainwater that falls into the ocean - there are no words to describe it. 

There is only the experience. 

Some might say this is a benefit of being separate, that we get to have this uniting experience, this communion.

But no one can tell us how to achieve it. They can't give us a pill, they can't trick us, or force it. 

We have to discover it for ourselves.

It may help to know that our individual soul is One with the larger Universal Soul - that the separation is an illusion - then we are simply realizing the connection that is already there, from which our ego normally keeps us separate. 

So when we let our mind quiet, the ego fades, and we can have this Self-realization.

When we do this, a miracle happens:

Half an ounce of this kind of meditation reduces a ton of sins to ashes. We can clean all the detritus of the mind in a heartbeat. We can rid ourselves of "the accumulated karma of a thousand actions." 

We just have to experience it for ourselves, and keep experiencing it.

That is why the baijis encourage us to concentrate our mind on the Holy Name within: when we work, when we play, when we meditate, and every moment we can remember to.