Silent Swan

Words Inform, Experience Transforms

Dear Friends & Family,

It is with abundant joy that I announce to you the arrival of my Spiritual Preceptor Yogiraj SatGurunath Siddhanath to the United States for the next several months.

Yogiraj is a Master in the Nath tradition, the most ancient living lineage in India.  A descendant of the  royal families of  Lord Rama and Gautum Buddha, in his youth Yogiraj followed in the footsteps of these great Masters, renouncing worldly pursuits and practicing the many paths to God offered in India.  His journey culminated in a meeting with the King of Yogis - Mahavatar Babaji, whom initiated and empowered him to be an emissary to the West of the sacred teaching of Babaji's Kundalini Kriya Yoga.  This is the same Kriya Yoga introduced to the West by Paramahansa Yogananda, to whom Yogiraj is closely connected.

Unlike the plethora of teachers, and lesser handful of Saints which abound, Yogiraj is a true Master.  In his own words:

"A teacher teaches in a systematized and organized way.  A Master catches you, shakes you, and wakes you up."

Yogiraj is eloquent, funny and carries a tremendous presence.  His main teaching however lies in the transmission of Spiritual experience of subtler domains of awareness.  If this sounds new and unfamiliar, it is because it is - True Masters are rare and can be recognized primarily by their transmission of pure consciousness, rather then just their habits, words or clothing. 

Yogiraj will be holding a handful of free experiential Satsangs throughout the United States in the next few months including in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle areas.  Yogiraj has also been invited to speak at the United Nations in late October, so stay tuned for a NY visit.

You can view the full schedule of events online here:
http://www.hamsa-yoga.org/schedule.php

You can also view a short clip of Yogiraj's description of India's true contribution to the world here:
India's Contribution to the Earth

For a full list of enlightening video's, please visit:
http://youtube.com/user/HamsaYogi

I invite you all to please meet Yogiraj whilest he is still around.  I speak with as much humility as I can muster when I say that Yogiraj is by far the most enlightened being I have ever met.  More than anyone I've come across, he sets the bar for what spiritual realization is. Whatever your chosen path, whatever your practice, please do not miss this most rare of opportunities to meet a living Master, a Nath Siddha of the ancient of days.

With hands folded,

Yaniv

How to love and serve others as your larger self- Yogiraj Gurunath Siddhanath

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mind-is-full, what's next?

"Meditation is not the same as concentration. Concentration consists in freeing the attention from objects of distraction and focusing it on one thing at a time. Meditation is that special form of concentration in which the attention has been liberated from restlessness and is focused on God. A man may concentrate on divinity or on money but he does not meditate on money or any material thing. Meditation is focused only on God or sacred thoughts and ideas." —Paramahansa Yogananda

Experience the Stillness of a Yogi's Mind

Hello everyone,

I am overjoyed to announce that Kriya Yoga Master and Himalayan Nath Yogi, Yogiraj Gurunath Siddhanath, will be visiting the United States and spending significant time in the Bay Area this summer.

Yogiraj will be conducting a number of free experiential workshops from July through October, as well as teaching the ancient Science of Kriya Yoga and leading two New Life Awakening Retreats.

Some information about Yogiraj along with the full Bay Area schedule is posted below.

wisdoms gains

I believe it was Winston Churchill who said:

"There are three ways to gain wisdom in this world.  The first is by imitation, which is the easiest.   The second is contemplation, which is the noblest.  The third is experience, which is the bitterest."

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Hmm, if that's true, then ..

The greatest hindrance to gain wisdom through imitation is pride.

The greatest hindrance to gain wisdom through contemplation is lazyness.

The greatest hindrance to gain wisdom through experience is fear.

How to stay inspired in Sadhana

From Swami Satyanandaji

In the Ramayana there are nine steps of Devotion explained:

1. Associate with saintly people

2. Enjoy stories of divinity and divinely inspired beings

3. Feel the privilege to perform selfless service as an _expression of love

4. Sing of divine qualities or characteristics without any selfish motivation

5. Recite mantras with full faith

6. Perform all actions with tranquility, and see every circumstance as an opportunity to manifest perfection

7. See the world as equal to God, and regard the company of saintly beings as a greater opportunity than the perception of God

8. Be satisfied with whatever we receive as the fruit of our actions, and do not contemplate the faults of others

9. Remain with simplicity all the time, renounce conniving for selfish ends, and take delight in faith in God with neither exultation nor unhappiness

These are the nine steps of devotion.

Try these in order to keep your inspiration alive.

Mantra

A floating jetsam in a sea of distraction

Padmasana

After a few years of learning to sit still, concentrate and meditate, the importance of including your body in this process is becoming apparently clear.

Yes, it seems true that if we could tame our minds our body will follow, usually though my untamed mind leads to chronic physical discomfort.  Imbalanced shoulders, twisted spine, tense neck - all of these are distractions I think would better be worked out with some good stretching as opposed to more mind-over-matter approaches.

Ironically, for years I've been practicing Yogic Meditation while rejecting the wide-spread western notion that Yoga is a method of postural integration alone (asana's).  In doing so, I've neglected this most important component to the successful practice of the True Yoga.  No longer.

As for sitting, Padmasana, the Full Lotus posture is appealing to me for it's left-right balancing and stable foundation benefits.  In the long run - this could be a crucial element.

Looks like it will take years before this posture reveals itself fully, in the meanwhile baby steps ...

Full Lotus Instructions # 1

Full Lotus Instructions # 2

The Art of Sadhana

From Akhand-Jyoti

The essence of sádhaná is self-discipline. The deities we worship are in fact the symbolic representatives of our own covert indwelling divine attributes. So long as these attributes are dormant, we live in a miserable state, but when the divine nature is awakened and activated, we realize that we are repositories of supernormal energies (riddhi and siddhi). The sole aim of sádhaná is to activate these dormant attributes through a focused and dedicated process of self-refinement and self-transcendence.