Feel connected to God, See divinity in all the beings

     I would like to share my ideas regarding empowerment with you. I feel that for women we must make a special effort, especially for those who do not have many opportunities. We need not look far, the maidservants working in our house, we can help by contributing to their daughter’s education or giving them free tution. We can teach yoga in our building and locality. We must spare some time for the underprivileged. The Senior Citizens also need our seva and help. At home, we may be having parents and grandparents, as well as elderly people in the neighbourhood. We can run small errands for them, bringing medicines and provisions, reading to them, taking them to the doctor etc. Even a smile and a note of enquiry about’s people health and general well-being works wonders. I have found that if I meet people in the neighbourhood while on a walk or going to work or to the market, just a nod and a smile (even though I do not know the people and have just seen them around often on the road) brings a smile to the other person’s face. Sometimes when I ask a driver, liftman, security guard or shopkeeper, ‘kemon aacho? (how are you?)”, they also feel wanted and I somehow feel connected to god since I seek to see divinity in all beings. I also feel pleasantly disposed to animals, which was not there before (because the awareness has come that I was probably an animal or bird in one of my previous lives and could be again born as one!). Our beloved Gurudev and the shakti team are doing a great job for the girl child and I would also like to help them in this endeavour. I feel ladies are the ones who can help to bring women empowerment for women who need education and other facilities, ably supported by the men in society. We can also do seva by spreading awareness of our Ashram and Gurudev. In case there is no Centre in your city or neighbourhood, please contact Rishi Amrit subscribers, advertise in newspapers or through word of mouth, start Group Meditation on a weekly basis. Try to spread this as a movement so that maximum people can benefit from the great opportunity which God is giving uS.

Definition of an experience and a spiritual experience

The Spiritual Science Research Foundation (SSRF) defines that which is experienced through the medium of the five senses, mind and intellect as an ‘experience’. For example, the experience of eating one’s favourite dish, feeling love for one’s child, resolving a problem at work by using one’s intellect, etc., fall into the category of an ‘experience’. Experiencing something which is beyond the comprehension of the five senses, mind and intellect constitutes a ‘spiritual experience’. Even if one can perceive an event through the five senses, mind and intellect but the reason behind it is beyond the gross intellect of mankind, it still constitutes a spiritual experience.

Articles and Reflections on Spiritual Life

This news feed shares articles on living a spiritual life during these extraordinary times of spiritual transformation and Earth changes. Occasionally I also share my own personal reflections here. Some articles are received from the Realms of Light for World Blessings and some are written by my teacher Julie Redstone of Light Omega.

The Spiritual Side of Yoga

The main idea behind yoga is two fold. Yoga is designed to strengthen your body although it is not as much of a cardiovascular type of exercise as it is a meditative exercise. All of the movements that are associated with yoga are slow and controlled as well as the breathing. This is designed to help strengthen your lungs as well as your body and mind. Everyone has their own understandings of the spiritual side of the practice of yoga. The basic idea behind yoga is similar, the unity of all things. This includes the earth, stars, and universe all exist as one. It is believed that the aura or layers of energy emanate from all things. For many people there is a strong feeling of having a connection with all things. Yoga is known as a strong variable in creating a healthy balanced body and a much more peaceful state of mind. Patanjali Yoga has been known to have eight limbs which include Yama, Niyama, Asans, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dahrana, Dhyana, and Samadhi. Your technique and posture are extremely important when practicing Yoga. All seven charkas much remain in a specific alignment and the movements should always be slow and graceful. When practicing yoga you should have perfect body motions combined with the correct breathing. There are many people who believe that there is a divine energy about Yoga. For many people the power of Yoga has been known to be an alternative to conventional medicine for patients who are suffering from specific addictions, asthma, cancer, depression, headaches, high blood pressure, rheumatism, and general to severe backpain. Yoga has been known to help people ease their mind and let go of their day to day stress. Others consider it sufficient treatment for multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and osteoporosis. Always ask your doctor what is the best idea for you.

The spiritual aspect of music

I remember vividly my two years of lessons with Vladimir Horowitz and how I felt when I first met him. It was as if I was transported onto a movie set of my past memories of seeing him on television, since those films were made at his home on 94th street in Manhattan. And there I was, sitting across from the pianist I had so much admired all my life.

We would have two to three hour lessons and at certain times I was invited to be his guest for dinner before the lesson, which was a rare treat. Our conversations would cover a variety of topics: some were profound and others friendly and comical. We once talked about how some pieces had an overall masculine feeling, while others, like a nocturne or soft piece were more feminine, or passive. There would also be pieces that would not apply to such a generalization, such as the Polonaise-Fantasie of Chopin.

Perhaps the masculine/feminine way of looking at a piece of music is directly related to our emotional nature and how we respond emotionally to music.

Once, when talking about concerts and audiences, he said that a large percentage of the people in his audiences would immediately respond to his brilliant technique, or how he would play the virtuosic, showy pieces. Of that larger percentage, maybe 30%-40% would respond on the emotional level, or to the musicality of his interpretations; the mood or feel of the piece. He would then say that it would be only about 2-5% of the audience that was in tune to what he was doing spiritually. He must have really been aware of his audiences and sensitive to them.

I wonder if the larger group may have still been responding spiritually, but perhaps on a more subconscious level. It would seem that audiences often do have an instinctive knowledge of what a "good" performance is.

It would seem to me that the spiritual nature of music is that music is a reflection, or mirrored image of the something heavenly or not of this world. It exists as an invitation perhaps to another way of living, beyond the everyday concerns that we all seem to get caught up with. Music can take us someplace and take us away from our troubles, but whether we choose to live out lives that way is entirely our choice. The music is a reflection. If it were heaven or the divine itself, then people would surely be transformed once hearing a piece of music, and they rarely are. We usually go back to our basic way of living.

Perhaps we all have an invitation of some sort when we hear music of a spiritual nature, an invitation to another way of living that is there for anyone. I would think that the mirror is in some way inviting us to this way of living, or maybe letting us know that there is more to life than all that we sometimes get caught up in.

Music has always been a very special part of my life and I am thankful for the experiences I have had when sharing my music with people and the feedback they give me. I sometimes wonder if it really does make a difference? But when I do, I will quickly get a reminder from a fan that a piece of mine saved them from depression, or that they love to hear my CD's throughout the day, and that is a beautiful feeling: to know that perhaps it really is making a difference.

Spiritual Warfare

  You and I each have the power and authority to rule the world and do a great job of it. What we lack is the wisdom to know how to apply this power and authority. What a shame it is we are too busy with more important matters.
  Because we are so busy with such important matters as overfill our waking hours, the wisest among us have taken time out to teach the rest of us what to do with our time out when we decide to take some. But then we always have better plans for any free time, I’m sure. This allows the weak and fearful to rule the world while the media reports on the violence and regression. We are left to wonder what will be next on the global stage. It is easy for us to subscribe to the accidental theory of history; summarized as stuff happens. Yeah, stuff happens – just like your weekly paycheck. Take a long vacation and see how long that continues to happen.
  Is anybody making money in or because of Iraq? Will they be glad when it’s over? Will they be ruined by peace? Or will they simply suffer smaller profits? Or will they just move on to the next crisis - or create it? Let us all suffer peace profits.
  If you or I rule the world and outlaw war, we can be sure we will be martyred in short order, so there seems to be no point in backing away from our busyness. On the other hand, if each of us just backed off for thirty to sixty minutes each day in a joint effort to create peace - and we amount to a few million souls around the world; it will require global destruction to martyr us all. This becomes pointless to the weak and fearful for they need someone to rule over. Therefore, in our current circumstance, our easily accessible power lies in our spiritual practice and our numbers. How many of us will devote an hour or less each day to a global effort? Only those of us who understand spiritual power and authority? Perhaps all of us and those who would merely like to believe enough to spend the time and develop a daily spiritual practice - if only to see what happens. Adventurers. We could become so many in such short time if we were not such die hard skeptics. It’ll never work. It never worked before. I only ask when it was last tried.
  We can daily pray for and bless the puppets we call leaders until the cows come home and see very little progress. But once we acknowledge they are the puppets of those who buy elections, we can begin blessing and praying for the puppet masters. We need not know their names. Wisdom is the principle thing. Wisdom is the world’s greatest need. If the people with all the economic and military power were wise, we would have peace on earth. When you create just a little more peace in your own life and I in mine, the world becomes a more peaceful place. When we are at peace, in and with our busy, harried selves we become part of the solution, while we are yet part of the problem. We can call this progress and we can call ourselves progressive. Even if the regressives make progressive a dirty word, there will be no cause to hang our heads. We will be winning the war on regression. We will be winning the spiritual war.
  When we are at peace in and with ourselves, if only for thirty minutes, we can send wisdom to all regressives everywhere, but especially to the mega profiteers who make war, not love. Who are devoid of compassion and caring. We can do this even without having great wisdom ourselves. There is enough wisdom in desiring that others possess it. While sending wisdom, we can as easily send compassion and caring, which is the first result of wisdom in any case. While we are at it we can acquire wisdom for ourselves and loved ones. It is only a matter of intention and desire. I leave you with just one question: Is wisdom and world peace worth any of your time?

The spiritual experiance

Most scientific literature asserts that spirituality is a product of the peculiar mechanisms of the brain.These interpretations make heavy use of neuroimaging techniques which crudely depict the activity of the brain during specific cognitive (thinking) processes. While most scientists regard spirituality as a consequence of brain activity, a slender group of neuroscientists are supportive of spiritual and religious ideology, or at least do not consider scientific explanations to be inconsistent with the (potential) presence of a genuine spiritual realm, including the existence of one or numerous supernatural agents.For the moment, however, causality will be overlooked; whether a supernatural agent stimulates a spiritual experience or not, there is no question that it manifests through the brain. This section will consider the evidence yielded from neuroimaging studies. These studies include neuroimaging analyses derived from techniques like positron emission tomography (PET), functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) imaging, and single positron emission computed tomography (SPECT). Each of these techniques provides information on neuronal (brain cell) activity through technological proxies such as the decay of radioactive isotopes injected into a subject, and the magnetic properties of a hydrogen nucleus excited by radio frequency radiation, which can map oxygenated blood flow. The data provided by neuroimaging have been central in revealing features of brain activity during various cognitive functions such as language, consciousness and even degree of religiosity.However, before it is possible to appreciate the findings of neuroimaging studies it is first instructive to review the brain structures under examination. The cerebral cortex of humans is relatively larger than those of other mammals and consists of four lobes: occipital, parietal, frontal and temporal. The temporal lobe is of particular interest to us because it houses the limbic system, which along with parts of the brain stem is amongst the oldest legacy of evolution. The limbic system is believed to be responsible for generating emotional reactions to the information it receives from the five sensory channels. Roughly, this response is subsequently shunted to the frontal lobes where the higher brain functions of conscious thought and goal-directed activity take over.Both the cruellest and the most exhilarating emotional experiences are an outcome of the primal reaction of the limbic system and the cautious rationality of the forebrain.  The limbic system also contains the hippocampus and amygdala. The former is believed to be involved with recording memories, particularly those with strong emotional content. Pathology in, or damage to the hippocampus, has been associated with changes to spiritual and religious beliefs, as well as changes to long-standing values.The amygdala is believed to play a senior role in coordinating unconscious emotional states. Noteworthy is its connection with the autonomic nervous system. Physiological responses to stressful emotional experiences like 'fight or flight' are largely orchestrated by the amygdala. In addition, because it is linked to the prefrontal cortex, it has a hand in the conscious awareness of emotion.