student:
I want to know how to avoid the negative thoughts, creating palpitations and anxieties. Sometimes good thoughts are happening in me but it’s not being constant in my mind.
master:
This happens to almost every human being. I appreciate your sincerity. Adopting the right technology in meditation only helps to progress, means when you are trying to meditate simply watching is important, your ability to pay attention. So you might be practicing any type of sadhana is no problem but every Guru normally teachers to focus, concentrate – that is the most important technique. So if you are able to do that then the transformation in the mind comes, your mind becomes more positive. So this is important psychological and spiritual philosophically either you should be able to keep your mind positively engaged or you should be able to keep it quiet. Otherwise it becomes a devil’s workshop, Everybody, it becomes negative, positive, negative. So always try to do this one. Whenever a negative thought arises instantly, immediately try to engage yourself into some positive thinking. Try to reassure yourself, never lose faith in yourself. That is important. ‘It will be alright. I can set right, I can achieve, let me practice more meditation’ and if the mind needs some anchor that is the Divinity or a Guru, whomever you like, whoever appeals to you. Remember them, have faith in them that their blessings will always be with you, their Grace will always be with you. Thinking like that will be helpful to you to overcome the negativity eventually.
Related Q&A
Jai Shri Hari!
Mine is Insight on How to Meditate.
I would love to know your favorites.
Also please provide links to the respective video.
Side Note: As I don't know hindi, please add links to the videos that are available with english subtitles (almost every video of swamiji is present with english CC except few)
Thank you.
Har Har Mahadev!
Hello Sri ji,
Very hard question you have asked, to pick favorite video of Swamiji 🙂 . I just love his each and every video. I have picked two which i saw quite long back and loved it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEXUBtf2ET0 - Suffering and You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp22PH6BUO0 - The Journey of Self-Evolution
- Jai Shri Hari!!
Last day of the year and I chose to re-read Swamiji's memoir, because it fills me with inspiration. Somehow I cannot still process and it really makes me upset every time I read, how could someone like Swamiji who was so well sorted in this mind about his goal let Baba ji treat him like that? Or use him and let him do so?
Was it a sense of surrender ? Was it just the faith that he would take him closer to his goal? In either case, should we not use our mind to analyze at all?
PS- I am already sorry if I shouldn't derive such meaning out of it, it is what was evidently happening though.
Aparna,
I used to think that way too but I have come to appreciate Swamiji's life story in a new light. As we move along the path one of the changes that occurs in the mind of a sadhak is the ability to take a step back and gaze at the big picture of life more and dwell less on the details. IMO, Swamiji would not be the guru that he is today if Naga Baba had not been the guru he was back in the day. Things people have come to love and revere like Os.me, Sadhana app, Black lotus App, Swamiji's Ashram and all the initiates of Swamiji etc etc ..none of that would exist today as we know it if it weren't for Naga Baba. In a way, all of us owe Naga Baba a huge debt of gratitude if you think about it.
All the things we are grateful for with respect to Swamiji came about as fruits of his intense tapas in the Himalayas. However, If Naga Baba was even ever so slightly different in his disposition, Swamiji would never have left the ashram in the first place and his life story would have taken a different trajectory. It eventually might have led to his realization in some other form no doubt, but It would have looked different from the story we have come to love and appreciate right now in our present. Therefore, when you step back and gaze at the totality of it, you will find that all the characters in a story add so much color and beauty to the story. That's why in a movie or a novel, the person playing an antagonist is just as important as the protagonist. Because the role of a villain is to make you fall in love with the Hero and root for him! The character of Ravana makes us fall in love with Rama and Sita and aren't we grateful that he exists in the story?
When you take a step back and reflect on the big picture in its totality, you will start to appreciate the intricacies and nuances in a whole new light and glimpse at the immense beauty contained in it! Beauty is an emergent quality. To give you a music analogy, the high and low notes together is what makes a song so beautiful and melodious :).
I will also add one final note which is that sometimes great beings go through enormous challenges not necessarily for themselves but to show the world how to handle such situations if the rest of us ever find ourselves in one. Isn’t that what inspiration is all about? 🙂
Wishing you a brilliant 2023!!!
Death is going to visit us sooner or later. And so many people die everyday on this planet. Have you ever thought about how you would like to die?
We can't choose our death. Or can we? And if yes, to how much extent? Should we even choose our death? If you had the choice, how would you like to execute your passing? Let me know in the comments. 🙏🌸
2. How we live determines how we die. As humans, we have a great degree of freedom in choosing our actions, responses and conditions.
3. Check out the life of Diogenes the Cynic. Dude just stopped breathing through sheer force of will.
4. I imagine a beautiful way to die would be to expend every ounce of our life energies in service of this world, then...detachedly watch it merge away. From a no-thing, to nothing.
Jai Sri Hari 🙏
I am talking about situations where you are absolutely helpless and at mercy of others whims and fancies. The only recourse is prayer. How should one pray as there is absolutely no other action that is possible and one is engulfed with worry and anxiety? Also the decisions will take 2-3 months to be made, so very difficult to maintain calm during this time. How to channelise one's fear and worry into prayer?
I am sorry to hear that you are going through a tough situation, Shailu.
It isn’t easy but the best way is surrender.
In such situations as long as you have done the best you can and things are out of your control, speak your heart out to the Divine and leave the outcome at His feet.
Surrendering and after telling Him that now it is for Him to handle, you will feel a burden be lifted off your shoulders.
Additionally what Anu suggested about relying on a trusted friend is super helpful. If you don’t have such a friend, I’d suggest praying for one or life guides if you feel completely overwhelmed.
Recently, I came across a piece of information that stated that in the old texts of Hanuman Chalisa the sixth verse it's written as 'Shankar Swayam Kesarinandan' (शंकर स्वयं केसरी नंदन) instead of 'Shankar Suvan Kesarinandan' (शंकर सुवन केसरी नंदन) which is popularly known these days. This causes a small truti (mistake) in the recitation of Hanuman Chalisa. For us, we don't really know which is the correct one or if it really doesn't matter which way we recite the sixth verse. Now, the only way for those of us who consider Om Swamiji as our Guru or for the initiated souls who's Guru is Swamiji, the only way is to know what our Guru Swamiji has to say about it, because Guru's word is final, it becomes the right way. I am not aware if Swamiji has already spoken about this topic, if he has then could you please tell me what he said, if not, then could any of you kind souls present in the ashram ask Swamiji about it in the evening QnA session so that all of us who are also Lord Hanuman devotees get to know his final word on this issue? Many thanks in advance!🙏🏻 Jai Sri Hari! 🙏🏻
You might have heard about that from YouTube right? I don't think SwamiJi has spoken on this.... You may ask when you get a chance.
I feel chalisa is like a stotra and not mantra so Bhava matters more than a mere correctness of just 1 word in such a long beautiful stuti. So chant with full faith, bhava and devotion.... He knows what you mean!
Rest do as your heart says.
Jai Sri Hari.
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