Yogis Walk Among Us !

You might think that the ancient tradition of Himalayan yogis has already waned away, but no – these days they just walk among us. As in the past, also today you have to do a lot of research in your mind in order to find one. These sadhus and swamis now dedicate themselves for working among society and rendering meditation teachings and service to humanity. They seldom appear on TV shows – one has to search with a hunger for spirituality in order to find them.

Not all are that high as the highest – and that is good, as many people also might not be able to scope with the highest of the yogis (or would you follow a yogi who doesn’t speak anything, or who is behaving like insane or living naked?). Anyhow the present yogis are able to give initiations and bring people to a contact with Guru and the divine.

Yogis gather in Germany

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3NpwBndv0I

The spiritual momentum of earth is now; don’t miss your chance to be one of the pioneers when the earth is turning into saintly, divine place. When you study, work or offer service, it should be based on spiritual wisdom, in order the greatest success to be guaranteed. The spiritual path is not that difficult – but full of blessings and realizations it is.

Meditate what? Beginners, whose mind can be quite crude still, is better to concentrate during their meditation on love, universal (divine) love. It is the expression and inner spirit of the cosmic consciousness and the creation and a pleasant idea to concentrate on. It creates devotion, which is helpful in keeping one in the spiritual path. It also makes one more loving in daily life. We are not only physical and mental (and economic) beings, but also spiritual, so we should spend a bit of our time with spiritual practices also. The cosmic consciousness surely provides inspiration, guidance and even answers through meditation.

Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, Baba has said; ‘In order to turn personified love into universal love one must color the molecules and atoms of this dusty earth with one’s love. A person who has developed universal love will be able to do very great work. The universal love which has remained suppressed in the human mind is bound to express itself one day. That day is not very far away. When love awakens those sleeping souls, then true human beings will emerge.’

When one sings kiirtan (mantra), a divine vibration is produced that prepares the mind and the body for meditation. .... Kiirtan creates an electromagnetic field. The reason that it acts as a universal remedy is that it attracts the grace of the Supreme Consciousness because it is an expression of devotional love. http://anandamarga.tripod.com/translate/Kiirtan/kiirtanphysic.html.

Love kiirtan, get inspired, Taivan

https://youtu.be/UXt33YSAiLU

In search of yogis and swamis in India, Ac Cidananda (ab 1838-2010) tells; Once a Naga Baba (naked saint) appeared near by. He didn’t speak anything to children gathering around. The children helped him to take bath and gave him food.

Between 1975-77 in India Ac Cidananda visited many saints, sadhus and swamis. Once he was in Haridwar he came to a hut, where inside there was an old Sadhu lying down on the floor. He was Naga Baba and they both remembered still each other from the childhood meeting. This time Naga Baba was already 130 years old.

While on gateway to Himalayas Ac Citananda met another claimed to be 130 years old, Ramananda Avadhuta. In Rishikesh he met Pagala Baba (Insane Saint). He told to Ac Cidananda: ‘If I don’t behave like insane, people disturb me all the time. Tell to your Gurudeva, that Pagala Baba gives his pranam to Him (spiritual greeting)´.

Ac Citananda stayed in Rishikesh also with Swami Bhjananda Saraswati, who had 25 students. He used to be very strict and beat his students with stick. There was also a debate going on about different paths of yoga and Vedanta. Ac Cidananda was able to explain that yoga and Vedanta were complementary to each other. Jatadhari Baba´s specialty was that he used his matted hair as a cloth in his cave. Jasmine like fragrance floated from his body (quite common when people do a lot of meditation).

In Uttar Kashi on his journey up, Ac Cidananda started to see snow covered peaks of Himalayas. He was welcomed to a wooden house, where sannyasi Vrksha Vasi Baba was doing penance (constant meditation) for years. In Gangotri area Swami Shardananda was sitting almost always in meditation. Since 1957 he never went down from Himalayas.

River Ganges starts from opening on the mountain, Gomukh where water flows amongst medical herbs, providing it with medical value. Ac Cidananda stayed there in an empty rock cave for 3 days without eating, except drinking water and doing constant meditation. His Guru Baba appeared and requested Ac Cidananda to finish his Himalayan tour soon as there was some work waiting for him.

Anyhow Ac Cidananda wanted still see higher Himalayas, Gangotri. He had to sleep on a tent, as it was very cold – still the area was full of flowers with beautiful fragrance. There his desire – to experience snowing and even eating mangoes – got fulfilled, when some sadhu arrived and provided the mangoes for him. Later in 1981 when Ac Cidananda met his Guru Baba, He said: Do you know that sometimes even at Gangotri 18 000 above the sea, I have to provide mangoes and snowfall.

On Nepal side 1976, Ac Cidananda met Avadhutika, whose body was covered by ashes. He said: `Your Guru will come out soon, do more meditation´. Ac Cidananda visited also Madhura and Vrindava, Krishna´s places. Sadhus were doing there constant repetition of Hare Krishna mantra.

In Dandi Swami´s place Ac Cidananda had interesting discussions with Rameshavan, who had joined once the famous and mysterious India’s independence movement and had met Gandhi, Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose in Delhi. After Rameshavan had started to search for Guru.

Swami Viirjananda offered one of his Ashrams to Ac Cidananda. He considered it, but understood, that it would not be the best way for him to serve the humanity by taking care of some Ashram. There he had also experience of snake sleeping near his body. Many times when people do meditation snakes come to “warm up”, but they don´t bite.

Ac Cidnanda’s Gurudeva’s mission spread throughout the world. He sent Ac Cidananda to Philippines to start a training centre, where he worked then most of his life. Besides he and the trainees did a lot of social service. Source: Ac Cidananda’s books.

I personally went once to visit the training centre in Davao and met also Ac Cidananda, humble, smiling, loving and disciplined yogi. One day the trainees returned from their trip – dirty, tired and quiet. They had distributed food and helped near by villagers to build up new huts from straw and clay after guerrillas had burnt the village down. The trainees hesitated to tell me that when they were driving back by Jeep the guerrillas were shooting their car with guns. Nobody got hurt, they were saved miraculously. It was not first time experience for them in that hostile area – of being saved. When you do selfless service you are protected, that was their experience. I had very similar experiences in Nairobi streets, but that’s another story. Ac Cidananda trained hundreds of yogies, who are now creating more and more yogies, dedicated for meditation and social service.

Some research on meditation;

Meditate and your brain grows; ‘Researchers have found that experienced meditators had increased thickness in parts of the brain that deal with attention and processing sensory input. A study in University of California has shown that meditation may affect multiple pathways in brain aging and preventing dementia. Those who meditated for eight weeks had measurable increase in gray-matter density in the hippocampus, an area important for learning and memory, and reduction of gray-matter and thus anxiety and stress.

MRI scan; ‘We found that regions of the brain that are intimately involved in the control of attention were more activated in the long-term meditation practitioners’. http://www.news.wisc.edu/13890. Davidson; ‘Most people, if they heard a baby screaming, would have some emotional response, but not the highly experienced meditators. They do hear the sound, we can detect that in the auditory cortex, but they don’t have the emotional reaction (during meditation).’ 2007 study; meditators have longer attention spans.

In a 2008 study published in the journal PloS One, when meditators heard the sounds of people suffering (when not meditating), they had stronger activation levels in their temporal parietal junctures, a part of the brain tied to empathy, than people who did not meditate. And 7 Ways Meditation Change The Brain; http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/02/09/7-ways-meditation-can-actually-change-the-brain/.

The study on Ananda Marga tantric yogis and near samadhi experience by Stanford University. And the study at Dartmouth University, showed experienced Ananda Marga meditators to be producing a high level of theta brainwaves. Six of the 11 controls fell asleep during the 40 min, while none of the meditators fell asleep. Meditation was also characterized by a decrease in respiratory rate. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1977.tb01155.x/abstract

Video on meditation science; https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Dm5h1Z88lWQ.

Dr. Shanida Nataraja: ‘Meditation gives us a tool by which we can switch our brain activity to the right brain. ‘Modern society discriminates against the right hemisphere.‘— Nobel Laureate Roger Sperry.

Ac Cidananda on Quantum theory (2006); In 1929, Heisenberg (the founder of wave mechanics) spent some time in India as the guest of the famous poet, Rabindranath Tagore. Heisenberg stated; ‘After conversations with Tagore, some of the ideas that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense. That was a great help for me.’

There are 64 ancient texts of India called the Tantra Shastra, which includes instructions how an adept in six-dimensional sadhana (spiritual practise) can disintegrate his body at will and reintegrate his body at another place. This extraordinary phenomenon has a logical basis in the wave mechanics of quantum physics. Today’s world is full of a multitude of vibrations. The action and reaction of these waves on you make your mind restless. These waves make it difficult to concentrate.

Drugs might have in some sense short time benefits related to meditation, but they will eventually haunt down the user. Green leaves absorb photons from the sunshine, your brain might grow if you eat lots of greens!!! And you might become green like ETs!!! Wow!!!

Inspiring books; Ac Cidananda’s book; http://anandamargabooks.com/portfolio/293-2/. And Living with the Himalayan Masters, Swami Rama. You may find in the net. Travels with Mystic Master, by DharmaVedananda: http://pl.scribd.com/doc/11386818/Travels-With-the-Mystic-Master#scribd.