Also published in French, German, Greek, Italian and Spanish january 2019 #12 |
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Greetings to you all. All the members of Yogakshemam's association wish you a wonderful New Year of Peace, Enjoyment and Good Health. |
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OPENING A NEW TRAINING SESSION TEACHERS OF YOGA IN OCTOBER 2019! France and Switzerland |
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Steve Brandon’s question to Sri T.K. Sribhashyam
Published on the website of : harmonyyoga.co.uk in July 2017
Q : In your book ‘Blissful Experience, Bhakti’ there is a section on diet in page 81, Chapter five, Sādhana Saptaka, and then the subject of Chapter eleven is Dietary Regulations in Devotion. That means that more than one sixth of that book is given to the subject of diet in devotion. Could you shed some light on the main reasons for this emphasis on diet?
R : As I have already discussed in one of the previous chapters, we say that the way our mind functions depends on what we eat. In Chāndogya Upanishad, it is said that mind is fed by food. That is the food that we eat influences our thoughts, feelings and emotions. So all the philosophical Masters give importance to our food habits and insist on applying them to succeed in our Sādhana. This is the main reason why I gave so much importance to diet regulations.I am aware that from the western point of view it is not only difficult to believe but to apply these regulations. I wanted to give some examples of what they mean by this. It is true that some of the indications might hurt us. But from the Indian point of view, we have to think of the potentialities of what you eat. What you eat has, let us say, a biological effect on you, that’s one thing that is unquestionable. But it has also in it the potential aspects. It is a fundamental rule in Indian thoughts that action can be effective at an active state, latent state or it can be at the potential state. So it’s not because, in the food you eat, you don’t see the influence in a potential state that it doesn’t act. It is true that our Masters give great importance to the mental state of the person who prepares the food, who serves you (and who feeds you). We say that the way your mind is (that is, your emotions and feelings) when you prepare the food influences the person who eats the food but this is not the active state in the sense that it is not visible but it has been influenced by the way you think when you prepare the food. From our point of view here in the west, it looks strange because we just have a freedom of thought when we prepare food for children or for anyone. In India you have to have a perfect harmonious thought. For example, when you want to prepare your food for the child you should have affectionate positive thoughts. It is not sufficient to think of the child to whom you are preparing the food, you should not have feelings or thoughts that would affect the child. In a way, it is almost like saying that you should prepare the food with love. Because the child has one major emotion, that is love. So you should not have anger, hatred or disgust when you are preparing food for the child or feeding it. So too, when you prepare food for the sick or for the aged people. So it’s almost like in a monastic life here, either you eat in silence or somebody is reading the Bible because that silence or listening hinders you from thinking on something else, so that what you eat becomes pure. We don’t say purity in the sense of hygiene which is very important, but there is purity of thought. In fact, it is one of the most important aspects because we cannot live without food. So you have to eat but what you eat affects your mind, not how you eat but what you eat. Rāmānuja’s indications might seem unbelievable. Yet, it is a simple hygiene to cultivate physical, mental and spiritual cleanliness in our living. As they are considered very important in our devotional life, I have brought to light their importance. In fact, many of them are valid even in our daily life, not necessarily devotional life. |
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It is now or never
Homage to Sri T.K.Sribhashyam
William Altman
ADuring his last public lecture in Zinal in August 2017, Sri T.K. Sribhashyam started with the phrase "It's now or never". Now is the present, and the present is always now. The present is eternally present; such could be its definition. Indeed, the present can never be absent, it is the peculiarity of the present to be indefinitely present. Have you noticed that everything we do, think, experience, always happens in the present? We cannot live, experiment, do things in the past, nor in the future. Yet, although everything we experience is happening now in the present, we are hardly ever present in this present. We approach the present with all the burden of our past, and from this past we are concerned about the future, so we try to bend the present to our liking. Of course we are no longer in tune with the present, there is no place to live the present in the present. We are absent to the present because we are absent from our true self, absent from our essential being. We identify our self with ephemeral elements, temporary elements which are changing constantly: our body, our feelings, our emotions, our desires etc. This false identification is the very cause of all our troubles, our afflictions, our sufferings. Only our identification with our essential and fundamental nature, our immutable nature is able to immerse us in this now. What we consider ourselves, which we use to approach the present, is only the sum of experiences, sensations, emotions, needs, that we have accumulated. This pretense to self is only a pale substitution of our fundamental being. Therefore, we approach the present by trying to match it according to our needs, our attachments, our concerns. We approach the outside world in a partial, fragmentary way. These situations, these events, these objects that we approach in the present are only taken into account (sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously) if they fulfill a certain function. This function has only one goal, to satisfy our desires, our attachments, our ego, our emotional, intellectual constructions etc… Just as our being is buried under the different layers imposed by the mind, the present is buried under the layers of our memory, our desires, our anticipations, our attachments etc. Our mind is only an accumulation of past experiences, which is perpetuated according to the circumstances of the present. In the end we are slaves of a constructed character built from scratch, all the foundations of which are based on our attachments in the past, and our projections on the future. A constructed character who thinks he is a being free of any influence. On the contrary, facing the present, without anticipation, without expectation, without foresight, without attachment, our presence to our being unfolds. This is the supreme freedom: to be, to be united to our being, united to the other, to the situation, to the external world, united to this source which is identical for each of us. Then we are able to welcome the present from the totality of our being. And in this case, this present and our action in this present leave no residue. Only this presence remains, and this presence is necessarily presence in the present, presence to our essential being, our Divine nature. And it's always now and when it's not now it is yet never. After reading this article Claire Sribhashyam sent me this message which illustrates the urgency of understanding, assimilating and applying on a daily basis the teaching we are lucky enough to receive from a Master. "I wanted to tell you what Sribhashyam told me when he returned from his lecture at Zinal. When he told you "it's now or never"… he knew it was the end and so it would be his last conference talk, his last lecture. That it was therefore necessary to follow and well understand everything he said because it was our last chance to have his teaching, there would be no longer any classes to catch up…”. |
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Reflections on some of the aspects of Sri T.K. Sribhashyam’s teaching
Brigitte Khan A friend – neither student nor practitioner of yoga – had once met Sribhashyam for a short while, yet long enough to have a discussion with him. Weeks later, the same friend, out of the blue, said to me : you know, I do not understand why and how, but ever since I met Sribhashyam, I think of God regularly, every day, and this was not the case before. The deep and unwavering devotional conviction of Sribhashyam was such that it had an impact and touched anyone who was in contact with him. Why? How? What was it that allowed Sribhashyam to reach the minds and the hearts of people with ease and plant the seed of what would allow them – if they so wished and generated the necessary efforts - to bring, in a subtle way, most important changes to their lives? Whatever the subject of Sribhashyam’s lectures, his explanations were never purely theoretical or intellectual, they were always practical. He used to elucidate the notions and concepts he taught by taking direct examples from every day’s life of all of us. To illustrate and exemplify a philosophical concept by taking episodes from daily experience, by using situations we are confronted with regularly, allows us to fully comprehend the concept because we can put it in relations to our own life. At the same time this approach also offers us the practical access to implement change in this very life. It is only when we can relate a matter to our own experience that we can fully grasp its impact in our life. Through this practical approach Sribhashyam lead us to a most important factor required for understanding a concept, learning from it and progressing: that of observation and subsequent reflection on what has been observed. Only when we observe ourselves in our way of being, behaving and acting will we understand how our ego traps us, how our desires control us, how we confuse reality and illusion, etc. It is by pointing out possible obstacles and how to overcome them that lasting light is shed on the path. Reflecting on what we have observed, comparing and linking it with Sribhashyam’s elucidations is the beginning of practical change, potential progress and subsequent transformation. It was always Sribhashyam’s wish that our devotional approach should continue beyond his physical presence as our Teacher. With patience and full of compassion he has prepared us for this. The ‘instruments’, the ‘tool box’ and the ‘user manual’ he has imparted on us through his teaching are of practical and enduring nature and will continue to illuminate the direction to take as long as we apply them, after due observation and reflection. To be continued |
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