Sri Swami Vishwananda - BHU DEVI YAGNA 2013

Menstruation is purification –

and a great service to all

 

 

 

At every spiritual ceremony women, who are in their monthly cycle, are asked, not to touch any temple-items, not to offer flower petals and not to offer anything into a yagna fire. Here is a summary of explanations which Swamiji has given at different occasions, to help everyone to understand why it is like that:

 

Once Swamiji explaining, that a woman is energetically receptive and during the month she collects a lot of negativity from her environment. In doing so she does a great service, as she purifies her environment. This impurities get removed from her during menstruation. At this year´s Bhu Devi yagna Guruji was quite clear, that women in their cycle should not participation in the yagna. He gave the following explanation:

 

“Menstruation is purification. You are going through your personal purification. You should not even touch the person which is performing the puja. You should not even touch other people. When you are doing a ritual everything gets energetically intensified. In menstruation there is already a certain negativity inside. So it gets intensified in the ceremony. So you should keep a certain distance. You can participate with the mind. You see, the manas puja (puja in thoughts) is also very important.”

 

At another occasion he explained that normally the flow of energy in people is upwards, but during the time of menstruation, the flow of energy in the woman is downwards. In a spiritual ceremony the energy is going strongly upwards towards the Divine. That means, that the flow of energy in a woman is going in the opposite direction than the energy of the ceremony. This causes an energetic disturbance which can lead to not being well. So in telling women to stay at a distance it is also about protecting them from energetic disturbances.

 

All together, it is not about portraying women as somehow impure. As Swamiji said just recently, women are the physical manifestation of the Divine Mother and menstruation is also given by the Divine for the purpose told above. With so much explanation for sure it will be more easy to follow this call with a good feeling.

SRI SWAMI VISHWANANDA's ~ Music For Download

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Sri Swami Vishwananda - YAMA & NIYAMA

Are Yama and Niyama necessary on the
path of Bhakti Yoga?

Sri Swami Vishwananda - Excerpt from May 24th 2013

Your prayer does help!

We have just finished the first puja of this year´s Bhu Devi yagna and like always it was wonderful to celebrate again in our tent. At the moment it is very cold in Springen and Guruji started by making a bit fun about the fact, that Springen is even colder than Steffenshof, the place of the first small ashram. Then He told us that the next 10 days from yesterday onwards, which was Narasimha chaturty (appearance day), will be a very auspicious time.

 

Swami spoke also about the importance of being silent for one minute per day. Silence for world peace. He told us that in these times the mind of man is changing and if the mind is not centred on the Divine and not controlled, the negative qualities will take over. But Mother Earth needs our prayer and our positive thoughts. He spoke these following words with so much love and tenderness for Mother Earth, that it was palpable that He really knows of Her true suffering from a different perspective: "When you see a mother suffering, what do you do? You help. If you see anyone suffering you try to help.

 

Either through prayer or through positive thoughts, you help." Swamiji is asking everybody to take this one minute of silence every day to concentrate on Mother Earth and to send her positivity. He gave assurance when he said, that when one does everything with the right intention, and one surrenders it to the Lord, everything will go smooth. And when we pray with the right intention the Divine will send our prayers to the people who are in real need.

 

No prayer is ignored, your prayer does help, but everything has its time and we need to be patient for the right time. Guruji is asking all of us: "So, one minute a day, for example 9pm when your work is done, you can sit in silence. Don’t do it more than one minute, just one minute, this is very precious. Actually all minutes are precious. But what makes this minute particularly special is your intention of Love and Gratitude. Send it to Mother Earth, the world, this universe. So try it."

 

Sri Swami Vishwananda - BHU DEVI

Bhu Devi yagna is a Vaishnava tradition to celebrate and pray to Mother Earth. Bhu Devi is actually Mother Earth. This yagna that we are doing is to show our gratitude and appreciation to Her, and also our understanding that She is going through a lot, not only now, but for centuries, actually. She has been taking a lot onto Herself, but people don´t see that this Mother is suffering. Its so easy to forget how important this Mother Earth is. We are here, we are born, yet we give Her so little attention. Mother Earth gives. She gives, gives, gives, not even expecting anything, nor taking. She is a manifestation of the compassionate, the ever-giving One and She is a manifestation of devotion also.

One can pray to God but, you see, when you show your appreciation, when you show your thankfulness, you have to show it to the person, to the Deity. There is a temple in Hampi, in South India, where She is venerated as the Universal Mother, as the Mother of Brahma, Vishnu, even of Shiva. Because it’s only here on this physical plane that She manifests Herself - even all the Avatars manifest themselves. The Divine manifests Itself here, on Earth, because She is very special to Him. She’s considered to be the wife of Maha Vishnu. She’s considered to be the other part of Lakshmi. Whenever Maha Lakshmi takes aspect as, for example, Sita or Radha or Andal or a different manifestation of Maha Lakshmi, it is Bhu Devi who manifests Herself.

 

Sri Swami Vishwananda

 

In the Srimad Bhagavatam Maha Vishnu said to Bhu Devi (after He rescued Her from drowning in the big ocean) “You will be ever present on my chest. From now on, people will venerate You as my wife and whenever You are in distress, I shall manifest Myself on You, to save the world.” Everything is made with five elements. The whole Universe is bound by these five elements, but in the whole Universe, not everywhere has these five elements in action. The only place where you have the five elements in action is Bhu Devi. That’s why, among all the planets, the Earth is the most beautiful. We are very lucky. That’s why the Divine always manifests on Mother Earth.

The prayer that we are going to do right now is called the Sudakshari Matri Puja. There will be sixteen invocations (into kalash), actually seventeen with the Bhu Devi, of all the forms of the Divine Mother. The sixteen aspects, forms and shakti of the Divine Mother, are actually the sixteen facets of the moon - called Nitya Kala - and also the sixteen qualities of Maha Vishnu. All these prayers which you will be chanting, all the mantras which you will be chanting, all of them will be transferred to the Mother Earth kalash, which in turn will be transferred to the whole world. We are going to chant the mantra Om Shrim Hreem Kreem Shreem Sri Devi Bhumavatiye Namaha. It is for Bhu Devi, Mother Earth.

It is said that if someone chants this mantra 36 times daily one will, first of all, get rid of all the negativity inside oneself and, secondly, one will get peace in oneself and in the surroundings. Om is the king of all the mantras and it is actually also the root of Lakshmi mantra. The Om mantra is a primordial sound in itself. What happens when one chants Om, is that one is dissolving pride. The word Shrim, this bij mantra, is very powerful in itself as it destroys all the negativity and brings peace. Hrim is also a bij mantra of giving peace, but Krim is Kali, Aim is Saraswati, The bij mantra Shreem or Srim denotes Maha Lakshmi, the giver of boons, and the Sarva Shakti, the all-pervading Shakti.

Maha Lakshmi creates also the balance. The balance in the elements, balance in yourself by purifying you, by cleansing all the negativity out of you, by uniting your body, mind and spirit, so that you can advance on your spiritual path. Then we have “Shree Devi Bhumavatiye Namaha”. This is the presiding Deity, Bhu Devi, Mother Earth Herself. When we chant the mantra, we invoke the Deity. Vibrationally the Deity is present. The Deities are vibrations. The moment you invoke them, call for them, they take their place and are present here with us. After that, they will be installed inside of each one of us because in reality we invoke them from deep within ourselves.

SATSANG with Sri Swami Vishwananda

May 17th 2013 at Shree Peetha Nilaya

Equanimity is one of the 26 qualities of devotee. Do you think it is possible for an average person to attain it and how?

 

Yes, it is. Because the real nature of who you are, the soul, is not bound by anything – not by good, not by bad. Soul is ever free. Nothing to bind it. As how the soul looks at it is always looking in an equal way. But the soul receives all the information of the universal consciousness – God. But when this knowledge enters the mind, the mind has to interpret it in a certain way. So the mind automatically puts a limitation, a judgement, on anything. This is why we judge. Because of the judgment the mind can´t comprehend the knowledge. In the Gita Krishna says: hey Uddhava, don´t waste your time with good and bad in this world. If you want to attain me you have to go above these qualities. This means it is possible. In the Bible it says: if you want to attain the kingdom of God, you have to rise above all limitation.

 

Yes, one can attain that level, if one really wants. This is the most important point. To attain equanimity is possible - but if you want it, this is the question. Until you are sincere, you can´t. Because the limitation, it is you who puts it. It is possible to attain that level even for a normal person. How much you focus on it, how much you desire for it. Desire in a right way – even to desire the Divine needs to be in a right way. Outside people desire the material things. But here, to desire you have to have a certain eagerness. We can say we love God, but do we have the eagerness for Him to manifest Himself? We can do japa, but to have this love you have to want it, you have to rise above limitation. You are on that path. That’s why God has called you. Through many lives of working. Its up to you. The teacher is here to remind you that´s up to you to follow it.

 

 

Should one learn to do everything with joy or only to do what brings joy?

 

Sometimes you do things which do not bring joy, but you should always try to do it with joy.

 

 

How do we be in contact all the time that He guides us?

 

The Divine is never far away from people. He is continuously close to you. How to become aware is through mantra japam. The more you chant the Divine name, the more the mind is in a subtle state and the more you will feel Him and you will feel Him in every action, in all that you do. From time to time He has to withdraw Himself, because the human nature is greedy. If the Divine gives everything in one go, how will you appreciate? But when you have to look for Him, you will feel that longing. Otherwise you will be ungrateful for it. You have to remind your mind through your japam. No matter, how you are, where you are, He is one step ahead. He is walking facing you. He is always in front of you, guiding your step, whether you want it or not.

 

 

How to help others through prayer?

 

Pray, but don´t beg.

 

 

If I give myself up completely to the Divine, do I also give up my personality?

 

Why would you give up yourself but hang onto your personality? Better to not give anything. That’s how people are: they give a gift and want back half. If you give something, let go of it. But if you hold on one side and He is holding on other side… Even the personality, you have to let go. To transcend the personality into the Divine you have to let go. If you don´t let go, you have another life to let go and another and another. 6) Should I serve even when I get abused? If one has taken a certain path, duty of serving, it does not matter if you get abused or not. But if you feel that despite giving all your service, to whom you are serving, there is not appreciation and there is not willingness to enjoy the service, you should bug away from that. Than you should reduce your service so that the person starts to appreciate it.