MyLifeYoga

What is yoga? The answer to this is in Yoga Sutras by Patanjali in the second stanza: “Yogah cittivritti nirodhah”. This is translated as “Yoga is cessation of thoughts”.

And what happens when the endless flow of thoughts cease? This is answered in the very next stanza: “Tada drastuh svarupe vasthanam”. This is translated as “Then the Seer abides in itself”. When thoughts cease you enter a state of Samadhi. Consciousness gives up its preoccupation with the outside world of duality and resides with the true Self.

These two stanzas in the Yoga Sutra are considered the most important ones as the very essence of the teaching of Yoga is in them. An exchange between a visitor and the sage Ramana Maharshi also illustrates the same ideas:

A visitor asked if the study of the sacred books will reveal the truth.

Ramana Maharshi (M): “That will not suffice.”

Visitor (V): “Why not?”

M: “Samadhi alone can reveal it. Thoughts cast a veil over Reality and so it cannot be clear in states other than Samadhi.”

V: “Is there thought in Samadhi? Or is there not?”

M: “There will only be the feeling ‘I am’ and no other thoughts.”

V: “Is not ‘I am’ a thought?”

M: “The egoless ‘I am’ is not thought. It is realization. The meaning or significance of ‘I’ is God. The experience of ‘I am’ is to Be Still.”

We now jump back 2000 years and reach out to the words Jesus said to his devotees: “Be still. And know that I am God”. In these words there is a very powerful message: A call to meditation. A call to stilling the mind so that we can find out what truly abides within. Are we willing to heed this message and seek the state of Yoga in Samadhi?

You may also like: Five Reasons Why The World Needs More Yogis.

Credits:This has been written by Raj Shah and edited by Ketna Shah. The story of Ramana Maharishi came to us from Harsha Satsangha Yahoo group

In 1977 Voyager 1, a 722 Kilogram space probe, was launched by NASA to explore the outer solar system. Voyager 1 has performed its task remarkably well, sending back spectacular pictures of Saturn, and Jupiter. As of today it is in the outer Heliosphere and the most distant man made object from earth.

A surprising thing happened when Voyager 1 reached the edge of the solar system in 1990. It was instructed to turn its camera back towards earth and snap some pictures. What it sent back was a stunningly humbling picture of earth seen as a “pale blue dot”. Carl Sagan recorded his thoughts on seeing this picture in this wonderful video:

“From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”

The “Pale Blue Dot” has become a classic that has been watched by millions. It represents a cry to see in perspective the insignificance of our ego-centered antics in the face of our wider responsibility to each other and to the planet earth.

Related: Pale Blue Dot on Wikipedia with full text of his essay.

You may also like: The View From Space

When it comes to climate change — and communicating about it — people seem to lose sight of a simple, longstanding fact about the human mind: It is split into two parts. On one side, there is a rational rider, on the other, an emotional elephant. The rider rationalizes and procrastinates when danger is not imminent, while the elephant, while slow to motivate and hard to steer, eventually takes the correct path and stays the course. Society needs to inspire that elephant, and quickly.

Climate change may be the gravest challenge facing humans, and most other living things. The science is clear, and the debate now focuses on the uncertainties associated with climate projections and the local, regional and global policies needed to adapt to warming — as well as approaches to mitigate the human footprint on the environment.

Climate communication must be an integral part of all efforts to face this daunting challenge. And yet, climate scientists appear to be ill-equipped for this job and lay people are confused, since no clearly defined “to do” list exists for the average person. The race to avert this impending global tragedy of the commons does not seem to have any sense of urgency. Climate change is now obvious thanks to accurate and precise measurements of greenhouse gases, and the increase in the global mean temperatures, although some people put the high correlation between the two in the context of Earth’s longer-term climate variability, and raise all kinds of doubts about causal links.
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