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Awareness Newsletters Our monthly Awareness newsletter is packed with interesting bits of information. We look at a different yoga pose each month, provide practical information about yoga for harmony and wellbeing in daily life, give you something to chew on in the Food for Thought section and you can contemplate on a quote coming directly from the timeless Vedic scriptures. The newsletter also includes news of Lotus Room events, such as workshops or festivals you can attend. Subscribe to the Awareness newsletter if you would like to receive it on a monthly basis, and do contact us should you wish to receive any back-issues. Hatha Yoga for Harmony & Wellbeing This section of our Awareness newsletter emerges from the frequently asked questions by students during classes. Here we aim to give you the practical knowledge you seek on how yoga practise can change the way you feel and think. A new tip is published online every month, so this section shows the items from the latest three issues of our newsletter. Forgive and Set Yourself Free Forgiveness is not something that you do only for the person who hurt you. It is something that you do for yourself; to return to your own inner freedom. You forgive so that you can live in the present instead of being stuck in the past. You forgive because your grievances and grudges keep you attached to your old patterns and prevent you from moving on. You might believe that if you forgive the person who hurt you somehow means that you are excusing their wrong. Or you might believe that if you hold on to your anger, somehow it will give you back the power their pain took away. However the reality is that by forgiving you are liberating yourself. It takes more strength to forgive than to challenge past grievances, but the act of forgiveness actually gives strength multi-fold. Forgiveness is a valuable practice for spiritual evolution. Postnatal Yoga With a newborn baby your life will transform, often in unexpected ways. The experiance of giving birth equires a new integration of your physical and spiritul well-being. Gentle yoga movements with your baby will help you to gradually and safely recover not only your figure and your muscle tone, but also your strength from within. The flow of your breath in yoga, and the stillness of meditation with your baby can open up a steady and calm path ahead while in the middle all the emotions that new mothers inevitably go through. The Age Factor There is no age limit for practising yoga. We can even start at 70 or 80 years of age, because if it is done with intelligence and integrity, we will never damage the body. Growing old is just another phase in life. Growing old does not only mean aging. It is like getting on with life, allowing our body to adjust to the changes and limitations. Then, accordingly, we can create suitable practices that promote better health and better ability to cope with the aging process. Yoga deals with our whole being, making the body fitter, the mind calmer and awakening a state of peace and relaxation. It helps us to be more in touch with ourselves, enabling us to accept who we are, the state we are in at the moment, and to continue to grow from there. This creates a positive approach to life. The 8 Limbs of Yoga by Patanjali Patanjali is an evolved soul who lived sometime between about 500 and 200 B.C., but the exact date is unknown. Patanjali, often called 'the father of yoga,' chose to write on three subjects: grammar, medicine and yoga. He is the author of the Yoga Sutra, where he describes the ways of overcoming the afflictions of the body and the fluctuations of the mind: the obstacles to spiritual development. There is more to yoga than postures and breathing, hence the development of the eight limbs of yoga: Ashtanga Yoga. These are Patanjali's suggestions for living a better life through yoga. The works of Patanjali are followed by yogis to this day in their effort to develop a refined language, a cultured body and a civilised mind, which in turn will assist their spiritual development. The eight limbs of yoga by Patanjali, which were described in detail in our Awareness newsletters, are: Yama – Behavioural principles (in external dealings) Niyama – Moral observances (within) Asana – Physical Postures Pranayama – Regulated Breathing Pratyahara – Sense Control Dharana – Concentration Dhyana – Meditation Samadhi – Superconscious state of absorption in the essence of God To receive past issues of the Awareness newsletter, send us an email with your request on info@lotusroom.org Food for Thought The Food for Thought section of our Awareness newsletter is compiled from excerpts from books published by Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, the international bhakti yoga organisation with which the Lotus Room is affiliated. A new snippet of wisdom is published online every month, so this section shows the excerpts published in the latest three issues of our newsletter. More than what meets the eye This pastime (speaking of Krishna's Divine Pastime with Govardhan Hill) shows that a thing may appear to be ordinary stone, but its possibility is infinite. In the general sense, Einstein's theory of relativity has announced that anything we see is that thing plus something more. In his own scientific way he explains that the reality of a thing includes its possibilities, its prospect - reality is not at a standstill. Reality is not limited to what is seen or conceived by our senses. Our vision or estimation of anything may be limited, but unknown to us, its prospect may be unlimited. Everything has infinite possibility. We do not even know what infinite possibility a particle of sand may have. We do not know what sort of possibility may exist within a leaf of a plant. It may appear ordinary, but it may contain invaluable medicinal properties. A part of the infinite is also infinite. Within Govardhana is that mild and soft conception of God the Beautiful. excerpt from The Loving Search for the Lost Servant by Swami BR Sridhar A Higher Principle in Us The senses are more important than the external world, and the mind is more important because if the mind does not recieve, then the senses, which are like so many doors, are useless. Then there is another principle to be traced within us, a fine thing called reason, buddhi. What is its characteristic? The mind will say, 'Oh, I shall take that,' but buddhi says, 'Oh no. No, don't take that, it will cause some damage. You rather take this, it will give you benefit.' That faculty of selection, that reason, is a higher principle in us. excerpt from Home Comfort by Swami BR Sridhar From the Land of Death to the Land of Nectar We may think that most of existence is in this world, and that only a few special souls such as Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Socrates etc. go from here to the higher world. But gradually we will come to understand that the higher world is infinitely greater than the mundane portion that we see. We will gradually come to understand that as in a country a small section is confined to a hospital or prison and are suffering, similarly it is the minority of souls that are here in this mundane world as punishment. As this becomes clearer to us we shall feel more courage to proceed, and with greater speed we shall run towards our home. Let us go home, and as we draw nearer to home, our speed will increase more and more, 'Oh, this is my homeland!' excerpt from Home Comfort by Swami BR Sridhar Selected Verses This section is compiled from the Quote of the Month section of our Awareness newsletter. A new sloka – Sanskrit for verse – is published online every month, so this section shows the slokas from the latest three issues of our newsletter. ascharyavat pasyati kaschid enam ascharyavad vadati tathaiva chanyaha ascharyavach chainam anyah srinoti srutvapy enam veda na chaiva kaschit (Srimad Bhagavat Gita 2:29) Some see the soul as astonishing, some describe it as astonishing, some hear of it as astonishing, while others, though hearing about it, know nothing of it. na prahrsyet priyam prapya nodvijet prapya chapriyam sthira-buddhir asammudho brahma-vid brahmani sthitah (Srimad Bhagavat Gita 5:20 ) Absorbed in transcendence, endowed with steady intelligence, and free from the delusion of thinking of the body and associated objects as 'me' and 'mine,' the knower of the Absolute is neither happy when pleasant things come his way nor sad when unpleasant things come his way. uddhared atmanatmanam, natmanam avasadayet; atmaiva hy atmano bandhur, atmaiva ripur atmanah. (Srimad Bhagavat Gita 6:05) One must elevate himself by the mind, not degrade himself by the mind; for the mind is sometimes the friend of the living being, and in another situation that very mind is his enemy. maya santusta-manasah sarvah sukha-maya disah (Srimad Bhagavatam 11:14:13) For one who is satisfied with Me, then all the directions will bring only good news to him.