Bhakti Yoga Shack

25/12/2023

Haribol Namaste dear friends! 💜

Wishing you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New-year.

Some beautiful words from our dear friend Malia who is now sharing Bhakti Yoga in Brazil.

“Christmas is a very special time. It is an special opportunity for us to remember and celebrate the life and teachings of Jesus Christos. Jesus' foremost instruction/commandment is to “Love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with your entire being.”
And like unto it to love your each other.

And in his life, Jesus is directly showing us what real Love is. He is not just saying “Love God - and love all others, too.” Rather, he is showing us how to live a life of Love, of loving service to God and all living beings, by his own example.

He is teaching us about Love for God because he wants to help us to experience it, too. He wants us to taste the sweet nectar of Love that he is tasting. He wants us to experience the deep peace and exalted joy that is inseparable from this Love. Because he loves us, he wants us to experience this amazing Love, too.

Truly, there is no higher way to celebrate and honor such a teacher than to accept his Gift - to follow his instructions and thus cultivate within our own hearts the transcendent Love he so kindly reveals to us.

Merry Christmas everyone! May Divine Love blossom within your hearts and lives. All Glories to Lord Jesus! “💜

Malia Jivatma

22/12/2023

Our journey through life can be compared to traveling through a vast and varied landscape full of all kinds of wonders, enjoyment, dangers, suffering, heartache, light and darkness, clear and cloudy skies.

On our journey through life we come across many different people and other living entities, all kinds of landscapes, experiences, challenges, fearful situations, and comfortable and happy situations. Sometimes things go our way and sometimes they don’t.

There are times in our lives when it feels like we are walking through thick mud and everything is a hardship, while at other times life is like walking across flowery meadows where the sun is warm and the breeze refreshing.

Sometimes everything is going our way for a while and we feel confident that we know where we are going and what direction to take, while at other times nothing is going our way and we feel confused about what direction we should take in our life.

So what does life’s journey have to do with yoga? After all isn’t yoga just a type of physical exercise? Absolutely not! It is an enlightening path that helps one successfully travel the path of life itself.

A path that offers a refuge from the storms of life; a path where the rugged mountains become small easily climbed hills; a path that enables us to integrate, harmonize, and surcharge with deep meaning and purpose, every aspect of our life, even the seemingly mundane.

Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa

05/11/2023

Through regular contemplation upon yoga wisdom, combined with the practice of meditation, kirtan, and living a yoga lifestyle, one becomes increasingly enlightened as the layers of misconception covering our hearts and minds are gradually cleansed away.

Learn more:
https://sif.yoga/yoga-wisdom/discovering-your-true-identity

05/11/2023

You always hear us say "Namaste," but what is the relevance? 🤔

Namaste is a traditional greeting that we often hear in the yoga meditation community. It is usually offered with the palms held together, lowered eyes and a bowed head. It represents one of yoga’s greatest lessons; humility, respect for others and the Supreme Person 🙏

Humility allows us to experience peacefulness and frees us from the consciousness of wanting respect or anything else from others. Instead of thinking, ‘what can this person do for me’ we can think about what we can do for that person 🤲

Humility prevents the stress and disappointment that comes from feeling that others are not giving us what we feel we deserve. This is because when we are humble, we no longer feel others owe us something. We recognize our own faults and accept the faults of others with understanding and compassion 🩵

The meaning of Namaste also refers to the cultivation of wisdom, that I am not this physical body, but rather the spirit soul within, a child of the Supreme Person and therefore everyone is my brother and sister in the truest sense of the word 👫

I remember reading the meaning of humility in the yogic texts the Bhagavad Gita, where it was described that humility means “That one should not be anxious to receive the satisfaction of being honored by others.” This wisdom is something that I like to remind myself of to try to cultivate this quality ☺️

This attitude of humility allows harmonious personal relationships at home, at work and in our community 🤗

So, Namaste Everyone 🙏

You always hear us say "Namaste," but what is the relevance? 🤔

Namaste is a traditional greeting that we often hear in the yoga meditation community. It is usually offered with the palms held together, lowered eyes and a bowed head. It represents one of yoga’s greatest lessons; humility, respect for others and the Supreme Person 🙏

Humility allows us to experience peacefulness and frees us from the consciousness of wanting respect or anything else from others. Instead of thinking, ‘what can this person do for me’ we can think about what we can do for that person 🤲

Humility prevents the stress and disappointment that comes from feeling that others are not giving us what we feel we deserve. This is because when we are humble, we no longer feel others owe us something. We recognize our own faults and accept the faults of others with understanding and compassion 🩵

The meaning of Namaste also refers to the cultivation of wisdom, that I am not this physical body, but rather the spirit soul within, a child of the Supreme Person and therefore everyone is my brother and sister in the truest sense of the word 👫

I remember reading the meaning of humility in the yogic texts the Bhagavad Gita, where it was described that humility means “That one should not be anxious to receive the satisfaction of being honored by others.” This wisdom is something that I like to remind myself of to try to cultivate this quality ☺️

This attitude of humility allows harmonious personal relationships at home, at work and in our community 🤗

So, Namaste Everyone 🙏

Candace ✌️

11/07/2023

05/04/2023

Rest Peacefully With Soothing Kirtan with
Acharya Das

Acharya das teaches yogic wisdom, Vedic philosophy, meditation, kirtan, and the path of happiness, to a wide variety of audiences around the world.

29/03/2023

12/03/2023

WHAT IS MEDITATION?

A friend asked me this question recently during a morning walk after yoga. The word meditation means to fix our mind and senses on something. So we are actually meditating all day long it just may not be transcendental meditation.

The subjects of what we are placing our thoughts on can range from work, food, relationships, money, s*x etc. For instance, when someone commits a crime they will often say it was “premeditated”. Meaning the person had been fixing the mind and senses on the crime before they executed the action.

So the question arises then what is the difference between mundane material meditation and spiritual meditation?

Spiritual meditation is where we place our mind and senses on God. In the yoga system meditation isn’t reserved just for sitting quietly thinking of the Supreme Being and then turning that effort off when we go about our day. In the ancient sastra’s (scriptures) it is encouraged that we turn every detail of our life into spiritual meditation. Eating, sleeping, working, exercising, and relationships all can be translated into living meditations.

All this takes is changing our intentions for our daily routines and offering everything to God. Patanjali says “ishvara pranidhana” which means offer all your life’s actions to God.

People get confused by seeing many yogic traditions such as vandanam (prayer) Kirtan (singing of God names) japa (chanting on mala beads) and wonder which is meditation when they are ALL forms of meditation. They are all methods of connecting us with the Supreme Soul.

So how do we know if there is a God or if meditation works? The proof of the pie is in the eating.

Wise words from Tamal Dodge
www.yogasalt.com

20/02/2023

Aloha friends,
We host kirtan and potlucks at our home by invitation these days, if you feel called to come, feel free to reach out to me via DM for an invitation to the next meetup 💗

Love Radha & Gopal

30/01/2023

THE PLIGHT OF MAN IS A WONDER INDEED!

Once a man was chased by a tiger in a forest. Seeing no respite, he climbed a tree but he slipped, was about to fall before he could hold on to a branch. He looked down and found that the tiger is waiting to devour him and two rats, one black and one white, were slowly nibbling the branch he was hanging on to. He understood that very soon the branch would fall to the ground. As the man looked down, he discovered that there were many snakes. Suddenly a drop of honey fell on his face. He pulled his tongue out and licked it. There was a honeycomb between the two branches he was holding. Due to disturbance caused by his holding and shaking the branch, bees were out to bite him. But at the same time honey was also oozing from the comb. Forgetting the obvious (tiger, snakes, rats, and bees), he just adjusted his tongue to get drops of honey straight on his tongue. Now, he was happy indeed forgetting his precarious situation.

This analogy perfectly fits a common man. The man represents the common man or ourself. We are stuck in this precarious situation of this material world (samsara). Death (tiger) is chasing us continuously; it will not leave us without devouring. The black and white rats represent night and day respectively. They are slowly reducing our age. The hissing snakes represent the big obstacles in life. Honeybees represent the day to day problems we face in our life. The sweet honey represents the pleasures’ of this world in its myriad forms.

If only we accept the loving hand of Krishna, we can save ourselves a lot of trouble but we are too attached to the drops of dripping honey.
The plight of man in this world is a wonder indeed!

“A person who understands that one day the body will cease existing, and that he himself will not cease existing, naturally becomes less interested in material gain and material pursuits (which he knows will be taken away one day) and becomes more interested in wisdom, love and compassion.“

Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa Chris Butler { Science of Identity Foundation }