Mountain Retreat Yoga Sangha

""Nāyamātmā pravacanena labhyo na medhayā na bahunā śrutena" The atman cannot be achieved through pravachanas or lectures. Then what is the use of this lecture. To understand that, let’s say. The Self does not have specifications and therefore no teacher can teach it. If no teacher can teach it then no student can learn it. It is not cognized by the mind or the senses. It is self effulgent, it illumines everything everywhere always." ~ Sri M

"The night of Shivaratri is meant for meditation japa tapasya, Sadhana and chanting and the day is meant to understand the concepts of life, Shiva and so on." ~ Sri M

"The ancient shashtras say that the Shivaratri happens on the dark lunar night. It is a symbolic representation of two or three things. One, is the Tandav nrtiya . All the dance form that we have in this country can be traced back to shiva. Shiva is called the Nataraja the lord of Dance. And this Tandav Nirtya, people say is the dance of destruction but if you really look into it, destruction is the first step to construction. ~ Sri M

"From the yogi’s point of view or from the spiritual aspirants point of view, although every year shivaratri is celebrated, every day, every second is a Tandav, because without breaking the old images we cannot see anything new." ~ Sri M

"The world picture that we see today is mostly ninety percent constructed by the mind, I’m not talking about the physical objects, the world system, the commerce, the finance, the spiritual, the digital, the AI. They have been established by the mind which works in patterns and structures. But when the mind at all times, without a second of freedom, is constantly involved in structures, then the mind becomes a structure, it is no more free. The ultimate Tandav Nirtya is when Shiva dissolves all those structures and you are left with nothing other than the pure witness, which is Shiva himself." ~ Sri M

"What is it that keeps us away from the understanding of Shiva, the auspicious one, it the structures that we have formed in our minds, the designs we have made , the patterns we have manufactured. All necessary in their own place, but when they fully occupy the mind, and the mind also starts working on these structures in a linear way and we cannot see beyond these structures." ~ Sri M

"So when one is ready for it, in other ways when you come for Shivaratri Satsang and say ‘ okay certain things I need to keep away from, please destroy, other things I want, please don’t destroy them.’ You have to be factual because everybody cannot bear with the whole thing collapsing. You can pray to him ‘please do not bring the bulldozers right now, please wait, but in the long run when I’m ready you can destroy all structures! When it happens all the structures are gone, all images are destroyed!" ~ Sri M

"Shiva will not do any Tandav Nirtya without your permission in the sense, it is not as if you are forced into the Tandav Nirtya, you have to decide. When you are fed up with the old structures which you have created with your own mind and then say ‘O Shiva please take it away from me. I want to be free, i want to be like you.’ It is not easy, believe me. So don’t make premature judgements. The moment you have a small structure fall, you are agitated." ~ Sri M

"Shiva’s full form is formless, very often we signify it with a linga which is not the picture of a human being, or a face or anything resembling the homo sapiens. It’s a symbol of energy. Linga simply means a symbol in Sanskrit." ~ Sri M

"Do you know what the word alone means? It is made of two words - all and one, instead of alone you can say all one. Do you get what I’m trying to say, that there is nothing alone in this universe, everything in the universe is interconnected. I may be sitting alone but there are beautiful presences going around us. Never think you are alone ! If you are alone and your mind is peaceful and quiet then that alone is not your ego but it is your atman. What more do we want? Staying with the atman is the greatest blessing possible!" ~ Sri M

"The idea of pranayama is to still the Prana so that the thought waves are also stilled. This is the connection between Pranayama and Chitta Vrittis." ~ Sri M

"In Vyasa’s Vedanta Sutras, Brahman, the core of all beings, is described or defined as ‘Asti Bhati Priya’ instead of Satchidananda. Asti means that It exists – It is there; Bhati means the consciousness, the effulgence, the light; and Priya means love, which is very close to ananda. These are predominant qualities of the Brahman or Atman, if you prefer to call it that." ~ Sri M

"Dharana is through pranayama to pratyahara, the Yogi develops the capacity to fix the attention on any one object, or one sound, or one idea, or one symbol anything, exclusively there without any attention on anything other than that object." ~ Sri M

"Pranayama is also Swashayama because the breath is called Swasha and the Prana or the life force is linked closely to the Swasha. If you control the breath you can control the Prana." ~ Sri M

"Tips for spiritual success: try and follow as much as possible the rules and regulations, practice daily, so that the mind gets into the habit and don’t lose hope, continue till you find the quietness which is very blissful. Once you have touched the state your whole life will change. And lastly have no fear, believe me, everything will be set into place." ~ Sri M

"In yoga when you say Ishwara, you may think of Mahavishnu or Shiva or the formless Supreme Reality, it doesn’t matter. The choice of the belief in the Ishwara is entirely the initiates prerogative. In yoga Darshanas for the first time Patanjali says that this Ishwara can be in communion with the human soul and the human soul can surrender to this Ishwara." ~ Sri M

"The true mind or the pure mind of a seer or a yogi has no fluctuations or conflicts or agitation and this state is the usual state of such a mind. It is always calm but normally for us the mind is full of conflict and fluctuations. We can call it brain. I’m saying as long as there is conflict and agitation and fluctuations you’re still operating within the territory and limitations of the brain. But when the brain is free of afflictions through the practice of Yoga, then the brain ceases to exist, and the true mind comes back into being. This true mind is the essence of consciousness." ~ Sri M

"The fluctuations of the mind can be reduced through practice and through dispassion, meaning not being ruled by emotions, not reacting to emotions, good or bad, and through restrain. How do you practice restrain? Through practice only. Dispassion simply put, means not being at the mercy of your emotions. When one is firmly established in the dispassionate space, the brain instead of moving towards becoming, just is." ~ Sri M

"So at some point when the mind is busy becoming or indulging as it always does in this world, you have to say ‘hey let’s stop for 10 minutes, let’s not become anything, let’s be as we are. You will see that a becoming and indulging mind always creates problems for us. A quiet and tranquil mind on the other hand is the tarmac to take off for higher levels of consciousness." ~ Sri M

"If you have everything and if you have not come to terms with the inner reality, there is no use of all that you have." ~ Sri M

"The lives of sages are very sacred. One of the best ways to attain knowledge of the supreme wisdom is through serving the sages. Because when you do service to the sages you live with them and see their innate kindness and it spreads inside you too and soon you become like them. Sadhu seva is one of the most important ways to understand the truth." ~ Sri M

"Misery is not the absence of happiness but it is limited happiness because if you have not experienced happiness you cannot recognize misery. Some happiness you have to experience then you see it is not happening anymore. When happiness is there and then goes , misery comes. Even the very going of happiness is a misery, which is why we hold on to happiness as much as we can because it will disappear at anytime." ~ Sri M

"Whatever you do, you can go to the moon and come back, but you cannot mitigate death. It is always with us like a close friend, it is always there with us, doesn’t go." ~ Sri M

"In daily life, we are always distracted, we don’t have a deliberation. There should be one pointedness and deliberation even in daily acts. We keep changing our paths and reach nowhere." ~ Sri M

"Remember, when Adi Shankara taught Vivek Chudamani he said very simply , no amount of rituals, no amount of any other activities of the karmakanda or rituals are of any use unless there is Viveka, Vichara and Vairagya. (Wisdom, deliberation and detachment )Now Viveka leads to Vairagya, with the help of vichara." ~ Sri M

"The fundamental way of getting rid of the miseries of the world is through association of the sages. Sadhu Satsanga is the only way of getting to the highest good. On being approached, the sages teach the way to moksha or salvation. Go to Satsangs, however much you are discouraged, still go. In any case it is the company you keep which determines your future." ~ Sri M

"The universal message at the heart of the Hindu teachings, Buddhists teachings and Christian teachings is Care, Love and Service and to seek peace in the depths of your being. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. Nobody said blessed are the Christians for they shall be called the children of God. The moment you cease to be a peacemaker, you are no more a Christian from that point of view." ~ Sri M

"According to the teachings we are Amritasya Putras or children of immortality. We are not useless, we are useless as we see ourselves but not so in reality. Self observation is good and it helps us grow but not self criticism. If you criticize yourself all the time, there is no way you can improve yourself. However much you fall, get up and get going." ~ Sri M

"It is the nature of the mind to be secure. The mind likes to be secure and for security there has to be certainty. If the mind is uncertain it tries to acquire some certainty. So all the pursuit of knowledge, is going from the state of uncertainty to certainty. This movement of the mind from uncertainty to certainty is also the essence of evolution." ~ Sri M

"In fact a true teacher is the supreme reality coming in some form to teach. Who can dictate who or what form comes? He maybe traditional, he maybe not. Man or woman. Hardly matters." ~ Sri M

"Swadhyaya means to do self study and also to study the self. Study oneself is not simply hearing or reading something but finding out by exploring yourself and finding out how it affects you. There may be times in your life when you did whatever you were supposed to do, still things didn’t work out. Then you accept that there is an infinite Ishwara, who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, surrender to that saying that ‘this limited brain of mine has not been able to solve this problem.’ If you truly do this from your heart, not to show anybody, then help comes." ~ Sri M