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

"It’s good to destroy the old so that there is space to create the new. Otherwise there is no space. Keep this in mind, even in our thought process, we all live in the past, we like to think that that we are living in the present moment but most of us live in the past because we cling to the images that we have created or others have created for us." ~ Sri M

"The true Shivam is without boundaries. It is the Parmananda, Satchitananda. Shivam is pure Consciousness and bliss and happiness . In our life we experience a bit of it here and there and we say ‘oh what a great thing has happened to us', forgetting that this little doze comes from the main spring which is Shivam, auspiciousness, consciousness and bliss." ~ Sri M

"When you sit down in meditation , break all images, all thoughts. Keep cutting the thoughts, don’t allow them to form a chain. This is the Tandav Nirtya. They will still come, let them come but break them. Then suddenly after half an hour, all thoughts will be gone, destroyed and finished, and you will be so absorbed that you will not be there to break it!" ~ Sri M

"Terrible things happen in life and it happens to all. Maybe something you had is gone, someone you consider dear is suddenly gone. Consider that to be Shiva’s Tandav. Be peaceful. say this had to happen to me so this has happened what positive thing can I get out of this. How do I use this time to go deeper into myself?" ~ Sri M

"We see Shiva sitting in the meditative posture and people wonder who is he meditating upon? What is there to meditate upon, he himself is Mahadeva. It simply means that the concept of Mahadeva the supreme lord, happens when everything is quiet, body is quiet, mind is quiet and then the physical eyes are quiet. When the physical eyes are quiet then the wisdom eye open which is called the Ajna. And this wisdom eye guides one how to go forward in the spiritual practice." ~ Sri M

"Remember that in Kashi, Shiva is called Bhole Baba, what is Bhole, it means simple even idiotic sometimes, no complications. So here are the three things to notice, one is to destroy the images that you created, second is to be simple, not hold anything against anybody then you are going towards Shiva, you are understanding the concept of Shivaratri. Third, the most powerful enemy for a Yogi is Kama Deva. The great thing is that this Kama Deva can also come in the form of Deva, be very nice, attractive but it is still a distraction and the most important thing to tackle for a yogi is to conquer the sense pleasure. This is what Shiva is all about." ~ Sri M

"Kama Deva need not necessarily mean sensual physical pleasure. Kama means desire, when the yogi discovers that all the treasure trove that one seeks or desires, is found when everything is quiet and happens deep within one’s own self. Then Kama Deva is beaten, not before that." ~ Sri M

"In truth, there is really no little self. All the great sages who have gone deep into the question, “Who am I?” have found that as they begin to enquire into the origin of the ‘I’, the little, limited ‘I’, with which most people identify themselves, disappears because it never ever existed and was merely a product of thought." ~ Sri M

"Everything that belongs to me, my intellect, my body, my mind, cannot be me, so the shirt which belongs to me cannot be me. Why? Because it is mine. What belongs to me cannot be me. When all such me and mine are washed off from the mind then what remains is the supreme me. As long as the we are filled with notions of me and mine, the self will not be found because it cannot be realized as ‘myself’. It owns all the things which are yours including you." ~ Sri M

"Let’s put it this way, One way of defining Sadhana in the Vedantic manner is; it is not a gaining or an acquiring, but a taking away of things. But when we start our journey of looking for the Self, we start in the usual way as we live in this world, with the five senses, acquiring. But here it is chipping away of what is not required. Even the idea that occurs when the mind is quiet that I am now meditating has to be chipped off! If this happens to somebody it is only by God’s will!" ~ Sri M

"Turn within, saying ‘I am not attracted by the outside world,’ many things occur inside, you say, ‘I am not interested, let me be just be a witness.’ Now the witness has to witness something, but you soon come to a state in which you realize that there is nothing to witness. Why? Because the witness is everything. Then there is nothing else to do! Absolute quietness. In that quietness, the Self alone is!" ~ Sri M

"In the vedantic discussion of Adi Shankara says that in all situations you should use your reason. If your reason proves something then it is usually right. But when it comes to things like consciousness and Supreme Brahman and so on, if your reason says something and the Shruti says something else, trust the Shruti. Why? Because your reason is limited." ~ Sri M

"The Shruti is that which has come from beyond ordinary thinking into the minds and the intelligences of the great Rishis. There is no ordinary source for Shruti as in the case of Smriti. Smriti is what you can read, learn and think about later. Shruti is that which is heard. So therefore one needs to transcend our ordinary logic to get in touch with Shruti." ~ Sri M

"Shiva is absolute awareness without any form. The energy of this Supreme transcendent Shivam is Shakti." ~ Sri M

"Time and space are projected by the pure Consciousness. They are very relative, and they create division. For example, we say when Brahma opens his eyes, this whole creation happens. Now, for Brahma it is only one day, but for us this is a very long time. Similarly, there are many dimensions. I personally believe that there are innumerable worlds. In this vast universe, we human beings are like small little specks, and yet we think that we run the whole universe. Such a height of arrogance!" ~ Sri M

"According to Tripura Rahasya, is an image projected by the Pure Consciousness. If you don't perceive it, it does not exist. When you perceive it immediately achieves an existence. The whole creation that we see on the screen looks very real, but we know that it is an image projected. The absolute consciousness is pure and unblemished is no image and imagination there. And who is the person projecting? The Supreme Being himself. Why did he project this world? Because it is a part of his Swabhava or nature to project." ~ Sri M

"Vishwamitra is reputed to have created a parallel or duplicate Universe. He said he has the power to create. But it did not last forever, it went off, just like the hallucination brought about by a magician. It is only transitory. A yogi’s creation may be permanent but both are external to the Creator. The divine creation remains because it is a part of the omnipresent Supreme Consciousness." ~ Sri M

"What makes us think that the world is real? Just like the illusion created by our deep rooted ignorance makes us think that the we are the body. How can this body which is full of foul things like the blood and bones and which is born and which will die can be the Self? And yet, from the beginning of time we human beings have this misunderstanding. So also the universe has repeatedly been taken to be real so that it now looks as if it were actually real. What you make of the world that it becomes, and then you build your whole structure on it. It’s an old illusion that been passed on from generation to generation. One person suddenly breaks free of it by the grace of the Supreme Being!" ~ Sri M

"The movement is from the unreal to the Real. For that, as mentioned in the Viveka Chudamani and other ancient texts like the Upanishads and Gita, the first thing to understand is that there is nothing wrong in maintaining a comfortable existence on earth. But while you are here, try to understand that all this is in passing; it is here today and gone tomorrow." ~ 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