Yoga Thought for the Day

Blog

I try and put one post here everyday.

6-Dec-25

It is a great paradox that individually we are simultaneously everything and nothing. Through our own eyes, we are everything–e.g., when we die, the whole world disappears. So to most people (and to other species) dying is the worst thing possible, and it is of paramount importance that we have the best life possible. However, when we look down on ourselves through the eyes of nature we are of absolutely no significance. It is a reality that each one of us is only one of about seven billion of our species alive today and that our species is only one of about ten million species on our planet. Earth is just one of about 100 billion planets in our galaxy, which is just one of about two trillion galaxies in the universe. And our lifetimes are only about 1/3,000 of humanity’s existence, which itself is only 1/20,000 of the Earth’s existence. In other words, we are unbelievably tiny and short-lived and no matter what we accomplish, our impact will be insignificant.

At the same time, we instinctually want to matter and to evolve, and we can matter a tiny bit–and it’s all those tiny bits that add up to drive the evolution of the universe.

The question is how we matter and evolve. #principleoftheday

Ray Dalio (Principle of the Day) on Twitter

4-Oct-25

The Mahabharata (8.49.50, Bhandarkar Edition) therefore defines dharma as that which sustains society, holding its members together in a unity: dharanät dharma ityahuh dharmo dharayate prajah.

From The Message of the Upanishads by Swami Ranganathananda

11-Aug-25

Regarding the qualifications of a student wanting to learn Vedanta or science of self, the sages have spoken of four sadhanas  (disciplines), in the presence of which alone the devotion to ultimate Truth (Brahman) succeeds, and in the absence of which it fails.

‘First is enumerated the discrimination between the eternal and’ the ephemeral; next comes the renunciation of enjoyment of fruits (of one’s actions) here (in this world) and hereafter (in heaven); (next is) the sixfold wealth, beginning with sama, calmness of the mind; dama, control of the sense organs; uparati, the indrawn state of mind; titiksa, calm endurance of the pairs of opposites; sraddha, faith in truth; and samadhana, inward concentration; and last is clearly the yearning for liberation.’

29-Jun-25

The nation is living on its inherited spiritual assets which, however, are fast dwindling in the absence of continuous replenishments.

(The Message of the Upanishads by Swami Ranganathananda, commenting about India)

16-Jun-25

‘What is the truth about ourselves?’, We may incline to various answers: We are a bit of star gone wrong. We are complicated physical machinery-puppets that strut and talk and laugh and die as the hand of time turns the handle beneath. But let us remember that there is one elementary inescapable answer: We are that which asks the question.’

(The Message of the Upanishads by Swami Ranganathananda, quoting from Eddington’s talk on BBC)

15-Jun-25

Modern industrial civilisation will accentuate the differences between man and man…differences arising from knowledge, talents, wealth and power. The ideal of general human happiness and welfare will recede further and further, due to the coarsening of human nature, in spite of greater technical efficiency and increasing wealth and comfort. Without spiritual education, man will not get the capacity to enjoy life as a master; he will be its slave.

(From The Message of the Upanishads by Swami Ranganathananda)

6-Apr-25

When the mind’s attention is diverted to an object – either by sight or in the mind (as stored in the memory), it arouses feelings such as anger or desire. The ego then identifies itself with the mind (and the object in it) and forgets the underlying Atman. A Yogi watches over his/ her mind and senses, remaining detached and at peace.

Inferred from Srimad Bhagvad Gita For Your Daily Life, Swami Venkatesananda

30-Mar-25

When a man thinks of the objects, attachment for them arises. From attachment desire is born.

From desire anger arises. From anger comes delusion.

From delusion loss of memory. From loss of memory the destruction of discrimination. From destruction of discrimination, he perishes.

Srimad Bhagvad Gita For Your Daily Life, Swami Venkatesananda

10-Mar-25

The life of every man is a battle-ground between the forces of good and evil, between the forces of light and darkness. The former tend to the freedom of the soul while the latter to its bondage.

(From The Message of the Upanishads by Swami Ranganathananda)

9-Mar-25

Within the human body, Agni represents the power of speech, Vayu represents the power of thought and Indra stands for the Jiva or individual soul. (From The Message of the Upanishads by Swami Ranganathananda)

15-Feb-25

Equanimity and balanced mind which regards pain and pleasure alike are the indispensable pre-requisites to the performance of one’s own Dharma and, hence, to the attainment of salvation.

Srimad Bhagvad Gita For Your Daily Life, Swami Venkatesananda

14-Feb-25

Righteous war” was fought only in the days prior to the discovery of the aeroplane and gun-powder. Now, no war— hot, cold or lukewarm-is righteous : because there is no battle-field and there is indiscriminate destruction of all every-where, without any restraint by proper rules of conduct.

Innocent children are killed. Non-combatants and people who have no idea what the war is about are killed. In the present context, all wars should be banished.

Srimad Bhagvad Gita For Your Daily Life, Swami Venkatesananda

18-Jan-25

The purpose of a prayer is to seek wisdom and mental clarity and to dispel ignorance and delusion.

Srimad Bhagvad Gita For Your Daily Life

17-Jan-25

It is important to resist evil but it needs to be done in a manner that does not disturb our mental equilibrium. Anger disturbs the tranquility of our inner being.

Srimad Bhagvad Gita For Your Daily Life

13-Jan-25

09-Jan-25

The path of duty is often unpleasant to the pleasure-seeking mind or ego-centred personality.
Srimad Bhagvad Gita For Your Daily Life

08-Jan-25

The external situation or circumstance have but a neutral intrinsic value: it is one’s own mind that attributes pleasure and pain, good and evil to them.
Srimad Bhagvad Gita For Your Daily Life

03-Jan-25

“The mind is a product of time, and all thought its result… Let the mind be empty and not filled with things of the mind. Then there is only meditation and not the meditator who is meditating” in What is Meditation by J. Krishnamurti

28-Dec-2024

…The Indian idea that the divine Light is in the heart of all; that men approach It through the help of various symbols; and that the paths are many but the goal is one. This Indian approach makes for tolerance, understanding, and peace. (From The Message of the Upanishads by Swami Ranganathananda)

27-Dec-24

The Upanishads also discovered that, illumined by the knowledge of this living God, all worship of idols becomes transformed into worship of ideals, idols becoming mere symbols. (From The Message of the Upanishads by Swami Ranganathananda)

26-Dec-24

Man creates his gods, including the monotheistic God. The only uncreated God is the eternal Self in man; and that is the God that Vedanta proclaims. Says Swami Vivekananda in his lecture on “The Real and the Apparent Man’ (Complete Works, Vol. II, p. 279): “In worshipping God we have been always worshipping our own hidden self.” From The Message of the Upanishads by Swami Ranganathananda)

7-Dec-24

Commandments for a yogi are non-violence (ahimsà), truth (satya), non-stealing (asteya), continence (brahmacharya) and non-covetousness (aparigraha).

At the same time, the yogi must root out these evils: passion (kãma), anger (krodha), greed (lobha), infatuation (moha), pride (mada), malice and envy (matsarya). (from the book Light on Pranayama, BKS Iyengar)

6-Dec-24

Religion or the quest for God is like a code of conduct devised by man to live in peace and harmony with nature, his fellow beings and himself. This code of conduct sought to distinguish between good and evil, virtue and vice and moral and immoral. (from the book Light on Pranayama, BKS Iyengar)

25-Nov-24

“The jnana or knowledge of all beings is conditioned by sense moulds” (from The Message of the Upanishads by Swami Ranganathananda)

We humans are able to organize the knowledge that we gather through our sense experiences. However, the Upanishads ask us to look deeper – to look at the world of facts and also the world of values. Learn from all three states of the mind: waking, deep sleep and dreaming. A trained and disciplined mind will be able to see the immortal, beyond our perishable forms.

24-Nov-24

” God is in all men; but all men are not in God; therefore man suffers” Sri Ramakrishna (quoted in The Message of the Upanishads by Swami Ranganathananda)

17-Nov-24

Before you consume or do anything, you can ask yourself:

Will this make you richer: physically, intellectually or spiritually? If it will, then that’s the right path. (Inferred from ISA UPANISHAD 5)

16-Nov-24

Where there is assimilation of knowledge, there can be no vanity. Sri Ramakrishna, a Indian Hindu mystic illustrates this with an analogy: “When the corn is ripe, it bends down; when it’s not ripe, it stands erect.”

09-Nov-24

Swami Vivekananda: “The science of yoga claims that it has discovered the laws which develop this personality, and, by proper attention to those laws and methods, each one can grow and strengthen his personality.”

07-Nov-24

What is the truth about ourselves?’, asked Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician) in a talk on the B.B.C., and proceeded to reply: ‘We may incline to various answers: We are a bit of star gone wrong. We are complicated physical machinery-puppets that strut and talk and laugh and die as the hand of time turns the handle beneath. But let us remember that there is one elementary inescapable answer: We are that which asks the question.’

06-Nov-24

He is known as Yogi supreme, O Arjuna, who looking on the happiness and unhappiness of all beings as his own, sees the sameness everywhere.

Bhagvad-Gita (VI.32)

05-Nov-24

The understanding of reality and validating it by personal experience is important. The earliest commentary on this is in Buddha’s feedback to a general audience of spiritual seekers (not his followers): “This I have said to you O Kalamas, but you may accept it, not because it is a report, not because it is a tradition, not because it is so said in the past, not because it is given from the scripture, not for the sake of discussion, not for the sake of a particular method, not for the sake of careful consideration, not for the sake of forbearing with wrong views, not because it appears to be suitable, not because your preceptor is a recluse, but if you yourselves understand that this is so meritorious and blameless, and, when accepted, is for benefit and happiness, then you may accept it.”

(The Anguttara Nikaya, Pali Publication Board, 1960 Edition, Nalanda-Devanagari, Pali Series, Vol. I, 3.7.5)

04-Nov-24

Erwin Schrödinger (What in Life?, Epilogue, pp. 90-91): “The only possible alternative is simply to keep to the immediate experience that consciousness is a singular of which the plural is unknown; that there is only one thing and that what seems to be a plurality is merely a series of different aspects of this one thing, produced by a deception (the Indian Maya).

03-Nov-2024
Work (done with selfish desire) is far inferior, O Arjuna, to that done with a detached reason. Take refuge in this detached reason. Small-minded are they who are motivated by selfish results.’

Bhagvad-Gita (II.49)

02-Nov-2024

When our hearts are larger, we have a better capacity to receive and embrace the negative feelings we have in order to transform them. Suppose you pour a handful of salt into a cup of water; now you can’t drink the water because it’s too salty. But if you pour a handful of salt into a river, the river is so large it’s not affected and all of us can continue to drink the water. The river is enormous, that’s why it has the capacity to receive, embrace, and transform. Our hearts are like the river. They are large enough to transform suffering and bring joy, not just to ourselves but to all those around us. (From: Answers From The Heart – Thich Nhat Hanh)

01-Nov-2024

The only material that the future is made of is the present. If you know how to handle the present in the best way you can, that’s all you can do for the future. Handling the present moment with all your attention, all your intelligence is already building a future. (From: Answers From The Heart – Thich Nhat Hanh)