jijaji

OMG..!!!

That is correct dwai, yoga is so Hindu in fact that Krishnamacharya himself said that the only thing worthy of meditating on is 'Isvara' funny how so many of these hybrid yoga offshoots fail to even acknowledge that.

It really bothers me how these people think they can call themselves Jivanmukta, Enlightened or what have you, it is just ignorant and shows how watered down they take it all. Just like how AYP sees Bhakti or Ishta, it is a gross distortion of the TRUTH and is nothing but misleading. I am sorry for my harsh tone, I know I said I was going to stay away from the discussion, but this is about the western destruction of Yoga and Vedanta to me.

T.I., Just want you to know I'm out of the discussion, as I said a few posts back...just drop it, walk away and take up some other practice, after reading this all over again and going through your posts at AYP, I have to say you ARE spending too much time on your analysis here borderline negativity and I think it is counterproductive. I am sorry I got pulled into this thread, AYP is what it is, Yogani is a sincere person even if he has taken things and approached them differently and I do believe his teaching have benefited people. I am just done with this endless analysis and wish you the best in one day sorting it out T.I. my apologies to all I may have offended here peace

What I find disturbing is how at AYP they all quote Yogani like he is scripture, a person has any question it is generally answered with a quote from Yogani..like they are quoting Bhagavad Gita or something. They cannot give reference to scripture, but to what Yogani (their Vyasa) has said.. very bizzare

very good points dwai, thank you!

T.I, I'm not sure if recreating your email exchange with Yogani is productive here, hope this doesn't rub you wrong, just my opinion. I wish you the very best in sorting this out, my advice at this point is to just drop it..walk away and take up some simple pranayama and japa for a while. cheers, jijaji

T.I., I am sorry for any pain you are having over this, surely there is some from having been practicing this for 4 years and still lacking clarification on certain things. IMO Yogani would serve his audience better if he were to openly tell how he came to use and know that the IAM mantra is all he says it is, his experiments, failures. It is one of the main subjects there over and over and over and so many people have problems and questions even after practicing for years, resulting in headaches, so called overload and confusion. There is never a direct answer about the IAM mantra, it's always (keep practicing) and you will know that which we speak of here.

Thanks guruyoga, I have heard this too, it comes mainly from the TM side, it sounds somewhat fishy to me that as the clerk he would be observing the Shankaracarya practicing Sri Vidya. Also in the early days of the TM movement in 1961 there were only the mantras RAM used for men and SHIRIRAM used for women. The advanced techniques given then were 'Sri' and 'Namah' with Ram in the middle. So it becomes 'Sri Ram Namah'. Jai Sri Ram BTW, guruyoga, I consider you greatly fortunate to have had the darshan of Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Mahaswamiji

your post has put me into a laughing spell

Sri Chandrasekharendra MahaSwamiji thought differently didn't he? I thought he was the proponent of Kanchi Mutt being originally established by Shankaracarya himself. Please explain. namaskar, jijaji

guruyoga, What is your opinion about 'Bija Mantra' meditation as taught in TM? I cannot find any reference to this type of meditation in any teachings related to Shankaracarya before Mahesh Yogi introduced it. Surely his Guru didn't practice or recommend it. I would also like to ask you what is your opinion of these obvious modified offshoots of TM that offer 'mantra meditation' with modified mantra as seen in AYP and NSR. Does the 'House of Cards' fall because it has no solid foundation? or is there some benefit? are these modified mantras simply sending people on a wild goose chase? Look forward to your response, cheers, jijaji

guruyoga, I would be interested in hearing your take on the Kanchi Math controversy at some point if that is not too off topic or perhaps in another thread. jijaji

guruyoga, always a pleasure reading your astute, informative posts namaskaram, jijaji

Paul Mason gives this regarding Svami Brahananda Saraswati's Guru on his website; http://www.paulmason.info/gurudev/parampara.html So his having come from South India and having Sannyass surname of Saraswati, shows there is good chance he was associated with Sringeri Mutt which is due south of Mysore IMO. cheers

The Sannyasins of Sringeri Mutt (one of the four centers established by Shankara) have the surname of Saraswati, Puri and Bharati. Perhaps Brahmananda Saraswati's Guru was associated with Sringiri Mutt I'm not exactly sure. But, according to WIKI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyananda_Saraswati "Swami Sivananda gave him the name Satyananda and initiated him as a Paramahamsa sannyasin of the Dashnama sannyasa order" In 1924 Swami Sivananda visited Varanasi, Nashik, and then Rishikesh, where he met his guru, Swami Vishwananda Saraswati. Seems reasonable they all are Sannyasins of the Saraswati order. also: cheers

Gee Whiz are you kidding, none of the Moderstors who do the retreats for Yogani/AYP have never meet him? That is just weird and narcissistic, he has so watered down the teachings of Yoga and Meditation he is probably in permanent hiding to save his ass from any repercussions his la la land presentation of sacred teachings may bring him.

Thanks for your responses here guruyoga , practice of Saguna Upasana is dualistic in itself, of course ultimately it's goal is to reach Nirguna brahman. Also Karma and Bhakti is considered correct for houselders, meditation on Nirguna Brahman was generally reserved for the renunciates/sannyasins in Advaita line. cheers

Even many in the Vaishnava lines do some kind of Pranayama and Asana before their Japa. cheers

Advaita Vedanta is not entirely a non-dual school, the pure non-dual aspect is Kevala Advaita. However in Advaita Vedanta there is Upasana of both Nirguna and Saguna Brahman. cheers

Bhakti consists of sravanam, kirtanam, visnoh (or istha devata) smaranam, pada-sevanam, arcanam, vandanam and dasyam. These are only the beginning stages known as Vaidhi Bhakti, as one further advances depending on attachment, love and eligibility one moves onto Raganuga Bhakti or Prema Bhakti (Pure Love). Bhakti is NOT desire for Moksha, or visualizing some babe while your doing solo tantra (another subject LOL)

I have to agree what I hear being considered as Bhakti in AYP is not in accordance with any School of Bhakti I know of, be it Vaishnava, Shaiva or even Bhakti in Advaita Vedanta. I read this from an AYP lesson today which I found strange: Q: I have been doing meditation for quite some time now and had a lot of spinal breathing exercises. Since four years ago I have been in taoist sexual practices and I can now elevate sexual energies to the crown. Although I have been faithful to my wife as she had been my partner, she is quite slow in practicing and I found myself doing most of the practices all alone. However I have other women in mind in doing the practices on my own. Is this harmful to my wellbeing? Second, are the women that I am fantasizing on affected by my visualizations and emotional energy? Please enlighten me on this matter. A: Fantasies for solo practice are fine. If we use them to go higher, it is a form of bhakti, yes? As ecstatic conductivity gradually comes up, the fantasies will transform to a higher expression of ecstatic bliss and divine love bubbling from within. Then the process will be self-sustaining, and there will be little need to fantasize on external persons or objects.

good luck