Tag Archives: karma

~ Fundamentals of Yoga

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“Make Yoga Yours & Discover the Divinity in You!”. There are 4 types of Yoga (योग) — Bhakti (Devotion),Karma (Action),Gyan (Knowledge), & Raja (Meditation) Yoga. A true Yogi/Yogini combines the different approaches to suit his/her needs (customization) to realize the Divine!

When the five body sensors are still, when the mind is still, when intellect is still, that is called highest state by the wise.

Yoga is this complete stillness in which one enters in sense of unity state never to become separate again. If one is not established in this true, the sense of unity will come and go.

The four yoga are not mutually exclusive of each other. Yoga at a higher level can be anything that leads you to divinity.

For full description, see informative clip from ‘HinduStudentAssociation’ below to find out 4 types of yoga, which is also given in text here.
yoga-gi

Four types of primary Yoga :

1. Bhakti (Devotion) Yoga : Experiencing divinity through  singing/Dancing/Listening the praises of the Divine/Chanting/Surrendering self to divine.

2. Karma (Action) Yoga : Self-less service- By acknowledging the divinity  in everyone/By regarding all actions as worship.

“The best form of service is the service that is performed without being attached to the fruits of one’s activities. One should act as a matter of duty because by working without attachment one attains the divine” – Bhagwad Gita, Chapter 3, Verse 19.

3. Gyan (Knowledge) Yoga: Experincing the divine by meditating on scriptural teachings to realize the truth from untruth. Through Viveka (inner sense),by experincing inner knowledge and insight one can differentiate between Eternal & Temporal.

“The syllable “OM” ॐ  is the Brahman, the impersonal absolute of Hinduism. Realizing it, one finds complete fulfilment of all of ones longings. – Katha Upanishad , Chapter 2 , Verse 15.

4. Raja (Meditation) Yoga: Yoga cultivates the mind before one starts the practice of meditation. Yoga sutras of Patanjali promotes living a moral life, Purification of the body through Hatha yoga and Pranayama. Detachment from sense objects (vasanas/desire) and prepares mind to meditation.

“When the mind has been trained to remain fixed on a certain internal or external location, there comes to it the power of flowing in an unbroken current, as it were, towards that point. This is a Dhyana (Meditation)” – Raja Yoga , Swami Vivekananda.

“Make Yoga Yours and Discover the divinity in You!”

Watch- What exactly is Yoga?

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Image credit:  HinduStudentAssociation

Sources: Wikiepdia, Youtube, HinduStudentAssociation Clip, google search, Facebook, Twitter, and other links mentioned in the post.

~ Karma Kitchen, USA : A unique Restaurant where you pay $0 (Zero) bill

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One of its kind restaurant  where you get $ 0 bill with a note:  “Your meal was a gift from someone who came before you. To keep the chain of gifts alive, we invite you to pay it forward for those dine after you”. So, technically your bill is already paid by some unknown visitor before and you have to pay for future unknown guest, just out of Generosity!! Also, there is no Price on Menu card, you can order what you want and you get “$0” (zero) dollar bill. Then you can pay what you feel is right value (in terms of money) for your food!  Another interesting thing is that food is prepared and served by volunteers who gives service for FREE (without any salary)! So, imagine unique scene where waiter/staff do not get salary and customer gets zero dollar bill  😀

Viral and Pavi Mehta, American-Indian couple, initiated this idea at Taste of Himalayas Restaurant,  Berkley , California. This Karma concept meal is served on Sunday. As their  website  says ‘it’s a volunteer-driven experiment in generosity’. Initiative is to spread Generosity and Togetherness among people!

What!!! But, how it works? See these clips below:

Karma Kitchen Videos

Talk about Karma Kitchen project at TED talk by Mr. Nipun Mehta – Designing For Generosity- TEDxBerkeley

Related links:

image credit: “en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vegetarian_Andhra_Meal.jpg”

Sources: Karma Kitchen website, TEDx talk, youtube, Darshan America, Google search, Facebook, Twitter, and other hyperlinks mentioned in the post.

~ Fundamentals of Happiness

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Happiness is all about balancing satisfactions in terms of Mental, Emotional, Physical and Materialistic things! Ancient Indian scolars could figure out these four things which need attention if you wish to live a ‘Happy’ life.

In today’s capitalism/ consumerism era, the general opinion among people is “Money = Happiness”, in short – we can buy ‘anything’ with Money! Well, in larger picture, money can buy some comfort and luxury; which may put a temporary smile.

But, in long run, we should focus on acquiring all kinds of inner and outer satisfactions discussed below (see chart) along with solution/suggestion.

What is Happiness-globindian.wordpress.com

1)      Mental –

Includes Mental peace, Positive thinking, Stress-free life, Mind free from anger/unnecessary worries about past and future/Jealousy/Greed/Selfishness/Rat race/Show-offs.

Tips (Insights) – How to balance : Practice Yoga & Meditation, Spiritual practice, breathing exercise/Pranayam, Read good positive books. Balance your 3 Gunas (Tamas, Rajas and Satvik) properly  as told in my previous post about “ingredients of success” .

Here is a one different suggestion, do not get involve ‘too much’ into Gadgets or electronics – Laptops, Mobile, social networking, TV, Movies, etc. They occupy more space in your mind and you may feel tired/ dull. Give some free time to yourself daily.

Put-off electronic devices for about 1-2 hrs, it will train your mind not to be dependent on machines (Think about simple life before invention of gadgets). Try to take a 20-30 min barefoot walk on grass in garden/parks, it helps.

2)      Emotional –

Which includes: Love, Long term relationships (Husband-wife, with kids, parents, dear ones), Sense of belongingness, Compassion, Good family bonding, Long term friendship/social networks, Trust , Togetherness, Fear-less society, Love and care towards animals/plants, Respect to others, Appreciation for your efforts, Credits for your creativity/ideas.

Tips (Insights) – How to balance :  Respect other’s opinion/existence; he is equally divine as you are.  Follow laws of Karma. Treat others same way you want to be treated!

3)      Physical –

Consists of Health related things. Body free from any disease/obesity/health issues. Keeping body fit from inside and outside.

Tips (Insights) – How to balance : Practice Yoga/Gym/Jogging/Walk. Avoid junk food/alcohol/Tobacco/Fat/Cola/Excessive Sugar & Salts, etc. Eat more vegetables/fruits/herbal products. Adopt a disciplined and junk-food-free life style including habits of early sleeping (~11 PM) and early wake-up ( ~ 6-7 AM).

4)      Materialistic –

Money-Money-Money!! (A normal printed paper which we just ‘assume’ has a certain value).  Comforts/Luxury/Big house/Big Car/Gold , Silver & platinum (ultimately just metals!!)/Diamond/Travel/Party/Boozing/Fashion/Physical relation/Cosmetics/Shopping, etc.

Tips (Insights) – How to balance :   This shows ‘Money’ is just one of the things to be happy in life. Time won’t come back, money will…so invest your life wisely! Shop/ Borrow/ Party in your budget,avoid reckless-spending. Think smartly and keep trying to increase your revenues positively. Create more value in same efforts. Spend on those items which will give you long term satisfaction than just short term gains.

If possible adopt ‘Simple living high thinking’ approach. See how we can create a society where wealth is distributed equally among all citizens. Think about a new innovative approach using both  Gross National Happiness (GNH) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or Per-Capita Income as discussed in my previous post.

See its so simple! Its all about bit change in attitude/outlook towards life with some change in lifestyle.

Balance these things properly and be happy. Also, share this secret to others! 🙂

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~ Comparing Varna (Karma) System : Ancient age Vs Globalization

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This is an attempt to understand  Ancient age social  system based on Karma principle (called four Varna – Kshatriya, Vaishya, Brahmin & Shudra)  in India and comparing it with today’s Profession or  Career (Karma/work/action) based system in Globalization .

Karma based system in Ancient age:

During ancient kingdom /monarchy era, where there was high chance of misusing all social power by a single person (king/ruler). To avoid this, social scholars or Rishi  (Bharadwaja , Bhrigu and others) at that time decided to build a system based on Karma (duties/action), where there won’t be more than one type of power belonging to one person.

They came up with idea of 4 types of duties/categories in society: Military (Ruler/Kshatriya),Wealth (Vaishya), Knowledge (Brahmin), and Land (Shudra). Person could choose any one of these four types of social power as per wish/skills and follow his/her Karma path (also discussed here).

Even ruler/king was supposed to respect and consult other groups before implementing any decision in his Kingdom. Many good rulers followed this tradition of taking advice from others. Thus encouraging decentralization of power and maintaining social balance.

Post Vedic era , there were fights and invasions among different Hindu rulers. Due to this, the karma based social system was messed up. The confusion leads to caste (Jati)-based system – which is based on Birth, rather than Karma-based system- which was based on Duties/Action/Work in life.

For examples, in Ancient time, King Ravana  was born in Brahmin family (son of Rishi Vishrava ) but became ruler (Kshatriya) later.

 Similarly, Parashurama even though he was born to Brahmin family (son of Rishi Jamadagni), he turned to be a great warrior (Brahmin choose path of non-violence).

Great rishi Valmiki (writer of great Hindu epic Ramayana) and Brahmarshi  Vishvamitra  had chosen path of being Brahmin after following Spirituality and gaining highest divine knowledge/wisdom.

Karma based system in today’s Globalization:

After industrialization and economic reforms in Globalization, there are lots of options available to each individual. Generally, now a days society is divided in three parts as per economic condition – Lower  class, Middle class, and Rich class.

 In terms of Karma (work/action), today one can choose any career path as per education, interest, skills, knowledge, etc. irrespective of parent’s profession. If we compare today’s career system with ancient system we get following interesting pattern, see chart below.

As per the chart, in globalization, ancient Land lords (Shudra) and Knowledge (Brahmin) based system becomes one complete “job/service sector” (shown in orange dotted line at bottom right of the photo). But, Wealth (Vaishya) and Ruler (Kshatriya) based system is still somewhat in  accord with ancient system.

Well, this is just for understanding of ancient and today’s Karma (read career/job) systems. Hope this has given some insights about both Karma based systems.

Note: This is as per my current knowledge and understanding of the topic. Suggestions/inputs are welcome! Visit this place in future for more updates on this topic.

Copyright: It takes lots of efforts,time and literature search to post information in simplified form for readers here. So, do not copy or use material without written permission to Globindian blog. You can share link from this blog.

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Social System: Ancient age Vs Globalization

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Sources: Wikipedia, Google search, HAF YouTube clip, and other hyperlinks provided in the post. Image source- Wikipedia

~ “Laws of Karma” Quotes

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Karma: 

  • No need for Revenge. Just sit back & wait. Those who hurt you will eventually Screw up themselves & if you’re lucky, God will let you watch!

  •  Welcome to Karma Cafe – there are no menus here , you’ll be served what you deserved!

  • If you loose MONEY, you loose NOTHING…If you loose HEALTH you loose SOMETHING…But, if you loose CHARACTER, you loose EVERYTHING!! 

  • The universal law states that nothing happens by chance or outside the Universal Laws. Every action has a reaction or consequence and we “reap what we have sown”

  • “Whatever good things we build, end up building us…If you go to work on your Goals, your Goals will go to work on you..If you go to work on your Plan, your Plan will go to work on you”

  • Treat others same way you would like to be treated!

  •  What goes around comes around

  •  Keep your circle Positive

  • Your today’s Action/Decision decides your Destiny/Future

Krishna Telling 'Bhagvad Gita' To Arjuna (Laws of Dharma & Karma)

Krishna Telling ‘Bhagvad Gita’ To Arjuna (Laws of Dharma & Karma)

Understand what is Karma

Following articles will help to understand  “Karma” in deep.

Karma in Hinduism:

Karma in Buddhism:

 My Other related posts on Karma:

Watch this space for more interesting and influential Karma quotes.

Image credit: “en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bhagvad_Gita.jpg”

Sources: Google search, Wikipedia and other links mentioned in the post.