The Bhagavad Gita has become a major news item, having been declared an extremist religious text in Russia. After a Russian translation of the Bhagavad Gita by ISKCON had been published, state prosecutors in Tomsk, Siberia, said the text sows social discord and want its distribution banned; moreover, it has also been put on a prohibited book list that includes Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Heated voices were raised in public protest and Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna told parliament that the complaint was filed by "ignorant people." He stated furthermore, "The government has taken up the issue with the Russian government and Indian embassy officials are in touch with the officials of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness." Members from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party expressed outrage over the move in Siberia to ban the holy book, and Laloo Yadav, leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal party declared, "We will not tolerate an insult to Lord Krishna." Alexander M. Kadakin, Russian Ambassador to India said, "It is strange that such events are unfolding in the beautiful university city in Siberia, as Tomsk is famous for its secularism and religious tolerance.” Many more public figures have jumped on the band wagon protecting what they consider a holy text. But is it?

Until the fall of the Soviet Union, Soviet policy toward religion was based on the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, which made atheism the official doctrine of the Communist Party. Russia now recognises freedom of religion among its four main faiths, Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism, and Russians are again embracing religion – the very concept that was condemned by Karl Marx as the "opiate of the people" and relentlessly battled by the Soviet state for decades.

Hinduism has been spread in Russia mainly through missionaries from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and the Brahma Kumaris. The Hindu Forum in Britain reported there are 60,000 Hindus in Russia; about 10,000 of those live in Moscow. A few years ago the Federal Registration Service of Russia had registered 78 Krishna centered Hindu communities. In recent years, the Russian Orthodox Church repeatedly opposed what they considered a move to "convert Russian Christians to a Hindu way of life.” Hindus were victimized, threatened, bullied, beaten and subjected to violence. A misinformation campaign was launched against Hindus by the Orthodox Church in Moscow and in November 2005, Archbishop Nikon of the Russian Orthodox Church sent a letter to the mayor of Moscow, describing the Hindu deity Krishna as an 'evil demon'. The letter included also words such as 'satanic'.

The Bhagavad Gita has been available in Russian language for a long time. However, as stated by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich recently, the controversy “is not about the book proper but about a poor translation and the preface written by the author [Swami Prabhupada] … which were classified as falling under Article 13 of the Russian Federation Federal Law 'On countering extremist activities'."

If not the Bhagavad Gita, the Koran, or the Bible, throughout the ages the priests and politicians used such old texts, declared them holy and worthwhile to be used to indoctrinate the masses:

“All traditions are blind. And any traditional person is sick, because he has not yet been able to find his own understanding.
But I give you the criterion – I don't say what is right and what is wrong, I give you the criterion so whatever the situation, whatever the context, you will be always able to judge in that particular context and situation what is right and what is wrong.
And such a simple thing has been missed for thousands of years. Perhaps it is very simple and obvious; that's why it has been missed. All these so-called great thinkers and philosophers and theologians are stargazers. They don't see that which is close; their eyes are fixed far away on an imaginary God, a paradise beyond death.
I don't care at all about your gods, and I don't care at all what happens to you after your death. My concern is what happens to you right now, to your consciousness. Because that will always be with you, beyond death, wherever you are. Your consciousness will carry that light which divides the wrong from the right.
Anything that makes you more alert, more conscious, more peaceful, more silent, more celebrating, more festive, is good.
Anything that makes you unconscious, miserable, jealous, angry, destructive, is wrong.
I am not giving you a list of objects which are right and which are wrong. I am simply giving you a clarity to judge in each moment of life, without any consultation of ten commandments, of Srimad Bhagavad Gita, without asking the dead.
Why not ask the living source of being in you?
You are the only holy scripture in the world.”
OSHO
The Messiah Ch 21, Q 1
(Free download E-Book & Audio discourse: www.oshoworld.com)

There are millions of books available in the world today, some of which have been in existence since the beginning of the world. Old books continue to remain in existence forever and every day more new books are born because people love reading them. They want to quench their insatiable thirst for knowledge and wisdom, fiction and fun. Not all books are worth reading, but most people develop a love for reading and read for the sake of reading. For them reading any book is a joy. But once in a while we come across a book that transforms us and changes the course of our life.

Osho loved reading books and he did read more than One hundred thousand books, which are now part of his personal library. Many of these books have his beautiful signatures that are considered by his lovers as an enlightened art. Out of these hundred thousands books Osho makes a special mention of one really unique book which is not known to common people.

He says: "There are millions of books in the world, but THE BOOK OF MIRDAD stands out far above any other book in existence. It is unfortunate that very few people are acquainted with THE BOOK OF MIRDAD for the simple reason that it is not a religious scripture. It is a parable, a fiction, but containing oceanic truth. It is a small book, but the man who gave birth to this book... and mind my words, I am not saying "the man who wrote this book." Nobody wrote this book. I am saying the man who gave birth to this book - he was an unknown, a nobody. And because he was not a novelist, he never wrote again; just that single book contains his whole experience. The name of the man was Mikhail Naimy.

"It is an extraordinary book in the sense that you can read it and miss it completely, because the meaning of the book is not in the words of the book. The meaning of the book is running side by side in silence between the words, between the lines, in the gaps. If you are in a state of meditativeness - if you are not only reading a fiction but you are encountering the whole religious experience of a great human being, absorbing it; not intellectually understanding but existentially drinking it -- the words are there but they become secondary. Something else becomes primary: the silence that those words create, the music that those words create. The words affect your mind, and the music goes directly to your heart."

Reading a book like 'The Book of Mirdad' is an art by itself. Osho tells us: "And it is a book to be read by the heart, not by the mind. It is a book not to be understood, but experienced. It is something phenomenal. Millions of people have tried to write books so that they can express the inexpressible, but they have utterly failed. I know only one book, THE BOOK OF MIRDAD, which has not failed; and if you cannot get to the very essence of it, it will be your failure, not his. He has created a perfect device of words, parables, situations. If you allow it, the book becomes alive and something starts happening to your being."

In one of the chapters of this book, Mikhail Naimy writes: ...  "You are the tree of Life. Beware of fractioning yourselves. Set not a fruit against a fruit, a leaf against a leaf, a bough against a bough; nor set the stem against the roots; nor set the tree against the mother-soil. That is precisely what you do, when you love one part more than the rest or to the exclusion of the rest."

Our life functions in an organic connectivity. We are one life - and this life itself is godliness. While we are always fighting and creating conflict constantly, living in man-made divisions of religions, races and nations, a man of meditation comes to realize that there exist no divisions and fractions in life. All divisions exist only in the over-developed heads and under-developed hearts of people. We are conscious of the leaves, branches and stems of the tree, but we cannot see the roots of the tree, the source of one life. This is the real misery of men on earth.

Mikhail Naimy reminds us: "You are the Tree of Life. Your roots are everywhere. Your boughs and leaves are everywhere. Your fruits are in every mouth. Whatever be the fruits upon that tree; whatever be its boughs and leaves; whatever be the roots; they are your fruits; they are your leaves and boughs; they are your roots. If you would have the tree bear sweet and fragrant fruit, if you would have it ever strong and green, see to the sap wherewith you feed the roots. Love is the Sap of Life.  ...." These words should be sung like we sing Bhagwad Geeta-the song of the divine. But most people have not heard of this book and have missed such a significant message coming from an unknown person of super sensitivity.

Osho concludes: "I have come across people who have not even heard the name of THE BOOK OF MIRDAD. If I am to make a list of the great books, that will be the first. But to see the beauty of it you will need a tremendous discipline. Mikhail Naimy's book, THE BOOK OF MIRDAD, should be filmed, should be shown to people. Just seeing that film you will feel a great upliftment. The book should be made available to every library, to every university, but most of the people have not even heard the name of Mikhail Naimy. His book -- one of the greatest masterpieces of art, beauty, meditation, consciousness -- remains unknown to the major part of humanity."

As we hurtle towards 2012 I have been feeling a level of unexplained excitement and anticipation and can hardly wait for January to begin. January 1st  is  the first day of a brand new month in a new year that has been much heralded and long-awaited by most, and feared by some. What I feel is a great something in the air which is definitely quickening. Those who are anxious about this coming time are expecting a great disaster of some sort to occur.

There is destruction ahead but it's already going on now, and this is the destruction of those illusions, false truths and beliefs that have kept us from fully flying in the joy and aliveness of who we are. And the destruction of the old and ugly foundations upon which institutions that have been an integral part of maintaing the mirage, have been built. Such as religious, educational, financial, political, so called humanitarian groups, and every group with the same false organizational structure and ethos, whether in the mainstream of society or on the fringes. 

I just came from the final meeting with a group of fabulous, creative organizers, friends who are orchestrating a very elegant event, that of a special Civil Union between two men, good friends of mine who have been together for 30 years, living, working and creating an exceptionally varied and rich life together. I am officiating this event and so looking forward to it. The ceremony is starting just after midnight on New Years Eve, so is actually happening on January 1st. And for a very good reason.

The State of Hawaii has declared that as of January 1st, 2012, Civil Unions, (gay marriages) are legal and officially recognized by the State of Hawaii, thus formally accepting gays and lesbians into the larger community and giving them and their relationship rights, support and protection under the laws of the State. Wow! What a hard-won and long-sought victory this has been. This not so simple, simple step, this simple, sane,humane decision now brings people of the same sex who love one another and want to spent the rest of their lives together, to (almost) equal standing and equal rights as given to anyone else.

This is an awesome, awakening event. Consider all the forces, religious, political and otherwise who have until now successfully suppressed this step, dissolving into the background back into obscurity once again with this decision. Integration has triumphed over separation. Spirit has usurped discrimination from ancient fears and superstitions.  And right has been done. What a wonderful way to usher in this new year, this time of great potential of new consciousness. Freedom, love, awakening, sanity, compassion, grace.  And interestingly enough,  the place where this intimate Civil Union is being held, in Hawaiian, means new beginnings

A deeper aspect of this integration, a great exhale, I see coming into play a little further down the road and will be first experienced more on a personal, individual level. This aspect is much more subtle but will have a profound affect on everyone. What I'm alluding to is the release of the fear and armoring that has been held in the body by in this case all the gays and a big relaxation of their central nervous systems. This came to me immediately when I thought of what this must feel like for people in same sex relationships;
firstly to be looked down upon, feared and discriminated against, even hated and be treated like second-class citizens; and who now are being legitimized and accepted and what that must feel like. A closed door now opening.

Even for those couples who live in a more sophisticated and enlightened community there must still be a level or layers of  protection set in place before stepping out into the world, before coming out to your parents, like donning psychic armor before battle. But now there is no longer a threat from outside so those protective devices are no longer needed and can be set down. I'm so certain that a lot of this is unknown to the individual, how much and how subtly the body is holding  levels of emotion in the tissues, layers over the heart and solar plexus and belly and not least of all within the central nervous system.  I anticipate a general lightening up of our entire community.

So this brings me to me and to you too perhaps. Sexual preference aside, this is everyone's journey.The breaking up of the fear patterns that we have carried lovingly, deeply, unknowingly and subtly within the cells of our physical structures and the corresponding belief patterns in the mental, emotional and psychological parts of us. And rising to pure love. This is my journey and I am committed 1000% to clear the fields and heal the wounds of my lineage through releasing the patterns I have carried on their behalf and awakening the fullness and beauty of this very soul.

So much, if not 99% of all of this is from carrying as our own but not ours, the fears and patterning from our past generations and ancestors. The question to ask is....who does this (feeling, thought, discomfort,disease) belong to? And if there is an immediate let-go and lightening up in your energy, you know it was not yours. So now you have another awareness tool to use as often as you can.

I am watching miracles take place as we birth our true consciousness, our true who we are-ness.  A good friend of mine has been struggling with a genetic disease from which his father, sisters and brother have died and died in nasty deaths.  He (my friend) and his wife, a masterful healer have dedicated themselves to healing themselves through awakening; he not only from the disease's seemingly eventual devastating outcome, but from the very source of the disease within him which has showen itself to be 100% generational. And bringing forth the deep cry of his soul, giving it at last what it has been asking for lifetime after lifetime, which is to be love, live love fully, love and be loved. 

Who knew the form that this healing would take and all that it would require in every way. 1000% trust, awareness, focus and strength of spirit in surrendering.  I am watching miracle upon miracle take place. The final step has been to break the fear cycle patterning which wreaks havoc with the nervous system and physical structures. This he has just accomplished as he surrenders and understands, and keeps on surrendering... his understandings.

Stay tuned to Facebook and the Miracles of Love Page coming soon for this full and amazing story for all of us.

Happy New Year Everyone!
And Happy January 1st 2012!

Body is the principle operative means for both Ayurveda and Yoga. Ayurveda is the supportive system for keeping the body healed and healthy; Yoga, on the other hand, finds body as a principle instrument but mainly for the non-physical, inner, psychological, as well as spiritual healing and health. Ayurveda has been alleviated to the status of Veda – knowledge about ayush -- life, health.

Body and physical wellbeing are primary concerns of Ayurveda, but for Yoga consciousness is its main focus although it gives significant importance to body as a vehicle to experience consciousness. Hence, yoga and ayurveda are seen as sister sciences. Study of Ayurveda is considered useful for a practicing yogi, and knowledge of Yoga is found to be helpful for Ayurveda for leading a person from merely physical health and healing to spiritual health and healing. Seeking right ways to remove physical impediments and disorders through Ayurvedic methods is seen as essential. As Osho points out: “In ayurveda, which evolved by the side of yoga in the ancient India, a physician had to be a yogi also. Unless you are a yogi you cannot be a real physician. You cannot be a real healer. The physician had to watch his own inner arrangement before he would go to the patient to see and treat him.”
OSHO
Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol.8, Ch.3

The central purpose of yoga is: harnessing the entire body-mind complex for the purpose of serving the spirit, soul, or consciousness. The most authoritative text on yoga is, Yoga Sutra of sage Patanjali (circa 2^nd century B.C.E.- 4^th century B.C.E.). The work consists of aphorisms (sutra) which place great emphasis on the purification of body-mind, on healing, health, and being holy for attaining the higher truth.

Healing, in yoga and ayurveda, involves something more than relieving, getting out of suffering. It really means: promoting wholeness, integration, attaining freedom to be whole, healthy, holy. Freedom is of the essence for being healthy. Health, in view of yoga and ayurveda, is a state of freedom from the impediments brought by the physiological and psychological forces. Such a state alone can lead one eventually to total freedom, moksha, liberation – the ultimate.

The bottom line, however, is that, in both these systems, awareness is the determining factor of being truly healthy. According to the Hindu view, ignorance is the cause of suffering. Hence, viveka or discriminative wisdom is the remedy for all kinds of suffering – physical or psychological. Ayurveda finds ignorance at the root of illness, and so, holds clarity of mind as a determining factor for being healthy.

The text on Ayurveda, Charak Samhita ( circa 600 B.C.E), lists, “Un-impairment of mind, intellect and senses” as a criteria for health. Thus, mental clarity contributes to freedom from suffering and pain: “…the ignorant indulge in unwholesome gratification of the five senses…and adoption of such regimens as are pleasing only temporarily, but the wise do not indulge in them because of their clarity of vision.” (Charak Samhita, 1:28. 39-40)

An important by product of yoga is a person’s awareness of his/her thoughts, feelings and being free of projection. But foremost in the awareness process is one’s ability to learn – a life long readiness to learning from one’s unawareness and thus cultivating human intelligence.

In short, in light of ayurveda and yoga, the Hindu view is that:

• Spirituality represents a dimension of health (psycho-physiological).
• Spirituality is not isolated or separate from mind-body complex. It, in fact, penetrates and empowers every cell and fiber of human organism.
• The relationship of spirituality to health is reciprocal – health promotes spirituality and spirituality promotes health.

Here we may take a brief look at the Western view of health and medicine compared to what we find in ayurveda and yoga. Generally, Western medical science sees human being as a separate unit – separate from nature. It takes a mechanical view. And hence, wherever a use of machine succeeds, the medical science is successful. However, as is being explained by experts in Quantum Physics, such mechanistic view is partial, not holistic. As followed by the Western medical science, it treats only the part that is sick. This mechanical approach is piecemeal; it may succeed in treating the part. But the Eastern view is that the sick part is just a symptom of the actual disease – dis-ease. 

For ayurveda and yoga, humans are not machines but a whole living organism. The sick part in the body only shows that, it is the weakest link in the whole organic system of body-mind-consciousness. Ayurveda, essentially, is a science of LIFE – seen in its totality; while medical science of the West looks into just the phenomenon of body sickness, and treating it. Ayurveda and yoga stand for preventing sickness and maintaining the inner and the outer health. Osho brings the following perspective:

“The word for medical science in the East is ayurveda. Even the word will show you the difference. In the West you call it "medicine." Medicine means curing, healing, but can you see the implication: it does not mean health, it comes after the disease has already come in. It is a follow-up. First you are sick, then comes the doctor. The doctor follows sickness, with his bag of medicines.

“Ayurveda means the science of life. The very word has nothing to do with disease, sickness; it has something to do with life, health, longevity. It is positive, it is not negative. It shows you the way to remain healthy, to remain young as long as you want, to live longer if that's what you want. Its focus is not on sickness,  its focus is on health.”
OSHO
From Darkness to Light, Ch.27

Taking a comparative view of Allopathy, and Ayurveda as well as yoga, Osho shows how both the Eastern and Western approaches are different. His insight is that:

“Patanjali's yoga system and Hindu system of medicine, Ayurveda, developed simultaneously, together. Ayurveda is totally different than allopathy. Allopathy is suppressive of the disease. Allopathy has developed side by side with Christianity; it is a by -product. And because Christianity is suppressive, allopathy is suppressive. If you are ill, allopathy immediately suppresses the illness. Then the illness tries some other weak point to come up. Then from somewhere else it explodes. Then you suppress it from there, then from somewhere else it explodes. But with allopathy, you go on from one illness to another, from another to another, but it is a never-ending process.

“Ayurveda has a totally different concept. Illness should not be suppressed: it should be released. A catharsis is needed. So Ayurvedic medicine is given to the ill person so that the illness comes up and is thrown out, a catharsis. So the beginning doses of Ayurvedic medicine may make you more ill, and it takes a long time because it is not a suppression. It cannot be done right now: it is a long process. The illness has to be thrown, and your inner energy has to become a harmony so the health comes from within. The medicine will throw the illness out, and the healing force will replace it from your own being.”
OSHO
Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol.2, Ch7

In the entire healing-ayurveda-yoga therapeutic paradigm, what is essentially at issue, however, is: self-transformation. The need for transformation arises only when one finds that we more or less live a life of imprisonment – whether that of physical illness or mental imbalance.

Self-transformation requires a conscious human intervention, a meditative process of awareness. In yoga, ayurveda, and such ancient physiological practices, their work was revealed and made known through inner meditative techniques. While in a way, modern physiology is known through dissection, but the ancient physiology was known through meditation, not dissection. So, transformation is not the same as “change”. We all change, we are changing; our body, mind, attitude go through changes. Transformation, per se, however, is a voluntary and intentional change.

Summing up, ayurveda and yoga systems show us the way to engaging in the work of self-transformation. Besides its implications for body-mind wellness, they see it as imperative for human existence, they see it as human destiny.

We have been blessed with a master who has always believed in "ati", overflowing  and has given us so many paths on which we can walk, run or sit down under the sun whenever we feel like wanting to touch the source. Not for him, the generous one to restricting his friends & lovers to any one particular method. For the introvert, extrovert, the dhyani, the dancing buddha, active, passive….

This has been one of the many reasons why I am in love with this man. Secondly, the way I get spellbound when he speaks and feel so connected. And his eyes, endless oceans ... let me not start on him but rather share with you what I had initially wanted to.

I have stumbled upon an instant dhyan technique which works wonders for me. It doesn't require quietness or much time and you can do it anywhere, even on your way to office and even more importantly you know immediately when you drift. I listen to the noise outside, anything- birds, voices, horns-all types for some time and bring my total attention to them. Then I bring the attention to the inside music- sounds of my breath going in & out, my heart beating, sometimes a pulse throbs around the forehead etc. I listen to them for some time (three- five minutes) and then I switch my attention to a underlying sound, rather like crickets chirping, a krrrr... , a low sound which can be heard everywhere even in the worst of traffic mayhems. And the moment a thought flickers inside you, your attention or torchlight as I like to call it, shifts, and you realize later that a thought was there you no longer hear it. So I know when I'm just mechanically sitting and can start again. Its a variant of Osho’s Tantra technique and must be an ancient technique. We have tried it with Swamiji in Oshodham some time back, and it feels so dew fresh. 

On the onset of the new year I want to share this with you and want to thank you for helping me in my journey.