> A Message from Ashok Bhatt

Religion can be a very powerful tool, and it can change your outlook on life. It did so for me, and I can firmly say today that I feel very fortunate to be a Hindu. It gave me the opportunity to think from a deep philosophical perspective, and truly understand the nature of our universe. Unlike some, I admired many of Hinduism’s traditions, appreciated the emphasis on conquering one’s ego, of submitting to God with full submission. And so, through understanding a seemingly outdated religion, patience and prayer, God tamed my rebellious heart and I opened up to His service. By genuinely understanding my own religion I started to notice changes in my attitude, in my behaviour, and my outlook on life. In retrospect, there were so many fortunate coincidences that occurred to me, and somehow I knew deep down it could not all just be chance. So I thought why not share what I have learned and take all the beautiful sites available and consolidate them all so that people can easily access them for their own benefit. I hope that I can help someone else’s Spiritual Journey the way that these people and these sites have helped me. Vedic philosophy is extremely divine and it can take you very deep. I strongly believe that all of us can find salvation in this lifetime, and it is possible for anyone to get liberated (and attain Moksha) just by understanding their true self.

It is hard for many people to understand the basic Vedic logic that is – all living beings are equally sons and daughters of god. And I don’t only mean people of different races, but also animals, plants, insects, and everything that is alive. Think of it like this, you and your pet dog both have a soul. Your pet dog has a different body, and different mental capabilities, but your existence on this planet means that you were both created by the same higher being. The same goes for all other species on Earth. What we humans need to realize is that only in the human body do we get intellectual capabilities. This gives us a greater power to think above all other beings on this planet. It allows us to imagine, to make connections, and more importantly it allows us to separate our feelings from the truth so we can discriminate between right and wrong. An animal can decide what is right and wrong based on its senses (taste, touch, smell, feel, etc.), but humans have been given the gift of logic, so we can put those animal instincts aside and take the ‘higher-route’ in making the right choices. I've noticed something very peculiar about people that I have encountered in my life. A lot of the times, in fact almost all of the time, people know what is right and what is wrong. Yet so many times they will do the wrong thing, whether it be because they are stressed or lazy or whatever. Religion helps us understand ourselves better, and it helps humans reach their full potential.

In the 21st century it is extremely hard to diverge from the material world, but it is in fact true that we can never find happiness from external forces. We can only find temporary gratification with material purchases, because true happiness can only be found on the inside. Religion brings us closer to God – and that gives us hope in times of despair, it gives us light in times of darkness, and it helps us to look inside and find happiness. So my dear brothers and sisters: please go a little deeper in search for your own conviction. I guarantee you it will change your life in a positive way. The information and links on this website might just help you find the wisdom and motivation you need to become a better human being.

> On the Spiritual Highway

How many times have we asked ourselves ‘Why do I have to do this? Why am I working so hard? What am I getting out of this?’ Often in life we simply go through the motions without questioning and if this questioning does occur, it happens too late in life. The problem lies in the fact that we do not pursue what we love.

We take up career paths depending on the ‘scope for success’ that it has, in other words the amount of money we can make, rather than following our own calling. But is success merely about money and fame? Or is it something more? Isn’t success about being happy, about being at peace with oneself?

The reason most of us find ourselves unhappy is because we are engaging ourselves in fields of activity that are at loggerheads with what we really want to do. Work must be something that we look forward to. Even to achieve sustainable ‘success’, we need to go about our jobs with passion. The problem is that we don’t have the courage to follow our conviction. We are too worried about how we will ‘live’, another pseudonym for earning money. And in trying to live, we die. We kill our talents by not engaging in fields of activity that require their use. We are too scared about what others might think if we want to become painters, musicians, archaeologists, poets or philosophers.

To really be successful, the first thing we need to do is do some soul-seeking and introspection and find out what our talents and strengths are. Having done this, simply jump into the chosen arena and go about what you love doing. Gandhiji said ‘Find purpose, the means will follow’ and how true it is. Anyone who has put his work before himself and dedicated his talent for some higher purpose has never suffered. In fact, these are the only people who truly ‘live’. Money comes where there is merit and true merit can only be acquired in the field of our talent. The Gita refers to this field of talent as svadharma. In the Gita, Lord Krishna powerfully asserts, ‘Better is svadharma though devoid of merit than paradharma (opposite to one’s own nature and talent) well discharged; better is death in svadharma, paradharma is fraught with fear’. Wayne Dyer says we often know the right thing to do; the hard part is doing it. We often know what our talents are deep down, but we don’t heed their calling. We think success is all about money, name and fame. Ask those who have all of these if they think they are happy and successful. Chances are slim.

The best part of pursuing our svadharma is that it puts us on the spiritual path without even wanting to be there. Only through the field of one’s svadharma can one find what one seeks in life. It’s never too late to switch. For those who think they are too old, make time to pursue svadharmic activity but for those who think they are young enough, go for it, chase your dreams and believe in yourself even if others doubt you. Prove the doubters wrong, create a path for the rest to follow and most importantly, realize that great potential that lies dormant in each one of us. All of us have our talents but we need to uncover and fulfill them. Have the courage, follow your conviction. You will be rewarded, have faith in yourself and God. By doing this, we put ourselves on the Spiritual Highway!

Too much attention is paid to the movement of others rather than ourselves, all we need to do is to find our lane, find our speed and move on!

Source: http://www.vedantavision.com/

> Inspirational Quotes

“Work like you don't need money, Love like you've never been hurt, And dance like no one's watching.” – William Purkey

“We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.” – Jonathan Swift

“It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.” – Martin Luther King Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience

“Be who you are because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” – Dr. Seuss

“Doubt is part of all religion. All the religious thinkers were doubters.” – Isaac Bashevis Singer, New York Times, 1978

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.” – Buddha

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” – Jesus Christ

“Only dead fish go with the flow.”

“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up...”

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on.” – Robert Frost

“If you are falling off a cliff, try to fly because you've got nothing to lose.”

“Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible.” – Doug Larson

“Where you see difficulty, I see opportunity.” – Albert Einstein

“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

“We are all in the gutter. But some of us are looking at the stars.” – Oscar Wilde

“He who dies with the most toys is, nonetheless, still dead.”

“The sun is going to shine and the rain is going to fall. In the end, you will get burned & you will get wet. It's guaranteed. So dance in the puddles, and bathe in the sun, and through it all, smile. Everything’s going to be alright in the end.”

“Once the game is over the king and the pawn go back in the same box.”

“What lies behind us, and what lies before us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”

“If you hear a voice within you saying, "You are not a painter, "then by all means paint - and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent Van Gogh

“When I was a child, ladies and gentleman, I was a dreamer. I read comic books, and I was the hero in the movie. So every dream I ever dreamed has come true a hundred times...I learned very early in life that: Without a song, the day would never end; without a song, a man ain't got a friend; without a song, the road would never bend - without a song. So I keep singing my song.” – Elvis Presley

“If you are going through Hell, keep going!” – Sir Winston Churchill

“Hope the best, expect the worst, life's a play and we are unrehearsed.” – Dr. Seuss

> An Awakening

Guest Article by Vibha Kagzi

And then it hit me, with the softness of a thousand rose petals. The plain, simple truth stared me in the face. I believe there comes a preordained moment in our lives when we stop existing and start living. This was the veritable turning point in my life.

Vedanta (a spiritual tradition that is concerned with self-realization) stresses the discovery and pursuit of your ‘svadharma' or purpose in life. It advocates focusing on your journey in conjunction with your final destination so that you live each day to the fullest. I started re-evaluating my ‘svadharma' and ruminating over my existence became an obsession. It was a paradigm shift in my perfunctory existence – a unique consciousness crept in that compelled me to look inside me to find purpose and direction. Upon introspection I felt I had a lucid understanding of myself and could identify my core strengths, weaknesses, predilections, goals, characteristics etc. As I delved into my aspirations, I realized to my extreme horror, that my world was confined, restricted to my personal success. Vedanta emphasizes the need for a higher ideal or goal, to extend and reach out to the world, a goal that encompasses society as a whole. Indeed, my family and close friends are a huge component of my existence but viewed through a larger lens, my world was minute – a meager fragment.

The contradiction was baffling. Through the years, my focus had been on self-development, education and work experience. I was voraciously ambitious, hungry for success. But my definition of success was fairly generic - a great business, wealth, fame, proud parents and friends. Philanthropy figured on my list of ‘things to do', but was to be dealt with when I was 50 or so. To put it succinctly, I had configured a plan that endorsed my selfish existence and permitted me to live in oblivion for the next 25 years!

I felt an urgent pang to immediately reach out to other people and contribute in someway in enhancing someone else's life and in doing so ‘awaken the inner reality of my being'. Instead of dismissing community service as a “future project” I decided to start working on an endeavor immediately. Gandhiji points out, “Man should earnestly desire the well-being of all God's creation and pray that we may have the strength to do so. In desiring the well-being of all lies his own welfare; he who desires only his own or his community's welfare is selfish and it can never be well with him.”

> Swami Vivekananda (1863 – 1902)

Swami Vivekananda is one of the most dynamic spiritual personalities of the modern age, bringing ancient spirituality into the modern secular world and inspiring Easterner and Westerner with the powerful, timeless philosophy of ancient India.

When Swami Vivekananda, whose name was formerly Naren, was a young skeptical college student studying Western philosophy, he began asking Hindu spiritual teachers if they had seen God directly, because he wanted proof. They all dodged the question until he met Sri Ramakrishna and asked him, "Sir, have you seen God?" Sri Ramakrishna replied, "Yes, I have seen God. I have seen Him more tangibly than I see you. I have talked to Him more intimately than I am talking to you. But, my child, who wants to see God? People shed jugs of tears for money, wife, and children. But if they would weep for God for only one day they would surely see Him."

Sri Ramakrishna was the only one who claimed first hand God experience, and was able to grant this vision to others. Through the miraculous touch of Sri Ramakrishna, the skeptical young man was transformed into one of the most powerful proponents of spirituality in the modern age. Sri Ramakrishna imparted his dynamic spiritual experiences to Swami Vivekananda, who then introduced Hindu spirituality to the West. He participated in the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1893, and established the Ramakrishna Mission to spread the message of his Master. After Buddha and Shankara, Swami Vivekananda is considered to be the greatest spiritual leader of India, reinvoking the ancient spirituality of India to revive and invigorate his nation. By introducing Vedanta to the West, Swami Vivekananda enabled his own nation to realise the depth of the teachings of its ancient prophets which lay dormant and forgotten. He elevated every individual to the status of divinity and pronounced heartfelt ‘service to mankind’ as the most effective form of worship.

“Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within, by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship or psychic control, or philosophy by one or more, or all of these, and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines or dogmas, rituals, books, temples or forms, are but secondary details.” - Swami Vivekananda

“We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.” - Swami Vivekananda

Source: http://hinduacademy.org/

Here's the speech that catapulted Vivekananda to fame as he explains the gist of Hinduism at the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. He was asked to give this speech by J.H. Wright, a professor at Harvard University. He quotes a sloka from "Baghavad Gita," and he explains the concept of Universal acceptance of all religions. Vivekananda went on to give speeches across the United States in places such as New York, Memphis, Boston, San Francisco, St. Louis and Los Angeles.

> Hira Ratan Manek

About Hira Ratan Manek

Hira Ratan Manek was born on 12th of September 1937 in Bodhavad, India, and was raised in Calicut, Kerala, India, where he completed his Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Kerala. After graduation, he joined the family shipping and spice trading business and continued working there until he retired in 1992.

After he retired, he began to research and study the ancient practice of sun gazing in which he had been interested in since his childhood. This method was an old but forgotten method, which had been practiced, in the ancient times in many different parts of the world.

In 2002 Hira Ratan Manek gave over 136 lectures in USA and has been invited by government agencies of many countries to help them understand this process at which point he established his International Headquarters in Orlando, Florida. In 2003 HRM gave over 147 lectures in US, Canada, Caribbean and UK and nearly 400 newspapers all around the world have published articles on him.

I met with Hira on two separate occasions in 2007 and 2008, he stayed at my house twice to give lectures at temples in Toronto. What's astonishing is how energetic this man is from morning to night. It amazed me to see how much enthusiasm he has at the end of the day after giving five lectures.

His website is: SolarHealing.com

This is a very fascinating two part video of the complete solar gazing process described by Hira:

Part 1:


Part 2: