Diksha Quotes

Spiritual aspiration, hunger for God, is the most important blessing one can have. Spiritual hunger leads to sincere sadhana, and sincere sadhana leads to a progressive spiritual life. By regular repetition of the diksha mantra, our mind becomes more and more stable and a gradual transformation of consciousness unfolds. Japa is the foundation. Keep the current of Divine Remembrance flowing at all times. There is a river of rapturous bliss ever flowing just underneath our fluctuating thoughts. Sadhana allows us to feel, hear, see and bathe in this celestial stream. It flows in the center of our spine. It flows in the center of our being. It flows from the infinite ocean of satchitananda from which we come, in which we live and into which we will eventually return. The faint intuitive fragrance of this stream is love, happiness, joy and satisfaction. To drink from it directly is mind-blowing ecstasy. To drown in it is immortality, transcending the limitations of time, space and form in the Eternal One: the One we call Kali, the One we call Ramakrishna.

She was a daughter, a sister, and then a wife. But now her parents were dead—did that make her an orphan? Certainly not. Was there a specific age, she wondered, old enough, after which you were not considered an orphan if your parents died? Eighteen perhaps. And then her husband died—so she was a widow. But was there a certain age, young enough, that if you lost your husband you did not have to be called a widow? If a young childless woman lost her husband tragically when she was only twenty-five—or even thirty-seven, like Mrs. Ray had been—it felt unfair to burden her with the label of widow for the rest of her life. And Mrs. Ray certainly did not feel like a widow, even though she was reminded that she was one nearly every day in Mayur Palli.

The law of demand and supply reaches into subtler realms than I had supposed.” Ananta spoke with a spiritual enthusiasm never before noticeable. “I understand for the first time your indifference to the vaults and vulgar accumulations of the world.” Late as it was, my brother insisted that he receive diksha into kriya yoga. The ‘guru’ Mukunda had to shoulder the responsibility of two unsought disciples in one day.

In India kundalini awakening is called initiation or, in Sanskrit, diksha, which means, etymologically, “to cut.” There is profound significance to this term, for yogic texts speak about this initiation as the means for an individual to sever, to cut, the three impurities that are said to bind each human being. The first impurity, known as anava mala, is also considered the foremost: our sense of separation from God. It is this impurity that is cut with the awakening itself—as I had experienced. The second mala, mayiya mala, involves our sense of separation from each other and from other forms in the universe, something I recognized experiencing as well. In the week after my awakening, I became aware that I was feeling a warm connection to the people I ran into at school, both my colleagues and students. Then one day something extraordinary happened in an otherwise insignificant interaction with a total stranger. I was at the grocery store, buying food for my evening meal, when I became aware that I also felt a bond with the clerk who was ringing up my purchases.

Mr. Jha was learning that in this neighborhood, your guard was a direct representation of how much was worth guarding in your home. Guards with guns meant bricks of gold somewhere in the house. Maybe he would also get a guard with a gun, Mr. Jha thought; it would be cheaper than buying bricks of gold.

I Am Happy I Am Healthy I Am Rich I Am Successful

Even more objectionable to them: Bhaktisiddhanta initiated non-brahmins as his disciples. Only men born in Brahmin families, conservatives argued, qualified for initiation. Lower castes had never been allowed to take part in the diksha ceremony. The prohibition was purely political, since nothing in India's scriptures supported such discrimination, but it had kept caste Brahmins in power for generations. Bhaktisiddhanta threatened their commercial livelihood. Hostility against Bhaktisiddhanta increased when he added empowerment of women to his list of outrages. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught that all souls were prakriti, or female in relation to God. For Bhaktisiddhanta, this meant gender was not a consideration on the path of devotion.

We have a six-CD changer in the car, Bindu. Rush hour is no longer a problem.

She is a fairytale walking alone.

The right one will count stars with you, not days.

It should be possible, Mr. Jha thought, to have a small portable air-conditioned Plexiglas cubicle built to walk around in.

How come Americans get called expats but if we move to America, we’re called immigrants?” Mrs. Jha asked.

A good spouse is someone with whom you can successfully run a boring nonprofit organization. Don’t you think? Most things fade. But you need to find someone you can do the boring things with.

Minal told her to always change her physical state when she needed to change her emotional state—“Stand if you’re sitting, sit if you’re standing, squat if you need to, do a push-up, a jumping jack, anything