Bhaja Govindam by Sadhguru

Adi Shankara, when he saw a group of scholars in Varanasi debating the finer points of Panini's grammar, admonished them for wasting their time on meaningless worldly pursuit. He sang the opening verse and the first 12 verses of the Bhaja Govindam to them. His disciples later added another 14 verses addressing other unnecessary distractions that people tend to get caught up in and also teaching what is important if one seeks mukti (realisation).

Sadhguru Jaggi includes three of the verses in some of his meditation cycles. He considers understanding of these principles to be critical in being able to cross the internal barrier and connecting with the divinity within. Having raised their receptivity during the previous stages of their meditation, the last stage is to meditate upon the meaning of these verses. Daily repetition of these meditation cycles helps to reinforce their internalization.

Do animals have souls?

The monotheistic religions are generally quite firm about humans being special and different from other beings. The belief is that humans are made in the image of God and only humans have souls. Therefore only humans have an afterlife which can be in heaven or hell. Some Christians believe there's a space called purgatory where lesser sinners suffer for a while until they qualify to enter heaven. 

But it looks like all three faiths have not taken into account one common theme in their scripture - the forbidden fruit and the banishment from Paradise. It is only humans who disobeyed, ate the forbidden fruit and were banished. Presumably, all the other beings are still in Paradise. If that is true, how can humans be the special ones?

The Shivalingam

The Shivalingam is not merely a religious symbol. It is a deeply scientific and metaphysical representation of the universe's generative process. From the mathematical ellipse to the universal sine wave, from geometric form to spiritual energy, it stands as the perfect icon of manifestation - where the potential becomes real, and where the infinite takes shape.

The lingam is an ellipsoid, mathematically defined by its three semi-axes:

a: the radius along the x-axis
b: the radius along the y-axis
c: the radius along the z-axis

When these radii are all equal, we get a sphere, cross sectionally, a circle. 
When two of these radii are zero, the ellipsoid reduces into a one-dimensional line
When all the radii are zero, the ellipsoid collapses into a singularity - a dimensionless point.

Within You Without You

George Harrison's discovery of the sitar and Indian music was apparently accidental. He saw a sitar lying around in the studio when they were recording Norwegian Wood for the album Rubber Soul. In search of an exotic sound, he picked of the sitar, fiddled around with it and then delivered the now well known sound for the song. And created a new musical genre - raga rock!

We who have learned better would know that there are no accidents. There is a pervasive intelligence guiding everything that happens. Harrison was a seeker. He was guided to his answers through a cheap prop sitar lying around in his recording studio.

Determined to learn the instrument properly, he managed to get an audience with the maestro Ravi Shankar, who agreed to teach him. So off he went to Bombay (now Mumbai) where he spent 6 weeks under Ravi's tutelage. This was even before the Beatles had met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a meeting which brought all of them to Rishikesh one year later.

The Prana Body

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The upanishads teach us that we are made up of five layers of body. In this Page, I have touched on the role of the Body of Breath. If you want to know more about the five layers, read this Page.

The two body layers that are part of this material realm are the Physical Body which eats and procreates, and the Mental Body which perceives and processes information from the exterior and instructs the physical body on how to respond.

The two body layers that are from another realm are the Bliss Body which is the innermost experiential layer and which is enveloped in an Awareness Body, in Sanskrit called vignjana. Since we are unable to discern between these two layers, human language has a single common term for this body - the spirit, or soul or Astral Body.