Author: yoga shobha

Letting Go of Perfectionism and Physical Alignment while Practicing Asana

Letting Go of Perfectionism and Physical Alignment while Practicing Asana

Jun 17, 2018 | , |

Perfectionism Perfection is a good quality; it is an ideal that gives us something to aspire towards. The Latin root of the word is perfacer, to bring to completion. So, to perfect something is to bring it to its state of completion or full development. Letting go is part of the perfection of yoga. We can observe how nature moves towards perfection, towards creating an ideal. But what that ideal is, is beyond our comprehension. Generally, we have our own individual intellectual ideas of perfection. These ideals are formed in our minds due to influences from our parents or...

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White Buffalo Calf Woman Part 2

White Buffalo Calf Woman Part 2

Jun 4, 2018 | , |

continued… (Part 2 of 2. Click here to read part 1.) Amma has said, “If you protect Nature, Nature will protect you.” This is Black Elk’s comment about the snakes consuming the man’s bones; Black Elk emphasized that this should not only be taken as an event in time, but also as an eternal truth. “Any man,” he said, “who is attached to the senses and to the things of this world, is one who lives in ignorance and is being consumed by the snakes which represent his own passion.” There is a common misconception from outsiders when they...

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White Buffalo Calf Woman Part 1

White Buffalo Calf Woman Part 1

May 27, 2018 | , |

Before I came to Amma, I was studying and practicing the spiritual beliefs and rituals of my ancestral heritage, the Indigenous Americans—the original Americans: Native Americans. Amma has said, “There are still spiritual Masters among the Native American people.” Even though I had met Amma in 1988 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, it took me a few years to come to Her as a disciple. What sealed the deal for me was the suffering of my people, my race. I could not bear to see the suffering and injustices that the Native American people in Mexico, USA, Canada and...

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Amma’s Message for the First ‪International Day of Yoga (IDY)

Amma’s Message for the First ‪International Day of Yoga (IDY)

Mar 25, 2018 | , , |

Today is the International Day of Yoga. Previously, people did not need to have a special day for performing yoga because yoga was part and parcel of their lives. Unfortunately, now we need a special day to remind us to perform yoga, just as we need a day to remember our mother and father. In the olden days, people would wake up in the morning, bow down to mother Earth, and then, facing the sun, chant prayers and perform Surya Namaskarah.  Today, in many countries, six or seven people out of ten have vitamin D deficiency from lack of...

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‘Diksha’ – Mantras MA and AUM as Revealed to Me

‘Diksha’ – Mantras MA and AUM as Revealed to Me

Jan 19, 2018 | , |

‘Diksha’ – Mantras MA and AUM as Revealed to me The word is derived from the Sanskrit root dā (“to give”) plus kṣi (“to destroy”) or alternately from the verb root dīkṣ (“to consecrate”).  When the mind of the guru and the disciple become one, then we say that the disciple has been initiated by the guru. Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense it can also signify a transformation in which the person is ‘reborn’ into a...

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