The first level of knowledge is when you become a sadhaka, a seeker, a seeker after Truth. Somehow, you already know that you don’t know—that’s already significant. You are seeking for the Truth, seeking to know. But what are you seeking? There is sometimes darkness and sometimes light, and often, confusion when we embark on the inner seeking journey. It’s not a seeking outside. And you don’t need to come to the Ashram and do a Training Course if you can follow this guideline.

Sivananda Yoga Farm Podcast

Four Qualifications of an Aspirant

Life struggles, stress, and disease part 2 with Swami Sita

Life struggles, Stress and Disease with Swami Sitaramananda

Synthesis of Yoga - Combining the 4 paths with Swami Dharmananda

We have said how discrimination is the most important qualification to have, i.e., to know the difference between the Self and not-Self. The problem is that we get confused between the Self and the not-Self. In fact, the association of the Atman (the true Self) with the mind makes us think that we are the mind. Whatever the mind thinks, you think you are. This is a big problem, the biggest problem. That is why discrimination is the most important qualification.

Six Virtues of a Spiritual Seeker

What is Karma Yoga according to the Bhagavad Gita with Swami Jnaneswariananda

Lives of Saints with Swamini Svatmavidyananda

Lessons on Selflessness with Fred Luskin

Love is Service with Swami Ramananda

Unity in Diversity with Swami Sita

What is Karma Yoga with Swami Sita

Holding Your Life for the Service of Others with Swami Sita

I was a mess because of it, a real mess. My closest friend in the world, at that time, betrayed me; I had no skills for how to handle that betrayal and how to suffer that kind of loss. I had no knowledge of how to move ahead in life, and I became bitter and mistrustful. I dimmed my sense of hopefulness and appreciation of my life. I spent a couple of years in inactive unhappiness because I was betrayed and abandoned and never saw it coming. I never saw it coming; I had no clue on God's earth, that this human being could ever, do this to me. But it was during this period, that I was so unsettled by things, that I learned a couple of things. One, I was an emotional mess. That's good to know, if you are one. It saves you from inflicting harm upon yourself and other people unconsciously. At least, you gain a little more conscious awareness of how absolutely annoying and ridiculous you are. So, that was one advantage of the experience of realizing that I was a mess.   Two, I learned that there are experiences that many of us have, that we can't get over. They become part of our personality for a while. Like, I'm Fred, the guy who was betrayed; that’s how I started to define myself. That's how I started to orient myself. I developed a victim consciousness and I came to recognize that healing that victim consciousness is a choice; it can be an effective choice if you don't want responsibility for your life, and it gives you a place to avoid having to look too much at your own behavior. That doesn't mean that victim consciousness is terrible the whole time. One of the things that I've learned is: victim consciousness is really good for a period of time. It's a wonderful, useful, helpful tool of safe harbor. You don't have to look too carefully at you and your coping abilities; you can look at what happened and blame it on that. That's a really essential kind of safety net that is obviously wired into us as a species. So we don't have to take on, in full force, our own failures to cope, no matter what it is.

Learning to Forgive with Fred Luskin

To practice yoga is to feel that we are progressing It’s not nice to feel stuck in life. If you feel that things are not moving and you are stagnant, the best way is to practice. Go back to your yoga mat, to your meditation cushion, to your diary, to your journal and try to renew your practice. What does it mean to practice? What to practice? And how do you develop yourself and not feel stuck? Conscious practice is the key The key is to be conscious in whatever you do. Self development has to come consciously. We call it yoga, we call it sadhana. Sadhana is a conscious practice. This is not something you do without thinking. Because the goal of all practices is to transform and renew yourself. Transform what? Transform consciousness. Transform the way you feel about yourself and about the world. You are growing towards physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

Journey of Self Development

So, it can happen any time the fear and the anxiety, fear, when you have something unfamiliar, when a situation is unfamiliar. Normally, you have a routine, you go to work, everything is orderly. Now everything changes your routine change. So then already that creates a certain kind of anxiety and then your imagination and when the mind is a very emotional have a lots of imagination. Yeah, how big the imagination in the mind. Very, very big. Yeah. So, the moment something you make or something unfamiliar, and the mind start to create different scenario and different imagination, yeah, and then you believe in it, because you believe in the mind.

Satsang on Fear and Anxiety with Swami Sita

Talks and lectures on varying topics about Yoga and Yoga Life including finding balance and harmony, the power of positive thinking, non-violent communication and relationships, and understanding how the mind works and functions.

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Sivananda Yoga Farm Podcast

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