Never think, "I am weak".
Never say, "I cannot".
Never feel, "I am limited".

You have the infinite power of the universe within you; and that can be harnessed through a loving heart, steadfast faith and a positive outlook. Your imagination is your only limit. So, never think otherwise.

@God_is_here_and_now

🌿 आनृशंस्यं परो धर्मः क्षमा च परमं बलं। आत्मज्ञानं परं ज्ञानं न सत्याद् विद्यते परं॥

Non-violence towards everyone is the supreme righteousness and forgiveness is the supreme strength. Knowledge of Self [Atman] is the ultimate knowledge and no other virtue is superior to truthfulness.

~From: Mahabharat, Shanti Parva

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

[Not thinking evil for anybody from our mind, speech and body, is the most righteous, for it purifies one's mind in the best possible way. Forgiveness is the true strength because it occurs when being kind and compassionate becomes important than ego's tendency to hold grude and blame. It makes one heart bigger and more accepting and embracing to the existence as a whole. Knowledge of Self or Atman is the ultimate knowledge because once we gain it, we gain everything, nothing else remains to be attained. Truth is the greatest virtue because it is the foundation of all other virtues. All good qualities come to a truthful person automatically.]

🌷@HinduismAsItIs🌷
🌼@SpiritualGroup🌼

A child may run around, visit different places in order to play and seek fun throughout the day; but later in the evening he must return home, and embrace his mother.

Your children too, O Lord, are going around, playing in the world, seeking fulfillment. And they too eventually will return to their true "home", to you - as true fulfillment lies only at your feet.

@devotee_of_you

Let go and be at peace.
Or get dragged and suffer.
Decision is entirely yours.

@God_is_here_and_now

🌿🌸Holi and its Significance🌸🌿
🪔Explained by: Swami Sivananda🪔

Holi begins about ten days before the full moon of the month Phalgun [February-March], but is usually only observed for the last three or four days, terminating with the full moon. This is the spring festival of the Hindus. In the spring season all the trees are filled with sweet-smelling flowers. They all proclaim the glory and everlasting beauty of God. They inspire you with hope, joy and a new life, and stir you on to find out the creator and the Indweller, who is hiding Himself in these forms.

Holi is celebrated as Kamadahana in South India, the day on which Kamadeva was burnt by Lord Shiva. There is this famous legend of the demon Holika is Bhakta Prahlad’s devotion to Lord Narayana, and his subsequent escape from death at the hands of Holika. Prahlad’s father, Hiranyakashipu, punished him in a variety of ways to change his devotional mind and make him worldly-minded. He failed in his attempts. At last he ordered his sister, Holika, who had a boon to remain unburnt even in fire, to take Prahlad on her lap and enter into the blazing flames. Holika did so. She got burnt and vanished, but Prahlad remained untouched and laughing. He was not affected by the fire on account of the Grace of Lord Narayana. This same scene is enacted every year to remind people that those who love God shall be saved, and they that torture the devotee of God shall be reduced to ashes.

In North India, people play joyfully with coloured water. The uncle sprinkles coloured water on his nephew. The niece applies coloured powder on her aunt’s face. Brothers and sisters and cousins play with one another. Huge bundles of wood are gathered and burnt at night. People stand in the streets and sprinkle coloured water on any man who passes by, be he a rich man or an officer. There is no restriction on this day.

Festivals like Holi have their own spiritual value. Apart from the various amusements, they create faith in God if properly observed. Hindu festivals always have a spiritual significance. They wean man away from sensual pleasures and take him gradually to the spiritual path and divine communion. People perform havan and offer the new grains that are harvested to the gods before using them. There should be worship of God, religious gatherings and Kirtan of the Lord’s Names on such occasions, not merely the sprinkling of coloured water and lighting of bonfires. Abundant charity should be done to the poor. Then only can Holi be said to have been properly celebrated. The devotees of the Lord should remember the delightful pastimes of the Lord on such happy occasions.

The religious element in the Holi festival consists of worship of Sri Krishna. An image of Sri Krishna as a baby is placed in a little swing-cradle and decorated with flowers and painted with coloured powders. The pure, innocent frolics of little Krishna with the merry milkmaids [Gopis] of Vrindavan are commemorated. Devotees chant the Name of Krishna and sing Holi-songs relating to the frolics of little Krishna with the Gopis.
The social element during Holi is the uniting or “embracing” of the great and the small, of the rich and the poor. It is also the uniting of equals.

Holi also means “sacrifice”. Burn all the impurities of the mind, such as egoism, vanity and lust, through the fire of devotion and knowledge. Ignite cosmic love, mercy, generosity, selflessness, truthfulness and purity through the fire of Yogic practice. This is the real spirit of Holi. Rise from the mire of stupidity and absurdity and dive deep into the ocean of divinity. The call of Holi is to always keep ablaze the light of God-love shining in your heart. Inner illumination is the real Holi. The spring season is the manifestation of the Lord, according to the Bhagavad Gita. Holi is said there to be His heart.

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

@HinduismAsItIs wishes a very auspicious and cheerful Holi to you and your loved ones. May the Lord shower upon us the colors of love, happiness, knowledge and wisdom. 🙏😇

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

🌷@HinduismAsItIs🌷
🌼@SpiritualGroup🌼

Question: When the grace of Guru and God is there, why is the mind still not controlled?

Swami Sivananda: Only when you do Purushartha [determined effort and pursuit], the grace will come. A professor will not answer the questions for you and make you pass. The Gita says, "Uddharet Atmanatmanam". One should raise oneself. Grace only helps one to raise oneself. Everybody should work out his own salvation. What is grace then? If an aspirant gets letters from his preceptor, clearing his doubts, that is grace. If an aspirant comes here, takes Ganges bath and hears the lectures here, that is grace. Many people are thirsting, even croropathis are thirsting to come and bathe in the Ganges, but all do not get a chance. If good books are available for Svadhyaya [study], it is grace. If one enjoys good health for doing Sadhana, that is grace. If God so wishes, He can give Mukti to the whole world in an instant; but He does not do so. Grace descends only when there is Purushartha.

🌷@HinduismAsItIs🌷
🌼@SpiritualGroup🌼

Meditation is simply falling asleep, consciously. It has both, the awareness of the wakefulness and the stillness of the sleep, simultaneously. Go deeper, within, to the root of your thoughts and you reach the stillness of sleep. But you must reach it in the full vigour of awareness. If you can be free from all thoughts [perceptions, ideas, feelings] and yet aware, then that's it, you've made it! Believe it or not, this alone is the essence of whole spirituality.

@God_is_here_and_now

The Self [Atman] is beyond concept [Nirvikalpa] and hence the Self is where imagination fails. As Self cannot be found by thoughts, one cannot think about it. The Self is not visible and not felt. It has no form and no color. Then how to "know" that which has no quality? If you cultivate a habit, you acquire it. If you form a habit of thinking, "The Self knows all, but none knows the Self," then you attain Truth. Seek the company of the holy. Live in this world of five elements with awareness. The five elements [space, air, fire, water and earth] are dictating to you that you should slowly separate that elemental world from yourself with Knowledge. This means that the world should be left aside. When I am not the body, then how can this elemental world be mine? You can have either God or the world.

Before the Mahabharata war, Lord Krishna said to the Kauravas, "I am on one side, my army will be on the other. Take whichever you want." The Kauravas took the army, which means that they took the world, and the Pandavas took God on their side. Lord Krishna said, "I am without quality, and without shape, and I shall hold no weapon in my hand." The elemental world should be set aside with the help of Knowledge. The ego, or "Aham," should be allowed to ebb away, yet it does not subside. Those people to whom no good comes, despite listening continuously to the Jnani, are considered as fallen.

If one has understood that the body is of a low caste, yet continues on only with body-consciousness, know that he is a but dead body, a corpse. Consider them as fallen if they have heard words of wisdom, yet feel no devotion. Ego should ebb away, yet it does not vanish, this condition is called the state of the jiva. The notions of "I" and "mine" are the reason that one has become a jiva. These concepts should be removed. Absolute Reality is what it is. The feeling of "I" should vanish, yet it does not leave. "Aham" ["I"] is in the form of a feeling of ignorance. The scriptures have enunciated many methods for effacing the ego. "Aham" is the most crooked of letters in Sanskrit. One who has seen the death of his own ego is very fortunate. "I saw my death with my own eyes, the ritual was indeed without a parallel," says Saint Tukaram.

~Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj
•From: Amrut Laya, Lecture 10

🌷@HinduismAsItIs🌷
🌼@SpiritualGroup🌼

CONSEQUENCE OF DAMAGING THE HOLY TEMPLE

🌿Let them beware who transplant [damage] A Linga at a Shrine established; Even before the transplant [damage] is completed, The Kingdom will to disaster fall; And foul leprosy will torture him. Thus did He declare, Nandi, the Divine Protector.

Temples are monuments that require to be preserved intact. Let not a linga that has been established be removed from its original site. Dire harm will fall on the culprit.

DANGERS OF DESTRUCTION TO THE TEMPLE

🌿 As they move away, even a single stone from temple wall, that shall spell the Crowned King’s ruin; Be he a sage; be he one learned in Vedas, Sure the crisis; certain the ruin; — So Ordained the Lord.

DANGERS OF SKIPPING PUJA PERFORMANCE

🌿Rains fail; epidemics spread; The mighty king his prowess loses; All this sure happens, If worship in Lord’s temples falters, —The Lord who spurned the very God of Death.

Let the pujas in the temples be faithfully continued. If worship in Siva’s temple falters, the ruler will be held responsible for the dire consequences that follow. He loses his power; rains fail in the land, epidemics ravage it, and thefts and crimes abound.

🌿When in Siva’s temple worship ceases, Harm befalls the ruler; Scanty become the rains; Theft and robbery abound in the land, Thus did my Holy Nandi declare.

~Saint Tirumular
•Tirumantiram, Tantra 2, Verses 515-518

🌷@HinduismAsItIs🌷
🌼@SpiritualGroup🌼

MUST WATCH❗️

🪔Navaratri Special🪔

🌿Mahishasura Mardini Stotram🌿

🌼Originally Composed by: Adi Shankaracharya🌼

•Duration - 15:14 mins

🌷@HinduismAsItIs🌷
🌼@SpiritualGroup🌼

https://youtu.be/442ewPgXHQ0