One way to approach the Gita

Assuming you have a bit of a bigger picture understanding of yoga philosophy it may help to select a single page, randomly, or by looking at the chapter headers, searching for a key phrase that piques your interest. I chose as example the section “Way to Brahman”.  Read slowly, look up one or two key words you don’t know, remain focussed on the one page. Apply simple reasoning, and don’t be phased by the appearance of the text that is by comparison more Shakespearean than Twitter.

If the infinite way of being, or the path to ongoing spiritual communion, would lead to knowing God, and knowing that Brahman in the Gita can be an aspect of the Godhead, then one is simply to sit in meditation, focus on the heart center, and feel or express a silent or sounded OM. Thus freedom is attained. This is a liberation self where wisdom triumphs over ignorance, the light of truth that dispels the veils of the unreal.

In my consideration whether one is referencing Vedanta commentators or reading varying meanings into what Brahman exactly is there is a basic exploration of understanding self as a possible non-dual expression of soul (Atman) with Brahman as its essence.  The quest of yoga is nor scholarly nor physical practice nor in the realm of religion, but a personal quest to reveal, to oneself, the eternal light of all that is – God within.

ॐ
OM Blessings
In Music & Yoga, Cape Town
Johann

Related Chakra Blogs

●  Patanjali’s Sage Wisdom
●  OM-NIPOTENCE Chant & Divine Essence

This brief ode is from the preface of renowned 20th centuary yoga pioneer B.K.S. Iyengar’s seminal book Light on Yoga (published 1967).

In a deft stroke he honours almost the entire yoga system via thanking Patanjali for his vital contribution to clarify the yoga with his Sutras. He then proceeds to make it very clear where Hatha Yoga (the whole yoga) comes from and where it aims at: yoga is from Divine Inspiration that flowed through Shiva who instructed the art of yoga so that man can attain union with the Godhead. Raja yoga is the highest yoga, which in Sanskrit texts refers to the goal of yoga as samadhi, meditative consciousness where the mind becomes still, totally aware of the present moment. It is not a method or “style’.

Should one be that way inclined this suggests a deeper meaning this may suggest there is more, a greater yoga that goes beyond yoga, that of union with the godhead.

Yoga is as simple as that. What becomes complicated are the practices outlined in the rest of the Mr Iyengar’s (and most yoga books) where the practice of asana and other practices easily dominate the hidden meaning of yoga. This is often where the greater plot is lost, the practioner dazzled by the techniques, mistakes its practice for the light of yoga, or zealously accumulates knowledge to attain what is really a metaphysical, philosophically liberated state of being. It is easy to even forget why yoga is practiced in the first place – to overcome the lust of power or siddhis (special abilities), not to be delayed or derailed by them.

Similarly countless prospective students are put of by the massive amount of techniques the indeed appears an unsurmountable task for most except the most arduous.

Sage advice by Patanjali

Return, again and again to the wisdom the sage.
Return again and again to the light that inspired Patanjali.
Return again and again to the light beyond yoga:
give praise to Shiva, and OM to the Godhead.

ॐ
OM Blessings
In Music & Yoga, Cape Town
Johann

Related Chakra Blogs

●  God & the Timeless Truth of the Bhagavad Gita
●  OM-NIPOTENCE Chant & Divine Essence

PS:
I just found this related commentary on a blog post by someone names “A modern spiritualist”:
https://www.quora.com/If-Shiva-is-God-then-why-is-Krishna-considered-as-the-Godhead-What-is-difference-between-a-Godhead-and-a-godThere is no difference between Krishna and Shiva.
When Krishna meditates that state is called Shiva and When Shiva takes action that action is Krishna
If people want to separate the two they can read scriptures and hymns and passages.
But in reality they are one.
You can keep on hunting for terms God, Godhead, demi god and what not God.
But do you think it would really matter to Divinity?
Already there are problems in addressing Divinity as Hindu’s Bhagwan, Muslim’s Allah, Christian’s God… why complicate it further?
Best is close your eyes and meditate … You will find no difference between you and God.
Then GOD and GODHEAD will all vanish.

OM Potency 

OM is the sound made in Yoga to connect with the non-duality of Everything. In a universe of consciousness it represents all expressions of the Life Fore. Its totality is the Godhead. When OM is sounded in the body, in awareness and appreciation of All That Is, the practitioner becomes one with all form and formlessness, in time and eternity.

Your Soul Expression 

The body is a material manifestation of the Life Force.
Your life is an incarnation of your individual soul.
To know this soul is to know your Divine Essence.
This is your potency as a human being – body, mind and spirit.

Do you know your soul purpose in this life?
Do you know ho to connect with it, in your body, and in your life?

Complete focus of the moment, in the moment, begins to reveal the potency of OM.

OM Divine Essence Mix

Connect to who you are with the OM mantra practice. Give honour to All that Is:
“OM Salutations to the Supreme Being, OM Celebrations to All that Is, OM to Your Divine Essence.”

The chant heard in my production is from a Tibetan Mantra to invoke the Mother of Purified Wisdom, the Sherab Chamma. She is also known as Satrig Ersang, a Sacred Name for the Divine Mother of kindness and compassion. It is a heart mantra.

The original Sherab Chamma chant is of ancient root race origin, timeless, old as the the fabric of the Eternal… let the sounds of the track awaken your bodymind to OM-potency.

Notes on the music & sound 

Soothing and tranquil yoga, meditation and spa music is the general norm in the West. Tibetan chant music is often very clangy and noisy, perhaps unusual or strange in context of yoga its Indian cultural heritages. OM-nipotence connects with world music genre, and Tibet, considered by some as the crown chakra of the world. I recorded the syllables of the chant in an American Indian style, not the traditional melody. Shamanic. Mystical.

OM Light of Truth

Satrig Ersang, the Mother of Purified Wisdom, the Sherab Chamma, is thought of as one of the four aspects of the Divine Godhead. It is a feminine Goddess manifestation of the Undifferentiated Whole. She leads the male deities in their expression of Light/Truth, Procreation, Teaching, and inspiring Creativity and Wisdom. A vital energy balance for personal, global and cosmic harmony.

Wishing all awesome OM-ness,
a deep, joyous experience of the Life Force.
Johann Kotze,
Yours in Yoga,
Cape Town

Related Chakra Blogs 

●  Chakra Mantra to Activate Divine Essence
●  The Seven Chakra Magnificent Essence of Yoga
●  Healing the Chakras (Coming soon)
●  Chakra Workshops Cape Town (Coming soon)

Love. Love of all things. The “higher”path of yoga is to unite body and mind with spirit. Enlightenment is letting go… to be present in the moment, and transcend the ignorance, or illusion, of ordinary reality, by virtue of the light of consciousness. Yoga specifically instructs body-mind-spirit integration as a requirement-gateway to one-ness with the Godhead, the Supreme Being. Love of every aspect of everything. Love. Compassion – passion – for self and others.

Only you can love yourself in this way. Others may help and support you to find your self love, but no one thing can “save you” or “fix you, or your life”. No religion, nor yoga, for that matter, automatically has a functional spiritual connection just because it mentions spirituality in its scriptures and at its practice. Uncovering true self in surrender to God-consciousness, is an of doing, activation. To make an inner connection to the eternal divine is capable of producing an “inner peace that passeth all understanding of the word”.  A kind of healing happens inside ourselves, when the sum of the parts are connected and made whole, connected to the One God that is All. Realising a spiritually disconnected ego self is cut off from universal love-consciousness is one way to understand enlightenment.

Any healing path leads towards some form of such one-ness. A high and lofty ideal, involving deeper layers of being, in the world. Real life integration and connection of such awareness and consciousness is bound to bring challenges and perhaps outright pain to our fixed ideas. Consciousness is an activation, a willful surrender of self-will.

When the ego dies, when there is only self that remains, there is nothing more, or less, than one-ness with the Godhead, the Consciousness of all that is. Many scriptures tells us that the love of God has no bounds, that it is unconditional love. And that we have to love the whole, in ourselves, and around us. The journey to know love and God has to be within, and love of the self, unconditional. Love begins with self-love. Healing is an inner journey.

The yoga way

I made a bumper sticker for Valentine’s day this year to say that, to find true, unconditional love of yourself there has to be an inner connection to the Divine within. An inner awakening process to becoming conscious, and wake up to a more beautiful reality. To free yourself from the mental and physical chains that bind. This is the greater meaning of yoga, to help us activate our Light Body, to love ourselves. Enlightenment may be more simple than we think – we simply have to do it. Then, even if temporarily, the gravity of the situation disappears illusions of the world drop away, the body-mind is transformed by spirit. Only light remains.

Peace and Godspeed blessings!
Johann, Cape Town Yoga,
14 April, 2015.

ॐ

EnjoY the expansive and inspiring frequencies of three of my music albums for deep meditation, restorative yoga and creativity:

●  Yoga Meditation Music

●  Consciousness Music 3 hour+ Youtube Playlist