Meditation : Elixir of Life

French scientist Luc Montagnier, the 2008 Nobel prize winner (medicine) for discovery of the HIV virus, has shown that it is possible to replicate and transfer DNA strands from one test tube to another by passing a low level electromagnetic (EM) radiation of 7Hz through them.Body is repaired, rejuvenated and kept healthy by production and replication of good DNA.

Also, in deep meditation, the brain produces EM waves called theta and alpha waves ranging from 4-12 Hz but mostly in the range of 7-8 Hz. Possibly, deep and regular meditation helps in rejuvenation of the body by helping replicate good DNA. Patanjali Yoga says: "By sanyam or deep meditation on the elements, a yogi gets a perfect body of beauty, grace, strength and hardness of a thunderbolt". Meditation is like an elixir of life.

Deep meditation is basically focussing the mind on a single thought for a long time. Patanjali describes it as sanyam or a combination of contemplation, meditation and samadhi and when all these three things are achieved, it's complete mastery.

More scientific studies have shown the direct effect of meditation on DNA and gene expression, that meditation helps in delaying the process of ageing by increasing telomerase activity. Telomerase is an enzyme which repairs the DNA. Chromosomes have caps of repetitive DNA called telomeres at their ends. Every time cells divide, their telomeres shorten, which eventually prompt them to stop dividing and die. This results in the ageing process. However, telomerase enzyme stops the shortening and meditation helps in increasing the activity of this enzyme.

Another Harvard University study showed that meditation directly affects genes by switching them on and off to combat the bad effects of free radicals which are produced when we are emotionally and physically stressed.

Similarly, during the dreaming process the brain produces 4-7 Hz theta waves. Sleep and dream research has shown that deep sleep and dreaming is necessary for our well-being and helps us in consolidating our daytime memories and in removing some of the frivolous ones. However, it is quite possible that besides the memory consolidation, 4-7 Hz EM waves may also help in rejuvenating the body and mind by enhancing the replication of DNA.

The DNA teleportation experiment also showed that DNA template was teleported from its dilute solution in a test tube to another one containing only water; that low level radiation of 7 Hz produced a memory in water which matched the DNA molecule. Water with its unique weak hydrogen bond capability can form almost infinite number of structures and it seems the low level radiation simply helped in this process.

The ability of water to form "memory structures" under external influence could also be the basis of achaman, a ritual of sipping water after reciting Vedic mantras that is believed to have therapeutic effect on its practitioner. Chanting creates a "memory structure" in water, somewhat like homoeopathic medicine where high potencies don't have original medicine in it but the "memory structure" of the medicine persists in water.

Ref: http://www.damazen.com/blog/

http://mrgrim2dareapa.blogspot.com/2009/09/audio-meditation.html

Return to Innocence

Live from the heart; with an open heart, you can feel things as they are without the burden of past conditioning, writes Paula Horan

Happiness is something we all unconsciously seek and more so when times get tough. Ironically, I have discovered, after many years of trial and error, that happiness is not the ideal objective. Life is fraught with ups and downs, even in the best of times. There will always be periods of happiness and periods of pain, comfort and discomfort. Thus the equanimity which fosters contentment is perhaps a wiser aspiration which when pursued, requires us to wake up to who we are, minus the veil of ego.

It is eminently more practical, to get in touch with and anchor ones attention with the true self — the awareness within us which is unaffected by life's ups and downs — than to try and "fix" the mind and make it happy. Fixes are always only temporary. It behoves us to discover the 'beingness' that we are, which rests in a perfect state of equanimity, no matter what outer circumstances may be; whether they are good or bad.

Shed your ego

It is ultimately who we are, minus ego identification. This presence is always with us, for it is our essential nature, yet while we are identified with a busy mind, we fail to notice it. A certain shedding of mental burdens has to happen so that it can be felt and directly experienced. The most direct way to do this is to shed the burdened one with all of its various masks. For this to occur, the illusory experiencer (ego) has to be unveiled.

From this perspective, the problems and challenges of everyday life take on a whole new meaning. All at once, nothing changes and yet everything changes. We cease to take life so personally because we realise there is no "personal" self to begin with. Instead, we begin to perceive the vastness of who we are: wholly indefinable, wholly unknowable.

As we begin to peek through the boundaries of the conceptual mind, our previous comfort zone, bound by our encyclopaedic memory of the past, with continued noticing, loses its hypnotic quality. The freshness of living a true present, unaided by past programming, gradually becomes more appealing.

What is called for now, is a return to innocence, an innocence which must be intensely present with what is. Fierce energy keeps us in the present. The fierceness is not to protect our innocence, for it needs no protection, but to make it come alive, to fuel an open heart. Contrary to what we normally think, true strength lies in the vulnerability of an open heart; not in a heart which is closed. With an open heart, we can feel things as they are without the burden of past conditioning.

Show more Understanding

There is a story of a holy man from the Middle East who was in the habit of not eating breakfast each morning until a hungry person came by to share it with him. One day, an elderly man came by. The holy man saw him and invited him to share his breakfast with him. The elderly man thanked him profusely and sat down at the table to join him. As they began to say a blessing over the food, the elderly man said aloud a prayer to the pagan gods. The holy man was taken aback since he only believed in one God. He felt that the elderly man was a non-believer and so he became very upset. "If you believe in pagans, then I don't want you in my house!" he said to the old man, who scurried off. 

When the holy man returned to his table, he heardGod speak to him. God said, "What right have you to send that man away?" The holy man said, "He did not believe in you." God replied, "Look here! I know he does not believe in me. But I have been supplying the unbeliever with food every day for eighty years even though he doesn't believe in Me. Couldn't you tolerate him for one single meal?"

We sometimes become righteous about our own beliefs and our own goodness and look down upon others. Who is good and who is bad? No matter how bad we think someone is, God provides for everyone. There are people who lie, who cheat, who deceive others, and who slander others. There are people who hurt others and even kill others. It takes all types to make the world. Some of us believe in a God, others don't; still others are agnostics. Yet, God provides life to each of them. No one is perfect.

Even those of us who are on the spiritual path feel righteous about ourselves. Some people criticise others who do not meditate as much as they do, who do not do as much service as they do, or who do not live by the ethical values as well as they do. Sometimes people become very outspoken about the faults of others. But have we ever analysed our own selves? Is it our duty to become the reformers of others? We should accept the fact that no one is without fault. God knows everyone's faults. God sees everything we do and everything everyone else does.

We should be kind and loving to all. We should respect and learn to live amicably with people who have different beliefs and customs from those that we have. Why be critical of non-believers and agnostics? Are we not entitled to believe in what we are convinced about, as long as we do not hurt anyone?

God has made a world with people following many different religions and yet provides for each of them. Each one of us is different; this fact alone should enable us to show more understanding to those who do not agree with us. When we show love and understanding to all, then we are acting like true children of the Lord. God is love, and when we show love for others, we too are filled with love and come closer to God. 

Why we suffer

Shantanu Nagarkatti tells us how to overcome misery. A report by Mansi Choksi

In the Yoga Vasishta, Sage Vashishtha tells Prince Rama the story of the enlightenment of Leela. "This story is for those who have lost a dear one, who live in pain and for those of us who are plagued by the anxiety of anticipatory loss," said Nagarkatti.

Leela was the beautiful wife of King Padma — a fair, wise and kind man regarded as the 'lotus of his race'. They were deeply in love. Often, she would be overcome with fear, when she would think of the possibility of losing him. The fear became so overpowering that it sometimes prevented her from enjoying his company and even the present moment.

Leela called on all the wise men in her court to find a solution to her problem. They advised her to engage in tapasya, fasting and meditation so that goddess Saraswati could show her the way. She chanted for days in secrecy and finally Saraswati appeared. "She asked the goddess for two boons: first, that she would appear each time Leela called her and second, that when Padma's soul left his body, it would not leave the room they shared," recounted Nagarkatti.

Decades later, Padma passed away. As Leela sat next to his lifeless body, she was overcome by sorrow.

Nagarkatti explained: "Patanjali says that all unhappiness arises from advidya or ignorance; when we seek permanence in impermanence," he said. "We look for sukham or happiness in things that are designed to cause dukham or sorrow. The nature of the world is to change and we always look for something to hold onto — the idea of I, me, myself."

As Leela sat in her room, plagued by sorrow, she called out to goddess Saraswati. "Let me see where my husband is," she pleaded. The goddess obliged, and Leela went into a trance and saw her husband looking younger, sitting on his throne and ruling over his kingdom. She went to him, spoke to him, tried to embrace him, but he couldn't see her or feel her.

Befuddled, she asked Saraswati, if what she had just seen was a dream or a reflection of her world. "How do you know that what you're experiencing now is not an illusion?" Saraswati asked. "When one is in a dream, everything seems real — tears, blood, pain and even happiness. You realise it's a dream only when you wake up," said Nagarkatti.

She told Leela that there were three dimensions to existence — bhoota akasha or physical, chitt akasha or psychological — which drives the bhoota akasha with the karmas stored in it, or the spiritual dimension, the highest state of being, which is limitless. In this stage, there is no duality, and dwesha. "There is not one universe, but multiverses, not one Padma but several Padmas," said Nagarkatti. With meditation, one can enter the chitt akasha that traverses time and these universes.

Leela undertook nirvikalpa samadhi and reached the highest state of consciousness. Through her travels, she came across mourners near a hut and asked what had happened. The relatives wept furiously and said that this was the hut of Sage Vashishtha and his wife Arundhati and that they had passed away eight days ago. But they could feel their presence in the room.

Goddess Saraswati told Leela that Vashishtha was none other than Padma and Arundhati was none other than Leela. One day, the learned Vashishtha had noticed a huge procession of royalty and had said, "How wonderful it would be to be a king". That wish was granted and he was reborn as Padma. "That's why, be careful of what you desire. As Oscar Wilde said, when God wants to punish you, he fulfils your desire," Nagarkatti said.

Awaken the Kundalini shakti

The nine-day festival of Navaratri is indeed hallowed and venerable. The performance of daily rituals, spiritual practices and invocation of goddesses Durga, Kali, Saraswati, and Lakshmi are in deference to the different forms of Shakti, the primordial cosmic energy, the divine feminine creative power.


Sages have explained the union of Shiva and Shakti. Shakti represents the primordial cosmic energy responsible for the processes of creation and destruction that occur unceasingly. The foundation of Shiva is the all-pervading Supreme Consciousness, without which even Shakti cannot function. The primordial cosmic energy is referred to as Devi the one who creates, preserves and destroys.

Devi is all-pervasive and is present even in our body as well, as kundalini. This lies dormant in the muladhara chakra situated in the subtle body, invisible. It is symbolised by a red-coloured inverted triangle. As long as this energy remains dormant, human life cannot evolve, cannot attain greater heights.

Yoga, especially raja yoga and chakra yoga detail practices required to awaken the dormant energy that lies dormant in the muladhara chakra, whereas Shiva resides in the sahasrara chakra, at the top of the head. When Shakti and Shiva unite, we experience spiritual awakening and uplift. In most, the union does not occur in their lifetime and hence they live their lives at a very low level of consciousness.

The transformation that happens in a person's life when the kundalini gets awakened is phenomenal. Science differentiates between matter and energy. However, tantra regards them as one matter is the gross form of energy and energy is the subtle form of matter. The divine essence of this energy is called Shakti.

One cannot attain spiritual evolution without the presence of Shakti. As long as this energy is lying dormant, human life stagnates at subhuman levels of consciousness.

It is for the awakening of this very energy, the kundalini, that ancient sages prescribed spiritual practices and invocation of the Mother Goddess in her various avatars for a period of nine days. On all nine days, the faithful who venerate Devi observe fasting, perform spiritual practices and rituals and lead a virtuous life.

However, this is not to say that Navaratri is merely fasting, engaging in rituals and restricting one's diet to pure vegetarian fare or abstaining from alcohol. The mysterious, abstruse significance can only be fathomed by the one for whom the virtuous way of living is not restricted only to the Navaratri season but is adopted for whole of one's lifetime.

It is perfectly all right to house and worship an idol of the Devi Durga. However, bear in mind that as long as you don't take efforts to awaken the inner primordial cosmic energy, the Devi who resides in you, you will be unable to comprehend the profound spiritual significance of Navaratri.

Shakti and Shiva are incomplete without each other. This entails then that unless the Shakti inherent within you is awakened, until it ascends upwards piercing all the chakras and merges with Shiva at the sahasrara; until then Shakti cannot be the source of bliss and wisdom.

The nine days of Navaratri is an opportunity to perform and observe spiritual practices for awakening of Shakti. The importance of this should sink in so that you realise that if your entire life's pursuit is just about sensual gratification and fulfilment of worldly desires then you haven't as yet known the essential nature of Devi Durga.

Chanting as Therapy

If you are searching for God, any name of God is a mantra. If you know the significance of the mantra, you will feel more comfortable. 

When you know the meaning, you know what you are doing ... but without knowing, it can also become clear. Mantra means "that which can take one out of the flow of life's miseries". It's a very beautiful thing; it has that power. Mantra is for the awakening of the Self. 

If something is good for you it doesn't have to be a secret. Every tradition, every sect has something good. Sometimes we are so complicated that to become a good person we have to follow a sect or a tradition and give our life to that. After 15, 30, 50 years, your seed will grow. If the method is to repeat five mantras, give your life to that and be patient; maybe your seed can grow.

Now nothing is secret, everything is written in the scriptures. Look up the Internet and you will find everything, but there is one thing more beautiful and that is the touch of a person. In these days there is no need of teachers, of schools because the Internet is there, but the touch of a teacher is needed because there are many things that we cannot learn from machines. The master's purpose is to give you a special touch, a touch that the Internet cannot give you. The touch of the master is important to give you the mantra because it has some vibration, some energy, some force. It is not a visible thing.

Reciting mantras, sometimes aloud and other times silently, could impact our psychology positively. Our psychology is always changing: we feel good, we feel bad. When something inside us starts speaking, we can repeat mantras and all our problems finish. Suppose we are very fearful and it's dark. We are alone and we have fear; our mind tells us, "Chant a mantra" and we start chanting and our fear goes away.

Psychologically, we need is some support, some help. The whole process is therapy.

Forgive and relieve yourself !!

When we respond negatively to people and situations, we set in motion a negative trend in our entire body system. 

All our emotions are electro-chemically charged and intrinsically connected to the endocrine, nervous and immune systems through our thoughts and feelings. If the systems are negatively charged, they set in motion a chain of negative reactions. Hence we need to respond carefully to situations in life.



When American journalist Norman Cousins, became very ill his doctors, finding the prognosis poor, had to give up on him. In a few days, he would be gone. In his state of illness, Norman Cousins was convinced that negative emotions have negative physical consequences just positive emotions will impact the body in a positive way. So he rented really humorous movies and began watching them regularly

He noticed that he was able to sleep more without the aid of sleeping pills. The pain that was excruciating was reducing. He was now less dependent on painkillers. Once he became well, he wrote of his experience in the British Medical Journal.

Art Mathias was allergic to hundreds of food items including fibre. He could wear only cotton clothing, and these were expensive. The prognosis being bad, doctors reluctantly gave up on him.

One day, he listened to a teaching on forgiveness and simply decided to forgive those who hurt him. He suddenly realised from that day he could eat many foods, to which he was allergic. Even his skin allergies stopped. Behind this phenomenal healing was the major shift he made in his thinking, that is, to move from harbouring bitterness to forgive and bless those who hurt him.

For both Norman and Art, the turning point was their attitude towards health and hurts. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported in 2002 that one out of every three persons, who went to consult doctors for a common symptom got diagnosed with some form of mental illness arising from anger and depression. To a large extent, many of us suffer a degree of anger and depression. A great many of our physical sicknesses could be avoided if we could only change our attitudes.

In our reactions to failures and disappointments, which are bound to occur, it is good to make an effort to avoid bitterness, anger and resentment. Neurologists tell us that the neuron, which is the basic unit of the brain, was created by God for love. When you and I experience God's love and find others to express our love, every organ in our body will function to its optimum level. Hope and confidence itself will produce positive energy in the body.