The lecture opens without preamble, on a chain of questions borrowed from the Upaniṣads. What gives light to the senses? The mind. What gives light to the mind? The intellect. What gives light to the intellect?
“It seems it’s not important to ask the question, Who am I? I already know it — my picture is there in the passport.”
Sri Swami Jyotirmayananda continues the Srimad Bhagavad Gita in Chapter 6, Atma Samyama Yoga — the yoga of self-control — at verses 35 and 36. Arjuna has just heard the whole teaching and reached an honest conclusion: it cannot be done. The mind, he says, is like wind, and no one controls wind. Sinc
Sri Swami Jyotirmayananda continues the Tulsi Ramayana — Balkanda, from Doha 196 — through the great charity of King Dasharatha after Rama’s birth and the naming ceremony in which Sage Vasishtha reveals the meaning hidden in the four brothers’ names. As always, Swamiji is not interested in the histo
Sri Swami Jyotirmayananda continues the Yoga Vasistha, Upasama Prakarana, Section 35, where Sage Vasishtha tells Rama how Prahlada, through profound reflection (vicara), came practically to the state of enlightenment. Because he arrived there, whatever he practiced along the way is important for eve
Sri Swami Jyotirmayananda continues the Yoga Vasistha, Upasama Prakarana, Section 35, where Prahlada gives spiritual aspirants a practice of affirmation for enlightenment. The section opens on a single, startling claim: when the Self is known, all is known.
Sri Swami Jyotirmayananda, a direct disciple of Swami Sivananda, opens sutras fifteen through eighteen of Patanjali’s Samadhi Pada with a single disarming image. The mind, he says, is like an umbrella. You carry it into the rain, you use it, and when you come home you set it down at th
Sri Swami Jyotirmayananda continues the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 6 (Atma Samyama Yoga — the yoga of self-control, the yoga that leads to enlightenment), covering verses 32 through 35. The chapter, Swamiji notes, gives the essence of Raja Yoga.
Sri Swami Jyotirmayananda continues his lecture series on the Ramcharitmanas (Tulsi Ramayana), Balakanda, Doha 192 onward, using the birth of Lord Rama to answer a question every sincere seeker eventually asks: if divine grace is boundless, why does it feel so unevenly received?
Sri Swami Jyotirmayananda continues the Yoga Vasistha, Upasama Prakarana, Section 35, with Prahlada’s own reflection on the glories of the Atman. This is not abstract philosophy. It is a direct answer to a very ordinary fear: that we have to earn our way back to God, or that we have drifted too far
Show a camel a bed of tender flowers and a thicket of thorns, and it will walk straight past the flowers to eat the thorns, blood on its lips and all. It isn’t that the camel can’t feel the thorns. Its taste has simply changed — what should repel it now draws it in.
Three priests in old India heard that a wealthy household across the river was giving a great feast. They were poor and hungry for good food, and unwilling to pay the boatman’s fare. So they waited until dark, slipped into an unattended boat, and rowed. All night they rowed, certain the far shore wa
