CONTENTS. Isha Hatha Yoga Part 17: How to Connect to the Sun 4. Lead Article Chit Shakti. Musings Eleven Shrines Two Objectives. Yoga for the World

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3 CONTENTS CHIT SHAKTI MAHABHARAT Sadhguru on the Power of the Mind 6 Part 6: The Mantra of Revival 16 Isha Hatha Yoga Part 17: How to Connect to the Sun 4 Lead Article Chit Shakti Sadhguru on the Power of the Mind Musings Eleven Shrines Two Objectives Sadhguru on the New Shrines at the Isha Yoga Center Yoga for the World Sadhguru Shares His Vision for the International Day of Yoga In Conversation with the Mystic Raise Your Food Consciousness Mark Hyman in Conversation with Sadhguru Mahabharat Part 6: The Origin of the Chandravamshis / The Mantra of Revival News & Events Homegrown Tales Isha Home School Book Release Upcoming Programs and Events Isha Yoga Program Highlights Isha Recipe This Month: Mung Dal Chaat Zen Speaks Mind Like a Mirror May 2015 ISHA FOREST FLOWER 3

4 ISHA HATHA YOGA Questioner: Namaskaram, Sadhguru. In Surya Kriya, what is the significance of pressing the knuckles of the thumbs into the Anahata? Sadhguru: Whether it is Surya Kriya, Surya Namaskar, or Surya Shakti, you must generate a certain emotion towards the sun. That is because what your emotion is focused on, you can easily keep your mind on too. This is how devotion works. If you emotionally connect to something, it is easy to keep your mind and attention on it, and naturally, your energy moves in that direction too. The sun is constantly making connection with you. This whole solar system is powered by the sun. Only because of that, life is possible on the planet. Our very body structure is based on this. Hatha Yoga is about sun and moon, which are important factors. It is a combination of these two impacts upon the planet that has produced the human body. PART 17 How to Connect to the Sun The sun is the source of life energy. The prana aspect of you is a physical form of energy. In the process of creation, the first physical form of energy that manifests in the human system is referred to as prana. There is another dimension to the human system which is nonphysical in nature and non-pranic. Prana is still physical. All the pranic energy in this solar system is essentially generated by the sun. Without the sun, there is no prana. Without the sun, there is no warmth. Without warmth, there is no life. The very way we check whether you are alive or dead is by seeing whether you are warm or cold. In our January edition, Sadhguru explained the fundamentals of Surya Kriya. Here, we zoom in on a central detail that is relevant for all three sun-related practices Surya Kriya, Surya Namaskar, and Surya Shakti. We want to activate the sun element within you. If something is dried in the sun, it can burn. In a way, the object or substance absorbs the rays of the sun and then becomes capable of producing energy. If there was no absorption of the sun s energy, nothing could burn, nothing could give warmth or light. For the body to heal itself, we have to generate warmth. In this context, samat prana is an important aspect of creating health in the system. 4 ISHA FOREST FLOWER May 2015

5 The process of living is constantly taking a toll on every cell in the body. They say the average age of the cells in an adult human body is 7 to 10 years. Every day, old cells are dying and new cells are being created. The number of cells that die in any given day can be drastically brought down if your samat prana is high. Similarly, the number of new cells that are being created in a day can be drastically increased if your samat prana is high. The amount of samat prana you have essentially depends on the amount of the sun s energy within you. One way is to try to generate it within you. Another way is to make use of the sun outside to activate this process within you. dimension, but another dimension of you that distinguishes you as a human being. Surya Kriya is to activate the internal sun, but you stimulate it by using the external sun. If you want to establish a connection with the external sun, or with anything for that matter, you need attention, emotion, and energy moving in that direction. Otherwise, you cannot make a connection to anything whether it is a human being, a plant, an animal, or a substance. When your attention, emotion, and energy are not connected to anything around you, you are like a separate existence by yourself. And that s how most people live. One aspect is to open up the Anahata, which is an important part of the human system. It is the meeting point between the lower three chakras and the upper three chakras. Its symbol is two equilateral triangles. An upward-facing triangle and a downward-facing triangle meet to form a complex pattern. On one level, creation begins from there not the physical This is why it is called Anahata, which means unstruck an unstruck sound. Generally, it takes two things to strike a sound. But at the Anahata, there is an unstruck sound. To activate that, you have to bend your thumbs in such a way that the knuckles are pointed and you press them into the Anahata. That way, you create a certain emotion towards the sun. Likewise, when you feel a pleasant emotion, you naturally place your hands on the Anahata, because that is where it begins. You want to activate your emotional dimension because without focusing your emotions on something, your mind cannot stick to anything. What you focus your emotions on, that is where your mind will be. Otherwise, it is difficult to keep your mind set on one thing. Excerpted from a talk by Sadhguru at the Isha Hatha Yoga School. For dates and details of hatha yoga programs, visit The Hatha Yoga Teacher Training program is an opportunity to be trained in classical hatha yoga devised by Sadhguru. Upcoming dates: 31 July to 25 December 2015 at the Isha Yoga Center in India. For more information, please send an to info@ishahathayoga.com or call May 2015 ISHA FOREST FLOWER 5

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7 buddhi will not take you beyond limits in any way, because it can only function based on the data that is already there. It is not capable of accessing anything beyond that. The next dimension is called manas. Manas has many layers to it. But manas is not just the brain it is right across the body. Every cell in the body has a phenomenal memory not just of this life but of millions of years. Your body clearly remembers how your forefathers were a million years ago. Top to bottom, there is manas this is called manomaya kosha. In every cell in the body, there is memory and intelligence, but no intellect. Intellect is only in the brain. In English language, everything comes under one banner called mind. The idea that intelligence is only in the brain has produced human beings whose consciousness is seriously constipated. What is in the brain is intellect, not intelligence. Intelligence and memory are right across your body. But people have never been trained how to use this intelligence. Instead, they use their intellect for everything. No wonder whatever job you give them, they are stressed out. The whole weight is on only one dimension of the mind out of sixteen. It is like loading a sixteenwheeler truck and trying to drive on only one wheel you can imagine the stress! That is what today s world is going through. People may be using other dimensions of the mind marginally, unconsciously, but they are not trained to use them. They have only been trained to use their buddhi, or their intellect. They are very smart. They know everything about everything, but they do not know how to figure their own life. They do not even know how to sit here peacefully and at total ease within themselves. If there is true intelligence, the first thing that you need to figure out is how to make life happen. You know how to make the world happen, but you do not know how to make your life happen. You do not know how to conduct your mind. You do not know how to conduct your energies. You do not know how to conduct your emotions. People do not even know how to conduct their body. If you ask people to become fit, they become tight. If you ask them to live in a more natural way, they become fat. They do not know how to conduct their body, mind, emotion, energy nothing. Where is the intelligence? There is only intellect. Intellect looks good only in comparison. Suppose you are the only person on the planet, your intellect will not mean anything. Only because there are a few idiots around you, you shine. By itself, intellect will not be of any consequence. The intellect directly connects with the third dimension of your mind, called ahankara. Ahankara is sometimes translated as ego, but it is much more than that. Ahankara gives you a sense of identity. Once your ahankara takes on an identity, your intellect functions only in that context. It is important to function beyond the intellect, because the intellect is seriously enslaved to your identity. Our identities, such as belonging to a certain nation, community, or whatever else, are necessary for our survival in a particular society. But you cannot think beyond this because you are functioning only from your intellect, and the intellect takes its sustenance from ahankara. Only along the axis of ahankara, the intellect can function. The intellect cannot transcend this, because that is its nature. But there are other ways to know life beyond the identities we have taken on for our survival in the world. The fourth category of the mind is called chitta. Chitta is mind without memory pure intelligence. This intelligence is like the cosmic intelligence simply there. Everything happens because of that. It does not function out of memory it simply functions. In a way, May 2015 ISHA FOREST FLOWER 7

8 what you call cosmos is a living mind, not in the sense of intellect but in the sense of chitta. Chitta is the last point of the mind. It connects to the basis of creation within you. It connects you with your consciousness. Chitta is always on whether you are awake or asleep. Your intellect comes on and goes off. Many times it fails, even when you are awake. If chitta or the intelligence within you was not always on, you could not stay alive. Try to conduct your breath with your intellect you will go crazy. Chitta is keeping you alive, keeping you going, making life happen. If you touch this dimension of your mind, which is the linking point to one s consciousness, you do not even have to wish for anything, you do not have to dream of anything the best possible thing that can happen to you will anyway happen. in the best possible way. If you go by your intellect or your buddhi, today you think this is it, tomorrow morning you think that is it like this it goes on endlessly. Once you know how to consciously keep your chitta on, once the Divine is your servant, when someone really efficient is working for you, you do not have to do anything. Simply sit; the best things will happen things that you could not imagine. People always think if their dreams come true, their life will be great. I think that is a very poor life, because you cannot dream about anything that is not at all in your experience. My wish and my blessing for you is things that you could not dream of, things that you never thought possible, must happen to you. What you did not dream must happen to you that is why you should not dream. Instead of seeing how to delve deeper into yourself, you go on projecting stupid ideas into the world. People think that is a great thing to do. Last time when I was in the US, and someone said to me, Sadhguru, how do you manifest all this? I said, I do not manifest anything. I am just fooling around. I got a very efficient partner [Shiva]. I simply leave it to him, and it happens. When you touch this dimension of the mind, it means God becomes your slave he works for you. You know, yogis say, Shiva is my servant. He does everything for me. In a way, otherwise, I would not be here. Once you know how to consciously access your chitta, everything that is needed will simply happen Chit Shakti is about touching the dimension of your mind that is pure intelligence unsullied by memory, unsullied by identification. It is beyond ahankara, beyond buddhi, beyond judgment, beyond divisions simply there, just like the intelligence of existence that makes everything happen. If you access this, you do not have to worry about what happens or what does not happen. It will happen in a way that you never imagined possible. Once you have access to your chitta, it is also a multi-pointed telescope. It makes you see things that no one else can see in every direction. It is your crystal ball. It is a magnifying glass that brings the very core of life close to you. For everyone else, it is far 8 ISHA FOREST FLOWER May 2015

9 way. Everyone thinks the Divine is somewhere up there. Where exactly, no one knows. All they know is, it seems far away. The moment you start looking at life through your chitta, where there is no memory, there is no karmic substance and no division. Suddenly, the Divine is right there, bang on, in your face all the time. You cannot miss it. We first offered Chit Shakti in a different form. In about six weekends, I taught a program about establishing the power of the mind. By the fourth, fifth weekend, 80% of the people could move a folded paper from one place to another without touching it. When I saw this, I thought this is dangerous. If they can do this, what all they will do, I knew. So we only did one such program. Since then, we offer a milder version of Chit Shakti. The idea of Chit Shakti is not to keep asking for things. The idea is that if the physical arrangements of life happen easily, you can dedicate more time for your spiritual wellbeing. It would be stupid if just because it happens easily, first you want to be a millionaire, then you want to be a billionaire. The main intention is that your physical life happens more easily, that it does not take your entire time to handle it, so that you will have time to close your eyes and sit. Please make use of it for this purpose. The Power to Create meditations for Peace, Love, Health, and Success (also known as Chit Shakti ) are available at the Isha Download Store ishadownloads.com May 2015 ISHA FOREST FLOWER 9

10 MUSING Eleven Shrines - Two Objectives Sadhguru on the New Shrines at the Isha Yoga Center Questioner: Namaskaram, Sadhguru. In different places in the ashram, shrines have been put up. What is the purpose of these shrines, and why are the lingas covered in vibhuti so that we cannot see them? Sadhguru: We have not put up too many only eleven. This is a technological aspect. It is like, you subscribe to some telecom company, let s say Airtel that means the air is telling you things. The only thing is you must pay your subscription fee. They have a base station somewhere, but there are towers everywhere to enhance the transmission. The shrines have a similar purpose. We placed the Dhyanalinga, Linga Bhairavi, the shrines, and everything else according to the geography of the yoga center. Fortunately, we have a huge natural wall of a mountain behind us, which is a cascade of Grace by itself. And we put our life into making the Dhyanalinga. It is transmitting heavily, but those who have not paid their subscription fees may only experience it as a big black peanut, as one American lady put it a few years ago. There are others who are going into nameless ecstasies sitting there. Life delivers to you depending upon the extent to which you are receptive and sensitive. We all may live in the same world, but every human being does not experience life the same way. For one person everything is fantastic for another person everything is horrible. And there are of course people who are in between, periodically swinging from one end to the other. Today it is fantastic tomorrow it is horrible. Day after tomorrow again it is fantastic. This is not only so in the world in the yoga center too. Because people have transmission problems, we have established these solidified mercury lingas to further enhance the transmission. To the second part of the question Why is it covered with vibhuti, because you don t want us to see the linga? If that was so, we would have dressed him up. The idea is we want you to take something of the reverberation. This sacred ash is made of certain substances. It is in contact with the rasa linga, and you can take it in eleven different places. So if you are one of those who do not pay your subscription fees, which means you never go to the Dhyanalinga or the sadhana hall, to see that even you don t miss it, we have put up these shrines. These eleven shrines certainly enhance the whole situation phenomenally. Especially on cooler days or in the early morning, you can observe that. You must visit all the eleven shrines early morning somewhere between 03:40 to six o clock you will see they are glowing in their own way. They are located strategically in certain places that are geographically significant for the ashram terrain. Another aspect of it is to provide you many opportunities to bow down. Don t just do it eleven times a day you 10 ISHA FOREST FLOWER May 2015

11 must do it a million times a day. Every time a cloud moves, the breeze moves, another human being comes, a dog comes, a cow anything, a tree moves, your breath moves in and out bow down. Bow down to every dimension of life, because all of it is superior to your intelligence. The way this breath is happening, how simple air goes in, gives what it has to give to nurture this life, goes out, gets into a tree, gives what it has to give to the tree this transaction is going on for millions of years. We are still breathing the same air that the Adiyogi breathed 15,000 years ago! Obviously, he has left a signature on the air that you breathe. Many beings have. Of course, there have been many lousy ones too. But it is the same air, maintaining itself pretty well, for a million years. If we do not mess it up too much for another billion years it can go on the same air. No new air is needed. No new water is needed. The same things can go on forever it is a fantastic design. Right now, we are beginning to think about doing things in a sustainable way none of the things we do is sustainable. Nothing that we have created is sustainable at the most, it lasts a little longer than it used to earlier. So, one thing is to learn to bow down, to be reverential, not towards a particular thing simply to be reverential. I would like to see that if the garbage truck comes, you make way the same way as when my car comes. Then it is a real ashram. Devotion and reverence are not about something or someone else they are about you. They are to change the quality of who you are, to bring that sweetness of emotion into you every moment of your life. If you maintain this one thing, the rest becomes very simple. a profound involvement with life. There is no need to look up to anything or to look down on anything. But it takes a certain amount of awareness and discipline, a certain amount of evolution within yourself to look at everything the same way, without distinction. Until you get there within yourself, at least look up to everything. This will transform you. The eleven shrines are also in that direction. Wherever you go, there is an opportunity for you to bring back this sense of devotion within you. Not towards anything. The Dhyanalinga does not need your devotion. He does not care whether you are devout or not. Whatever the hell you are, he just transmits. If you are receptive fine. If you are not receptive, it will go only skin deep. If you are receptive, it will go all the way. Being devout is about you, not about something else. The Creator does not need your devotion. I really do not need your devotion it is a nuisance for me. Indians come and pull my legs Americans come and try to hug me. But if you have no devotion in you, you are a lost case. It is not about doing something for someone. It is about transforming yourself. The eleven shrines are there to enhance this sense of devotion. If you do not look up to anything, you do not look down on anything, you simply look at everything the same way, you will experience May 2015 ISHA FOREST FLOWER 11

12 Yoga for the World Sadhguru Shares His Vision for the International Day of Yoga A lot of things are being planned for the International Day of Yoga. One thing is, in cooperation with the External Affairs Minister and a few other prominent schools in yoga, we will make a presentation at the United Nations on 21 st of June. Another thing is to raise awareness that it is important it is done precisely and correctly. Above all, we want to make the world understand that yoga is not an exercise system. It is a profound form of evolving a human being. It is about a very deep understanding of the human mechanics not only of the physical dimension but of all aspects of a human being. Bringing this awareness is more important than lots of people doing yoga for one day, and then they give it up again. For someone to pursue something, it must inspire them. They must feel either in their mind, in their body, or in their emotions that this is something worth investing their time and energy in. To get them to see the profoundness of yoga, the nature of the offering is important. That is when the world will take to it. Yoga is not another kind of religion, nor do we want to spread our brand. Human intellect is evolving in a certain way right now. Never before in the history of humanity could such a large number of people in the world think for themselves. All these millennia, there were only a few people who thought reasonably for themselves. For the rest, a scripture or a teacher would dictate what they should think. For the first time, large numbers of people think for themselves. Whether they think straight or not this is a big step. Human intellect is blossoming like never before. Consequently, there is no room for belief systems anymore. No matter how strong the religions of the world look today, in the next 50 to 150 years, they will all fall. Don t worry. Believe me. I will take you to heaven. Everything will be great there. It doesn t matter that right now you are in hell. There, everything is going to be good this whole idea will not sell anymore. As every child in the world starts receiving education, starts thinking for themselves, can access information by themselves, keeping people under control and telling them, You got to do this, otherwise you won t go to heaven, will not work anymore. Earlier, in pursuit of wellbeing, people have looked up. This has brought a lot of hallucination people have imagined all kinds of things. And it has created continuous wars between one kind of heaven and another kind of heaven. They are fighting over a God or a heaven that both of them have not seen, but they are willing to fight to death. In recent times, there has been a shift towards seeking wellbeing from the outside world. In the process of seeking wellbeing from the world, trying to take the juice of life from outside, we are destroying the very source of our living the planet itself. The message of yoga is this: Not up, not out in. The only way out is in. We are 7 billion people, and it is expected that by 2050, we will be 10 million people. Whatever the number of people if we seek wellbeing from within, we are not in conflict with anything. If we look up, we are in conflict. If we look out, we are in conflict. But if we look inward for our wellbeing, there is never any conflict not in the world, not within us. This is a successful process, and its eco-friendly. On 21 June 2015, the United Nations International Day of Yoga will be celebrated across the world for the first time. We will update you on upcoming events and activities for this day in the June edition of Isha Forest Flower. 12 ISHA FOREST FLOWER May 2015

13 IN CONVERSATION WITH THE MYSTIC Raise Your Food Consciousness Mark Hyman in Conversation with Sadhguru American physician, medical adviser for Bill and Hillary Clinton, and New York Times best-selling author Mark Hyman came together with Sadhguru at the Isha Institute of Inner-sciences on World Peace Day last year to explore matters of health and wellbeing. Here is the first excerpt of their refreshing insights on the power of the fork, as Hyman put it or we could say the right hand in South India. Read on to find out what this is all about. Mark Hyman: Thank you, Sadhguru, for inviting me and having me here on World Peace Day. As I was thinking about the biggest threat to world peace and the solution, it occurred to me that it is something that could fit in your pocket. And if we get it right, with this one tool, we can cure chronic diseases, which are on the rise across the globe. Over 50 million people a year die from lifestyle-preventable diseases, compared to 20 million who die from infectious diseases. It is not only the single biggest threat to global economic development, costing 47 trillion dollars over the next 20 years which is more than the annual gross domestic product of the six largest nations combined it also threatens our oceans, our soils, and our air. It is one of the biggest contributors to climate change, to political instability, and to the lack of ability to actually take care of our population across the globe. And yet, if we get it right with this one tool, we have the ability to solve all these problems. Do you know what this tool is? It s in my pocket. It s a fork. Because what we put on the end of our fork determines everything about our world. It determines what happens to our health, to the lands we grow our food on, the air we breathe, and the water we drink. It determines the stability or instability of governments and societies around the world. Still it is something that nobody is really talking about. When we talk about threats to world peace, we only talk about ISIS and instability May 2015 ISHA FOREST FLOWER 13

14 in the Middle East, which is certainly real and important as well. Nobody is talking about this other issue, yet it is the single biggest problem facing us as a human race today, which is how do we create a healthy world? Because a healthy world is a peaceful world. A world where we are sick and overweight, and burdened by disease and the cost of those diseases, is a very unstable, unsafe, and un-peaceful world. So, today we are going to talk about some of these issues, hopefully provide some context, and some solutions for it as well. Economic issues and health issues are connected, and we see this increasing economic burden in our society. We are spending 2.8 trillion dollars on healthcare this year, which is about 16% of our economy, and 84% of it is for chronic diseases like diabetes, heart diseases, obesity-related illnesses lifestyle-preventable problems. And yet, our healthcare system does not address it, because it seems like the solution is outside of the doctor s office it is more in our own hands, in our own hearts, and in our own minds. So, one questions is, how can we get more empowered about taking this into our own hands? I d love to hear your thoughts about this. Sadhguru: Welcome and namaskaram to everyone. Today being the World Peace Day, let s talk about food in the context of either peace or violence. Essentially, we treat our bodies violently, we live violently, and then we expect the world to be peaceful. The world is quite peaceful without the human beings. It is only the way we live upon this planet which creates violence. As Mark mentioned, there are very violent, brutal situations on the planet, like battles or wars. They need to be handled there s no question about that but the everyday violence with which we live also needs to be addressed. Every year, we are killing 53 billion land animals, and over a hundred million sea creatures. When we cause so much violence, we being healthy and peaceful is not going to happen. Not just the quality of the food we consume how we consume, how wantonly or how consciously, is very important. There is a whole lot of talk about what to consume, but there is hardly any guidance or effort to bring awareness to people as to how to consume food. I just read somewhere that 20% of the American meals are consumed in a car. The quality of the food that we eat determines the quality of our health, and the awareness that we eat our food with also determines how that food is metabolized by our body. Traditionally, in the East, we have always been taught how you should be when food enters your body, what condition you should be in, what posture you should be in, how you should approach it these are very big things in the East. If 20% of the meals are eaten in cars, maybe another 20% is eaten in bars! I don t know how many people actually sit at the table and eat a meal consciously, with a certain sense of involvement with the food and the people around them. I think there is enough knowledge about the content of the food today in the world, but still, people are yet to make the necessary changes, apart from a few cosmetic ones maybe. Apart from the content of the food, which definitely has a big impact, how you consume it is equally important. Whether you eat an animal, a vegetable, or whatever else essentially, food is a piece of life. Something that was a life by itself becomes a part of you. One life transforms itself into another that is what eating means. It is not just digestion it is one life fusing into another. 14 ISHA FOREST FLOWER May 2015

15 When you put another piece of life into you, how it merges with your body and what this produces depends on how you keep your chemistry while you eat. How you should be, when you should eat, in what posture you should sit, and how you should welcome the food into yourself these things are completely ignored today. Right now, the battle is about what to consume. That itself is a big challenge, and Mark is taking it up. Mark Hyman: It s very true. Actually, if people consciously ate the food that they are currently eating, they probably wouldn t eat it anymore. In fact, there was a patient who was desperate to lose weight, but he was very busy. He said he had to go to Burger King every lunchtime, order two big whoppers, and quickly eat them. I told him, I want you to mindfully eat each bite, taste it, and really enjoy it. He came back a few weeks later and said, I tried it. It was disgusting. I couldn t eat it anymore. Since we are often eating unconsciously, we are not even aware of the effect on our body. I think the power of food is enormous both to cause disease and to cure disease. The quality of the food that we eat determines the quality of our health, and the awareness that we eat our food with also determines how that food is metabolized by our body. Those are real phenomena. And the problem in this county is that the food industry has literally hijacked our food system and has produced factory-made science projects that are highly addictive and that create disease. And the ways in which we grow them have huge impacts on our environment degrading our soils, our water supply, and our air. The industrial agriculture contributes greatly to climate change, and the food we grow from it has an enormous impact on our health. The processed foods are full of sugar and flour. The average American eats 152 pounds of sugar and 146 pounds of flour every year, which acts just like sugar in the body. May 2015 Combined, this is about a pound a day of sugar and flour. This causes heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer s, which they now call type 3 diabetes. Sugar and flour can cause depression, even infertility, and acne. But even though they have an enormous impact on our health, they are the main food we eat in this country. A lot of the calories we eat come from sugar up to 20%. I think we have to look at the food system, how it affects us, and how we can bring about a shift. Making the right choices every day about what we put in our body is a very revolutionary act. I think we all need to start a revolution in our own kitchens, in our own bodies, in our homes in order to shift the tide, to change the world towards a more peaceful state. Because the way we currently eat is driving so much of the health disturbances, the economic instability, and ultimately the political instability and threats to peace. We all have that power, at every single meal. We can vote three times a day with our fork, and this has an enormous impact beyond your own health. Probably the single most important and powerful thing you can do every day is figure out what you are going to put on your fork, and the choice is yours. You can t always control how much you eat because that is driven by hormones and brain chemistry, which is regulated by the quality of the food you eat. If you eat sugar and processed food, it actually makes you hungry and slows your metabolism. If you eat real food, it changes your natural regulatory mechanism, so you don t overeat. You eat the right amount of food, and so you stay a healthy weight. We will bring you more of this conversation on food, health, and individual as well as global wellbeing in upcoming editions of Isha Forest Flower. ISHA FOREST FLOWER 15

16 MAHABHARAT SERIES PART 6 Mahabharat The Origin of the Chandravamshis / The Mantra of Revival What happened so far: Brihaspati, the priest of Indra and Guru of the Devas, was philandering around. His neglected wife Tara fell in love with the moon god Chandra, and the two began a romance. Brihaspati implored her to come back, because he would otherwise lose his position as the chief priest of Indra. Reluctantly, Tara returned, but she was pregnant by Chandra. Infuriated, Brihaspati cursed the child to be neither man nor woman. Budha, who represents the planet Mercury, was born. become a woman. He cried, Who did this to me? Which yaksha, which demon, cursed me like this? In great despondency, he searched around. Then he found Shiva and Parvati in romance. He fell at Shiva s feet and said, This is not fair. I am a king. I am a man. I have a family. I just came hunting, and you turned me into a woman. How can I go back like this? Shiva said, I cannot take back what I have done, but I can correct it a bit. We will make it in such a way that when the moon is waning, you will be a woman. When the moon is waxing, you will be a man. King Sudhyumna Goes Hunting One day, King Sudhyumna went hunting in the forest that Shiva and his wife Parvati lived in. Looking at the animals, she said on a whim, My love for you is such that I feel these bull elephants, these lions with their huge manes, these peacocks with their fabulous plumes are all an insult to you. I want you to make this forest in such a way there is no other male but you. Shiva was in a romantic mood. He said, Okay. Let everything in this forest turn female. Everything in the forest turned female. The lions become lionesses, the bull elephants become cow elephants, the peacocks became peahens, and King Sudhyumna turned into a woman. He looked at himself a brave king, who had come hunting in the forest, had suddenly The Chandravamshi Dynasty Is Born Sudhyumna refused to go back to his palace. He stayed in the forest and became known as Ela, who for one half of the month was male, for another half of the month was female. One day, it so happened that Budha and Ela met. It was a perfect match. Both of them were male and female in equal measure. Between them, they had many children. These children were called Elas. These Elas became the first Chandravamshis. In the tradition of the kings in this country, there are Suryavamshis and Chandravamshis descendants of the sun and descendants of the moon. They are distinctly different types of people. The sun people are conquerors clear-cut, black-and-white kind of people. Chandravamshis are different every day. 16 ISHA FOREST FLOWER May 2015

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18 Kacha was received as a disciple, and he proved to be a worthy disciple. He served his master, took every instruction, and was very much a part of everything. Shukracharya had a daughter whose name was Devyani. Devyani looked at this young man and slowly fell in love with him. But he was not focused on this young girl. Whatever she did, she could not draw his attention for even a moment. He could not be distracted from the purpose for which he had come, and the Asuras knew he had come for the Sanjeevini. The Asuras Assault Kacha One day, Kacha was grazing his master s cattle in the forest. The Asuras pounced upon him, killed him, tore him into bits, and threw him to the wild animals. When in the evening, only the cows came back but not the boy, Devyani was heartbroken. She went to her father and cried, Kacha has not come back. Someone has done something to him. Wherever he is, you must bring him back to life. Giving in to his daughter s plea, Shukracharya used the Sanjeevini to bring Kacha back to life. When he was asked what happened, Kacha described how the Asuras pounced on him and killed him. Shukracharya said, Be careful. The Asuras don t like you, because you are from the enemy camp. Still I am treating you as my disciple. After a few days, Kacha went to pluck flowers for the morning worship. The Asuras caught hold of him, killed him, ground his flesh and bone, mixed it with salt water in the sea, ground his organs, and mixed a little bit of it in Shukracharya s wine. Unknowingly, Shukracharya drank it. When Kacha again did not turn up in the evening, Devyani hollered. But Shukracharya said, It looks like it s his destiny to be dead. He is dying too often. There is no point in bringing him back. Someone of your intelligence, someone of your breeding, someone of your exposure to life should not be crying about life and death. This is something that happens to every creature. Let him be dead. Reviving someone too often is not good. But Devyani was heartbroken. Either Kacha comes back or I will drown myself in the lake. Not willing to allow that to happen, Shukracharya said, Let s do it one last time. Kacha Learns the Sanjeevini Mantra When Shukracharya tried to use the mantra, he felt a rumbling in his stomach. It was Kacha. Shukracharya got furious. Who did this? Is this also the Asuras work? How can they do this? From within his stomach, Kacha narrated the whole story how the Asuras killed him, ground him, mixed him with salt water, and how they took the organs, ground those, and mixed some of it with the wine. Shukracharya became very angry. This is going too far, that they put him in my belly now. Either I have to let him stay dead, or, if I bring him back to life, I have to die. He thought, Maybe I must resign this job and join the Devas. I am being treated too badly. How dare they put this boy in my belly? But Devyani cried. She said, I am neither willing to live without Kacha nor without you. If one of you dies, I will drown myself. Shukracharya told Kacha, You have succeeded in the mission for which you came. You wanted to know the secret of Sanjeevini, and you are a deserving candidate. Now I will teach it to you. Then I will use it to revive you. You will burst out of my body, which will lay me dead. Then you use the Sanjeevini mantra, bring me back to life, and you start a new life elsewhere. Shukracharya used the Sanjeevini mantra, and like a rising moon, Kacha grew in his stomach and burst out of him. Shukracharya fell dead. A scream went up from Devyani. Then Kacha used the Sanjeevini mantra and brought Shukracharya back to life, bowed down to him, and was about to leave. Devyani said, You cannot leave. I love you. To be continued 18 ISHA FOREST FLOWER May 2015

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20 Upcoming Programs and Events These programs are conducted in English, unless indicated otherwise. Current at the time of print, however subject to change. For full program schedules and updates, please visit our website: Date Program Place Contact 4 25 May Day Hatha Yoga Program Isha Yoga Center, Velliangiri Foothills, Coimbatore India iycprograms@ishayoga.org 6 26 May 2015 Yoga Marga Isha Yoga Center, Velliangiri Foothills, Coimbatore India / isharejuvenation@ishafoundation.org May 2015 Nature Awareness Program (Age: 9 12 years) Isha Yoga Center, Velliangiri Foothills, Coimbatore India natureawareness@ishayoga.org May 2015 Inner Engineering Retreatt Isha Yoga Center, Velliangiri Foothills, Coimbatore India ieretreat@ishafoundation.org May 2015 Bhava Spandana with Sadhguru Isha Institute of Inner-sciences, McMinnville, TN USA registration@ishausa.org May 2015 Nature Awareness Program (Age: 9 12 years) Isha Yoga Center, Velliangiri Foothills, Coimbatore India natureawareness@ishayoga.org May 2015 Nature Awareness Program (Age: 9 12 years) Isha Yoga Center, Velliangiri Foothills, Coimbatore India natureawareness@ishayoga.org May 2015 Guru Pooja Training Isha Yoga Center, Velliangiri Foothills, Coimbatore India iycprograms@ishayoga.org May 2015 Inner Engineering Retreat Isha Yoga Center, Velliangiri Foothills, Coimbatore India ieretreat@ishafoundation.org 31 May 2015 Nanvai Uruvam Ceremony with Sadhguru Isha Yoga Center, Velliangiri Foothills, Coimbatore India percent@ishafoundation.org 2 June 2015 Yantra Ceremony with Sadhguru Isha Yoga Center, Velliangiri Foothills, Coimbatore India yantra@ishafoundation.org 20 ISHA FOREST FLOWER May 2015

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