Friday, June 20, 2014

A share for siddha yoga website that was too long. Only 175 words were allowed.

I had been reading and listening to Yoga Vasishtha last night. I shared it with a person on Facebook called The White Hindu. We have been discussing things like reincarnation and Sikhism and discrimination. Today she posted what she thought was a stereotype of a Western Hindu. It was a woman in matted locks dancing. I couldn't see that as a Hindu but really as a person of groups in America calling themselves Tribes, like the American Indians did. I have thought of the Krishna Devotional group as Hindus and then the memories of Krishna Devotees and Vasishtha. How they hate Vasishtha. A professor online discusses Vasishtha in audio. He is an Irish person and was quite congenial and so these memories of the furious fight the Gaudiya Vaishnavas put up about Vasishtha was particularly ugly and hurtful to my feelings. I will come out of it. The Vaishnava Acarya here, Acarya Deva who was one of Prabhupada's orignal 10 devotees who were given control over all of the Krishna Temples and dealings visits here. I have heard him talk. I know the attitude of the Krishna Gurus. I like to think of my own Guru when they annoy me as I know I do not have to follow them and they are rude in interrupting my devotion. So, I thought to myself I will go to the Siddha Yoga website and I will read the virtue but I was surprised that instead this wonderful song by, is it Shambhavi Christian (formerly Meg), appeared. What a lovely song. It made my day. I have her CD, Whatever It Takes and it is a lovely work. I had been working on a paper on counseling methods and one is called the Person Centered approach. Also included with Person Centered are Existential and Gestalt. I turned to Vasishtha for some commentary on Person Centered theory. D. R. Butler is very fond of Vasishtha and I receive his lessons (by scholarship - he is giving them free to me). I tried to find some comment on the Pratyahbhijnahridayam but I could not find any. I did find some peer reviewed research articles on Carl Jung and Kundalini Yoga. Discussion of tantra and the chakras went on in that document. Jung thought the lower chakras were important not in a sexual Freudian sense, but in his own way. I did not pay much attention to it. I have been chanting the Kundalini Stavah and so that's why I thought something of it. I remember being called young when I chanted Hare Krsna back in the woebegone days of the late 70's. Sometimes I did not know what it meant. I had had a dream, a strange dream and I woke up and would not chant because I felt the chanting brought the dream on and I was not too happy with it though it did have some redeeming features. So, I was young for not chanting but a dialog had been going on and I did not know if I was young as in young or if I  was young as in Jung or if I was young as in a 5th grade teacher named Fred Young who was very popular in childhood village but then was occused of child molestation and committed suicide. I also know that young people are said to be drawn mostly to the Hare Krsna Movement. Seeing the video and hearing Meg sing gave me some peace in what was a troubling morning (though it is afternoon). I am waiting on money and getting very consternated about it ( a loan stipend from my school where I am studying Psychology with a concentration on Substance Abuse Counseling). I am out of SNAP benefits. I am living in a friend's quarters where I have no closet but he has given me a bed and shelter, use of the stove, refrigerator and bathing facilities. He has been very helpful. He is a substance abuse counselor and we met at the Siddha Meditation Center here in Gainesville, Fl where we live. We have both had this awful cold. I have been taking medicine which is hard for me to get because I must rely on charity. There is a charitable health clinic hear associated with a United Methodist Church. They get me medicine for my various health issues which include diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and acid reflux. Also a bit near sighted. I have gone to the Krishnas to eat. I had their books and traded them for lunches which now cost money ($4). They have appeared at homeless helping places like St. Francis House, the Salvation Army and at this Methodist Church where medical help is offered to the homeless. Not sure if they had done that before I arrived. I remember telling them about my homelessness. There was nothing they could do. They could not put me up. They did make the deal on the food though. I do enjoy their nourishment, their Krsna prasada. I have prepared it myself in the kitchens of the homes where I previously lived. Mostly I lived with my mom and then after she died by myself. I also made some Siddha recipes, principally savory cereal and chai. So, feeling so hurt this morning with all my troubles I was so delighted to remember this is Birthday Month. I went to a 10 Day Gurumayi Birthday Intensive in 1992. I have unfortunately never been able to get back to Shree Muktananda Ashram in N. Y. I do continue with the text chants. I love the Guru Gita and pray for deliverance from chanting it and other texts in The Nectar of Chanting. I read and reread books, too. I am rereading Play of Consciousness and The Ramayana though I must admit I never thoroughly read the latter at all. I am enjoying the story of Vishvamitra and Vasishtha (oh, there's a coincidence) and how Vishvamitra coveted Vasishtha's wish fulfilling cow. Ah, yes, I also have work that is overdue for school.

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