Aurovalley Ashram
This is Aurovalley Ashram's site for news and inspiration
Tuesday, March 01, 2016
Monday, February 29, 2016
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Saturday, July 25, 2015
SPEAKING TREE BLOG POSTS
Click on the links below to read Swamiji's 'life reminders' posted on Speaking Tree.
REMEMBER TO PRESS THE BURGLAR ALARM
DON'T WORRY KEEP FAITH
REMEMBER TO PRESS THE BURGLAR ALARM
DON'T WORRY KEEP FAITH
Wednesday, July 08, 2015
ALL LIFE IS YOGA - Posted on Speaking Tree July 7, 2015
YOGA
Yoga is a beautiful word. Now everybody is using it. I am very happy. As I was reflecting about my own life, I was thinking, I never used the word yoga for long. I built this ashram, all the activities begun, but I never thought of saying this is a Yoga ashrama or that I am “doing” yoga.
I say that because I think we have limited the meaning of yoga now. Yoga means the coming together of all the aspects of your life. It is total and complete harmony of the body and all soul and all energies within. When this happens then there is an inner conscious awakening which transforms life…this person people start calling yogi. The Yogi may not have done even one asana in his entire life. You cannot do yoga, you live a yogic life.
It is good to do asanas, you can start at the physical level, but this is not the end nor is it yoga in its full sense. It is the warming up. Yoga is a much greater excursion. Everyday we face different situations. Yoga is to face them without losing our balance. When you live with this mantra, you will find yourself building many qualities like restraint, equanimity, love and so on within you. That is yoga. As Sri Aurobindo says, “ All Life is Yoga”
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
LEARN THROUGH LIVING / APRENDE DE LA VIDA
LEARN THROUGH LIVING
Make your Life your School
From Swami Brahmdev Satsang
Make your Life your School
From Swami Brahmdev Satsang
“You are a
complete full university of knowledge”
Swami Brahmdev
Education is a very important aspect of life but how to educate this life? We have education on how to survive, but we don’t have education on how to live. There is a big difference. One way you are learning to survive and the other way you are learning to live. Most schools just teach us how to survive, so The Mother made one system called the 'Free Progress System' and in this system there is no class with examinations or competition amongst students. It is a system of choice in which you choose from your inner being if you want to learn something and you choose in which direction you would like to discover something. The Free Progress System creates an environment for the child where there are many possibilities to grow and learn. According to what the child carries inside himself he will automatically discover this according to his inner feelings about what he wants to do and what he wants to learn. There are more possibilities to grow inward and awaken your higher potential in the free progress system. The present system does not awaken your inner potential - not your consciousness or awareness. It is only growing your capacities, a little bit - mental and physical capacities, but it doesn’t awaken your inner consciousness and potential. We want a system that awakens our potential. We have an infinite amount of potential, infinite possibilities. In this human box we carry the supreme power of consciousness, the supreme light of awareness. We are carrying in us the supreme world of possibilities, but we are completely unaware of our potential. We are just aware of our little mind and little capacities. Now the time is coming in which we see the need to change some systems because in evolution things grow slowly. Now there are hopes; in many places people are doing experiments to awaken their potential, their consciousness and the inner life of awareness. The Mother created a system for that; it is not easy to put in practice because we are not ready to understand many things. For that you need full faith in yourself and full faith in the divine. But something is going on and sooner or later we will feel the need of that system and it will grow and we will be able to live with our potential.
"Mother, would
you please define in a few words what you mean essentially by 'free
progress?'"
A progress
guided by the soul and not subjected to habits, conventions
or preconceived ideas."
The
Mother
Life always gives you the
option to choose. You always have the option to choose how you want to think:
negative or positive; how you want to live: with ignorance or with
consciousness; what you want to do: constructive work or destructive work. You
have a choice. There is no pressure in you that you have to live without
ignorance. We only have to be aware of that power and consciously see that we
can choose. It is your choice how you want to think, it is your choice how you
want to feel. Don’t start thinking negatively and then become sick and sad.
Why you don’t stop your feelings and thinking? You have that power to
control, to stop and to change. We are human beings only because we have the
power to change, if you don’t use this power to change the emotions, to change
the habits, to change your thinking, to change your attitude, to change your
ways, it means you are not using your human power.
We are not animals that have
to live with the same nature and style. Animals eat the same food their whole
lives and live in the same style. They never change anything in their life, but
in us we always have that power. Whenever you want you can change your direction, all the design, all the shape, all the programmes. You
can change all the paintings of your life. To move your life, this is your
power. So first thing is, learn how to control and change in you, your
feelings, your emotions, your habits. Whatever you don’t feel good about,
change it, replace it. You have all the colours, all the powers to design and
paint your life. Choose the best colours and paint. Choose the best
consciousness and live with that.
We have to learn to choose the
best possibilities that can grow our consciousness, which can make us more
aware of our self. That education is needed and that education can only be
given by your life. Your life is your school. You have to learn from your
nature, to learn from your life. You have to learn through living. Your life is
always giving you experiences and through living life you are given knowledge,
new knowledge. We have to learn through the knowledge of our experiences and to
live with that knowledge. When you live with the knowledge of your own
experience, then your knowledge becomes your life and that is the knowledge of
life. Then slowly, slowly, this knowledge becomes higher and more pure. Your
life is a complete university. You are a complete universe. You are a complete
full university of knowledge. That is the education system of the future, the
future system of life. There some institutions now which are trying to
experiment with that system.
“All the world’s possibilities in man are waiting as the tree
waits in its seed.”
Sri Aurobindo
*
How
can we grow kids in the system, in normal schools, but not teach them the
things from the system?
The thing is that if you learn
within the system, you will learn the things from the system, so break the
system, tell your child to go and break the system, compel them to change the
system. You have the power to break the system; you have the power to refuse
the system. Why do you want to compromise and adjust in the system if you have
any aspiration to enlarge yourself, to grow, to know more what you are? First
of all, children are not the propriety of the parents. If the parents are fully illiterate
and ignorant they will make their child also a slave like them because the
parents don’t understand what that is. The thing is, that before producing
children you must know what that project is. Why do you want to create a child?
What for? Why do you want to bring a new soul on this earth, what for? What is
your programme? What is in your mind? What are you expecting and what you want
to create should be very clear. Because here in the world we do not have a
system for children so what do you want, that they also live like you?
First you create
the system and then think about having children. First lets prepare this earth.
We have to prepare this earth for a better life. We are not ready. Maybe one
day it will be something and we will prepare the grounds. But without preparing
the grounds you are calling the players to play. First make the playground then
call the players to play the game.
“To Love to
learn is the most precious gift that one can give to a child.
To learn always
and everywhere”
The Mother
*
Aurovalley Ashram and Education
Aurovalley Ashram School was created with the understanding that knowledge is not in a system, but a subject you have to live. And that the Knowledge is inside. We need some pressure, environment and
atmosphere where the internal dimension can be opened. From the beginning the
idea of Aurovalley was to create an atmosphere of education in which one can be
educated from the environment. If you go somewhere in nature, there you will
find that something opens inside you. For
example let’s look at Buddha. Where did he get all his knowledge? He was a king
who could call all the teachers and tell them to teach him but instead he left
everything and went to the forest and that’s where he got his enlightenment.
That's our
experiment here. And this is the purpose of the new project (referring to
the World Temple). The idea is to create an environment so to discover
something that can awaken us (to grow the consciousness). This is an ashram of
Sri Aurobindo and The Mother and we are working on making possible a new type
of education and develop the Free Progress Education System for a new
consciousness. In that style of education there is no pressure on you and you
do not have any external obligation about having to do something. It is just
about creating an atmosphere and seeing in which direction you feel to move or
want to know. And for children it is to help them grow in the direction that
interests him; it is not that they have to learn content material, language, or
math. If anything awakes in him and he aspires to learn something, you give the
whole atmosphere and possibilities that can grow him in that direction.
The education in
the world is focused on people looking for and getting diplomas so they can
establish their lives in the system. Such education where one fits into the
system is not education, it is ignorance. Education means wisdom; if education
does not give you that, it is ignorance. We are growing our ignorance so that
we can fit into the system and establish our life. To set your life means
death, it is like being dead moving boxes.
"Your Life is your best School" Swami Brahmdev
*
About the Aurovalley School
The school we have
is a small service to the community, not the education we are talking about,
because parents are not interested in such education. No parent wants to send
their children to a place where they are not going to teach them anything, and
not going to give diplomas or certificates. The school we have here is for
young children, 3-7 years old, to offer this atmosphere for a few years and
give them a small base with wisdom, freedom and no pressure. But we do not
create pressures on anybody about something that must be done, or create
notions about doing yoga. First, because there are many things you can do, but
yoga is not a matter of doing. Yoga is a way of life, so never create notions
about whether you’re doing yoga or not; yoga is your attitude. All life is
yoga.
All of nature is
here and many colleges come from Delhi and many cities just to spend time in
nature. The Ganga river is very close; there are wild animals around and a very
pure atmosphere.
Why people come here?
People come here
to live for nothing. Those who want to live for nothing are welcome. In
nothingness everything grows spontaneously. ‘Something’ makes us limited; as
long as we live for ‘something’, to become 'something', it limits us. Nothing is
the source. We come from nowhere and again we return to nothing, so then live
for nothing. Live with that attitude of being nothing. In fact we are nothing.
Divinity means nothing, nothing means everything. Never become something. The nickname of Divinity is nothingness.
Here you can see a video from "Adopt a Soul Programme" from Aurovalley School/
Aqui un video del programa "Adoptar un Alma" del Colegio de Aurovalley
***
APRENDE DE LA VIDA
Haz de tu Vida tu Colegio
Haz de tu Vida tu Colegio
Satsang de Swami Brahmdev
“Eres
una universidad completa de conocimiento”
Swami
Brahmdev
¿Como educar
esta vida? La educación es un aspecto muy importante, sin embargo tenemos
educación sobre la manera de sobrevivir, pero no tenemos educación para
aprender a vivir. Hay una gran diferencia entre las formas para aprender a
sobrevivir y las formas en las que uno puede aprender a vivir. La mayoría de
los colegios sólo nos enseñan cómo sobrevivir, por lo cual *La Madre formulo y
diseño un sistema llamado “El Sistema de
Libre Progreso” en este sistema no existe un sistema de clases con exámenes
ni la competencia entre los estudiantes. Es un sistema de elección en el que
cada uno elige desde su ser interior si quiere aprender algo y decide en qué
dirección desea conseguirlo. El sistema de libre progreso, crea un entorno para
el niño donde hay muchas posibilidades de crecer y aprender, de acuerdo a lo
que el niño lleva dentro de sí mismo ira descubriendo automáticamente, según su
sentir, lo que quiere hacer y lo que quiere aprender. En este sistema hay más
posibilidades de crecer hacia adentro y despertar su potencial más elevado. El
sistema actual no despierta el potencial interno - ni la conciencia o el darse
cuenta para conocerse, más bien se enfoca en crecer y desarrollas las
capacidades mentales y físicas, pero no despierta la conciencia interna y el potencial.
¿Madre, podría definir en pocas palabras que significa en esencia “progreso
libre”?
Un progreso guiado por el alma que no está sujeto a hábitos, convenciones o
ideas preconcebidas.
La Madre
Queremos un sistema que despierte
nuestro potencial. Tenemos una cantidad infinita de posibilidades infinitas. En
esta caja humana llevamos el poder
de la conciencia, la luz suprema de la conciencia,
llevamos en nosotros un mundo supremo de posibilidades, pero somos
completamente inconscientes de esto, sólo estamos conscientes de nuestra
pequeña mente y pequeñas capacidades. Aunque en la evolución las cosas crecen
lentamente ha llegado el momento en el que estamos viendo la necesidad de
cambiar algunos sistemas. Ahora hay esperanzas, en muchos lugares la gente está
haciendo experimentos para despertar su potencial, su conciencia y la vida
interior, La Madre creó un sistema para eso. No es fácil de poner en práctica,
porque no estamos dispuestos a entender muchas cosas, para eso se necesita
plena fe en sí mismo y plena fe en lo divino. Pero algo está pasando y tarde o
temprano vamos a sentir la necesidad de otros sistemas, y vamos a crecer y vamos a ser capaces de vivir con nuestro
potencial.
La vida siempre nos da la opción de
elegir. Siempre tienes la opción de elegir cómo quieres pensar, negativo o
positivo; cómo quieres vivir: con ignorancia o con conciencia; si quieres hacer
trabajo constructivo o trabajo destructivo. Tú eliges, no hay ninguna presión
sobre ti que te obligue a vivir sin ignorancia, sólo tenemos que ser
conscientes de ese poder y conscientemente elegir. Es tu elección cómo quieres
pensar, es tu elección cómo te quieres sentir. Cuando empiezas a pensar
negativamente, luego te enfermas y te
sientes triste. ¿Por qué no detienes tus sentimientos y pensamientos? Tienes el
poder de controlar, detener y cambiar. Somos seres humanos porque tenemos el poder de cambiar, si no
usamos este poder para cambiar las emociones, para cambiar los hábitos, cambiar
el pensamiento, cambiar la actitud, cambiar las formas, quiere decir que no estamos usando el poder humano.
No somos animales que tienen que vivir
con la misma naturaleza y estilo siempre. Los animales comen la misma comida
durante toda su vida y viven de la misma manera, nunca cambian nada en su vida, pero los seres humanos
tenemos el poder de cambiar. Dondequiera que estés puedes cambiar la forma de
conducir y la dirección; todo el diseño, toda la forma, todos los
programas. Puedes cambiar todos los
cuadros de la vida y mover la vida, ese es tu poder. Así que lo primero por
aprender, es como controlar y cambiar en ti, los sentimientos, las emociones,
los hábitos. Aquello con lo que no te sientes bien en ti, modifícalo,
sustitúyelo. Tiene todos los colores y poderes para diseñar y pintar tu vida.
Elige los mejores colores y la pintura. Elija la mejor conciencia y vive con
ella.
Tenemos que aprender a elegir las
mejores posibilidades que puedan crecer nuestra conciencia, que puedan hacernos
más conscientes de nosotros mismos. Esa educación es necesaria, y esa educación
solo puede ser dada por la vida. Tu vida es tu colegio. Tienes que aprender de
tu naturaleza, para aprender de tu vida. Tienes que aprender a través de la
vida. La vida siempre te está dando experiencias, y a través de la experiencia
nuevos conocimientos. Tenemos que aprender a través del conocimiento de
nuestras experiencias y vivir con ese conocimiento. Cuando vives con el
conocimiento de tu propia experiencia, tu conocimiento se convierte en tu vida
y ese es el conocimiento. Luego, lentamente, poco a poco, este conocimiento se
vuelve más elevado y más puro. Tu vida es una universidad completa, eres un
universo completo de conocimiento. Hay algunas instituciones que ahora están
tratando de experimentar con este sistema. Este es el sistema de educación del
futuro, el futuro sistema de vida.
“Todas las posibilidades están esperando en el
hombre así como el árbol en la semilla”
Sri Aurobindo
*
¿Cómo
podemos ayudar a crecer los niños en el sistema, en los colegios normales, pero
no enseñarles las cosas desde el sistema?
Si se aprende dentro del sistema se
aprenderán las cosas desde el sistema, puede motivar a su hijo a romper el
sistema, Tienes el poder de cambiar y rechazar el sistema. ¿Por qué te quieres
comprometer y ajustar al sistema, si tienes otra aspiración para agrandarte a
ti mismo, para crecer, para conocer mejor lo que eres? En primer lugar, los
niños no son propiedad de los padres. Si los padres son totalmente analfabetos
e ignorantes ellos hacen su niño también un esclavo, como ellos, porque los
padres no entienden lo que es eso significa. El asunto es que antes de producir
hijos deberíamos saber lo que ese proyecto significa y tener claro ¿Por qué
quieres crear un niño?, ¿Por qué quieres traer una nueva alma a esta tierra, para
qué? ¿Cuál es tu programa? ¿Qué hay en tu mente? Y tener claro qué estás
esperando y lo que deseas. Porque aquí en el mundo no tenemos un sistema para
los niños, ¿y qué quieres, que ellos también vivan como tú? Primero crea el
sistema y luego piensa en tener hijos. Primero prepara esta tierra. Tenemos que
preparar la tierra para una vida mejor. No estamos listos, tal vez un día
logremos algo y vamos a tener el terreno. Pero sin tener listo el terreno de
juego estas llamando a los jugadores para jugar. Entonces, primero hay preparar el campo de juego, antes
de llamar a los jugadores a jugar el juego.
“El
Amor por aprender es el regalo mas preciosos que uno puede darle a un niño.
Aprender
siempre y en todo lugar”
La
Madre
*
Aurovalley
Ashram y La Educación
Con el entendimiento que el
conocimiento no está en un sistema, sino en la vida, y que el conocimiento está
dentro de sí mismo, entonces uno necesita el medio ambiente y la atmósfera
donde la dimensión interna se puede abrir. Desde el principio la idea de
Aurovalley era crear un ambiente de educación en el que uno puede ser educado
en el ambiente. En primer lugar, un lugar natural, si vas a algún en la
naturaleza vas a ver que algo se abre en ti. Hay muchos ejemplos de vida, por ejemplo Buddha. ¿De dónde sacó todo
su conocimiento? Él era un rey que podría llamar a todos los maestros y
decirles que le enseñara, pero en lugar de eso lo dejó todo y se fue al bosque
y allí fue donde consiguió su iluminación.
Ese es nuestro experimento aquí,
y este es el objetivo del nuevo proyecto (en referencia al templo de la
Humanidad). La idea es crear un entorno para descubrir algo que nos pueda
despertar (para elevar la conciencia). Este es un ashram de Sri Aurobindo y La
Madre y estamos trabajando en hacer posible un nuevo tipo de educación y el
desarrollo del Sistema de Libre Progreso para una nueva conciencia. En ese
estilo de educación no hay presión ni obligación externa de tener que hacer
algo. Se trata de crear una atmósfera y ver en qué dirección siente moverse o
quiere aprender. Y para los niños, es para ayudarles a crecer en la dirección que
le interesa; no es que tengan que aprender material de contenido, lenguaje o
matemáticas. Si algo se despierta en el niño y si aspira por aprender algo, se
le da todo el ambiente y las posibilidades para que pueda crecer en esa
dirección.
La educación en el mundo se centra en
que las personas buscan y reciben diplomas para poder establecer sus vidas en
el sistema. Este tipo de educación donde se busca encajar en el sistema no es
educación, es ignorancia. Educación significa sabiduría; si la educación no se
la da entonces es ignorancia. Estamos creciendo nuestra ignorancia para poder
encajar en el sistema y establecer nuestra vida. Pero establecer la vida
significa morir, es como ser cajas muertas que se mueven.
"Tu Vida es el Mejor Colegio"
Swami Brahmdev
Swami Brahmdev
Sobre
el Colegio de Aurovalley
La
escuela que tenemos es un pequeño servicio a la comunidad, no tiene la
educación de la que estamos hablando, porque los padres no están interesados en este tipo de educación. Ningún padre
quiere enviar a sus hijos a un lugar donde no van a enseñarles nada, y no van a
dar diplomas o certificados. La escuela que tenemos aquí es para los niños
pequeños, 3-7 años, para ofrecer esta atmósfera durante unos años y ofrecerles
una pequeña base con sabiduría, libertad y sin presión.
Pero no
creamos las presiones sobre nadie sobre algo que se debe hacer, ni creamos
nociones acerca de hacer yoga. En primer lugar, porque hay muchas cosas que se
puede hacer, pero el yoga no es una cuestión de hacer. El yoga es una forma de
vida, por lo que es importante crear nociones acerca de si está haciendo yoga o
no, yoga es actitud, toda la vida es el yoga.
Toda la
naturaleza está aquí y muchos colegios vienen de Delhi y muchas ciudades sólo
para pasar tiempo en la naturaleza. El Ganges está muy cerca; hay una gran
variedad de pagaron y especies, algunas veces se ven animales salvajes
alrededor y una atmosfera muy pura...
¿Por
qué la gente viene aquí?
La gente viene aquí para vivir a cambio de nada. Aquellos que quieren
vivir por nada son bienvenidos. En la nada todo crece espontáneamente. “Algo”
nos hace limitados; tan pronto vivimos para "algo", para convertirse
en algo, eso nos limita. Nada es la fuente. Venimos de la nada y de nuevo
volvemos a nada, por lo que entonces vivimos por nada. Vivir con esa actitud de
no ser nada. De hecho, no somos nada. Divinidad significa nada, nada lo es
todo. Nunca te vuelvas algo. El apodo de
la Divinidad es la nada.
***
*La Madre, colaboradora espiritual de
Sri Aurobindo, dirigió y se hizo cargo del Ashram de Sri Aurobindo al sur de
India en Pondicherry, allí mismo creó varias instituciones educativas, daba
clases a los niños del ashram, y creo la ciudad de Auroville, Hay una colección
completa de escritos con su obra, en las que abarca temas asociados a la
comprensión del hombre como ser integral, la evolución de conciencia, la
educación, el arte, y el significado de las flores, entre muchos otros.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
SPEAKING TREE ARTICLE
Resolutions Made On A Spiritual Journey
(Click this title to see the article on www.speakingtree.in)
By: Swami Brahmdev on Apr 10, 2015
'life is a testing ground for inner growth. So there will be trials and tribulations."
writes Swami Brahmdev
In my spiritual journey, I have experienced the presence of Divinity, in whose shadow,
harmony and peace grows. Things happen even as I am watching. I feel amazed. I have
also experienced the role played by disturbing forces in the game of life. The challenges
posed by these forces have sometimes put my life in danger.
Mother has said that in the end only the divine forces win the game. When you know this,
whatever be the problems that come your way, you do not lose your balance; your faith
grows with that belief.
And we also have this notion that when you work for the Divine, the Divine will only hand
chocolates. Ha! No. The Divine is making you and the process of making you is not always
easy. So there are trials and tribulations. All this sounds like a jigsaw puzzle. The big picture,
the most important thing about life, is life itself. Everyday, we should spend some time
thinking about life…our prized possession. Why do we have it? What is its purpose? How to
make it more meaningful? The mind and body are instruments to manifest the Divine. Without
the influence of the soul, life has no meaning.
The process of knowing yourself — your soul — begins with frustration, strange as it may
sound. The frustration comes from your ignorance. You should constantly ask yourself: Why
am I here? When you keep asking that question, something inside will break, and the process
of knowing yourself will begin.
So, life is a laboratory with one question that needs to be answered: Who am I and why
am I here? Life is a testing ground for inner growth. Mother says nothing can be taught
and you have everything within you. You only need the right atmosphere, which is created
with the right attitude. The right attitude is that of service, selfless service. Till you develop
that attitude, life keeps throwing challenges at you.
When you go to a gym, the trainer gives you more and more weights to lift — as much
as you can take. Everyday, Nature, too, keeps adding weight. It looks heavy at the
beginning but you manage to lift it. This is the process of learning and growing. It means
you have learnt something, discovered something. Everyday, a new test awaits you. It is
joyful to find you pass it and move on.
How to pass the test? Let the Divine work. You just watch. If you let the Divine manifest
itself, you will be surprised how things automatically happen. There is only one secret —
dedicate it to the Divine. Live for the Divine. Believe in Divine forces. Do not think of your
personal interests. The Divine will take care of them for you. The Divine is waiting for you
to be free from personal agendas; then it will work wonders.
When you are working for personal desires — when the self is above all — you have to
worry about resources, because you have to work with limited capabilities. When the
Divine works, there are no limits.
We confuse ourselves by using words such as duty, out of context. People often ask me,
“How can I live for the Divine when I have worldly duties — duties towards my family and
at my work place?” Duty is a beautiful word, but when you say I have duty towards
my family, who is your family? Just the few people you live with?
The whole world is your family. You have duty towards every other being, animal or human.
If you carry this definition of duty with you, you will look for benefits for everybody.
Then the Divine will find that you are in consonance with the purpose of life and will
start working magic for you as well as for the entire humanity. That is when the forces
creating trouble will be defeated, overcome.”
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