Meditations

A collection of significant thoughts, meditations, and reflections from three genuine, major representatives of traditional Yoga. 

Their words and thoughts were in part previously transmitted to the sole attendants of the Goswami Yoga Institute annual seminars.

They are now made available to Yoga practitioners from all over the world. With the hope that they may elicit positive results at all levels of intellectual understanding and spiritual maturity.

Sri Shyam Sundar Goswami (1891–1978)

Sri Goswami was an Indian Yoga teacher who mastered both Hatha Yoga and Laya Yoga. He devoted most of his life to the science of Yoga, and is considered to be one of the most important Yoga masters during the 20^th Century. 

Spirituality is to awaken the Divine in one’s consciousness.

A spiritual relation differs from other types of relationship, it is expected to always stand at a high level.

Only one who is harmonious in body and mind can achieve the highest development of his spiritual powers.

If You own two watches You can never tell the right time.

If You come too close to me You will either melt or harden like steel, depending what You are made of.

Living spirituality is Yoga.

Vigor itself is not the pinnacle of the expression of human life.
The physical body is designed to serve as a sound, strong and permanently healthy foundation, so that one’s mental life can emerge and bloom in a balanced, beautiful and harmonious manner. One must adopt suitable means for vitalizing and strengthening the physical body, not for the body’s own sake, but so as to purify and harmonize it. Otherwise one may expect to lead a narrow-minded life.

A short concentration with feelings will bring You far more than long meditation without feeling.

Yoga is samyoga or union. There is no nearness greater than union.

Everyday pleasure is the semblance of supreme bliss associated with the Divine Being.

The level of our mental life is determined by the type of thought that dominates it.
At a lower stage, thought can express a blindness in which darkness, indolence,
and lack of attention,  intelligence or comprehension are its main features.
In an agitated state, thoughts are dominated by wishes, desires, greed or excesses.
On the other hand, in a mind intensely “mono-focal”, that is to say concentrating
on only one object, thoughts are sharp, constructive, noble, and elevated.
In reality, thoughts are an image of the man himself.

One with God

Oh God! I am forever one with Thee By the glory of birth The celestial powers proclaim it To the utmost bounds of the earth

I think of this birthright immortal And my being expands like o rose As a fragrant cloud of incense Around and above me flows

A glorious song of rejoicing In an innermost spirit I hear And it sounds like heavenly voices In a chorus divine and clear And I feel a power uprising Like the power of an embryo god With a glorious wall it surrounds me And lifts me up from the sod

On the demise of a close disciple’s mother

If you wish to attain durable peace of mind, no amount of sermonizing or sophistication, of intellectuality or intuition, subtlety or simplicity, free thinking or determinism will ever bring you a step nearer the accomplishment of your goal, as long as you are unhealthy.

Jatindra Mohana (Sri Goswami’s father)

Avatara

Who Knows the first word?
What is birth?
Is the Universe first, and the Divinity next?
Then who will know the Origin?

How the Creative Impulse arose?
Is he a creator, or not?
Was there someone where there was nothing?
Does he know the secret, or not?

There was neither Real nor Unreal
No air, no sky
Was everything covered, how, who then sustained?
Was there all water, deep, very deep?

There was neither Death nor immortality
Neither night nor day
There was only One who breathed in airless sphere
Only He who was awakened and others sleeping

There was only darkness,
Endless water with no shore,
One, possibly in void, remaining in secret
Awakened by his own tapas; it is He

It is He who is immanent in the Universe,
He who is within every living being,
Sometimes he comes out from his secret dwelling
And appears as non-man and man.

So, He became Fish, Tortoise, Boar
And Wamana, Rama, Krishna,
And others
And now in human form

Manifesting as much as necessary the Power
And imparting Wisdom
As much as human head can hold

And with the Spiritual message “manaso mano, pranasya pranah”
Mind of the mind, Life of the life
He as Truth, and reincarnated as Mother and Father of all
Our Time‘s divine manifestation

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Ma Santi Devi (1904–2002)

Ma Santi Devi was Sri Goswami’s spiritual mother. Formally illiterate but filled with spiritual wisdom, the devoted yogini was both a pragmatist and humanist. Throughout her life she cared for everyone around her with a rare sense of equanimity. 

Sadhana Paddhati (excerpts from a chela’s practice book):

Sadhana

The practice of Yoga is not for the welfare or salvation of one single person, but for the good of the whole humanity.

On yogic quest

On the fire of sadhana, everything I do sacrifice – my religion, the good and evil in myself, my education and skills, my feelings, indeed literally everything, even the ego”.

The role of the Guru

You have to sound the chela, strike him constantly hammering to see whether the sound is metallic or chaotic. There are hundreds of Gurus but there is only one real disciple out of one million.

The chela’s attitude

It is important to assume a dignified and heroic attitude in life. Always combine bhakti and shakti.

Pointers to emancipated yogis and yoginis

There is no need to those who carry on these yogic practices, to become sannyasin or to wear a saffron robe like a Hindu monk. In our dharma there is no room for external rituals and show off. Whenever we perform those rituals, we do so just to still the mind.

Without the least hesitation, keep on the practice of japa on your Ishta mantra. Then you are sure to experience ananda and the gradual revelation of inner truths; the road will be made clear and you will come across real treasures. Always endeavour to keep your thinking under control.

All great souls became child again
Hatred, shyness and shame, fear, friend and foe,
Sandalwood and excrement, stone and gold
All these are the same. Even the distinction
between sin and virtue, religion and atheism are absent from their heart.
In India as elsewhere, such great men have blessed us
with their presence but failed to be recognized.
Free from attachment whence happiness and sorrow are born
one rediscovers a child’s purity.

Prayer to the Almighty Mother

Divine Ma, please have mercy on me
Keep me pure as a child
A child makes no distinction between good and evil,
Honour and dishonour,
Friend and foe, sin and virtue,
Dharma and adharma.

On Religion

Love is the root of religion. It is nothing but love that makes the Lord visible from invisible. When the devotee’s mind is filled with love and when love creates joy in that mind, then arises the desire to witness the Lord in definite shape, to embrace Him and touching His feet with tears of love and to say:

“O, my Lord, whenever you come to us, do not go away. Fill up our hearts with sweet and lovely memories. Kindly allow space for us at your feet. Take away all, whatever else belong to us. Please divert our minds from the dishonest path to the honest one, from darkness to light and also from mortality to immortality. You are our Father, you have all the responsibilities to make us understand everything. O Lord, please make us understand everything, however dull we are, you will have to teach us the moral lessons.

We offer our regards to you for hundred thousand times. Do not spoil us. If we cannot realise you, we surely will be ruined. As the affectionate mother loves and naturally protects her son without judging his faults, likewise kindly save us from ignorance and give us all wealth and Knowledge.

You are at the same time our very parents, our friend and companion.
You are Knowledge and wealth as well.
O Lord, all the things – whatever they may be – are in you and belong to You.”

Hindu Christmas Message

At the first meeting with Ma Santi Devi in Gurudam

You are coming today on an auspicious day, the day of Lord Jesus’ arrival on earth.
On this occasion, I pray earnestly for the “mangalam” of all beings and in particular for the success of all my spiritual children.

With the constant blessings of my guru/husband and that of his close mantra-disciple, Jñanananda Giri (Shyam Sundar Goswami) – both have since left this world – I found children like Karin, Basile and others whom I regard as my own offspring. My heartiest wishes go to them for their spiritual welfare.

I have no education in the external world. The little I learned was imparted to me by my husband and guru – my Ishta.

He told me:
– Enter the domain of antar jagat. Do not boast or get involved in publicity lest it harm you in spiritual life. Always stay in your inner world and pray for the Mother’s grace from the core of your heart.

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Basile P. Catoméris (1930–)

Basile Catoméris is Sri Goswami’s spiritual heir and was one of his closest diciples. For more than two decades he received invaluable knowledge at the feet of the Yoga master. He assisted Sri Goswami in his research and continued his Yoga classes after his demise.

Life’s crisis either devitalize or make you stronger, they will either create bitterness or enrich you with wise insights.

To be everlasting, the links of friendship, affection and love should be purified through the filter of Yoga.

To be born as human being is a great privilege, perhaps the greatest.
In life, there is an invitation to a magnificent treat of self-service type, where appetite and stomach size are crucial for appreciation.

Spiritual experiences may be indelible, but do not elude the drama of life and their scars.
Just as the diamond cutter distinguish a precious stone from a worthless pebble.
Workers on consciousness know the difference between right and wrong.
Resplendent and pure is the diamond.
Dense hardness reflects its beauty
As a token of incorruptibility
Be like diamond, my son!

Translucent morning dew
Oh! purified soul
Reveals once more
Your Creator’s blessed light

Spiritual quest is a voyage in weightlessness.
It requires some solid preparation.

Could the stubborn curiosity of our intellect possibly reflect the constant presence of the Infinite.

Our unfathomable Universe undergoes constant changes
Challenging man’s constant theories and hypothesis
Its essence is what it is and remains the same.

The true artist praise life and meditate upon death

To Thee who hast revived the science of Yoga

To Thee who hast masterly taught thousands of pupils a refined way of living on this Planet

To Thee who hast inspired so many lofty ideals, notwithstanding the recipients’ race, color or faith

To Thee who hast shown us how to discover the inherent Beauty and Powers of Humankind and its desperate will to find Love

To Thee whose living presence in us ever challenges the time limit of Death

To Thee who hast kindly invited us to enter your Mother’s fragrant garden

Before Thee we humble ourselves and solemnly pledge never to forget all that we owe Thee …