7 Qualities of the Dhyanalinga

ISHA YOGA CENTER   

The basic thrust of the energies of the Dhyanalinga is to foster spiritual growth and evolution of a person. However, the Dhyanalinga radiates seven different qualities of life on the seven days of the week by which one may derive various benefits.

Sadhguru: The fundamental difference between Dhyanalinga and other lingas that you normally see is that there is no worship, ritual, or offerings for the Dhyanalinga. It is a “Dhyanalinga” – a meditative force. All that you are required to do is just sit there quietly to experience and imbibe the energies. Once a person is in the sphere of Dhyanalinga, he cannot escape the sowing of the spiritual seed of liberation within himself.

Fundamentally, Dhyanalinga’s energies are primordial in nature. It is essentially a spiritual process, but because people invariably need material help and benefit, those aspects have also been made available in an expression of the exuberance of the seven chakras.

Chakras are a meeting point for the energy systems, where the pranic nadis meet to create an energy vortex. There are many chakras in the body, but generally, when we say “chakras” we are referring to the seven important chakras, which represent seven dimensions of life. They are like seven major traffic junctions. This does not mean that a chakra by itself has its own quality, it is just that all roads which travel in a direction are doing certain things and they come together at a certain point, so it becomes a powerful place.

In the Dhyanalinga, there is a certain cyclical system where different chakras are dominant on different days of the week. All the chakras are equally available on every day of the week, but on certain days, certain chakras are dominant. If people want to derive a particular benefit or influence upon their system, they can be there on that particular day to make use of that energy.

Qualities of the Dhyanalinga

The basic thrust of the energies of the Dhyanalinga is to foster spiritual growth and evolution of a person. However, the Dhyanalinga radiates seven different qualities of life on the seven days of the week by which one may derive various benefits.

Monday: Earth being the tattva[1], this element stirs the spiritual energies in the most fundamental way and helps one rise beyond the limitations of food and sleep. It helps in cleansing the doshas[2] in the body and mind and removes the fear of death. It firmly establishes one within the body and also the world outside. The day is most conducive to the aspiration of people seeking to make a spiritual beginning. It is the root of all growth and brings awareness of the divinity in man.

Tuesday: Water being the tattva, it provides the fluidity to create one’s life the way one wants. It helps in procreation, imagination, intuition, and mental stability. It is a very good day for healing one’s inner ailments.

Wednesday: Fire being the tattva, it creates a zest for life. It brings physical balance and a deep understanding of the body. It hastens the dissolution of karmic bondage.

Thursday: Air being the tattva, freedom becomes the way. It is an important day for seeking the divine. It is a meeting and a balance of the lower and higher energies. Love and devotion become the qualities of the person. It is a very good day to shed karmic bondage.

Friday: Space being the tattva, limitlessness and freedom are the basic qualities, highly purifying for those who are suffering from any kind of negative energies and black magic. It develops memory, concentration, patience, self-confidence, and synchronicity with nature. It lowers the dependence on food and water.

Saturday: Being the Maha tattva, it is beyond all duality. It leads to knowledge and enlightenment. Peace is the dominant quality. It is very important for those seeking self-realization. It helps one to go beyond the five elements and allows the individual to attain viveka (wisdom). It brings one in tune with the cosmic laws and become one with everything.

Sunday: It marks the celebration of life beyond all senses. This is the best day to receive the Guru’s Grace and to break the illusion of the individual self.

It is Sadhguru’s vision that the Dhyanalinga be available to all, for generations to come. If you would like to donate towards the completion of the sacred space of the Dhyanalinga, and participate in offering the spiritual process to future generations, please visit our online fundraising page at:www.giveisha.com/temple

 

[1] tattva: element, as in the five elements

[2] dosha: defect or blemish. Specifically refers to defects in the physical, mental or energy bodies

RAMANA MAHARSHI - Osho

RAMANA MAHARSHI

A man came to Ramana Maharshi and said, “I have come from very far, somewhere in Germany, and I have come to learn from you.” Ramana said, “Then you go elsewhere, because here we teach unlearning. Learning is not our way. You go elsewhere.”

He may have been a German scholar, he may have known the Vedas, Upanishads, it may have been because of his learning that he became interested in Ramana. Reading the Upanishads, the desire arises to find a man who knows. Moving through the pages of the Vedas one becomes enchanted, charmed, magnetized, hypnotized. One starts seeking a man who is a seer of whom the Vedas talk, a man of the caliber of the seers of the Upanishads – a man who knows. He may have come because of the scriptures.

But you don’t know the man who knows. He is always against scriptures. Scriptures may lead to him, but he will tell you to drop all scriptures. The ladder through which you have come – he will say, “Throw it! Now that you have reached me there is no need for Vedas and Upanishads and Korans; you drop them! Now I am here, alive.”

Jesus says: I am truth, no need to bring scriptures here. Ramana said, “Then you go elsewhere, because here we teach unlearning. If you are ready to unlearn, be here. If you have come to learn more, then this is not the right place. Then go somewhere else – universities exist for learning. When you come to me, come to unlearn. This is a university for unlearning, a university to create no-mind, a university where whatsoever you know will be taken away.”

All your knowledge has to be dropped so that you become knowing, so you get a perfection, a clarity, so that your eyes are not filled with theses, or theories, with prejudices, concepts; so your eyes have a clarity, an absolute clarity and transparency, so that you can see. The truth is already there. It has always been there.

Osho, Just Like That, Talk #1

Ramana Maharshi says: self-knowledge is an easy thing the easiest thing there is. Because it is so close! It is already there, it has always been there. Just a look, just a turning-in, and you are no more a beggar, and you have attained to emperor hood, and you are enthroned, and you are crowned, and you are a king. Just a look within…. But this is what Sufis say. Ramana is a Sufi.

I am using the word Sufi in the widest meaning of the word. Buddha is a Sufi, Jesus is a Sufi, Ramana is a Sufi. By Sufi, I mean one who is fed up with philosophies and has started searching for the real, who is no more satisfied with synthetic food and who searches for the real nourishment.

Ramana says: Self-knowledge is as easy a thing as any – the easiest thing there is. But just in contrast to it, listen to this sentence from Immanuel Kant, a great philosopher: Metaphysics is a call to reason to undertake anew the most difficult of all tasks, namely that of self-knowledge.

Philosophy makes it difficult, very difficult, almost impossible – because philosophy moves farther and farther away from it. To know about the self is not to know it, to know about God is not to know God – how can the ‘about’ be it? About and about…you go in circles. It becomes impossible.

The more you become clever, cunning, calculating, about the about, the farther and farther you are led astray. It is not a question of knowing about the self: it is simply a question of knowing it, being aware; not a question of thinking about it, but of centering in it. Sitting silently in it, and it is revealed.

Ramana is right, he has to be right – he knows. Immanuel Kant is not right, he cannot be right – he never came across it. Although he tried hard, he worked hard – he had one of the keenest intellects ever. His acumen cannot be doubted. His logic is perfect. But as far as his insight is concerned, he is blind.

It is like a blind man thinking about light – it is bound to be impossible. How can a blind man think about light?

Osho, The Perfect Master, Vol. 2, Talk #1

It happened, Maharshi Raman was dying. On Thursday April 13th, a doctor brought Maharshi a palliative to relieve the congestion in the lungs, but he refused it. “It is not necessary, everything will come right within two days,” he said. And after two days he died.

At about sunset, Maharshi told the attendants to sit him up. They knew already that every movement, every touch, was painful, but he told them not to worry about that. He was suffering from cancer – he had a throat cancer, very painful. Even to drink water was impossible, to eat anything was impossible, to move his head was impossible. Even to say a few words was very difficult.

He sat with one of the attendants supporting his head. A doctor began to give him oxygen, but with a wave of his right hand he motioned him away.

Unexpectedly, a group of devotees sitting on the verandah outside the hall began singing Arunachala-Siva – a bhajan that Maharshi liked very much. He liked that spot, Arunachala, very much; the hill he used to live upon – that hill is called Arunachala. And the bhajan was a praise, a praise for the hill.

On hearing it, Maharshi’s eyes opened and shone. He gave a brief smile of indescribable tenderness. From the outer edges of his eyes tears of bliss rolled down.

Somebody asked him, “Maharshi, are you really leaving us?”

It was hard for him to say, but still he uttered these few words: “They say that I am dying – but I am not going away. Where could I go? I am always here.”

One more breath, and no more. There was no struggle, no spasm, no other sign of death: only that the next breath did not come.

What he says is of immense significance – “Where could I go? I am always here.” There is nowhere to go. This is the only existence there is, this is the only dance there is – where can one go? Life comes and goes, death comes and goes – but where can one go? You were there before life.

Osho, Zen: The Path of Paradox, Vol. 2, Talk #6 

The Purpose of Life

The Purpose of Life

Excerpts from the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda Mankind is engaged in an eternal quest for that “something else” he hopes will bring him happiness, complete and unending. For those individual souls who have sought and found God, the search is over: He is that Something Else. Many people may doubt that finding God is the purpose of life; but everyone can accept the idea that the purpose of life is to find happiness. I say that God is Happiness. He is Bliss. He is Love. He is Joy that will never go away from your soul. So why shouldn’t you try to acquire that Happiness? No one else can give it to you. You must continuously cultivate it yourself. Even if life gave you at one time everything you wanted — wealth, power, friends — after a while you would again become dissatisfied and need something more. But there is one thing that can never become stale to you — joy itself. Happiness that is delightfully varied, though its essence is changeless, is the inner experience everyone is seeking. Lasting, ever new joy is God. Finding this Joy within, you will find it in everything without. In God you will tap the Reservoir of perennial, unending bliss. Suppose you are going to be punished by not being allowed to go to sleep when you are desperately in need of rest, and suddenly someone says: “All right, you may go to sleep now.” Think of the joy you would feel just before falling asleep. Multiply that one million times! Still it would not describe the joy felt in communion with God. The joy of God is boundless, unceasing, all the time new. Body, mind, nothing can disturb you when you are in that consciousness — such is the grace and glory of the Lord. And He will explain to you whatever you haven’t been able to understand; everything you want to know. When you sit in the silence of deep meditation, joy bubbles up from within, roused by no outer stimulus. The joy of meditation is overwhelming. Those who have not gone into the silence of true meditation do not know what real joy is. As the mind and the feeling are directed inward, you begin to feel God’s joy. The pleasures of the senses do not last; but the joy of God is everlasting. It is incomparable! Very few of us know how much we can put into life if we use it properly, wisely, and economically. Let us economize our time — lifetimes ebb away before we wake up, and that is why we do not realize the value of the immortal time God has given us. Do not while away your time in idleness. A great many people occupy themselves with inconsequential activities. Ask them what they have been doing and they will usually say, “Oh, I have been busy every minute!” But they can scarcely remember what they were so busy about! In an instant you may be required to leave this world; you will have to cancel all your engagements. Why then give any other activity first importance, with the result that you have no time for God? That is not common sense. It is because of maya, the net of cosmic delusion which is thrown over us, that we entangle ourselves in mundane interests and forget the Lord. If we are attuned to God, our perception is limitless, pervading everywhere in the oceanic flow of the Divine Presence. When the Spirit is known, and when we know ourselves as Spirit, there is no land or sea, no earth or sky — all is He. The melting of everything in Spirit is a state no one can describe. A great bliss is felt — eternal fullness of joy and knowledge and love. The love of God, the love of the Spirit, is an all-consuming love. Once you have experienced it, it shall lead you on and on in the eternal realms. That love will never be taken away from your heart. It shall burn there, and in its fire you shall find the great magnetism of Spirit that draws others unto you, and attracts whatsoever you truly need or desire. I tell you truthfully that all my questions have been answered, not through man but through God. He is. He is. It is His spirit that talks to you through me. It is His love that I speak of. Thrill after thrill! Like gentle zephyrs His love comes over the soul. Day and night, week after week, year after year, it goes on increasing — you don’t know where the end is. And that is what you are seeking, every one of you. You think you want human love and prosperity, but behind these it is your Father who is calling you. If you realize He is greater than all His gifts, you will find Him. Man has come on earth solely to learn to know God; he is here for no other reason. This is the true message of the Lord. To all those who seek and love Him, He tells of that great Life where there is no pain, no old age, no war, no death — only eternal assurance. In that Life nothing is destroyed. There is only ineffable happiness that will never grow stale — a happiness always new. So that is why it is worthwhile to seek God. All those who sincerely seek Him will surely find Him. Those who want to love the Lord and yearn to enter His kingdom, and who sincerely wish in their hearts to know Him, will find Him. You must have an ever-increasing desire for Him, day and night. He will acknowledge your love by fulfilling His promise to you throughout eternity, and you shall know joy and happiness unending. All is light, all is joy, all is peace, all is love. He is all.

The Purpose of Life