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This article is based on an event by New Acropolis Culture Circle with Raghu Ananthanarayanan, who spoke on the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali. Raghu is a behavioural scientist, yoga teacher and author. He has dedicated his life to the study and application of yoga and Indic traditions to guide the inner transformation of individuals and shape leadership and culture building of organizations.
“Who were you that I lived with, walked with? The brother, the friend? Strife and love, darkness and light…are they workings of one mind, features of the same face? Oh my soul. Let me be in you now. Look out through my eyes. Look out at the things you made. All things shining.”
Eight centuries ago a culture of mystical Islam suffused the lands extending from modern day Turkey (Anatolia) to modern day Afghanistan and Iran (Khorasan); it was called Sufi Islam. Etymologically, the word ‘Sufi’ is derived from the Arabic word safa, meaning purity. Mystics of the order created a path towards attaining self-knowledge and god-realisation in their desire to reunite themselves with God. This phenomenon was cradled and nourished by great intellectual, artistic and philosophical icons of the time; foremost among them was Jalaluddin Mohammed Rumi.
When I was very young, I came across a book called The Prophet, by poet, painter, thinker, but perhaps above all, a philosopher, Kahlil Gibran. I clearly remember a sense of mystery; the existence of truths about myself, beyond the known. I did not know what I was searching for, but it awakened in me a desperate thirst to know myself. I had set off on a journey, and Kahlil Gibran’s works have been a shining light ever since. Gibran was born to humble beginnings in 19th century Lebanon, in a world torn by war.
Tagore always criticized power and materialism for its own sake. The more one accumulates treasures, and the more one amasses all the power in the world, one is actually chained.
For centuries art has been a natural means to express one’s inner journey – be it as a community or as an individual search. So has it been for Olivia Fraser, who has used her art to uplift, to produce wonder and beauty, and to find the ‘inner essence’ of things.
Olivia Fraser moved to India in 1989. Initially she was a travel painter before apprenticing with miniature and Pichwai artists from Jaipur, where she learnt their rich, rigorous and intricate tradition. The influence of Nathdwara Pichwai painting and early 19th century Jodhpuri painting,
TOne of the platforms through which this unique concept of education was disseminated was through the ancient Indian Gurukul tradition. The term Gurukul comes from Guru, meaning teacher and kul, meaning extended family or home.
Hazrat Baba Bulleh Shah is believed to have been born in 1680, in the small village of Uch (Bahawalpur, Punjab) in present-day Pakistan, where his father, Shah Muhammad Darwaish, was a Paish Imam and teacher. Most historians confirm that Bulleh Shah worked as an adolescent herder in the village. Despite his poverty, however, he was able to educate himself very well, and became a well known Sufi mystic, and celebrated Kaafi poet, using the main lyrical form of Punjabi Sufi Poetry.
The universe is a place of balance…Yin and Yang, night and day, summer and winter, masculine and feminine. A balance achieved by complementarity – the equal and opposite effect of dualistic entities. Yin is as essential as Yang, just as night is as essential as day; each has its role and function in the service of life as a whole. So too, the feminine is as essential as the masculine.
It is natural to wish to live a successful and meaningful life; to feel we managed to contribute, and make some difference, some impact on the world around us; to feel we fulfilled our life. To do so, it can be logical that one would seek to influence others, to be considered successful in their eyes, and someone worth learning from. It is certainly a means to impact others, to get positive attention. It could become a problem however, if we tend to mix means with aims, forgetting that one cannot replace the other. To be considered successful on the outer doesn’t stand for the quality of the inner and the actual.
I plunged into the sport of Muay Thai as an adventure, to know and develop myself as an athlete, but little did I know that I would be learning much deeper lessons of life; in how to be an inner warrior.
Muay Thai (Thai boxing) is a martial art and combat sport known as the ‘Art of Eight Limbs’. It is characterized by the combined use of both the fists, elbows, knees, and shins. A popular international sport today, its history and origins date back to the ancient myth of the Ramayana…
A traditional Japanese story speaks of a disciple who once asked his master how one could achieve enlightenment. The master suggested in a matter of fact manner, that he must do exactly the same thing he did every morning for the sun to rise. After much pondering, the confused disciple went back to his master to confess that in reality he did not do anything to help the sun to rise every day…
Some of us from New Acropolis (India North), along with 17 other countries came together to take part in the 8-day long, Philosophical-Sports Pre-Season event in Greece. But what is a Pre-Season about? How does New Acropolis, a School of Philosophy connect with the School of Sports?
In 2010, Shri Lakshmanan Gurukkal founded Kalarigram, near Auroville, as a traditional Kalaripayattu training center, that conducts classes and workshops in the intersecting disciplines of Kalaripayattu, Ayurveda, Yoga and Meditation.
Symbols hold a powerful attraction for people. Even today, in an age in which materialistic perspectives rule human thought, many ancient symbols such as the ankh, the yin/yang, American Indian designs, pyramids, and many other symbols are quite popular in jewelry and in the home. Why do symbols of the ancient civilizations continue to be an integral part our society, even to the point that corporations use them in commercials, movies, logos, in television documentaries, etc.?