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The Lord in my Heart, the Heart of the Lord.
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These last few weeks are less easy to describe nor maybe relate to as they were more personal and very spiritual. I will try nevertheless.
I had decided to move further up the hills to stay in silence at the Swami Chinmayananda ashram near Dharamsala where also his Samadhi shrine ( his body in rest) is erected. Swamiji is one of my spiritual guides and one of India’s greatest! (Adviata Vedanta/ Non Duality/ Jnana Yoga: we are already divine and liberated even though we have to realise it to experience it as such, we have to pierce the veil of inborn ignorance, right knowledge and right action will set us free) and even though he left his body, his presence is still very alive all around the ashram and everywhere his name and teachings are pronounced. I have spent half of my time in the shrine with Gurudev meditating and praying - yes praying - scrutining the depths of my being and the other half of my time in the forests around the ashram deepening in solitude the advanced practices of asana, breathwork and mudra/bandha that I had received from my teachers...everyday, sometimes 12h a day ... until I saw the light, until I experienced the Self.

Only the Self is Real, The world is not real, The Self is the world.

The ashram is one of the most pure and holy places I have ever lived in, the Brahmacharis (monks m/f) are an example of devotion, integrity and kindness and I felt really warm inside being accepted in their small group as (only) foreigner. The place is one of spiritual study and compassion with total respect for mother nature and all creatures big and small living inside of it.
I can only affirm what the scriptures say about the liberation of the Self, one has to bring back a form of devotion and prayer to the Supreme Lord ( what ever name that might be for you) in our daily life for the sake of purification because without it and with our fanatic attachments to the material world - even to healthy industry or eco friendly products - and the suffering that it brings with it and temporary pleasure, we won‘t make it as a species, we will only destroy ourselves and our planet even more in search for happiness which is only inside ourselves, only in our heart beyond the mind, yet we are strongly convinced it is out there. It is not. That belief is only in our minds, wherever we go whatever we try.
With this I feel I have completed my first cycle of the 8 limbs of yoga, from moral conduct and asana over pranayam and pratyahara to the experience of the light of the Lord’s Universal Love in our inner being.
That is Yoga, that is Life.

To finish with Chinmayananda‘s own words:
Prayer - ardent, regular, sincere, deep and loving prayer- is the only secret technique by which total transformation of our inner thought personality can be achieved. Cultivate this sacred mental attitude of ‘prayer in utter peace’, with our whole heart, in total surrender to the benign influence of love, glory and joy, with His divine nature ever.
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(Philosophy of Non duality means there is no God almighty outside of us, like most religions, no we are God almighty as much as the whole of creation we are made of, we are that, and we should behave like that and elevate our spirit)

GO TO CLASSES IF YOU WANT TO LEARN THIS
GO TO COACHING IF YOU WANT TO AWAKEN TO THIS