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5 Ways to Grow Your Spiritual Library – Part 1

5 Ways to Grow Our Spiritual Library
Growing a spiritual library is important for the aspiring yogi. The study of the books and sacred texts which deal with the nature of the true Self (spirit) and its realization is one aspect of swadhyaya, one of the “Ten Commandments” of yoga (yama and niyama) outlined by the sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras. Food for the mind in the form of spiritual reading is a tremendous help to the yogi.

OCOY.org is itself a spiritual library, with over 1300 web pages, blog posts, PDF downloads, books and other resources, and in this series of articles we will show you some of what we have available for your spiritual library.

We endeavor to make the writings of Abbot George Burke and others on OCOY.org available in a variety of formats to suit the habits of those who read here. There are five ways to grow your spiritual library, whether digital or in print.

1.Read Online. For those who wish to explore our site and get a taste of its content, this is ideal. Be sure to bookmark OCOY.org or any pages you are reading so you can easily come back at any time. Of course you can print out the articles for reading later. Because of the length of the books available on our site, they are broken down into chapters, each with its own web page. If you want to access the full, undivided books, you can…

2.Download a Free PDF. Our E-Library has PDF’s of much of the books and content on our site, as well as other books which we share from other sources. These can be downloaded for free and read on your computer at any time, or printed out for convenient offline reading.

3.Listen to Podcasts and Audiobooks. Abbot George has made over 30 podcasts and radio interviews available in our Podcast section. In topics ranging from the yoga life, vegetarianism, monastic life, saints and spiritual figures he has known, and much more, you will find much to interest you and profit from.

Do you have iTunes? You can access our podcasts in the iTunes Podcast directory. You can also subscribe to our podcast feed, so the most recent podcast from Abbot George will be downloaded to your iTunes directory. You can also listen to our podcasts at Stitcher. 

We are investigating the costs of having Abbot George’s books made into professionally recorded audio books, and hope to have them available in the future.

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New Books for Your Spiritual Library

Light of the Spirit Press announces two new publications for your spiritual library. The first is Foundations of Yoga: Ten Important Principles Every Meditator Should Know, an introduction to the important principles of Patanjali’s Yoga: Yama & Niyama. (Those who have read Soham Yoga: The … Continue reading

5 Reasons for the Smile of Krishna

The Smile of Krishna
As the fighting is about to commence on the battlefield of Kurukshetra in the tale of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna begins to advise Arjuna. (This article is taken from The Bhagavad Gita for Awakening.)

Arjuna, overcome with anguish at the prospect of killing in battle those he loved and was obligated to respect, presented to Krishna his reasons for refusing to fight. Hearing the “case” presented by Arjuna:

“To him, the dejected Arjuna, Krishna, smiling, O Dhritarashtra, in the middle between the two armies, spoke these words” (Bhagavad Gita 2:10).

Why a smile?

The smile of Krishna is extremely significant, and we must be grateful to the sage Vyasa for including this detail that carries a momentous message.

Why did Krishna smile, considering how grief-filled Arjuna was, and how impassioned he had been in his insistence that to fight would be the greatest of evils–in contradiction to the urging and advice of Krishna? Arjuna was both sad and rebellious. Yet Krishna smiled.

The word in the Gita is prahasann, which means to smile before laughing. (Sargeant renders it: “beginning to laugh.”) So it is not some weak smile, nor a condescending or sarcastic grimace, but a very positive sign of impending mirth. How is this? Krishna smiled for several reasons.

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