Home » Light of the Spirit BLOG

Light of the Spirit BLOG

Come back often to find new, valuable and practical articles to help you in your spiritual life. Below the latest blog posts we also list some of our most well received articles.
Wisdom Quote of the Day
“It is necessary to strive to achieve silence of spirit, because there can be nothing good in a stormy soul. When you calm down you will be wise and will be able to achieve much. I told you about the inner silence: that is the true state of a recluse and a hermit.”
Elder Michael of Valaam

Latest Blog Posts

How to Develop Sattwa Guna

Q: Can you please guide me as to how to increase the predominance of sattwa guna so as to move steadily in the path of devotion while continence is being practiced? Two things are necessary to help the sadhaka increase in sattwa, and both are very simple and easy. First: Carefully study and apply all the passages in the Gita

Continue Reading »

Is Exoteric Religion Necessary?

Q: Is an exoteric religious tradition necessary? Though it may not be easy to see how or why, everything in this world is necessary and has a purpose. There are two classes of human beings: those that are mostly aware of external existence and therefore think and act with an almost total degree of outer awareness, motivation and response, and

Continue Reading »

How and Why to Purify the Memory

Q: What are the indications of purification of memory in the context of the Nerve of Memory? In the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita (English version: The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna) we find the most authoritative teaching about both the nerve (nadi) and its indications. On March 9, 1884, a devotee (Mahimacharan) asked Sri Ramakrishna: “Sir, why does a man become

Continue Reading »

Why Are People Born with Psychic Abilities?

Sutra 19 of Book One of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 19. Of those who are Videhas and Prakrtilayas birth is the cause. Patanjali is now discussing those people who from birth are seen to possess marked psychic faculties and psychic powers–even to a miraculous degree. Such persons are usually assumed to be spiritually advanced and are respected accordingly, but this is

Continue Reading »

Patanjali’s Two Types of Samadhi

Sutras 17 and 18 of Book One of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 17. Samprajñata Samadhi is that which is accompanied by reasoning, reflection, bliss and sense of pure being. Samprajñata samadhi, also known as savikalpa samadhi, is defined by A Brief Sanskrit Glossary as: “State of superconsciousness, with the triad of meditator, meditation and the meditated; lesser samadhi; cognitive samadhi; samadhi

Continue Reading »

When Did Shankaracharya Live?

Q: Jesus lived around 2 BC to 33 AD. Adi Shankaracharya (who founded the Govardhan Math) lived between 788 AD and 820 AD. In your website it is mentioned that Jesus lived in Govardhan Math. How can it be? Quite simple. Shankaracharya lived sometime between 500 and 300 BC. So I was taught as a young monk by more than

Continue Reading »

Featured Articles

Yogis Who Saw Jesus

The day our Original Christianity and Original Yoga website was launched we received an irate communication from one of those Western “Hindus” that believe they are more truly Hindu if they hate other religions–especially Christianity–and deny that Jesus ever existed. Here is our answer:
Continue Reading »

The Many Advantages of Vegetarianism

 
You can indeed reap a lot of benefits by being a vegetarian and people have become more aware of the health benefits of being a vegetarian. Animal rights issues is only one of the reasons why people decide to go on a vegetarian diet. People are beginning to care more about the environment. However, the main reason why people go on vegetarian diet is because of health benefits.
Continue Reading »

Seeing the One in All

In response to our recent blog posting about the reality of Jesus in the experience of India’s great yogis, we received a most heartening letter from India. I want to share parts of it with you and my reflections on it for I feel it presents the most authentic perspective on these matters.

Continue Reading »

7 Steps to Misuse Your Power of Thought

 
Thought is power–magnetic power, particularly. That is, thought can draw or repel whatever is thought about, depending upon the polarity of the individual mind. Many times we see that people bring to themselves the things they continually think about, but we also see that thinking about something can repel it from the person.

Continue Reading »