Guru in our backyard

8 Comments on Guru in our backyard

David-Joe on Wed, Oct 21st 2009 2:58 AM


Sorry bud – sounds like a lot of mystical nonsense to me – just another New Age crutch.

Good old resolve and determination of people like my grandmother draining swamps to create and defend a kibbutz and the faith of the Jews is why Israel exists today and that strength is far superior than some sort of breathing exercise from a sect in underpants from deepest Punjab!!

What is this fascination that some Israelis [too many] have with India for god’s sake!

Brian Blum on Wed, Oct 21st 2009 2:31 PM


Meditation and draining the swamps are not mutually exclusive. Look at all the classes in Jewish meditation and “Torah Yoga” that are popular all over the Jewish world these days!

David-Joe on Fri, Oct 23rd 2009 12:41 PM


It is not meditation that I oppose – it is the non-Jewish source of mysticism involved that I disapprove of.

India is no shining example of anything.

Guru in our backyard | JewPI on Mon, Oct 26th 2009 5:39 PM


[...] figuratively and literally) Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who spoke yesterday at Hebrew University to a Read More » Share and Enjoy:Tags: meditation community, ravi shankar, sri ravi shankar, sri sri ravi, sri sri [...]

Swapnil on Tue, Oct 27th 2009 9:20 AM


David-Joe,
I hpe you read or heard what sri sri said in his speach. All kind of fanatism is big problem for the entire word and your country is part of this. Me,Mine is the best is the problem. My faith is best and that is the way every one shall follow is a difficult desire giving rise to terrorism.
To talk little about India, India was ruled for 700 years by musilms and then for over 150 years by British rule. Every invader looted this land of its wealth. Today India is not a Muslim country. It has servived all the harsh period and the strength in the people have come because of spirituality. Your inner strength is an indication of your faith. The need is to recognise it.
Breathing has very strong connection with your existence. When you were born the fist thing you did was breath in and the last thing you will do is breath out.
You may observe your breath when you are calm and when you are excited and when you are frustrated. You may understand the difference.
The golden rule here is to experience your self. It is said that “In science you have experience first the faith follows. In spirituality faith comes first the experience follows.”
My simple suugestion would be to take faithful experience.

Ragothaman Raghavan on Thu, Oct 29th 2009 8:57 AM


Hi Swapnil,
What you have written is true. 1. India had given the Numeric “Zero” to the world of Mathematics 2. India’s the great epic MahaBaarath depicted the human behaviour and human mind in all the angles 3. India had declared the existence of 9 planets even thousands of years before, just few centuries back they were found with the help of telescopes and their existence were declared by the modern world 4. The breathing exercise will make you floating and can just lie and rest on the surface of the water as long as you have the energy in your body 5. as per Hindu scriptures say, the human life comes to end at the end of so many number of breathings in life (I don’t remember the exact number ). Controlled breathing is called pranayaamaa by which you can extend your life 6. India documented the medical procedures and surgeries thousands of years before which is called Ayurvedha 7. India consumes every year 40% of the gold produced in the world 8. Indians are ready to face any natural calamity and difficulty and knows the way of coming out because Indians adopt simple way of living with peace 8.India was invaded so many times but India never invaded any country 9. The Dams constructed by the ancient Indians are stronger than the dams constructed in the modern world.

Bracha on Sat, Oct 31st 2009 11:55 PM


I myself was integrally affiliated with the Art of Living program for many many years – not any more. The breathing exercises taught may be life-enhancing but when this guru invites us Jews to his ashram to partake of their day to day along with chanting to their gods and dancing to their music, this is where the great, very great danger lies. The breathing classes are the incentive for eventual recruiting. One doesn’t realize this because the melodies are so uplifting and rhythmical and they aren’t in English or Hebrew and before you know it, you become addicted to the energy and warmth of the groupies and lose your own spiritual identity, wanting to become one with ‘the group’ and their pantheon of gods. Then the rationalizations come. You think it won’t happen to you but it does, indeed. Better to chant the prayers to our One God from our Siddur. Please be discerning and control those temptations. And…this has nothing to do with how great India is or was. There’s more involved here than just learning those breathing techniques.

Swapnil on Mon, Nov 2nd 2009 7:46 AM


I think it all started with working towards world peace and this can be achieved by giving and having respect for a religon or faith a perticular person follows. The spiritual groups are for collectve effort for a common cause. The collectve affort acts like a catalyst in speeding the process.
During this one has to see, for such a global emergency what can I contribute. The contribution is as important as the prayer & this prayer can be in any language and for any faith or GOD. Like they say, You can identify the river water by its name e. g. Niel water but once the river water reaches sea it is called sea water. All the prayers said and heard by the only ONE GOD.

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