Raja Yoga

Sri Yukteswar grants Yogananda the long-sought experience of cosmic consciousness by striking gently on his chest. His soul streams out like fluid light, embracing the circumambient atoms, perceiving all of creation as one.

Untouchable Chokhamela bought bananas for Vitthal but couldnt enter the temple. That night, Vitthal came to his hut as a youth and ate them on his lap, saying these tasted better. God values loving devotion over ritual purity.

Yudhishthira answered 125 philosophical questions from a Yaksha and chose to revive his stepbrother Nakula so both mothers would have a living son.

When Rama needed a learned priest for a ritual, only Ravana had the required knowledge. Despite being enemies, Ravana performed the ceremony perfectly - duty transcends personal enmity.

A butcher by profession who constantly sang Gods name while working. His story teaches that occupation does not determine ones spiritual worth - sincere devotion transcends worldly labels.

Prajapati, the Lord of Creatures, emerged self-created from the primordial state through tapas (austerity). He then created the universe, the gods, demons, and all beings through his creative heat and desire. He gave himself up in sacrifice, creating the sacrificial ritual.

After six years of extreme practices failed, Siddhartha Gautama sat under the Bodhi Tree, vowing not to move until enlightened. He faced Mara's attacks, saw through past lives, witnessed universal suffering, and at dawn understood the chain of causation—becoming the Buddha through pure, balanced meditation.

Five-year-old Dhruva, humiliated by his stepmother and ignored by his father, enters the forest to find Vishnu through meditation. His six-month tapas is so intense that Vishnu appears. Transformed by the vision, Dhruva asks only to always remember God—and becomes the Pole Star, eternally fixed.

Shiva's eternal meditation on Mount Kailash represents the deepest dhyana yoga teaching: pure consciousness, witnessing all without being touched. When desire-god Kamadeva tries to disturb him, he's burned by Shiva's third eye—showing that awareness itself dissolves attachment.

Sage Patanjali systematized meditation in 196 sutras, defining yoga as 'cessation of mental fluctuations.' His eight-limbed path—from ethics through posture, breath, and concentration to absorption—provides a complete technology of consciousness still practiced worldwide after twenty-two centuries.

A professor's cup overflows as a Zen master pours tea during his endless talking—the master's point: a mind full of opinions cannot receive teaching. True meditation isn't adding more knowledge but emptying, not through force but by seeing that awareness itself was never filled.

When Sage Narada chastised Vishnu for reclining while Lakshmi massaged his feet, Vishnu went to Badrinath to perform austere meditation. During his penance in harsh cold, Lakshmi transformed into a Badri tree (jujube) to shelter him. Pleased by her devotion, Vishnu named the place Badrika Ashrama.

When asked what he saw while aiming, only Arjuna said he saw only the blackness of the birds eye. His single-minded focus made him the greatest archer.

Milarepa killed thirty-five people through sorcery before seeking redemption. His teacher Marpa purified him through years of harsh labor before teaching meditation. Retreating to caves, eating only nettles, Milarepa achieved complete realization—proving that no karma is beyond transformation through persistent practice.

At Mecca, Muslims objected to Guru Nanak sleeping with feet toward the Kaaba. He asked them to turn his feet where God is not. When they tried, the Kaaba moved with his feet. God is omnipresent.