Prem Prakash

Revenge

My son, Jahnu, was eight years old, in third grade. We were in the car together and he was obviously in deep thought. I knew he had experienced a hassle at school. I waited and, sure enough, he opened up and told me he had something on his mind. “Dad,” he asked, “you seem like

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Spanda Karikas

Spanda Karikas is an important scripture of Kashmir Shaivism from the 10’th century AD. Translation by Prem Prakash – May 2020 Section I: Svarūpaspanda The Primal Creative Impulse as One’s True Nature 1. Yasyonmeṣanimeṣābhyāṁ jagataḥ pralayodayau Taṁ śakticakravibhavaprabhavaṁ śaṅkaraṁ stumaḥ We extol Shiva Shankara, The Generator of Auspiciousness — the One Soul in the heart

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Maheshwara Murtham

The 64 Auspicious Names of the Great God, Shiva The Maheshwara Murtham is a list of 64 names that describe the attributes of Shiva, the yogic archetypal God.  Shiva is the expression of healthy, spiritual male energy. Rather than simply translating the names, I have conveyed the meaning of the names in couplet form in

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“The Garland of Waves of Divine Consciousness”

The Brahmajñānāvalīmālā, “The Garland of Waves of Divine Consciousness,” is a text composed by Shankara, perhaps the foremost exponent of the non-dual vision of the yoga tradition.  This writing exemplifies jnana yoga, the yoga of wisdom. It highlights the unity of all beings, and the divine consciousness that resides in all, and permeates all.  Translated

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Value

On Maha Shivaratri, “The Great Night of Shiva,” yogis stay awake all night chanting in order to invoke and evoke divine compassion. We have honored Shivaratri for 25 years at our Kailash Ashram in Vermont. One time, several years ago, around 3:00 am, I hit my wall. I was tired, tired, tired. I no longer

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Karma and Freedom

The Nature of Karma Karma is a term that has entered the modern vocabulary but is frequently misunderstood as a simplistic, mechanical law of cause and effect. Many presentations of karma make it sound as though it operates in a manner similar to the classic billiard balls example used to explain Newtonian physics. There, ball

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