If you just look at someone doing yoga postures you might think it would be quite difficult to lose weight with yoga, because the exercises are gentle and you don’t see a lot of sweating or effort that is normally associated with exercise. However, there is more than meets the eye and yoga can play a part in a program of healthy weight loss. (more…)
Add comment June 3rd, 2007
Seven of the songs which I performed at last year’s Divine Moon Festival in England are now online as videos at youtube.com . You can see them by going to www.youtube.com and doing a search for Dada Veda or you can go to my page www.youtube.com/dadaved . On that page you will find three videos that I have directly uploaded and down below in the favorites section there are four more songs that were uploaded by the photographer directly.
The videos give an idea of what you can expect in one of my concerts. If you would like to book me for a performance in your locality, then send me an email and let’s see if we can work it out My motto is: “Have Songs, Will Travel.”
Add comment March 28th, 2007
I am in London and will give two music concerts while I am here in the UK. The first one will be on Saturday night 10 March and the second one will be a house concert in Portland, UK. Details for both concerts can be found on my main website
Add comment March 3rd, 2007
A new study has found that people who live in the densest, pedestrian-friendly parts of New York City have a significantly lower body mass index (BMI) compared to other New Yorkers.
Once again here is proof that regular walking will keep you in shape. You don’t have to do jogging, running or difficult exercise. All you have to do is walk to the stores and buy your groceries and other items. That is what the New Yorkers who live in pedestrian friendly areas are doing: they are walking to the shops, walking to work, walking to the public transportation.
If you live in the suburbs it may be more difficult to do your errands and walk at the same time. If this is the case then the best thing is to reserve some time in your day for walking. A good walk after dinner is an excellent way to get exercise and also help digest your food.
Walk for around 40 minutes every day and you will stay in shape. Walk for one hour every day and you will probably live to be 100.
Add comment March 3rd, 2007
One of my students told me that he had finally been able to stop smoking. I asked him which technique had helped him get the victory in this long and dfficult struggle. He explained that it was the practice of the “guru mantra.”
What’s that? You may ask: basically it is a technique where, before each action that you do, you repeat a mantra that reminds you that all things are made out of Cosmic Consciousness. The philosophy of yoga holds that all the matter of this universe is just a transformed form of Cosmic Consciousness.That is, at their root, material things are actually spiritual!
The student who quit smoking explained that when he thought about this mantra, and its deep meaning just before lighting a cigarette, then it no longer seemed right to go ahead and smoke the cigarette.
The mantra that he used is part of the second lesson in a system of six lessons that I, and other Ananda Marga teachers, teach personally to students. In my ebook “Start Meditation, Stop Smoking I offer a more simple mantra and I believe that if someone uses this mantra before smoking then it can also have the same effect in helping someone stop smoking.
I asked my student whether he thought the simple mantra, Baba Nam Kevalam –Love is all there is, would have the same effect. He said, “if people repeat it like it is just some magic words, then it won’t work, but if they can understand the deep meaning of it, and feel it, then it could be effective.”
And to understand the significance of the mantra, and the deep underlying philosophy behind it, the best way is to start meditating and to begin realizing that behind the seeming diversity of this physical world, there is one underlying Cosmic Consciousness (God).
Try it out, start meditating today, it will not only help you to stop smoking but it will help you to find true bliss.
Add comment February 20th, 2007
I had a routine physical examination recently and the doctor was impressed with my blood pressure. Why? Because it was not too high like it is in many of the other people she sees every day. When she learned that I was a vegetarian, she became interested, making a connection between vegetarianism and controlled blood pressure.
But the real secret for my good showing on the blood pressure examination has as much to do with meditation, as it does with my vegetarian diet. Meditation is the best remedy, the best “medicine” for high blood pressure and heart disease, and I haven’t missed a day in the last 37 years.
Why is meditation so effective against one of the biggest health problems of today? Meditation de-stresses a person. Stress is one of the biggest causes of hypertension, and it is a part of everyday life that everyone has to face.
Our ancestors, the proto-human beings who lived thousands of years ago, mainly had physical challenges to deal with. If they saw a large predator, then danger messages were sent to their brains, and then more messages went to the rest of their bodies. Their bodies were made ready to either fight or flee.
Scientists call this a “fight or flight” reflex. The heart starts beating faster, the blood pressure increases, hormones are secreted. It is a useful reaction when you have to deal with a saber-tooth tiger, but what about when you face your boss at work?
When we are upset by someone at work or in society, danger signals are also sent to our brain and our heart starts beating faster and our blood pressure rises. However, we don’t usually run away and we usually don’t start fighting physically. We hold it all in, perhaps showing a smile on the outside. If this is kept up all day, the stress builds and if it continues over a long time it can damage our heart.
If you were to withdraw yourself completely from society you might be able to escape the stress, but this is not an option for most of us. However, it is possible to “withdraw” yourself two times a day and sit in meditation.
In fact, one of the important aspects of meditation is that it is a form of sense withdrawal. You sit quietly and follow instructions that will help you to forget the world around you and focus on an inner peace that is inside of you. When you become adept at this technique it relieves stress and is just as effective as going away to the top of a forested mountain or sitting alone on a sandy beach.
Meditation also helps you to slow down your breathing. Our mind is directly related to our breathing. When we are agitated or in distress we will take short quick breaths. When we are relaxed or concentrated then our breathing slows down and becomes deeper as well. Proper meditation helps to calm the mind and slow down the breathing. This combination of sense withdrawal and slow, deep breathing works wonders. Try and it one day you too will impress your physician with a healthy blood pressure reading.
Add comment January 27th, 2007
This is not about yoga or about music, but about society. David Beckham is more of an entertainment figure than an athlete, but still his new contract with the LA Galaxy raises a lot of questions about income disparities. The minimum salary in the MLS, the league where Beckham will play, is $11, 700 per year. Beckham will earn that in two hours! If you want to read more about this then take a look at my editorial on it in New Renaissance Magazine’s online edition.
Add comment January 20th, 2007
As if anyone needed more reasons to stop smoking, take a look at this breaking news report:
TUESDAY, Oct. 17 (HealthDay News) — A new study finds that at least 1 in every 4 smokers will develop progressive and incurable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a much higher risk than previously believed.
COPD is a respiratory disease that results in blocked air flow to the lungs and grows progressively worse.
For this study, published online in the journal Thorax, researchers at Hvidovre Hospital analyzed data on 8,000 men and women, ages 30 to 60. All were monitored for 25 years as part of the Copenhagen City Heart Study.
At the start of the study, all the participants’ lungs were healthy and working normally. However, over the course of the 25 years, the lungs of almost all the male non-smokers continued to function normally, compared to 60 percent of men who continued to smoke.
Among women, 90 percent of non-smokers still had healthy lungs at the end of 25 years, compared to 70 percent of smokers.
Overall, 25 percent of the participants developed moderate or severe COPD over the 25 years. Persistent smokers were six times more likely to develop COPD than non-smokers.
During the 25 years, there were 2,900 deaths in the study group. Of those deaths, 109 were directly attributable to COPD, and nearly all those deaths were in people who were active smokers at the start of the study. Only two non-smokers died of COPD.
The study also found a sharp decline in the risk of COPD among people who stopped smoking soon after the start of the study. Over the 25 years, none of these ex-smokers developed severe COPD.
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If you need help in quitting the habit, start practicing yoga and meditation. If you don’t have anyone close at hand to teach you, then try my e-book, Start Meditation, Stop Smoking
Add comment October 17th, 2006
“If you think there is really a god then why do evil things happen?” (Someone recently posed this question on Myspace.com and I would like to reply)
This is a question that has long troubled people. Why is life filled with so much pain and hardship and suffering when everything has been created by an omniscient and benevolent God?
Think about the kind of world that there would be if no one ever died, if there were no poisonous snakes, insects or dangerous bacteria, if no creature preyed upon another creature or if nothing ever decayed. There are some religious sects distributing literature which shows a world that would supposedly exist after the establishment of God’s kingdom, and you see drawings of lions and lambs happily grazing in the same field while wholesome looking families are holding hands nearby. This is not what God has planned for humanity, it is not at all the way the world is like or will ever be like.
If a cat destroys a nest of young robins, we can’t say that it is an evil act. It is the nature of the cat to prey upon small creatures. Similarly, humans are not all saints. All humans are a mixed bag of “good” and “bad” tendencies. Some people manage to control their basic instincts and learn to treat others around them with kindness and understanding. Some people are not able to do this, and hence there is conflict in our human society. At times, people with lesser developed moral stature prevail and crush others beneath them, and at other times such injustices are righted. Life is a back-and-forth fight of opposing tendencies. It has been going on since time immemorial and will continue in the future.
Yoga philosophers explain this more broadly saying that in nature there are two basic tendencies: one force (Vidya Maya) pulls all things towards the nucleus of the cosmos (God) and another force (Avidya Maya) pushes them away from the nucleus. Roughly speaking the force which pulls us towards the nucleus is responsible for “good” and the force which takes us away from the nucleus is “bad” but both are an integral part of nature.
The struggle and interplay of these two tendencies is responsible for the kind of world we live in. Now the question still remains, why did God create this kind of world? There is no logical answer to this question, but where scientists and intellectuals have to keep mum, simple minded religious devotees have an answer. They say, “Because the Lord loves drama.”
Wouldn’t it be rather boring for you, and for everyone else, if your favorite baseball or football team won every game, every year? Would there be any kind of suspense or action to savor?
View the cosmos from this perspective and you will be able to accept the imperfection and strife that exists, side-by-side with all the good things that make up this world.
Add comment October 15th, 2006
Losing weight is not “rocket science.” All you have to do is increase your exercise and control your eating and you will lose weight. Of course this is easier said than done, but it is possible to do it.
Many people give up the effort because they are overwhelmed with so many things to do. Don’t eat this, eat this, do this, do that and many other instructions prove to be too much. OK, if you can’t follow a whole program then why not make one change at a time in your lifestyle?
I will give you a few examples. One of my yoga students came to me and told me that he had just lost 4 kilos (close to 9 pounds) in one month. How did he do it? He just did one thing: he fasted during one day of each week of that month. That’s all he did.
If you don’t like fasting or are not ready for it, then try one experiment with food. Give up eating foods with unnecessary added sugar such as cookies, cakes, candies, soda etc. I tried this recently and lost ten pounds. After a meal, instead of eating a sweet dessert I eat a piece of fruit. It’s possible, and you don’t have to change anything else.
And, if you are not ready to change your eating habits, then try adding some exercise to your life. Take a walk after dinner instead of sitting in an easy chair watching TV. Put on your mp3 player, get out in the fresh air and digest your dinner with a brisk walk. Walk 20 minutes away from your home and 20 minutes back. Do this every night and you are sure to lose some weight, and also improve your digestion and sleep.
Another small change you can make is to drink plenty of water throughout the day. Four liters (quarts) spread out over the day will help you to control your appetite and also help your over-all bodily functions.
If these above mentioned tips are not “doable” then try something else: do the three yoga postures which are explained in the Yoga Weight Loss Secrets ebook, twice a day. It will take you a total of forty minutes, and/or do the meditation that is described in the mini course and in the ebook. (If you want to get the ebook, then go to http://www.yogaweightlosssecrets.com )
Finally, if you are gung-ho and would like to try all of these tips on a daily basis. Then here is what to do:
1. Give up unnecessary sweet foods, and substitute them with fruit
2. Do fasting on a regular basis (see the ebook or mini course for instructions)
3. Add brisk walking to your daily schedule (40 minutes)
4. Drink four liters of water every day
5. Practice yoga exercises two times a day
6. Practice meditation two times a day
If you do any one of these things you will lose weight. If you do all of these, then your success is a sure guarantee.
Add comment October 2nd, 2006