Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Almost amrit vela

Amrit vela is a bit hard to understand when it is; between 2.15-6 am, 4-7 am or just simply before sunrise? Today the sunrise was at about 4.15 am here so I missed amrit vela by 2 hours at least, but if we go by the 4-7 am amrit vela I was ok. When it comes to amrit vela, I long for the autumn so I know; it's dark outside, then I can be sure it really is amrit vela... But it's summer and it's really beautiful to meditate in the morning when it is peaceful outside(and inside, the cats are sleeping).

Anyhow; I wore my whites, sat on my sheepskin and did my meditation and then read Japji. It didn't feel different with whites, don't really know what I expected.

When I read Japji, I try to read the transliteration, it feels better for me but I stumble on the words, naturally, and I don't look at the English translation on every line I read. I red about mantras that you don't have to know the meaning for them to work, something about the vibrations of sound touching the meridians on the inside of our mouth(yoga technology, maybe it sounds weird if you don't red it yourself, but I believe it). So I apply this to Japji as well, I read the transliteration and every time I do it, I understand more and more since I read a little bit of the English version every time. And I have read the whole thing in English ones, I think, it was some time ago. I now find myself guessing the meaning of different lines and I find my self on the right track, so that's nice. I realise this approach isn't for every one, but it works for me for now.

Todays hukam;
Whatever the Creator does, surely comes to pass. Through the Word of the Guru's Shabad, egotism is consumed.

5 comments:

  1. That's the way I do it too. :) I count amrit vela from 4-7, also because of consistency; in the north if we would go by the sun then in summer amrit vela would be between 1.30 and 3.30 and in the winter we would have amrit vela for 19 hours out of 24! :D I found that when I've been wearing white for a while and then put on darker colours I feel a definitive difference. So maybe it's not a instant realization but a gradual one...

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  2. I think 4-7 all year round seems ok, it's like you say it's hard getting the consistency otherwise. But I still think it's hard to know what is the "right" way... But maybe the sadhana in it self makes it right, maybe the rest just is ritual...

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  3. I would suspect you are right; I think the point is to get up so early as to challenge oneself - feeling the commitment. In yoga we say thet it's because the sin strikes the earth in a certain angle during those hours. But that, as we've seen, really depends on the time of year. So I'm not going to worry too much about it. :)

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  4. The SUN strikes the earth. The SUN. :D I'm telling you, I'm someplace else these days...

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  5. I thought it was pretty funny with the sin striking the earth in a certain angle... It's not every day you hear that in yoga ;D

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