1. What to do and what to avoid on the path to spiritual development based on hatha yoga and Vedic Mantra meditation.

I am 62 and I have been practicing hatha yoga and Vedic Mantra meditation for 12 years. Benefits of my practice are enormous and I have already written about them numerous times. Today, however, I would like to tell you what to do and what to avoid to really enjoy your life, practice and draw endless benefits from it.

First of all, you have to find a good teacher and trust him or her. A good teacher shares with you his/ her knowledge, does not embellish anything, tells you the whole truth, watches you, supports, encourages and motivates you to act, but still you have to do the entire work yourself. At the beginning of your practice, you have to believe his/ her word and start practicing regularly. Strong faith and resolve to get to know yourself is half of the success. No teacher, even the best one, will practice asanas or meditate for you. A good teacher will teach you how to practice in a way that gradually makes it easy, pleasant and enjoyable for you. Every day you will be discovering yourself piece by piece and slowly getting through to the source of your existence, and your teacher will be happy with your successes, more than with his own. When you find such a teacher, follow his or her example, observe yourself and practice, don’t look for other teachers because no one will do for you what you should do yourself.




2. Don’t be afraid of changes

At the beginning of our practice we should ask ourselves: do I want to get to know myself fully – 100% or just a little bit, and practice accordingly. Meditation is a process that leads to self-realization. Once we realize who we are, we will know what to do, we will discover our potential and enjoy life. So you should start with the change of your thinking because our thoughts drive our actions and can bring us happiness or misfortune. If we feed our subconsciousness with negative thoughts, we cannot expect anything good to occur, as it directs our actions in accordance with our thinking. So the only thing that restricts us is our thinking. We are afraid of changes, postpone decisions and wait for an occasion. Our circumstances change and we are still waiting..... We are afraid of the process we do not understand. The world we live in is continuously changing and we also have to change. All the time we have to learn something new. It’s never too late for learning. Successful people never stop learning and gaining new knowledge connected with the key objective in their life. Everyone who stops learning becomes old, and it doesn’t matter whether they are 20 or 80 years old. The most important thing is to keep your mind young. You must get rid of fear and anxiety. Fear and anxiety freeze your mind, destroy your imagination, dilute enthusiasm and lead to doubting your selected life objective. Each, even the smallest obstacle, may then become a reason for withdrawal, halt or doubt.

By meditating regularly and withdrawing into silence it will be easier to get rid of fear and anxiety. If we listen to the voice of our soul we will start choosing things that are good for us and reject bad ones, we will start taking right decisions, saying NO and moving away from people who take advantage of us. We will learn to love and respect ourselves but also we must start acting!

Because nothing will change or happen in our life, even if we meditate and exercise regularly, if we don’t act. We should start all changes with ourselves. If we want to help others we must first help ourselves. If we want to live to the full we must rise to a higher level of development and learn to love ourselves and others. Love is what everyone is looking for and what everyone needs. It is a process and a long way that requires many sacrifices but the result is always wonderful and well worth the journey. This journey will sometimes be difficult and we will feel sad because when cleansing our mind we must also throw out everything that is not good for us, that is, routines, habits and behaviors developed over the years. We should analyse every failure in our life, draw accurate conclusions, learn the lesson and keep working. Don’t worry about criticism and difficulties, just do your thing. We should achieve a state of consciousness that will change our life into continuous success at two levels: spiritual and material.

When this transformation takes place within ourselves, energy will flow through us and it will be present in everything we do. Due to exercising our physical body by practicing hatha yoga we open up for a free flow of the energy which reaches every cell in the body and makes us also healthier physically.

The secret of the success is to have your actions driven by inner power. You should have this power. By having a healthy and strong physical body and contact with our soul we tap deeper into this power every day.

Work inspired by our soul, which also serves others, always brings wonderful effects. By perfecting our mind through meditation we will act to satisfy our needs. By undertaking actions we expand our awareness and knowledge, change habits and activate hidden potential. The purpose of yoga is to get to know the joy of being and creation. Each of us is one of a kind and a unique being that has a great chance for success. You just have to use that chance and act. We may come across different temptations, traps and obstacles on our way. Others will often try to advise us and tell us what to do although they have no idea what to do with themselves. Listening to others will do us no good because how can they know what the program of our soul is and what the soul needs. So the best way is to sit down for meditation and contact the voice of your soul which will tell you what to do. If you listen to yourself, you will never get lost. On the contrary, your way will turn out to be straight and clear, your objectives achievable and you will experience a great joy of being and creation. Once you feel it, no one can cast doubt in your heart. Even deliberate criticism focused on undermining your authority and challenging your knowledge will not be able to turn you back on the road you chose yourself.

There are people, organisations and sects that will do anything for money. If you know and you are sure that what you do is good for yourself and others such criticism should encourage you to continue your actions with even greater determination, and should not be a reason for withdrawal or doubt.

Truth and good will always prevail and reside with those who give it to themselves and others. Evil, however, always comes back to the one who spreads it, following the rule: “as you sow, you shall reap.” People who lie, criticise and manipulate others are weak, they never know what to do and do as they’re told by others, most often for money. Later they usually pay dearly for their actions. So, don’t worry about it, listen to the voice of your intuition, follow it and life will reward you generously.

Mantras we use during meditation will help us get through difficult times and, just like our best friend, will lead us straight to the source of wisdom within us.

No one can do the thinking and acting for us, and no one can go through the development process for us, only the thought coming deep from our soul can achieve everything it believes in.