Atma Jyoti Ashram is located in Cedar Crest, New Mexico, USA, and is dedicated to living the traditional Hindu monastic life.
 



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Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma)

No one knows how old the religion of India might be, and the people of India do not care, for they call it Sanatana Dharma: the Eternal Religion. As thousands of years passed, an immense structure evolved around the matrix of Sanatana Dharma and today is popularly known as Hinduism.

Sanatana Dharma in its primal form is to be found in the Isha, Kena, Katha, Prashna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Taittiriya, Aitaryeya, Chandogya, Brihadaranyaka, and Svetashvatara Upanishads. These eleven texts (upanishad means “teaching”–literally “that which was heard when sitting near”) are attached to the Vedas, the ancient hymns of the Indian sages, and also knows as Vedanta, the End of the Vedas. Long after their composition, the great author-philosopher Vyasa wrote the most popular sacred text of India, the Bhagavad Gita, which is a digest of the Upanishads, presenting in seven hundred verses the practical and theoretical teachings of Sanatana Dharma.

Some time before Vyasa, another master of the inner life named Patanjali wrote a brief text on meditation. Known as the Yoga Darshana or Yoga Sutras, it analyzes the meditational lore of the upanishads and presents it in a thoroughly practical form.


For information on various aspects of Hinduism, see the following articles:

Who is God?
A Catechism of Enlightenment – A commentary by Swami Nirmalananda Giri on “A Method Of Enlightening A Disciple” from Shankara’s Upadeshasahasri–A Thousand Teachings
The Six Systems of Hindu Philosophy by Raghavan Iyer
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, translated by Raghavan Iyer, edited by Swami Nirmalananda
Commentary on the Yoga Sutras by Raghavan Iyer
Essays on the Yoga Sutras I by Raghavan Iyer
Essays on the Yoga Sutras II by Raghavan Iyer
Ramana MaharshiAll Is One (Ellam Ondre) –This small but extraordinary book was written in the nineteenth century by an unknown Tamil author. It was popularized by the sage, Ramana Maharshi, who often recommended it to disciples who were in pursuit of self-knowledge. This book explains how all the diverse beings and objects in this expansive universe are essentially parts of a greater whole–or as the book sums it up: All is One.
A Brief Sanskrit Glossary – Definitions of the basic Sanskrit terms that must be understood to comprehend the meaning of both the scriptures and spiritual books of India.

Upanishad Commentaries – by Swami Nirmalananda Giri:

1. An Introduction to the Upanishads

Commentary on the Isha Upanishad:

1. Seeing All Things in God
2. Living a Life Worth Living
3. Spiritual Suicides
4. The Undivided Unmoving Self
5. The Ever-Present Self
6. The All-Embracing Self
7. Perspective on Life
8. Seeing Beyond the Sun
9. The Final Aspiration

Commentary on the Kena Upanishad:

1. The Mover of the Moved
2. Knowing that is Ignorance, and Unknowing That is Knowing
3. The Blessed
4. Approaching Brahman

Commentary on the Prashna Upanishad

1. The Right Beginning
2. The Father and Mother of All
3. The Powers That Make Us “Be”
4. Prana: Its History and Nature
5. The Witnessing Self
6. Meditation on Om
7. Where is the Self?

Commentary on the Mundaka Upanishad:

1. Knowing the ALL
2. Delusion and Ignorance
3. Wisdom and Truth
4. Getting in Perspective
5. Origin and Return
6. Knowing God
7. The Two Selves
8. The God Within, The Sage Without
9. Hail To the Sages!

Commentary on the Katha Upanishad:

1. The Past is the Future
2. Seeing Death, Seeing Life
3. The Good and the Pleasant
4. The Way of Ignorance
5. The Mystery of the Self
6. How to Either Know or Not Know the Self
7. From the Unreal to the Real
8. Finding the Treasure
9. The Transcendent Reality of the Self
10. The Immortal Self
11. The Indwelling Self
12. The Omnipresent Self
13. The Sorrowless Self
14. Who Can Know the Self?
15. The All-Consuming Self
16. The Divine Indwellers
17. The Chariot
18. The Chariot's Journey
19. The Glorious Way
20. To Know The Self
21. The Power of Enlightenment
22. The Infinite Self
23. The Dweller in the Heart
24. The Birthless Self
25. The Shining Self
26. The Life-Giving Self
27. The Eternal Brahman–The Eternal Self
28. The Radiant Self
29. The Universal Tree
30. Hierarchy of Consciousness
31. From Mortality to Immortality


Bhagavad Gita
This text of the Gita is arranged according to the meter of the original Sanskrit text so it can be sung–as it is done every morning in our ashram and in most of the ashrams of India.
Introduction
Chapter One—The Yoga of the Despondency of Arjuna
Chapter Two—Sankhya Yoga
Chapter Three—The Yoga of Action
Chapter Four—The Yoga of Wisdom
Chapter Five—The Yoga of Renunciation of Action
Chapter Six—The Yoga of Meditation
Chapter Seven—The Yoga of Wisdom and Realization
Chapter Eight—The Yoga of Imperishable Brahman
Chapter Nine—The Yoga of the Kingly Science and Kingly Secret
Chapter Ten—The Yoga of Divine glories
Chapter Eleven—The Yoga of the Vision of the Cosmic Form

Chapter Twelve—The Yoga of Devotion
Chapter Thirteen—The Yoga of the Distinction Between the Field and the Knower of the Field
Chapter Fourteen—The Yoga of the Division of the Three Gunas
Chapter Fifteen—The Yoga of the Supreme Spirit
Chapter Sixteen— Yoga of the Division between the Divine and the Demoniacal
Chapter Seventeen—The Yoga of the Division of Threefold Faith
Chapter Eighteen—The Yoga of Liberation by Renunciation

To hear this text sung, in the melody we use, click here.

Sri Maharshi Gita—An arrangement of verses of the Bhagavad Gita made by Sri Ramana Maharshi that gives an overview of the essential message of the Gita.
The Maharshi Gita sung in english.—Arranged according to the meter of the original Sanskrit text and sung to a classical Gita melody used to chant the Gita every morning in our ashram and in most of the ashrams of India. Sung by the monks of Atma Jyoti Ashram.

Bhagavad Gita Commentary by Swami Nirmalananda Giri:

1. The Battlefield of the Mind
2. The Smile of Krishna
3. Right But Wrong
4. Birth and Death–The Great Illusions
5. Experiencing The Unreal
6. The Unreal and the Real
7. The Body and the Spirit
8. Know the Atman!
9. Practical Self-Knowledge
10. Perspective on Birth and Death
11. The Wonder of the Atman
12. The Indestructible Self
13. “Happy The Warrior”
14. The Virtues of Karma Yoga
15. Religiosity Versus Religion
16. Perspective on Scriptures
17. How Not To Act
18. How To Act
19. How To Be Miserable; How To Be Free
20. Wisdom About the Wise
21. Wisdom about both the Foolish and the Wise
22. The Way of Peace
23. Calming the Storm
24. First Steps in Karma Yoga
25. From the Beginning to the End
26. The Real “Doers”
27. Our Spiritual Marching Orders
28. Freedom From Karma
29. “Nature”
30. Swadharma
31. In the Grip of the Monster
32. “Devotee and Friend”
33. The Eternal Being
34. Worshippers and the Worshipped
35. Caste and Karma
36. Action–Divine and Human
37. The Mystery of Action and Inaction
38. The Wise in Action
39. Sacrificial Offerings
40. The Worship of Brahman
41. The Core Problem
42. Action–Renounced and Performed
43. Freedom (Moksha)
44. The Brahman-Knower

45. The Goal of Karma Yoga
46. The Will of the Wise
47. The Yogi’s Retreat
48. The Yogi’s Inner Life
49. Union With Brahman
50. The Yogi’s Future
51. Success in Yoga
52. The Net and Its Weaver
53. Those Who Seek God
54. Those Who Worship God and the Gods
55. The Veil in the Mind
56. The Big Picture
57. The Sure Way To Realize God
58. Day, Night, and the Two Paths
59. The Supreme Knowledge
60. Universal Being
61. Maya–Its Dupes and Its Knowers
62. “Shall Not” Versus “Can Not”
63. Going To God
64. Wisdom and Knowing
65. Going To The Source
66. From Hearing To Seeing
67. The Wisdom of Devotion
68. Right Conduct
69. The Field and Its Knower
70. Interaction of Purusha and Prakriti
71. Seeing The One Within the All
72. The Three Gunas–Part One
73. The Cosmic Tree
74. Freedom
75. The All-pervading Reality
76. The Divine and the Demonic
77. Faith and the Three Gunas
78. Food and the Three Gunas
79. Worship and Discipline and the Gunas

Chidakasha Gita of Paramahansa Nityananda:
Nityananda's Chidakasha Gita Introduction
Chidakasha Gita: TheTeachings of Paramahansa Nityananda – Part 1
The Chidakasha Gita – Part 2
The Chidakasha Gita – Part 3
Commentary on the Chidakasha Gita by Swami Nirmalananda Giri:
1. Jnanis Are Mindless
 
 
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