The Atma Jyoti Blog

One of the most popular and useful articles on the Atma Jyoti website is the Brief Sanskrit Glossary. As Sanskrit terminology is at the heart of the spiritual tradition of India, newcomers (and veterans) to the study of the Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads, Yoga Sutras, and writings of the saints will find this tool helpful in understanding the richness of these sacred writings.

We have now updated the Brief Sanskrit Glossary, improving existing definitions, and adding dozens more.

Visit the Brief Sanskrit Glossary.

In our trips to India in the past years, we have taken hours of video footage to remind us of our heavenly sojourns there. As time has allowed, we have edited the footage of our various adventures. We have now added some of these videos to our main web site, for the enjoyment of those who love the spiritual face of India. View links to the videos below on our India Videos page. Due to the size of some of the videos, and the speed of your web connection, the pages may take some time to load, but the wait is well worth it.

From Belur Math to Dakshineshwar

On the banks of the Ganges River north of Kolkata are two of the most remarkable religious sites in all of India. On one side is the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple, where Sri Ramakrishna practiced intense spiritual disciplines while serving as the priest of the Goddess Kali. The temple compound has become a place of pilgrimage for devotees of Mother Kali and Sri Ramakrishna alike, including monks from Atma Jyoti Ashram who filmed this video.

Down river, on the other side of the Ganga, is Belur Math, the monastery founded by Swami Vivekananda, the world-renowned disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, which has become the world headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission.

Ganga Arati

Every night in Hardwar, in the foothills of the Himalayas, at about 6:00 p.m. there is worship (arati) of the Ganga at the Brahma Kund. In February of 2003, pilgrim-monks from the Atma Jyoti Ashram participated in the Ganges worship, which they also videotaped, as well as the shrines and religious goods shops located around the Brahma Kund.

Glimpses of India

A compilation of four short spiritual events filmed by our pilgrim monks during their trip to India in 2005:

1. The Morning Havan by the students at the Vedic Gurukula at Om Shanti Dhama in Karnataka.
2. Rare footage of the spiritual figure known as “Ajja” in Puttur, southern Karnataka.
3. The evening Nagar kirtan of Ram Nam at Anandashram, made famous by Papa Ramdas, near Kanhangad, Kerala.
4. Devotional Bhajans and dancing by village devotees at the Samadhi Shrine of Jnaneshwar in Alandi, Maharashtra.

Temple Elephants in India

A two minute video filmed in various temples throughout India, showing temple elephants blessing devotees, and being fed by their mahuts. Elephants in this video include Rukmini from the Arunachaleshwar Temple in Tiruvannamalai, Andar from the Sri Rangam Temple in Trichy, and the temple elephant from the famous Krishna temple in Udupi.

India Smiles

When people anywhere see a camera, it seems to bring out the budding actor in them. In our trips to India, we have frequently brought smiles to people’s faces by showing them their images in both still and video cameras. This film is a short collage of footage of both young and old enjoying their moment of fame on film.

Visit our India Videos page to see these videos in your choice of sizes, depending on the speed of your web connection.

We are happy to announce the completion and publication online of Swami Nirmalananda’s new Commentary on the Upanishads. The text of this commentary is available for reading online from our Upanishad page, and is also available as a free PDF Download. The Upanishad Commentary covers the eleven major Upanishads of the Vedas (Isha, Katha, Kena, Mandukya, Mundaka, Prashna, Aitareya, Taittiriya, Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya, and Shwetashwatara), and is is 332 pages, 1.33 mb.

What are the Upanishads?

The Upanishads are  those treatises of mystical and speculative philosophy which are part of the Vedas, the most ancient and authoritative scriptures in India (and the world). The word “upanishad” comes from the root word upasana, which means “to draw near,” and is usually considered to mean that which was heard when the student sat near the teacher to learn the eternal truths.

The authority of the Vedic scriptures rests not upon those who wrote them down but upon the demonstrable truths they express. They are as self-sufficient and self-evident as the multiplication tables or the Table of Elements. They are simply the complete and unobscured truth. And realization of that Truth alone matters.

The Upanishads have long interested students of philosophy in the West. The English philosopher Hume translated some of them into English in the eighteenth century. Later he travelled to America where he taught Sanskrit to Thomas Jefferson and together they studied the Upanishads in their original form.

Through a unique combination of exhaustive study and scholarship, and insight and wisdom gleaned from personal experience, Swami Nirmalananda’s commentary offers new gems that will enrich all true seekers.

Download the new Commentary on the Upanishads by Swami Nirmalananda Giri.

Related: Find more ebooks to download–Om Yoga–Its Theory and Practice and A Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, both by Swami Nirmalananda, by visiting our Free Ebooks page.

Subscribe to the Atma Jyoti Blog and receive notices about new ebooks when they are published, and read the latest articles on practical spiritual life as they are posted.

We are pleased to announce that Swami Nirmalananda’s entire Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita is now available as a free PDF download, and soon all chapters will be viewable online. (View existing online chapters here, as well as online translations of the text of the Gita.)

The endless spiritual treasures of this essential scripture have been mined by saints, scholars, and devotees throughout the ages. Through a unique combination of exhaustive study and scholarship, and insight and wisdom gleaned from personal experience, Swami Nirmalananda’s commentary offers new gems that will enrich all true seekers.

Download your free PDF eBook,
A Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, by Swami Nirmalananda Giri

The ebook is 272 pages and over 3 mb, and may take some time to download, depending on your web connection.

Yesterday, after a brief May shower, a rainbow of exceptional beauty appeared outside our back porch.

Swami Nirmalananda points to the colorful skies while talking of different traditional beliefs about rainbows.

Swami Satyananda watches as the rainbow’s end emerges from part of the ashram property. We were not able to find the pot of gold, however.

We want to share with you a news piece we came across a last week which was so absurd that it could have been featured on a satirical news show. We found it on Tricycle.com and The China Post.

China announced last month new regulations governing Tibetan Buddhism, including a stipulation that senior monks, known as “living Buddhas,” cannot be reincarnated without government permission.

“The reincarnation of living Buddhas must undergo application and approval procedures,” the new regulations stipulate. “Living Buddha” reincarnations with a “particularly great impact,” such as presumably of the next Dalai Lama, “shall be reported to the State Council for approval.”

The new regulations, which come into effect Sept. 1, were issued by the State Religious Affairs Bureau under the State Council, which implements religious policy set by the Communist Party.

To read more, click here.