Mountain Retreat Yoga Sangha

"According to what I believe, the person who seeks Moksha (salvation) or the one who desires the Lord’s darshan (sight) hasn’t even started his journey until his heart is overwhelmed with the hope of what he seeks. If in his heart there is intense longing for the Lord’s darshan, as a hungry man longs for food and a thirsty man longs for water, then there is no need to run around looking for a Guru." ~ Sri M"

"If there is no grace, nobody will even think of the spiritual path.” ~ Sri M

"With our mind on the highest and the five senses indulging in normal life, we can balance between the spiritual and the worldly life." ~ Sri M

“The physical proximity to the teacher is not all that important. If a teacher really thinks that something could be transferred to you, then the teacher himself or herself will choose if they want to have proximity to you. By wanting to be close to the teacher physically is kind of ego satisfaction.” ~ Sri M

“The word ‘Tapas’ is derived from the word ‘Tapah’ which means heat. You generate heat when you are fighting against tendencies. This is called ‘Tapasya’. In kaliyuga it means efforts taken to change the habits.” ~ Sri M

"Live simply, live humbly, no one is greater than anybody else. We are all human beings and because we are born, we will die. Try to find the inner essence of your being which is the Supreme Reality. Be kind to people and most importantly do not imitate the teacher.“ ~ Sri M

“Among the Asthangas there is one which people give less attention to and it is “Pratyahara”. It is usually translated as ‘withdrawal of the senses’ but it actually means the capacity to fix your attention to one thing at one time and also learn to take it away and fix it on something else.” ~ Sri M

"Adinath, Parama Shiva, Sada Shiva and the Supreme Being are not different, they are only manifestations and so is Sri Guru Babaji. So Sri Guru Babaji is like a God for this planet we can say that. There are spiritually advanced elders but there is the one who controls everything. That’s where I would place Sri Guru Babaji. He presides over them for this Manmantara.” ~ Sri M

"It is not that the Guru is not there, he is. The person, whose heart has so much thirst for darshan of the Lord that he cries for not being able to behold the Lord, and offers to give up everything in order to get a glimpse of Him, for him a Guru will come on his own. God himself can come as a Guru. I have no doubt about that. When the Lord comes, he stays near the seeker, never far off. It is the true disciples that are a scarcity.” ~ Sri M

“Sri Guru Babaji is like the leader of a group of global masters. Not like a political leader but someone whom everybody looks up to. One should not have the misunderstanding that Sri Guru Babaji is only the Guru of Kriya Yogis. It’s not like that. He taught Kriya to one branch but he would have taught something else to somebody else. I haven’t seen anybody of that stature anywhere in other continents rather on this earth forget about continents.” ~ Sri M

“A Guru cannot be identified from his attire, rudraksh, from his long hair or by his long beard. All these are outward criteria that anyone can flaunt. It is not necessary for a Guru to have any particular paraphernalia. Remember what I said before – if there is longing, then a Guru is not far away. There are authentic Gurus. It is not that they do not exist but they do not advertise outwards. Since you ask the criteria for identifying a Guru, I shall tell you what I feel in my heart. This is my ‘Mann ki baat.’" ~ Sri M

“In case of a spiritual Guru, you first need to stay with him for sometime and see what he wants. Does he want something from you or does he want to give you something? If he is an authentic spiritual Guru, then all he will want from you is affection and one-pointedness. Nothing else. If you want to do service for him, then that is your call. A Guru will not tell you to serve him.” ~Sri M

“Yes, it is worth praying for peace and our prayers does influence and bring about peace in the world.” ~ Sri M

“It is not possible to have selfless love but even if we have one degree of it, it is more important than anything else because basically in every human being also in every animal there is a spark of the divine from where all the compassion and love comes forth, so when you see it in yourself and also in others it becomes a natural process, no effort is required. It is a flow, it happens naturally.” ~ Sri M

“Everything that exists in this world is constantly in motion. Night gives way to day, life to death, and then to new life again. Millions of cells of your body die every minute and new ones take their place. What is here today is not there tomorrow. Can anyone catch the present as time speeds on? The moment a thought is born, it has vanished into the past. Can something which appears and vanishes like a bubble, something that is not permanent, be ever real? Reality is permanent, eternal. The only unchanging, undecaying reality is Brahman.” ~ Sri M

“That person is the true Sanyasin or renunciant who is untouched by anything whatsoever, who is ever established in the bliss of Brahman, irrespective of his activity or inactivity. It is only he who is fully relaxed and at peace, for he is even beyond deep sleep and rests in the calmness of that which is the root of all activity. He is the sole witness to the rising and falling of the waves of creation and destruction.” ~ Sri M

‪“The supreme truth is not something that can be obtained by acquiring more of what is normally called knowledge." ~ Sri M‬

‪“Nirvana need not, according to me, be a state where you are in a trance all the time. Nirvana is when you are free while you are eating, drinking, talking, but you don't have any pretensions, when you don't have anything to hide, or you are not insecure in any way. You are free. That is the beginning of freedom. The goal is important but the journey is as important as the goal.”~ Sri M‬

‪“Shraddha has several meanings but one of the meanings is complete attention - total one-pointed attention.” ~ Sri M‬

“If we can voluntarily extricate ourselves from the conditioning thoughts that are in our minds and open up for receiving what is beyond the three dimensional world and the ordinary way of thinking, perhaps we can tap the infinite potential that is even now, waiting for us inside our own minds.” ~ Sri M

‪“In matters beyond the rational mind, realisation takes place only when this mind becomes absolutely still. To find that out, we need a rational mind!” ~ Sri M‬

“In this material world – earning one’s living, going through all the problems and travails of worldly, mundane existence is a necessary step in learning about spiritual consciousness and evolution to higher levels.” ~ Sri M

‪“The rishis–seeing how people are constantly unhappy; seeking all the time and not getting the ultimate fulfillment – discovered that there is happiness, a complete fulfilment available to every human being within oneself and independent of anything outside. The search just has to be reversed to look within!” ~ Sri M

“Great yogis, great rishis, great scientists, the ‘great’ in all fields, are those who are not satisfied believing the conditioning of the mind. They know that this is basically a prejudice and try hard to break through, come out of their shell and soar to great heights in whichever field they are involved in.” ~ Sri M

“Questions never end. When you figure out that questions are part of the movement of the mind, and everything is still, there is nothing left to ask. This is something that has to happen on its own; it’s not something that can be imposed on anybody.” ~ Sri M

“The best sign of your progressing in your meditation is something very self-evident. Nobody has to tell you what’s happening. First is the experience of great bliss; the second is the actual experience of your Being. It’s not just a little sensation but an expansion throughout the Being in all ways, and not merely a physical expansion. It’s an expansion in all forms, in all ways.” ~ Sri M

By meditative state, I mean that the mind breaks free from petty concerns that constantly make it chatter and settles down quietly into a wider expanse. “ ~Sri M‬

“The experience of happiness is innate, not in the object that I enjoy. The object may although be necessary to excite it or bring it out. Therefore, Vedanta says: the source of all happiness is within us. When you are in contact with certain objects, this innate happiness is aroused within us.” ~ Sri M

“The word AUM is a threefold word, although when vocalised, it is a single sound. It can be divided into three sections: ‘a’, ‘u’, and ‘m’. The Upanishads and Vedas have given various meanings to these three sounds. One of the frequently encountered interpretations is that ‘a’ represents creation, ‘u’ preservation, and ‘m’ destruction or the transformation of something old into something new.” ~ Sri M

There’s no need to abandon anything. Money is a major energy in the world. Just give up exclusivity. Have. Share. Give. The world belongs to ALL.” ~ Sri M

“A Beej Akshara is a seed letter and a very powerful sound, a very powerful mantra. AUM or Pranava is the greatest of all Beej Aksharas.”~ Sri M