Source
r/hinduism•
shannondoah

A thread on introductory rescources on basis of spiritual practice

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A thread on some basics of sādhanā will be shared here. Here are my preliminary suggestions

  1. Japa Yoga by Svami Shivananda
  2. Concentration and Meditation by Swami Shivananda
  3. Practice of Bhakti Yoga by Swami Shivananda
  4. Meditation Know How by Swami Shivananda
  5. Lord Shiva and His worship
  6. Lord Krishna and His Leelas
  7. Meditation and spiritual life by Swami Yatishwarananda

On homa and tarpana as a method of sādhanā,I am putting here the following things

  1. Homa paddhatis for various devatas,both long and short forms. Everyone can do especially the short forms
  2. A very generalized homa paddhati
  3. Pitri tarpana paddhatis

Stutis/stotras/dhyāna collections to Devas and Devis

  1. viShNu sahasranAma with description of the nyAsa .
  2. Ishvara-dhyAna-ma~njarI
  3. shrI bhagavatI stuti ma~njarI
  4. shrI devI nAma stotra ma~njarI-part 1 and part 2
  5. shrI mInAkShI stuti ma~njarI
  6. shrI hanumat stuti ma~njarI
  7. shrI naTarAja nAma ma~njarI
  8. shrI shivanAma ma~njarI and part 2
  9. shrI rAma stuti ma~njarI
  10. shrI viShNu stuti ma~njarI, part 1, part 2, part 3
  11. shrI vigneshvara stuti ma~njarI , part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
  12. shrI subramanya stuti manjari

On Puja

  1. Puja to Skanda with 5 upacharas
  2. Ganesha Puja

Posted Oct 13, 2017, 11:14 AM UTC · edited

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tp23•

This is really great. Simple instructions are a great starting point. In the stotras section, I would highlight Sri Vishnu Sahasranama as it is recommended for everyone at all times. This Sri Vaishnava document has a very good introduction in the first few pages, and this link for Shankara's commentary also gives a good description of the nyasa.

One thing which goes along with this list is the kind of attributes/virtues which are useful to cultivate.

Here are three qualities - Regularity, Bhava, Focus. The last two arise naturally and the first is more under your conscious control. A short description, please forgive and correct any mistakes here.

  • Try to do a practice for some fixed time period(ex: read a stotra for 40 days). This is important in these low attention span times, when people switch on and off. With such a vrata/resolution, the practice settles into you.

  • The second quality is doing a practice with bhava(feeling, inspiration). Narasimha Rao in his pronounciation video emphasizes that bhava is like 99% and pronounciation is 1%. This bhava naturally arises in multiple ways, maybe a visualization(visualizing a devata in the cave of the heart), poetry, a trip to a special place etc. A simpler, shorter ritual with devotion is more valuable than a more difficult practice done mechanically. Japa is probably more intense than reading and singing, but the poetry is what leads to an inspiration which then makes the japa more fruitful.

  • The important quality of focus/ekagrata/onepointedness is the natural result of the above and some practices like pranayama.

  • Lastly, what several great teachers say that is that at the end of practice is to ask for forgiveness for mistakes and then dedicating the results to one's guru or favorite deity or welfare of the world, (In Sanskrit we say 'Shree Sadguruarnarpitamastuhu' or 'Shree Krishnarpanamastu' or 'Shree Parameshwarpitamastu', but you can say it in English also). The latter is optional(sometimes you might be aiming for some life goal), but it greatly enhances the practice, so one can try to do it as often as possible. Sadguru or Krishna or Shiva knows what is good for you and the world much better than you.

May Shree Hari bless one and all with these good qualities.

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over_45•

Totally awesome. And thanks for that terrific link to VS

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Ryugar•

Thanks for the tips, I gotta work more on that bhava/inspired feeling bit. I read about how saying with devotion and intent really helps.

Also, don't forget goddess Saraswati! She is the key to that hidden wisdom.

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queershaktismqueer + shaktism•

There is also shreemaa.org. They have good paddhati that are fairly well demonstrated on their YouTube channel. One can look up almost all mantras online and jot them down, if one doesn't want to buy the books or the apps.

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chompmaster•

Thank you for this post, after having lost touch with my Hindu roots, I've been reconnecting with and learn as much as I can.

So the links here will be useful to study and consider.

I made a little tool for myself in Facebook Messenger, to send a daily quote from Bhagavad Gita so that I centre my mind and focus my thoughts positively to get the day rolling.

If anyone wants to try it, feel free to go to Messenger Link and the you'll get a message every morning.

Would love to hear what people think : )

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Kingkohli21•

The links not working,it’s just taking me to the AppStore page

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chompmaster•

It's a link to Facebook Messenger, if you don't have it on your phone/tablet it will take you to app store.

Have you tried it on a desktop?

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so_just_heresmartha•

A helpful resource if anyone is looking to learn Vishnu Sahasranamam

The website for Chinmaya Mission Pittsburg is hosting audio lessons, which seem quite useful for a beginner

Also - This is another good resource to learn the meaning - Swami Krishnananda

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Existential87•

Great list. Meditation and Spiritual life (#7on the list) is an absolute classic, and would be my foremost recommendation as a comprehensive starting point. Beyond that, I would say its time to start studying Shankara's Commentaries on the Gita.

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queershaktismqueer + shaktism•

Let's also include links to IIT Kanpur's list of supersites which have translations, recitations and more for each shloka of important texts like the Gita, the Upanishads and important sutras. like https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/.

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shannondoahOP•

That would be better in https://www.reddit.com/r/hinduism/comments/39lb4h/an_official_orthodox_booklist_for_this_sub/ (will edit it when I'm back).

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zakarse•

Thank you this was great!!!

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[deleted]•

Let's learn about Hinduism!

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damnrite•

Wow. Very nice and thanks a lot. I have recently come across a teacher from Sivananda school of yoga and Vedanta and found their teachings helpful.

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bgr95•

I agree that science is not yet able to model consciousness, etc. mathematically but the 20th century has been so fruitful for mathematics and physics that people are now trying. So unless you are actually doing research in the field you can’t really say “you cannot understand without spirituality”. Btw what are you trying to understand about the universe? Of course many things are unresolved, there are many things that are explained by science. Unlike religion science is an ever expanding subject which means that at some point in time that thing we have not understood now will be understood in a consistent, logical way.

I don’t like to talk about non falsifiable theories such as previous life, etc. Don’t make Hinduism about these non falsifiable theories. It’s much richer than that.

Being after the truth one should be open to ideas.

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queershaktismqueer + shaktism•

What you're doing here is what a religious person does when they post about spirituality in a science group or sub; making a fool of themselves. Science is valuable and it has bettered quality of life around the world. Nobody is countering that anywhere on this thread. This is a thread on sadhna. Sadhna has its own benefits and when you do enough of it, you understand what its power is. You're countering that here when you evidently have no sadhna accomplished in this life. So I suggest you taste the pudding before saying it sucks.

And no, hard science is not sadhna. Because sadhna is intrinsically about faith and wanting to expand on a previous experienced knowledge of being. It is about experience and not finding more facts or explaining them. It is about changing oneself, not the world and what it thinks.

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tp23•

The issue is not so much that science isnt able to model etc. It is about application to each situation and third person description vs becoming attentive enough to be able to watch the process live. Consider the analogy, even after a general understanding of the biology of the body, each person will have idiosyncratic combination of diseases and symptoms. Based on general guidelines, some medicines will be prescribed and taken. Then one can test if it works. So general understanding of mind is itself insufficient, we have to apply it to each case.

Next point, instead of just having a model of the right theory(which is useful, no doubt, in Advaita we have shravana/hearing followed by two other stages), there is the point about seeing it for onself. Unlike medicine, one has to do the process on one's own and cant just depend on doctor's knowledge.

For example, You mentioned psychology. If you read about Cognitive Behaviour Therapy or Psychotherapy, the focus is on getting the patient to see first hand the nasty loops one is caught in. It can involve observing one's repeated thought patterns or the therapist roleplaying/reenacting the patient's usual pattern live. Then, the story that one is repeatedly playing out daily becomes explicitly visible to the patient.

So yes, you can explore in a scientific way and you can test things out without accepting dogmatically. Sadhana itself is such a process. There are intellectual means if you are so inclined(vipassana is far more intense and detailed than the cbt mentioned above). The distinction is between just having an abstract third person description of human mind vs studying oneself like a scientist(simple example - just looking at the patterns behind some compulsive habit like browsing the net), doing an experiment(various kinds of practices).

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Painkiller001•

Only thing about spiritual practice for me is, making the life joyful and exploring other dimension of life, Which science can never ever explain.

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bgr95•

That's what you think kiddo

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chingaaHindu•

Isn't it fun to propose and talk about non-falsifiable theories? It is. What you don't like is that you'll soon find yourself on shaky ground once you enter that area. The whole point of sadhana in Hinduism or other religious prescriptions is to show that it doesn't have to be so shaky. But, it requires you to let go of the safety of testable hypotheses and repeatable observations for some time.

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bgr95•

Instead of this learn some philosophy and psychology. The point is to understand the human mind. The old model for study was to do yoga, meditation, etc. in the current situation sciences have become far more sophisticated. This doesn’t mean yoga and mudras don’t have anything deep. They don’t have scientific evidence. I am a practicing physicist who also does advanced yoga and other spiritual things. We also should respect the current way.

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Kriya44जय गुरु •

I totally disagree. Intellectual study is meaningless without sadhana.

The mind is limited, it can only take you so far.

I think both are necessary but sadhana is more important for almost everybody. Unless you have done a ton of sadhana in previous lives, philosophy and psychology alone won't do much.

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bgr95•

Sadhana: What do you consider as Sadhna? A hard working scientist trying to understand how the universe works or some baba doing his sadhana?

All these previous lives, etc are non falsifiable theories so these can’t be trusted so much. The thing that makes Hinduism so nice is its flexibility to accommodate people with different philosophies. But religion should be based on logic and hence should consist of an evolving set of ideas(which Hinduism was once upon a time before the Bhakti movement, Islamo-British era, etc.).

Sad thing is all Hinduism discussions are filled with Pseudo science and non falsifiable theories.

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Kriya44जय गुरु •

You're welcome to your opinion of course. But I disagree that a mainstream scientific approach is more valuable than spiritual practices.

You will never understand the universe with your mind. Only by going beyond the mind will give that understanding.

I think science is valuable but as a sadhak I find every path to be lesser without a spiritual basis

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bgr95•

You can’t say that unless you are actually doing scientific research. I can criticise both approaches because I follow both . On what basis are you saying spiritual practices are more important than scientific methods? I would much prefer the scientific approach. How do you define spirituality in the first place?

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IWannaEscapeTheRoomShaiva•

CBT was based on the ideas of the ancient Greek and Roman stoics. Psychologists teach mindfulness techniques, including meditation.

Nobody is saying don't study psychology or philosophy. You just popped into a thread with some other resources that are also useful, started by saying "instead of this" and ended by saying "do both."

So even though it seems you're really saying, "hey, these other things are useful too," you start off in an adversarial way.

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