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About MaNaN
The MaNaN Ashram is the keystone of Tej Gyan Foundation, being developed with the purpose of creating magnanimous beings that operate from the highest state of consciousness, radiating peace, love and joy.
MaNaN represents the Hindi syllables Ma-Ni-Ni, expanded as Maha Nirvaan Nirmaan. This denotes the whole and sole purpose of life on Earth—the mission of raising collective consciousness that then paves the way for the highest creation of life beyond the limitations of life and death.
The Ashram is located amidst the glory of mountains and the pristine beauty of nature at the outskirts of the city of Pune in India, and is well connected by air, road and rail.
The external facilities of the ashram provide the support to kindle and raise the flame of higher consciousness, where residents are trained to access the divine source within, so as to abide in the pure consciousness. This is just the beginning, as the highest creativity of the Self then begins to unfold from that state. Novel possibilities that are teeming in the unseen can then manifest on the planet.
Towards a Highly Evolved Society
Peace is our natural state and can be easily accessed. Ignorance shrouds peace to such an extent that only symptoms of the absence of peace can be noticed. When the veils of ignorance are removed, we realize that we are not supposed to be peaceful – rather, we are peace in essence. Peace is our nature and it is everywhere. When we are able to experience the natural happy state within ourselves, we will begin to realize that this peaceful experience of Being is there in each and every body. The life that we are experiencing and feeling within ourselves is exactly the same experience which is present in every body. It is for this very experience that words such as ‘God’, ‘Self’, ‘Lord’, ‘Allah’, ‘Tao’, etc. have been coined. Be it the body of a child or of an adult, the experience is universally the same.
The more we are established in peace, more is the love that flows for others because in the experience of oneness, we realize that there is no other. This love is true love which is unconditional and boundless. Thus, by being peaceful, we allow love to expand in the universe. The more we operate from this natural state, our sensitivity keeps rising and so does our understanding. Our clarity about everything happening to us and all around us keeps increasing. By reminding ourselves and by accessing the peaceful natural state within, we attain supreme consciousness. We attain the final truth – also called self-realization. Further, we can stabilize in the experience of self-realization.
A highly evolved society can be formed when everyone accesses and operates from this peaceful natural state. With this, we can realize limitless potential to create a society where individuals give priority to self-realization and accessing consciousness first… a society where businesses exist as an expression of the Self… where the key department in every government is the ministry of higher consciousness… a society where all nationalities and races co-exist happily and resolve their differences through dialogue and vision.
We can transform this world into a society where importance is given to the common thread of consciousness in all religions rather than sectarian beliefs and myths of religions… where movies and media promote happiness, non-violence, and love… a society where differences in men and women are cherished and each take on their unique roles at work and at home. This would be a society where children are taught how to access the peace within and youth are taught how to fortify their character with kindness and compassion. Such a society is possible if the unshaken flame of peace within us (and within which we exist) is accessed. The glue that binds such a society is already there. It is the glue of higher consciousness that binds members of such a highly evolved society in oneness.
The Need for the Centre of Humanity
Today, science, religion and whole world appear to have reached a vital turning point. The advanced technology and modern culture have made human life easy and comfortable, but on other hand, have led man far away from Nature – the nature around us and the real Nature within us (the true Self).
Science was meant to make man’s life healthy, happy, easy and comfortable. However, despite the phenomenal technological advancement in every field, in spite of all the research and availability of information, and despite abundance of mundane comforts, luxury, is man happy and peaceful? No! Mankind is gripped by a feeling of unrest and stress at every level. This is because, in the name of progress, man is moving away from Nature, not just away but against Nature (Dharma).
All around the world, the incidences of psycho-emotional imbalance like stress, depression, unrest, addictions, craving for more wealth, anxiety, confusion, incidences of socio-immoral activities like violence, corruption, war, robberies, women assault, divorces, female feticide, family disputes, and social disharmony; incidences of psycho-somatic, auto-immune and immuno-deficiency disorders like asthma, diabetes, arthritis, heart diseases, hypertension, allergies, infertility, and cancer; and incidences of natural calamities like earthquakes, droughts, floods, pollution, deforestation and environmental imbalance are growing day by day. Why?
This is because our so-called entire progress is based on materialistic approach that deviates from the way of Nature. Strategies or remedies that arise from the prevailing beliefs and thought patterns can never bring about the much-required dissolution of these challenges. Actually, these malfunctions are the symptoms of lowered levels of human consciousness.
Thus, there is immediate need to change the direction of our development and evolution from body-consciousness to soul-consciousness. There is need for shift from a materialistic approach to consciousness-based spiritual approach. We as human beings have the choice and potential to awaken to higher consciousness. With higher consciousness, the apparent problems that exist today due to its decline will dissolve.
Indian spiritual tradition is the most ancient source of wisdom of consciousness and meditation. A Sanskrit phrase ‘Vasudaeva kutumbakam’, which translates as “the world is one family” is popular in ancient Indian wisdom. In Indian culture, inner peace is considered as a state of consciousness endowed with absolute Peace that may be cultivated by various forms of spiritual training. Hence, world peace can only be achieved through internal means by liberating ourselves from artificial boundaries that separate us all.
To awaken everybody to this understanding, it is imperative to establish a Center of Humanity in India that will work as transformative medium to raise the global awareness and consciousness.
Today, our world does not need a new religion. What it needs is the thread of understanding that can bind all religions together. The Centre of Humanity is the harbinger for this thread of understanding. The purpose of the Centre is to raise the understanding of “religion” beyond its current significance and refined it, so as to promote and establish its true essence.
When humanity returns to its essential nature, to its core living essence, then all conflicts and discrimination in the name of religion, caste and creed will cease to exist. The Centre of Humanity is an initiative to uphold and facilitate the return into the core living principle of religion, into our true nature.
Every religion follows different customs, celebrates various festivals. The wondrous truth about all these festivals is that they are all essentially pointing to the same underlying truth. The common purpose of all the festivals celebrated the world over is to raise the level of human consciousness. They offer an opportunity for man to live as a human, instead of falling to an animalistic way of life. Man alone has the choice of raising himself to lead a human life or of falling low to lead a mechanical animalistic life.
Conflict ends with the understanding that it is the same God that is being referred to in all religions. We all know what “water” means in English. But, what if someone were to say that, “When thirsty one should only drink water (English); one should not drink anything else like Shouei (Chinese), L’eau (French), Paani (Hindi), das Wasser (German), Mizu (Japanese), Aqua (latin), Voda (Russian), Agua (Spanish), or Amanzi (Zulu).” All the above words refer to water alone in these languages. One would immediately realize the foolishness in making such a statement. Similarly all religions refer to the same universal oneness. With this perceptive, all conflicts on religion and all religious issues will come to an end.
Within man lies the potential of rising higher. Ironically for the same reason, man also faces the risk of falling lower. Hence, it is of utmost importance to enlighten humanity about its true identity and its immense potential. When we begin to recognize our highest possibility, we will be able to celebrate all the festivals in the most apt manner. Otherwise, festivals will remain limited to mere rituals and extravaganza. The Centre of Humanity is essential in order to fulfil this purpose. It is the foremost need for human life and a novel pioneering initiative in these times.
The Centre of Humanity will be a universal sanctuary for humanity, created by putting technology to its highest use, instead of waging wars over temples or mosques. It will not be a sanctuary restricted to any one religion, but which will give place to all religions. On Sunday it could be a church, on Monday it can be the precincts of a Hindu temple; on Tuesday it could be a place of worship for the Jain; Wednesday could look forward to the presence of Buddhist monks in their monastery; a Gurudwara on Thursday can invite the Sikh for worship; Friday morning could mark the prayers of Muslims as a mosque, and on Saturday, the miraculous place could take the shape of a Jewish synagogue. People would marvel at such a universal sanctuary where every single day would embrace the essence of some religion.
This Centre seeks to restore the common thread behind all religions. This is the Centre that seeks to set everyone on the path to fulfilling the true purpose of human birth. The external symbol is only a reminder of the internal state. A Centre or any place of worship externally symbolizes that the human body itself is a Centre where Consciousness has to awaken. Going into the Centre actually signifies turning inwards and awakening this consciousness that resides within each and every one of us. All the great masters, the founders of all religions have originally pointed to this reality alone.
The Centre will be designed as a unifying and beautiful architectural marvel that is symbolic of the essence of all religions using eco-friendly technology. The Centre will represent seven religious places of worship during the seven days of the week. The ambience within the Centre will also take the form comfortable to those religions. The visible differences will be a celebration of one of the qualities of the Self – Creativity. How the same essence can be expressed in so many diverse and creative ways will be wonder to behold in itself.
Stress will be laid on the true significance and purpose of religions. The common thread will always remain in focus, thus gradually giving the essence more importance than the practices themselves. Being comfortable in their mould of religious atmosphere, everyone will still reach the same essence that each religion had to offer. Mankind will celebrate each festival of every religion. This is because would now know that celebrating Christmas, Diwali or Eid is actually one and the same. This will have been deeply imbibed into the very fabric of human feelings, rather than at a superficial conceptual level. Humanity will be raised to a new level of consciousness where grand new possibilities will open up. This will create a strong foundation for the creation of a Highly Evolved Society in the true sense.
The Path to Self-stabilization
The Ashram offers retreats that disseminate a unique system for wisdom that helps one to progress from self-help to self-realization. This system has been accredited with ISO9001:2010.
Participants in the retreats will be trained to gain access to the experience of the Self and learn to live in the present every moment. By imbibing the wisdom imparted at the Ashram, participants can:
MaNaNa Ashram
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Live from pure and still presence allowing the natural qualities of consciousness, viz. peace, love, joy, compassion, abundance and creativity to manifest.2
Acquire simple tools to use in everyday life which help quieten the chattering mind, revealing your true nature.3
Get practical techniques to gain access to pure presence at will and connect to the source of all answers (the inner guru).4
Discover the missing links in the practices of meditation (ध्यान), action (कर्म), wisdom (ज्ञान) and devotion (भक्ति).5
Understand the nature of your body-mind-mechanism to attain freedom from tendencies and patterns.6
Learn practical methods to shift from mind-centred living to consciousness-centred living.Ecological Thinking
Our planet – Mother Earth – is an intelligent and self-aware entity. Out of ignorance, human beings assume that they are leading independent, private lives, separate from the purpose of the planet. This is because they are unable to see the whole picture.
Like us, our host, Mother Earth is thinking, breathing, and aware of herself. Or rather, to put things in the right perspective, being parts of Mother Earth, we also think, breathe, and are self-aware. The planet lives through us. We are no different from Mother Earth; we are an integral part of her. It is time that we re-discover our relationship with our planet. We should treat Earth as an extension of our body.
Our planet sustains and nurtures all the creatures living within her. Being born on this planet, we enjoy the privilege of living on Earth. The word ‘privilege’ is of significance here, because it is indeed a privilege and not a right. With this privilege comes the responsibility of loving, honouring, and protecting our planet in gratitude for her loving care.
It is but natural to love and look after our mother. However, look at what we as a race have been up to over the last century. Our planet has been suffering from our neglect and abuse through pollution, deforestation, and over-exploitation. Beginning with the onset of the industrial era, we have plundered her resources to the edge of depletion. Our gross abuse has reached an enormous proportion with the creation of weapons of mass destruction. We who should be nurturing Mother Earth have instead been destroying both her and other creatures that are dependent on her.
We consider our bodies to be static entities. If we look more deeply, however, we find that our bodies are actually in a dynamic process. They constitute a vortex of energy in continuous flux, taking in carbon, oxygen and other vital elements and disposing of waste. What was tissue in our bodies yesterday is no longer part of those bodies today. Our bodies are being deconstructed and reengineered every moment as parts of the ecosystem. Just as the Earth survives due to the incessant decay of the sun, we survive due to the constant decay and renewal of our bodies, as does everything else that is part of Mother Earth.
When we consider whatever is inside our skin to be “me” and everything that is outside our skin to be “other,” we are unwilling to see our essential Oneness with everything else. Being an integral part of the Earth’s biosphere implies that everything is connected. As human beings, we have the ability to realize and honor that oneness behind the variety show of Mother Nature. By utilizing the resources of our planet consciously and not interfering with the natural flow of the biosphere, we honor this oneness, which is our essence.
The unconscious and indiscriminate misuse of natural resources is a violation of our essential oneness. This occurs because of our sense of separation from the socio-ecological web. The belief that we are separate from nature leads to a feeling of scarcity, triggering exploitation, violence, and manipulation that violate nature’s cycles. Each and every one of us has to own the responsibility of caring for Mother Earth. Each one of us is individually capable of creating significant and remarkable change in the way our species connects with Mother Earth.
We can take many small, practically feasible steps to nurture and protect Mother Earth. Eco-thinking is another word for Ecological Thinking–a central need of the 21st century. Eco-thinking is vital for securing our collective future. Our attitudes not only shape our personal life, but also our surroundings. Nature resonates or echoes back whatever we project from within. Eco-thinking demands that we understand the impact of our actions on the environment. It means being aware of the environment.
At the Ashram, residents will be oriented to lead an eco-friendly lifestyle that has eco-thinking as the inherent part of everyday life. Eco-thinking signifies treating Earth as an echo of our bodies. When we treat Earth as an extension of our body, we take good care of it, just as we take care of our body. Just as we would not overburden our body or waste our body’s resources, we must become overtly aware of restoring and maintaining the balance in the Earth’s biosphere in and through our daily interactions with it.
Ashram inmates will bring ecological integrity into their way of life by:
• Making environmental conservation and rehabilitation an integral part of all Ashram developmental initiatives
• Minimizing usage of natural resources and prevention of environmental damage in the Ashram vicinity
• Minimizing waste and ensuring proper disposal of residual waste that cannot be assimilated by ecological systems
• Adopting eco-friendly energy sources to the extent possible, instead of totally relying on degradable sources
• Effectively managing the use of renewable resources such as water and bio-degradable matter
Tej Sansari – A Bright Way of Living
The purpose of the MNN Ashram is not in creating an external ashram made of brick and mortar. Rather, the focus is on awakening the living spark of divinity and establishing the ashram in its subtler sense within each human being. The purpose is to create magnanimous beings that operate from the highest state of consciousness, radiating peace, love and joy.
The external facilities of the ashram will merely provide the instrumental support to kindle and raise the flame of higher consciousness, where residents would be trained to access the divine source within and establish themselves in Self-consciousness. This would be just the beginning, as the highest creativity of the Self would then begin to unfold from that state. Novel possibilities that are teeming in the unseen would then manifest on the planet.
The Foundation seeks to create an environment for self-sustained, harmonious community living. The life of a Tej Sansari transcends that of a recluse as well as that of a materialistic householder. A Tej Sansari will neither relinquish possessions and worldly way of life, neither will he indulge indiscriminately in worldly materiality. A Tej Sansari will be one who combines the positive aspects of both ways of living and leads a balanced life, keeping the true purpose of human birth in central focus. Residents in the Ashram will be given the choice of pursuing their lifestyle based on the guiding principles of Tej Sansari living.
Ashram inmates will follow the Tej Sansari way of life-based on love, mutual respect, commitment to the pursuit of truth, offering their skills to the community. Residents will be encouraged to foster an environment of open communication and guided to heal and grow together.