North-East India: June 2017

Chairman of Gurkha Everest Expedition 2017 Brigadier Ian Rigden writes

Written by The Gorkha::

It is with great humility and pride that we can confirm that 12 members of the expedition have now summitted Mt. Everest: 3 Gurkhas yesterday and 3 British officers (including the Team Leader Maj Dick Gale), one British SNCO and 6 Gurkhas today.

Put simmply, this is electrifying news. The aim of the expedition was to place a serving Gurkha on the summit of Mt. Everest for the first time. That the team has achieved this by placing 9 Gurkhas and 4 British team members on the summit is a magnificient achievement. They have made history. Their success is due to hard work, self belief, true teamwork and outstanding team leadership. I specially highlight Major Dick Gale and Major Andrew Todd, without whom this would not have been possible.

As we think of their success, we must remember that they are now in the process of extracting from the mountain. I ask you to keep them in your thoughts and prayers until they are safely home.

Jai Hos, Jai Gurkhali, Tapain haru kohi Chainna!!

– Brigadier Ian Rigden

Image source:-Google

Via-The Gorkha

Yogaday_21stJun
Discovery of Yoga

The longest period of daylight as seen from a geographic pole, the Sun reaches its highest altitude of the year on the summer solstice. It can be solar noon only along that longitude, which at that moment lies in the direction of the Sun from the pole. The Surya Siddhanta defines Uttarāyaṇa or Uttarayan as the period between the Makara Sankranti and Karka Sankranti thus indicating a semantic of the northward movement of the Earth on the celestial sphere.

Over 15,000 years ago, Adiyogi appeared in the upper regions of the Himalayas on this day. No one knew where he came from or what his origins were. He just came and went into intense ecstatic dance upon the mountains.

People saw that he was experiencing something that nobody had known before, something that they were unable to fathom. So they gathered around him wanting to know what it was. But no one had the courage to go near him because he was so intense, like a blazing flame of fire. So they waited, hoping something would happen. Some people waited for months and left and Only seven hardcore seekers stuck on. These seven were insistent that they must learn from him, but Shiva ignored them. They pleaded and begged him, “Please, we want to know what you know.”

At last after 84 years of intense sadhana,he decided to become a Guru. On a full moon day which is known as Guru Pournami because the Adiyogi transformed himself into the Adi Guru – the first Guru was born on that day. He took the seven disciples to Kantisarovar and started a systematic exposition of yoga in a scientific manner. He began propounding the whole mechanics of life to these seven people, not intellectually as a philosophy, but experientially. He explored every nut and bolt of creation with them. He brought forth yoga as a technology with which every human being can evolve himself.

The transmission went on for a long period of time. After many years, when it was complete and had produced seven fully enlightened beings, who are today celebrated as the Sapta Rishis, Adiyogi sent each one of them to different parts of the world. One went to Central Asia. Another went to North Africa and the Middle East, where certain schools exist even today. Another went to South America, and that is one culture that imbibed it in a deep way and made something big out of it. One went to East Asia.

One stayed right there with Adiyogi. Another one came to the lower regions of the Himalayas and started what is known as Kashmiri Shaivism. Another one went south into the Indian Peninsula. This one is very important for us because he is Agastya Muni. Of the seven Sapta Rishis, Agastya Muni has been the most effective in terms of bringing the spiritual process into practical life, not as a teaching, philosophy or a practice, but as life itself. It is the benefit of what he did that the Indian people are still enjoying because he produced hundreds of yogis who were like fireballs." and it goes on.
In the yogic culture, Shiva is not seen as a God. He was a being who walked this land and lived in the Himalayan region. As the very source of the yogic traditions, his contribution in the making of human consciousness is too phenomenal to be ignored. This predates all religion.