Yoga and Its Misconceptions

      Yoga that looks commercial is absolutely spiritual. Foreigners who earn money as well as stress much are the victims of so-called yogis of the modern world. The true meaning of yoga is 'to move from ordinary mundane life to a higher state of life that is spiritual and perfect.' It emerges from the word 'yoke' that means 'to get united.' The practice that facilitates the human soul to get united with God is the real yoga that the ancient indian sages followed.

     Attaining a thoughtless state of mind is the ultimate aim of yoga. Mind generally functions in any one of the four cycles - Beta wave (14 to 40 cycles/second), Alpha Wave (8 to 13 c/s), Deeta wave (4 to 7) and Delta Wave (1 to 4). Most of the people have beta wave only, that is, emotional state of mind. The more the cycles the more their emotions are. But a person who starts practising yoga, that is, getting initiation, touches the alpha wave and moves up to 8 cycles depending upon the efforts he takes to concentrate on the pituitary and pineal gland. It is a peaceful state that takes all stress from the mind immediately.

     Deeta wave and delta wave are gained at the loss of body consciousness. When the yogi moves away from this earth and goes beyond the universe mentally, he forgets his body and even the universe with all its billions of galaxy looks a small dust in front of him. All his illusions that he inherited being a well-frog vanish now. He identifies himself with the universe and realises his eternal existence.

To realise God and mingle with Him is the ultimate aim of birth for which yoga empowers one. The supreme power that is the route cause of the existence and function of the universe realized by the yogi. He witnesses that supreme power being all and in all.

     Attaining the everlasting state of spiritual bliss is the outcome of true yoga and getting relieved from stress is only a byproduct. Leading the mundane life with a lot of attachment to this world and just practising yoga for reducing the stress and to grow financially and industrially cannot be called as a true yoga practice. Yoga is not a product for sales or a boost to increase your sales. A man who is emotional is so weak in body and mind but a man who is peaceful is so strong in body and mind. In short, peace is the key to open treasures of the spiritual world.

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You Are Not What You Are

You are not the balloon but the air filled within.  You are in as well as out.  When the balloon bursts, the air does not die.  When the body perishes, our aathma (soul) does not die.  Don't think you are the body.  Don't say you are in the body.  Realize you are in the body as well. You are in the body, outside the body in the universe, outside the universe everywhere.

Since you are formless, you are neither beautiful nor ugly, neither tall nor short, neither fat, nor lean, nor strong, weak, young ,aged and the like.  You are formless, so you are deathless requiring no insurance policy for you.  You are birth-less and you have no parents or grandparents or great grandparents and the like.  Weapons can kill your body only not you who are everywhere.

You can neither be richer than others.  You cannot be poorer than others as well.  Because you are the only one existing in the world because there cannot be two formless things.  One that is formless will be endless and infinite and can be only one that is you.  Why do you compare yourself with others when there is no one except you.  Know you are not what you are and what you think you are.

  

Of Life-force, Old Age and Death

Life Force:

     A group of trillions of fundamental, self-rotating energy particles in the body is called life-force.  Certain numbers of energy particles leave our body constantly due to the repulsive force of the Earth.  However the sexual vital fluid (svf) that is produced at the brain and comes to the center of the body after puberty retains sufficient number of energy particles in the body with its attractive force.  Our health and youth are depending on the bio-magnetism which is produced by life-force (energy particles) whose density relies on the amount of svf located at the center of the body.  Hence, the density of the life-force will vary in different ages due to various factors.  Sperms in men and steroid hormone in women are collectively termed here as svf.  This svf exits our body 

(i) sometimes involuntarily during sleep.

(ii)  voluntarily through sexual intercourse

(iii) voluntarily through masturbation

(iv) naturally at the time of death

     Life is maintained by this life-force and the bio-magnetism produced by it.  The food we take reaches several processes and at last becomes our body.  First it becomes chemical juice, then blood, flesh, cholesterol, bones, majai, and at last sexual vital fluid.  .  Thus food is the source of sexual vital fluid that is the source of life-force that is the source of bio-magnetism that is the source of our youth, immunity power, the energy to operate our body organs, sensual experiences and the functioning of our mind. 

Old Age:

    The production of svf is not at the same quantity in all ages.  It decreases after 40 years and ceases at 60 generally.  Bio-magnetism produced by life-force eventually decreases.  Our body cells which are intact and energetic because of this bio-magnetism suffer a lot and lead to shrinks in the skins.  The weakness of nerves also gives rise to hanging of flesh -what we call as old age knocks at our door now.

Death:

     Pain is the initial signal of the short-circuit in our body.  Incurable diseases exhaust the bio-magnetism in our body whereas accident takes away great amount of bio-magnetism in no time.  Consequently short-circuit in svf results in the total quit of svf from the body.  Life-force which is a dependent of svf also quits the body.  Bio-magnetism which is a dependent of life-force also gets away.  Death occurs.  Body and mind stop functioning.  The decomposition starts.

     Soul and life-force are entirely different.  The former refers to the imprints of our experiences and actions passing from generation to generation through hereditary whereas the later is a group of self-rotating energy particles which we call 'akash' in the universe, one of the five elements constituting nature. The exercise to retain life-force in the body and maintain youth is called 'kayakalpa' in yoga.  To learn kayakalpa and know more about life-force and bio-magnetism, contact World Community Service Center, Chennai, India or make a call to Temple of Consciousness, Aliyar or anywhere in the world (www.vethathiriyam.org) 

      

Meditation and knowledge

When we meditate on a particular thing, the following process takes place:
1.  We gather knowledge about it.
2.  We receive its nature and make it our own.
3.  The secrets behind it are revealed to our knowledge.
4.  We are capable of bringing it under our control or use.
5.  Peaceful mind leads to less consumption of energy.
6.  We learn its origin and end.
7.  Our concentration increases.

Three Factors for Lasting Memory

1.  Rethinking of the same and making recurring impression

2.  Knowledge & experience received with concentrated and

     willing mind.

3.  Incidents with deep impact.

What we think again and again gets lasting memory in us naturally.  Whatever we do with involvement, interest, love and concentration leads to lasting memory.  We need not take any efforts, they get recorded deeply.  Some unforgettable incidents such as death, love failure, disappointment and loss of our close relations leave deep impressions in our memory.

Philosophy of Life (Part - 2)

 

•             The joys and sufferings or any incidents in the past, present and future in our life are determined by our imprints in the genetic center.  Our memory shows past and present, and astrology mirrors the future as well.

•      What is suffering? What is pleasure? The end of pleasure is suffering and the end of suffering is pleasure.  The barrier to our enjoyment is the source of our suffering.  The freedom to do what we like is the source of our pleasure.  But the realization of self with the atman, the knowledge of who I am is the source of eternal happiness called bliss. 

•             All except the enlightened are sinners.  Freedom, Privacy, Money, Power, Favorable circumstances and the influence of Genetic Imprints make sinners.

•              Sensual pleasure, whatever the quantity is, whoever gives it, how long it persists will never give satisfaction to the soul, rather increases the appetite and leads to suffering.

•      The thing or person or action that gives you pleasure now will not give you the same.  At one stage ceases and starts giving pains.

•      When the quantity or time or age changes, sorrows start from the same things or persons that gave us joys.

•            The lust by what will destroy towards what will destroy is rubbishy.  The piety by what will destroy towards what will not destroy is outstanding.  The love by what will not destroy towards what will destroy is divine.

•      An object or a person's value is not within but is supplied by external factors like one's knowledge, religion, power, etc., 

•       Sensual appetite is harmful to 1.body, 2. peace of mind, 3. money, 4.relationship, 5. reason,  6. character and 7. valuable time.

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SURIYA NAMASKARA AASANAS

Suriya namaskara is a combination of 12 aasanas done continuously:
1. Pranamasana:  Stand on a mat with feet close together and palms of the hands joined and kept near chest.  Watch the breathing with closed eyes for few seconds.

2. Hastha Uttanasana:  Take both hands back at stretched condition breathing in gradually and try to turn your body back as much as possible.

3.  Padha Hasthasana:  Turn your body front gradually breathing out and keep your both palms at the either side of your foot.  With forehead, try to touch your knees.

4. Aswa Chanchalana aasana: Take your right leg back at stretched condition breathing in gradually.  Your eyes should view straight at the front.

5. Thuvi padha ashwa chanchalana aasana: Stretch both your legs back and balance your body standing on both hands.  The breath inhaled should be retained in at this aasana.

6.  Ashtanga Namaskara:  Bring your body close to the earth breathing out gradually. But only your forehead(1), chest(1), palms(2), knees(2), feet(2) touching the ground and your buttocks raised higher.  (Eight parts of the body (ashtangam) should touch the ground.

7.  Puchagasana:  Keep your chest and head upwards gradually breathing in.  Keep your stomach and the remaining body on the ground.

8.  Atha Muktha Savasana:  Take your hip still higher gradually breathing out and bring your head towards ground.  Your body now should look like A.

9.  Aswa chanchalan aasana:  Take your right leg front and keep in between your palms gradually breathing in. (compare stage 4)

10.  Padha Hasthasana:  Stand as in stage 3 gradually breathing out.

11.  Hastha Uttanasana:  Come to stage 2 position gradually breathing in.

12.  Pranamasana:  Come to stage 1 position.

The Requirements for Moksha

The following lead to moksha that is but achieving 'thoughtless mind' as proposed by the father of yoga Patanjali in his samathi patham - " yoga - sidha viruthi nirothaya".  (for further details, read the specific articles entitled so):
1.  Purity of Genetic Center (making the sinful imprints inactive)
2.  Purity of Action
3.  Purity of Thought
4.  Meditation
5.  Introspection (our constant attempts to purify ourselves)
6.  Truth consciousness
7.  Contact with the Enlightened (by reading their books or staying with them, etc.,)
8.  Detached Attachment ( not mentally attached to worldly affairs but living with worldly people)
9.  Eradication of all other unnecessary commitments (those which will not help to attain moksha)
10. Adhering Guru's Words.
      

Yoga and the Three Imprints

Throughout our life, we think, speak and act, but our thinking, speech and actions are having their root in our imprints.  Whatever we think or do, they are recorded in our genetic center being processed through our brain cells.  From our three years of age, up to now whatever we thought or did are in our genetic center and they are called as 'praraptha karma' in yoga.  As we came from our father and mother, we get a xerox copy of their imprints during our birth - this includes not only our parents' imprints but also our forefathers (our father's mother and father, our mother's father and mother, and their fathers and mothers).  In this way up to the origin of man, it is counted and even goes back to animals from whom man evolutioned.  These imprints are called as 'sanchitha karma' in yoga.
     Our present character and knowledge is but the sum total of these imprints.  Our ability to act and think is rooted in these imprints.  Personality in true sense is these imprints only.  These two imprints produce desires and thoughts laying the path of our life before us.  Our desires and actions based on these imprints lead to the third type of imprints called 'Aakamiya Karma'.  'Kamyam' means desires.  So we have millions of imprints in us.  According to the right time, age, situation and need, they emerge from us as actions.
     Every thought becomes an imprint and every action becomes an imprint, and these imprints again become thoughts and actions. Thus our life goes on.  We have both good imprints and evil imprints.  A person with
50 %  good imprints and 50% bad imprints is called a normal man leading mundane life.  He experiences a chain of joys and sorrows depending upon the emergence of imprints within him.  One who has 90 % good imprints and 10 % bad imprints is recognized as 'mahatma' or 'a virtuous soul'.  One who has 10% good imprints and 90 % imprints is criticized as 'a wicked fellow' or 'a heartless criminal'.  These imprints are but our destiny in some way or , to say, they feed our destiny.
     Though we have millions of imprints, only some prints are active now and about the large number of imprints  are inactive.  In our daily life, our activities, thoughts and  habits substantiate these active imprints.  Once we change our habits and activities, these active imprints become inactive.  Our joys and sorrows are in our thoughts and actions which are from our imprints which came into existence because of previous thoughts and actions.  What a great play of natural law!
     Yoga aims at thoughtless state of mind which leads to no imprints.  The mind of yogi that mingles with 'brahman' (the almighty everywhere) which is formless becomes formless and thoughtless.  This state is called 'samathi' (equal to 'aathi').  A yogi is not affected by imprints and he makes all evil imprints inactive.  At the final stage, he is away from all imprints, mingling with god.  He first moves from body consciousness to universal consciousness from which he finally moves to god-consciousness.  He is away from all joys and sorrows since he is away from all imprints.  His heart is with everlasting peace that results in ecstasy.

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Aim of Yoga and Its misconceptions

Today many people come to learn yoga mainly for one of the following reasons:
1.  To reduce tension that they had from family worries or business commitments or such mundane activities.
2.  To cure some long-lasting diseases, diabetes, asthma and so on.
3.  To improve the concentration of the students for securing good marks and to improve their character.

Many people get satisfied with learning aasanas and think that they learnt yoga. But the ultimate aim of yoga is to attain self-realization, that is, to realize who I am.  Consciousness being standstill, that is, thoughtless mind is samati, perfection, salvation, nirvana, mukti, moksha and realization of self.  If you gradually reduce number of thoughts in your mind and at one stage reach thoughtless mind, then you become one with braman and realise all the secrets of nature, including who you are.  Healthy mind, healthy body, good concentration, profound thinking, long life and peaceful mind are the byproducts of yoga, not the aim.  A sick person cannot be a yogi.  That is why aasanas were taught to strengthen a yogi physically and mentally on his spiritual journey. 

Yoga and the Four Cycles of Mind

Human mind normally functions in any one of the four cycles:
1)  Beta Wave  -  14 to 40 cycles
     It is the emotional state of mind.  The more your cycles are the more you lose your awareness and the more you are emotional.  For example, if you are angry or worried or afraid or lustful, your mind cycle may be between 25 to 35 depending upon its density.  In between 20 and 40 cycles, your reason and thinking power scarcely works.  You commit errors, have bad habits and build all your weakness without being out of your own control.
2)  Alpha Wave  - 8 to 13 cycles
     Normally a person who does not do meditation starts sleeping when he reaches this state of mind.  He is not well aware of what he thinks and hence dreams are out of his understanding and remembrance.  But when a person gets initiation in yoga (kundalini dheetsha) he reaches 13 cycle and gradually moves upto 8 cycles depending upon his intensive concentration.  Here the yogi is aware, not sleepy and he is enabled to understand  his own weakness and strength, the secrets of nature, etc.,
3)  Theta Wave  -  4 to 7 cycles
      A person, not doing yoga falls in deep sleep but a yogi, doing Thuriya meditation reaches this stage and still more aware of the secrets and laws of nature.  Many inventions take place at this state of mind.  The brain cells are active more in number and the yogi becomes more powerful in a way that whatever he thinks, that happens soon.
4)  Delta Wave  -  1 to 3 cycles
     This is generally called as unconscious state and ho-ma stage for normal human beings, but a yogi who reaches this stage through Thuriyatheedha meditation moves very close to atman (braman or god) or the unified force as science calls it.  He mingles with it and identifies himself with the universe.  The ultimate truth that 'I am all, I am in all' is realised at this stage.  All vedas and holy books were revealed only at this stage.

Did you ever ask this question - Who am I?

     We affix our passport size photo in ID card or other documents to enable others to identify us.  We mean that this particular body or figure is 'I'.  But the body is not 'I', it is just a house wherein I live, or a vehicle by which I travel around the world.
     When we say, "I am sick, I am bleeding, I am handsome or beautiful, I am young or old" actually we are body conscious.  We think that we are body.  What we do in our everyday life is nothing but cleaning the part of the body (brushing), cleaning the body (bathing), decorating the body (using perfumes and powder), feeding the body (eating and drinking), charging the body (sleeping) and sweating for the body (working for the needs of body).  Most of the people, not all, are body conscious and always go after sensual pleasures bending morals to their need.
     When water is boiled, it becomes water vapor and disappears from our view, but it does not die.  Water is a group of atoms, when they are heated, atoms in the group get separated and function by keeping one another at a distance.  But when they again join together they become clouds and later rain.  Our body is also just a group of atoms, like any other thing in the world.  If they get separated, they will also disappear from our view.       If somebody asks, "who are you?", we say, "I am Peter or so and so".  The name is not you.  Even if the name is changed, you are not changed - you have the same limbs and other organs.  Your character is not changed.  If we call a cow as pig, the cow will not become pig or do things like pig.  So name is just to identify an object or a person's body.  So name is not you.
     A thought in your mind: " I must meet him tomorrow."  Did you think that?, or did your mind think that?  'You thought' is correct.  'Your mind thought' is also correct.  Then, you = your mind.  If you are your mind, you cannot be seen by anybody, because your mind cannot be seen by anybody.  Your mind can go to any distant place in a fraction of second, then it means that you can go to any place with a fraction of second.  In this way, continue your thinking and find our many secrets about you.
    So to know about your mind more is to know about you more.

What is Kundalini Yoga?

Meditation is a part of Yoga - the seventh stage as introduced by Patanjali Maharishi.  Concentrating your mind on any particular thing or person without deviation from it is what we say meditation.  For example, you may think only of the candle light for 10 minutes without disturbance of other thoughts, or you may even see your father or mother in your mind without any other thoughts.  This is meditation.  In Kundalini Yoga, your mind is trained to concentrate on life-force from which our mind emerges.  Life-force is a group of trillions of invisible fundamental energy particles rotating in your body.  Because of its rotation, bio-magnetism is produced in your body.  It is this bio-magnetism that forms the basis for the function of internal and external organs in our body.  The conversion or transformation of this bio-magnetism is called our mind.  So mind comes from bi o-magnetism that comes from life-force.  In Kundalini Yoga, we concentrate our mind on life-force from which our mind emerges.
     'Kundam' means heat or fire and 'ali' means neither a male or female.  Our life-force cannot be distinguished as male or female that is why it is called as ali.  It is centered in our body just one inch above our anus, that is, in the center of our body ( behind the edge of spinal cord at the bottom).  Kundalini initiation means that lifting up this sakthi or force from the Mooladharam (center of our body) to the Agna (the place between two eyebrows where pituitary gland is found).  This is also called as Dheeksha.  In those days, it took fourteen years to a yoga practicer to achieve this by producing heat (kundam) with the help of mantras or breathing exercises and again it was difficult because he has to observe bramacharya life(to be without marriage and sexual desire).  But today, even being in family life, without going to forest, without taking 14 years, just in 5 minutes, with the help of already experienced yoga master, the initiation is given.  As soon as the initiation is given the practicer feels the force of life-force (kundalini sakthi) between his eyebrows and his mind turns from beta wave (14 to 40 cycles) to alpha wave (8 to 13 cycles).  The more you concentrate the more your mind becomes peaceful and the tension flies off.
See other related articles for further details.

Eight Parts of Yoga

Yoga is divided into eight parts by Patanjali Munivar in his Astanga Yoga.
1.  Iyama:
     Iyama refers to 5 disciplines, that is, what we should not do:
     a)  Ahimsa - Not to kill or harm any living being physically or mentally.
     b)  Satyam - Not to speak lies
     c)  Astheyam - Not to steal
     d)  Abarikrayam - Not to beg or gamble
     e)  Bramachariya - Not to commit adultery or rape physically or mentally

2.  Niyama:
     Niyama refers to 5 disciplines, that is, what we should do:
     a)  Thabas -  To incline to spiritual matters.
     b)  Swathyayam - To chant mantras that will control mind
     c)  Santhosam    -  To get self-satisfaction with what we have.
     d)  Sowsam       -   To keep purity in thoughts, words and deeds.
     e)  Eswara Prani-   To maintain harmony with natural laws and avoid sufferings.

3.  Asanas:
     Asanas which refer to various postures are 4 types: 1.  Exercises in standing position,  2.  in sitting
     position, 3. in lying your whole body upwards  4.  in lying your whole body downwards.  By 2010,
     nearly 900 aasanas have been identified based one patanjali's Yoga Sutras and Hindu Epics (The
     Ramayana, and the Mahabharatha)
4.  Pranayama:
     Pranayama does not refer to breathing exercises but the control of Pranan that is the root cause for the
     function of body, mind and all activities in the universe. This is achieved by certain systematic breathing
     exercises.
5.  Prathyagara:
     It refers to diverting the mind from external affairs, especially from producing emotional sensual thoughts.
     Meditation actually begins here.
6.  Tharana:
     It refers to the activity of focusing the mind on a particular object or life-force in the body.
7.  Thiyanam:
     It refers to the activity of concentrating mind on a particular thing without any deviation.
8.  Samati:
     It is the end of Yoga.  It refers to attaining the stage of Nirvana.  Once this level is achieved, then the
     mind becomes equal to the state of god, that is, thoughtless mind.  Swami Vivekananda clarifies further that meditating on a particular object without deviation for 12 seconds is called one Prathyagara.
12 prathyagara is equal to 1 Tharana,
12 Tharana is equal to 1 thiyana,
12 Thiyana is equal to Samati.

To know more about each part in detail, view other specific articles published (or will be published soon)

Philosophy of Life- Part 1

1. The key for wisdom: Go back or front, grow big or small as long as you can in terms of time and place and own wisdom.

2. Detached attachment, just as the water on the lotus leaf, is the key to release ‘the aspiring soul for salvation’ from worldly memories.

3. The absence of body-consciousness results in the presence of super-consciousness and vice versa.

4. Purity and wisdom are the invaluable property of the renounced.

5. Desire makes man weak physically, mentally, spiritually and financially.

6. This world is the open prison where Consciousness indulges in merry-making unknowingly imprisoned by the invisible gates of Innocence, Ignorance and Illusion.

7. Existence is illusion; Nothing exists.

8. When we say, “I grow, I am sick, I am handsome or beautiful, I am lean or fat or tall…” we mean that I = body. We are body-conscious. But the body is not me. It is a house where I am living; it is a vehicle by which I travel around the world. The house I live or the vehicle I ride cannot be called as me. Vacating the house cannot be called as death. The things I possess and I must be different.

9. A diamond is covered with dust being buried at the bottom of a dustbin. Its light is hidden, not lost. Our duty is to clean and find the actual bright light and noble value. Our atman (aathma) is that diamond. Body is gifted to us to clean the impurities covering atman through purity of thoughts, words and deeds. Nothing is to develop, or improve or get. The liberation of consciousness from impurities is what we need.

10. Our body never takes birth and never dies. A group of fundamental energy particles (atoms) jointly function together and we call it water. When they are separated from the group, they become water vapor and then disappear from our eyes (but still function individually and invisibly). Similarly is our body. Union and separation cannot be called as birth and death.

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What is Yoga?

Many people generally think that yoga means bending your body into a difficult posture and doing aasanas and breathing exercises. Yoga actually came from the term 'yoke' that means 'to unite'. The ultimate aim of yoga is to enable an ordinary man ( or a practicer) to get united with God, also called as 'Brahman' through process of self-elevation (sublimation and self-purification).

 The aim of Yoga is not converting a family man into sanyasi (a renounced one), but maintaing harmony in 3 ways:

1. maintaining harmony between body and life-force through physical exercises called aasanas, assuring healthy body;

2. maintaining harmony between man and society through moral life and eradication of evil natures in man, assuring social peace;

3. maintaining harmony between man and Nature through realization of the laws of Nature, especially the law of cause and effect, assuring life without suffering.

 Attaining everlasting consciousness, identifying oneself with universal spirit, self realisation and finally reaching thoughtless mind, called as Nirvana / Samati / Moktsha /salvation / Mukthi / Veeduperu/Enlightenment is the inherent spirit of Yoga.

 So Aasanas, breathing exercises and meditations are just preparatory stages in Yoga, they are not merely yoga as many people think.

Patanjali Munivar, (the above figure) is supposed to be the father of Yoga since he introduced Yoga systematically in the 2nd century B.C.

About this Blog

This blog is meant for those who have undertaken inner journey to find themselves.  What is meditation?  How many kinds of meditations are there?  How to do different meditations?  What are the benefits of meditations?  Who is God? When will you find your Master?  What is a sin? What is Enlightenment?  Everything that is spiritual will be answered here.  What you will get here is not money and entertainment but peace and enlightenment. Self realisation leads to the realization of everything, including Truth, God, Soul, Consciousness and Love.  Join hands with us, flower and find the fragrance of yourself.