Pain, either physical or emotional, is very important in life. Pain is one of life’s best teachers and helps you to evolve if you learn to endure and watch it. Where pleasure is superficial, grief can be intense and deep. A day or week of fun can whiz by in a moment, but an hour of agony seems like living your whole life through it. A week of fun can’t teach us what an hour of intense suffering can. This is the beauty of pain…

Pain can bring our focus to the single point of its origin, whether physical or emotional. Pain has a true meditative nature since it doesn’t allow our mind to deviate in other directions easily. If someone has hurt you emotionally, your whole thought-process gets focused on that person. If you have a toothache, your whole physical and emotional awareness gets consumed by it.

When people say that they have emerged stronger after sufferings, they mean it. To run away from paroxysms or making them a big issue or by leaning on every available shoulder to cry, is a sign of weaklings. If one realises the importance of such moments, one can use them for deep contemplation and spiritual evolution.

Experiencing and watching the sufferings in a detached manner is the first step towards spiritual awakening. A life without experiencing pain is unseasoned and brittle and can fall apart even with a subtle unpleasant jerk. Someone who has weathered the storms of pain, watching and enduring them, becomes mature and indomitable in the truest sense.

There is no escape from pain since it’s an integral part of life. If we don’t know how to cope with it, we shall always dread it. The more we refuse to confront it, the more unbearable it becomes. The best way to deal with it is to accept it and watch it as a witness. When one evolves spiritually, one learns to accept both pain and pleasure dispassionately.

Spiritual sadhakas go through the process of experiencing pain by walking on fire, sleeping on beds of nails, standing on one leg for life, piercing their bodies with tridents, flogging and bleeding themselves and even getting crucified like Jesus Christ. The real motive is to watch and experience the pain in a detached manner.

It’s only through contemplation and practices that we can develop a spiritual attitude. Reading and listening to spiritual discourses do give guidance and show us a path, but we need to live in the spiritual awareness on a daily basis.

We sometimes read or hear someone saying that to understand pain, one should feel that one is in the body and not the body. But such knowledge will stay confined as information only till one starts realising: “Yes I am consciousness. I am not the body. I am living in this body. This body is not my permanent abode. I was present even before this body was born. I will be present even when this body will be destroyed.”

Such meditative contemplations help us advance on the spiritual path. A stage comes when we are not much affected even when life brings us face-to-face with the most difficult situations. If we realise that nothing is permanent, including the most painful current situation, a totally different kind of awareness descends to help us emerge unscathed through the worst tribulations.

By Dr Dinesh Sharma

State One: A state of deep relaxation. Very commonly these days the term yoga-nidra is used for the processes/exercises preparatory to yoga-nidra. These are often also being taught by many teachers in a fragmentary manner.

There are many different such preparations in complete sets, each exercise fitting at a certain place in the sequence in the set.

During these practices the brain produces alpha waves which in higher exercises then verge on theta.

These higher exercises may also be used for self-healing.

State Two: An interim state between One and Three. Used for creativity, invention, ‘receiving’ decisions and solutions to problems, composing lectures and research papers and poetry and constitutions or minutely detailed action plans and such other purposes. Here the brain produces theta sometimes verging onto delta.

State Three: The preparations taught in State One lead to the true yoga-nidra, entry into abhava-pratyaya, cognition of negation (Yoga-sutra 1.10) in a cave in the heart centre.

This may require an advanced teacher initially leading the aspirant into this depth. Swami Rama of the Himalayas recommends that one not remain in this state more then ten minutes at a time.

During this state the brain may initially produce theta and then, in depth, go into delta waves. Here the yogi is in deep non-REM sleep, so far as the brain wave activity shows, but is aware of his surroundings.

State Four : This is not limited to a ten minute experience. It is the kind of sleep that yogis sleep even up to three and half hours. Here the mind simultaneously remains at two levels: (I) One layer of the mind in sleep in the ordinary sense of the word, and (II) a deeper layer of the mind remaining in conscious a-japa japa and meditation which, here, is awareness of the person-wide awareness of kundalini. Some yogis take half of their sleep in the common sense of the word and the other half in this level of yoga-nidra. Here one may alternate between theta and delta.

One who practices such sleep may remain looking younger than his/her years.

Only when the Sates One and Three are fully mastered, one will learn to glide into the State Four.

Turiya : When States Three and Four have been mastered, one is at the gates of turiya (pure consciousness) and may slide into it.  Then, not earlier, yoga-nidra becomes turiya, the two becoming indistinguishable; brain waves become a flat rate.

By Swami Veda Bharati

Japa is the meditative repetition of a mantra or name of God.

Understanding the Mind

Mind is a shakti kshetra, a field of energy, an energy field like all other energy fields. It is the most subtle energy field in the universe. Mind is the link between consciousness and the physical personality. It is the link between consciousness of purusha, and prana and annamaya and all other forms of prakriti or matter. It is through the mind that one goes beyond annamaya, beyond pranamaya, through manas, buddhi, chitta, and ahamkara and then reaching atman, or purusha.

Mind is the subtlest energy field in the Universe and has the highest frequency vibration of all the energy fields.

If you want to understand meditation, you need to understand the nature of mind, the nature of antahkarana, the inner instrument which consists of manas, active mind; buddhi, the faculty of wisdom, chitta, the entire mind field in which also the samskaras, vasanas, karmashaya are located. Ahamkara, that by which we identify our being, that ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that’.

I repeat that in order to understand meditation, it is absolutely necessary to understand the nature of the mind. What mind is, how mind functions and what we do with the mind through our kriyas, practices of meditation. Mind – I repeat – is a shaktikshetra, an energy field, which has the highest frequency vibration of all the energy fields in the universe. Ajiram, javishtham; the most agile and the speediest.

Mind has no size and no form of its own, no fixed form of its own. It takes the form of whatever is presented to it by way of the senses or by way of samskaras and vasanas. Mind is vast and deep, like an ocean. The mind fills the entire universe. Your mind is a wave in the mind-ocean of the universe. Your mind is a wave in the vast ocean of the mind of the universe.

Understanding the practices of meditation requires understanding the different levels and layers of the mind:

• At surface level – Active in the Kshipta (disturbed state; opposite of one-pointed), Mudha (state of stupefaction) and Vikshipta (distracted from meditative state) states
• At deeper level – Ekagra (one-pointed) and Nirodha (fully controlled) states

Mind is many levels, many layers. At each level, at each layer, it operates and functions differently. At the surface level that you experience, it is active in the kshipta, mudha and vikshipta states. From there you have to rise or dive deep into the ekagra and nirodhah states. If you understand the mind, you understand all your impulses, all your desires, all your wishes, dreams, wakeful states, sleep state. You will understand memory. How to remember, how to memorize sacred texts or how to remember anything else. And if you understand different layers, different levels of the energy field called the mind, you understand different kriyas, practices of meditation. Because the kriyas, the practices of meditation are in different layers and levels of the energy field of the mind. If you understand these layers and levels of the mind, you will understand how knowledge comes to you. Knowledge that you introduce from outside and the knowledge that comes to the yogi and the rishi from inside the chaitanya, the consciousness. When you understand this system – all the levels of mind – you will know how to memorise things, you will know how to receive knowledge from within, as a shakshatkara, as a realisation, from chaitanya, from the consciousness principle.

Mind operates differently at each level and layer; you will know how to receive knowledge from within

Process of Japa

1. Annamaya (physical), Pranamaya (organic), Manomaya (emotional/mental), Vijnanamaya (intellectual/discriminative), and Anandamaya (blissful) koshas (sheath) are all interlinked
2. States of annamaya and pranamaya are being fed into mind at all times
3. Any kind of tension – physical body or prana (life force) body,  gets transmitted into the mind
4. Learn prayatna shaithilya (relaxation of effort ) to settle your mind in your japa. Remember any jerk in breath jerks the mind

You cannot understand the process of japa without understanding different layers of the mind. Many of our sadhakas, practitioners, are still doing their japa by moving the tongue. One of the purposes of khechari is to tuck the tongue away so that you are not doing the shallow japa, of words of the mantra.

Your japa begins when your mantra becomes pure thought in the mind. Now understand that your annamaya kosha, pranamaya kosha, manomaya kosha, vijnanamaya kosha, anandamaya kosha are all interlinked. And the states of your annamaya and pranamaya (physical body and prana body) the states of these are all the time being fed into your mind, so that if your body, neuromuscalature, nerves and muscles, are tense, they are sending tension messages into the mind.  Mind is becoming tense and mind is then travelling to all different areas of thoughts, memories, and experiences.

Part of the reason that your mind does not settle in your japa is because you have not yet learned prayatna shaithilya, relaxation of effort. Your body is still tense. As a result of the tension in the body your breath is jerky, which experience of jerkiness of the breath is also fed back into the mind and the mind becomes jerky and travels around in jerks, all over the world.

Relaxation of effort (prayatna shaithilya) is a MUST for japa; practice khechari mudra to avoid moving tongue whilst doing japa

To do one mala of a mantra in shorter time:

1. Learn to relax muscles and nerves as taught in the Yogi Parampara (tradition, lineage)
2. Slow your breath and make it dirgha (long), sukshma (subtle), nairantarya (continuous) and without virama (pause)
3. Let mantra thought come like a wave and become pure thought in the mind

So for japa, this relaxation of effort is important. A smooth, gentle flow of the breath is important. For which you have to train yourself. Train yourself to abhyasa, which many of our sadhakas are not doing. So the japa remains at a shallow level. Some people take 45 minutes to do one mala of Gayatri. Some take 25 minutes, some take 15 minutes, some take 7 minutes and some fortunate ones can do it in a much shorter time.

This, taking the time, has nothing to do with moving your tongue fast or slow, because you have already placed your tongue away in khechari mudra (placing the tongue above the soft palate and into the nasal cavity). If you want to do your one mala of Gayatri in shorter period of time, then first you have to learn to relax your muscles and nerves by the methods that are taught in the yogi parampara, in the yoga tradition. You have to learn to slow your breath down and make it dirgha shuksma, long and subtle, within nairantarya, without interruption, without virama, without a pause. When you accomplish this and your mantra has become pure thought in the mind, that is only the beginning of japa.

Breath is to be long, subtle, without interruption and pause; this is the beginning of japa

To deepen your japa:

1. Increase the duration of mantra thought coming like a wave
2. Let the thought not turn into words on the tongue
3. Let the thought not be interrupted by other thoughts
4. Understand the mind – nature, layers and levels
5. When you get deep into the layers of the mind field, the Mantreshvaras (lords of mantras) send their grace into your meditation

How long can you keep that mantra thought coming like a wave of the same mantra thought, without other thoughts interrupting?

Condition one: Without the thought turning into words on the tongue.
Condition number two: Without the thought being interrupted by other thoughts. That is the way you deepen your japa, you make your japa subtle and deep.

Now please understand the next step. By understanding the same thing I have said about the nature of the mind. Mind is an energy field with many layers, like the waves of the electric current. Your thoughts are one form, your thoughts including mantra thought, are one form of the wave of the electric energy field of the mind. The word ‘electric’ here is used only as an example, as an analogy. It can be an example of magnetic field or electronic field. Mind is not electricity, mind is not magnetic field, and mind is not electronic field. Mind is a different kind of field, separate from all of these.

Now I repeat again. This mind field has many levels, many layers. Deep like a universal ocean. Let that sink into your understanding. When you begin to go deep into the layers of the mind field the Mantreshvaras, the Lords of mantras, who govern the mantra field, the mind field in the universe, send their grace, their anugraha, into your meditation. This is a secret known only to very advanced yogis.

Make japa deep and subtle; by the anugraha (grace) of the Lords of Mantras, the japa will deepen

Journey in japa

• Doing the Japa at the shallow layer of mind as a conscious thought
• As mind’s vibrations become more ajiram (agile, free of decay) and javishtham (speediest, most high frequency), the brain waves slow down
• At each deeper layer the mantra becomes a faster vibration; a high frequency
• As you take your japa into yet deeper layers of the mind you will do more japa in shorter period of time; rather you will not do
• After much abhyasa (practice), finally you reach a point where mauna (silence); where the knowledge is received wordlessly
• The wordless knowledge is received as the knowledge of the Vedas was received

What does it mean for the japa to go deep?
It means that you are first doing the japa at the shallow layer of the mind, as a conscious thought. As a start of the japa practice, you are doing your japa at a shallow level of the conscious mind. Let me explain next principle, about the nature of the mind, as it has been understood by the yogis. Not from books, but from their own experience of going into these layers and levels of the mind. At each level or layer of the mind, the vibration, the sphuranam, the spandanam, is higher frequency. That is, it is faster. There is another principle, which I will mention here only incidentally. As the mind’s vibration becomes more and more ajiram and javishtham, more and more agile and higher frequency, the brain waves slow down.

Practical lesson

How to reduce the time taken for doing long mantras?

We will practice with the mantra – ‘Akhanda-mandalakaram vyaptam yena characaram, tat-padam darsitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah’

1. Bring your attention to yourself, your asana, your posture, your back,  all in perfect order
2. Relax all parts of your body
3. Bring your mind’s attention to your breathing, observe your breath and establish diaphragmatic breathing
4. Feel the flow of breaths in your nostrils
5. Establish khechari mudra, the tongue lock with your mantra
6. Continue to feel the slow, smooth, gentle breaths, without a break, sound, jerk in your nostrils
7. Let there be no break in the flow of your mantra thought, with your breaths
8. Merge your left and right nostril-breaths into the sushumna stream
9. Let the mantra continue, feeling the stream of energy on the sushumna path from the nasagra
10. Following the sushumna path, go into your mind. Ignore the breath flow
11. Let only the mantra thought arise. Same wave. Not word by word, but the complete mantra thought all at once
12. The same way that the entire mantra is coming as a single wave, remember  just ‘Akhanda-mandalakaram’.
13. Let that become the wave, the entire pada, the entire quarter/order, all at once. Remember, remember, and remember
14. Remember ‘vyaptam yena characaram’, the entire pada, the entire quarter as a single thought
15. Remember ‘tat-padam darhsitam yena’. No words, only the thought
16. Remember ‘tasmai sri-gurave namah’. No words, only the thought
17. Remember the entire half of the verse ‘Akhanda-mandalakaram vyaptam yena characaram’ . Think that as a thought over and over, without a break, the same wave
18. Remember ‘tat-padam darsitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah’
19. Let the entire ‘Akhanda-mandalakaram’, complete mantra, be remembered as a thought in the mind. The entire thought, like a wave
20. Having completed the desired number of japa, come back to your personal diksha-mantra. Same wave, as a thought flashing, thought flashing
21. Come to the sushumna breath, with the same mantra thought
22. Keeping the mantra in the mind, by usual procedure, open your eyes

A blockage would mean that you got tensed, have broken your breaths and brought the mantra to your tongue

So we come to the most important point of learning the japa practice. You have to take your japa into deeper and yet deeper layers of the mind. At each deeper layer the mantra becomes a faster vibration, a high frequency. There must be prayatna shaitiliya, relaxation of effort, at all levels of the practice of yoga.

I would suggest that whenever people start the practice of a special mantra, or a purushcharana during the periods of silence at home, they listen to this explanation about mind, mantra and japa. As you will learn to take your japa into deeper and yet deeper layers of the mind, energy field, not only you will do more japa in shorter period of time….I correct myself: you will not do. More japa will happen in shorter period of time. Not only that will happen, but then, slowly, after much abhyasa, you will learn to go to yet deeper layer and yet deeper layer where finally you reach a point where mauna, silence prevails; where words do not come; where the knowledge is received wordlessly. The wordless knowledge is received as the knowledge of the Vedas was received. This is your journey in japa.

By Swami Veda Bharati

Understanding Archetypes and the Roles of Personality

The Yoga Vasistha is a book that presents the possibility for instant awakening. Yes, instant. But that is the easy part; the “awakening” part is a bit more tricky. And why is that? Because, before we wake up we need to want to wake up. And who wants to awaken? Do you? And from what?

No yoga practice has any meaning whatsoever, and therefore any value, unless you realise one simple thing – we are prisoners bound by invisible chains. And what is it that binds us? Our minds, and the mesmerising power of our personalities.

To realise, that “I am a prisoner of ‘my’ mind”, can be a strange sensation. How can it be my mind, if the mind does what it wants, when it wants, and all I do is follow its instructions? Or haven’t you noticed?

When you realise “I am a prisoner of mind” then maybe yoga can have real value for you. In fact, that is when yoga practice will reveal its power and its beauty. That is what it was designed for – freedom from mental activity, not just health, as some yoga teachers state. Ironically, freedom from mental activity is health. Until you realise that, you are just chasing your own tail. If you happen to be driven by mental compulsions (as we are) you remain bound even to “your” yoga practice.

In terms of brain neurology, the thing that can free the attention from the “mental prison” of our minds like nothing else can is vichara (dynamic, fluid and focused noticing). Vichara is at the core of yoga practice, together with a deep realisation of how mental activity creates the illusion of “you”, by means of ever-changing self images. Mental activity traps the attention in the lower chakras, defining our individuality.

To discover this secret, close your eyes and observe what is actually going on right now. What do you notice? Can you discern that as you are sitting there, right now, some “person” has arisen within your field of awareness? Perhaps it is a younger or older “you”, or maybe a person the same age as your body.

But then, have you noticed that at other times, perhaps when a cop pulls you over at a roadblock, or when you are having some problem with your bank, or when someone let you down, a different “person” appears within the field of awareness? Equally, when you feel close to someone or feel inspired, yet another “person”, with altogether different qualities and abilities arises. Now if these different versions of “you” keep on arising and disappearing, can they be real? They certainly are not permanent.

All these imaginary “persons” arise all the time, one after the other. Sometimes when you least want them to. The question is, have you noticed?

If you observe, you will notice that these imaginary self images rule our lives. Very often they result in insecurity and concern about the future or awakened regrets and longings from the past. Great actors have made a career out of it, and we truly enjoy the performance.

What Vasistha urges Rama to do, and by extension all of us, is to notice that these imaginary parts or sub-personality aspects of our self image – some call them archetypes – arise within a pristine space of awareness. In fact, the more desirable or frightening they are, the more they imprison the awareness – it’s the emotions that grip the attention.

The main effect of their arising is that the pure awareness in which they arise becomes forgetful of its own nature. As this happens, the misplaced sense of what is real becomes entrenched. In this way we miss the point that it is the consciousness, which is unchanging and timeless, and that the changing self images arise within it. Right now as you read this, the truth is covered up, the inner spaciousness is filled with images, the inner silence is replaced with noise, the attention gets dragged away and forced into the play of a life story.

When the truth of being is lost, the symptoms are distress, fear, a closed heart, uncomfortable breathing, cynicism, a tough exterior – each one of us has our favourites. This is the absence of yoga.

Vasistha says notice that, and reclaim your true identity. Your personality arises in you!

From thinking and believing that you are “this man” or “that woman” notice what you really are. You are the pure consciousness in which all the sub-personalities arise and that is not individualised at all.

In death, deep sleep and true meditation, all the versions of who you think you are collapse, and what remains is all that there was in the first place – this is liberation. If they all arise again, demanding fulfilment, that is what we call rebirth. Simple.

To frequently surrender or give up the urge of their arising, while in the waking state, is spiritual practice. This is the true value of bowing and surrendering to the ever-present awareness. This frequent noticing and surrendering, releasing and offering to the divine consciousness, the variations of “me”, leads to the realisation of the existence of the ever-free consciousness, which is the permanent true being of all.

To notice the appearing and disappearing – the impermanence – of all the mental images of self is their undoing. This noticing is called vichara. The prize is enlightenment, and the price is our personality’s importance. As the first increases the second decreases, in a flash of realisation. Just like that, like a bolt from the blue, when it’s clear it’s clear. No amount of physical effort can bring this about, just insight.

Salutations to that reality (Sat), in which all the elements and all the animate and inanimate beings shine as if they have an independent existence, and in which they exist for a time and into which they merge.
Salutations to that consciousness (Chit), which is the source of the apparently distinct threefold divisions of knower, knowledge, and known; seer, sight, and seen; doer, doing and deed.
Salutations to that bliss absolute (the ocean of bliss) (Ananda), which is the life of all beings whose happiness and unfolding are derived from the shower of spray from that ocean of bliss.

By Panos Lazanas

The secret of yantra is one of the most guarded forms of Hindu mystical teaching, since the power of a yantra, when invoked through proper ritual, is believed to be boundless. Every need, every expression, every deep-seated desire in the human heart can be expressed in the form of a yantra. It’s a pure form of energy that’s beyond both religion and theory and its powers are available to all, says Dr H. Vedant

Throughout the process of evolution man has always found ways to guard and secure himself by using cosmic forces. History offers us infinite insights and instances of people who’ve employed these forces of nature to their advantage in the form of talismans, yantras and various other mystic charms. Primarily, every culture has some form of mystic symbol or a secret language that we recognise by different names. Similarly, the realm of tantra is filled with several mystic tools and enchantments that serve and steer us to manifest our desires. One such manifestation tool is yantra.

What is Yantra?
The Sanskrit term yantra originates from “yan” or “yam” meaning “medium” and “tra” meaning “instrument” or “tool”. Yantra is an instrument, apparatus or an amulet endowed with protective powers. Yantras are the visual equivalents of the mantras or thought forms. They are classified and subdivided into various forms, shapes and patterns; however, its ultimate purpose is to unite us with our higher selves.

Yantra holds supreme status among all mystic sciences and disciplines. Tantric gurus have collectively declared yantra as the best medium for manifestation and wish fulfilment. Yantras possess the ability to express the inner aspect of any form of creation. Every tree and every flower is a yantra and through its form, colour and smell, describes the origin of its manifestation.

People frequently use the term “yantra” “talisman” and “mandala” interchangeably. It makes no difference in the end what you call them, just as long as you choose the correct yantra to manifest a specific purpose. The yantras are engraved on a thin sheet of metal such as gold, silver or copper and, according to the Ahirbudhnya Samhita, the metal used to devise a yantra, has a substantial impact on its results.

Use of Yantra
Yantra attunes us with the powers of the deity and thereby adds that missing ingredient to our often sterile lives. It’s vital that you use the yantra with faith and inner belief and that your needs are known in the inner spiritual worlds. Yantras are objects designed to give specific power, protection, encouragement and energy to the user. They are generally used to provide specific results and are usually devised for accomplishing or manifesting a specific purpose.

Types of Yantras
Yantras are broadly classified into four types: yantras of deities – for example Shree Yantra and Mahavidya Yantra; astrological yantras – to harness the energies of the nine major planets; architectural yantras – used for the ground plans of temples and numerical yantras – comprising a select combination of numbers that are generally used as talismans.

How Yantras Work – Exploring Yantra Dynamics
Yantras are energy mapping machines. It is a blueprint that radiates a specific frequency due to its unique geometric construction. When focusing or meditating on a yantra, the mind automatically comes into alignment and resonates to the particular energy of the yantra. This sequence of resonance is magnified as one consistently meditates over it.

Yantras act as a reservoir of divine energies. It is a medium through which the invincible energy acts on an individual. This channelled energy possesses an intense power to attract and manifest desired experiences. The diagrams of yantras are representative of time and space which is clearly visible in the most celebrated yantra, the Shree Yantra.

Yantra Yoga
Yantra yoga is one of the ancient techniques of yoga that exists in the world today. It emphasizes the visualisation of yantra and involves the usage of these symbolic diagrams as a central point of concentration. It works with the breathing to regulate the individual’s energy and ultimately brings you closer to the desired outcome. If a mantra is chanted while visualising the yantra, the momentum is increased several-fold. The effectiveness of the exercise depends on concentration and visualisation ability.

Significance of Yantra in Modern Times
Primitive people began wearing amulets and yantras to protect themselves from an often frightening world. Yantra guarded the user from enemies, animals and provided protection against the evil eye. In our modern societies, our fears, needs and challenges are more sophisticated in nature. In this age we are tortured by inflation, crime, natural and man-made disasters. There are the ever expanding inner demons such as anxiety, frustrations and mental illness too, to name but a few. The use of yantra in present day is therefore much more relevant than ever before. In today’s fast paced life where one craves to achieve definite results in the shortest possible time, yantras are a fitting answer. Yantra is a tool that can boost us and lead us rapidly towards desire fulfilment.

How are Yantras Energised?
The traditional tantric methods of purifying yantra involve various intricate steps. Energisation is one of the most crucial steps– from inscribing a yantra to infusing it with prana (energy), it involves various stages. When we perform the puja (ritual) on the yantra, we are attracting the attention of the deity and inviting their subtle bodies to inhabit the yantra. Preparing a yantra, infusing the mantra and energising it, is performed in a single uninterrupted sequence. Here, the mystic codes, numerals and symbols are engraved on a metal piece. Later, by chanting the primordial sound (beej mantras), lighting celestial fire, offering sanctified water and vapours of herbs, the deity is invoked and invited to reside in the yantra. Only after this ritual, are you capable of manifesting your desired objective. To obtain 100 percent benefits from the yantra you have to make sure that it is energised, sanctified, consecrated and customised by learned pundits. The yantra is activated by tantrics through complex meditative techniques which cannot be satisfactorily used in a Western environment. In such cases, the help of a Vedic priest or a yantra expert is advisable.

Yantras are formulated at spiritually and cosmically significant occasions. This is done on a specific day when planetary forces are favourable for devising a specific yantra. For instance, if you have relationship issues then a yantra devised on Friday will be much more effective and will bestow faster results. Similarly if it’s a yantra for wealth and prosperity like Shree Yantra, energising it on a day like Diwali will be beneficial as its impact is increased several-fold.

At this point we must stop and ask some very natural questions: Do yantras really work? Do they truly possess the power to navigate the course of destiny? Do they really influence and alter the circumstances around us? The answer is, yes! Yantras have stood the test of time and became well known for their benefits. Obviously, if yantra had failed to produce the desired results, they would have been forgotten long ago. Yantras are manifestations of the universal forces and the fate that created all that is, all that was, and all that has the potential of being.

Yantra Trap – Beware of Fake Yantras
There’s a lot of flimsy, false and fraudulent junk being hawked in the name of yantra and it becomes difficult to determine what you are actually getting. Shree Yantra and Mahalakshmi Yantra are quite admired these days but unfortunately these yantras are being sold by unscrupulous online vendors. During my research, I tested some of these yantras and the results were alarming, as only a few focused on the quality of the metal, the geometric construction was incorrect in most cases, the image inscribed was vague and energisation hardy performed. Remember, geometric construction is the prime ingredient of the yantra; if that is inaccurate then the yantra is merely a piece of metal.

By Dr H. Vedant

Dr H. Vedant is the President of Apsra School of Ancient Science (ASAS), a practicing yantra therapist and an expert in Oriental studies. His study in to the realm of yantra and mantra therapy has helped and healed many people. Dr Vedant can be reached on hvedant@apsra.org. For more details visit www.apsra.org and www. yantralogy.com.

Swami Anubhavananda

Many people have come to think of meditation as achieving total suspension and cessation of all thought, said Swami Anubhavananda at his talk “Yoga Understood or Misunderstood” at the ISHTA School of Yoga & Health recently. According to him, therefore, ideas of meditation being a “silent group suffering” seem apt as no one can suspend thought totally and this is not the aim of yoga, he says.

Yoga, says Swami Anubhavananda, is rather when we abide in our essential natures. Elaborating on the qualification of man’s two distinct natures – our essential natures VS our acquired natures – Swami Anubhavananda explains that our essential natures cannot be altered whether you want to alter it or not. It is divine . Our acquired natures on the other hand are gathered as a result of habit and are subject to change. Yoga, he says, helps us take responsibility for those acquired natures, responsibility for our lives and helps us “straighten the mind” to have control over this nature.

An example he gives is how we often find ourselves in a struggle or finding ourselves trying to prove something to someone. Often, he says, we don’t know what or even  who we are struggling against or trying to prove. “We believe the longer the beard, the higher the wisdom”, he says. This is untrue.

This is according to him a way that man has carried his aquired self and we become heavy through the load that we bear.

Like our essential natures, Swami Abhuvananda believes that when we find effortlessness, when we can step away from our “body identification” and move away from the mechanisation of our own lives, will the expression of our actions be effortless – this is yoga, he says.

“Our mind is available to us at any number of times” Swami says, but it is the quality of the mind and not the quantity that we need to focus on. It is our own choice to sit in meditation and meditation will come if there is no compulsion towards it, that is, when it is efortless. “When we have value for something, our approach will be different”, he expounds. “Never sit for meditation as ‘Mr Somebody’”, he advises; rather, “sit for meditation as ‘Mr. Nobody’.

“Meditation is when you are in the utter present. Without past or without future. When we are are in deep, our thoughts don’t disturb us, we are immune to the influence of thought.” Yoga, according to Swami Anubhavananda, is the freedom you find when you have misery yet you are not miserable. And when we find peace within ourselves, we are at peace with the whole world.

“In meditation the infinite happens. This recognition of our true nature is not found in the nature of the acquired mind and its thoughts – it is found through dissolving these thoughts and this acquired nature”, he says. “When we have found the freedom that allows our divine, blissful self to be expressed under all conditions, then we have found yoga.”

Some pictures from the talk held at the ISHTA School of Yoga and Health with Swami Anubhavananda:

Penny, Norman and Amy Anstey enjoying tea with Swami Anubhavananda

Wendy Wood (Nandiva) and Swami Anubhavananda

Vegan tea and cakes

Photographs courtesy or Norman Anstey and Stuart Wood

One atom must stick to another otherwise life would fall apart. But what is this glue that holds and keeps everything together? It’s love, says Kavi Yogiraj Mani Finger

An ancient Greek philosopher once said: “If everybody, every creature, every human being – who is the most powerful of all – hated at the same second, the world would disintegrate”. The Source, The Divine, Brahman, has given us this power of holding the universe together, called love. And this is the cosmic phenomenon that, like breath, is something given to us and yet we spend our lives never realising or contemplating its cosmic nature.

If man could only understand this concept that love holds the world together, even with a small part of our consciousness, a new world would open up, and we would begin to look at life from a different perspective. It may be strange at first, but you begin to realise that, “Ah! This is what I have to learn; this is what I have got to exercise; this is what I have got to develop!” The cosmic phenomenon of consciousness in me, an unconditional state of being – this is the state we call love.

Let us examine the way most of us consider love, the way I call “committed clinging”. We like to regard everyone around us as our children and, as such, we like to give the orders and tell them what to do and what not to do. Or, we like to regard ourselves as a helpless child and leap into somebody’s lap. This “lap” can belong to an individual, an organisation, a community, a teacher, a person – any parental concept – and so, this love relationship takes one of two patterns – either we are fed by someone or we are feeding others.

But this is a false, distorted kind of love. This is a love of clinging and not the kind of real love that holds this world together at all. The saying goes that “He that clings to anything, suffering must come”. Clinging means to get or use something for our own happiness. Love means to give – loving, we learn, is about the “other” and not the “I”. In clinging you are important; in love you make yourself an instrument of that love and a channel to higher love.

The urge to committed clinging, to belong, to be someone’s child, or them to be our own child, is easy and yet tremendously powerful – we are either jumping into somebody’s lap for protection and advice, or we are giving protection.

While these patterns of love have the potential to give us pleasure, it is merely to entertain. It may be used in as simple a case as a casual friendship, a search for excitement, a means for escape, or as complicated as marriage or, our choice of career. Either we want to control the pleasure or we want to become part of it.

There is another way to love and it involves simply being whom and what you are. The sacrifice in love is your ego. Love is surrender while clinging is aggression. Look lovingly at any object and it gives it special life. Whom or whatever is beautiful, whatever is creative, is so delicate that if you try to grab it directly you will destroy it.

We must simply be what we are in this world, in life – no acting, no motivation – just loving. Neither the lover nor the beloved be, be the loving! Be that where there is no motivation and then, if you can be what you are, situations will be as they really are, automatically. Then you can start to communicate directly, accurately, not indulging in any kind of nonsense, any kind of emotional or philosophical, logical, interpretations about love.

This way of loving allows tremendous space and room for creative development – space in which to dance, to exchange love. Then we will not be playing the game of hypocrisy, of self deception, entertainment or clinging for a purpose. We will be loving and creating a new world for others and for ourselves.

By Kavi Yogiraj Mani Finger

SWAMIS
Every swami belongs to the ancient monastic order. By vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the spiritual teacher, many Catholic Christian monastic orders resemble the Order of Swamis. The title “swami” represents the attainment of supreme bliss through some divine quality or state – love, wisdom, devotion, service, yoga – and through harmony with nature. The ideal of selfless service to all mankind, and of renunciation of personal ties and ambitions, leads the majority of swamis to engage actively in humanitarian and educational work. Ignoring all prejudices of caste, creed, class, color, sex, or race, a swami follows the precepts of human brotherhood. His goal is absolute unity with Spirit. The swami roams contentedly in the world but not of it. Thus only may he justify his title of swami – one who seeks to achieve union with the Swa or Self.

But, a swami, formally a monk by virtue of his connection with the ancient order, is not always a yogi.

YOGIS
Anyone who practices a scientific technique of God-contact is a yogi; he may be either married or unmarried, either a worldly man or one of formal religious ties. A yogi engages himself in a definite, step-by-step procedure by which the body and mind are disciplined, and the soul liberated. Taking nothing for granted on emotional grounds, or by faith, a yogi practices a thoroughly tested series of exercise which were first mapped out by the early rishis, seers or sages. Yoga has produced men who became truly free.

YOGA
Like any other science, yoga is applicable to people of every clime and time. Yoga is a method for restraining the natural turbulence of thoughts, which otherwise impartially prevent all men, of all lands, from glimpsing their true nature of Spirit. Yoga cannot know the barrier of East and West any more than does the healing and equitable light of the sun. The ancient rishi Patanjali defines “yoga” as “control of the fluctuations of the mind-stuff”.  His very short and masterly expositions, the Yoga Sutras, form one of the six systems… the six systems formulate six definite disciplines aimed at the permanent removal of suffering and the attainment of timeless bliss.The common thread linking all six systems is the declaration that no true freedom for man is possible without the knowledge of the ultimate reality. Yoga Sutras contain the most efficacious methods for achieving direct perception of truth. Through the practical techniques of yoga , man leaves behind forever the barren realms of speculation and cognizes in experience the veritable essence.

The Yoga system as outlined by Patanjali is known as the Eightfold Path:

(1)   Yama – avoidance of injury to others, of untruthfulness, of stealing, of incontinence, of gift-receiving (which brings obligations)

(2)   Niyama – purity of body and mind, contentment, self-discipline, study and devotion to God

(3)   Asana (right posture) – the spinal column must be held straight, and the body firm in a comfortable position for meditation

(4)   Pranayama (control of prana [energy], subtle life currents) – [through breath]

(5)   Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses from external objects)

(6)   Dharana (concentration) – holding the mind to one thought

(7)   Dhyana (meditation), and

(8)   Samadhi (superconscious perception)

This is the Eightfold Path of Yoga which leads one to the final goal of Kaivalya (Absoluteness), a term which might be more comprehensibly put as “realisation of the Truth beyond an intellectual apprehension.”

“Which is greater,” one may ask, “a swami or a yogi?” If and when final oneness with God is achieved, the distinctions of the various paths disappear.  The methods of yoga are all-embracing. Its teachings are not meant only for certain types and temperaments, such as those few who incline toward the monastic life; yoga requires no formal allegiance. Because the yogic science satisfies a universal need, it has a natural universal applicability.

A true yogi may remain dutifully in the world. To fulfil one’s earthly responsibilities is indeed the higher path, provided the yogi, maintaining a mental uninvolvement with egotistical desires, plays his part as a willing instrument of God.

Text Extracted from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananada

CONSCIOUS – Limited entirely by the functions of the five physical senses. It contains that which contacts the physical world. The conscious mind pours into the subconscious a constant stream of mental images … which is our reasoning, our guessing and wondering. It deals with everything that happens to us, together with the feelings that these happenings arouse within us.

SUBCONSCIOUS – This is the area of intelligence that controls and directs the general functioning of all the organs of our body. It is also ruled by our fears and worries, our hates and destructive tendencies, and can be upset in it’s functioning by these destructive emotions.

MEMORY – A storehouse for all impressions of our outer world experiences, received from one or more of our five senses – impressions that exist as mental pictures. Associated with each picture is the feeling we had at the time of it’s inception, and these can be drawn on as needed… good or bad.

CREATIVE  POWER – The electromagnetic area of the mind, which reacts instantly to our strongly felt desires or fears. It sets up a power of attraction to draw to us closer to whatever we have been picturing. Using these pictures as a builder would use a blueprint, our creative power works to opportunities or to detriment – it is important to learn how to use it in the best capacity.

HEALING – Contains “life energy” – a reserve of recreative energy which permeates every cell of our body and revitalizes it.

INTUITIVE – Extra sensory perception faculties are located here that are not limited by either space or time, or aspects of the physical senses. It functions through our conscious mind level in the form of intuition and has a guiding and protection faculty, most often in great need of development.

COSMIC  CONSCIOUSNESS – The deepest part of us, our link with the universe that makes possible  instant knowing. It is the level of God Consciousness, true illumination and inspiration. It is reached only when the other levels of mind are stilled and the body is relaxed.

Kavi Yogiraj Mani Finger

END OF YEAR REFLECTIONS