yogabhakti: The healing powers of Yoga Nidra

The Healing Power of Yoga Nidra

Kamini Bobde

The world is only just discovering the power of Yoga Nidra. It has been given to the world in it’s present form by Swami Satyananda Saraswati a few decades back. It is, however, as old as creation itself.

When Lord Vishu had the desire to create the universe, he lay in Yoga Nidra, whence Lord Brahma emerged from his navel. Brahma then created the universe. This is in the opening para of the chapter on the avatars of Lord Krishna in the Bhagwat Puran (Gita Press, pg 51).

It is therefore not surprising that in Swami Satyananda’s format of Yoga Nidra practice, taking a Sankalp (resolve) is part of the practice. A sankalp made during the practice of yoga Nidra is bound to come true, says Swami Satyananda just so simply. Why not? After all even Lord Vishnu lay in Yoga Nidra to realise his Sankalp for creating the universe.

Yoga teachers fortunate enough to learn & administer Swami Satyananda’s Yoga Nidra have been able to cure or help manage problems such as High BP, cancer, organ failure, paralysis and many ills & diseases which are a result of present day life style. With all humility and gratitude to Swami Satyananda, the originator of this present day practice, and my immediate Guru, Shri Rajeshi, I have had the good fortune to use it with great success as therapy for some of the above mentioned problems. ( read inKaminibobde.blogspot.com).

What is more, a practice which holds so much power within itself, is so simple and so much fun to do. In fact, students wait for Shav asana and Yoga Nidra practice almost like a reward at the end of the asanas suryanamaskar rounds, and before they do their pranayama.

To state it simply, the practice involves lying down on your back, making yourself completely comfortable, relaxed and seeing that your spine and head are in a straight line. You close your eyes and keep them closed till the end of the practice. The teacher gives a series of instructions which are followed internally with eyes closed. Through some techniques. like watching the normal breath, the upward-downward movement of navel area synchronized with one’s breathing, helps establish physical and mental relaxation. At this stage is taken the sankalp by the practitioner, who repeats it internally, silently several times to himself.

In the next stage, the teacher helps the student to rotate his consciousness, through various parts of his body. After this he is taken through a process of visualizations. These images and visuals have powerful connections with the human psyche. By this time, the student is in half awake, half sleep state, which is when, he/she is instructed to again repeat the same sankalp. Then the teacher gently, slowly draws the student out of this state.

Why Yoga Nidra practice is impacting so powerfully is not far to see. Today’s educational system and social-cultural mores all seek to achieve through the method of physical & mental stress and through the negative instinct of fear, shame, guilt. Heaped over this is the pressure to earn and live a life style beyond logical needs. All this has created great unnatural stress, tension and worst of all fear.
If God himself laid down in Yoga Nidra to achieve the phenomenal task of creating the universe, then it is obvious, that not stress but a relaxed, calm state is needed to be productive & creative. Thus Yoga Nidra helps throw out all the tension, establishes a calm, peaceful state, and then whatever is your resolve is highly possible. But a key message given before the sankalp, is that it should be something good, positive and only for yourself. Thus, no resolve which is negative, or destructive of you or of another can be taken.

(Next blog, an interesting anecdote on how Swami Satyananda hit upon the idea of Yoga Nidra)

Pic of Lord Vishnu in Yoga Nidra.

(Below pic of Swami Satyananda Saraswati)