These pranayama techniques help cool down the body and affect centres of the brain which maintain temperature control. Besides cooling the body, these techniques reduce anxiety and can be used as a cure for insomnia if practised before sleeping, says yoga expert Kamini Bobde

Click on this link to read whole article and access the Youtube video on the practice.

https://indianexpress.com/article/health-wellness/how-pranayama-can-help-you-cool-off-and-prevent-heat-strokes-8619778/

How pranayama can help you cool off and prevent heat strokes

Written by Kamini BobdeMay 20, 2023 14:22 IST

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How to beat gas or flatulence with these three asanas

Besides helping in expelling excess gas, these asanas strengthen the arm and leg muscles, manipulate your spine in different directions, improve digestion and give relief in constipation, says yoga expert Kamini Bobde.

Click on the link below to read the whole article and view the video detailing the practice. 

https://indianexpress.com/article/health-wellness/yoga-to-beat-gas-flatulence-8594759/

Is your stiff neck bothering you? Try these 3 simple asanas

It is best to practise these along with other daily workouts or yoga as a preventive measure to avoid getting into a painful situation, says yoga expert Kamini Bobde

Click on the link below to read the whole article. 

https://indianexpress.com/article/health-wellness/stiff-neck-3-simple-asanas-8570221/

How yoga can be easily adapted and self-styled by athletes for that crucial edge

For almost all sports, the spine, joints and muscles are primed to perform at their peak. Yoga enhances their ability and can be easily tweaked to suit each discipline. It makes athletes resilient to injury, says yoga guru Kamini Bobde.

Click on the link below to see this full article in the Indian Express of April 29, 2023. 

https://indianexpress.com/article/health-wellness/yoga-easily-adapted-self-styled-athletes-8582493/

How to rein in the worldly Ego 

Among all the egos the spiritual ego is the most dangerous and difficult to shed off. To top it all, spiritual scaling is well neigh impossible without subduing the ego. This is the contradiction that I too face when I’m doing my daily sadhana. 

The reasons are not far to seek. In your various stages of spiritual practice, the ego throws up desires and fanciful imaginations of you becoming a great spiritual leader addressing large gatherings, having big followings, people falling at your feet, and what have you. Primarily also because this is the worldly image of a spiritual master. 

Secondly, if you happen to be also entangled with the world and doing your sadhana too, then your ego is all the more active. Not that ashrams totally banish all ego. There too it persists and ashrams too have their own set of problems but maybe less pronounced. 

However, the beauty of unfailing daily sadhana is that the answers come to you.

I am sharing one such experience of facing the problem in my sadhana and the answer also being revealed during the practice. 

During japa, Kriyas, my own vanity and ego do throw up thoughts of the kind I mentioned earlier. Every day it is different kind of fanciful imagination which distracts your mind. You are in a bind. The ego is the stumbling block in you rising to the very heights the ego is desiring. Forget about long term effects of the ego on your spiritual goal. The effect is instantaneous.

Here is how I keep experiencing it. My daily morning sadhana is a progression from simple limbering up, to asanas, suryanamaskar, shavasna followed by pranayama. By this stage I’m partially withdrawn from the world and both the body and mind are ready for an hour of sitting still in padmasana for the Kundalini Kriyas, and three mantras which I chant 108 times. 

Sitting still in padmasana you do the more difficult practice of keeping your mind on your mudras, breathing, mantras and external and internal trataka and many such combinations of mudras, bandha, mantra, jaap and focus on some symbol. These leave very little space for thoughts to push their way in. Just still posture impacts the mind and makes it quiescent. The rest add to see that it remains so.  

Even then thoughts and often ego linked thoughts find a breach in your well fortified dam of practice and flood you and hijack your practice. At that instant your breathing becomes faster, gross and body experiences tightness in some strategic places which are prone to take the brunt of the thought process which varies with each individual. 

One such day, when the train of thought and imagination was of me telling someone some egoistic claims of my practice, I was once again filled with shame and frustration at my inability to control my ego and thoughts. Just then it occurred to me, hey why don’t you direct this kind of boasting and egoistic crap towards your guiding light, Swami Satyananda ( who is my Guru) or even God.

I started to laugh uncontrollably at the thought. How ridiculous I myself appeared to myself in that vision. Yes, suddenly that same self indulgent thought seemed utterly stupid. 

This realization has somewhat reined in unbridled tendency of egoistic and fanciful imaginations. 

The motto has  to be to go on and on with sincerity, faith and determination. If you are not fortunate enough to have a Guru to guide you at every step, it matters not. There is a guiding light within which will surely light your path just as darkness of night is dispelled by the light of the day.  

Jai Gurudev!!

 

 

A simple secret of your Ego. 

Swami Satyananda Saraswati has been like a light house guiding my ship of sadhana through rough and calm waters. 

I’ve been reading intently a second time, Swamiji’s precious book, “Taming the Kundalini”. It is a collection of letters of instructions on daily sadhana written by him to a disciple between April 1959 to April 1962. Every sentence of this book is its weight in gold. 

Hence, when I came across a list of 27 preparatory instructions for awakening the Kundalini, one of them intrigued me and I could not fathom its import. It was as follows:

“ Purify the ego by transforming the objective of sleep.”

This foxed me. How can you purify your ego by transforming the objectives of sleep? What are the objectives of sleep? 

For many days it kept me thinking. But, the intellect is not always equipped to unravel such quandaries. And sure enough it was not the intellect but an experience that unraveled it for me. 

I was practicing Trataka on a candle flame and following it up with shambhavi mudra with Om chanting to see the candle flame at my eye-brow centre with eyes closed. ( Trataka, Shambhavi are explained in my book on Kundalini Yoga for All). During all my practices I try to keep my body relaxed. In fact, you can sit in padmasana for long swathes of time only if you are completely relaxed or else discomfort and pain begin to manifest and it becomes well neigh impossible to sit in padmasana. 

In my effort to see the candle flame at my eye brow centre with eyes closed after concentrating on it for sometime, I would find thoughts like, “ I am going to achieve this.”  Or if I saw it only briefly or vaguely, immediately I would think, “I will tell my Guruji that I saw the candle flame.” But, as soon as such thoughts came the candle flame went away. Also, I found that my shoulders hunched up and tightened some what. I consciously relaxed them. 

It suddenly flashed that with the slightest egoistic thought, my body experienced some tension, tightness somewhere. Concomitantly, it struck me that the practice  was not an achievement in the normal worldly sense of, “I did this.” In fact, it has to be the opposite. You are supposed to become ego-less. 

Your ego is the peg that tethers you to this world. How can you ever break free of it? Then and there it struck me that relaxation was essential to see that the ego or all egoistic thoughts don’t manifest. If tension, stress and tightness in the body are manifestation of ego, then doing the opposite to the body consciously will help restraining ego and egoistic thoughts.  

The best relaxation happens when you sleep. More so when you are in deep sleep. You are completely relaxed and there is no awareness of the world, the ego, egoistic thoughts or any external feedback to the senses. One can just sum it up in a neat equation:

Relaxation is inversely proportionate to Ego. 

Ego is directly proportionate to Stress both bodily and mental

Ego is directly proportionate to thoughts

Quiet mind is inversely proportionate to ego. 

Therefore, yoga practice factors in relaxation and thought control both of which are necessary for ego to feed on and survive. 

The objective of sleep is to rejuvenate, revitalize and puts your body at rest to accomplish this. But, if your ego is strong, then it is most likely that thoughts, stress will bother you even in your sleep. Thus, this will defeat the very purpose and objective of sleep. 

The stronger your ego, the more you are likely to have dreams revolving around your egoistic thoughts and activities of the day. This will result in disturbed sleep and interfere in the objectives of sleep being carried out. 

Thus, following the relaxation dictate and internalizing your awareness will help you contain egoistic tendencies. Instead of fighting against the Ego which is part of your Antahkarna, the basic tools of your individuality, you can work on it through simple yoga dictate, relaxation and thoughtlessness. 

WIth this realization, my practice has taken a quantum leap. 

Jai Gurudev!!!

The importance of the subtle in Yoga

Dawn & dusk, the subtle merging of duality.
by
Kamini Bobde


Our universe is a beautiful dance of dualities. Night and day, pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow, positive-negative and so on and so forth. One of the least realised opposites is the gross and the subtle. This is so because the gross leaves very little room for the subtle to be realised or experienced. The gross is finite whereas the subtle is gateway to limitless possibilities. That which is subtle is the basis of all existence in the universe.

But, the beauty of this duality is that it comes to rest at the centre, when the dualities merge and emerge anew in a different form.

The merging is not as gross and obvious as the duality. It is subtle. It is the junction between the gross world and the subtle nether world.

Let us trace this subtle as it plays out everyday around and within us, balancing itself between the two extremes of duality.

Day and night:
One of the daily dramas of this merging of duality into each other happens every day at dawn at the macro and micro level. Light and darkness, day and night are part of the duality of this universe. But, at dawn, darkness dissolves into light and night into day. In that moment of dissolution of the opposites into each other, it is as if all things come to rest without the pull of the opposites. Therefore, there is a certain peace, calm and serenity in the wee hours. It is in the cosmos and within us in our cells and our whole body system.

Therefore, our seers said that the best time to meditate is at dawn. It is the time when the duality of the gross, settles at the centre and becomes subtle.


Breath and Prana: 
Breath is gross. You can feel and smell it. Prana is subtle. You can neither smell nor feel it. Yet, both are intermingled. Prana enters your body riding on the breath. When you are excited, angry or exhausted, your breathing becomes  gross, more pronounced than normal. When you are calm, relaxed, thoughtless, your breathing becomes quiet, slow, almost imperceptible. Meditation is a state where these two come to rest at the centre. The gross breath becomes quiet enough for you to feel, connect with the prana, the subtle.

Sleep and Wakefulness:
Yet, another example is sleep and wakefulness. Wakefulness is gross state of consciousness. Both breath and thoughts are active. Sleep is gross state of unconsciousness when breath is active but mind is at rest, no thoughts. The subtle is a state in-between when you are awake, conscious, but there are no thoughts, the breath is quiescent. This state is the meditative state. The doorway to Bliss, Turiya.

The subtle also makes us aware of that which is the power behind the gross. This is very well bought out in the Kenopanishad, Part 1. It talks about the subtle which powers everything, but we know not.

Kenopanishad:
Sutra 4: Yadvaahaanabhyuditam Yena Vaagabhyudyate: Tadeva Brahma Tvam Vidhi Nedam Yadidamupaasate.

That by which is not uttered by speech, but which enlightens the speech, that alone is Brahman, not that which people worship.

Sutra 5: Yanmanasaa Na Manute Yenaahurmano Matam: Tadev Brahma Tvam Vidhi Nedam Yadidamupaasate.

That by which one cannot think with the mind, but by which they say, the mind is made to think is Brahman, and not that which people worship.

Sutra 6: Yachchakshushaa Na Pashyati Yena Chakshoomshi Pasyati: Tadeva Brahma Tvam Vidhi Nedam Yadidamupaaste.

That by which one cannot see with the eyes, but by which the eyes are enabled to see, know that alone to be Brahman and not that which people worship.

Sutra 7: Yachchhrotrena Na Shrinoti Yena Shrotramidam Shrutam: Tadeva Brahma Tvam Vidhi Nedam Yadidamupaasate.

That by which one cannot hear with the ears, but by which the ears are made to hear, know that alone to be Brahman and not that which people worship.

Sutra 8: Yat praanema Na Praaniti Yena Praanah Praneeyate: Tadeva Brahma Tvam Vidhi Nedam Yadidamupaasate. 

That which one cannot smell with the nose, but which directs the nose to the object of smell, know that alone to be Brahman, and not that which people worship.

( The sutras and their translations taken from, Nine Principal Upanishads, from the teachings of Swami Satyananda Saraswati, Yoga Publication Trust, Munger, Bihar).

Yoga Nidra for healing

The audio clip of Yoga Nidra below, is especially beneficial for those who are looking to heal themselves because of some setback or health problem.
Hari Om Tat Sat.

Click on the link below to listen in to the Yoga Nidra for healing.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x9evjidic0fcgrt/New%20Recording%203.m4a?dl=0

Rikhiapeeth Experience: A journey into yourself

The Rikhiapeeth Ashram: A legacy of Swami Satyananda Saraswati

By

Kamini Bobde

There are tragic contradictions in this bewildering world. Soulful paintings of an  artist live on to bewitch and enthrall the world, but the artist himself cuts off his ear and finally shoots himself leaving behind the un-bridged abyss between the beauty of his art and the wretched suffering of his life.

Why these unfathomable tragedies?  James Baldwin writes, “ It has always been much easier ( because it has always seemed much safer) to give a name to the evil without than to locate the terror within: the labels change, the terror is constant.”

So how does one bridge the gaping chasms between the head, heart and hand. Where does one find a place and people who have knit these desperate selves into a harmonious whole. Or at least are attempting to do it. And most important who have found the secret road to sanity and peace in the everyday life they lead.

I think I recently travelled to one such place. It is the Rikhiapeeth Ashram on the outskirts of Deoghar town in Jharkhand.

Swami Satyananda performing austerities in Rikhiapeeth Ashram

Exactly ten years back I was taught Swami Satyananda’s  system of Yoga.

It threw me out of gear with my terms & tools of engagement with the world. Thus far it was mostly worship of the intellect. Sipping pages and pages of philosophies of Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and so many others. But, then nothing from the charmed world of words helped me to live life itself.

But with yoga experience came first and then the perplexed, intellectual in me ran to my world of books to understand what was happening. The intellect became secondary to experience.

And from day one, Yoga to me has been books by the Bihar School of Yoga that have provided the practical, rational and scientific aspects of Yoga. The books by the trinity of Swami Satyananda, Swami Niranjananada, Swami Satyasangananda, who are the light and force behind the Bihar School of Yoga and Rikhiapeeth Ashram, have guided my practice and understanding the principals, the science and the spirituality of Yoga.

But, I had never visited Bihar School of Yoga in Munger or Rikhiapeeth Ashram in Jharkhand.

Therefore, my first visit to Rikhiapeeth Ashram was also my first experience of living in an Ashram.

Here a life style is lived which temporarily strips you of layers of masks and the many props you lean on in life. Such thoughts gathered around me as I gradually waded into the Rikhiapeeth Ashram routine and celebrations of Ahswini Navritri in September of 2017.

Rikhiapeeth Ashram is not a picturesque place. Just a barren piece of land on the outskirts of Deogarh town in Jharkhand. But Swami Satyananda set foot on this land and said, “This is Chittabhoomi of Maa Parvati. I will be here.”

That day was Sept, 23, of 1989. Swami Satsangi ( as Swami Satyasangananda is called), who was with him then said, “ There was nothing here. No electricity, no water or any kind of development. And look at what it is today!”

Indeed! Rikhiapeeth Ashram is now a huge complex spread over 3 kms and under its benign and mighty presence the whole area has been uplifted. People from all over the world descend on Rikhiapeeth Ashram to learn Yoga, to participate in the spiritual rituals of havan, yagnas and other festivities.

Rikhiapeeth Ashram which continues to grow and attract followers is yet another example of the power of a self established in itself.

After all, what did Swami Satyananda do here? Did he organise the media to get publicity? Did he give talk shows? Did he display his Yoga by demonstrating some impossible poses? Did he display spiritual powers of materializing things from thin air? Did he set up a commercial empire? Did he network with the who’s who or the powers that be?

No!

Here he lived the life of a hermit. Within a week of settling in Rikhia, he started his spiritual practices in seclusion and isolation. He remained immersed in his spiritual practice, his sadhana. The rare times when he did give darshan or allowed people to see him, on the exit gate was the terse message, “Do not come back.”

Yet, people came. Prosperity and plenty came. And years after he took Samadhi on Dec 5, in 2009, the pull and power of his spirit continue to attract people and prosperity. While he remained immersed in his sadhana, Swami Satsangi along with other sanyasis were his hands and feet in translating his wish of serve, love and give and in building the Ashram.

Swami Satsangi who was personally instructed into yoga & the esoteric practices of Tantra by Swami Satyananda, is today, one of the rare woman Pittaddhishwari, Head of an Ashram. If Swamiji establsihed Sathyam and Shivam here, Swami Satsangi completed it by adding Sundaram.

There is a unique blend of beauty in austerity in the Rikhiapeeth Ashram. Yoga is perfection in action. And one gets glimpses of this as one sees the seamlessly beautiful way in which everything moves in the Ashram from dawn to dusk.

When you stay in the Ashram and follow the routine of being up by 4 am and in bed by 8pm after a day of Yoga, chantings, pooja and seva, it is not only this, but the subtle spiritual power that pervades the very air that you breathe, that brings you closer to nothing other than your real self.

Three simple words, serve, love and give. But, most difficult to do. This is exactly what we received in simple no frills fashion.

The stay, food was pro-bono. There are no oblique suggestions of any kind to donate. No sign boards, donation boxes, or sale of books, etc. There is no branding, selling or commercialization.

The high point of my stay was getting an audience with Swami Satsangi. She was initiated into sannyas in 1982. and has borne the mantle of Pittadhipati after Swami Satyananda took Samadhi. I had just finished reading her monumental work, “The Ascent”, a treatise on Vijnana Bhairava Tantra. Swami Satyanada’s writes about her, “ This work is much more than a translation of Vijnana Bhairava Tantra by a student or scholar of Tantra: It is a work based on the personal experience of a sannyasin who has dared to uphold the lofty values of tyaga ( reninciation), vairaga, ( non-attachment) and samarpan ( surrender). These are the kavach or armour of a sannyasin, with which he marches ahead towards the fragrance of atma anubhutti or self realization.”

On the first day itself, I had given a request to meet Swami Satsangi. On Sept 23, the day of Rikhyapeeth Agaman (the day when Swami Satyananda came to Rikhia), we were told, that she would be meeting us. I was overjoyed. It was like meeting in flesh and blood someone you have read, imbibed and admired.

She met a handful of us on the verandah of a kutir next to the Alakh Bara, even as her two Alsatian dogs barked and paced up and down behind a fenced space. She was in a reminiscent space. It was exactly 29 years back on this day that she and few others had accompanied Swami Satyananda to what is today the Rikhiapeeth Ashram.

I asked her what was the turning point in her life. How did she happen to take up sannyas?  She replied, “I was the usual, happy young girl, doing all the regular things, like partying, travelling, in short, the normal things. But, when I met Swami Satyananda, everything changed. My life turned 180 degress. I think it was some past life connection. The earlier me just died. Even today, I cannot relate to that girl. It’s like something that was in another life and my sannyas life was like being born anew.”

I asked her how one could overcome the ego? Was it possible to do so without a Guru?

She said, it is not advisable to do it without the guidance of a Guru. It can be dangerous to try to kill your ego, it is part of your antakarna ( inner self). You can become rudderless without the ego.”

On asking if she could still give some technique on how a person living a worldly life can manage the ego, she said, “ Yes there is. It is seva. Service is a good ego cleanser. When you do something for someone else, you automatically subdue the ego.”

One could go on sitting there listening to her. But, she had had a full day.

The bucket list of life and its longings is long. No place or experience has the sway to pull for a repeat as the list keeps getting exhausted and filling up anew.  But, Rikhyapeeth has created in my heart the longing to come back to learn to live simply with simple needs. To shed the layers and layers of masks to finally face myself.

Yes, in many ways it was a journey into one’s own self.

And so to get introduced to yourself, a visit to an Ashram like Rikhiapeeth is a must  for those looking to touch new points in their own being.

( Rikhiapeeth ashram can be reached by trains which go to Jasidih Junction(Devgarh town) from where it is a 30 min drive. Or by flight to Calcutta or Patna and then by trains which go to Jasidh or drive down to the Ashram. You need to inform the Ashram by mail or by call. www.rikhiapeeth.in)

Some small but significant tips for your yoga practice

Yoga for Weight loss & toned body

Yoga for trim, fit and healthy body
by
Kamini Bobde

Staying trim and fit is not only for aesthetic reasons but also for being able to live a full life.

Yoga is effective in reducing excess weight because any sincere and consistent practice of Yoga brings about balance of body and mind. Therefore, if there is excess weight then it will help reduce it so that a balanced weight is achieved. It also helps balance the mental and emotional urge to indulge in excessive, unhealthy eating.

There is no need to go on a drastic diet control regime or sudden change in life-style. If you are given to some indulgences like partying, eating out, drinking, erratic life style, or these are part of your profession, then no need to stress or feel trapped or guilty. Just do your yoga practice regularly and it will bring about attitude changes from within you. Also, the general feeling of wellness will make it easier to not resort to other things to generate feel good factor.

However, it is good to alter your eating habits by consulting a good dietician. A combination of yoga with healthy diet will help you achieve weight loss and fitness easier, faster.

Hari Om!

Yogic management of PCOD, Conception & related problems

                    Yoga practice for  PCOD, Conception...
                     by
                     Kamini Bobde

                                     Yoga practice Part I for PCOD, conception issues, etc. 

                                    Yoga practice Part II for PCOD, Conception issues, Menstrual problems.


Menstruation, an inevitable natural occurrence in any girl’s life, can be wrought with physical, mental and emotional problems. In ancient India, the coming of age of a young girl was propitiated with puja (Kumari puja) and sometimes celebrations were also held. But, over the years due to some historical reasons, girls were made to feel unclean and inauspicious at the time of menstruation adding to the emotional problems that girls anyway go through at this time.

Now, however, many misconceptions, have been put aside and menstruation as a subject is out in the open with advertisements for sanitary napkins on TV etc.

Most menstrual patterns in a girl are governed by genes. Irrespective of this, it is a trying time for the most healthy and robust girls because of the tremendous hormonal changes that a girl's body goes through at the onset of periods which may continue for quite sometime depending on how it is tackled at the physical and emotional level of the girl.

The greatest relief at such a time for a girl is to have an honest, open and understanding relation with the mother. In rural India, a mother and daughter may shy away from discussing such matters.

However, one must bear in mind that at the onset of this period girls may put on weight, their complexion may change, they may become hyper active, tense and irritable or given to fighting or anger.

Also, irregularities of menstrual cycle are common. These may be caused because of stress, anxiety, emotional shock, bio-rhythm changes, emotional imbalance, bad life style, wrong diet or hormonal deficiency.

Some of the common menstrual problems are :

Amenorrhea: It represents total absence of menstrual cycle. As a natural phenomenon it occurs when women lactate, get pregnant or have menopause. But Primary Amenorrhea is characterized by girls not getting their cycle when they are past sixteen years of age.

The causes for this are many. But very significant factors could be poor diet, lack of fresh air and sunshine, poor physical, mental and emotional state or hormonal imbalance. Such a problem can be managed through specific yoga programme or packages. It is advisable to try yogic remedies with a good teacher before more drastic measure like external manipulation or hormonal drugs are tried to induce menstruation.

Secondary Amenorrhea: This happens when normal menstrual cycle pauses and a girl may not have periods for more than six months for reasons other than pregnancy. Reasons for this maybe:

• low levels of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which controls ovulation and the menstrual cycle 
• stress 
• significant weight loss or gain 
• anorexia (In fact, amenorrhea can be an initial sign that a teen is losing too much weight and may have anorexia.) 
• stopping birth control pills 
• thyroid conditions 
• ovarian cysts 
• other conditions that can affect hormone levels 

 Excessive exercising be it some sport or gym  combined with a poor diet may also disrupt normal cycles. For example, there was this girl who practiced football in the morning with her college team, went home and did yoga exercises, hardly ate anything before she rushed off to college. Then in the evening she went for an hour of rigorous swimming. She did not realise she was overdoing it until her period stopped completely. It took a year of reversing her life style for the periods to start normally again.

Dysmenorrhoea and Menorrhagia is a condition of painful, irregular and excessive heavy menstruation.

Spasmodic Dysmenorrhoea: Identified with cramps and pain in lover abdomen, sometimes accompanied by nausea and shakiness.

Congestive Dysmenorrhoea : Sometimes called Pre menstrual syndrome (PMS), in this heavy dull aching in the abdomen and lower back along with high level of tension, three to four days before the onset of the periods. Other symptoms are swelling and tenderness in the breast, swollen abdomen, blotted feeling, water retention, constipation, stiffness in body lethargy, irritability may be other symptoms.

Yoga offers natural and highly successful way of managing menstrual problems. The two videos are illustrative of the practice for all menstruation and cenception related problems. 

How Yoga can transform upto DNA level

Dharana: The key to altering Genetic coding

 by

Kamini Bobde

Yoga has emerged from the shroud of secrecy and has now adorned the cloak of scientific, rational thinking of how and why it works wonders.

And among its many wonderful effects are its capacity to change even our genetic coding.  Science refutes that such a thing is possible. Be that as it may, let us here examine how and why Yoga can affect change and transformation even at the DNA level.

Firstly, let us understand the practice and technique which can affect such a fantastic transformation. The practice is Dharana in yogic parlance and concentration in everyday language.

I will try my best here to explain how this works.

Firstly we will have to distinguish how yoga defines or looks at concentration and how it is generally understood.

The dictionary meaning of concentration is, “close attention, close thought, attentiveness, application, industry, assiduousness, single mindedness, absorption, engrossment.”

In everyday life, right from school to home, concentration is taught as something for which you have to make immense effort. Children are told to concentrate on studies or whatever they are doing. And the only impetus to concentration for a child is fear of rebuke/ punishment or at the other end, a reward. Thus the foundation of  concentration that a child learns is based on fear, stress and effort. All of this we know impacts negatively on the entire personality, physical, mental, emotional which engenders a fertile substratum for disease and illness in later life.  

In contrast here is how Yoga looks at concentration/Dharana.

Full, total pin-pointed concentration happens when:

1.    Mind & body are completely relaxed.

2.    When you are present in the here and now.

3.    The subject and the object must become one.

Relaxation:

Relaxed? What’s so difficult about being relaxed? Difficult it is not. Children are naturally relaxed. Until the world around them makes them learn stress, worry, fear. Gradually being naturally relaxed is superimposed with layers of stress, tension and fears that become deeply embedded in the psyche. Therefore, Yoga lays great stress on relaxations right from the level of asana, pranayama practice. Besides, reminding the practitioner to consciously keep the body relaxed, there are also some very simple but highly enjoyable techniques like Shava asana and Yoga nidra.

Shava means dead body. So, basically the practice is like imitating a dead body. Everyday in deep sleep we die and come back. Shava asana tries to achieve that level of relaxation. However, in sleep we lose awareness. But, in both shav asana and Yoga nidra it is total relaxation like deep sleep with full awareness. So what you are experiencing is a different quality of awareness from our normal everyday experience. Only an experience of the practice will prove to the practitioner how when you enter into a state of total relaxation your awareness becomes sharpened. Much research has been done by Stanford, Harward, UCLA corroborating therapeutic benefits and changes in the mapping of brain workings in simple practice of shava asana and yoga nidra.

Presence of mind and body in the NOW:

All self help books and all philosophies tell you to live in the present. Easier said than done. Here again Yoga helps you along through various techniques which are mostly factored-in the practice of daily simple yoga. However, for those hoping to bring about change right upto genetic level, have to do some advance practices. Just as for relaxation, so also for living in the present moment, the entire practice of yoga  is geared towards it. While doing the asanas, the constant reprieve is to focus on how each movement and posture is impacting the body. For example, if you are doing bhujang asana (cobra pose), then in every round you focus on different parts of the body that the movement and posture is impacting... spine, stomach area, chest area, throat area, legs, hands, etc. And with progress your awareness of how it is impacting your body becomes subtle and more and more incisive.

What you do not realize is that in the bargain you are for that time, living completely in the present movement. Same goes with practicing pranayama. The focus is completely on observing each and every breath. With prolonged practice of yoga in this manner, it slowly becomes a part of you to stay focused in the present with whatever you are doing. The combination of relaxed body and focused awareness has profound effects on the brain. It too becomes relaxed, still, quiet. This is very difficult to achieve because the nature of mind is to jump like a monkey from one thing to another.

Now, we come to the more esoteric aspect of concentration/dharana. The subject and object becoming one or as J. Krishnamurthy is famously known to say , “the seer becomes the seen.”

This is the culmination of the earlier two techniques into dharana. So, when you’ve achieved the state of total relaxation and being in the present, then comes the third practice which culminates into dharana/concentration.

There are many techniques or practices one can adopt according to one’s personality and liking. There are many many techniques for developing concentration. In the Vigyan Bhairava Tantra, shlokas 25 to 35 are all about the various techniques for dharana.

Trataka is one such practice. After your asana and pranayama practice, you fix keep a candle flame, a Om symbol, or your favourite God, a rising sun or just about any symbol/object at eye level. Siting comfortably, if possible in padma asana, vajrasan or any of the meditation poses, you look unblinkingly at the symbol/object. When your eyes tire or tear up, you close your eyes and try to see that candle flame, Om or whatever the object you have chosen, at the eyebrow centre. At first it may be difficult but with practice it will happen. If all other yogic practices are developed culminating into this practice, then one does experience seeing your symbol with eyes closed at the eye brow centre.

It’s quite an event in one’s life when this happens. Firstly, that vision of your symbol at the eyebrow centre ( ajna chakra, bhrumadhya) is nothing like what you see in the external world. This internal manifestation is totally different and an experience which shakes up your entire being. At this point you take a quantum leap and every faculty, aspect of your being and personality undergoes transformation. The transformation happens to the cell and DNA level. This is now being established in experiments being done in many universities and medical centres around the world. 

All of this I’ve gained from my reading of books by Swami Satyananda Saraswati, Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati and Swami Satyasangananda Sarawati who are the light and force of the Bihar School of Yoga & Rikhiapeeth ashram.

If anything is not clear, or you have any doubt or misgiving, I would love to help resolve the doubt or answer your query to the best of my ability.

Hari Om!