Till 19th Century wherever the term ‘Yoga’ was used, people visualized a mystic doing some extraordinary things like sleeping on the bed of nails or standing on a leg or telling someone’s fortune or a healer. Though the scriptures like Vedas , Upanishads ,Bhagvadgeeta, Patanjal Yoga darshan etc described yoga. It was not upto the reach of common man. If someone tried practicing pranayama, people use to frighted him by telling the dangers of doing it. In short there was no awareness about the potential which yoga has to impact a common man’s life.
In such scenario Swami Sivanada Saraswati asked Swami Satyananda to spread the message of yoga from ‘door to door & shore to shore’. Unaware of what exactly has to be done, swamiji was confused. He came to Nasik and prayed lord Trayambakeshwara or Shiva for further guidance. And then with grace of lord Shiva started the journey of Satyananda Yoga.
Today there are more than thousand Satyanada yoga centers in around 80 countries including Muslim dominated nations. Thousands of Sanyasins spreading the message of yoga truly from ‘door to door & shore to shore’. There are 5 institues named ‘Bihar School of Yoga’ ‘Sivananda Math’ ‘Paramhamsa Alakh Bara’ ‘International Yoga research foundation’ & ‘ Bihar Yoga Bharti’ developed by Swamiji which also includes world’s first yoga university i.e Bihar Yoga Bharti. Swamiji has also authored more than 80 books on yoga, health management & spirituality.
The methods taught by him are taught in very simple manner. The techniques starts with purification of body through asana & pranayama. Purification of mind through mantra japa & ajapa japa. Purification of karmas through practices of karma yoga or Nishkama karma. Once purified, mind automatically starts settling into dharna & thus resulting into dhyna. All these techniques are taught in there centers & also in the Ashram at Munger & Rikhia.
Although these practices helps us leading a healthy life, still Swamiji has stressed more on selfless service, purifying antakarana & developing unconditional love. Because these qualities takes lifetime to develop. And until these qualities are developed , the pathway to spiritual development is blocked, one may practice meditation for years but will not succeed until the above qualities are developed.
Work done by Swamiji in his lifetime will form the basis for the coming century or may be the next millennium. After the era of maharishis who wrote Vedas & Upanishads, Swamiji was the next rishi who brought the yoga from scriptures to a level where it can be implemented by a common man in everyday life. In last thousand years not such a yogi came to this world. He is really the yogi of the millennium. Today on 5th December 2009 he got into Mahasamadhi. May we all follow the techniques given by him to enrich our life and living to the true purpose of it. May his grace always remain with us.
There comes a point in everybody’s life where one faces failures and gets frustrated.
One starts thinking
“Why does it happened with only me?”
“I have not done wrong to anyone”
We keep cursing our fate, keep cursing situation, keep blaming everybody for our condition. We cry, weep & get depressed. This is the point where return journey of our consciousnesses starts. Sorrow takes us near to our inner higher self. It propels us to look back inside. At some point of time everyone comes to a point where one faces questions like….
“Who am i?”
“Whats the purpose of my life?”
“Where I was before birth?”
“What will happen to me after death?”
“Do god really exists?”
“If God exists then why the world is full of sorrow, crime and misery?”
This is where first chapter of Bhagvadgeeta starts called “Arjun Vishadyoga” . Vishad means sorrow. Arjun represents this confused state of conscious which exists in all of us. To this confused consciousness. Sri Krishna guides through 17 chapters. Each chapter is related to one path of yoga, four of which are main paths “Karma yoga” “Bhakti yoga” “Dnyan Yoga” & “Rajayoga” . One needs to make a balance of all the four paths in some proportion like 70 % karma, 10 % Hath + Raja, 10 % Dnyana & 10 % Bhakti. The proportion varies as one progress on the path of evolution. Not everyone reads Geeta, but knowingly or unknowingly we are following these paths in some or other way. We can get benefited if these paths are followed with proper guidance, awareness & consistency.
Sant Dyaneshwar has written a commentary on Geeta called “Dyaneshwari” . His message was that if one experience at least one “Ovi “ or verse from Geeta then his life will change dramatically. Mere reading or repetition of sacredtexts like this doesn't help much. It only helps propagating knowledge from one generation to next. There are nice books by Swami Vivekananda giving commentary on “Bhakti” “Dnyan” ‘Karma” & “Rajayoga”. With his own experiences he has explained the importance of these paths. But again same message was passed on i.e experience is more important than just mere reading.
After reading these texts we get highly influenced and lots of thoughtful churning happens in our mind. One decides to become like Arjuna or Swami Vivekananda. After forceful attempt of doing asanas, pranayama and meditation for a week or month, we give up.
Career, Job, Education, Marriage, Love, Films, TV, Girlfriends….so many things to manage in life. No time to do yoga. We all know yoga to some extent but when it comes to implementation. Most of us give up. The ideals given in sacred texts like Geeta, Veda, Upanishads are not that easy to follow in daily life by average men. Rajayoga demands one to follow 5 yamas and 5 niyamas. These first two steps are so difficult to implement that one fails to follow the the next paths of Asasana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharna, Dhyan & Samadhi.Our ancestors may also have faced such thing at some point of life. So they have come up with a much more simple path called TANTRA.
Tantra comes from the word “Tanoti” which means to expand. Tantra is a science of expanding consciousness. Tantra , Veda , Upanishads, Koran, Bible, Granthsahib…most of the sacred texts are not written but revealed. When some realized sages were in deep meditative states this knowledge transcended to them. Which was then written as a guidelines for other to follow.
Tantra says that the whole world is manifestation of Universal Consciousness. Every living & non-living thing is manifestation of the same divine power which we called God. The supreme has two aspects, One is the seer or drashtaor conscious or Shiva & another aspect is Shakti or the energy. The whole universe is created when Shiva & Shakti splits into multiple dimensions of conscious. After some point of expansion the universe begins to dissolve from where it explode. That point is called Bindu. This aspect of Involution & Evolution is perfectly explained in the form of Shree Yantra. There are many commentaries available on Sri Yantra Sadhna.
Tantra doesn't expect one to renounce the world, neither it asks us to give up desires and leave our lower instincts like food, hunger,sleep, fear, & sex. Rather it guides to use these lower instincts to realize the divine potential lying dormant within us. This dormant potential is called as Kundalini which lies in Mooladhara Chakra in our body. There is a text named “Vigyan Bahirava Tantra” which gives 112 different methods to meditate & evolve the conscious. Most of these techniques make use of our basic instincts, thus one doesn't have to suppress the desires. Thus a common man can easily follow it.
There are mainly two paths of Tantra “Right Hand Path” & “Left Hand Path”. Right hand pathfocuses more on expanding consciousness through Mantra, Yantra, Mandala & Yajna. Whereas left hand path focuses on “Panch Makar” or 5 M’s sadhana. These are Matsya, Maas, Madira, Mudra & Maithuna . Maithuna or Sex is the most powerful instincts & most difficult to conquer. But if done with higher awareness, it can lead to liberation. Osho Rajanish has written a book on this. Also Mantak Chia a taoist master has written a book on cultivating sexual energy and guiding it for evolution of conscious.
These two paths are divided into different cults according to traditions & deity it follows. Thus there are Kalikula, Lalita or Tripura, Gandharva, Shaiva, Shakta, Gorakshanath, Shabar & Ganpatya Tantra etc. Most important, safe & easy to follow of these paths is the Right hand path which mostly concentrates on “Sri Vidya” which is a complete science in itself. Sri Vidya is gift ofAdi Sankaracharya. He was poisoned by his enemies through black magic. That time he invoked the supreme Shakti which is the creator of this Universe. The Divine mother or the Goddess cured him. The form in which he saw her has been described in the 103 verses of “Soundarya Lahari”.First 41 of these are related to evolution of dormant power lying within us in the form of Kundalini or Tripura Sundari. Later are called as “Anand Lahari” which describes the glory of the Goddess. It is said that chanting of these verses purifies the mind, body & spirit.
Many yogis & saints have come to this world and told the same truth. Many paths are available. But which one to choose ? First of all we are not aware of these paths. Secondly it is very difficult to implement the ideals mentioned these paths & scared texts. Thus by reading the texts one can get intellectual person but realization doesn't come. In fact common man has so much of problems in daily life, that he doesn't have time to read these texts, even if he reads its difficult to implement in daily life.
Here Swami Sivananda Saraswati of Hrishikesh has given a simple formula to God realization or liberation. i.e “Serve, Love,Give, Purify,Meditate & Realize” This formula if implemented in life , takes care of all Yogas. In his teachings he has said that one doesn't have to bring the light from outside. One should work in such a way that light or the divinity emerges from within.
Swami Satyanada Sarawati has given a gift to human kind by simplying the techniques of Yoga which can be easily implemented by a common man in his daily life. The most popular techniques include YogaNidra, Antar Mouna, Chidavakash Dharna.
Many dedicated aspirants following different paths of Yoga, come to a point beyond were they get stuck up in the sadhna. Here one needs a Guru’shelp to proceed further. An aspirant can be very sincere & consistent in practice, but the karmic baggage which he/she is carrying doesn't allow him to proceed further. In such cases many times Guru gives them some tasks which will help them burn the seeds of karma & thus proceed further. It may take years or births to clear it. Many sacred texts focuses to complete surrender of ego, mind & body to Guru at this point of time.
These things are difficult to understand as well as illogical to a rational mind. But spirituality is scienceof conscious and a limited rational mind cannot understand the infinite truth. Hence one needs to find a Guru & follow the sadhna given by him. Spirituality is more of experience than Logic. To explain this an analogy is given. If a man is blind from birth, he cannot see the rainbow. When other people talk to him about 7 colors of rainbow, he can just hear the names of the color. But he wont be able to perceive or imagine those colors. If he wants to experience the beauty of rainbow, he needs to develop eyes & vision. For that he needs to get operated through a surgeon. In similar way Guru also operates on our conscious to open the Third eye or the sixth sense.
One more thing observed is that most of the aspirants of yoga & spirituality are seeking Moksha or liberation from the cycle of life & death. It is similar to a person thrown into a swimming pool. He starts drowning in water & wants someone to him get out of water as soon as possible. But when he learns to swim, he starts enjoying to be in water. With similar analogy Yoga is not a path of renunciation, but to maintain the balance of Body, Mind & Spirit in the midst of adversities of life. Yoga aims at developing that capability.
Hence to conclude, I want to say that everyone should practice yoga.
