5 Things to Do with our Prana Energy

by Swami Sitaramananda | Apr 20, 2014 | Uncategorized

Do you know what prana is? The most important practice of Yoga is to observe your level of prana and to recognize pranic energy in your life. Prana is Vital Energy. We all want energy to live. We want to feel alive. If we don’t have energy, we feel dead. Energy is everywhere. It is a universal life force. It is Nature’s gift. It’s everywhere. It is provided to us all the time in abundance. Then why is it that sometimes we don’t have prana?

How to understand prana?

Increase prana. You want more prana at all costs.
Conserve prana. You want to make money and save money.
Channel prana. You want to spend it wisely. Not just use it, but channel it.
Balance prana. A lot of problem comes from imbalance. Energy is out of control too much this, too much that.
Purify prana. It is like you change your 5 dollar bills to 100 dollar bills. You want to make the energy become more powerful. Because when it becomes more pure it becomes more powerful.

Understand why we are tired

Sometimes we think “ I’m tired so I go to sleep”. But meditation at that time is better.
You do the asanas so you can sit to meditate. Eventually if you will be able to control the mind, you tune to the transcendental self.
When you are tired, you think only of the physical body, but you are not realizing that your tiredness is also coming from mental tiredness and spiritual tiredness.
When you are tired you think only of the physical body and say “ I’d better go get some food”. That means you refer back again and again to the physical body.
But you also have mental tiredness, mental emotional tiredness. When you are tired maybe you have the mental tiredness because you have some negative emotions that are eating you up inside.
You might not even be aware of that. Like you are angry at something or you resent something and your intellect go in the wrong direction thinking all kind of things that are completely wrong.
On top of that, the ego is there, blocking the flow, so the energy of pure consciousness is not there, and you are blocking yourself from that flow of energy.

The Prana Pulse

We need to learn to feel the pulse of our prana at all times and when we feel that our prana is lacking, you have the choice to go to the highest source of prana, the spiritual prana . This purest kind of prana that will supply prana to all the other levels.
Any amount of physical activity will not supply the spiritual prana and relaxation that you need. But if you are able to yield the spiritual prana, this will give you all the energy to solve all your mental, emotional blockages, all your ignorance in your thinking, dissolve the ego and provide health to the body.
But if you tune only to the physical level and interpret everything physically, centering your whole life and consciousness around the physical body, you are wrong. At that time you starve your mental body and spiritual body. You don’t know about spiritual purpose. You put the spiritual behind the physical.
So that’s not a very wise way of using the Universal energy available to you for your well being. Remember, our well being is physical, mental, and emotional.

Increasing prana

You increase prana by a careful choice of lifestyle. Lifestyle needs to be balanced and wholesome. Be aware of the fact that the energy of Nature comes from the energy of the 5 basic elements of Nature: Earth, water, fire, air, ether.
Just the fact that you are living in nature, you are getting prana. If you live artificially, you are cutting off yourself from the natural flow of prana. You live in concrete, glass, and steel, neon light, no prana air. You go to shopping center, office building, mix with many people of no wisdom, without transcendental thoughts. Everyone is stressed, and greedy. You try to make money to be somebody. You go out of buildings and step in the car and drive on highways… most of your daily activities are artificial. This lifestyle increases vata, and the artificial-ness in the mind. You arrive at artificial home, eat artificial food, microwave. You surf the Internet and have artificial relationships. Can you imagine…..
You need to feed the physical body with nature, sit on earth, look at trees, hug a tree, look at animals. Marvel at flower, grass. This gives you prana. Try to conserve, don’t spend. You need to make a wise choice of lifestyle which will give you vibrancy and aliveness. Sometimes, you need to make drastic choices to regain your quality of life.

Conserving prana

When you are sick, you lie there and you cannot speak, think, or move, because your prana is completely down. Imagine everything takes prana. All day long you are active you are moving around. You are thinking. You use up so much prana. How do you recharge? You cannot spend more than you make.
Daily, you have to calculate in your mind very quick how do you spend energy. Am I doing things today to recharge? Every day, you meet with challenges and you need to conserve energy spent on useless things so you will have energy to meet with your challenges.
When you spend time at the ashram, you are in fact investing your energy to get the spiritual energy, the wisdom. If you get this spiritual energy, you will waste less your energy.
For example, if you have a mental problem, when you have spiritual energy, you will say “this is peanuts, this is easy” . Overall, you need perspective of your life and who you are. If not, you get upset of every little thing. We spend energy going round, round, round.
Sometimes you are tired, you would say “ I’m going to eat,and chat and not go to satsang” . This means that you are not investing wisely your energy. Beware not to waste your energy on things that are not necessary.
That’s why in yoga philosophy the wise teacher says: detach, detach! … Don’t worry, don’t worry. So you can get to the source of the problem. The same problem will be there, but you can see it for what it is.

Channeling prana

Channeling energy means make your life useful. Use your energy for selfless purpose, then you will gain more spiritual energy. If you spend energy for selfish purpose, it makes you feel strong, but you pay in another way, stress, defensiveness, hoarding, egoistic ambition. It blocks you so you pay the price. It’ s not even worth it if you think about properly.
If you use energy selflessly, let’s say in service, you get the spiritual energy. You use your physical, mental energy, but you get in return spiritual energy. That’s called the principle of karma yoga. It’s a conscious exchange of energy. It becomes spiritual energy. That spiritual energy is powerful and can solve a lot of blockages from before.

Balancing prana

How you can be imbalanced? Lets say you do too much physical work, you won’t have enough energy for thinking and won’t be able to do mental work or even have feeling.
Some other people are feeling all the time, they are so emotional that they have no energy for thinking. They just feel, feel, and feel. Other people are thinking, thinking, and then they have no energy for emotions. So you will have to balance it all out.
It is said if you are too emotional, you would have to be more rational, and think a little bit. In the contrary, if a person is too dry, then they need to develop their capacity of feeling. Swami Sivananda teaches us the 4 paths of Yoga to balance ourselves.
So whatever you do at the ashram you are balancing yourself. Chant a little, meditate a little, tune to the spiritual, and conserve your physical energy. If you don’t feel like chanting, that’s exactly when you need to chant to replenish your emotional energy that is down and dry at that time.
This will build up that devotional energy that floods you and balances you out and make you feel alive. Then sometimes you don’t want to think. At that time you need to be awake and think. So you exercise your intellectual energy.
Sometimes you want to read 5 hours a day. In the ashram you have to do physical work, because most of us are too mental. You have to go chop wood, carry water, dig trench, clean pond. This sort of physical work is also good for people with too much physical energy as it would spend that excess of physical energy out and balance you. Otherwise you become out of sort.

Some people are so absorbed at looking at their neighbor i.e. they are self absorbed, always worried about what others think about them. This egoistic energy consumes them. We need to have enough of self-awareness, but if you are consumed by it, at that time you become cut off from your higher purpose.

Purify prana

This is the most interesting topic. How do you purify your energy? You purify through practicing spiritual practices, by consciously taking a course of action of what to do with your body, mind, emotions that is helping you to change consciousness. That is called sadhana. That is how you purify your energy.
Practicing sadhana is not your normal tendency. But once you understand the trend of your body – mind and understand how you go on repeating patterns and create mistakes, at that time, you endeavor to train your body-mind differently and shift it from its normal course.
Sadhana removes the ego and it becomes purified. Sadhana changes your wavelength from gross to subtle. In yoga, every practice is to purify your whole system. Your nadis become clear, and more energy flows through.
Sw. Sivananda says it is important to purify our thoughts. How to do this? One of the practices is satsanga, when you go to the people who know how to think and you listen to them then you think about what they said. The idea of purification is we are pure spirit pure Self.
Everything about us is radiating pure energy. We have tremendous amount of prana or a energy and the main is the spiritual energy. We have it in abundance. Everything else we do is just to clean the covering that is obstructing that radiance of the Self that is already within us. The more you gain Self knowledge or Self awareness the more energy or prana you get.

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← 10 Ways to Overcome Negative Emotions 9 Ways to Practice Bhakti Yoga in Daily Life →

10 Ways to Overcome Negative Emotions

by Swami Sitaramananda | Feb 20, 2014 | Uncategorized

Today we will talk about positive thinking. Choose from the words written on the board. Which negative emotions would you like to eradicate? Fear, procrastination, tired, anxiety, jealousy, attachment, brooding. I would say fear and anxiety, anxiety is also fear but you don’t know what you are afraid of. Fear is stronger so you know what it is. Anxiety is fear but you don’t know why.

Frustration and resentment are both form of anger. Indecisiveness and procrastination are one. It is a difficulty to take decision and to act upon on what you decide about. When you have too many things that pull in different directions you don’t know what to do. Jealousy is a distorted form of love. It has some form of attachment behind. Brooding is also a form of attachment to the past so you cannot move on.

Know the nature of the thoughts

When you deal with something you need to know the nature of the negative thought, because you deal with anger and fear differently. You have to know how serious it is. You can judge how serious it is depending on how frequent the thought comes into your mind. When you know the nature of the negative thoughts you have to define it very well.

Anxiety and worry is a form of fear that is not very well defined and it eats you from inside. We know that fear comes from attachment to something so you are afraid that you would lose it and you will be anxious about it without reason. You know that anger comes from desire. If you have not desires and you are not attached to any desire you are not going to be angry. Then you have expectations that something will happen and when it does not happen you become upset or you resent it.

Resent it means you are angry inside, underneath and that takes your energy away. Frustration is anger. You can be frustrated at your computer, at your dog, etc. But in general it is a form of anger. Your mind is contradicted. Jealousy is not understanding your own karma and how long it takes to be worked on. Tiredness is of the quality of tamas. It can come from lack of enthusiasm. That means you don’t have a goal in mind of what you want to achieve. If you are an overachiever then you also drive your energy out. Sometimes your inner thoughts are contradicting each other. That makes you tire also. You need to narrow down your goals and take one step at a time. Then you feel like you can do it and then there is an energy behind that helps you achieve the small things.

Tools for the toolbox

1. Oppose the negative thought with a positive thought.

There are a few things that you can try. Number one you identify what it is. Always you have to be aware that this negative thought is eating you up. One is you oppose the thought. You replace the thought with an opposite thought.

If you have fear you replace it with courage. Think I can make it. I will be fine.
With anxiety you replace it with every thing is fine, nothing to worry about.
Attachment you replace it detachment.
Resentment and anger are replaced by contentment. Anger comes from desires so you drop the desire and keep whatever you have which is the contentment and feel grateful for what you have. Turn it around completely.
Brooding is replaced by letting go. Brooding means attachment of the past. It is an emotional resentment of the change.
Tiredness is replaced by energy. Tell yourself that you are full of energy and can do anything.
Indecisiveness is replaced by I know. I take a decision and offer it to God. It means I take a decision I might be right or wrong it doesn’t matter but I offer it to God. It comes from fear of making a mistake.
Procrastination is opposed by first taking a decision because it comes from too much thinking and not too much action. It comes from tamas.
Jealousy is replaced by accepting.
Dreaming is replaced by being grounded. Dreaming means the emotional dreaming mind is stronger than the intellectual mind so it brings you into some kind of dreaming state but if you are going to have the mind very logical also there you can have some creating idea but also some practical ideas and the two balance each other and you are not just thinking or acting without thinking.

Why do we need to replace the negative thoughts?

Negative thoughts have to be replaced because otherwise they just pull you down into a tamasic state of mind. You have to come to the conclusion that negative thoughts are useless in your life. If you don’t get rid of them right away they would add up and will become aggravated and will get worse. The way the mind works is when you indulge in something it wants more. Do you want to be the one that controls the mind or do you want the mind to control you? If you are the one that controls the mind then you know what you have to do.

This is only one way. Lets say you oppose it. You are grieving and you oppose it with joy. There will be a tag of war between the two thoughts but just the fact that you try to think you are joyful and contradict the grieving thought already the sadness is not that serious. It can be alleviated. But if you don’t know anything the thoughts of sadness will escalate. It is not that easy. This technique of opposing works very well but it takes a strong character to be able to do it.

2. Be indifferent.

Be indifferent means the negative thought is there and you are aware of it. It is not like repressing it and denying it. You are aware of it and then you are indifferent to it. That means you don’t buy into it. You don’t let the energy wave affect you. For example when somebody in your family dies that is very closed to you. What do you do? You will see a comedy as a strategy to manage it. You feel up your mind with these positive thoughts and then when you look at the problem it is already passed and you can act properly. Being indifferent is a thought of meditation when the thought comes in your mind you let it go and bring yourself back to focus. Look at things through the corner of your mind. You don’t stop living completely when your problem has not been resolved. It is better to let it go. Do not say I am sad. Say instead, there is sadness in my mind and so on.

3. Sublimation.

Sublimation means you are not really expressing neither repressing. You are channeling, transforming the energy. Suppression means it doesn’t exist. Expression means this is it and fall right into it. Sublimation means you would keep doing something positive and the negative energy will be transformed. For example you are sad because nobody loves you or you lose your love, then you go and sing love songs. You love Krishna, love Radha, Radha loves Krishna. That love idea will come to you and your problem about love will disappear. Lets say you have problem with work and you think my job is unfilled and I wish I could do that other job. Then you do karma yoga. Karma yoga is sublimation of work. Sublimation is a transformation of energy.

4. Visualization.

It means you are going to visualize yourself to be who you want to become, because if you don’t have it in your mind you cannot do it. For example if you would like to be a joyful sweet person, you would have to visualize yourself being that already. Or visualize somebody that has these qualities that you seek. You need to change the negative visualization about yourself that you have in your mind. When you see the negative thoughts that attack your mind then you replace them with the opposite and also visualize yourself being for example a dynamic person, or a very calm and detached and open person. You visualize yourself accepting responsibilities and being happy about it. You visualize yourself not careless but free from fear and anxiety. That is the power of visualization.

5. Affirmation.

The way the mind works is with visual image and with words. You need to use words in order to help you. Write down how you feel and then take the words and reconstruct the words contradicting with affirmations like, I am becoming better and better everyday in every way. That is Swami Sivananda’s formula. It is very good because we are all the time progressing but we don’t know it. Also, we are all the time regretting, comparing, and all the time putting our selves down. So we need to affirm, I am becoming better everyday in every way. So affirm positive thoughts and repeat them like medicine. Three doses in the morning, three doses afternoon and three doses in the evening.

6. Reduction.

It means make life simple. You become negative when you try to do too many things. Keep it simple. Have one goal and do it. That is enough. Reduce your desires and your needs. For example if you want three cars, have only one.

7. Concentration.

Concentration is to focus, keep your life focused. Do not let your mind wonder and dream. Keep yourself busy. You need to build the muscle of the mind by concentration, otherwise the mind wonders and you become weak. Repeating a mantra keeps the mind focused and keeps it healthy. It is a good way to exercise the mind and so the negative thoughts cannot enter. You want to change but you want to change too many things at the same time and then you get discouraged and stressed out. Just do one thought at a time and that is enough and relax. If you can change one thought a day that is plenty good.

8. Cheerfulness.

Cheerfulness, sense of humor. That is another tool for your toolbox. There is nothing very serious. When you can laugh about things then everything is fine. You still have to sympathize with people that are suffering but inside yourself keep it light because if you don’t you are going to dramatize it then it doesn’t help and you get pulled down with everybody else. Take it light and you might have a chance to look at it properly.

9. Cultivate a virtue.

Cultivating a virtue is making the mind strong. Do not wait till the carpet is pulled from underneath your feet to cultivate a virtue. For example, love, compassion, generosity. You can cultivate one virtue each day of the week, and every month. What you think about is what you become. If you think patience is important think about it for a week. You make your list and focus on something. You can do it like this. Monday is the day of Siva, the moon and you say detachment. Tuesday the day of Mars, action then you say energy, dynamism. Wednesday the day of Krishna, love compassion. Thursday the day of the guru, wisdom, generosity. Friday Venus, contentment, discipline, devotion. Saturday organize, discipline, patience. Sunday health, giving.

You can put in your toolbox some sentences as thought formulas from the classical yoga school that will help you. For Karma Yoga you say I am just the instrument. I am doing my duty and I give up the results. That means I offer my results. I do my duty and I do the best I can. That will help you not to get aggravated by criticism or praise.

Another sentence is for the Bhakti (Devotion) Yoga you can say everything happens all the time for the best. God knows best. I surrender to God’s will. It is not my will. It is thy will. I surrender. These sentences are useful when the negativity accumulates and you feel hopeless. At that time you just surrender. Another one is from the school Jnana (Wisdom, Knowledge) Yoga. I am just a silence witness. It is just like a play. I am just an actor. This too shall pass. You can also say this is not it, (nety, nety). This frustration is not me. It is not real. It is only a by product of my own illusion and perception. You deny it and reject it so what is real can have a chance.

OM OM OM

Understanding Prana Life Force Energy – Satsang with Swami Sita

by Swami Sitaramananda | Feb 20, 2014 | Uncategorized

Swami Sita: Can you tell me which one of your nostrils is working without checking?

Satsang students: the right, the left, the right.

Swami Sita: Who has both nostrils working? You have to check your nostrils all the time to know how your energy is. When both work then you are able to meditate. The breath, the energy, and the pranic flow corresponds to your thoughts. So if you are always blocked you can already deduce that something is wrong. So you have to endeavor to correct it, it may take some time due to impurities or some kind of blockage in the mind or the emotions. So you have to do lots of pranayama to alternate the breath or alternate the flow of energy, and also change your diet.

This is very important, and then you have to change your lifestyle. From your lifestyle you create a certain type of energy, or prana, so lifestyle, food choices and thought choices, all these are affecting your energy. So checking your breath is a very good way to ask yourself how am I? It’s like you’re driving a car, and you have to constantly know if you are between the two lanes or not, are you facing the right direction or not, sometimes the car goes too much to the left, and you bring it back, it goes to the right, you have to constantly navigate or pilot.

So ask yourself the question how am I, now at this moment, and then you have to check, how is my mind, how is my breath, how are my emotions, am I calm, am I focused, am I jumping around? And the breath is a very good way to check, you cannot catch the mind but you can feel the breath. The breath is the external manifestation of prana so you can feel it. Take a deep breath and exhale and you can already see that you are moving to another state of mind. You are not stressed out. And if you are in a stressful situation in work or life, try to find a space that you can be quiet and do pranayama.

People will find it very strange that you are holding your nose but…do relaxation in your mind, and then do pranayama. So advanced people do pranayama all the time, except you don’t see them holding the nose. They know the breath and they know the connection between the breath and the prana and the thoughts, so by changing the thought they can bring themselves to balance.

So what is Prana? How do you get more prana, more energy, so you are not stressed out? What are the sources of Prana?

Satsang: Water?

Swami Sita: no, start first, common, we always have to start first at the level of the lowest chakra.

Satsang: Earth

Swami Sita: Earth So how do you get prana from the earth? Walk barefoot, walk in nature. If you walk on cement you can tell there is not much prana there. If you live in a metal and glass building, you can tell there is not much prana there, if you live in the fresh air you can already tell there is a lot of prana there. What else? From food. That means you have to think of the food not only in terms of color and shape, but in terms of prana. Is this food going to give me the energy I need? Because you need a lot of prana in order to think and cope with challenges and find your way in life. So some foods give more prana than others. Anything that is processed has low prana. Anything in a natural state that has prana from the sun will have more prana. That is very simple.

Water. How do you get prana from water? By drinking pure natural spring water. If you drink Coca Cola or coffee or tea, then your prana will go down. It actually takes prana in order for you to deal with this. So it is very important to drink the proper water. You can also swim in water, in a river or the ocean.

Earth, water, next comes Fire. The sun is the main source of prana from the fire element. If you live in a building under tube lights and never see the sun, you walk to your car on cement, drink coffee and cigarettes only to survive, drink other things to survive, then you can see the prana is down down down. It becomes a pranic debt. And worried thinking, driving with a cell phone, reading a newspaper about the problems of the world, this will make you loose prana. So be in the sun, anything with heat, even hot water, especially if your mind is worried. If your mind is worried the worst thing to do is drink gassy cold water

Next comes Air. The best source of prana is in the air. So breathe natural, not polluted air. Learn how to breathe; the air can be there but you need to know how to breathe. INHALE and EXHALE. That’s all you have to do and half of your problems are gone. I think more than half, it is the first step in Yoga life. Breathing with an exhale that is twice as long as the inhale. Inhale is 3 the exhale is 6. Then you have to be aware of your breath. When you feel stressed out and want to have prana, then Inhale and Exhale. Alternate nostril breathing helps to regulate the prana, because your whole system is a pranic or energetic system, so all the problems come from having the system out of sync with the pranic flow of the universe.

Last comes Ether. Ether is a very subtle element which you can also call space. How do you get prana from the ether? It comes from the thought environment. You can go camping in nature, so you have the prana of the nature, but you don’t have the prana from the thought environment. Of course in nature no one is there to pollute the thought environment, but you can also be in nature and worry or have negative thoughts. Since thought is such a powerful thing it influences, so if you are in a positive thought environment it will lift you up. You will get prana from the thoughts of the people. The people who are present or the people that are absent, that is difficult for us to understand.

People are like a channel of thoughts, like a radio, and their thoughts might not be expressed like me right now, my radio is on because I’m talking, but the thought is there. So let’s say you are in a group like this satsang, the thought environment is there. Imagine these young nice people at the ashram doing selfless service, meditation, and practicing yoga—guess what, the thought energy is high. And the thoughts also stay in the atmosphere. This place exists for 30 years, morning and evening the thoughts are here—people come here with good intentions, with a good heart, wanting to improve their own life, these are very valuable thoughts to hang around. Also the thoughts of the Masters are here. You cannot see these thoughts, but you can literally feel them. So it’s not just the physical space—earth water fire air—but the ether is also important for prana.

If you are in a place where people hate each other, like some work environments, people are stressed and hating each other but outwardly they are polite, you feel down but you don’t know why. It’s because you are absorbing the thought prana. So it takes a lot in that situation to survive and keep your thoughts healthy. Hospitals are another area where the thought prana is very low, full of worry and disease—imagine the flow of thoughts in the hospital–if you visit someone there you come out drained. Bars and clubs are also areas with low thoughts and pranic debts. People go to bars and clubs to drink their sorrows away. When the thought environment is chaotic it also creates problems. When there is no distinct thought, like at an airport, train station, subway, or restaurant, at that time your thought world jumps around and becomes incoherent.

You have to learn how to acquire prana, to balance prana, to channel prana, and to conserve prana, these are the 4 things one must know in order to have a prana surplus. It is like money—if you use it properly you get more, if you use it improperly you get debts. So you have to invest your prana in the right place

Satsang with Swami Sitaramananda on Prana
Dec. 07 2006

Overcoming Distraction And Restlessness

by Swami Sitaramananda | Oct 19, 2013 | Uncategorized

Q. What do I do when my mind is distracted?

A. When the mind is distracted, it will bounce randomly from thought to thought and object to object. You will feel restless. Most of the time our minds are like this. The yogic advice in order to bring back focus and peace is to practice Yoga asanas but also to focus on a mantra when you will coach the thoughts to come back to the mantra from wherever they stray. As we repeat the mantra, we create a new groove for the mind, and as we repeat it, gradually the mind becomes strong and more focused. Through this singularity of focus, we build the muscles of the mind until it becomes strong and concentrated.

Q. How does it work?

A. Your mind will wander to some distraction, but then you bring it back to the mantra. When the thought goes out to an object in a restless manner, you will remember and pull your thoughts back to the mantra. Your mind will say, “Oh I see this object,” then you replace the thought with the mantra. Your mind may say “I like this object…Ooops, mantra!” ” I dislike that thing…Ooops! mantra.” In this way we use the mantra to replace the way of thinking that is causing us suffering. Eventually, after protracted repetition, the mantra becomes the “backdrop” of the mind.

Q.What happens with lengthened practice?

A. Your Self-awareness becomes heightened; there is a switch in consciousness. You have something that is very stable with you all the time, this is the mantra. It is in your company all of the time and will protect and save your mind. It will make you strong. Everything else that you see becomes like a movie projected on top of it. Through Japa Yoga (systematic repetition of a mantra) ,you begin to recognize internally Your Self as very consistent, beyond all thoughts. You become that eternal witness, the backdrop of the mind, the power behind all things, at one with God. Through Japa you keep the mind busy and concentrated on a positive, high vibration.

Q. This sounds good, I suppose I will understand it better if I really practice.

A. Yes, it takes practice to calm the mind and meditate when the thought and the background of the thought become one. Japa Yoga leads you to Meditation. Eventually the vibration of the mantra will transform everything you think about into itself. This means that when the backdrop of the mind is God, what you think about becomes God and the thinker also becomes God; the whole thing is transformed into God, the source of Peace and Happinness. This practice combines the practice of Bhakti Yoga (devotion), Karma Yoga (sefless service), mind control, concentration, meditation, everything.

Q. Can anybody do this?

A. Yes. However, it is better to be guided by a qualified meditation teacher.

Q. Will any mantra work?

A. You have to understand what is a mantra and what it is not. There are rules of repetition and principles behind the science of mantra repetition. Nowadays any word may be called a mantra and anybody might give you a mantra. But a mantra is actually a series of sacred sounds revealed by ancient sages and passed down carefully from Guru to disciple, to us today. The word mantra comes from two root words; man is to think andtrai is to free. It means to think of something that will free you. Normally what we think about binds us. Japa Yoga is a spiritual science so it is very important that you are prepared and approach it correctly. You need to be helped and initiated by a qualified teacher who belongs to a lineage or spiritual school or tradition.

Q. Can I pick it up from a book and repeat it?

A. There is no harm per se, but it is preferable that you do it properly with a qualified spiritual teacher who will help you with your understanding, devotion and faith; otherwise you might become more confused as you change your mind and your spontaneous practice doesn’t bear results.

Q. How long should I practice daily?

A. To begin to see the benefits of the practice of Japa (consciously repeating your mantra), you have to do it often and with strong concentration. The minimum goal after taking mantra initiation is a half an hour of repetition a day. You can split it up to 15 minutes in the morning and fifteen minutes in the evening. You can do a half an hour, or you can do it all day long.

Q. How do I take mantra initiation?

A. Sivananda tradition gives mantra initiation only after the student purifies him/herself through the combined methods of Yoga. Usually after training during the monthly immersion Yoga Teachers Training course, you are offered the opportunity for mantra initiation if you so wish.

Q. I would like to start now , what do I do?

A. You can repeat the universal mantra OM, which includes everything. Swami Vishnudevananda also promoted the mantra for World Peace : Om Namo Narayanaya. You can repeat verbally or mentally. Or you can write the mantra with single-minded application, (Likhita Japa) 2-3 pages daily in a clean notebook, and send the mantra sheets to the ashram Yoga Farm weekly to be offered to the temples during ceremonies. Thus you actively contribute to the community prayer for world peace and you yourself will become radiant with this vibration of Peace and Love.

For information about the TTC dates and enrollement, pls check www. sivanandavn2.wpengine.com

© Swami Sitaramananda 2014 No part of this article may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the author.

Yogic Guidelines For Good Conduct

by Swami Sitaramananda | Mar 20, 2013 | Uncategorized

Yogic Guidelines for Good Conduct

by Swami Sitaramananda

When we drive in the traffic, we expect everyone to follow the rules of traffic, driving on the proper side of the road and observing traffic signals. We would not think, “I am the special one that doesn’t have to follow rules, only others have to, not me.”

Separation causes suffering

Why then, do people so often disobey basic guidelines of good conduct? Our breaking of ethical laws and failure to follow guidelines of conduct comes from our idea that we are unique, and therefore free to do what we want.

This comes from not seeing the big picture of our identity and inter-relatedness to others. Although we are indeed unique in our self-expression and the lessons we will learn in this life, we all fundamentally share the same evolutionary journey.

The bottom line is that we are one Universal Spirit in myriad expressions. When we fail to understand and live by the truth of this “Unity in Diversity,” we continue treating our brothers and sisters as separate and inferior–or as superior–to us, and from that, many problems in human relationships ensue. You can read more about Making the World a Better Place with Yoga.

Teachings of Patanjali Maharishi

Thankfully, when these problems overwhelm us, the teachings of yoga are available for us to draw from and look to for guidance. Centuries ago, Patanjali Maharishi compiled the Raja Yoga Sutras and presented to the world the summary of the yogic guidelines of conduct that can help people to straighten out their minds and free themselves–instead of becoming more entangled by the bonds of karmas. For more on this you can read this article Understanding Karma with Swami Vishnudevananda.

What is the meaning of “straighten out the mind?” It means that the mind has its own favorite ways to distort our perceptions, its own repeated habits of thinking and reacting to situations–and this leads to the repetition of the same mistakes in seeing oneself and others.

Following these guidelines laid out by Patanjali will help us to correct our thinking, become more clear in our perceptions, and bring us closer to self realization. These are guidelines that if followed will improve our lives in the long term and help remove obstacles stemming from our karmic tendencies, character defects, and bad habits.

Yamas: Restraints (The Things Not To Do)

– Ahimsa: Ahimsa means non-violence in thought, word and deed. It means restraining oneself from the tendency to be angry when one’s desires are not met, or the tendency to abuse others and enter into conflicts or wars.
– Satya: Satya means truthfulness–refraining from the tendency to exaggerate, to manipulate others, or to tell lies in order to achieve an egoistic goal. Sincerity, honesty and straightforwardness will help to simplify and clear the mind, thus achieving inner peace.
– Brahmacharya: Brahmacharya is control of the sensual and sexual drive. Through practicing brahmacharya, we can restrain the tendency to seek sensual pleasures as the goal of life, and to waste our sexual energy–which can be converted into spiritual energy. This guideline advises us to avoid sexual misconduct and to regulate our impulses, question our motives, and help reduce the dramas in human interactions that tend to arise from uncontrolled sexual energy.
– Asteya: Asteya means non-stealing. Observing this guideline will counteract our tendency to give in to our desires, or think that satisfying material desires is the goal of life. It will help us to be content, knowing that what is supposed to come to us by our own karmas and merits will come naturally, without our manipulation or intervention.
– Aparigraha: Aparigraha means non-accumulation or non-acceptance of bribes. Observing this guideline counteracts our tendency to think that the more we attain or possess, the more we will be safe and secure. It further guides us not to forfeit our soul to the material life, and to cultivate an attitude of detachment towards material possessions. Leading a simple life allows the spirit to remain light and detached.

In order to practice these you can read about How to Avoid Unhealthy Habits.