Monday 21 August 2017

Do you know this Tantra Yoga Janamashtami ritual can bring you closer to your true love?


Originally Published in Daily Bhaskar




Janamashtmi’s relevance in Tantra Yoga:

My Tantra Yoga mentor, the Aghori Naga, was a fire-worshipper. He would spend his days in Homa (offering oblations to fire) and nights in Dhuni (transformation by being consumed by fire).
While he dedicated his entire sadhana to Homa & Dhuni, he would tell me that there are four nights in a year when the practices Homa and Dhuni are particularly worthwhile.
One of these four nights is- Moha Ratri, the eighth tithi (day) of the krishna paksha (days of receding moon) in the month of Shravana. In Dwapar Yuga, Krishna was on born Moha Ratri and since then this day is celebrated as Janamastami in popular culture. (It’s not a coincidence that Krishna was a Param Yogi. He was born in the planetary alignment to be one).

Moha Ratri, the night of love in Tantra Yoga:

There’s a story in Tantra Yoga lore-
Once upon a time, there was a star. The star was in love with a blue lotus, which grew in the Mansarovar pond of Kailash Parvat. Every night, the star would touch this lotus with its celestial light. The touch of love would make the blue-lotus bloom and they would spend the night in the luminous embrace of love.
One night, the star fell sick; the gravitational forces at its core became stronger than the momentum of fire burning inside it, thus restricting the flow of its light.
When the blue lotus heard of it from the moon, it offered itself as oblation to the internal fire of the star. That night, the star finally shone, it shone like a blue lotus. That night was Moha Ratri and since that day, on every Moha Ratri the star shines like a blue lotus.
This is the reason why in tantra yoga tradition, Moha Ratri is considered as phase of love. My tantra mentor would say that on this night, through simple rituals and oblations, a human body can be converted into a receptor of celestial light, which in turns transforms our being into living embodiment of love.
Therefore, born on this night Krishna is such an irresistible lover. Whether it was milkmaids or Vrindavan or Radha or Meera or the timeless poets and artistes they have fallen inexorably in love with Krishna.
So, on Moha Ratri tantrics observe homas and dhuni to become Krishnamaya, in order to become the irresistible lover like him.
However, before we can discuss the DIY Homa and Dhuni, it is essential to understand what it means to be a lover like Krishna.

Krishna’s love:

Krishna embodies love for all- Gopis or Gopalas, Devas or Asurs. He accepts all.
When hunched-back and hated by all Kubja came to him with a wish of turning into a beautiful maiden, Krishna didn’t give a lecture on body-image issues, but he granted that wish. When he rescued 16,100 maidens from Narakasur and married them to restore their honor, he made each of them feel like chosen one, like he loved them more than anyone else. When he stole the clothes of Gopis, he robbed them of their egos, enabling them to meet Krishna in their purest form. When he loved Radha, it was beyond social bonds, time and space.
Krishna’s love incorporates all the 12 Rasas (spiritual tastes) - passion, wonder, conjugal love, fun, chivalry, kindness, servitude, friendship, horror, shock, saintly and parent like.
This is what makes Krishna the Supreme Lover and this is wish of tantrics on the night of Moha Ratri, for which they practice Homa and Dhuni
.
Easy DIY Tantra Yoga ritual for Moharati:

If you want to experience love in its purest form- an immersion in spiritual, mental and physical union. Here’s a  simple ritual to follow. You don’t have to be a Yogi or a tantric follow this, it just requires pure heart. If you have a partner, you can practice with the partner or you can practice alone, either way, it potent enough to sort out your love life-

Step 1:
On Moharatri/Janamashtami sit in any meditative posture, close your eyes and visual Krishna as Supreme lover- a physical manifestation of the 12 Rasas- dearest friend, kind father, and passionate consort. Visualize him as an embodiment of all accepting physical, mental and spiritual love. Meditate upon this visualization.
If you find this visualization difficult, you can focus on a picture or idol of Krishna.

Step 2:
Light a ghee lamp. Place it at eye level. Stare at its flame, no blinking. If tears roll down your cheeks, it’s okay. They are soul cleansers. As you stare at the flame, perform a mental Homa. Offer all your mental afflictions to the flame- anger, rage, jealousy, hatred, ego, greed, desires. One by one disrobe yourself of all the afflictions you have accumulated. Finally, oblate all your karmas to the flame- negative and positive and transcend beyond all the karmas.

Step 3:
Close your eyes and rest in this state of purity, with your eyes closed, visualize the scared fire touching you with cosmic love, transforming you into an irresistible cosmic lover.

Step 4:
Gently open your eyes, come out of meditation, cup your palms, fill them with cold water, blink your eyes in the water.  
    


 Suggested Reading:

Monday 7 August 2017

General Guidelines For Practicing Yog Nidra

- Kirti Tarang Pande
Mandala Courtesy: Bhavana Agarawal, Instructor, Home Yogis' Home



1. Yog Nidra is usually practiced for 1 or 2 ghatika, i.e. 20 or 40 minutes.
2. Light and loose clothes should be worn for the practice.
3. There are separate Yog Nidra practices for – therapy, learning and for spiritual progress.
4. The practice rooms should be quiet, well ventilated, the temperature should be neither hot nor cold, and semi dark.
5. Television, music, mobile and other forms of distractions should be turned off before starting this practice.
6. Shavasana is the recommended posture for Yog Nidra. This minimizes touch sensations by eliminating contact between the limbs of the body. Fingertips are extremely sensitive organs of tactile sensations, therefore palms are turned upwards. In order to, eliminate the sight stimuli, eyes are kept shut.
7. During the meditation, the instructions should be followed with gentle awareness. Please do not concentrate or hold your breathe.
8. Staying awake is the most important aspect of Yog Nidra.
9. While focusing of sound, no sensory impressions are to be forcibly excluded. Thoughts should not be forcibly excluded. On application of force, just like a wild horse, mind too gets disturbed and restless. The best way out is- not to accept or reject any sensory impression or thought. If sensory impressions are coming, allow them to come, if thoughts are coming let them come, just don’t pay any attention to them. After sometime, mind loses interests in external world and automatically becomes quiet. This methid of calming the mind is called Antar Mouna. It prepares the consciousness to practice Yog Nidra.


Want to know more? Read...

1. Nyasa Tantra and Yog Nidra
2. What is Yog Nidra
3. How to stay awake during Yog Nidra?

On unrelated note, suggested reading:

1. Orgasm and Yoga



2. Yoga Kit for Surviving Heartbreak

How to stay awake during Yog Nidra?


- Kirti Tarang Pande
Official WebsiteInstagram, Twitter

Mandala Courtesy: Bhavana Agarawal, Instructor, Home Yogis' Home





At beginner’s level, it’s very common to fall asleep. That’s why at Home Yogis’ Home before initiating a practitioner into Yog Nidra, we start with ‘Antar Maun’ meditation. This prepares the mind of the practitioner how to rest in a relaxed awareness without falling asleep.

However, if you’re practicing ‘Antar Maun’ sincerely and regularly for some time and still struggling with staying awake, then I suggest that you try the following steps:

1. Take a cold shower before practice.
2. Instead of Shavasana, practice in a sitting posture with support to keep the spine straight.
3. Take a resolve before entering the practice- I will stay awake.

How to deal with falling asleep at beginner’s level?

With love, patience and acceptance.
Initially, while practicing Yog Nidra you will fall asleep. So don’t stress too much about. Just maintain this awareness that full benefits of Yog Nidra can only be experienced by staying awake. It is more powerful that way.
So, always enter the Yog Nidra with a resolve- “I will stay awake throughout the process”, eventually, this resolve with turn into reality.
However, till that happens, treat your mind and practice with love and patience. We are not training our mind, we are transforming it by becoming its friend and just hanging out with it.
If you are practicing it with a trained teacher, who have nothing to worry because a trained teacher knows- when you’re falling asleep and how to bring you back without pulling you out of deep relaxation.
If you’re practicing it with a recording, like the one on Home Yogis’ Home’s youtube channel, then a little effort is required from your side.
When you fall asleep while listening to it; let the recording play anyway. This will work at unconscious level. Then, replay the recording first thing in the morning after waking up, with direct attention. This will create a bridge between your unconscious and conscious mind.


In fact, Swami Satayananda Saraswati propounded this as a very effective learning method.

Want to know more? Read... 1. General guidelines for practicing Yog Nidra
2. What is Yog Nidra
3. Nyasa Tantra and Yog Nidra

On unrelated note, suggested reading:

1. Orgasm and Yoga

2. Yoga Kit for Surviving Heartbreak

Nyasa Tantra and Yog Nidra


- Kirti Tarang Pande
Official WebsiteInstagram, Twitter


Mandala Courtesy: Bhavana Agarawal, Home Yogis' Home




What is Nyasa Tantra?
Nyasa means to place and Tantra means technique, this makes Nyasa Tantra a technique of physically and/or mentally placing matrikas on the body parts of the sadhak.
Some tantrics view Nyasa Tantra as a practice of ‘divinizing the body’.

Yog Nidra and Nyasa Tantra

Until Swami Satyananada Saraswati popularized it, Yog Nidra remained as a lesser known practice of this tantric sect.
It used the powerful technique of Yog Nidra to rotate the consciousness in the body. Through this rotation, physical body is consecrated by higher awareness/divine consciousness. In short, this technique is used by tantrics to dissolve negative karmas and hence become ‘devata-maya’.
Swami Satyananda was the first yogi of modern times to pull Yog Nidra out of tantric rituals which were difficult to incorporate in the daily practice of a common man. Thus, making it relevant to our times.

The practice of Yog Nidra in Nyasa Tantra

In Nyasa Tantra a session of yoga sadhana is closed with Yog Nidra.
Yog Nidra is practiced in sitting posture. First the name of a body part is recited and then corresponding matrika is placed/touched/experienced upon that part.

Angushtadi-Shadanga-nyasa and Hridayi-Shadanga-nyasa is two common Yog Nidra practices amongst modern tantrics of Nyasa sect.

Want to know more? Read...1. General guidelines for practicing Yog Nidra
2. What is Yog Nidra
3. How to stay awake during Yog Nidra?

On unrelated note, suggested reading:

1. Orgasm and Yoga


2. Yoga Kit for Surviving Heartbreak

What is Yog Nidra?


- Kirti Tarang Pande
Official WebsiteInstagram, Twitter

Mandala Courtesy: Bhavana Agarawal, Instructor, Home Yogis' Home



Yog Nidra (yogic sleep) is a state between sleeping, dreaming and wakefulness.
 At the beginner’s level, Yog Nidra is a state of dynamic sleep. As we go deeper into practice we realize that it’s an experience far beyond all this.
It is a psychic sleep, a state of deep relaxation with inner awareness. It is a spontaneous point of contact with the subconscious and unconscious dimensions.

Where it came from?

The first available reference to Yog Nidra is found in ancient Hindu text- Mandukya Upnishad, written in late 5th century BCE.
While discussing the four stages of consciousness with respect to the scared utterance of Om (AUM), Mandukya Upnishad talks about Yog Nidra as-
An awareness of consciousness in a deep-sleep state leading to the unraveling of Prajna(highest and purest form of wisdom).
In Raja Yoga, rishi Patanjali refers to Yog Nidra as an aspect of Pratyahar, which leads to higher states of dharna (concentration) and Samadhi. He calls it a state where the mind and mental awareness are dissociated from the sensory channels.

The method:

Yog Nidra, the practitioner is guided by the Guru to turn inwards, away from the outer experiences. The entire process is an attempt to separate the consciousness from external awareness and from sleep. This sieved consciousness is used as a mind transformation tool.

Practice of Yog Nidra

These days Yog Nidra is most commonly used as guided relaxation technique, as a learning tool and as a therapy for insomnia, post traumatic stress disorder and other psychosomatic conditions.
However, traditionally, Yog Nidra is a practice of Mantra Yoga and Nyasa Yoga wings of Yoga.
In Mantra Yoga, Yog Nidra is practiced with the chant of AUM or SOHAM, to invoke the presence of a deity, in the body of a practitioner. This visualization meditation is performed before pooja.
While in Nyasa Tantra, Yog Nidra is performed at the end of the practice as a meditative technique to harmonize the deeper unconscious and awaken the inner potential.

Home Yogis’ Home and Yog Nidra

We infuse the essence of both Nyasa Tantra and Mantra Yoga in the practice of Yog Nidra. For the ease of practice, we have extracted the ritualistic practices of Nyasa Tantra from Yog Nidra. In all this, our attempt is to keep the practice as close to its original source Mandukya Upnishad as possible, while making it adaptable for our modern minds.
Therefore, we teach this powerful technique as a bedtime practice.

Caution:

While we always underline that learning to relax consciously is the step 1 in the practice of Yog Nidra, sleep isn’t regarded as relaxation. In fact, from a yogic point of view, sleep is nothing more than a sensory diversion. Therefore, the biggest challenge of our modern minds in the practice of Yoga Nidra is- to maintain a relaxed awareness and not fall asleep.

What’s the solution?  
            
Go step by step. At Home Yogis’ Home, we approach Yog Nidra through following stages and until a practitioner is comfortable with a stage we do not jump to the next one:
Stage 1:
Initiation into ‘Antar Maun’ meditation, to familiarize the practitioners with the process of resting in a relaxed awareness.
Stage 2:
Preparing the mind through a special ‘preparatory meditation’.
Stage 3:
We touch the surface of Yoga Nidra through four-point Pratyahar.
Stage 4:
Initiation into Yog Nidra.




Wednesday 2 August 2017

Orgasm and Yoga




Originally Published in Daily Bhaskar

First things first, yogis are not bores. I know ‘Brahmacharya’ is an important Niyam of Yoga, but it doesn’t mean celibacy. Celibacy is a one of the methods of Brahmacharya, and so is orgasm! I know it sounds confusing, to dispel it, we must understand what ‘Brahmacharya’ really means.

Meaning of Brahmacharya:
The word Bharmacharya is made of two Sanskrit dhatus- Brahman meaning the higher/universal consciousness and charya meaning conduct/behavior/practice.
Therefore, in its unadulterated and Vedantic sense, Brahmacharya means- To behave/act like higher consciousness. Like Rumi says, “Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.”
That’s the reason why “Aham Brahmasmi” (I am that universal consciousness) is one the primary Mantras given to students of Mantra Yoga.
Now the question arises- how do celibacy and orgasm fit into this picture? To answer this, we need to know- how to act like Brahman?

How to act like Brahman?
In simplest terms, to act like higher consciousness means, having no interest in the pleasures of the materialistic world for personal good.
Hence, celibacy, which means, restraining from sensual pleasures, by definition, is the easiest, simplest and safest way to do it. Moreover, one needs no partner or instructor for this practice.
Unlike sex, in order to use sex as an instrument of spirituality, one requires a lover and a teacher with right motivation. This is rare and even after having the right teacher; it’s a risqué and slippery road.
It’s time we discuss this in details:

Orgasm and Yoga:
Yoga is defined as ‘yujyate anena iti yogah’, one that unites is yoga. The union that we are talking about is of Atman- the inner self & the Brahman. (Now you can gauge the importance of the role Brahmacharya plays in Yoga).
Moving on, the Sanskrit word for orgasm is Brahmanadasahodra (as mentioned in Rasavada, propounded by Bharat Muni, 3rd century BCE). Brahmandasahodra literally means, twin brother of the bliss of knowing Brahman.
This implies, through orgasm one can understand the bliss of knowing the Brahman. Once we have understood Brahman in a blissful fashion, it’s easy to act like it. Given that bliss is a powerful motivation, contrasting it with celibacy (only practitioners of higher yoga find bliss in celibacy).
When we start acting like Brahman, it’s easy to unite with it, which is the goal of Yoga (as discussed above).
When we look at things this way, the orgasmic path of yoga seems pretty alluring and simple. Then why did I caution you earlier, calling it risqué?

Why is orgasmic path of yoga risky?
Orgasm is the twin brother of the bliss of knowing Brahman. This implies that it’s the closest thing that we have got, but it’s not the real thing.
However, the pleasure of this bliss of yogic method of orgasm is so immense that it becomes hard for us to even imagine that something could be more pleasurable & blissful than this.
How can we desire something that we can’t even imagine? If we don’t desire something, we won’t act to get it. If we won’t act like Brahman, we won’t be united with Brahman (as per Patanjali Yogsutram).
In short, upon experiencing the orgasm through yogic method, it’s rare that a practitioner can remember that this experience is an instrument to achieve the real thing. It’s not the real thing.
Thus, the growth of the practitioner in yogic path stops. The practitioner comes close to realizing the goal of Yoga but fails to realize it. Tragic isn’t it?

Then what to do?
Find out what’s your goal. Not everyone desires to unite with Brahman, for some the twin brother is good enough. If you’re one of the latter, then go ahead with it- find a genuine teacher, with right motivation and practice with caution, questions and love.

By the way:
Key features of orgasm attained through yogic method:
(According to Rasvada of Bharat Muni)
1. Everything dissolves in immensely blissful state of rasa- anandaikaghana (union with bliss).
2. The experience is ‘aloukika’ (transcendental).
3. The subject-object duality ceases to exist (advaita).
4. One stops identifying with the Atman (individual self).
5. A special preparation of body and mind is required to practice this.
6. It is not the ultimate goal, but a powerful instrument to attain the ultimate goal.