Nithya Yoga – For The Body, Mind And Beyond

Patanjali, the father of the ancient science of yoga, says at the very start of the Patanjali Yoga Sutras, which is the foundational scripture of Yoga:

Yogaha chitta vritti nirodhaha

He says, 'Yoga is the cessation of the mind.' Understand, it doesn't mean that yoga ends with the cessation of mind, rather that yoga begins where the mind ends.

Actually, yoga never ends, it can only start. It is a continuous happening.

To understand how yoga is a continuous happening, we need to understand the important truth that whatever is happening is auspicious.

Be very clear, every experience raises your consciousness and makes you more mature. Even losing your wealth gives you some maturity. Losing your health gives you some understanding. When you are able Yoga begins where the mind ends.

to internalize this truth, you suddenly see life as a wonderful happening every moment.

A small story:

There was once a ship sailing in the ocean. Suddenly, the captain of the ship saw bright lights ahead and rushed back to warn that ship to move out of the way. He quickly announced, 'Please divert your course 15 degrees north to avoid a collision.'

A voice spoke back, 'We recommend that you divert your course 15 degrees south to avoid a collision.'

Now the captain of the ship got angry and replied in a proud and threatening way, 'This is the largest ship in the country. We are accompanied by three destroyers, defense equipment and many support ships. I demand that you change your course 15 degrees north or counter-measures will be undertaken to ensure the safety of this ship.'

The voice replied in a straight tone, 'We are a lighthouse!'

Understand, Existence is happening continuously and guiding you also so that whatever happens to you does so in the best possible way. Just fall in tune with it – that is the best course! Yoga is a path to fall in tune, just like tuning a radio to a

Yoga is not even
a goal, it is a continuous	higher frequency!
happening.	Most people

think yoga is

about physical postures – how to bend the body and move it.

The other day I read a joke:

A group of bats were hanging on the ceiling of a cave. They saw a single bat standing straight on the floor of the cave.

The bats were surprised and asked, 'What are you doing down there?'

The bat shouted back, 'Yoga!'

People think yoga is about twisting the body and working towards physical health or some goal. Please understand, yoga is not even a goal, it is a continuous happening.

The word 'yoga' literally means 'uniting'.

We have two lives in us. One is the life that we want to live, the dream. The other is the life in reality, the life we are living. The meeting of these two lives is what I call 'yoga'.

Now, how can these two lives, your dream and real life, unite?

You can unite the two either by reducing the depth of the dreams and fantasies or by increasing the expression of your energy so that reality can come closer to the dream.

If you reduce the depth of the fantasy, the dream plane and the reality plane will come closer together. On the other hand, if you increase the energy expressed through reality, the reality plane will come closer to the dream plane. The meeting and merging of these two planes is what I call yoga.

Continuously doing something, either to reduce the depth of the fantasy or to increase the energy that expresses in reality is yoga.

One important thing, when the two planes of dream and reality meet there is a spiritual explosion or what we call 'yoga' happens. But it does not end here, yoga just begins here!

Usually yoga is understood as mastering postures or achieving a particular state. Yoga is neither mastering postures nor achieving a particular state. It is awakening to the continuous happening around you and inside you.

The person who tries to raise what you call as 'real life' to his dream level is a materialist. He tries to achieve in his life what he dreams. But the problem is, his dream is not fixed, it is not static. As you work towards the dream, the goal is continuously changing. Your ideas are continuously changing, so the goal is continuously moving!

The person who tries to reduce the depth of his fantasies and brings the dream plane closer to the reality plane is like the renunciate who suppresses his desires and tries to realize the truth.

But an important fact is that neither suppression nor expression leads to the truth. Neither suppressing and renouncing nor expressing energy and following dreams works. It is a very subtle game. I can say this is where Buddha's teaching of the middle path comes to our help.

Yoga is realizing that you are a spiritual being having the human experience.

The middle path can be called the essence of the awakening or the essence of yoga. You are not pushed or pulled by the extremes of emotions, you simply witness them and follow the Middle Path.

Yoga is a state of being. When the mind ceases to exist, you reside in the state of yoga, the state of no-mind, the state of ultimate consciousness or enlightenment.

When the state of no-mind and pure consciousness is experienced, you undergo a complete psychological revolution related to the understanding and experience of the self (jeeva), the world (jagat) and god (ishwara). You realize through experience that these three entities are not separate but one whole. Both the world and god are experienced within you.

Yoga is realizing that you are not a human being striving for a spiritual experience, but you are a spiritual being having the human experience.

Patanjali is the founder of the yoga system. He was the first master who created a clear, scientific, logical system to reproduce the experience of enlightenment.

Until Patanjali, enlightenment was like winning a jackpot, or a lucky dip - you might have the experience or not! It was more like a gamble, you played but there was no guarantee of winning.

Patanjali was the first master, or I can say 'the spiritual navigator', who created the map and gave the complete directions to enlightenment. He created clear-cut directions, step by step formulas to reproduce the experience of enlightenment. Just as scientists create a formula to reproduce the understanding of the outer world phenomena, Patanjali created a beautiful formula, a technology, to reproduce the understanding of the inner world or enlightenment.

I had the great fortune to be around a living master of yoga, Yogiraj Yogananda Puri, also called Raghupati Yogi. He had mastered the whole science of yoga as discovered by Patanjali.

He had mastered all aspects of yoga - the physical aspect of bending the body into various postures called asana* or Hatha Yoga, working with prana or the life energy, working with the mind, working with visualization power, working with emotions and all the dimensions of yoga. He had a deep insight into the core truths of yoga.

Please understand, in the Yoga Sutras, only the verbal language of Patanjali is recorded. But the body language that he wanted to convey, was not recorded. The purpose for which he spoke and taught were not recorded.

Only the person who has experienced the consciousness of Patanjali can bring Patanjali back to life. I had the great fortune to be with such a master who had experienced that consciousness or the inner space of Patanjali.

Raghupati Yogi had amazing strength and unimaginable physical power that he expressed so casually. He would tie an iron rope around his chest and exhale completely, then he would inhale and the iron rope would break into pieces!

Asana - Physical posture and one of the eight paths of yoga in Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga. Asana must be stable and comfortable.

Usually, a logical mind cannot accept or understand that all this is possible, but this great yogi made everything possible. I had the good fortune to be around him and see him levitating, not once but at least twenty times. He would inhale deeply and hold the breath. The moment he did that, the body would lift from the ground like an inflated balloon!

From the age of three to thirteen, I had the fortune to be at his feet, under his guidance and care. Every day from morning until noon for at least four to five hours a day, he would make me do all the traditional yogic techniques like various asanas* , neti* and dhauti* where I would have to swallow a long cloth to clean the intestines and the internal system!

On some days, Raghupati Yogi would ask me to sit still and be very peaceful, to meditate on stillness, peace and tranquility. Then after ten minutes, he would suddenly tell me to stand up and run around the entire temple as fast as I could!

He would make me bend this way and that way. In the temple where he would teach me yoga, there were twenty to

For whatever purpose you move your body, that memory will become completely recorded in your body and mind.

thirty pillars. He would make me climb every stone pillar and come down. Also I had to use only one hand to climb the pillars and come down!

I would ask him why he was making me climb all the pillars, because I couldn't find any books or any sutras* saying climbing pillars was a part of yoga!

He said a beautiful thing, 'For whatever purpose you bend your body or move your body, that memory and idea will become completely inserted or completely recorded in your body and mind.'

It was a very shocking revelation! He said, with any intention that you move your body, bend your body, or make your body active, that intention, that purpose, will be recorded into your body, that samskara will start expressing in your body.

Asana - Physical posture and one of the eight paths of yoga in Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga.

Neti - Nasal cleansing technique of yoga.

Dhauti - A yogic practice of cleansing intestines.

Sutras - Spiritual techniques offered in epigram form.

Your body itself is made out of your memory.

Understand, he means that the

way in which you bend, in which you stand up, or the method by which you do asanas* , all these things are not too important. It is the intention that is important. If you have an intention to have health, and move your body in any way with that intention, health will simply happen to you!

Today, especially in the West, there has been too much connection of disease and asanas - for this disease, you have to do that asana, for this problem you have to do that technique.

A small story:

A young woman had a habit of biting her fingernails. She was getting worried about it and asked her friend for help. Her friend advised her to take up yoga to solve this problem.

The woman started yoga, and soon her fingernails were growing normally.

Her friend was very happy and said, 'See, I told you yoga would solve your problem of biting your nails!'

The woman slowly replied, 'Actually, no. It is just that now I am able to reach my toe-nails so I bite them instead!'

Understand, doing asanas for solving a disease is not the purpose of yoga! When you think of a disease and do yoga with that thought in your mind, you are actually pushing the imprint of the thought of that disease into your system!

Raghupati Yogi says that any asana practised, or any physical movement practised for some purpose with some intention, will create that effect in your body. He says that this is possible even with ordinary sitting. If you strongly believe that by sitting you will have health and you just sit for health, simply you will see health happening in you.

Understand, your body itself is made out of your memory. Your mind, what you think of as you, makes up the building blocks of your body.

In any way that you move the body with the faith that a particular thing will happen in you, it will simply start expressing in you. Every memory is recorded in your muscles. So when you change the memories, you can change your system also. Your system can and will respond to the memory you create.

This is how the transformation in the bodymind happens through Nithya Yoga. The inner space is cleansed first so that the

Asana - Physical posture and one of the eight paths of yoga in Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga. Asana must be stable and comfortable.

mind falls in tune. Then the body follows as the physical movement is done with the intention. The intention gets inserted into the very muscle memory and cellular intelligence.

'We are what our perceptions are. As are our perceptions, so become our actions. As are our actions, so becomes our destiny.' This is not a quote from the Upanishad, but from 'The Biology of Belief ', a recent book by a cellular biologist who has presented a new theory on how cells behave. We have all been taught that we behave the way our genes are designed. After his research, says the opposite - our genes are designed the way we behave!

There have been many recorded incidents of the ability of intention and visualization actually resulting in the intention becoming physical reality itself! For example, people have cured their own fatal diseases like cancer or overcome tremendous physical handicaps by pushing their limits and going beyond what they thought was their capacity. These things have happened through the power of intention which transforms basic cellular memory. Our genes are designed the way we behave!

This ancient truth is now being proven with the support of modern scientific findings. It has been found that whatever we think deeply and continuously has a profound effect on us physically, mentally and spiritually.

Until the age of thirteen, Raghupati Yogi prepared my body and mind to enter into and stay in the experience of enlightenment. Entering into the experience, having a glimpse of the nomind state, having that experience of satori and unclutching is actually not very difficult. But to remain in the experience and more importantly, to express that energy though your body, both your body and mind needs to be prepared.

Having a glimpse of enlightenment is not such a big thing; anybody can have it. But staying in that high energy space, in high consciousness and expressing and radiating

Nithya Yoga prepares your body to experience, stay in and radiate the inner bliss, the eternal bliss.

the tremendous energy of enlightenment requires preparation of the body

and mind.

The training I had with Raghupati Yogi prep-ared my body, inclu-ding my nerves, to hold the tremendous energy of enlightenment. An enlightened body holds tremendous energy. I can give an analogy, it is like trying to hold four elephants inside a small hut! It is like a nuclear reactor. Even the normal temperature of my body is one to two degrees higher than that of a normal person's.

Yoga thus prepared my body for holding the ultimate energy of enlightenment.

Nithya Yoga is my offering to the world. It is the science, the formula, that will give others the same experience of enlightenment which happened in me.

Nithya Yoga is a representation of yoga as expressed by Patanjali. It is expressing yoga according to Patanjali's body language or bio-energy and inner space. The purpose of Nithya Yoga is simple, to experience and express bliss. With Nithya Yoga, the capacity to experience bliss will just explode in your inner space. The capacity to radiate bliss will start happening in your body.

As of now, your system may not be prepared to stay in that enlightened space, to radiate that same experience continuously. Nithya Yoga prepares your body to experience and stay in and radiate the inner bliss, the eternal bliss.

Your mind is not capable of staying in bliss or excitement. Your system is not capable of staying in high excitement and intense energy. It is neither trained nor is it capable. Through Nithya Yoga, I am training seekers not only to experience the bliss, but also to stabilize the experience in them, and to radiate that experience continuously in their life.

The purpose of Nithya Yoga is to help people unclutch and experience eternal bliss. People may also find that physical healing results as a byproduct or sideeffect. But, be clear that yoga is for much more than physical health, which is just one benefit of yoga. The emotional benefits are also tremendous but these are also more like byproducts!

In the same way, meditation is not just for mental wellbeing. Mental wellbeing is just one side-effect happening through meditation. So we don't want to reduce yoga and meditation to a technique simply for physical and mental health. It is meant for a deeper purpose, to experience a totally different space of eternal bliss, nithyananda.

We are bringing the truth to life through Nithya Yoga in this new system, or I can say the oldest system! I can't say it is a new system, it is the oldest system! The way in which Patanjali expressed this science, this experience, we are also bringing the same thing to life through Nithya Yoga.

The goal of Nithya Yoga is making your whole life, every activity and every movement transformed into yoga, into bliss.

Nithya Yoga is conducted today worldwide. Every session of Nithya Yoga deepens the uniting of the body-mindspirit by bringing together all the eight limbs of Patanjali's Ashtanga yoga* , by including all the elements like asana, pranayama* , mudra* etc.

Nithya Yoga is not about adding more movements to your life. It is about adding more lifeto your movements.

If you are present, if you are aware, and if you are totally in the moment while doing anything, it isyoga – Nithya Yoga.

Ashtanga yoga - Eight limbs or paths of Patanjali's Yoga: yama (discipline), niyama (rules), asana (body postures), pranayama (breath control), pratyahara (withdrawal of senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (bliss).

Pranayama - Breath control, one of the eight limbs of the Ashtanga yoga of Patanjali.

Mudra - Signs formed with hands during yoga practices, especially meditation, to distribute and seal energy within the body.

LIVING ENLIGHTENMENT

• The eight-fold path of blissful living or Ananda Ashtanga

These are:

• 1. Blissful Laughter
• 2. Blissful Affirmation
• 3. Blissful Cleansing
• 4. Blissful Yoga
• 5. Blissful Meditation
• 6. Blissful Tools
• 7. Blissful Energy
• 8. Blissful Chant

Ananda Ashtanga

Ananda Ashtanga or Blissful Living is a simple eight-fold pathway to Living Enlightenment. These are simple techniques that take you into the experience directly without the need to understand and absorb.

Blissful Laughter

• Laughing meditation or Haasya Dhyana