Nithya Yoga - For the Body, Mind and Beyond🔗

Yoga* is not about physical fitness alone. It is also to help prepare the body for realizing the aim of uniting body, mind and spirit. Nithya Yoga is the technique designed in the body language of Patanjali for this uniting. In the same manner as we spoke about Nithya Dhyaan amongst meditations, Nithya Yoga is the yoga for the jet age.

Patanjali, the father of the ancient science of yoga, says at the very start of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, 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 this important truth: 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 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 fifteen degrees north to avoid a collision.' A voice spoke back, 'We recommend that you divert your course fifteen 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 fifteen 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 higher frequency! The word ‘yoga’ literally means ‘uniting’.

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.

Patanjali was the first master, or I can say the ‘spiritual navigator’, who created the map and gave 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, of 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 including 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.

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.

He 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!

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.

comfortable.

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 asanas¹, neti² and dhauti³ where I would have to swallow a long cloth to clean the intestines and the internal system!