CHAPTER 6 - STRUCTURE OF A NITHYA YOGA CLASS🔗

Nithya Yoga follows a particular class structure, seamlessly leading the participant into the experience of deep restful awareness, an inner vibrant stillness and bliss at the physical, mental and Being level. Nithya Yoga aims at creating a space to experience the ultimate reality, rather than giving undue importance to any of the individual components of the class.

Nithya Yoga classes flow in the following manner

Centering is all about coming to the moment. It can be achieved through a prayer, watching the breath, through body awareness, or listening to a sound (bell, light music). The intention is to open a space for each individual to be able to LISTEN and explore his or her own boundaries, to relax from all worries, stresses and "day dreams", and come to this moment. Only then we enter the space of Yoga.

Everything that follows in Nithya Yoga class - asanas, breathing, chanting, everything, is simply to bring us back to our center, to be present and conscious of this moment. Let the mind be where the body is.

Centering will generally be in a sitting position, in sukhasana, simple cross-legged posture. If necessary, your student may sit on a chair, or any other posture that makes them feel at ease.

Mantra Chant

Note: The meaning of this mantra will be explained in detail in the section on mantras.

The intention is a vital aspect of Nithya Yoga practice. Without intention, Nithya Yoga would be just like an ordinary exercise session. The Vedic tradition names this intention ‘sankalpa’. Sankalpa is a conscious resolution, aligning one's thoughts and desires with one’s actions, with one’s Being.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda recalls his teacher, Raghupathi Yogi’s words. ‘It is not how you move your body but with what purpose you move your body. That purpose, that intention will become part of your muscle memory.’

Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, ‘Our body itself is made out of memory. Our muscles store memory.

Whether we believe it or not, accept it or not, we are an expression of our own self-hypnosis. If you move the body in any way with a faith that this or that will happen in you, simply it will start expressing in you. If you observe closely, so many physical movements are happening inside your body even when you sit. Therefore, during ordinary sitting, if you strongly believe that just by sitting you will have health, and you just sit for health, simply that health will happen in you.’

Just as it is important to realize that intention is the key, how we create that intention is just as important. To bring your body and mind into the right state of energy expansion you need to prepare your mind for creating the intention.

A Nithya Yoga class always begins with centering, an opportunity to create pratyahara (withdrawal of senses) and dharana (focusing) by focusing on the breath. From this place of inner listening, create your intention or just let it unfold from your Divine energy field. Let your intention vibrate in every cell in your body, let you carry this space with you.

Let the intention come from our heart centre rather than from our intellect. Intellectually willing an intention to come forth, usually comes from that place of lack, the need for something you do not yet have. Let it come from the space of remembering you already are what you desire. For example, ‘I am compassion’ instead of ‘I want to be more kind to others’, or ‘I move with ease and grace’ instead of ‘I want to be more flexible without pain’.

Rather than verbalization, visualization is a powerful tool to manifest your intention. Visualize as vividly as you can using all the senses, feeling and awareness. Have a complete and clear mental picture in 3D like you are living it. It is a powerful conscious process that can lead you directly to the experience.

When you visualize your intention, you are sending highly focused vibrations to your whole body and brain. You have the power to change the neural pathways with a focused intention. Your body will align with this visualization.

Remember your intention again from an expansive state, when the mind and body are in the space of vibrant silence from intensely doing Patanjali Dhyaan.

After the centering prayer, sit up for the warm-up sequence. Selected asanas are done in the warm up sequence. During the warm-up sequence, the Nithya Yoga teacher may guide the students into Brain Yoga exercises, in order to activate both hemispheres of the brain.

Also, the practice of simhasana, the lion roar can be introduced at this point. (see asana portion below). Both simhasana and brain yoga exercises bring joy and laughter into the class, and create the space for higher awareness and listening.

Patanjali Dhyaan is an intense process to awaken your bio-energy and release all the tension and patterns recorded in your muscle-memory. It is a perfect way to move from a chaotic mind to deep restful awareness.

The body has its own habits, its own way of standing, sitting, walking, breathing. This is nothing but patterns and muscle memories we have developed over our life. Unless we dissolve these patterns and muscle memories, we will not be open and receptive to receiving new things. Patanjali Dhyaan is a process to let go of patterns and muscle memories as well as wake up to the body’s energy.

At the mental level, Dhyaan done with full intensity, being completely present in the body, automatically takes you to the silence of the inner space. The mind is chaotic by nature, so we often need a dynamic method to allow the mind to relax. This is exactly what Patanjali Dhyaan does - literally shaking off the thoughts and daydreams, bringing you back to the physical reality of the moment.

Spiritually, Patanjali Dhyaan is a process to awaken the kundalini energy. It activates the energy centers along the spine and the energy in every cell of the body, enhancing your awareness of your inner energies and inner space. When done with full intensity, one experiences the expansive state of pure awareness.

Instructions

• Visualize being totally fluid and soft, without bone structure. Stand up and start moving the entire body energetically and chaotically, as if each limb was an independent entity. Let every cell of the body vibrate intensely to the rhythm of the music (drums soundtrack named Patanjali Dhyaan or any other intense drum rhythm).

• When the music stops after 3 to 6 min, freeze the body. Stop all movements and close the eyes. You can turn the palms forward in a receiving attitude. Simply witness what is happening in the body.

• Become intensely aware of the sensations of movement and energy inside your body: the heat, tingling, vibrations, pressure etc.

• Be aware of the whole body, from the tip of the toes to the fingers, and the crown of the head. Feel the whole body inhaling and exhaling through those 21 points. Feel yourself expanding with the breath. Breathe in pure blissful energy, and exhale bliss.

• Without verbalizing, visualize your intention intensely with every cell of the body.

This is the part of the class that most people refer to when they talk or hear about "yoga". Vinyasa is the intelligent sequencing of body movements, asanas or postures, and breath. It is moving, expanding and sculpting your body while flowing from one posture to the next along with the breath. This process harmonizes and balances the mind and body. The vinyasas through the right sequencing of asanas align you to experiencing strongly the highest level of restful awareness, besides building a strong, resilient and powerful body. You find yourself exploring your possibilities and expanding beyond what you thought possible for you.

In Nithya Yoga, we have both: the science of preparing and sculpting the body and the living Avatar, Paramahamsa Nithyananda, who has the key to take us to higher planes of consciousness.

Savasana (translated in English as corpse pose) is traditionally always practiced for at least 5 – 10 minutes at the conclusion of any Yogic practice. Savasana is a restorative pose and allows the body to process and understand the information it has received throughout the Yoga practice.

It is commonly brushed off by some as being just a rest or a chance to have a short nap. Truth be told, savasana is essentially the most important aspect of the entire practice. This is where the body receives the class at all levels: physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. The body can relax, rejuvenate and heal.

If savasana is practiced in totality, it can leave the practitioner energized for hours after class. When done with this kind of intense awareness, the 'dead pose' is nothing dead, but is an opportunity for complete rejuvenation. That is why in the practice of Nithya Yoga, we call this posture 'shivasana', where you connect with the energy of Shiva, rejuvenation.

In this modern age, many practitioners rush through savasana. Most people find it really hard to lie still for 5-10 minutes and most lie in savasana and start thinking about where they have to rush to next after class. In Nithya Yoga, shivasana should be practiced with the same, if not more, integrity than all other postures.

Your practice is like laying cement foundations. If you step in the cement too soon after it is laid, you might ruin the job. In the same way, allow your practice to set.

Shivasana is the perfect chance to allow the body to do what it does best; heal itself. We should lie still and relax, allowing the body to renew and rejuvenate itself.

Our body is a temple; a temple in which our spirit, our Being, resides. We rarely spend any time appreciating and giving gratitude for our body. Most people these days are convinced through conditioning and the media that their body is not good enough. We forget that each of us is unique and have been crafted by God in a unique way. We should remember that God is an artist and not an engineer. If God were an engineer, he would have just created one mould, a production line, and manufactured us. Existence has created us all differently. As soon as we start to give gratitude to the body we have been given, we start to radiate a whole new energy: the energy of grace. Grace is not like ordinary beauty. Grace is a whole body language. When one is completely accepting of the body for what it is, he simply radiates this grace and appears to be the most beautiful person although he might not be physically beautiful.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, ‘All of our skin diseases take root from hatred of our own bodies.’

A lady with a severe case of psoriasis, a chronic and often incurable skin disease, came to Paramahamsa for healing. During the healing, she confided that she had suffered trauma in her childhood that left her with self-hatred as well as self-guilt. Paramahamsa Nithyananda told her to practice a specific body gratitude meditation for 21 days. The meditation technique involved waking up each morning and touching each and every part of her body with deep love and gratitude. The woman exploded crying: ‘How do expect me to love myself the way I am?’ Paramahamsa said: ‘You have lived in misery for twenty years. Try this just for twenty one days.’

In just fifteen days, the lady was rid of her ailment forever! Most of the aches and pains, the skin problems, the hang-ups we experience are just because we don’t give the body any attention or appreciation. It is just crying out to be remembered.

In a Nithya Yoga class, we practice shivasana at the conclusion. We go one step further by asking the practitioner, while lying in shivasana to lovingly remember each and every part of the body with deep awareness and gratitude.

After the steady state is achieved through asana and vinyasa, you can now experience the space of expansion of your life energy while breathing without thoughts. Pranayama practice comes after asana

After pranayama practice, sit in the space of silence. Create a space of listening. Sitting in the space of listening in the master’s presence is called Upanishad in the Vedic tradition. The Ultimate alchemy and communion happens during Upanishad.

The first mantra of the first upanishad is:

Om

Out of completion, experiencing the whole Out of completion, realizing you are the whole This is enlightenment

When you feel you are the whole You experience the wholeness of the Cosmos If you feel wholeness You will radiate Holiness