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SARALA YOGA SADHANA (SYS) by Koosraj KORA VENCIAH
This is a simple yoga system (SYS) involving total energy recharge (TER) that was
shared with friends of Chemin Grenier in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It consists of
some basic stretch movements to be executed without much strain in order to
dynamise and recharge the physical energy followed by vital and mental energy
recharging.
Hereunder are some of the basic PHYSICAL stretching movements practiced during
the sessions.
Exhaling deeply Inhaling deeply while Exhaling deeply while
rising /moving backward bending forward
Inhaling deeply/retaining breath Exhaling deeply while bending Inhaling deeply
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Inhaling deeply/retaining breath Exhaling deeply while bending Inhaling deeply
Inhaling Exhaling Inhaling Exhaling
Stretching arms Fingertips on Stretching arms
Deeply horizontally the shoulders while side-bending
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….
Inhaling deeply while Exhaling deeply while Relax both arms
bringing hands on shoulders bending sideways. breathing normally
Then, some minutes of forceful rapid successive lower belly (navel only) exhalations
were executed by members in seated position (on chair or on ground) with a view to
dynamising and recharging the VITAL energy (Kapalabhati).
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When the physical and vital energies got well charged, participants were instructed
about dynamising and charging the MENTAL energy. This is done through several
rounds of clockwise rotations of the widely opened eyes followed by several rounds of
anticlockwise EYE-ROTATIONS. The charged mental energy will naturally seek its
resting place which is the THIRD EYE at the brow centre.
This was followed by fixing the gaze at the third eye locus where the flow of attention,
of consciousness and of breath are connected and put to rest through an activation of
the third eye. Some participants, having some problem with spontaneous activation of
the third eye, were instructed to press the third eye location with the tip of their
forefinger held by the thumb (a MUDRA: as if holding a pin between the tip of the
forefinger and thumb of the right hand-see picture below) while inhaling slowly but
deeply. The tip of the forefinger should press in the middle of the brow centre while
the tip of the thumb should be pressing just below it.
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A series of DEEP LOWER BELLY LONG BREATHS (inhalations followed by
exhalations through both nostrils) was then undertaken while focusing all recharged
energy on the third eye. The chest should not rise during inhalation nor collapse during
exhalation. Only the navel area should bulge out during inhalation and be drawn
within during exhalation.
After completing the deep lower belly breath counts, participants were asked to effect
a BALANCING of their combined energies through DEEP ALTERNATE NOSTRIL
BREATHING (anulom-vilom kriya).
This was done (see above picture) by closing the right nostril with the thumb and
inhaling deeply through the left; then closing the left nostril with the two last fingers,
one should exhale deeply through the right nostril and inhale deeply through the same
right nostril. This is one cycle of even or balanced breath. Then, closing the right
nostril with the thumb, one should exhale deeply through the left and inhale deeply
through the same right nostril. Then, one should close the left nostril and breath out
and in through the right nostril, etc.
The basic principles involved here are:
(a) one should start with inhaling through the left nostril (cooling the mind) and
(b) exhalation through one nostril should be followed by inhalation through the same
nostril (disconnecting from bodily sensations and impulses).
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After some cycles of balanced breathing, participants were asked to LET GO of their
breath and remain ATTENTIVE AND RELAXED at the third eye centre. As the
breath resumed silently and peacefully, participants were advised to just be attentive
and relax in the PRESENT MOMENT OF EXPERIENCING without any
visualization, imagination, judgment or verbalization of whatever is being
experienced.
Participants were advised to remain in that RELAXED, ATTENTIVE AND
PEACEFUL EXPERIENCING for as long as possible without explaining anything,
without seeking anything, without expecting anything. Just being OPEN,
RECEPTIVE & SENSITIVE TO THE PRESENT MOMENT OF LIVING AND
NON-DOING. Those who wished to adopt the corpse posture were encouraged to do
so in order to deepen their relaxation so that a deeper inner layer RECOVERY and
HEALING could be allowed to operate.
HEAL YOURSELF BY MAKING YOURSELF WHOLE & WHOLESOME.
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BHAGAVAD GITA ON YOGA
WHAT IS YOGA?
Bhagavad Gita: 2.48. Established/engaged in yoga, perform all actions and duties
without attachment or identification (without doership), O Arjuna, being unperturbed
in success and failure. This unperturbed evenness of vision and humour (BALANCE)
is defined as YOGA.
2.50. One endowed with this balanced awareness instantly goes beyond the effects of
good and bad actions and reactions. Therefore engage yourself in life for the sake of
yoga. YOGA is the sublime art of enlightened action (without doership).
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2.53. When your intelligence, fed up with the various scriptural doctrines and their
interpretations, settles in steady and unwavering evenness of consciousness (direct
non-dual experiencing), then you will attain YOGA.
4.41. O Arjuna! Accomplishment of actions does not bind one who has abandoned the
sense of doership through YOGA, whose confusions and doubts have been dispelled
by self-realised knowledge, and who is poised in oneself (whole or healed).
6.23. Know the severance of connection with miseries or the disconnection with the
root of misery/suffering (ego) as what is designated as YOGA. This YOGA of
disconnection (healing) has to be undertaken with a relentless conscious mind.
Note: Patanjali Yoga Sutra defines YOGA as “yogash chitta-vritti nirodhah”- YOGA
is the non-perturbed observing or overviewing (nirodhah: non interference) of the
waves/ fluctuations (vritti) of memory-based mental materials (chitta).
BHAGAVAD GITA ON MEDITATION & MEDITATIVE STATE
MEDITATION & MEDITATIVE STATE
Bhagavad Gita, 2.66. The inattentive (preoccupied, contracted, distracted) mind
cannot have direct understanding. It also cannot have connection with direct,
immediate experiencing flowing in awareness, that is, no meditation. For the mind
unconnected to the flow of immediate experiencing (actuality) or for the unmeditative
mind, there is also no real peace. How can there be happiness for the restless mind?
5.27-28. Allowing external sensations to occur outside, allowing the vision to find
rest in between the eyebrows, allowing the incoming and outgoing breath moving
through the nostrils to flow evenly, allowing the senses, mind and intellect to rest (in
the herenow awareness) without moving away (from actual experiencing) through
triggering of thoughts and emotions of desires, anger and fear, and with the destruction
of illusion (of doership, experiencership) clearly established- one, so established in
silent contemplation, enjoys a lasting sense of liberation.
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MEDITATION TECHNICALITIES
6.11-12. In a clean place, neither too high nor too low, a seat for oneself is to be made
with grass covered by skin and cloth (or as per convenience). Steadily seated on it, the
yogi should be meditatively attuned to pure undifferentiated awareness, with the
movements of imagination and bodily sensations (consciousness) completely relaxed
and with the mind’s attention being one with the forward-moving moment(of actual
experiencing).
6.13-14. Maintaining body, head and neck along a straight line and motionless,
maintaining the vision at the root of the nose without looking around (third eye: so
rotate the eyes clockwise and anticlockwise for a while and let it rest naturally
between the eyebrows), fearless, serene, silent in mind, established in gathering the
scattered energy of attention, let him settle in the awareness of ‘I AM’ as his highest
being.
6.15. With the mind having withdrawn from conscious activity and always attuned to
the self-effulgent awareness of being, the yogi rests in peace, which is supreme
emptiness of all contents of consciousness and establishment in pure “I AM” or Being.
6.18. When the attention of the relaxed/surrendered consciousness remains established
in and as Pure Being alone, when it is free from longing for all objects of self-centred
pleasure- this state is said to be spiritual attunement or communion.
6.24-25. Letting-go completely of all the imagination-born longings, gathering
energies scattered all around by sensory and mental activities, steadily resting the
attentive mind on Being through the silent intellect, one relaxes (into Being) little by
little by not getting involved in thinking of anything at all.
6.26. From whatsoever direction or object, the wavering and inattentive mind wanders
away from actual experiencing, it is to be observed, recalled and put to rest in Being or
Presence alone.
MEDITATIVE STATE & YOGA
6.20. That state in which the movements of consciousness come to rest through
resorting to yoga (of attunement), in which the seeing of the Self-existent Light
through undivided attention provides spiritual joy…
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6.21. ...in which the yogi experiences a transcendent bliss, beyond the grasp of the
sensory instruments of experience but intuitively reflected by the silent intellect,
established in which, one does not move away from the underlying truth…
6.22. ...which having realised, no other gain or attainment is considered as superior
and remaining in which one is not afflicted by the greatest of sorrows/stress…
6.23. ...know this disconnecting from the relationship to sorrow as what has been
described as yoga. It has to be approached with earnestness and without depression of
spirits (joyfully).
6.27. Transcendental joy wells up in a yogi, whose mind is poised, whose impulses are
at rest, whose intellect is free from false notions (intellectual impurities) and whose
heart is united with the Non-dual Undifferentiated Awareness (Brahma-bhutam).
6.28. Thus, ever involved in attentive awareness and attunement and free from the
impure notions (of becoming, gaining, etc), the yogi enjoys the intense bliss or joy of
union with non-dual Being.
6.29. One having spiritual insight through yoga, when established in undifferentiated
awareness, sees the One Being underlying all particular entities and all particular
entities as resting in the One Being.
MEDITATION AT TIME OF DEATH (BASED ON PRACTICE)
8.9-10. The person who, endowed with enlightened devotion, contemplates, at the
time of death with an unwavering attention, having through the developed power of
yoga settled his life force/breath in between the eyebrows, on the inner Being, which
is ever-knowing, original, subtler than the smallest particle, sustaining and directing
everything, self-effulgent like the sun beyond the darkness of unconsciousness
/ignorance- that person merges into the Supreme Enlightening Being.
8.12-13. Withdrawing mental attention from the sensory outlets, settling the attentive
mind into the heart, gathering one’s life-breath/ vital energy into the head, established
in yogic absorption, intoning the monosyllable Om, denoting Brahman (Transcendent
Being) while recognizing It as the ‘I AM’. Thus, departing from this body, one reaches
the Highest Destination.
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SIGNIFICANCE OF MEDITATION & LIMITATION
6.46. A yogi involved in spiritual attunement or meditation is better than those
involved in austerity or penance, those involved in the accumulation and mastery of
knowledge as well as those involved in rituals and ceremonies. Therefore, be a yogi, O
Arjuna!
12.12. Seeking knowledge for understanding is superior to practices and rites.
Meditation is better than accumulation of knowledge. Even better than meditation is
the ability to abandon attachment to the fruits of actions done with the egoic sense of
doership. Immediately after relinquishing the sense of doership, peace ensues.
These verses from the Bhagavad Gita are shared with those who are interested in good
deeper and further into the journey of total healing or wholeness or holiness. The Gita
contains very clear-cut and precise instruction regarding meditation practice that
results in total healing and liberation from the root of sufferings.
Koosraj KORA VENCIAH, [email protected], Mauritius
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