TV Channel

Part 1: The Practice of Yoga in Daily Life: A Practical Guide Hari Om and hello to everybody. It is nice to be with you again this morning. You had a nice program with Mahāmaṇḍaleśvar Swāmī Jasrāj Purījī. You practiced āsanas very scientifically, and by profession, he is also a physiotherapist, so he has more knowledge about the anatomy of the body. That is very good. I think now you are all relaxed. The meditation was also very good. I would like to give some practical instructions this morning. First of all, practicing every day is very important. Like every day you wash yourself, every day you eat, every day you drink, every day you sleep. If you do not sleep one day, you are tired for two days. And every few seconds you breathe in and out. The name "yoga in daily life" has been thought of for a long time: how should we represent this, and what does it mean to practice yoga every day, systematically? Some people think, "In the morning, I will do my prayers and meditation; at noon, I will do my prāṇāyāmas; and in the evening, I will do my āsanas." Then it is like this: in the morning you will eat salad, at noon you will eat your bread, in the evening you will eat your soup, and at midnight you will eat your butter and bread. I will eat my soup without salt, but I have no time to put salt in, so after two hours I will swallow a little salt. That is like that. So, also, you cannot say that I jump in my car and the car should run. You sit in your car, you adjust your seat, you adjust your mirrors, you take your key, you check the gear, you start the car, then you see the side mirrors—left, right, behind—you park your car out and then you drive slowly and let it go. Not like a bird, you sit and you fly. So, if we would like to get the real benefit of yoga, then it is like this. First, you come to your yoga room, your yoga practicing place, in your yoga centers, wherever you are, and you should have your own yoga āsana. Āsana means your yoga mat. This is my āsana, this is Jasrāj’s āsana, that is your āsana, where you are sitting. If you pay more attention towards your spiritual development, a positive development, then it is advised to have your own mat, a yoga mat, and you should always take it with you. At home, everywhere, it is yours. These are all yoga mats here, which are provided by your ashram for yoga and daily life. Then, when you come, bring a big towel or even linen, like a bed sheet, and put it on your mat. When you practice, you sit, then from your body certain energy is flowing, like electricity, like aura, like radiance, waves. And this is, how do you call it, it is charged in your āsana. You take it home with you, your big towel. Otherwise, you sit on this mat. Many people sit on this with socks, without socks, and sometimes it is like this: some people do not wash their socks for a few days, and we tell them to please come. In the yoga room without socks, that is worse. Because when they take their socks off and just relax, and somebody is relaxing behind you there also, then the soles of their feet smell like spoiled cheese or something. This is a fact some people have. Now, many people have a body smell which is not so pleasant to others. And this is today’s subject: how to improve our body’s smell into fine, good smells. Of course, you have some spray for the armpit and for the neck, and like this. So, this is the first thing: you take care of your own sitting āsana. It can be a very thin cloth. You fold it, put it in your bag, and come. You spread it on your mat, and you practice. You have your own energy, your own spirituality, and everything you do is preserved in that cloth. Also, nobody should sit on that, nobody should step on that. So it means you should respect others’ seats. Do not over cross, do not put your foot on it, and like this, respect there. It is like when someone is eating and has a plate, but they eat the plate and cross over, which is also not good. Or someone is eating, and you come and sit opposite and put your legs on the table, and one has an eating plate there. Maybe, okay, it is your child, you will say, okay, it is my child, but generally it is not done. Place your mat and mentally imagine, prepare yourself. I am going to do something for my individual being, for the world, to be a good person for my physical, mental, intellectual, spiritual, and social benefit. And now I come, and if you believe in God or Gurudev, then you pray to be blessed with the science of yoga. Every movement in yoga, in yoga and in life, is like a cosmic dance. It is a mudra. Mudra means indication, to indicate. We have one exercise in yoga and in life, moving the shoulder up, okay? It is good. And if you ask somebody, "How are you?" and they say, "Hmm," it is also a mudra, no? So, this is a body language which psychologically influences your psychic level. Next point, so you pray to God to bless you and guide you with your yoga exercises. You are alone at home or with your family members, and it is like this. Now, relax first. Lie down for a few minutes and relax. Purījī, Purījī... After that, you do stretching slowly. So the same one you do, but you now try to stretch. You should know your limitation, how far you can bend forward. Never force, never force. And during the practice of āsanas, your body should not sweat. If your body is sweating, then you are giving too much force to your body. Of course, if it is summer and the weather is hot, that is different. Then the third is called postures, where you remain for a while. Body warming exercises will make your body more movable and warm the muscles. Stretching will make you more flexible and remove the tensions of the muscles and the joints. When the muscles are relaxed, then the joints are also free and feel good. After that, when we do the postures, that means, it is called psychosomatic postures, movements, that influence our body, our psychic, and our ātmā, or our soul. Postures are very scientifically proven to influence your gland systems, your organs, and your joints, ligaments, and muscles. As long as you stay in that posture, you have more benefit. If you stay less and you want to make more āsanas, you have little benefit. In the sport, what you call the top sports, jogging, swimming, and all this, what they want to have, what you call the World Cups and like this, during their movements, their exercising or running and so on, they lose 89%, only 11% they get prāṇa back. Proof that at the end of their program, when they reach their target, they are completely exhausted. Like this, no? Then everybody will come and say, "A little water." You have won the cup. Eat it. But you lost so much energy, which is not healthy for your gland systems and for many things. If you do dynamic movements, like running, then you lose 50% of your energy. And 50%. But when you do the āsanas with posture slowly, remaining there, you gain 90% and you lose only 10%. This is the difference between sports movements and yoga movements. As slow, it is more effective. As quick, it is less effective. It is said that good nourishment, good food, organic food, as long as you chew it, develops more taste in the mouth. Oh, more and more tasty. And the fast food, if you chew more, you will feel like vomiting. And therefore, mostly hungry people take this and swallow it as quickly as possible. So, slow. So after each or two or three postures, you should again relax so that the circulation in the body is harmonized. I want to make one experiment with you. Many of you know, and many do not know. So now, those who do not know will know. Good idea, Lakshmi. Yes? What do you want to do? Then sit straight. Take your left hand and look at your palm. Beautiful. Yes, beautiful hand. Now, close your fist. Open the fist. Close the fist. Open the fist. Close. How do you feel in your palm? Now I want you to feel perhaps 1000% better than now with the same movement. Okay? 1000 may be too much. Let us say 99%. Okay? So, close your fist, thumb inside, Prakash, thumb inside, close it tightly, and additionally we will support. You hold your wrist, wrist here, okay. Only open your palm, hold your wrist tight, open your palm. There are no miracles, nothing. But what we did, we blocked. Look to your finger, tips of the finger. Look to your fingers, and now, release your right hand. How do you feel? Now compare both hands. We go to our right hand also, otherwise there is jealousy between the hands. So, close your fist, thumb inside. I had one, two times, and then this time you will do more consciously and hold the wrist. Now, just open your palm and look to your right, half hand and tip of the finger. Slowly release your wrist. Okay, that is it. This was the experiment, okay. Now, the same thing. This was also something we had a feeling about, but not so much. Similarly, when we do only dynamic movements like this quickly, it does not have that much effect. You know, the muscles act very quickly but react slowly. Muscles get tension quickly, but to relax takes time. So when we do this continuously, the muscles form to hold your back tightly, but as soon as they are still not properly holding, and then again you are coming, the muscles form, and then they should relax. And that is harmful. So if we do slowly and then remain in that posture, then the front part of the body, for example, is pressed, like this we have pressed, the blood goes away, and the back part of the body is stretched. Now, when we release slowly, when we come up, like a flood of blood is running there, and the muscles get life again. These muscle tissues get completely relaxed, and so, this is the way we should do our practice. After that, when we relax, then the whole body gets relaxed. And this is the specialty on which we specially concentrate and pay more attention in your yoga and daily life practices. When the body is warmed, it becomes flexible, and all glands and organs are nicely influenced by these postures. Now we want to detoxify our body, and that is prāṇāyāma, that is breath technique. According to the classical explanation, prāṇāyāma is only three prāṇāyāmas. We call pūrak, rechak, and kumbhaka. Pūrak means inhale, pūraṇa, to feel it. So, inhale, and recaka means exhale; kumbhaka means retention of the breath. You inhale and retain the breath. When we make a retention of the breath, then again in the body, the heat is produced. Purījī, Purījī... For every creature, not only humans, before you come to this world, the breath is given to you. It means how many times you will breathe in and out, and then your credit is gone. Like your telephone, you buy a jeep, and when the credit is finished, you check. So it is said, In swāsam kā kyā barosā? There is a bhajan, "In swāsam kā kyā barosā?" Swāsam means the inhalation, exhalation, breathing. We have no confidence, no trust; we are not sure about our breath. All creatures which breathe too quickly, like dogs and rabbits and many others, have a little life. And the creatures which breathe slowly, very slowly, have a long life, like certain reptiles. The crocodile has a long breath; it does not inhale and exhale like this. When he inhales, he brings his nose out from the water, inhales, and then dives into the water, and you know how long? We do not know where he will come out. We are looking there, and suddenly, click, he is there. So, it is said, breathe slow, but in some techniques we have bhasṭrikā, we are doing quickly. That is not counted as a breath; that is counted as a practice. After practicing bhasṭrikā, automatically your breath sequence will become slow, very calm, and downturned. So, prāṇa, prāṇa is that cosmic energy. Prāṇa is not oxygen. It is very difficult to explain what prāṇa is because there is no translation of prāṇa in the English language. We call all we are prāṇī. It means all creatures whose life they are prāṇī. It means carrying prāṇa. When they die, we say prāṇa chodhyā. Prāṇa has given up. Prāṇa is gone. Prāṇa is gone. So, what is the difference between the soul, the prāṇa, the oxygen, and so on? It is very complicated, but yogīs have a very detailed, perfect explanation for that. So, through prāṇāyāma, therefore prāṇāyāma, there are two meanings. First, give the rest, and second, exercise the prāṇas to gain more prāṇa. In fresh food, in organic food, there is prāṇa, and in all chemical pesticides and all that is done there, the prāṇa is killed; there is little prāṇa. And that is why also the meat has no more prāṇa, but the fruits, vegetables, and these have prāṇa. So, sattvic nourishment, according to Āyurveda—Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas, these three guṇas—is in the food, in nourishment, prāṇāyāma. Therefore, from these three prāṇāyāmas, now there are many, many,... Many techniques: how to train our lungs, our diaphragm, and our respiratory system to keep them healthy and clean, so that we can take in more oxygen and supply more oxygen to the blood and the body, and how to reduce the toxins from the body. Those people who do not eat healthy food, from their mouth, a smell comes that is not so good. And from their armpits, their sweating, from their socks, the smell is unpleasant for others. If you do Haṭha Yoga techniques, Saṅkha Prakṣālana, Netī, Dhautī, Bastī, Naulī, Trāṭaka, then you are truly purifying your body. Purījī, Purījī... Our blood is changing, the nature is changing, trees are changing, leaves fall down, new leaves come, new blossoms, fruits, this also Mother Earth, on Earth changes take place. So there is no difference between a tree and us. We have this intellect and brain, and these things, okay. But by nature, we are equal. Heat, cold, all will affect similarly. Hunger, thirst, everything. So, some prakṣāl and these kriyās, of course, you have to get consultation with your yoga teacher. And if you have some physical problems, you have to take advice from your doctor. Pregnant women should not do prāṇāyāma. There are certain rules. So, this purification of the body. Now then, it is called fasting. It is very, very important that if you can, then twice a week. It means one meal in 24 hours. Then you can have three meals in 24 hours on the rest of the days, but on this fasting day, after eating, before eating, it is advised to have some fresh fruits or salad. Now, if you go to any Indian restaurant, after eating, you will see near their desk where you pay money, there is one plate, and in this plate there are some seeds inside: sesame seeds and anise, what we call saunf, sweet anise seeds. Some are raw, sometimes they will be fanned, they fry it, and you will see that. And then there is one kind of nut, nut make, the people chew this supārī, you know, they have in the mouth with the pān, yeah, it is called nut make or make nut, jayaphal. Part 2: The Science of Health and the Practice of Prāṇāyāma Jaiphal (nutmeg) and supari (betel nut) are very intensive. There is another one eaten with bitter leaves. Next time I will bring you... ajwaini? No, not that. Purījī, Purījī... These substances refresh your food pipe, benefit the glandular systems, and make digestion very, very good. That is why, afterwards, we call it mukvās in Gujarati. You chew it slowly, take it in your mouth, and then... chew slowly, slowly. It develops a good smell. Also, during the day, two to three times, you should eat a small piece of fruit. Avoid white bread and those kinds of foods which have no organic substance and little grain. There is one very interesting example. I have one disciple who is a bodybuilder and also a karate master. He said that when he goes to India and eats Indian food and comes back here, for 10-15 days he has a good smell from his mouth. He smells himself. But when, after trying to eat all this market food and this and that, he again loses that natural smell of his mouth. So the spices are very scientific. We call the kitchen a half chemistry shop. Your mother knows, your grandmother knows, your wife knows all about these spices. You should know in which food, which vegetables, or which kind of food, which spices should be used. That’s very, very important. Also, we have to have saffron. That’s very good for your bones and very, very good for your glands and solar plexus. So, people who are utilizing this very fine substance must use it little by little, not so much, very little, but continuously, like in Āyurveda. There was one lady, she is still there, she comes to God, she is living. She had so much joint pain: knees, back, fingers, hands. She couldn’t sleep, all the time pain. She went to the doctors. She got so many medicines, it was very hard. To walk, even when she was sleeping, it was very painful. One day, I told in my lecture that those who have joint problems should consume haldi, kurkuma, this yellow spice, turmeric. So, take three teaspoons of turmeric powder per day. And she began. She went home, and she bought it, and she began. Every day, after one and a half years, she told one of my disciples that she had a new birth, with no more pain. And she went to her doctors, and they said, "What have you done?" She said, "I did what my Gurujī said in the lecture: turmeric powder, I use it, and that’s it." So the people who use turmeric powder, haldi, every day in their food, their bones may bend a little, but not break. And people who don’t use turmeric powder in their life, their bones break like, you know, these crackers, these biscuits, the salty biscuits. You press a little, and it is broken. So it supports our bones and is the best antiseptic prevention to keep the blood cells healthy. A person who utilizes turmeric powder, it is said in Āyurveda that they are 97% sure not to get leukemia and will have a brilliant memory. A person who practices Nauli, Agniśāra Kriyā, and Prāṇāyāma every day is 78% sure not to get cancer. So, there are many things which we can take into consideration in our life to live healthily. Prāṇāyāma reduces the toxins from the body every day and gives more supply, more oxygen. We also inhale now. We are inhaling oxygen, but it does not have that effect. Prāṇāyāma is very scientifically united. And it goes through Iḍā, Piṅgalā, both nāḍīs here, and at a very fine distance between these two, it influences directly these techniques over both hemispheres. When we inhale through the right side, our left hemisphere is activated immediately, and inhaling through the left side activates the right one. And what we need is for this part of the body to be more healthy. And when you come to this point, prāṇāyāma, this nāḍī śodhana, immediately from here supplies the energy into the heart center, into the heart. You will see in the chart of the nāḍīs, which we have in yoga and in the book Hidden Powers in Humans, there is a chart of the nāḍīs. You will see there is one nāḍī coming from Sahasrāra Chakra and directly going, merging into the heart, to the, what you call, the Anāhata Chakra or the heart. So it means it influences our heart rhythm. It controls our heart. So please look in your book at this picture, and you will see here from Sahasrāra coming one directly to the heart, Anāhata. Here, from the top of the head, you will see from this side, and therefore, prāṇāyāma practice is a very big prevention for our heart. So prāṇāyāma has to be done slowly. After doing prāṇāyāma, for a minimum of five minutes, you should have normal breath and just repeat your mantra. If you can meditate, half an hour is very good. So, again, the sequence is like this. Your āsana, coming to your yoga place, relax for a few minutes, then do a little body warming exercise for a few minutes, then do a little stretching. Mahāprabhujī kī Karatā Mahāprabhujī kī Karatā... Those who do not practice become dull. Their heart is closed. The brain has many vṛttis: jealousy, hate, complexes, this, that, laziness—everything comes. So when the problem appears with the many yogī people sitting, yoga teachers, and they have a certain problem, why did this problem come? Why can’t they master these situations? Because they don’t practice. They are only working, working, working. Okay, work is very good, but also you have to practice. Our stomach is working, working, working. But when you are fasting or after eating a little, you give the stomach a few hours of rest to let it work. So the whole body needs rest. Tell the whole body to rest, relax. But to one note, don’t tell your heart to relax. Because when the heart relaxes, then it is eternal relaxation. So, we have to support our heart to be healthy. Now, I think you have the prāṇāyāma stick. This is called yogadaṇḍa, this is called varāgin, this is called prāṇāyāma stick, it’s called resting stick, it’s called protection stick, and many things. When we do prāṇāyāma like this, we have to be about 10 minutes, and keep the back straight. Then, many of us get a little tension here, and some are supporting like that. Yes, and some slowly, slowly. But lunch will be free. In 10 minutes, our back is hurting. Therefore, this stick is here, and you support your elbow here. My God, you feel so comfortable, so relaxed. It’s supporting your back, supporting your diaphragm, and you relax and breathe. Two fingers at the center of the eyebrows are used for closing the right nostril. The ring finger is used to close the nostril. Close the nostril from the side. Gently, just press. You can’t close your nostril like this. So, from the side. After finishing rounds, you place your hand. You can also use it for practicing your mantra, your stick here or here, and rest your arm here. Also, you can, who knows when what can happen, so if there is itching on the back, you can use it for this. If your knee is hurting a little, and you need something, then you can put this under the knee a bit, so that you have a little relief for your knee. If your left nostril is closed, then you place your right armpit like this, and it will open up. If your right is closed, you put this rope down on this side. And if your neighbor is naughty, then you can use it. And when you practice Trāṭak, the Rāja Yoga’s Kriyā, then you put this stick like this and put here a small candle and put down a big paper so that if the candle falls, it doesn’t put wax on the beautiful carpet. So this is one with a multi-purpose. So, for prāṇāyāma, this is a mudrā, and you inhale and exhale. We advise abdominal breathing. So, first you inhale into the stomach, which means you relax your diaphragm, and with the breath, first feel downward. And in that time, you have to support your stomach to expand. And that’s what we also learn in singing, when you are an opera singer or something, a singer, they say breathe in the stomach and hold here and sing from here. And then, breathe here. Exhale first from up, and then from the stomach. We are practicing Nāḍī Śodhana. It means inhale through the left nostril, exhale only through the left nostril, twenty times. After that, close the left nostril and inhale only through the right nostril twenty times. This is 20 times. Now 20 left, 20 right is one round. Place your hand down. This mudrā, chin mudrā, has symbolic indications in yoga: the thumb is Brahman, Paramatmā, the Supreme. This index finger is individual, thyself. The aim of the yogī is to be above all māyā, gaśap, and the world, to concentrate yourself and unite with the Supreme. So this is called yoga, the union of the individual to the universal one. That is yoga, and the purpose of yoga. These three fingers represent the three guṇas: sattva, rajas, and tamas. Therefore, these three fingers are separate. Tri guṇātītaṁ, that master who is above the three guṇas, tasmai śrī gurubhyo namaḥ, I adore, bow down to my master. So this is how you will see the mudrā, you can have hands so or so, or you can hold. Also, it’s called, on the tip of this finger and thumb, there is an energy center, and it calms down your brain waves and stress. I was once in the middle of Slovakia. There is one spa, a therapy center, and they organized my program there. They said, "Swāmījī, you should also be there and relax," so I went also. I was always relaxed, and they wanted to give me some exercises. I said, "Why not?" So I was surprised, 98% of all exercises were from the Yoga and Dead Life book. And one day, one sister came, the therapist, and she said, Mr. Maheshwarananda, sir, can I ask you, I said, for what? Can you give me an autograph? And she had a book in her back like that. That was my first book published in Czechoslovakia during communist times, the "Yoga and Dead Life" book. Next, when she got the signature, she went to show everybody. Look, Swāmījī gave me the signature. Next, there were so many books on the... Everyone, put it that, please give your autograph. Okay. So it means then, they said, "Yes, we are using this for therapy." And then they took me to the cycling in the room and measured my heartbeat and blood pressure. And then, after she said, rest. But she said, you know, you should rest like this. Close this finger, and there, here. I said, "Why?" Because it tranquilizes the brain. Energy is better for relaxing life. So, because he said there was another yoga teacher, a psychologist, and some doctors, and they said, "Yes, this point really helps people to relax," I said, "Yes." So you see, it is scientific. It has energy there. It’s a lot of energy. Mahāprabhujīp Karatā Mahāprabhujīp Karatā Mahāprabhujīp... The minimum time that you should use for your everyday practice is two and a half hours. When you use two and a half hours, you will see that no power in the world can make you sad or disturb you. You will have such a clear vision, such a pure, clear heart, that your heart is open and blessed. Those who don’t practice have a problem. Then you have a Kriyā, for those who already have Kriyā Yoga. So, this is a prāṇāyāma. So, before your yoga practice, you may have your cup of tea. If you drink coffee, you may drink your coffee in the morning. If you drink whiskey in the morning, then don’t do it before. This soft drink you can take a little bit. You may drink one glass of water after the practice, and then you should have your break. Yoga practice is good to do, at least you have an interval between your meal and yoga practice of about three and a half to four hours, that’s very good. So first is our physical health, then our mental health. Mental health means that you can maintain your social life. You can think clearly. Then, social health means your being in the world, your relations to the world, to the societies. You should try to maintain positivity; that’s social health. If you are alcoholic and drinking and lying in the street, or you are taking some drugs and the like, then let’s call it a social illness. So try to maintain your health, social health, to be kind to everybody, nice, and acknowledge them. If someone is coming straight down when you are walking, to give you the way, it’s okay, you can step to one side. Śrī Śrī... My colleague is coming, so this is how we respect them. Now the camera doesn’t respect. These red cameras, red light cameras. The machine is so exact. But we are humans. We should be flexible. We should have understanding, love, respect, and harmony. It is very important to live in social life. Then the spiritual, it means spirituality, every day you practice, every day you meditate, and every day read some good books, spiritual books, holy books, but not only one-sided, read from different things. I came yesterday from Gold Coast. Now I am in Sunshine Coast. But I said, "No, I drink only Gold Coast water. I don’t drink Sunshine Coast." Okay, then remain thirsty. When I am here, I should drink water from here. When I am there, yeah, okay, water is filtered. That’s all right. So we have to be very moderate, we have to be very tolerant and respect culture, tradition, religions, festivals, way of life, and many things. And that means that, spiritually, if we are not spiritual, then it disturbs us. And if we are spiritual, then it doesn’t disturb us. So this was that. Now we will do a very good exercise for those who have a problem with high blood pressure. Those who have low blood pressure should maybe not do it. It is very... this is a technique of Prāṇāyāma which is the Lavanī technique, Lavanī also with Ujjāyī. You sit straight and you will inhale into the stomach slowly, but when you inhale, you hear your breath only. So it means you concentrate more in the throat. Like this. Did you hear something? Do you hear my exhalation? No, only inhalation. So, you will inhale first here, expand your stomach, then your lungs, and then you exhale. Open your mouth slightly and exhale through the mouth, so that you feel warm air on your lower lip. Don’t exhale like this, but just open your mouth and exhale. 21 times, on a normal, little longer than normal breath, close your eyes, be comforted, you may practice your mantra. Deep inhale, exhale through the nose three to four times. Chant Oṁ once with me, and after the mantra, "Nāhaṁ Karatā" and the Śānti Mantra.