TV Channel

Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jaya. Śrī Śrī Devpurījī Mahādeva Kī Jaya. Dharma Samrāṭ Paramahaṁsa, Śrī Svāmī Madhavānanda Purī Jī Mahārāj Kī Jaya. Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramahaṁsa, Śrī Svāmī Maheśvarānanda Purī Jī, Satguru Deva Kī Jaya. Āsana brings us good health, flexibility, and can reduce physical problems. It can release energy and tension from within the body. But for me, the most important part of āsana is that it can bring you a feeling and a quality of stillness whilst you are moving and doing something active. When you look through the sheaths, coming from the Annamaya Kośa and moving inward, it is one of those things that can bring that quality towards your meditation. For instance, when you are practicing Kaṭhūpraṇām, there are many ways to practice it. You can practice it very slowly, with consciousness on the breath, or almost like a cardio practice, doing it fast. Some muscles must stretch completely, while others should remain strong—yet not stiff—at the same time. When Patañjali refers to āsana, he says sthira and sukha: it should be solid and pleasant. The solid and sukha is like happy, but also relaxed. It is not sloppy, but it is not tense. It is something completely different from that tenseness, yet it also possesses a strength. When we practice āsanas, that is what we can cultivate: an asana that is very solid and powerful in one way, but also very flexible and relaxed. To continuously be conscious of that stillness in each pose, such as when practicing a kārpa praṇām, makes it a beautiful practice, and it becomes mentally beautiful. The same stillness is there when you proceed to the next step, which is your breathing and prāṇāyāma. That is the same stillness present when you change from an inhalation to an exhalation. There is always a moment there, if you are conscious of it—whether you are holding your breath or not—when the breath stops going in one direction and goes back in the other. Depending on the application we give to that practice and whether we are mentally present, you can sense that on every breath. If you increase the time of kumbhaka, you may feel it more. But whether you do kumbhaka or not, in reality, it is still there. It is those moments of stillness, when you become aware of them, that you can apply in daily life. They can be present in everything we do. That peace, that stillness we experience in our practice, is something we take with us. It does not leave us; we are simply not aware of it. We fail to see it when we are disturbed in the world, dealing in the market, at our job, or with many people. But if our awareness is sharp and our practice is established, we can still be aware of it at any time. For me, it is one of those things we constantly practice in āsanas: to bring ourselves more and more to that awareness. Then you can use it when needed during the day. Practice is not something we do only in the morning; it is something that assists us for the whole day in what we do. That is what we integrate into daily life. Doing those asanas is to be aware of these simple points, to try and do them well, and to constantly bring a new understanding to that awareness. There is a beautiful concept from one teacher in Mumbai about doing asanas: to allow yourself to do, to allow yourself to believe that you can do that āsana. It sounds simple, but it is not just that. Yes, I can do Trikoṇāsana, for instance, but that you can do it beautifully and well. It does not matter about the amount you stretch or how far you go, but the quality with which you do it, the steadiness with which you move, and the mental attitude you bring to the movement your body is making. It is the relaxation you bring mentally to that movement. It is not to think, "I haven’t practiced this āsana before," or "I haven’t practiced it enough." We can all do it. It is not about looking at the next person and thinking, "I can’t do it like them." It is to become one with that āsana and with the mental attitude of what is within it. To mentally and physically move smoothly and strongly, to let yourself go into that pose to relax there, to believe you are worthy of doing it, and to take that feeling back up when you come up straight, and then do the same on the other side. It is about enjoying being a part of that āsana, of that moment. So for me, doing āsanas is like a luxury; you indulge when you do them. Because you are having a very beautiful and very intimate moment with yourself. You are becoming aware of your inner body, exploring each part. You explore how it moves, stretches, feels, what is strong, and what is weak—it is like developing a new relationship. There are so many things about our own bodies we do not know: how they function, how they feel, what affects us, how what we do during the day affects the body, our legs, our flexibility, our stomach. That whole practice is developing that relationship and bringing a new light to it. When you look at your āsanas in that way, it is not something you have to do. It is not a part of your practice you do every day just out of discipline. It is something that is there, one of the special parts of the day, something you look forward to. Something you deliberately find time to do because of the beauty within it. It is a practice of āsana, of being one with that āsana. Oṁ Bholē. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Jai. Śrī Śrī Devpurījī Mahādeva Kī Jai. Dharma Samrāṭ Paramahaṁsa Svāmī Madhavānanda Purījī Mahārāj Kī Jai. Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramahaṁsa Svāmī Maheśvarānanda Purījī Satguru Deva Kī Jai.