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Part 1: The Body as a Gateway to Meditation Hari Om, good morning. We have now started our program, and as you see in yoga, everything is flexible. We start without expectation, with nice music, and music is also excellent for meditation. Everything that calms our mind is excellent for meditation. Now we will start with the second part: our body. Why is our body so important for meditation? We will see that if our mind is restless, our body is also restless. If it is not stable in a good position, it starts moving, and you will hear dang, dang... dang, and the whole pot will be dancing. It is the same thing. If in our mind there are these bubbles and waves—what is called citta vṛtti? Vṛtti means movements, and citta is our consciousness. If we have so many thoughts in the head, all the time running, running... like this little animal, the hamster in the wheel, the hamster runs all night. And we have not only one but a couple of these hamsters in the head running. Our mind is cittavṛtti, moving, and our body will start to move. Yes? When we have in the mind all the time this running and movement, our body also starts to move. You know, in texts, changing the program on the TV, but always moving the body. When our mind is restless, our body is also restless. It is very hard to deal with the mind. If we try to stop our mind, okay, maybe we will have a chance to have a calm mind for a few minutes or seconds, but after that, it will be like a volcano, erupting everything. But if we want to calm our mind—because yoga is citta vṛtti nirodha, which means, in Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra, that yoga, that union of ātmā, our self, with Paramātmā, the cosmic Self—yoga is that union. It starts when we calm down these citta vṛttis, these thoughts. In the end, when we stop our thoughts—not our thoughts, but this wave on the surface of the lake or now on the sea—in that moment we are able to see what is down on the bottom. We want to see what is inside, deep, deep down at our bottom. And when we see inside, deep down, we will see that our ātmā, our self, is the same as the paramātmā, the absolute cosmic Self. That is what yoga means. We will get a calm, relaxed life without nonsense in the head and without this stress and anxiety that our thoughts make. In Croatia, there is one sentence: when you are late at home, late in the evening, and your wife or mother is waiting for you, they say in Croatia, "It will be very, very bad." It happens that what your mother thinks happens to you. Mother always thinks, "Oh, you had an accident, somebody attacked you," something like this. And it will be excellent that what your wife thinks it is happens. Your wife always thinks, "Oh, somewhere he is drinking, he is in good society, not good society, bad society, but he makes a good time." All the time, our mind is making problems for us. How do we calm our mind? First, calming the mind is very hard, but we can do it through prāṇa and through movements. Through prāṇa is also not so easy. The easiest way is to start with the movements. Stretch our body, relax our body. Through our body, if we work, we will make good circulation, we will do good for our glands, for everything, but we will have excellent results in calming our mind. Today we will start with āsanas. We will practice a few āsanas which are excellent for calming our mind and preparing body and mind for meditation. But if we are—now you are calm because you were listening to nice music, and that music made your mind become calm. If you have a very hard day, a lot of stress, and your mind is really like an ocean, with big, big waves, if you try to sit, if you try to listen to nice music or something like that, maybe you will become more tense, more in tension. What is good in that moment? Make a few āsanas, walk, something like this. After that, sit and make prāṇāyāma. First, be aware of our breathing process, and after that, make a few āsanas and meditation. Why is it important to be aware of our breathing during the āsanas, during the prāṇāyāma, and during the meditation? Because when you practice āsanas or yoga nidrā, you always hear from your yoga teacher, "Be aware of your breathing process." Do not influence your breathing, but just be aware of your breathing process. Why? Because maybe the yoga teacher doesn’t know what to say and tells you to be aware of your breathing process? No, it is a very scientific—please tell, scientific, scientific, yes, very scientific—and also Swāmījī often said that yoga and daily life are very scientific methods. Why? Because everything we do has an answer for why we are doing it. You know when a small child has a very high temperature, a high body temperature. In one moment, they start to shake, convulse, and shake their whole body like epilepsy. You know this, yes. It means they have a very, very high temperature, 42, 42 degrees Celsius. But why does the body start to shake with the high temperature? You must know something about the brain. Where is the center of body temperature? Near that center is also a center for movements. When this center for temperature is working hard and has a lot of impulse, a lot of chemistries in that part, it also influences the other center, which is very near to it. Near the center of temperature is the center for movement, and because of that, it starts convulsing. The same thing happens when we are aware of our breathing process. Breathing has two parts in the brain; it is connected with the breathing. One part is for automatic breathing, which is in the small brain. The second, when you are aware of breathing—you are not influenced by breathing, but you are just aware of your inhalation and exhalation—is in the cortex of the big brain. Near that center is another center which is in charge of relaxation. Immediately when we are aware of the breathing process, we influence the other part, which is the limbic system, and also we influence another center, which is very near to the center of this other learning breathing. Because of that, immediately after a few seconds, okay, a few minutes, if you are just aware of your breathing, you will become more and more relaxed. Especially if you have an emotional wave, you see, the emotional wave is too high. In that moment, automatically, everybody who doesn’t know yoga or anything will say, "Breathe, just relax, just breathe, breathe, be aware of your breathing." Immediately, you will tell your friends if you feel that you have some emotional release in the stomach or the chest or during the massage or some very painful part: breathe, breathe, because immediately you will stop breathing. And with inhalation, inhalation, immediately you will relax. Because of that, during the āsanas, during the prāṇāyāma, during the yoga nidrā, we are always aware of the breathing process, but we are not influenced by the breathing. Now we will start with a few āsanas. You are already relaxed in ānanda āsana, but we will start now with a few very, very easy āsanas from the first level. It is very easy in the picture, but when we start to practice, we will see if it is easy or not. Just sit in Daṇḍāsana, and after that we will relax. Now we will start with the head. Now it is winter time, it is not time for the beach, because we are in this position. Just sit straight. Daṇḍa, it is a stick. Now we will feel that our muscles are too short, and because of that, we are in this position. Slowly, slowly, with the practicing, we will stretch these muscles, and we will be able to sit in this position. We will start with the head. Imagine that somebody is pulling your head up. Also, the chin is not going up. If your chin is going up, your neck will be in the wrong position. If your neck is in the wrong position, I need my mobile phone. Who said that mobile phones are not good? If the chin is not in a good position, you will have the neck in this way, which will influence this part of the neck, where people often have a problem. Also, you will be in kyphosis. Imagine something is here. We will practice not like this. Immediately we will feel a place between the shoulder blades, and it’s working against this kyphosis. After that, exhale a few times. After that, we will go ear to the shoulders. Together we will practice. But all that I imagine is that somebody is pulling you up, but not pulling like this. Like here, where is the end of these muscles? Like here, somebody is pulling you up. Immediately, you will feel the stretching of this muscle. If we practice āsanas, why are we showing this? If we practice āsanas in this way, we will make sure that we are not calming the waves of our mind, but maybe we will support that wave to become higher and higher. Because of that, we practice āsana slowly. Not too slowly. If you are practicing too slowly, you will also become nervous. In the beginning, middle, and after that, slower and slower, immediately with calming down. Also, if you practice slowly, it is harder for your muscles. You will see. Okay. Also, when you rotate with the head, do not rotate something like this. Immediately, I feel dizzy, like I drank something. Also, I hear a lot of noise. Do you hear? Imagine that you have this colon, like after a car accident. First, ear to the shoulders, back, inhale, ear to the shoulders, and chin to the chest. Okay, now we will start. Imagine pulling up, pulling up a few centimeters. You are bigger now. Now, inhale and exhale, ear to the shoulders. Inhale slowly. Together, we will practice. Exhale on the other side, only through the nose. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, three. Exhale. Inhale, four. Exhale. Inhale, and five. And exhale. Now, in the middle, imagine that you have a necessary mobile phone. Inhale, back. Now, exhale. Inhale through the nose and also exhale through the nose without sound. Five inhales and exhales. Now we will rotate it left. Inhale and exhale two through the nose, and one more inhale. Try not to go with the chin to the shoulder, but to... Inhale, ear to the shoulder. Exhale on the other side. Inhale, ear to the shoulder, and exhale. And chin to the chest, two, exhale, and three, and inhale in the middle. When we are in distress, we will feel that our palms are cold and wet, and also the feet. Now we will start with the toes, just and straight. Now, try not only this; try to separate each finger. Yes, it’s very important, each finger, toes, no, fingers here, toes. You feel all these muscles. Yes, you feel. Four and five. Just toes, not foot. Now, back. Two, three, four, five. Now, slowly rotate, only with the foot. But, if you make these movements, it’s like when it’s a rainy day and you turn off in your car. Nothing, but slowly, all your legs are completely without movement. Only in the ankle joint do you start movement, slowly. We have time on the other side. For each of these movements, we need 30 to 40 minutes for an explanation as to why. We will just practice. But if you put your palms here on the, underneath, it’s not calf muscles, but the upper part, the shin, you will feel a lot of muscles, yes? Now, try to feel what is happening. Do you feel the circulation? If you said, "I don’t feel anything," you feel, but it’s the same thing as when you went to the concert. Classical music, big orchestra. Somebody told you, "Please listen only to the violin." I don’t hear a violin, I hear the whole orchestra. Yes, but if you practice, you will be able to hear a particular instrument in the whole big, lousy, loud orchestra. Maybe. But when you lose concentration, immediately you will hear only the whole orchestra, not a particular instrument. The same is with the body. If you have awareness, you will feel each part of the body, and that is also meditation. Now, with the finger, stretch and sit still. Like this. I know that is hard. Now, slowly rotate. Same thing. If you are just rotating, okay. But it will be better if you rotate this way, on the other side. We will invent a new program: yoga with a mobile phone. And now, relax. Now, try to feel also the circulation. Part 2: The Science of Yoga: Experiment, Awareness, and Integration I know it is hard to sit in this position, but make one experiment. We said that yoga is a science about body, mind, and soul. In science, you always make an experiment. Try to sit in this position. How do you feel? Now try to sit in this position. How do you feel? Like a king. Rāja yoga. Rāja means king. That kind of practicing of yoga will make you become a king of self-confidence. Especially for self-confidence, it is excellent to strengthen the muscles, the back muscles, to have a good posture. Not too big—nose to the sky means too big an ego. Flexible, but a good position, not without self-confidence. For that, excellent āsanas. Also, again, for scoliosis, if you have pain in this area between the shoulder blades, also for everything. We will see these movements. What does it mean that one part of the body is stronger than another? It also means that one part of the brain is stronger than the other. With all these āsanas, we will balance the body, brain, mind, and energy. But slowly, together, we will do it. With breathing through the nose, just stay in position. Try not to breathe in this way. Your inhalation and exhalation are without sound. I don’t hear my... Stay in this position, it’s excellent. Slowly inhale through the nose and exhale through the nose. Two, three, four, six, seven, and finally ten. And now, Ānandāsana, relaxing Ānandāsana. Now on the back, head to my side, leg on the other side. And always this question: why? In yoga, one question is very important: why? Why are you in this position? There are many explanations. First, traditionally, in every part of the world, it is not so polite to put your legs toward somebody, especially before them. If you put your legs on the table, you think that you are the boss. No, before it was not polite to stretch your legs toward somebody. The second thing, what is most important: when we practice a few āsanas and you have your head on the side, there is a teacher or some other person. Unconsciously, all the time you will try to put your knees together because you do not feel pleasant when you have a separate leg—unconsciously, nothing consciously. The third thing: for everybody who leads a yoga class, it is much nicer that you have a head to him, not a leg. And you will feel, really you will feel better in this position. Especially now, when we will start a few āsanas from this position. But first, be aware of inhalation and exhalation. Do not influence the breathing, but just be aware. Aware: I am inhaling and I am exhaling. Try to see, feel that during the inhalation your navel is going up, and during the exhalation your navel is going down. Maybe after Daṇḍāsana, after sitting in Daṇḍāsana, you may feel some tension in the low part of the spinal column. But why? Only because the muscles are too weak, and now it will be excellent to relax those muscles. Pavan Muktāsana is excellent for that. First, we will start with the right leg. Inhale, bend your right leg. Exhale, knee to the chest and nose to the knee. Inhale and exhale. Left leg, inhale, exhale, inhale, and exhale. Second, inhale, exhale, and exhale. Inhale, exhale. Also try that your shoulder blades are on the floor. Inhale, exhale. This āsana is also excellent when you go home after a stressful day for relaxing. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. And one more. Inhale, exhale, inhale, and exhale. And now, relax. Try to be aware of the circulation in the legs. Not only the legs, but the abdomen, the lower part of the spinal column, and the lower back. Notice how you feel. This āsana is excellent for circulation to the leg, for better circulation to the leg. Also for the lower back, massaging the inner organs, for the digestive system, and also for calming. And now, deep inhale and exhale. Once more, deep inhale and exhale. Slowly move your fingers, toes, shoulders, elbows, and your palms. When you feel nice, warm feelings in your palms, put them on your face. Your face muscles warm, open your eyes, and slowly sit in Vajrāsana. From Vajrāsana, we will practice Marjārī. Marjārī is excellent for everything, really for everything. Only if you have a problem with the knee, just sit in Daṇḍāsana. I will explain a little, and after that we will start. Or sit in any other position, whatever is good. Okay, for everything: for the spinal column, for painful periods, for inner organs, for complete yoga, for breathing, for muscles, everything. In short, when we start with the Marjārī, it is usual to see this movement, also sitting and going up. But you will not have an influence on the thigh muscles, and it will also not be so good; you will not have a benefit for your knee. Try to make Marjārī, start Marjārī in this way. Imagine that somebody is pushing your pelvis, and now slowly go down. First, we will practice this movement a few times. After that, we will stay in this position and breathe normally. After that, sit. Why? We will make an experiment. At the same time, you are a scientist, you are sitting in your laboratory, and you are a guinea pig. But you must be very gentle to your guinea pig, because you are also a guinea pig. That is the science. You are sitting in your laboratory. You have your body, and all the time you are aware of what happens, of how you feel. That is yoga, not only to put on some music. Music is good, but better is to be all the time aware of what is happening. Okay, first movements. Slowly go up with inhalation. Excellent. Imagine that somebody is pushing your pelvis. And now down, slowly. Nice sound. Second time, slowly sit. Slowly, slowly, slowly. And third, up slowly. If you work slowly, it’s much, much harder. And now we will, on the halfway, down, down... down. Now sit and enjoy. Enjoy what? Relax your abdomen and slowly sit. You feel your legs now. You feel your heart even starts to beat quicker. And it’s not necessary to run. You’ll have better muscles. When you have better muscles, less force and less strain will be in your knee. Second thing: why are we counting during the Marjārī? Why are we not doing like that, and when it’s enough, we will go up? When we’re counting, you know, when we start with Marjārī the first time, and you’re doing your own rhythm. You start, and after that, after yoga class, I must do this. And you just forget on which number you are. Everybody’s up, I will go. When you count inhalation-exhalation movements, it’s not only that you must do ten times, but why? Only that counting and being aware of breathing, inhalation and exhalation, will ensure that your consciousness, your awareness, will not go somewhere else—to your flat, tomorrow, yesterday, somewhere. You will be here and now, and that is also meditation. Why is Marjārī influenced by the complete yoga inhalation and exhalation? Because here is inhale, exhale, and now inhale. First, start with the lower part of the lung, the middle. And if you are only in this position, the clavicle’s upper part is not in function. Only if you do it this way will you feel that the upper part is also functioning and the air is going into the upper part. What is excellent against asthma, against bronchitis... For all problems with the upper part. And also, it will have a good influence on this area, the chest area, against kyphosis. Now, we shall start slowly. One, two, three. And slowly sit down. Also, during the Marjārī, we said inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. But you are not inhaling, and you are not exhaling. What is now? You are not trying to inhale and exhale actively. Only after a few minutes, you will feel a tingling here. What is meant by hyperventilation? Nothing else. And also, you will not calm your mind. We often say it is very good if you synchronize movements and breathing. But synchronizing movements and breathing is not something you are forced to do. No, when you make mudrā, just forget inhalation and exhalation. No, your movements will make that air come in and air come out. It’s the same as if you have a sponge for cleaning dishes. When you squeeze, what will be? Water will go out. When you release, water will go in. Same thing here. Only what you are doing is making a good position, like squeezing a sponge. And now, put up. But be very gentle. If you feel any pain in the knee, put it down without forcing. And three times we will try to go down. Inhale and exhale. Two, exhale. Now imagine that somebody is pulling you. And third, inhale and exhale. Three times only. Change your leg. Now we don’t have a regular yoga class. We have something like learning, and now we try to do something about how to calm your mind. After this exercise, it will be excellent to take Ānandāsana and relax for a few minutes. Be aware of your whole body and breathing process, and so on, what is usual. But now we don’t have time, and we will, after this exercise, sit in position for prāṇāyāma. But it is very important after āsanas to have a little interval in Ānandāsana, to feel the whole body. When you feel your whole body, be aware of your breathing process. Be aware of the complete yoga of inhalation and exhalation. And after that, start with the prāṇāyāma. But today we will jump because of time. Inhale and exhale. Inhale, exhale. And once more, exhale and exhale. And butterfly, try to put your heel near the body, and now slowly go down, not like this. Up and relax, up and relax... But down and relax, down and relax... You feel slightly different and smile, like at the dentist, and imagine that somebody is pulling your chin. Exhale, going down, and inhale. Exhale, going down, and inhale. Exhale, going down. And once more, exhale, okay. And now, sit in position for prāṇāyāma. But you are a yogī, you don’t need anything. You need only a few needles, yes? Now, only what is very important for sitting. In short, a good position for your pelvis. If you’re sitting on your last vertebra, you will sit in this position. And imagine a dog with the tail. It’s two positions of the tail: down, when he is afraid, and up. If your position of the pelvis is down, that you are sitting on the last vertebra, it will be very hard to sit. You will try with the muscles, but after that... But if you put the pelvis in a good position, what means something like this. Just put it under the last vertebra. Your pelvis position will not be this way, or that last vertebra is here, but you will be like in this, like, I don’t know the name for this, when you want to put something under the door to keep it from closing, this little ridge, ridge, not this ridge, but a very small ridge, okay? In a little position down, and if you sit in this position, that position, the force is going to something like on the knee, not on the back. You will be in a good position, and you will sit normally. The abdomen will be relaxed, the shoulders will be relaxed, and also the spinal muscles. Just sit in this position, chin mudrā. Why are we sitting in this position? It’s mudrā. Mudrā means that it’s a talk of your body, and if you, okay, one experiment. What is mudrā? First, try to make a mudrā with your face, that you are angry and have a not-nice face. Now you are smiling, but try to be serious. Like we said to your dog, "Come here." And close your eyes, it will be much easier. Just make that face mudrā and try to feel your abdomen, your body from inside. Now make madhurī mudrā, which means a nice smile. Relax, like Da Vinci’s Gioconda, Mona Lisa, a nice smile. And how you feel your inner organs from inside, we are doing an experiment. What does it mean once more? Mahāprabhujī Karatā, Mahāprabhujī Karatā. Mahāprabhujīp Karatā He Kevalam. Mahāprabhujīp Karatā. Yoga means gathering together, to be one, ātmā and Paramātmā. That is yoga. And the other three fingers are Tamas, Rajas, and Sāttvika, the three guṇas. Yoga is beyond the three guṇas, and we are sitting in this position. And now, close your eyes and relax. Relax your abdomen, relax your shoulders, elbows, relax your face muscles. Just be relaxed. We have a few minutes for ourselves. Meditation is not running away from the problems. It’s just taking a few minutes for ourselves, and after that, we will be able to solve problems in our life better. And also with the calm, without a lot of emotion, but calm, we will do the next step. What will be much better for us? Just relax and say to yourself, "Relax, relax, my friend." Relax your eyes, like you are watching something on the horizon, far, far away. Relax your face muscles, elbows, abdomen. And now, three times we will chant. Oṃ, just be relaxed and be aware of our collective sound of Oṃ. Inhale. Oṃ. And now, just be aware of your breathing process. Be aware that I am inhaling and I am exhaling. Fingers, shoulders, grab your palms, and put them on your face, and now go down. Try to feel the stretching of your muscles, the circulation to the head, releasing if you have some tension in the lower part, and slowly go up. Hari Oṃ. Now we will have a few minutes interval, and after that we will have a lecture with Swamijī. Hari Oṃ.