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Learn the original Sanskrit names

Preserving the original Sanskrit terminology is essential for maintaining the integrity of yoga's wisdom. Translating or changing these names alters their meaning and leads to the loss of the tradition. Every āsana, kriyā, and technique must be known by its Sanskrit name. For instance, Paścimottānāsana describes the stretching of the back; a translated name loses this specific meaning. Similarly, prāṇāyāma consists of three components: pūrak (inhalation), rechak (exhalation), and kumbhak (retention). Specific techniques like Chandra Bhedan or Nāḍī Śodhana apply these components for particular effects, such as calming the mind by balancing the lunar energy channel. Understanding the precise definitions, benefits, and precautions for each term is the duty of a practitioner and teacher. This knowledge prevents confusion and ensures the correct application of yoga's profound science.

"It sounds good if you learn Sanskrit words. Otherwise, when you change the name, the meaning changes completely."

"Prāṇāyāma is only three things... Pūrak, Rechak, and Kumbhak."

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

Oṁ namaḥ śrī prabhu-dīpa nārāyaṇam. Oṁ namaḥ śrī prabhu-dīpa nārāyaṇam. Haṁsabhādas prabhuśaraṇa parāyaṇam. Haṁsabhādas prabhuśaraṇa parāyaṇam. Oṁ namaḥ śrī prabhudī parāyaṇam. Oṁ Namaḥ Śrī Prabhudī Parāyaṇam Amma Śabdās Prabhu Śaraṇam Rāyaṇam Amma Śabdās Rāyaṇam Oṁ Śrī Prabhudīp Nārāyaṇam Śrī Prabhudīp Nārāyaṇam Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī Devādhī Dev Deveśvar Mahādev Kī I hope everybody has put away their telephones. Yesterday we continued the subject of the different kinds of yoga branches. In the evening we had many different programs, but in the park before noon yesterday we discussed the subject of Jñāna Yoga. You are all yoga teachers here; many are going to be, and many will only be practitioners. If everybody becomes a teacher, then who will practice? But as a practitioner of yoga in daily life, you should know the different classical branches of yoga. It sounds good if you learn Sanskrit words. Otherwise, when you change the name, the meaning changes completely. For example, there is one posture called Paścimottānāsana. Some call it 'Chang’e'. Do you know what Chang’e is? It is a tong, an instrument you use to catch something from the fire. In the chimney, you put coal or wood inside with it, and it moves like this. They give the name using their own language, but the origin in one's own language is not preserved. Let's say your name is Josef. In China, they might call you Joka. Joseph and Joka are different. Czech is not Ukraine, so don't change the names. In yoga, it is very important that you should know every āsana, every kriyā, everything originally by its Sanskrit word. Otherwise, yoga will slowly get lost. It is very important that you know all the āsanas, kriyās, and other techniques by their Sanskrit names. Otherwise, the wisdom of yoga will be lost. Therefore, we have all these nice Sanskrit names. We should know Chitta-vṛtti. 'Chittavṛtti Nirodha' sounds so good. It sounds Sanskrit, like a learned professor. But if you know only these two words, it sounds learned. Similarly, 'kleśa'. Kleśa is very hard to translate into other languages; it has many different names. We use the name Paścimottānāsana. 'Paścim' means back or the west (east, west, north, south). Here, 'paścim' means the back. 'Uttān' means stretching. When we fold forward like this, all the muscles are stretching, massaging, removing back pain, making the spine flexible, and giving strength to all the muscles parallel to the spine. If you don't practice every day and then get a slipped disk, you should not practice it. But there are different exercises in the Yoga in Daily Life book to get support, help, and a cure for spinal disorders. There are many causes of a slipped disk, but it can often happen when our backbone and the parallel muscles are not strong enough. These muscles support the spine so it doesn't bear too much weight. All exercises and postures are given names from nature. There is no posture named "human posture." Is there any human āsana? But we have a cat pose, rabbit, cobra, scorpion. Do you know the scorpion āsana? Who knows? Hands up. Be careful. The scorpion comes here... tick. Now you know what a scorpion is. But that also has to be trained. Then, prāṇāyāma. 'Atemübungen' in German, okay, but 'prāṇāyāma' sounds good. Yes. Chandra bhedan. Wow, what is this? Chandra bhedaṁ, sūrya bhedaṁ. 'Chandra bhedam'. Chandra is the moon. You make a hole in the moon—let them imagine a little. Make a hole in the sun. My God, the yogīs can do all this. But 'Chandra' has many meanings. First, we come to the mind. The principle of the mind, which we call the Devatā, the God of the mind, is the Moon. The moon is never the same every day; it is increasing and decreasing. Our mind is also never steady, always changing. This is the connection between mind and moon. The moon controls our mind. That moon balances our Earth. The Earth is balanced by the moon. The Moon is like an antenna; it doesn't let the Earth move too much. The moon is a symbol of water. The moon influences the ocean, and the moon here means emotion. Emotion moves your whole body, your thoughts, your thinking. Suddenly you change your thoughts; you liked good things, now everything seems bad. And then again, it will be okay. These are the mental waves. The mind we call 'mana'. The principle of the mana is the moon. Moon means emotion. Emotion means water, and that is in our body. The Iḍā Nāḍī, the nostril on the left side, is called Iḍā, also called Gaṅgā. This is the water, so it is connected to the moon. Now, when we do prāṇāyāma only with one nostril: if someone is very nervous, aggressive, restless, cannot relax or concentrate, then we should do Chandra-bhedana. 'Chandra' means moon, and moon means the left nostril. We inhale and exhale only through the left nostril. 'Bhedana' means purification, to balance. 'Bhedan' also means making a hole. 'Bhedan' also means that someone tells you a secret. "Who told you my secret?" That is also 'Bhedī'. 'Bhedha' means someone tells you, "Don't tell anyone," it is a secret, but you spy it out. Many words have many meanings. Therefore, in yoga, in yogic language, we have to understand that here we balance the moon nāḍī. Then you will be very relaxed, calm, etc. When a child is very restless, you should practice Chandrabhedan. That child will be calm. If the child is six or seven years old, you can teach Chandra Bhedan; it will affect them very much. Sūrya Bhedana. Sūrya is fire, heat, activities, temperament, movements. This is the Sūrya. But anger also comes from this; that anger is then Sūrya. So you have to control the Sūryanāḍī. Balancing both is Chandra Bhedan and Sūrya Bhedan. Then it becomes balance. That is called yoga. After Chandra Bhedan and Surya Bhedan, it can also be named Nāḍī Śodhana. 'Nāḍī' means channel, Iḍā and Piṅgalā. 'Śodhan' means purification. So both are the same: Nāḍī Śodhana or Chandra Bhedan, Sūrya Bhedan. This is written in many books with different terms. As a practitioner as well as an instructor, you should know what it is. After that comes Anuloma Viloma. 'Anuloma viloma' means you breathe in one side and out the other. Some call this nāḍī śodhana: inhale left, exhale right; inhale left, exhale right; inhale left, exhale right. That is also called nāḍī śodhana, because Sūrya Bhedana and Chandra Bhedana are for individual nāḍīs. Nāḍī Śodhana means that both nāḍīs are purified. When this process is done as a prāṇāyāma, each technique you should practice for three weeks. Practice only this technique enough, and you will get a good result. If you do a little of this, a little of that, you are driving your car on the road, through the streets, over stones and everything; the car will soon be broken. After that comes the third process, Anuloma Viloma. Anulom vilom means balance. The scale was tilted, but now it has to be balanced. So, inhale through the left, exhale through the right. Then inhale through the right, exhale through the left. Inhale through left and exhale through right. This becomes a circle. Now it is balancing. Anulom Vilom. These are the techniques. Prāṇāyāma is only three things. Don't forget. It is called Pūrak, Rechak, and Kumbhak. 'Purak' means inhale, 'Rechak' means exhale, and 'Kumbhak' means retention of the breath. There are two types of Kumbhak: antarkumbhak and bahirkumbhak. 'Antarkumbhak' means inner retention—inhale and hold your breath. 'Bāhir-kumbhak' means outer retention—exhale and hold the breath. These are two techniques of kumbhaka. But kumbhaka is kumbhaka, which means retention. 'Kumbha', like in Kumbha Melā. What does 'kumbhaka' mean? Our lungs are a kumbhaka, that pot which is filled with nectar, water, or like a balloon. You feel air inside, so this is a kumbha. When you hold it, it remains steady. If water is in a cup and it is half full, it will begin to move by itself. But when it is full, there are no movements. If you have a water pot of about 5 or 10 liters and it is half full, and you carry it on your head, you cannot carry it from here to my cottage. It will begin to move, and water will spill out because in the kumbha, half the space is still empty. Then motion begins inside. If it is full, you can comfortably go. There is no tolerance space. That's it. Because there should be no movements. So prāṇāyāma is only three according to Rāja Yoga: pūrak is inhale, rechak is exhale, and kumbhaka is retention, but the techniques are different: Chandra Bhedan, Sūrya Bhedan, Nāḍī Śodhan, Anulom Vilom, then Ujjāyī Prāṇāyām, Brahmārī Prāṇāyām, Śītalī Prāṇāyām, Śītkārī Prāṇāyām, Bhujanginī Prāṇāyām, Bhastrikā prāṇāyāma, and Kapālabhāti prāṇāyāma, etc. These are different techniques for different reasons. You should practice them all for at least one month so that you know how they are. Then, in certain cases, you utilize a certain technique. For those who have a lot of depression, there is a prāṇāyāma. For those who have no concentration, there is also a good prāṇāyāma. These are the names of prāṇāyāmas. 'Prāṇāyāma' is one word: "Do prāṇāyāma." But how? There is only one railway station, and there are 20 platforms. So, "go to the railway station," but which train? Which platform? The word 'prāṇāyāma' is the railway station, and the techniques are the different platforms and trains. Then there is a big list: Chandra Bhedan, Sūrya Bhedan, Nāḍī Śodhan, Anulom Vilom, Bastrika, Kapālbhāti, Siddhakālī, Siddharī, etc. What should I do, and why should I do it? The name, the technique, the duration, the benefit, and the precaution. You should know this for every prāṇāyāma; then you are the best yoga teacher. Sometimes it works if you are a lucky teacher. You know the story of Sonamukhī? Some teachers are like a sonamukhī. For example, in Vienna, Ekta, she is all the time doing the same thing, and it functions well. So, she is a sonamukhī yogī. But if we go systematically, it is good. Now, the names of the āsanas. You should also know what 'āsana' means. There are some good things. Āsan means your bed. Āsan means where you sit. Āsan means some mat on which you sit. Different kinds of āsanas? You may call it a yoga mat, but this is not a proper name; it is a yoga āsana. 'Asana' means posture: śavāsana, ānanda āsana. But 'śayān āsana', 'śavāsana'—'śava' means dead body. How a dead body lies. So you just lie like this. But many people have psychic problems; they have fear, and you say, "Just lie down like a dead." Oh God! You know the one story? I will not repeat it again. Do you know this? It was in 1984... no, 1978. One professor came; he was about 77 or 80 years old, a professor at Vienna University. He was from another country, another language, which I need not tell. One day, he telephoned Matajī. Was Katerina there? He said, "I would like to learn yoga, but I want a private lesson, okay?" So he came and asked, "Who is the teacher?" Matajī said... He came to me and said, "Sir, how are you? I'm good, so and so. I would like to practice yoga." I said, "OK." Then I told him, "Lie down in Śavāsana," and he lay down, the professor. That's the memory. I taught him a few āsanas, and he said, "Can you tell me the name of all the postures?" Śavāsana, this, this, this. After that he went to the market and bought a yoga book (at that time our book was not printed). He was searching for Śavāsana, and 'Śava' means a dead body. He read this at one o'clock in the night and couldn't sleep. So at three-thirty or four o'clock, he called me angrily: "Why do you teach me something like a dead body? Mr. Yogi, I came for two things. First, I want to be strong because I married my wife; she was 18 years old. She married as a young girl of 18. It is said that yoga makes one young. Second, I have fear of death because my wife is young; I don't want to die yet. And you are just opposite everything." I explained to him, I said, "Come tomorrow." He said, "No, I can't come tomorrow, I have only one civic time." I said, "OK, come that day, I will explain to you." The next day, eleven o'clock at night, again he called me. "I can't sleep. My heart is beating. I don't dare to close my eyes. Dead body." Sometimes professors are like this. I said, "Okay, exceptionally, please make half an hour time and come," and I explained. Then we gave the name Ānanda Āsana, so we quit the Śavāsana. You see, many āsanas. Śavāsana also: when you will lie down under the earth, that is the final āsana. Yes. So don't tell someone, "Do you need the final āsana?" Then it is called Śayān Āsana. Śayanāsana. Śayanāsana means lie down and sleep, the sleeping āsana. So śavāsana and śayanāsana are two things. Śavāsana is a dead body, and śayanāsana is relaxing, sleeping. Sometimes you see the picture of Viṣṇu like this in the ocean. That's Śayanāsa. In the evening, after the prayer, the pujārī, the priest, closes the curtain because now God is sleeping. When you go somewhere and they ask you, "Where is your āsan today?" In my suitcase? No. It means, where will you sleep today? So many things. So your yoga mat is your yoga āsana. Āsana for yoga, then the postures also mean āsana. So, my dear, don't be confused by anybody. You must know everything. You can make corrections for them because you are the teacher of Yoga in Daily Life. You are a practitioner of Yoga in Daily Life. So you have all these classical, original, good words. "Bring my āsana." Please bring my mattress, or some type of thing to sit on, correct? Āsan. So, āsan means kāya-sthairya, motionlessness, where you are comfortable and relaxed. Āsana means where you feel comfortable. Other yoga practice is called Yoga Vyāyam. 'Vyāyam' means exercise. That's it. So now you know what Prāṇāyāma means and what Āsana means. Don't forget it: yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma. Āsana and prāṇāyāma I explained to you already, but of course prāṇāyāma has a long, long history. You remember the last seminar here, we spoke about prāṇāyāma? For two weeks on the web, we had only prāṇāyāmas, prāṇa. So yoga has many, many different branches and miracles. This afternoon we will come again to the same subject of Rāja Yoga. This was only technical words. I didn't tell you we will get samādhi and this and that. 'Samādhi' also means different things. You know, when you said, "How can I get samādhi?" Yeah, we will put you in the earth. That's samādhi. That's mahāsamādhi. So don't hurry to get samādhi. Still be alive. There are so many different words in some scriptures written; we should know. Okay, this evening we will have different programs. The webcast will be at 7 o'clock PM, evening. Wish you all the best. Om Śānti Śānti...

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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