TV Channel

All devotees, blessings of Śrī Alagpurījī, Siddhapīṭhā, Paramparā. Today is Thursday, very close to the full moon. The constellation began with the moon the night before last. The moon has many different meanings, and it exerts a very strong influence on our Earth. It is that which gives a pleasant and cool atmosphere. The stories about the moon are very long, and you can also read about them in the Mahāśiva Purāṇa. But for yoga and for yogīs—for the practitioners—there are different meanings. The sun and moon both balance our two hemispheres. The left part of the hemisphere is taken over by the moon's influence. The mind, the principle of the mind, we call the Deva, or goddess of the moon, is the Chandra. Chandra is the moon. And the moon is that which deals with the emotions. Emotion must not be negative; emotion can be positive too. But the power is so strong. The cyclone, the hurricane, the tsunami, the movement of the earthquake—can you imagine who can shake the earth with the water? That is the moon. In the Bhagavad Gītā, Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa said: "Through the moonlight, I enter into the vegetation as nectar, the sweetness." The moon is that which is balancing our earth, so the mind is connected, and the mind is following or affected or influenced by the moon. The moon doesn't rise every day equally, every ghaṛī, every pala, and every hour. It is changing. With every second that takes place, the moon changes. And so in our mind, in our thinking, in our feelings, it is also always changing. When one wants to concentrate and balance the mind, then in yoga it is said, "Chandra Bhedana Prāṇāyāma." Chandra is the moon, and Bhedana is purification. This purification is of the Iḍā Nāḍī, our left nostril. So when the prāṇāyāma is practiced through the left nostril—all inhalation and exhalation through the left nostril—then the mind again balances the changing emotion in the mind and body, nerves, systems, etc., in our thinking. So the Chandra Bhedana Prāṇāyāma is very gentle, very soft, very easy; anyone can do it. When the full moon is, at that time the mind is on a certain level of feelings. I would not say emotion, but the activities of the mind are stabilizing. And the energy is so strong, and therefore in yoga it is said on the full moon you should fast. And so, on full moon day, many yogīs and many bhaktas, many people, they make a saṅkalpa, a vow that they will fast every full moon day. It also involves many different elements, principles, influences, and effects. So, fasting gives immense calmness and light, gentleness and harmony in the body. So full moon fasting is very important. Another thing is that those who practice prāṇāyāma, Chandra Bhedana Prāṇāyāma, then there is little chance to have brain hemorrhage, where we get then paralyzed half, the left part of our body. And this is because the Chandra Bhedana Prāṇāyāma was not done. After that, it is called the Sūrya Bhedana. Surya is the sun. The sun is equally shining. Its range is always equal. It's Earth which is moving, and all other planets are moving around the Sun. So that is stable. That is consciousness. That's consciousness, intellect. It means activities. It is the creativity. So when the mind creates some thoughts, then the Sūrya Nāḍī activates. So that's called creating the energy, creating the movements. And it brings a higher level of intellect. But intellect again has to be joined with the moon, otherwise dry intellect is not so good. Sometimes it leads to pride, anger, jealousy, and many other negative activities. Therefore, Sūrya Bhedanā also needs purification. So this Chandra and Surya, the purification of both of these, then comes Nāḍī Śodhana. So Nāḍī Śodhana can also be called Chandra Nāḍī Śodhana and Sūrya Nāḍī Śodhana. But here, Nāḍī Śodhana means also purification. But when the nāḍī is done, the purification, then, so, nāḍī śodhana or chandra bhedana, sūrya bhedana. Nāḍī śodhana, which nāḍī śodhana? So, Iḍā nāḍī or the Piṅgalā nāḍī. You know all of these names, the Sanskrit names, yogic language. Chandra is the Iḍā nāḍī. Iḍā nāḍī is a chandra nāḍī. Chandra nāḍī is called the left nostril, the moon nāḍī, sympathetic nāḍī. So, but when we say nāḍī śodhana, then which nāḍī śodhana? So generally, we will understand both nāḍī śodhana. After that, it is like this: after 14 days, the full moon comes. Then, after 14 days, the dark moon comes. So, these are the changes. So, when it is the dark moon side, we should practice more Sūrya Nāḍī practice and Candra Nāḍī after. This kind of pranayama practice is called Svara yoga, Svara sādhanā. So, svara has different meanings. First, svara is the sound. Sound of the sitar, sound of the guitar, sound of the harmonium, sound of the piano, and the sound of the flute. Flute, svara. So this is a svara yoga, balancing. Second, śvāsa yoga is the flow of nāḍīs, the nerves, changing every one and a half hours, left and right, automatically. So, for one and a half hours, the left nostril flows more, and then it changes to the right nostril. So, chandra nāḍī and sūrya nāḍī. This is a science, and this is a very powerful sādhanā for the yogīs. Those yogis, mostly they are getting siddhis, or to achieve their yogic kriyās, then they have to practice the svara nāḍī, svara yoga. This we will, perhaps in the summer, speak. We spoke once more the whole in detail: which day our Svara Nāḍī should flow when you get up in the morning, and which day you should go to sleep, lie down, through which Nāḍī is flowing. Then a yogī's consciousness is all the time bright, clear, and doesn't go to the ignorance, to the negative thinking. After this Śodhana, Nāḍī Śodhana, chandra-bhedana, sūrya-bhedana, or chandra-śodhana, sūrya-śodhana, after that comes Anuloma-Viloma. This pranayama, Anuloma-Viloma, has two steps. Inhale through the left nostril, exhale through the right nostril... Then, after 10-20 times, inhale through the right nostril and exhale through the left nostril. So this is called Anuloma-Viloma. Now, this is the first step. Full Anuloma-Viloma is: inhale through the right, exhale through the left, inhale through the left, exhale through the right. It is one round, and this is called Anuloma Viloma Prāṇāyāma. Through the Anuloma Viloma Prāṇāyāma, the yogī can go deep in meditation, and all the vṛttis, the restless thoughts, disappear. So before sitting in meditation, if you practice this prāṇāyāma for ten minutes, then our vṛttis—meaning our mental thinking, activities, and restlessness—all are relaxed and free. So this is also called anti-stress prāṇāyāma. It's very, very good. It gives peace of mind, clarity. One has a vision to see within oneself that balance of body, mind, and thoughts or activities, and the words that you speak. So this prāṇāyāma is very much connected to the moon. And today is a full moon. After that, there are some different kinds of prāṇāyāmas. But the svara yoga, svara prāṇāyāma, this is very important, very, very great. But it is many years of practice. It's not that tomorrow you will become perfect. It is a long, long way. Follow the discipline of when to drink water, when to eat, when to step. First, you have your foot on this earth when you get up, many, many things. Then there is prāṇāyāma for our health, which is also very good for our nābhi, our navel, the Maṇipūra Cakra. And this is Bhastrika Prāṇāyāma and the Kapālabhāti Prāṇāyāma. They are very good for the health, and also very good to calm down the emotions. That is very, very good. It will clear up all these nāḍīs. Because when we did not have this Chandra Bhedana and Sūrya Bhedana, then slowly, slowly, the laziness comes, tiredness comes, then one becomes more tāmasic, more sleeps, then these all glands in the brain, all activities of the brain go slow and slow and slow, body becomes tāmasic, tamas guṇa, rajas guṇa. Tamas and Rajas guṇa, either you are very angry and like this, or you are very lazy. And this is not good, not only for yogīs but for all. So brilliant, bright thoughts, brilliant brain—that is what we have to practice in Śīrṣāsana. Śīrṣāsana supports us to get more fresh energy and more blood towards the brain and towards the five Jñānendriyas. Jñāna indriyas, the five jñāna indriyas, and five karma indriyas. These are the ten indriyas, the senses. Jñāna indriyas are the senses of knowledge, to understand, to see, to realize, like, for example, eyes, how I see the red color, or white color, or green color, or yellow color, etc. If the blind, then you can ask, "Which color?" You there, you don't know anything. So this is jñāna karaṇa indriya. The sound we know, all kinds of sounds, if there is a human talking, if there is a bird singing, or air, or wind, this is all realized, recognized by the ears. So this is Jñānendriya. The smell, the knowledge, nose, nostrils, Jñānendriya. So the best quality of our energy we should bring to our Jñānendriyas. And so when we do śīrṣāsana, head standing, if you can't do the head standing, then at least do the yoga mudrā so that more circulation goes towards the head. So every day, at least three minutes, we should do the headstand. You will see how much energy comes to the brain and how clear it is in the brain. Activities, we need more activities there. So this is why jñāna and dhyāna are very near, close to the brain. Because the information from the brain is coming, and the jñānendriyas always give the alarm, they give the alertness, they give the awareness. Then come the Karmendriyas; this is the difference. So this is yogic science. It means to understand, for the human, human life and create positive and divine feelings in oneself and give them to others. And so today is a full moon, and I wish you all the best. Further, we will continue about this subject. There are other pranayama: brahmari pranayama, shitli pranayama, shitkari pranayama, ujjayi pranayama, many, many different kinds of pranayama. Each prāṇāyāma has a special effect on our body. But one should know for which purpose you are doing this kind of prāṇāyāma. If you do not know, and some other energy awakes in you, then you cannot control it. So if you have no master, no proper yoga teacher, then see some ancient yogic books and literature. So, I wish you all the best and the blessings of Mahāprabhujī, Gurujī, and Devapurījī. And wish you a very good evening. ARI OM ŚRĪ UDIP NAYAN BHAGAVĀN DEV PURĪ JĪ MAHĀDEVA SATGURU SVĀMĪ MADUVANA JĪ BHAGAVĀN SATYA SANĀTANA DHĀ OM ŚĀNTI