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Part 1: A Yoga in Daily Life Practice: Relaxation, Breath, and Movement Dear friends, welcome again to India, to the center of Yoga in Daily Life, which is situated in Om Vishwadeep Gurukul Swami Maheshwarananda Ashram. It is in the northwest of India, in the state of Rajasthan, near Pali, close to a small village called Jadan. This center is a complex of buildings where yoga retreat seminars are held, and we are now having such a retreat together with Paramahaṁswāmī Maheśvarānanda. We continue our practice according to the system of Yoga in Daily Life. This system is unique because it is systematic. We are going to practice the fourth part of the first level from this system. So, welcome. We start with Oṃ singing. Sit in a comfortable position, either in Sukhāsana, Siddhāsana, or in Vajrāsana, whatever is comfortable for you. Close your eyes gently. Take a deep inhalation and exhalation, and with another inhalation, start singing Oṃ. Feel the vibration within your inner space, as well as outside around you. This vibration is purifying your inner environment as well as the outer environment. Slowly, we will start with relaxation. Lie down on your back for Ānanda Āsana. Ānanda Āsana is a relaxing position, so just lie very comfortably on your back. Legs are slightly apart, hands are also slightly apart from the body. Relax the whole body. Relax the right leg from the toes to the hip joint. Feel how with every exhalation the whole leg is becoming softer, a little bit lighter, warmer. You can feel the sensation of relaxation also as a heaviness. Feel your breath, and with every exhalation, relax all the muscles of your right leg. Do not make any movement. Just concentrate on the muscles of your leg and relax it. Relax the left leg. Begin with the toes up to the hip joint on the left side and relax the whole left leg. Feel like with every exhalation, the whole left leg is more and more heavy, warm, and relaxed. It’s a pleasant feeling in the muscles. Continue with the relaxation towards the trunk of your body. Relax your abdomen muscles, relax your back muscles, relax your chest, relax your shoulders. The whole trunk of the body is relaxed, nicely warm, and soft. Relax all the fingers of the right hand. Relax the wrist, muscles of the right arm, and the shoulder blade. Relax the left hand. Begin with the fingers. Relax the muscles of the left arm, and relax the shoulder and shoulder blade. Now, direct your awareness towards your throat. Relax all the muscles of your throat. Relax the area of the thyroid gland. Relax your jaws and all the muscles of your face. Do not clench your teeth. Relax your tongue. Relax your lips and the face muscles. Relax your forehead, and relax your hair too. The whole body is completely relaxed. Now draw your awareness towards your nose. Feel both nostrils and feel the breath, how it is coming inside into your lungs and the same way back. Just try to follow the whole path of the breath inside and feel how it is filling all the bronchial system and the lungs, the alveoli. The breath is going out. When you inhale, the breath is a little bit cooler. When you exhale, you feel that your breath is warmer. Feel how your breath is just natural. Do not influence your breath in this moment. Just feel it. Just feel how the body is breathing. We will continue with the practice of full yoga breath. This breath consists of three parts: abdominal breathing, chest breathing, and clavicular breathing. When we put together all these three breaths into one wave, we create a full yoga breath. If we train our body in breathing this way in our yoga practice, then naturally the body remembers this way of breathing, and it breathes the whole day long like this. We will first begin with the abdominal breathing. Put your palm on your belly and direct your breathing consciously into your abdomen. With inhalation, the abdomen expands, and with exhalation, the abdomen goes back down. With inhalation, your whole belly is filling with air. This can be in your imagination, but in reality it is like that. The diaphragm is being pressed down by the expansion of the lungs, and it’s increasing the tension or the pressure in the belly, and that’s why the belly is going up. So, try to increase this movement and pull the belly up with the inhalation, and with exhalation, the belly goes down. This breathing is very, very relaxed. It’s supplying the body with the most oxygen because it is using most of the capacity of the lungs. Now we will continue with chest breathing. Put both your hands on your chest, around the ribs. Touch the ribs. Your thumb should be under your body. Feel the ribs, and now with every inhalation, expand the chest. You should feel how the ribs are going apart, and with exhalation, going again close to each other. So with inhalation, the chest is expanding, the ribs are going apart from each other, and with exhalation, it’s contracting. You are filling most of the middle part of your lungs with air. Now we are going to slowly move to the clavicle breathing. Put your hands close to your collarbone and try to imagine the tips of your lungs. It’s like the top of the pyramid, and this top is being expanded with inhalation and contracted with exhalation. So with inhalation, the collarbone lifts up a little bit, and with exhalation, the collarbone goes down. Also, it can be together with the slight movement of your shoulders. Consciously direct your breathing toward the top part of your lungs. If you feel this correctly, then put your hands back close to your body. Now we will join all these three parts of the breath together in one wave. So, put your right hand on your belly and your left hand on your chest. Inhalation with expansion of the belly, expansion of the chest. Exhalation with contraction of the belly, contraction of the chest. The collar bones are going up with inhalation, and with exhalation, the collar bones are going down, the chest is contracting, and the belly is going down. With the next exhalation, put your hands back beside the body, and we will deepen this practice together and join it with the movement of the hands. So, start with the movement of the hands upwards with inhalation. The hands go up above your head with inhalation, and with exhalation, they go down. Try to feel the full yoga breath, and try to feel how this practice is supporting and increasing the full yoga breath. Now we will continue with stretching the body. With inhalation, the right hand goes up above the body, and you’re stretching your body between your heel and the tip of the fingers, only the right side of your body. With exhalation, going back. With another inhalation, the left side. Stretch your body as much as possible. Feel all the muscles on the left side of your body, and stretch them as much as possible. And with exhalation, relax and go back. With another inhalation, we will raise both hands upward, over the head. Relax your hands and legs and wait for another inhalation. With this inhalation, do the diagonal stretching, which means stretch your right hand and your left leg and pull them as far as possible. With exhalation, relax it. With another inhalation, do the same on the other side. Diagonal stretching, and you should feel that all your muscles of the leg and the hand are being stretched. With exhalation, completely relax all the muscles. Do the other side again. With inhalation, stretch, and you should feel the tension, and you should also feel your lower back. Exhalation, complete relaxation. Be aware of the changes between tension and relaxation. The other side: inhalation, stretching as much as possible; exhalation, complete relaxation. We will continue with the rolling of the body. Leave the hands as they are, wait for another inhalation, and turn your body on one side; with exhalation, back. Inhalation one side, exhalation to the middle. Try to do this movement as consciously as possible, and try to coordinate your muscles. Make them strong. You have to create tension in the moment of moving to one side in most of the muscles of your body to keep it straight. This is the point of this practice. In the middle, there can be a short relaxation. Purījī, Purījī... On the right side, with inhalation, go back and relax. Wait for another inhalation and do the same on the other side. With exhalation, the knee should be pulled towards the shoulder as much as possible. Don’t forget about the rotation of the head to the left side. This is exhalation, and with inhalation, go back. Once again, both sides. This practice is helping to solve back problems and pain in the sacroiliac joint. It relaxes the muscles along the spine and promotes the mobility of the hips. It should not be practiced by people who have acute back pain or problems. Now we will continue with bicycling. Put your hands beside your body, with your palms facing downwards. With inhalation, bend your knee and pull it towards your chest. Try to feel your lower back. First, try to feel your lower back when the knee is bent, and feel the contact between the lower back and the floor. Now, start with bicycling, but still feel that the lower back is attached to the floor. It is the most essential part of this practice that the lower back should not be apart from the floor. Do the rotation ten times on one side, and remember that there should be a right angle in the ankle joint. Feel your abdomen muscles, feel your lower back, feel your hip joint, and feel the knee. Make the rotation the other way around and relax. We will do the same on the other side. First, bend your knee and feel the contact of your lower back with the floor. You can press it a little bit more and keep it there. Now, start with rotating. Do not move your leg to the left side or the right side. Go with the rotation only, straight, and keep the right angle in the ankle joint. Again, you do the opposite direction, and relax. Deep inhalation and exhalation. Feel your lower abdomen, your stomach muscles, feel the circulation in the legs, feel your hip joints, and your ankles, and your knees. We will continue with alternate bicycling. This means bend your knees, pose, again press your lower back towards the floor, and try to feel it. Then lift your knees towards your chest and start bicycling, alternate bicycling. A few times, ten times one way and ten times the other way around. This practice has an effect on two or three levels. First is the level of muscles and the skeleton. It’s working with abdominal muscles, and it’s strengthening the muscles of the legs. Abdomen bicycle, bicycle... Those with lower back problems can place their palms under their buttocks. Then it becomes easier. If you have no problems with the lower back or abdomen muscles, leave your hands as they were before. Lift your knees a little bit up and start bicycling, one round one way and the other way, ten times there and ten times the other way. Another effect of this practice is on the system of the veins. It helps people who have varicosis of the leg veins and people who are recovering from thrombosis. It should not be practiced by those who have had abdominal operations or who have some severe problem in the lower back. Lower back and relax. Deep inhalation and exhalation. Feel the whole body, feel the relaxation of all the muscles, and feel the effect of the practice. Try to withdraw your awareness towards those parts of the body which were practicing. This means abdomen muscles, hip joints, knees, and thigh muscles. We will continue with Marjari, so you can stand up slowly. First, just lift up your head, then the shoulders, and then, with the help of your hands, rise up. We will continue with Macharī. So, the beginning position is Vajrāsana. The hands are nicely relaxed on the thighs. Straighten your back. Pull your shoulders a little bit backwards, and the shoulder blades are going close to each other. Raise your head, and you start with inhalation, going up. With exhalation going down, arch your back and look to your belly. With inhalation, start bending your back from the lower back through the thoracic part until the head, and your gaze goes up. With exhalation, you just start arching your back, and again start from the lower back through the thoracic part till the head, and continue the movement together with the breath. With inhalation and with exhalation. This practice increases digestion. It’s increasing the circulation in the lower abdominal organs. It’s good for the women. It’s also increasing the abdominal breath. And it’s relaxing as well as stretching the back muscles. In the arch position, go up with inhalation and down with exhalation. Close your eyes, relax completely, place your hands on your knees, and take a deep inhale and exhale. Part 2: A Guided Yoga Practice: From Āsana to Prāṇāyāma Feel the effect of the practice on your body, on your breath, on your consciousness, and on your feelings. Try to catch all the levels on which this practice is working: your physical body, your breath, your consciousness, and your feelings. We will continue with Half Butterfly. This practice begins from the position with stretched legs. Now, bend your right knee and put your foot as close to your hip as possible on the thigh. Straighten your back, relax your hands, and make a slight pressure on your knee so that your hip joint is relaxed with this practice. Continue with this pressure, with this slight movement. Your back should be straight all the time. You can either close your eyes or open your eyes, but point your look at only one place. Nothing should disturb you. With inhalation, lift up your left hand over your body. Stretch yourself as far as possible. With exhalation and with a stretched back, go down toward your left leg as far as possible. Catch whatever you can—either the thigh, the knee, the calf, or the foot—and continue the movement. If you can, you can also bend down your head toward your leg. With inhalation, go up again. Stretch yourself up as much as possible, and with exhalation, go down and relax. Completely relax and feel the feeling which is now in your body. Mahāprabhujī Karatā He Karatā He... Karatā Purījī, Purījī... In the case of stretching, you can pull your toes toward your body if you want to increase the stretch. But the right position is as it was before. With inhalation, go up. Again, stretch yourself as far as possible toward the ceiling, then exhalation and relaxation. Completely relax and feel your back, and become aware of how your concentration has improved now. Mahāprabhudīp Karata He Kevalam, Mahāprabhudīp Karata. Do the movement there. Wait for exhalation. With exhalation, bend your head and your trunk downwards. Feel that it’s changing the angle in the hip joints, which means that it’s a little bit increasing the movement and the effect of the movement in the hip joints. With inhalation, go up again, and with another exhalation, again go back down. With the second repetition of this practice, you can feel that the practice is a little bit easier, that the body is already used to it and knows how to do it, and it’s more effective and better. Again, come up with inhalation, exhale, another inhalation, and with exhalation again bow down the third time. Feel how it is now. What kind of feelings do you have now when you are practicing the third time? The body already knows how to do it and is increasing the effect of the practice. Inhalation, come back and relax. We will continue with rope pulling. This practice is with stretched legs. Again, remember your spinal column, make it straight. Pull your shoulders a little bit downwards and backwards, and the shoulder blades a little bit closer to each other—not too much, just a little bit, so that your back is straight. With inhalation, lift your hand up. Imagine that you are catching a rope. Catch it strongly and pull it downwards with exhalation. You have to create a lot of pressure because what you are pulling down is very heavy. When your head touches the knee, completely relax the hand, and on the other side, the hand is relaxed, catching the rope. Exhale, and with inhalation, lift your hand up. Imagine that you are catching a rope; catch it strongly and pull it downwards with exhalation. You have to create a lot of pressure because you are pulling down something very heavy, and when your head touches the knee, completely relax the hand. On the other side, the hand is relaxed, catching the rope. Exhale, and with inhalation, lift your hand up. Imagine that you are catching a rope, catch it strongly, and pull it downwards with exhalation, and you have to create a lot of pressure because that is what you are pulling down. Exhaling strong tension with exhalation, as far as it touches the leg, completely relax. Another side, hand is relaxed, catching the rope firmly, pulling it down, and complete relaxation of all the hand muscles, another side. Relaxation now comes, the tension exhalation and relaxation. Inhale and exhale and relax. Just feel it. We will continue with bending and straightening the arms. Again, the beginning position is with straight legs. Put your arms parallel to the floor, going up. The hands are going up in front of your body. The palms are facing upward toward the ceiling. With inhalation, put the tips of your fingers to your shoulders. Bend your elbows. Inhale, back. Inhale and exhale. Control the movement. Be aware of the movement. The movement is under your control, and you are completely aware of each and every part of the movement. Keep your upper arm parallel with the floor all the time and relax. Now we will do a similar practice sideways. Put your arms up, sidewards, with your palms facing toward the ceiling. Again, the hands should be parallel with the floor. With inhalation, the tip of the fingers on the shoulders; exhalation, back. The practice has the same principle. Coordinate it with deep breathing and control the movement. Purījī, Purījī... Be aware of the movement in your shoulders, and feel all the muscles and ligaments around the shoulder. This practice is also strengthening the shoulder muscles. It is increasing the circulation in the small vessels in the shoulders, which means it is nourishing the joint and deepens the breath. Deep breath and relax also releases the tension in the neck and relaxes deeply. Inhale and exhale. We will continue with foot and toe exercises. Concentrate on your feet and make a movement in your toes, like that you scratch them together with exhalation, and with inhalation, open them sidewards. Concentrate on your fingers with Purījī, Purījī... With exhalation, coming up towards your body. So, exhalation down and inhalation up towards your body. Again, exhalation down, exhalation up. You should feel how, with every flexion, you can feel the calf muscles being stretched. With every inhalation and with every pulling of the feet towards your body, you can press a little bit also in this position, the knees towards the floor, and it’s increasing the movement in the thigh. So, with inhalation, pull your toes towards your body, and with exhalation, bend them. This practice is working on the level of the thigh muscles; it’s stretching them, it’s helping the circulation in the calf muscles. Mahāprabhudīp Karata He Kevalam, Mahāprabhudīp Karata He Kevalam. Synchronized, both feet together. Feel the movement in the ankle joints, and go in the opposite direction too. We can change the direction and control the movement perfectly, coordinating it. Another practice which is concentrated on the area of the ankles is ankle rotation. Bend your right leg at the knee and place your right leg on the left leg so that your ankle joint is near the area of the left knee, but the right ankle is not completely touching the body. It should be a little bit in the air so that you can do the movement there nicely. Catch your thumb, your big toe, and start the rotation in the ankle joint, one side. Try to do the movement as far as possible and feel all the small details. This practice is just relaxing and reducing the tension there. You can go in the other direction also. It’s improving and increasing the blood circulation in this joint too. Mahāprabhujī promotes the mobility of the toes and bones there in the other direction. All these practices are promoting the mobility of the toes, stimulating the circulation of the blood into the feet, and stretching frequently shortened muscles in the soles and the feet. They are helping to counteract fallen arches and flat feet. All these practices are increasing the circulation of blood into the toes, feet, and legs. They stretch the lower leg and foot muscles. They help to relieve varicose veins, tiredness, and swelling of the legs. They strengthen the foot muscles and promote mobility of the ankles. They stimulate blood circulation, helping to relieve varicose veins and swollen legs. They are promoting circulation and relaxation of the ankles, as well as their flexibility. We will now finish the physical part of this morning’s exercise with walking on toes and heels. This exercise begins from a standing position. Stand up, legs slightly apart, and raise your arms up above the body. Clasp the fingers, look to the ceiling, and put yourself up on your toes. When you’re up on the toes, you’re going to start walking on the toes. Be aware of the movement and hold the position on your toes as much as possible. It relaxes the whole body. It’s stimulating the circulation. It’s strengthening the leg and foot muscles. It’s very good for flat feet and fallen arches. It also encourages the venous return in the legs. Now you can change and start walking on the heels. Walking on the heels, and again try to coordinate your movement as much as possible. This walking is stretching the calf muscles and strengthening the foot extensors. Now we will finish slowly and relax in a standing position, and we will end our practice with Ānanda Āsana, relaxation, and prāṇāyāma. Again, make Ānanda Āsana. Nicely relax on your back, legs slightly apart, and hands slightly apart from the body, and relax. Deep inhalation and exhalation. Relax the whole body. Relax your legs. Relax both arms. Relax your belly. Relax the trunk of your body. Feel and relax your neck, thyroid gland. Feel and relax all the muscles of your face. Feel all the practice and what you feel now. Analyze the changes in your body after the yoga practice. How do I feel after this one hour of yoga exercise? What does this exercise give to me? You can try to make a slight smile on your face and feel how this smile is influencing your inner space. Feel relaxed and withdraw your awareness toward your breath. Feel both nostrils, and again feel the flow of the breath towards your lungs. Try to follow the whole path of the breath towards your lungs. How the breath is coming in and going out. Slowly we will start with our prāṇāyāma practice. Prāṇāyāma is a breath technique, and it is performed in a sitting position. Wait for inhalation, and with inhalation, rise up slowly, slowly. First your head, then your shoulders, and then the trunk of the body. Take a comfortable seat, either Sukhāsana, Siddhāsana, or if you cannot, then make or even Vajrāsana. Your back is straight, head is straightened, but your chin is a little bit. Both arms are relaxed and placed on the knees, and the chin mudrā is formed. It means the tongue and the second finger are touching each other. From this position, we will move to prāṇāyāma mudrā. So, bend your left hand, right hand, sorry, and make prāṇāyāma mudrā. The second and third fingers are touching the eyebrow center. The other two fingers are a little bit bent, and with the thumb, the right thumb, close your right nostril and breathe only through the left nostril. Twenty times inhalation and exhalation. Feel the flow of the breath into your lungs. Again, follow the whole path of the breath inside and outside. Do not influence your breath in this stage, in the first part of this practice. Just follow the movement, just watch the breathing. With exhalation, after 20 rounds, put your hand back on your knee. With another inhalation, again make Prāṇāyāma Mudrā and do the same practice to the other side. It means that the second finger and the third finger are again touching the forehead. With the ring finger, you close your left nostril and inhale and exhale twenty times only through the right nostril. Feel your breath. Be aware of your breath. You can continue after this pranayama practice with self-inquiry meditation from Yoga in Daily Life, the first level. Now we will end our practice with three times singing Om and singing the mantra Nāhaṁ Karatā. This mantra is in Sanskrit language, and its meaning is: I am not the one who is doing; God is the doer. It means that whatever we do, we just dedicate and surrender to God. Deep inhalation and three times Om singing. Nāhaṁ Karatā Prabhudīp Karatā Mahāprabhudīp Karatā He Kevalaṁ Śāntiṁ Śāntiṁ Śāntiḥī. Do not open your eyes still, but move your legs and move your hands. Wrap your palms together and wrap them strongly, and increase the movement in the whole body. With the wrapping of your hands, become extrovert. Become aware of your space around you. Become aware of the area where you are. Put your hands on your face. Wrap your face muscles. Warm them. Open your eyes. Become extroverted. You can bow down your head towards the floor and feel the circulation in the brain, feel the circulation in your eyes and the organs in your head after this prānāyāma practice and meditation. It’s very good, it’s even necessary because the brain needs relaxation.