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Part 1: Morning Sādhānā: Relaxation and Initial Āsanas Asatoma Sadgamaya, Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya, Mṛtyormā Amṛtam Gamaya. Sarveśām Svastirbhavatu, Sarveśām Śāntirbhavatu, Sarveśām Maṅgalam Bhavatu, Sarveśām Pūrṇam Bhavatu. Śāntiḥ, Śāntiḥ... Good morning. Welcome to our morning sādhānā at Om Viśvadīpa Gurukul Āśram, Swami Maheśvarānanda Āśram in Jhadan, District Pali, India. We will practice this morning according to the Yoga in Daily Life system, following this book. We will start from the first part. We have a demonstrator here, so we can begin slowly as the book guides us and as Swami Maheshwarananda guides us in the book, starting with relaxation. Please take the position of Ānanda Āsana. This is a lying, relaxation position. Your legs should be slightly apart from each other, your hands slightly apart from your body with the palms facing upwards. Relax your whole body and check the position of your spine. Your spine should be as much on the floor as possible. To achieve this, lift your pelvis slightly so you feel your lower back is really down on the floor. Lie on the floor and move your shoulders a little so you feel the part of the spine between the shoulders is also nicely relaxed and pressed against the floor. Take several deep breaths in and out—deep inhalation and exhalation. Relax your whole body from your toes to the top of your head. With each inhalation, feel a slight increase of tension in the body. With each exhalation, feel all the tension from your body being released, going out. Relax your right leg from the tips of your toes to the hip. You should feel how the leg becomes heavier and more relaxed with each exhalation. You may feel it as warmth in the muscles, or you may have different sensations. Move your attention to your left leg and again relax the whole leg from the tips of the toes to the hip. Again, feel how with each exhalation all the muscles become more relaxed, heavy, soft, and warm. Now direct your attention to your right hand. Relax all the fingers, the wrist, the lower arm, elbow, upper arm, and shoulder. Draw your attention to the left side of your body, to your left hand, and again relax your fingers. Relax the muscles of your lower arm, elbow, upper arm, and shoulder. Try to relax. Relax your abdominal muscles. Try to relax your chest muscles and all the small muscles in your face: the round and circular muscles around your lips, the round muscles around your eyes, your entire forehead, and the whole part of your head covered with hair. Relax your jaws. Do not bite your teeth. Relax your tongue as well. Now, withdraw your awareness to the breath process. Simply feel how the body is inhaling and how it is exhaling. Just feel the process. This is how your body is breathing; you don’t have to do anything. Just watch your breath, how it is relaxed and how the body itself is breathing. Lift your right hand and place it on your abdomen, palm touching it. Feel how the abdomen rises and opens with each inhalation, and how it goes down and depresses with each exhalation. Feel as if the hand is going up with inhalation and down with exhalation. Now, put your will into the breath process. Consciously lift your abdomen up with inhalation and press it down with exhalation. Do this consciously because you are able to work with your breath consciously. One part of the breath process is that the breath flows by itself, but another part is that you can influence the breath. This possibility leads you to an understanding of your body and its processes. Place your hand on your chest, palm upwards. Feel how with each inhalation the chest opens and the ribs move apart. Take a deep breath in and out into the chest area, just into the chest area. Do not mind the abdominal breathing so much; concentrate your breath to the chest. Deep inhalation and exhalation, just to the chest. Concentrate on your chest and how it opens with inhalation. The lungs are full of breath now, and with exhalation, the chest withdraws and presses, and the ribs move closer together. Now, place your hand on your collarbone, palm upwards, so the tips of your fingers face towards your ear. Feel the breath there. Feel how the collarbones rise up with inhalation and go down with exhalation. Just concentrate on the collarbones, on this area where the tips of the lungs are, and how the tips of the lungs feel with the breath. With every inhalation, the collarbones raise up, and with exhalation, they slightly go down. Consciously lead your breath to that part of your body, to the tips of the lungs. Now, these three parts of the breath will join together. You can put your hand back and try to consciously inhale into the abdomen, then lead the wave of breath through the chest up to the collarbones, and again back down from the collarbones, through the chest, to the abdomen. It is a wave going through the whole trunk of the body. At the beginning, the abdomen goes up, then the chest opens, and then the collarbones rise up. With exhalation, the collarbones go down, the chest is pressed, and the abdomen goes down. Do this consciously. Do it consciously and train your body in this yogic way of breathing. This is the full yoga breath. If you train your body to breathe like this in yoga classes or during your yoga exercises, then the body will do this breathing automatically throughout the day. Your life will be more relaxed because this way of breathing relaxes the body and fully allows the lungs to take in oxygen, nourishing the body and balancing its metabolism. At this moment, we will slowly start with the physical exercises. The physical exercises of Yoga in Daily Life are called āsanas. But āsana actually means a position; it means a person remains in one position, relaxed, for a certain time. Another part of yoga exercises are called yog vyāyam. This means there is more movement in the exercise than just standing in a position. So now we will start with actual yog vyāyam. The exercises at the beginning are very simple, and we must do them consciously together with the breath and in a relaxed manner. The first exercise is stretching the body. With inhalation, raise your hands up above your head and stretch your whole body on the left and right sides. Pull all the muscles behind your heel and behind the tips of the fingers on the right side. With exhalation, go down and relax. The same on the left side. With inhalation, the hand goes up above the head, stretching the whole left side of the body tightly. You must feel the tension now in the left side of the body, with all muscles stretched. Exhalation down. Continue on the other side. Inhalation up, stretching. Exhalation down. Feel the difference between tension and relaxation once again on each side with inhalation. Now there is tension on the right side of the body; the muscles are stretched. You can hold it a little, breathe there, and then with exhalation go back to complete relaxation—absolutely complete relaxation of that part of the body which was just stretched. Wait for the breath and come to the left side, stretching and relaxing with exhalation. The next exercise is turning the head. In this position, with legs slightly apart and palms facing upwards, turn your head to the left side with exhalation, and with inhalation back to the middle. Hands are stretched sidewards. Try to do it sidewards as much as possible, using your neck muscles to get into a position that is as much as possible for the body, yet as comfortable as possible. Now we stay in the middle. Bend your knees, keeping them together. Wait for the exhalation, and when it comes, bend your whole legs to the right side and your hand to the left side. The legs are together, touching each other; the knees are touching. The head goes in the opposite direction with exhalation. With inhalation, go back to the middle. The other way around: exhalation and inhalation. Your heels should be as close to your buttocks as possible. You must feel the twisting in the spine. This exercise concentrates on the lower back. It reduces tension there, stretches the muscles, helps greatly against back pain, and relaxes the sacroiliac junction, which often causes back pain. Stay in the middle. Lift your feet from the ground and pull your knees towards your body as much as possible. Clasp your hands around your knees and pull them towards your body. Feel how your lower back is now stretched and how it is touching the floor. You can increase this contact by pressing your abdominal muscles a little more to feel the lower back. You can do a little movement there—a circular movement in the lower back or a slight up-and-down movement around the vertebrae of your lower back, just to feel them. You can move a little, rotating the whole pelvis slightly, just to feel that area and realize it is there. Our practice is concentrated there. Take a deep inhalation, and with exhalation, roll your whole body to the right side, including the shoulder. With inhalation, come back. With the next exhalation, go to the opposite side. Roll your body like this several times from side to side. Keep your knees as close to your chest as possible. This will arch the lower back, the lumbar spine, and the work is there. Put your legs back and relax your hands on the floor again, beside your body. Relax. Take a deep inhalation and exhalation. Feel now with every exhalation the lower back—the area that was just practiced—and also feel your abdominal muscles. There was tension and work there, and now these muscles are relaxing nicely. A flow of new energy, Prāṇa, is nourishing them now. Deep inhalation and exhalation. Slowly, we will start practicing in a standing position. Either with the help of your hands, or if you can using your abdominal muscles while keeping your lower back pressed to the floor, come up to a sitting position. Very good. Wait a little so you don’t feel dizzy after standing up, and then slowly stand up. Now comes shoulder raising. Stand with legs slightly apart, toes facing a little sidewards, and your whole body nicely relaxed. Become aware of your spine. See and feel how your spine is nicely stretched, including the tip of your head—as if your spine were going up and a stick were going through it and out the top of your head. This will nicely strengthen your spine and relax your shoulders. Pull your shoulder blades a little towards each other, and relax your hands. We will begin with shoulder raising. In this position, with inhalation, pull your right shoulder up towards your ear, and with exhalation go down and feel the relaxation. Other side: inhalation up, exhalation down. Do not direct the shoulder towards the ear, only straight upwards, and with exhalation down, relax completely—the whole hand, arm, everything. Inhalation up, exhalation down. Once again on each side, coordinating the movement with the breath. Now we will begin rotating the shoulders. Pull your shoulder blades towards each other a little and start rotating the balls of the shoulders to the front. Feel each and every muscle that has to work for this movement, how it is working inside the joint. If you can, imagine the joint: there is a head of the joint, like a little bowl, and the movement is just there. Feel everything—your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones. Now, opposite direction. The arms, wrists, and hands are relaxed; only the shoulders are working. The rest of the hand is passive and only follows the movement of the shoulder. Now we will move to shoulder cycling with arms bent. This means that with inhalation, you raise your hands up and place your hands on your shoulders. Now start rotating, and again, follow the breath process. Do not try to influence your breath, but put the movement into the breath process—with inhalation up and exhalation down, as your breath guides you. Opposite direction. Deep inhale. Feel how the chest opens when you are up, and how you press the chest when your elbows go to the front. Very good. Relax. Now, cross the arms above the head. This means that with inhalation, you move your hands sidewards, and when they are parallel with the floor, leave them there. Realize your position. Again, straighten your spine. Pull your shoulders a little towards each other. Now, turn your palms to the front. With inhalation, go up above your head, crossing your arms. With exhalation, come down to the same position, with hands parallel to the floor. Continue. Inhalation up. Feel the movements from the tips of your hands, as if they were guiding the movements. This will nicely stretch all the hand muscles. You want to reach as far and as high as possible. Inhalation up, crossing them. Exhalation down. You should also feel the movements in the area of the muscles between your shoulder blades. Relax again in a standing position. Deep inhalation and exhalation, and relax. Now we will do bending and straightening the arms. This means that with inhalation you move your hands to the front, palms facing upwards. With another inhalation, bend your elbows so the tips of your fingers touch your shoulders. Exhalation back. Inhalation, tips of the fingers on the shoulders. Keep your spine still and straight. Again, harmonize the movement with the breath so you feel your breath is guiding the movement. Very good. Relax in a standing position again. Once more, deep inhalation and exhalation. Now we go to weight shifting. Place your legs a little more apart from each other and put your hands around your hips. Now, bend your right knee and shift the weight of your whole body to your right leg with inhalation. Come back, then the other way around. You should feel how the thigh muscle holds most of your body's weight. This strengthens the muscles and the knees. People with knee problems or after knee surgery should be careful with this exercise. Concentrate on the muscles that are now strengthening—the thigh muscles. You can remain a little in position to feel how the muscle is now holding the weight. Again, up and the other way around. Now comes a similar exercise concentrated on the calf muscle. Part 2: A Gentle Morning Yoga Practice The movement is very similar; this time, we will pull the feet up onto the toes. So again, with an inhalation, place your feet on the toes and feel most of the tension in the calf muscles. For the other direction: exhale to one side, inhale back. Once again, you can do each side a little. Remain there and just feel the calf muscles. Feel them strengthening, and then go back. If you wish, you can stay in this position for a few deep inhalations and exhalations, simply feeling the muscle. Of course, this depends on your physical condition. Return to the middle, then relax. Take a deep inhalation and exhalation again. Now, feel your calf muscles and your thigh muscles, noticing how they relax nicely with each exhalation, and how new energy flows into them. Feel how the blood flow increases there, bringing new blood that carries fresh oxygen and removes all waste from the muscles, nourishing them. We will relax again for some time in Ānanda Āsana. This means positioning the legs slightly apart from each other, with hands apart from the body and palms facing upwards. Correct your spine position by lifting your pelvis a little and feeling the spine of your lower back touch the floor. Move your shoulders and shoulder blades. Move your head to the left and right, and feel how the spine stretches along the floor. Take a few deep inhalations and exhalations into the abdomen at the beginning. When you feel the body is completely relaxed, simply let it breathe with the full yoga breath. This means the inhalation begins with the abdomen, then the wave of breath moves through the chest toward the collarbones. The exhalation moves back, with the wave going from the collarbones through the chest to the abdomen. Just let the body breathe like that; it is a natural process, and you simply follow and observe it. Relax your legs, relax your hands, and relax the muscles of your face, tongue, and jaw. Wait for the next inhalation, and with it, slowly rise up. Again, if you cannot rise up using only your abdominal muscles, you may use your hands, but keep the lower back pressed to the floor while going up. The next āsana is called Pavanamukta Āsana. Sit with your legs stretched out. Again, correct your spine position, relax your shoulders, elbows, and hands. With an inhalation, lift your right leg slightly above the floor and clasp your hands under the knee. Keep the whole leg straightened a little above the floor. From this position, we begin: inhale, bend the knee, bring it close to the chest, bend your forehead, and try to touch your nose or forehead to the knee. Exhale and return. Do not put your leg back on the floor; keep it about five centimeters above. Wait for the next inhalation and continue. Try to press your thigh toward your chest as much as possible and bend your head. You should feel how this practice presses the lower abdomen. It works with the intestines, helping them function and nourishing them with oxygen and fresh blood. That is why this practice is also recommended for people with constipation. Additionally, this position relieves pain in the lower back and the area of the sacroiliac joint. Once more, and then we will move to the other side. The sciatic nerves, which run along the back of the thigh and calf, are also engaged, and sciatic nerve pain can be relieved by this practice. However, chronic problems in an acute stage should not be practiced. Once or twice more, feel the whole spine bending and then strengthening again. Try to keep your spine straight the entire time. The next practice is called Half Butterfly. The position is the same: hands relaxed on the knees, legs also relaxed. Bend your right knee and pull your foot to the upper part of your thigh, as close to the hip as possible. If you cannot do this position, you may use an alternative where the foot rests on the floor, parallel to your thighs. Since we have an advanced practitioner here, we will do it this way. Again, strengthen your back. Be aware of your back, and with your right hand, press the knee slightly toward the floor. Maintain this slight movement and feel the movement in your hip joint. The fingers of your left hand hold the toes. Now, repeat the exercise on the left side. Again, be aware of your spine at all times; it should be straightened. Do not bend down toward the knee. Your head should always face upward, looking straight ahead. Just feel the movement in the hip, noticing how all the tissues there—the ligaments and muscles—are being practiced and nourished because the blood flow is now increasing in that area, not only through movement but also through concentration. This exercise releases pain in the hips, increases hip mobility, helps people with arthrosis, and prepares one for meditation positions. The last exercise from the first part of Yoga in Daily Life is called Marjari. Marjari is a very beautiful position, and "Marjari" means a cat. This exercise mimics the movement of a cat. We begin with Vajrāsana, which means sitting on the heels. You can feel your buttocks between your heels. Straighten your spine, and relax your hands nicely on your thighs. Your elbows and shoulders are also relaxed. From this position, we will rise up, but we will try to perform the movement of going up onto the knees as much as possible with the help of the thigh muscles. This means that while going up, we try to pull the pelvis slightly forward and rise using our thigh muscles. Very good. Inhale, exhale, and go down. Hands touch the floor, and now arch your spine. Your head goes down; you can look toward your abdomen and feel the arch of the whole spine. With an inhalation, slowly begin to bend your spine, starting from the lower back and moving upward like a wave that travels through the spine up to the head, and look up. Now you feel the stretch and opening of your chest, and all the muscles around the spine are nicely bent. Straighten with an exhalation. We go up, but again, the lower back moves first, then the middle part of the back, followed by the head. Arch the spine as much as possible, and you should feel the stretching of the small muscles around the spine with inhalation. Another movement, and continue. You can nicely see how the vertebrae move one after the other: first the five vertebrae of the lumbar spine, then the twelve vertebrae of the thoracic part, and then the seven vertebrae of the cervical part of the spine. Each of them moves like building blocks. Together with them, the muscles are stretched in the arching position and straightened in the bending position. Now we manage the position perfectly and continue. Now we will add the breath to the practice. This means we will try to follow the breath and simply add the movement to the breathing process. The breathing process guides the movement. So when the body wants to inhale, we go up. There is a slight holding of the breath, because there is a natural pause between inhalation and exhalation, and we can extend it a little. With exhalation, when the body wants to exhale, we perform the movement. Again, in this position, we can feel the muscles being stretched and bent, with a slight hold of the breath as the body desires. Continue. Look up and open your eyes; the movement is important because the eye muscles are working. Once more, bending, and when we return from this position, we go up to the knees again. Hands go up to the knees, and the hands rise. With an exhalation, the body goes down, and the buttocks return to the heels. Relax. Stay with closed eyes and feel the body breathing. Feel the effect of the practice on the whole body: the flow of energy around the spine, your abdominal muscles, your chest, your hips. Relax your hands, relax your legs, relax the whole body. The last practice from this part of the Yoga in Daily Life exercises is called Kaṭhūpraṇām. "Kaṭhū" is a spiritual place in India where Bhagavān Śrī Dībnāreyā Mahāprabhujī used to live, and "Kaṭhū Praṇām" means "greeting to Kaṭhū"—greetings to that holy place. We begin again from Vajrāsana. The first position is putting the hands together and lifting the arms above the head, with the palms joined. Strengthen yourself and try to pull your body upward as much as possible, feeling the stretch of all the muscles in your trunk and hands. With an exhalation, we go down to the position called Śaśāṅkāsana, which is a relaxation pose, so you relax. Relax your shoulders, hands, and abdomen, and feel the slight pressure of your knees against your lower abdomen. We now move to another position: the trunk of the body goes as close to the floor as possible toward the front, and we remain there. The next position is called Bhujaṅgāsana, which means cobra. We press the lower abdomen to the floor and raise the upper part of the body up. The chest opens. We hold the position on our hands. The head goes upward and backward, and the gaze goes up. The next position involves using our hands to lift our buttocks up toward the heels. Your knees should be on the floor, and your head is relaxed, bending between the hands. Another position: we move the right leg forward between the hands. The palms are either on the floor or, if you cannot keep them flat, on the fingertips. In this position, the lower abdomen is pressed by the thigh muscles, and your pelvis should be pushed forward as much as possible. The bending occurs mostly in the lower back area and between the shoulder blades. Now we go to another position: we pull the hands from the front upward and bring the arms together, joining the palms. This position opens the chest, and again we try to pull the pelvis forward as much as possible. In the next position, we go back, and now your left leg moves forward next to the right one, and you bend down. Your head is completely relaxed; the whole body is relaxed in this position. With an inhalation, we rise up, palms together, touching each other, and stretch the whole body upward. Now we continue from this position back. With an exhalation, we go down again. Now the opposite leg goes back. Look forward. Try to pull your pelvis forward as much as possible and direct yourself and your energy forward. In the next position, the hands go up, then touch each other, opening the chest and directing the energy from the chest forward. In another position, we go back, and now the left leg goes backward, and we return to the heel position called Sumeru Āsana. Slowly we move to the cobra position, Bhujaṅgāsana: bending the knees, placing the abdomen on the floor, and raising the upper body up. The elbows are close to the body, and there is a bend in the upper part of the spine. We go to the next position by placing the chest on the floor, shifting the weight onto the arms. The elbows again point backward and are close to the chest, to the body. From this position, we must shift the weight of our body onto our legs to return to Śaśāṅkāsana, because the body has to follow the floor upward slightly, just a little above the floor, and we arrive at the position of Śaśāṅkāsana. Relax in this position. Feel the flow of energy and circulation toward your head and all the organs in your head: eyes, ears, brain. Feel a gentle massage in your abdomen. In the next position, we raise the body up; the hands move together with the body, palms touching, and with an exhalation, both legs go back to the knees. Return to Vajrāsana. Deep inhalation and exhalation. This exercise works with all the major muscles of the body. It helps the energy flow in the body, increases immunity, and works with the largest joints of the body. Deep inhalation and exhalation, and we will relax for a few seconds in Ānanda Āsana. Again, relax your body: legs slightly apart, hands beside the body, palms facing upward. Correct the position of your spine and head, and relax. Deep inhalation and exhalation. Feel the whole body from the tips of your toes to your head. Relax both legs from the toes through the calf, knee, thigh, and hip. Relax your left leg, again from the toes, ankle joint, calf muscles, knee, thigh muscles, and the hip. Relax your lower abdomen and all the muscles of your lower abdomen and pelvis. Relax your abdominal muscles, relax your chest, ribs, and chest muscles. Relax both hands, from the fingers, wrist, lower arm, elbow, upper arm, to the shoulder. Relax your left hand, beginning from the fingers, wrist, lower arm, and elbow, toward the upper arm and shoulder. Relax your facial muscles, relax your ears, eyes, and nose. Withdraw your awareness toward your breath, and feel again how the body inhales and exhales. Feel the flow of the breath along its entire path through the nostrils, down through the respiratory system, and filling the lungs. With exhalation, it moves from the lungs through the bronchial system and out through the nostrils again. Just watch your breath, nicely relaxed, and with your awareness, follow the path of the breath down and up again. Feel your lungs expanding with inhalation and contracting with exhalation, and how they are filled with new energy with every inhalation. Feel how old energy leaves the body with every exhalation. Move your hands and legs a little again. Move your head to the right and left. With an inhalation, rise up. Sit in the position for Nāḍī Śodhana Prāṇāyāma. It is a breathing exercise, and the first part begins with breathing twenty times through the right nostril and then again twenty times through the left nostril. Feel your position. Close your eyes. Deep inhalation and exhalation. With an inhalation, bend your right elbow into prāṇāyāma mudrā. With your thumb, close your right nostril and breathe twenty times only through the left nostril. After this round, we will simply change fingers: close the left nostril with the ring finger and breathe twenty times through the right nostril. This is one round of Nāḍī Śodhana Prāṇāyāma. We continue like this for three rounds. After this practice, we put the hand back. Deep inhalation and exhalation. We finish our morning sādhānā by chanting three times. Deep inhalation. "Śāntiḥ, śāntiḥ, śāntiḥ." Rub your hands to make them warm, place them on your face to warm the facial muscles, rub them, and try to become extroverted again. Open your eyes, and you may bend your head down to feel the circulation in the body, in the head. Hurry on. The morning practice, the first part of Yoga in Daily Life, is over.