TV Channel

The day before yesterday, we were speaking about āsanas. Let us now consider a complete technique of yoga. You know that yoga has many branches: Jñāna Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, Rāja Yoga, and so on. But what does a practical way of yoga look like? What are the practices, and what kind of benefit do we get? As practitioners of yoga, we should have knowledge about this—and many of you do know. We should have mastered or practiced this. Many of you are doing it, and many do not know. First, when you want to begin with yoga, consider that all of you sitting here were not born practicing yoga. Try practicing yoga. Are you not bored? Bored. Your children might be—perhaps those children who are yogīs from birth. But let us speak about ourselves, about yourselves. What made you come and practice yoga? You did not know me before; you did not know what yoga is. So, how did you come to yoga? Some read books, some read in newspapers or saw it on television, and someone heard from someone. But still, what was your decision? You heard that yoga is a healthy way to health, to get rid of stress, to realize inner peace, to be happy, to be satisfied with your body and your mind, to feel physically and mentally free, and to be a good treatment for certain diseases. Something inspired you. You were looking for something, and that is why you came. I believe that you got it—if not 100%, then at least you got your satisfaction. And the rest of what you want, the time will come, and it will give it to you. So, it is said that the first thing is we should think of one thing. There is one motor, and that motor runs with petrol. Now, if you put water inside, do you think that the water will run it? Or if it is a steamboat that runs with steam, you put water in; if you put petrol inside, do you think that will function? Similarly, we should know this motor. Our whole body is one motor. What kind of substances does this body need to move or work healthily and properly? Definitely, this motor is not made to drink one liter of alcohol every day. So, what kind of nourishment are we taking? This is the first thing to consider in our life. One philosopher said—I think it was a Greek philosopher—"Do we live for eating, or do we eat for living?" So, those who are eating consciously, healthily, and in the right quantity are eating for living. The rest of us, we are living for eating. When one eats unconsciously and unhealthily, it means your body becomes that kind of motor which is destroying the food. There are two kinds of motors: one is consuming, and one is producing. Too much eating consumes a lot of food, and it does not produce that much energy. It does produce a lot of things, and that is disease—a lot of diseases. You know, modern civilization has one disease against which all are fighting: it is cancer. Now, nearly every third person is dying because of cancer. It is believed that stress causes many diseases, but I think it is also this pollution and the nourishment we are taking which have a very big effect on the cause of this disease. So, in yoga, three things are very important to begin with: Ācār, Vicār, and Vihār. Ācār means your habits, your attitude—your habits and your behavior. Vicār means thinking, your way of thinking. In what kind of environment you are growing, what kind of friends you have—if you are all the time with friends who are abusing drugs, then be sure one day you will also begin to abuse drugs. If you are with sports people, then you will begin sports. So, it is very important in which circumstances and with whom you are living, and what kind of feedback you always have. It is very important with whom you hang out, in which environment you live, and what your reaction is in return. Ācār, Vicār, and Vihār—these should first be harmonized. Then comes Āhār. Āhār means diet, nourishment. So, food has a very, very big influence on our body, mind, and consciousness. If you do not believe, then, for example, take a little tablet for diarrhea, for or against? You can think, "What I eat does not affect my body." You can think as much as you like. The tablet will show its effect. So, you see, this is a small example of how food influences our body. You are taking in the tablet you took. So, what we eat and what we drink has an influence on our body, mind, and consciousness. Now you are ready for practicing yoga. You have corrected, harmonized, and purified your Ācār, Vicār, Vihār, and Āhār. Now, before beginning with yoga, you should know for what you want to do. That aim should be in your mind. A champion who wants to be the world champion in swimming knows that he wants to become the champion, and he begins his training. So, in yoga, first is āsanas—postures, which I spoke about yesterday. These are dynamic movements, stretching, and postures. These three techniques should be in your physical exercises: dynamic movements, stretching, and postures. In the postures, we have to take care that the next posture is always a counter-posture. If you are bending forward, then the next posture should be that you are bending backward. As slow as you perform the postures, that is how effective it will be. The slower you do the exercise, the more effective it will be. The faster you do it, the less effective it will be. The second is Prāṇāyāma. Prāṇa and Vyāya. Vyāya means exercise. Prāṇa is the life force, and in maximum quantity, our life force energy is gained through breathing. Breathing influences our body, our mind, and our consciousness. There are three kinds of Prāṇāyāma: that is called inhalation, exhalation, and retention. That is all: Rechak, Pūrak, and Kumbhak. Now, in these three techniques—a kind of Prāṇāyāma, breathings—there are different techniques to breathe. These are the breath techniques, what we call in yoga Nāḍī Śodhana Prāṇāyāma, Sūrya Bhedī Prāṇāyāma, Chandra Bhedī Prāṇāyāma—these names you know. Bhastrika Prāṇāyāma, Kapālabhāti Prāṇāyāma, Ujjāyī Prāṇāyāma—these are all different names of the techniques. Breath gives us extra strength to our body. If you have to lift a heavy weight, then you inhale and retain the breath inside, and then you are lifting. If you do it the other way—exhale and retain the breath outside, and then lift the weight—it will not be so easy. Prāṇāyāma practice is one of the best techniques to get rid of stress. Prāṇāyāma is one of the best techniques to get rid of stress, to develop concentration, and to calm down the nervous system. So, the yogī says that breathing is more important than nourishment. The third is called Mudrās. Mudrās are also a kind of posture. The different kinds of mudrās have different effects on your body, on your mind, and also on the outer world. Mudra means formulating some kind of sign through the body. Mudra means to give a certain sign to the body. If you make a smiling mudra, it does not matter who is who; you slightly smile and say, "Good day." Hello, sir. A person is happy. You are happy. You create a happy atmosphere. Instead of saying this, you look at the sir and show your tongue. What kind of atmosphere will it create? Your tongue is not bad; your tongue is beautiful. It is clean, but in our education, in human society, to show the tongue is a little bit offending. Or other people will think you are crazy. So, how the mudrās—our attitude in this world—affect our senses and outer world. Mudrās also means indication. And indication is a language. If you say to somebody like this, it means bye-bye. And if you tell someone like this, then it means, "Please come." Every mudrā has its influence. So, in the āsanas, practicing there are also some mudrās. You can call them āsanas also; you need not call them mudrās. Yoga Mudrā. It is also an āsanā. Yoga Mudrā is very helpful for the person who is very nervous, or has depression, or is scared about something, as it can calm the person down very much. Yoga Mudrā helps those who are depressed or afraid. Then come Bandhas. Bandha means to hold the energy, to keep the energy. You breathe in, now you hold the breath in. It means you stop the breath. The energy does not flow away. And then you lift something, so you have, for a temporary time, you give the energy in, and that energy will support your inner energy center to produce more energy. Or if something is stopped or pressed, then the dormant energy will awaken. These are the four techniques: āsanas, prāṇāyāmas, mudrās, and bandhas. This is what you are doing physically. Then comes the mental exercise. That is, first is relaxation. Then is concentration. Then come kriyās. Then comes Kriyā, and then comes meditation.