The spiritual path of Jnana Yoga – the Yoga of Knowledge or Wisdom – speaks of four basic qualifications a spiritual seeker (sadhaka) should acquire in order to progress spiritually. These four means, as they are sometimes also called, form the basis from which we can exercise control over our Nature (Prakriti) and thus rise above the sway of life. The four qualities have been mentioned in the works of Advaita philosophers such as Adi Shankara (also called Shankaracharya), who explicitly mentions them in his work Vivekacudamani (the Crest Jewel of Discernment).

 Detachment (vairagya)

The first one is vairagya – detachment (to be in the world but not of the world). Human beings tend to perceive the world according to their personal likes and dislikes, attractions and aversions. The result is a highly subjective and misleading view of the world and oneself. Detachment means not to be influenced by selfish desires. Many people think you have to totally emotion-less to be detached, this is untrue, we need our emotions to function in the world, it is just to not allow your emotions to rule your life. According to Adi Shankara, vairagya is the refusal or inability to be satisfied by the limited and transitory.

 Discernment (viveka)

The first one is viveka – discernment (act of the soul) versus discrimination (act of reason, the ego).  Viveka is the ability to know how to handle our emotions and belief systems and comes about as our consciousness moves up the lower chakras into the higher chakras. Viveka is the arrival at that point in your life where you change your reaction to the outside, the emotions and the influences of the mind to be more spiritually orientated. Vedanta describes it as the ability to discriminate between the Real and unreal, the Self and the non-self. Viveka is sometimes likened to a sword that separates Truth from illusion, the Permanent from the transient.

 Six virtues (shat sampat)

The next qualification is a combination of six spiritual virtues which are different forms of mind control. They are shama (calmness), dama (sense control), uparati (self-withdrawal), titiksha (forbearance), shradda (faith) and samadhana (constant concentration).

 Desire for Liberation (mumukshutva)

Mumukshutva means the feeling of intensive longing to be liberated from our limited, separate existence. It is the desire to become one with the Divine, which Vedanta describes as Sat-Chit-Ananda or Being-Awareness-Bliss. It is essentially the yearning to go back to the Divine, to be one with God that is shared by all human beings, although in most cases, this yearning remains unconscious. Instead of longing for Absolute Freedom which is the very nature of all human beings, most people desire the lesser freedom of acting according to their ego-centred whims and fancies. Mumukshutva may be the most important quality of all, since it automatically helps develop all the others. However, it remains a rare quality. As Krishna says in chapter 7, verse 3 of the Bhagavad-Gita: “Among thousands of men, one perchance struggles for perfection.”

Haven’t read Sri Aurobindo yet, perhaps a book might come over my path one day.

Blessings,

Willie

So many people when they contact me ask me about yoga as a religion and then I have to explain that yoga is not a religion, it doesn’t preach any religion at all. Although yoga was developed in India, which is the home to Hinduism and as such has taken on some of the Hindu Philosophies, these universal Truths that come with yoga is no different than those you would find in any of the major world religions. I publish here an article by the previous head of the Divine Life Society, Sri Swami Chidananda to clear this topic once and for all and to serve as a reference point for those who like to cast shadows of doubt instead of Light in the strive to reach for the Divine.

SRI SWAMI CHIDANANDA

I shall speak to you at some length upon the subject of ‘Yoga and the Christian Religion’ because most of you are from a Christian background, very pious and very religious. Some are only Christian because they are born Christian, but some are halfway going to the Church once in two months, but all are from a Christian background, may be some Roman Catholic, may be not, may be Protestant, may be Methodist, may be some other. Some of you are Jews. Whatever religion you belong to, when I speak about Yoga and the Christian religion, it could equally apply to Yoga and any other religion. So, what is the connection between Yoga and one’s religion? One takes it for granted that Yoga is of the Hindu religion, and asks: ‘What is the connection between, this Hindu thing and my religion?’ Anyone belonging to another religion must wonder. So, it is worth-knowing how to relate Yoga to religion. Is it like other religions or are there sharp divergences between Yoga and other religions? If these things are not clear, may be some would feel a sense of guilt. ‘O, I am a Christian, am I doing the right by coming and taking to Yoga? Perhaps, I am being a little irreligious in the particular area of my interest in Yoga.’ Thus, a vague sort of uneasiness may be felt.

First and foremost, it has to be known that Yoga has arisen from a background or basis of the Hindu religion. It has its origin in India and it is part of the Hindu religion. But it is not Hindu. It is a universal science that has arisen out of the Hindu religious ground-a science that has risen above religion. It is a universal technique. Because in Yoga, as it is given in the Yoga-Darsana of Patanjali, one of the six systems of philosophy, no particular dogma is laid down and no particular God is pointed out for your worship. Yoga doesn’t say that you must worship Rama or Siva or meditate upon Krishna, or you must worship Kaali or Durga, or Hanuman; Yoga has nothing to say upon all these things. Yoga doesn’t say that you must repeat any particular Name of God. Yoga only says that repetition of one of the Divine Names is one of the ways of concentrating the mind. It says repetition of the Divine Name. You may repeat the Divine Name, you may say the prayer of Jesus, you may say Allah, you may say Rama, you may say the name of Siva, or you may say some other Name if you are in some other religion, but it does not specify that Name and also whom to worship. The All-perfect Divine Being, who is ever-free, ever-perfect, free from all the imperfections, ever-free beyond Maya, the Supreme Purusha, means the Supreme Being, Almighty Father in Heaven, Allah, Jehovah, you can call it by any name, it does not matter, the ever-free Being is not bound by Maya, and who is free from affliction, who is of the nature of Bliss-Absolute, Consciousness-Absolute; that is the object of meditation to be attained, that is the goal of Yoga. So, it does not give for you a goal other than the goal of Yoga; it does not give for you a goal other than the goal of your religion. It does not point out a God different from the one pointed by your own religion—Christianity, Islam, etc.—and it does not give a special name of that God so that you will have to change Gods. It does not give any special name to the one God. Emerging from the ground of Hinduism, it goes beyond religion.

 Yoga is a Religious Science, which means that it goes beyond religion, and assumes a universal characteristic. Secondly, Yoga is a science for Man. It is not a science either for an Easterner or a Westerner, an Oriental or an Occidental. Yoga is for man on earth. It was given to mortal man on this earth of birth, pain and death. It was given to man on earth, no matter what he is or who he is; and it is given to man for all times. It was not given to an ancient man or medieval man or a modern man, or anyone who might come, wanting to go beyond all sorrow, pain and suffering, go beyond bondage and delusion. If he takes to this path, it brings him to the place of supreme experience. So it is the answer to the need of mortal man, on this earth plane. So it is something that is the property, the heritage of humanity—Yoga is the heritage of humanity. It does not interfere with religion. What does Yoga do? Yoga supplies to the life of man and makes up for certain lack brought about by religion failing man or man failing religion. There is a condition created by the failure of religion administering to man’s highest needs, or the failure of man to take advantage of religion or properly utilise his religion which it is, we cannot say.

 Some say religions have failed. I say, no. Man has failed to follow religion. It is not due to religion that man suffers. It is due to the neglect of religion, the ignoring of religion and its teachings and its wisdom. Mostly, this is the situation. But in some places where religion has become totally institutionalised, it has become a great impersonal structure, and lost living contact with the individuals. Under it, then, it becomes barren of real spirit. It becomes only a pattern for dogma and ritual, and ceremony and belief. You are a Christian; if you say ‘I believe in salvation through the blood of Christ’. Yes, I believe, then you are a Christian. You are a very good Christian; so go your way. Do what you like, drink, smoke, break all the ten commandments, but you are a Christian. Religion has come to mean just accepting certain things which an institution has set to be the very heart of religion—a set of dogmas, and if you say you accept all this, then, you are a religious man. But, then, this is not religion. In each religion there is a certain spiritual content which has direct relevance to that part of you which is your innermost essential being, which is your innermost reality, a true, essential reality, and where religion fails to touch that part of your being, and loses its concern with that, and only concerns itself with the way in which you live, your social life and pattern of your social life, and your domestic life, whether you pay your tithe and whether you attend the Church regularly once in a week, or whether you go through all the various sacraments. You Baptise, and you are Christian. It is interested only in that but not in that highest part of you. It never asks you to question yourself or query ‘What is the purpose of my life? Why have I come here? What have I to attain? What is the true meaning of my life? What is my goal?’ In organised religions, the structure does not encourage you to ask these questions, does not insist that you raise these questions and seek an answer and make life a quest of that great goal which you ascertain through the answer. In such case, religion is not ministering to you in depth, while it is ministering to you on the surface. It fails to deal with you in that dimension of your being where you are the real being. Other dimensions are touched and affected, but that dimension is left untouched.

 So, when the spiritual content in religion is no longer active, no longer progressive, then that religion has petrified. It is not alive in such cases. Yoga is a wonderful answer because the prime concern of Yoga is the spiritual reality within you, the attainment of the spiritual goal for which you have taken this human birth; that is the prime concern of Yoga. Yoga is the path to God-realisation. Yoga is the path of Divine Experience, and the Divine Experience is the heart of religion. Trying to attain God-realisation is the very heart, the very essence of religion. That is the inner spiritual core of religion, and where that spiritual core has been neglected and cast aside, and is forgotten, then religion is only there as a great forum; a great structure is there, but inside there is no one living. There are a hundred houses, only a built palace is there, no one is living. It is a deserted palace. Like that, religion becomes a huge imposing structure with no life; and if such has become the religious life of any person, be he a Christian, a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, a Parsi, or a Muslim; if such it has become, then Yoga comes as life-giving waters, the living waters to revive that withering, languishing inner spiritual core, that innermost spiritual path that has been neglected and dried away. Yoga comes as the life-giving force. Once again it makes spring into life the spiritual centre of your religion. It makes your religion alive for you. It can make religion alive for anyone, be he a Christian or a Muslim, and it gives back to you the life within your religion. It is the common experience of many people that after Yoga came to them they started being really religious. After Yoga came to them a Christian became a real devoted Christian, started going to Church, started reading the Bible and trying to find out more interest in the words of Jesus, began to understand the meaning of many things he is now doing in the name of Christianity, which he otherwise stopped doing because he found it to be meaningless,—’I find no meaning, it is mechanical’. It has no meaning, and once now he has found meaning, he begins to get interested in it. He begins to practise the teachings. Many things which were just meaningless once, become now meaningful. So one becomes a better Christian. In many cases Yoga has helped a person to find the inner meaning of his religion. He begins to see the reason behind the practice and then he begins to take more interest in his own religion, understand it better than he understood it before. Yoga restores to people whatever religion they may belong to. It restores to people the inner spiritual content of their religion. It restores to people the spiritual life which is the centre of any real religion, lacking which religion becomes merely an external facade. Yoga restores, makes it alive, makes it green, brings it forth into life. Yoga can be applied to Christianity and to any other religion.

 In what way does it differ? That also we shall see. It differs in its refusing to accept the doctrine of ‘original sin’. It does not call man a sinner. It may call man a fool but it doesn’t call him a sinner. Man is God playing the fool, or, man is God who has lost his way home, wandered away, stumbling and running about in circles. It clears up the path, puts light and puts man on the path again and says, ‘go ahead now, go straight to your home’. So it doesn’t want you to consider yourself a sinner. And the other thing is this: Much of Christianity, unfortunately, in certain of its areas, becomes wholly a preoccupation with avoiding hell, trying to avoid hell, and somehow or other slip past the doors of heaven; somehow or other, even if you are not fully qualified for it. Yoga says: ‘This is a little childish, you have got something more glorious. Why do you play this game of heaven and hell?’ Yoga rejects hell, and Yoga rejects heaven also. Go to the Creator of heaven, the Master of heaven. Why heaven? Heaven is also a petty desire. You don’t want it. ‘I want God. I want to experience God, the Supreme Being, the Master of heaven’. Yoga concerns itself with God, not heaven or hell. You can say these are some of the differences, the way that Yoga differs from Christianity. It is where orthodox Christian doctrine differs from Yoga.

 Yoga restores the most precious part of religion, which, unfortunately, by and large, is not present. In most of the major religions of the world, except in a microscopic section of people who enter into monastery for all life, the nuns and the monks, who somehow or other concentrate all their life upon this spiritual content, except for them, by and large, normally, the spiritual content is found to be lacking in religion. But since the impact of Yoga over the past fifty years, gradually, we see a very wonderful phenomenon, a revival is taking place in the Christian world, emphasising this inner spiritual aspect, your connection with this Godhead. There are many such examples. Some of them are working like the apostles. In the early days, some of them were really fired, like Pentecostal inspirations. They are all good signs. Yoga is presently doing that, restoring to religion the religious life of any being. It restores to him the spiritual quality, the spiritual factor and that is the greatest thing that it does. It doesn’t disturb your religion. It doesn’t contradict your religion. In no way does it contradict anything. It says: ‘wherever you are, whatever you are, try to find God, try to live a noble life. Purify yourself of the lower nature. Shine with virtue. Create in yourself divine qualities and awaken the divine within you, and move towards God.’ That is the central message of Yoga. It can be harmoniously incorporated into any religion and the religious life of any being, any faith to enrich that religion and make it alive and take you towards the true goal which is the goal of any religion.

(Kindly copied from www.yogaforums.com)

It is important to guard against the trap that the offering of relaxation after a yoga class becomes just another form of hypnotism, because many of the relaxation techniques can so easily become just that. True relaxation will allow the body to assimilate the added flow of prana that was created during the asana practice and in doing so the body learns to find and seek a natural equilibrium and state of healing as the parasympathetic nervous system is activated.

Psychologically the relaxation is meant to guide the yogi to let go of any effort and identification with the physical body and emotions. As the asana (savasana or corpse pose) used for this relaxation suggests, it is also a dying of the physical body and a rebirth into a fresh innocence. So in essence the relaxation is a detachment from the body, from your aspirations, from your accomplishments, your possessions, plans and personal history, and in doing so one opens yourself to the great mystery in front of you, which is awareness or consciousness.

The relaxation at the end of a class is the psychosomatic release of all of who/that you think you are, a free fall into groundless ground, the pathless path, but coupled with clear alertness and being mindfully present. This becomes your foundation for the meditation that follows after the relaxation.

Mindfullness Meditation after the class

I teach Mindfulness Meditation, which has three very distinct behaviours or phases.

1. The first I call the arrival and centering. This implies being aware of your body, in other words selecting a comfortable position and posture for it to sit, choosing a room with certain vibrations, lighting a candle and incense. These are all the aspects I associate with this phase. Once you have arrived, you can move into the next phase, which is centering. In other words, commit yourself to what you are about to do, meditating, focussing your awareness on what you want to achieve and how you going to achieve it. During this phase you can recite a mantra or you can read an inspiring piece to facilitate this phase. I also like to watch the thoughts that come up in my mind and to tell my mind constantly that there is no need to worry about the thought it just brought up. Eventually the mind realsie that it can relax and stop its chattering by wanting to control everything. Once you have achieved peace you need, you can move to the next phase, which I call anchoring and labelling.

2. In the second phase of anchoring and labelling, we anchor the breath by mindfully practicing a few rounds of pranayama. It is a time to open to greater awareness that includes sensations, emotions and even states of mind. This practice creates a state of calm abiding or what the Buddhists call shamantha. When we rest our awareness on a single anchor without any expectation or outcome other than pure observance or awareness, it is considered the foundation for mindfulness meditation. Now you can employ techniques such as mantra, advanced pranayama, concentration and contemplation to further develop this awareness, which leads you to the final phase of accepting and letting go.

3. When you accept and let go, your meditation reach a point where you suspend any effort to edit or censure what is happening. To stay mindful, aware and conscious, you have to accept that which mindfulness finds and say “yes” to it every moment and this in turn imply that you are present in every moment without lapse. Eventually you will recognise meditation happening all the time, when washing the dishes or clothes or picking up after your children etc., becomes part of mindfulness meditation.

Om’s and blessings.

I have many requests for this mantra as I use it sometimes in my yoga classes. This mantra was given to me by my own teacher, Sri Durga Devi, who was a student of the Astara School of Wisdom, from whom she learned this mantra and again passed it on to all her yogis. You can read more about this Wisdom School here: http://www.astara.org/astarian/index.shtml

I AM whole, I AM full of Light
I AM perfect, I AM full of Light
The Light surges into and through my blood
Making of it a fountain of Living Light
Bringing purity, vitality, youth and beauty
Into my being and body now.

My Father and I are One
I AM surrounded by the pure white Light of The Christ
Nothing but good can come to me
Nothing but good shall go from me.

I give thanks,   I give thanks,  I give thanks.

More about Mantras:

Mantras can excite the emotions and give suggestions to the mind. Mantras affect both the one who chants them as the one who hears them. The word mantra comes from the Sanskrit “mantrana”, which means advice or suggestion. In a sense, every word is a mantra. In our daily life we use words to get everything done, obtain everything we need. Each mantra or word is a sound pattern that suggests to the mind the meanings inherent to it and the mind immediately responds. According to Ramana Maharshi, repetition of mantras (japa), with attention directed to the source of the sound, completely engages the mind. The source is not in the vocal chords alone, but also the idea of the sound is in the mind, whose source is Self. Thus the practice of mantra repetition is more than a suggestion, a bit of advice or an idea. It is a means of getting in touch with our self. Mantras may be used for religious worship, for japa (repetition), for healing, to help spiritual evolution, for purification, for making offerings and in Mantra Yoga. Some mantras are only chants or expressions of nearness to the Divine. But some saints who were inspired by divine love and unshakable faith used these mantras in their own spiritual practice and their followers afterwards started using those mantras, calling them mahamantras or great mantras.

Mantra Yoga – Sahasrara

Mantra Yoga is an intricate study of sound and its influence on energy, on mind, and on the external world.

 

More than just chanting of certain sounds, this goes more deeply into the essence of what sound is as vibration, what type of sounds affect which area of the body, mind, – what the mental reactions are etc. Then comes the application of certain sound formulas to create the desired results. Fundamentally it comes down to the reality that all is energy and that energy is in a state of vibration – vibration is sound.

 

Practice of mantra will unfold the 7th Chakra: Sahasrara.

CONSCIOUSNESS itself is the seventh element; a form of primeval powers that is the awareness of all the other forces. This element is not of the physical world yet permeates it to the deepest level. Awareness as an element is part of the eternal realm of the universe, that part of each individual that goes on from body to body. Wherever you go there must be an awareness of being there, whether it is heaven, hell or earth you are conscious of being there. It is the constant essence. It is difficult to say how one experiences this particular element because this is the element that does the experiencing, the witness to all of life.

 

SAHASRARA CHAKRA is actually centred above the head though its awareness goes through all aspects of the body. This being the center of your conscious experience it has the strong tendency in normal life to become wrapped up in the vortex of mind energies that keep it entertained for ages on end. Yet, it has the power to direct all functions of the energies at the six levels below it, when it is free. From this Chakra one has immediate access to the energies of the universe above and to the knowledge of eternity. For this the awareness must be focused upward and away from bodily or earthly concerns.

 

The PINEAL gland is influenced by the energy of this center and in turn directly influences the pituitary gland. In studies done with light and colour for instance it was seen that the energy impulses coming through the optic nerves, from whatever colour one is looking at, influenced the pineal gland to put out certain hormones that tend to govern the hormones subsequently produced by the pituitary. Each colour and form has a specific influence on the entire endocrine system. As an experiment try looking at an attractive mandala, then switching to an attractive member of the opposite sex, naked, and observe your mental, emotional and physiological reactions to what your eyes are seeing. Observe and draw your conclusions; then you may decide to choose carefully what you focus your attention on.

 

CENTER is the direction, or could we say inward. From this center you might go North, South, East, West, down or up but they are all away from the Center of yourSelf. The chakra energies are further explored and enhanced in Kundalini, Kriya and Tantra Yoga.

 

Yantra Yoga – Ajna

Yantra Yoga has to do with the structure of mind, energy and time.

One of the least known forms of yoga, it is like a study of cosmic (sacred) geometry and how it unfolds as mandala, and mathematics as in the measurement of time and the biorhythms of the chakra energies. It involves numbers, symbols and colour, leading to an understanding of how these influence the mind; while through the time cycles a personal calendar can be made to help us see how the energies are affecting us by the day, month, year, etc.

This form opens the inner eye, the 6th Chakra: Ajna.

Mind as an element is held within the energy field of this chakra. Its nature is truly magnetic. Even in the fifth chakra where I called the power electromagnetic, the controlling factor of such energy is the magnetic line of force; it’s like the guideline.

For this reason, and others, the sixth chakra is called the command Center. In the energies that’s what it is; likewise in our physiology, the brain is the basic command Center for the whole nervous system, and that in turn is the command Center for the rest of the body. This is where all of the inputs for the senses of the body come for processing. This is where our perceptions are focused into the image we perceive.

Each of the other senses has an influence on each of the chakras, but here at level 6 all those influences come together to form our view of reality. In the Yogic view there are 18 senses to be considered and understood. Eleven of those are windows out into the world through which we see conventional reality that most people agree on. Then there are 7 senses of inner perception that are psychic in nature; with these we view the mental world of our civilization. From clairvoyance to telepathy and empathy, these subtle inner senses allow us to see the unconscious world. Here we can put together the inner and outer worlds, the dream world and the “real” world.

This chakra is divided into two, like the left and right hemispheres of the brain. What this is describing is our own masculine and feminine functions of mind. The masculine is the more active side, which decides and directs action whether they are mental or physical. The feminine is the more passive perception, which observes what is going on. Obviously they both need to work together so that we are aware of what we are doing. However, it seems to be very few who have them working in balance.

In the glandular system it happens to be the pituitary gland that has the direct link to this magnetic energy. This is the grand master of the endocrine system. It puts out the hormones that influence hormonal production of all the other endocrine glands. This gland is also situated in the middle of your head, in the middle of all your thoughts. It has only been in very recent years that Western science discovered the relation between mind and body, yet in Yoga this has been understood for millennium.

Violet is the colour associated with Ajna, and this colour is made from the union of two others. The harmonious blending of colours is much like the essential function of this chakra seeking to blend and unify, bringing pieces of the puzzle together to create a more complete picture. In this way we come to understand. Knowing may belong to the fifth chakra, but understanding what we know happens at the level of the sixth.

Raja Yoga – Vishuddha

Raja Yoga may be more commonly known as the yoga of the mind, and that it is. Here we find many methods of working with the mind through creative visualization and use of verbal and vocal process. There is a lot of learning about the functions of the mind followed by skilful use of mind energies to achieve certain results within the body; as in healing, and out in the world as in manifesting your dreams. Meditational practices that take you out of the normal world to explore the inner world are a large part of this Raja.

This type of Yoga awakens the power of the 5th Chakra: Vishuddha.

The element of ether is best translated today as that of electromagnetism. It is this energy, which sustains most others. In fact all of the lower energies are condensations of this one. In its free form it fills the universe, containing all those quantum frequencies of energy that we perceive as light and heat, as well as those we do not normally perceive at all. Radiant energy emanating from each of the billions of stars, and coming at us from all directions. By its very vibration it moves out in all directions, just as sound does.

The vibratory nature of this energy is indeed very much like sound. In your nervous system and brain it stimulates thinking as a verbal function while at the more physiological level it is most evidently flowing in the throat. As you might have guessed the voice is involved.

The sense plugged in at this level is hearing. Voice, hearing and sound are all connected don’t you think?

The endocrine gland in the throat area is the thyroid, while within it lies imbedded four smaller glands called the para-thyroids. These hormonal producers put out the chemical messengers that govern several functions. Of the most known is the influence on metabolism. The thyroid is in charge of the speed with which you metabolise food, the actual rate of the cell’s activity. This of course controls the body temperature as well.

The para-thyroids have to do with bone structure and the utilization of calcium by the bone cells. Whether or not you assimilate the calcium in your diet depends on these tiny little glands.

Mentally this fifth chakra energy influences the verbal thought process, whether this is voiced out loud or remains part of the internal dialogue it is still vibrating energy. This places it right back in the realm of electromagnetism. Now if you observe the speed at which you think and then change it by speeding it up a little you might notice that you can control it, kind of like with the accelerator on a car. All that has to do with vibration lies in this center but the actual control of it comes from the center above.

Blue is the essential colour of the energy, like the sky. Though talking and verbal thinking may not always be up there, the sky blue colour is an indication of how high the thoughts can be. In the electromagnetic spectrum (which are called the akashic records) are all the philosophical thoughts and the true knowledge about the universe. At this level one can see that the brain is just the radio, the universe is the broadcast and the communication is in the energy waves. You decide what station you want to be tuned in to.

North is the direction to face while looking into the realm of Vishuddha chakra as it helps line up our brain cells with the magnetic currents from north to south, making for an easier flow of energy through those cells and a resulting clarity of mind. The gateway to knowledge lies in this direction, but you need to be aware that knowledge comes in bits and pieces of information and does not necessarily lead to wisdom. Too much of this energy creates an overactive intellect, and that is probably white man’s greatest disease.

Karma Yoga – Anahata

Karma Yoga is a more subtle study of the laws of cause and effect as they apply to our personal life. In essence it is a study of how we have created the situation we are in now and subsequently look at what we would like to create in our upcoming years and lifetimes. Techniques involve self-analysis of thoughts, emotions and feelings, leading to insights about where it all comes from, and how to change the undesirable aspects. In practice it comes down to being helpful and compassionate with everyone, thereby creating positive karma.

Karma Yoga unfolds the 4th Chakra or  Anahata.The element of Air and the force of expansion. This force can be found at many levels of life from the expanding universe to the growth of your own body. If you take the two north poles of a couple of magnets and try to push them together you will feel this energy. It is subtler than fire and invisible, yet a very powerful creative force in the scheme of life in the material world.

Lungs and heart both are connected to this energy and utilize it with every beat, with every breath and expansion and contraction. The endocrine gland plugged into it is the thymus. This gland is the center of the body’s immune response system; the energy spreading out from here sends out the white blood cells that sweep through the body looking for foreign invaders. If any are found they are systematically pushed out of the body, after being neutralized through whatever it takes. This system in itself is amazing and somewhat miraculous when it is functioning.

Developing the fourth chakra will bring the system to peak performance.

Touch and feeling is the sense related to this level of our being and this can become a very large arena when you consider all of the feelings we are capable of perceiving. When energy moves we can feel it. Energy in motion (E-motion). Any of these motions, which we deem unpleasant and do not want to feel, can be suppressed with the reaction of also suppressing the breath. At an unconscious level.

Green is the colour of this energy while a six pointed star lies in its center. This star is made of two triangles, representing two powers, which come together in this center, with every heartbeat and with every breath.

Physically this realm produces many of our feelings, from the most physical to the most sensual to the subtlest. All of those feelings which lie under the threshold of consciousness are also contained here – from your heartbeat to cellular metabolism. Etc.

Mentally we are still focused on feelings and also enter the realm of the subconscious where we may have stored years of unresolved events with all of the emotions involved. However, just as the breath is a subconscious process in the beginning, so also the whole realm of the unconscious opens up when we begin to take over the control of breathing. Be aware of what comes up for you.

West is the direction of this particular energy and introspection is its nature. By going in depth here it is possible to go beyond the normal bulk of one’s own stuff and to the level of intuition. Another chakra lies in this beyond, one called GURU HARIDYA MANAS, which translates as the “teacher within one’s own mind”. It is here that you can establish a direct link with the wisdom of the universe.

Hatha Yoga – Muladhara

Most people in the West consider Hatha Yoga to be yoga, this is what they refer to when they speak about yoga and it is also the most popular form of the whole yoga system. Hatha Yoga consists of physical asanas and movements designed to stimulate and rejuvenate the physical cells of our being.

Hatha Yoga involves a detailed knowledge of the physical form. This form of yoga forces the individual to consider the body and its chemistry and as such an understanding of how the body, glands and organs function and sometimes malfunction.  As Hatha Yoga is the first step we take towards purification of the physical body in the West, it teaches us ways to influence our bodies, organs and glands in a positive way. We learn what to and how to correctly feed the body to strenghten, detox and stimulate it in a positive way. All of this and more is part of the first phase of yoga and as such connects us to our Muladhara Chakra or the root of all our future yogas.

Hatha Yoga empowers the Muladhara. The element of the Earth is that which is solid and resistant in you and as such Muladhara literally means the root support system, it is the energy that helps you to function in this world as a divine being moving around in a physical form. It is the Chakra where you are connected to the earth, it grounds you and provides the basis for your future support. In your energy system it represents the gravitational pull of the Earth which holds all together. At the molecular level it is the power that holds the atom together. At the planetary level it is the more obvious gravitational field. Obvious to us intellectually, yet invisible. Mentally this Chakra root our feelings as well as our perception of our physical being, right down to the cellular level.

Many asanas directly connect us to this Chakra point. For example Vishwamitrasana, Kashyapasana, Moolabandhasana, Gorakshasana, Merudandasana and a host of other asanas. These asanas are designed to put pressure on the Muldhara Chakra point and in doing so cultivate awareness of the energies and their flow in the physical body.

Muscles are an integral part of our organism and are directly linked to our Hatha Yoga practice as they contract or relax while we perform our asanas. This contraction or relaxation of the muscles bring awareness of the flow of energy in our bodies. Our muscles are the first aspect of our body to experience the purification of the physical body as they are the ones we most feel the next day after a class. Our muscles remind us of our connectedness to the Earth and to the Mother aspect. We talk of Mother Earth and through the Muladhara Charka we harness this Mother energy and use it to rejuvenate and balance our energy system.

Red is the colour associated with this chakra. Its energy is solid like a rock and forms the main illusion of this energy. Psychologically this Chakra deals with the Self and its attachments and desires. It deals with aspects such as how you are connected to and concerned with your thoughts and feelings. It is also the centre where your own survival comes first. Your fight or flight response is activated in this Chakra when you need it. From this perspective you see the world as a solid reality to be conquered and accumulated and not for what it really is: illusion or Maya.

Jnana Yoga – Swadhistana

Jnana Yoga has to do with achieving wisdom through the path of self-analysis and the right application of this gained knowledge which forms the basis of Jnana Yoga. In essence Jnana Yoga leads us to understand the emotional aspect of our being and its controling effect on our mind.

As a practice, it is the application of different relaxation techniques, along with introspective methods for studying the emotional motives for our actions and reactions in the social world. The practice of pratyahara, which is the withdrawal of the senses from the outer world of distractions and drama, refocuses the awareness of the yogi on the inner workings of the mind itself. It brings us Within and allow us to study how we are led around by our senses and desires, in other words not being in the Now. This becomes an in depth study of the psychology of the mind and how it entraps us into false beliefs or Maya. The philosophical principles of Samkhya[1] are then realized followed by the application of yoga techniques for changing that situation around until consciousness leads, directs and transforms the mind into true understanding and wareness. This is when greater wisdom in the individual start to manifest as realising the thruth of our existence as Maya.

Jnana Yoga allows the second Chakra or Swadhistana to bloom into full realisation of Truth Divine. The element is water and as such connects us to the Great Ocean of divine Wisdom, but also dissolution. Water also represents that which is fluid in your physical being and flowing through your mind as well as your emotions. In the water molecule you have the atoms of hydrogen and oxygen joined together to form a unique substance, the human body. So is the energy of Swaidhistana Chakra also the union of two souls on a physical, mental and emotional level. It is the fluid aspect of water that makes organic life possible in that nothing could move at all without its fluidity.

There is also an element of instability at the core of this aspect in the sense that water is constantly in flux and change from one moment to the next. This characteristic is one which many yogis strive to attain while in incarnation, to be like water to just flow with things, neither to be stirred or troubled too much by obstacles in its path. If there is a rock or branch in the path of water, it just flows around this obstacle joining again on the other side without much effect on the fluidity of the water. So should be the aspiration of the yogi, to flow through life without getting emotionally too involved with what is happening around us. This is also the prakriti or nature of water, it is changeable from rockhard like ice to extremely fluid like water to be completely invisible like steam. In nature we find that the material components are continually re-arranged in the process of creation. For the yogi then union between knowlegde and wisdom becomes the right application, undertsanding and awareness that is connected to the powers of this Chakra.

The glands connected to this energy are the adrenal glands, while the organs are the kidneys. Other parts related are the bladder and the whole lymphatic system. One of the other major organs ruled by this power is the liver, though it is also influenced by the third chakra, many of the liver’s functions are in the re-arrangement of atoms into different molecular patterns. In this organ amino acids are arranged into vitamins, or combined into various proteins.

Orange is the colour of its energy in the world of sight and if you can feel it directly it has a strong emotional and even sexual flavour to it. Psychologically it has everything to do with our relations and the wisdom we gain from our interaction with tose we are in relation to. Just as the water molecule is the coming together of two particles, in the social world it signifies the coming together of or union of two people. That attraction you feel for another person when it is emotionally exciting is the feeling of this energy. At its strongest point this energy is perceived when building up to a sexual orgasm.

Mentally this Chakra is about the realisation of how many of our thoughts come from other people, we are like sponges, we absorb as far we travel along our path. Even the language you speak came from people who raised you. Much of what you learned came through teachers. Add to this the emotional side of all our relations and it makes quite a large realm of the mind that is governed by the energy of the second chakra. All the thoughts you have about or in relation to others come under this domain.