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My goal was to provide an introduction to some of the spiritual and religious aspects of yoga. Most people coming from a physical practice would find a great divide between what the fitness world calls yoga, and what many from traditional schools would see as a whole package for spiritual advancement. As I have moved through this blog I myself have changed drastically. By maintaining my daily practice over the last three months I have seen a change to my outlook on life, my approach to difficulties, my appreciation of what I have, and my devotion to leading a life to benefit others.

This blog I feel fell short, not reaching an intended audience, or any audience. I believe with the vast amounts of varying information on yoga and Hinduism on the internet makes it hard to pull people in when the author doesn't have a yoga teacher certification or the tittle of guru, swami, or sri in front of their name. People are still searching for the metaphorical wise man on the mountain. Though they most often search for him literally instead. Ram Dass a pioneer in bringing yoga to the west once said: "If you know how to listen, everyone is a guru." People go running looking for others to fix them, not realizing all along they have to fix themselves. Even if they meet a saint who agrees to mentor them, the person is still the one doing all the work.

It is this struggle that most are searching for outside fixes and not guidance and advice on how to turn in to help themselves that keeps them from looking for this kind of information. People want the Star Wars experience, or maybe Eat, Pray, Love; they want to be swept away from their miserable lives and into fantastic experiences. The thing people don't want to hear is this right here, right now isn't their miserable lives, it's their lives. It's their doing, from their choices, and theirs to change. Just stop and look at the life being lived, at the habits kept, at the state of mind maintained. If these are changed step by step over time, anyone can achieve lasting peace. This may bring about change in their physical world or they will just be at peace in what many would call difficult situations. This is why the lotus is a sign of spirituality, because out of the muddy waters of life it grows out, to bloom pure white.

NDSU.edu

The no god experiment

In my previous posts Yoga Madness, and Round and Round I mention god or the concept of god. I believe some people have applied the Judaic concept of god when they hear the word mentioned. For this reason many people from the yoga or Hindu community will refrain from saying god, and instead say Brahma, Shiva, or Krishna. Though the concept of god is thrown around, it isn't necessarily understood correctly, or needed to practice yoga. One could apply all of the yogic ideals without the belief in god.

The term god causes most to think of a guy, sitting in the clouds with white robes on, usually a beard which is also white. This idea draws back to the archetype of Zeus is an anthropomorphic concept of god. What if god was just the term for the energy of the universe? From energy comes matter, and from that life. If we view to whole universe as god we are all made of "it". As Carl Sagan said on his TV series Cosmos "We are a way for the universe to know itself. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return. And we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star stuff".

He refers to the fact that all the elements were created from hydrogen in the hearts of stars which died long ago. I think that subtle connecting as Sagan stated is there in us, and is why most people who are in-touch with themselves find such peace in nature. There is a sense a returning back to where we came from. People desire to feel connected to this world, and to one another. This connection to the world is a major aspect of yoga.

In yoga there are two guidelines which tend to stop people in their tracks or send them running. In my post Origins of it all I mentioned yamas and niyamas being the first two limbs of the eight limbed yoga path. They lay out five characteristics to have, and five observances. The first of the two is the yama Brahmacharya which is commonly translated to celibacy, though it is better defined as energy moderation. It is believed that sex does drain a person of much energy be it physical or psychic. Any act or situation, pleasurable or not pleasurable can drain a person. If we repeat these actions or stay in these situations we will run ourselves dry.  Most of us do not practice this in our fast paced society, driving ourselves to sickness from our excess.

The second is Ishvara Pranidhana which most often translated as surrender to god. In actuality it can be applied to mean surrendering to something greater than the person. The idea of surrender to something greater than a single person is not supposed to be an out for their actions taken. It is supposed to give a person the sense that their actions matter, and are part of a greater whole working together towards happiness for all. This interconnectedness into a whole does not negate the value of the individual, as modern society does. It is then a person's actions and intentions which become of the highest importance. Not their: looks, faith, age, gender, or sexuality, anyone anywhere is of importance.

As I mentioned in Yoga madness Bhakti yoga is a form of yoga that emphasis devotion to god, it also talks of serving god. With this model of god being energy how does a person serve god? They serve by serving others, by serving this planet, and by serving the other creatures on it.

This is also karma yoga, the yoga of action. By creating positive actions the person is liberated from their previous poor choices and actions. By surrendering into helping others the person is freed of the karma that comes from any action. This cannot be a logical rationalization such as "I am lying for Johnny to Suzy", that is still lying. It has to be for the benefit of a person, and from the heart. As more positive choices are made it becomes habitual.

Why would a person do any of this; if there is no heaven, no hell, no judgment, only an endless procession of life? For me I look around, I see me, me from the past, and me from the future. Different lives that all could have or may one day be me. All trying to live and find happiness, why not open a hand to help myself. The more I let love for others flow the greater my own happiness is. If a person wants to be happy all they have to do is bring it to others. As the Buddha said:

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”

Round and round

I am a lover of ted talks, for those not familiar with whom ted is they are a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting "ideas worth spreading". The company holds conferences where pioneers come to speak; on breakthroughs, new perspectives or their hopes for the future. These ted talks are available for free to the public and can be found on ted.com. Devdutt Pattanaik's lecture below highlights the difference between western and eastern perspectives on life, death, afterlife, and god. Devdutt describes himself as someone who "writes and lectures extensively on the relevance of mythology in matters related to leadership, entrepreneurship, branding, management and governance." He highlights the main difference in beliefs between the two: reincarnation, and that of multiple god forms.

With the belief of one birth, one life, and one death the mindset is to act now. Achieve all in this life, because after this life a person is either: judged by god or becomes nothing depending on that person's religious belief. This leads most people to lives of searching for joy and pleasure. The flip side of this is people being the "good child" by following their religion in hopes of an everlasting happiness after death. Even in there temporary states of happiness there is always the silent fear hanging over people's heads, the inevitability of death. Unacknowledged by most people this hides in the backs of their heads, only to be brought forward by the death of those close.

In contrast a belief in reincarnation means the soul is bound by the actions of its past. We are forced to repeat lessons of life until the correct action is taken. Sort of how some a person continue to attract trouble. They are not unlucky, they simply haven't learned from the trouble the correct lesson. The soul is working over lifetimes towards higher levels of consciousness. Life becomes sacred  especially in human form, which is considered a gift. Humans unlike other animals have the ability to contemplate themselves, the outside world, and conceptualize god.

In India there are thousands of gods. Some people have heard of a few; Ganesha the elephant headed man, Shiva with his trident, Vishnu who is depicted blue usually with four arms, and Brahma with his many heads. They all are aspect of one entity, the source of this entire universe. This leads to the idea of many paths to one god. Many Hindus believe all the religions of the world are all the "correct path" but only for the people on them. The idea being that god understood how people of different temperaments need different faiths.

Time is also viewed differently. This is not the first or that last universe to exist. The universe is believed to go through cycles of one night and day, being destroyed and recreated each lasting 4.32 billion years. A day and night together making up one brahma day, it is also said this will go on for 100 brahma years. These time frames where written into the Puranas in the first century BCE. (Sushama)

By contemplating these vast time spans; thinking of how many lifetimes which come and go. A person then sees why all these pursuits of excess is irrelevant. The search for peace instead of happiness becomes more important. Karma will always be acting, time will continue moving. Everything changes but nothing is destroyed only returned in a new form; from nothing to something and back to nothing.

I myself find the most peace with this idea. It is my path; it has taken me some time being used to accepting that I believe in this new religion I knew nothing of growing up. To me I always thought of religion as a concept that was inherited. I know only a fraction of this vast religion with its many facets, sects, and movements but I hope I have encapsulated a major concept in this post. To me in this elegant dance of all things large and small moving unison over the vastness of time I see the awe inspiring peace and beauty of the world.

Work cited
Londhe, Sushama. "Hindu Cosmology." Hindu Wisdom. 28 Oct. 2008. Web. 5 Nov. 2013.

My journey

When I was in first grade I was diagnosed with depression; by seventh grade I had been hospitalized for suicidal actions. Looking back I try and understand why at such a young age I had such difficulties. I have come to the conclusion that I saw the world not as I was told to. I questioned everything, not in the incessant "why" some children have at a young age. I wanted to know the reasoning and motivations behind why people did things that made no sense to me.

What I found was a lack of anything that rang true. The world looked like a series of pointless tasked all to gain things. It also became obvious to me that these things didn't really make anyone happy. I felt stuck, trapped in a world that led nowhere, so I gave up. I tried to bury my sadness; however it came back as anger, or food addiction. I tried running away from it by seeking extremes highs to make myself feel happy. None of it lasted. I was still left with the question, what is happiness and why does it never last? Years went by; I learned to live a sort of numbed life.

By the time I reached middle school I was being medicated for depression, as well as having weekly sessions with a talk therapist. The therapist eventually gave a diagnosis of having a depressive personality.This meant my baseline emotions were more depressed than those of an average person. I was told the only way that this can be changed is by changing my thinking. Through a process of constant observation of my thoughts, I blocked the negative thoughts and attempted to replace them by focusing on positive ones.

This constant observation of thoughts is similar to that of Buddhist and Hindu meditation practices. In the eastern practice observation of thoughts in a detached manner is the normal practice. They both lead to the same conclusion, that the consciousness is not the brain. Any person at their base; that is bellow their conscious and unconscious mind, is pure love and happiness. This however becomes obstructed by the misconceptions that are passed onto us in life. Such as the misconception that consumerism can make you happy, perhaps temporarily; but people do not want only five minutes of happiness. The reason we reach out for more "stuff" is that we have been disconnected from our true happiness. To regain this we simply have to look deep within.

My life didn't change overnight. I went away to college, and still struggled. It was January of 2008, four years later I went off of my medication. It was like starting all over, I didn't have the training wheels of medication to stabilize me. I began smoking and started drinking heavily. I tried cleaning up my act a bit, as well as changed jobs, and fell right back into the same pattern. Then everything fell apart; I lost my job, and my girlfriend at the time gave me the boot but held onto a couple thousand dollars I had saved.

I gave up, moved back in with my parents, something I swore I would never do. Then began searching for a job. I was also searching for something else, to pick up where I had left off spiritually. I still had wild emotional swings. It was then after a couple of months I got roped into going to yoga with my mom one Sunday. As I talk about in my post That first step. It took some time but I definitely grew to love it.

It has been three years, I still become depressed in the winter,though I have changed many old ways of thinking. I find myself not becoming angry as often, even while driving. In a difficult circumstance I accept the situation for what it is and move on. I have learned to just go with the flow of life.

Over time I have come to learn that by focusing on the present without being carried away by my thoughts is the true way to any lasting happiness. As I have peel back the false truths from mind, I have found what I have looked for my whole life. There was never a need to reach out or fix myself; I had just forgotten I was whole and all that I need, so long ago.

Yoga madness

Yoga seems to be everywhere, or at least what people call yoga. A commercialization seems to be happening, some feel it is lessening the spirituality of yoga. Removing the sacred and turning it into the next jazzercise. One of the things that made me loose interest in the yoga studio I attended was the change in atmosphere of the studio. When I first began attending it was a quaint place with a peaceful atmosphere. After a year and a half the community there began to grow. The people who began attending started to turn it into a social hour. The peace disappeared and the vibe of a gym took its place. The yoga for me had left, no matter how hard I focused on my own practice.

What I wanted and had found in the studio was a true yoga, between my mind, body, soul, and at times it felt that God was in that mix as well. The translation of the term yoga according to freedictionary.com is union or joining. In this, yoga asana is union of mind and body. Pranyama, the breath exercises which are part of the larger eight limb path mentioned in my earlier post origin of it all is the yoga of mind and breath. Pratyahara is union of mind with the senses. There are hundreds of forms of yoga. The question then becomes what is it that a person if trying to unite with?

If the hope of the practitioner is enlightenment, closeness to God, a greater compassion for others, then the one of the four paths should be taken. These are the four ways prescribed by books such as the Bhagavad Gita, and the Yoga Sutras as ways to achieve enlightenment. The site yoga108 describes them in succinct detail. Jnana is the path using personal willpower and discrimination to understand ones true nature. Bhakti yoga uses love and devotion to transform the person's emotions into pure love for all. Raja yoga relies on selfmastery to attain understanding through stilling the mind to a point that only the pure self remains. Karmic yoga seeks liberation through selfless service. All of these are spiritual yogas in an attempt for people to free themselves from the suffering of life, and understand their true nature.

Hatha yoga and all other forms of physical practice that delineate from it are practices usually added onto the above practices. The purpose of hatha is to keep limber and healthy to continue with the pursuit of the person's spiritual practice. It is interesting that most people, in America especially are now coming to yoga through the hatha side. Beginning the physical practice for their own reasons, some stay with just that. Others find it opens a way to a spiritual side of their life they never possessed before. Opening and healing their minds and hearts as it heals their body. They then reach out expanding their spiritual practice. Beginning on one of the four paths, even if they do not have a full understanding of the final goal or destination.

I believe that even if the majority of mainstream yoga around is of a physical nature it is a good thing. The fact is a lot of people when they first begin the physical practice are inflexible mentally as well as physically. It takes time to open up and explore, to reconnect, to reach into their intuition. Anyone can change however, it takes a slow progressive change. The thing that will amaze anyone is how much they change before they realize anything has even happened.

Old school

The gayatri mantra is one of the oldest prayers to be inscribed in the world. It was written down in the Rig Veda the first of the sacred books in Hinduism; somewhere between 2500 and 3500 years ago.  Though the mantra was most likely transmitted orally long before that. The origin story of the mantra is that the sage Vishwamitra was given the mantra by God as a reward for his many years of penance and meditation. The words of the mantra are written in a poetic line format which itself is actually called gayatri, the mantra is the gayatri Savitur mantra. Most deities have their own gayatri mantra however this is the first one recorded. The mantra transliterated into English follows: Om buhr bhuva swaha, Om tat savitur varenyam, Bhargo devasya dheemahi, Dhiyo yohaha prachodayat. The mantra as seen below in its original sanskrit is a prayer to the goddess Savitur to bring enlightenment to all. (Shekar) 

Source: http://paramapadasopanam.blogspot.com

The problem is when it comes to transliteration that letters in sanskrit represents specific sounds made with a particular part of the mouth. Some of these sounds are never used in English, resulting in poor pronunciations. Since the transliteration is an approximation the reader has to attempt to imitate the sounds, by guess or imitating recordings. This causes one to miss on some of the vibrations that result from correct pronunciation. These vibrations are what bring about the positive benefits of any mantra. (Bachman)

I first experienced this mantra in a yoga class, in which I heard it on a CD. Afterwards I researched it and began trying to learn to recite it. The main difficulty one would have with this mantra is it's length as well as complexity. Many of the common mantras are two to ten words long, as opposed to the fourteen words some of which are quite complicated. As well if the mantra was to be used with a mala, reciting the mantra 108 times takes around fifteen minutes if going at a fluid pace. If someone is still struggling to pronounce the mantra this could take up to an hour for the full 108 recitations. By this time most people would find themselves uncomfortable physically from sitting so long, as well as mentally wondering off. 

I have noticed with this mantra is as I chant it more, is that it seems to draw me in deeper. Each time builds on the last. I feel a settling of my mind as well as an expansion of my heart; each time faster then the last. I do not know if this is due to my prolonged practice with it or the mantra itself. With a prayer this old a structure for its practice has been created over time. A period of forty days is considered an auspicious number for beginners to practice, doing one round of mala each day. Another auspicious number as I mention in my blog on malas beading a path through my mind is 125,000 repetitions or 1,250 rounds on a mala. Taking 42 months to complete if one recites one round of the mantra a day. Completing the daunting task is said to bring about a mastery over the power of the mantra. (Bharati)

The benefits ascribed to continued recitation of this mantra are: an opening of all energy centers major and minor, strengthening of the immune system, a sharpening of the mind, and an opening of the heart. The power of this mantra can be felt whether spoken, thought or listened to. (Shekar) That being said I invite the reader to listen to the track below, sung by Deva Premal another notable musician who is trying to share with the world this powerful mantra. The video below contains a live performance of the mantra, all you have to do is listen, and feel what you feel. 

Work cited

Bachman, Nicolai. About Sanskrit. Sanskrit Sounds. 2013. Web 13, Oct. 2013

Bharati, Swami Jnaneshvara. Traditional Yoga and Meditation of the Himalayan Masters. Abhyasa Ashram. n.d. Web. 13, Oct. 2013

Shekar, Chandra. The Magic of the Gayatri. 2007. Web 13, Oct. 2013

Just let go

Some people think yoga is a cult. That to be in it you have to: be a hippy, give up meat, go all organic, be super skinny, and a health food fanatic. People think you have to change to do yoga. I think it's the one thing you don't have to change for. A person when they go somewhere or meet up with someone is expected to be, look, and act a certain way. Society constantly attempts to pressure us into stereotypes. In yoga we come as we are to a mat, do what we can, and in the end it doesn't matter good or bad how we did. It is for the connection within us mental to physical and not how advanced a posture you can do. As one of my former yoga teachers put it "I consider a student advanced when they stop focus on the physical and start focusing on the mental."

The main point of yoga is stated in the second line of the Yoga Sutras "The restraint of the modifications of the mind is yoga." The modifications being anything that takes us away from our pure core self. It then goes on to talk about the modifications of the mind as they are the source of all suffering. Then in line twelve it states how to solve this problem: "These mental modifications are restrained by practice and non-attachment."(Satchidananda) In two lines the Yoga Sutras explain what is suffering and how to fix it with practice and non-attachment. The practice aspect seems easy enough to most with enough motivation. It's easy to drag your body to the yoga studio two or three times week. The non-attachment aspect some will ignore, others will avoid at all costs. When you bring up non-attachment people think of a monk; they think of a person with no possessions, no source of income, no sex, no pleasure in life at all. This is one of the biggest misconceptions I have dealt with myself.

It is better to think of the original Sanskrit word vairagya which is normal translated to non-attachment to mean instead letting go. The idea is to let go of the self-defeating behaviors, to fix ourselves so then we can begin to help others. With letting go, we free more energy for ourselves allowing us to move forward in our lives. This energy was previously locked up mentally by constantly repressing things, and physically by tight, painful areas of our body.

This letting go can be physical things such as drinking too much coffee and not enough water. It can be mental like letting go of past memories, especially the embarrassing ones that no one can recall any longer. It can be emotional attachment such as past hurts still held onto. All of the nonphysical attachments can be part of the vast arsenal for an internal selfhate campaign. This is the part of the constant brain chatter that most people become so accustomed to that they don't even notice it happening. I used to have it, some days I still do. There are other days I do not. Such as the day I will that follows.

Between classes at the community college I attend, I went to a Starbucks for some tea. As I was getting back into my car the tea slipping out of my hand going everywhere in the floor of the car. Thankfully not burned I began to laugh at myself. The old me would have been pissed at myself for dropping the tea "you're so stupid you should have paid attention" I would have thought, then I would have been mad at Starbucks for using cheap cups, and at the money I just spent on nothing. I would have then beaten myself up about the whole thing all the rest of the day, and then repressed it. Months later the memory would have popped back up out of nowhere. The anger and embarrassment would have surfaced with it, and I would be beat myself up all over again.

Instead I saw there was a little bit of tea left sitting in the cup. After cleaning up what I could I enjoyed what was left. I let go of what I couldn't control and only focused on what I could. The only thing we can truly attempt to control is ourselves. As I have let go of my past mistakes, hurts, embarrassing memories I have made room for more self-acceptance and love. All this letting go isn't letting go of the true you.

A person's true identity isn't anything physical we own, wear, or keep locked away in some cabinet. People can't seem to figure out who they are because it's buried under so many attachments and possessions. A person mind is like a room the first thing in it is a letter saying who they are. Then as they grow up they learn, and those are the books along the walls. In the center of the room is where the junk gets thrown. It begins to fill the room, hidden that letter is forgotten. The only way to find who you are is to let go of what is not needed. No longer stuck in the guilt of the past, not distracted by the fears of what could happen in the future. We are free; free to focus on living in the moment. To actually live so that I won't wake up one day around age fifty and have a mental breakdown about who I am and that I have done nothing with my life. This quote from the Dalai Lama sums it up perfectly. 

Work Cited

Satchidananda. "The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali". Yogaville. Buckingham, Virginia: Integral Yoga Publication, 2011. Print. 30 Sept. 2013