SARALA YOGA SADHANA (SYS) by Koosraj KORA VENCIAH

This is a simple yoga system (SYS) involving total energy recharge (TER) that was shared with friends of Chemin Grenier in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It consists of some basic stretch movements to be executed without much strain in order to dynamise and recharge the physical energy followed by vital and mental energy recharging. Hereunder are some of the basic PHYSICAL stretching movements practiced during the sessions.

Exhaling deeply

Inhaling deeply while rising /moving backward

Exhaling deeply while bending forward

Inhaling deeply/retaining breath

Exhaling deeply while bending

Inhaling deeply
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Inhaling deeply/retaining breath

Exhaling deeply while bending

Inhaling deeply

Inhaling

Exhaling Stretching arms

Inhaling Fingertips on the shoulders

Exhaling Stretching arms while side-bending

Deeply

horizontally

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Inhaling deeply while bringing hands on shoulders Exhaling deeply while bending sideways. Relax both arms breathing normally

Then, some minutes of forceful rapid successive lower belly (navel only) exhalations were executed by members in seated position (on chair or on ground) with a view to dynamising and recharging the VITAL energy (Kapalabhati).

When the physical and vital energies got well charged, participants were instructed about dynamising and charging the MENTAL energy. This is done through several rounds of clockwise rotations of the widely opened eyes followed by several rounds of anticlockwise EYE-ROTATIONS. The charged mental energy will naturally seek its resting place which is the THIRD EYE at the brow centre.

This was followed by fixing the gaze at the third eye locus where the flow of attention, of consciousness and of breath are connected and put to rest through an activation of the third eye. Some participants, having some problem with spontaneous activation of the third eye, were instructed to press the third eye location with the tip of their forefinger held by the thumb (a MUDRA: as if holding a pin between the tip of the forefinger and thumb of the right hand-see picture below) while inhaling slowly but deeply. The tip of the forefinger should press in the middle of the brow centre while the tip of the thumb should be pressing just below it.

A series of DEEP LOWER BELLY LONG BREATHS (inhalations followed by exhalations through both nostrils) was then undertaken while focusing all recharged energy on the third eye. The chest should not rise during inhalation nor collapse during exhalation. Only the navel area should bulge out during inhalation and be drawn within during exhalation.

After completing the deep lower belly breath counts, participants were asked to effect a BALANCING of their combined energies through DEEP ALTERNATE NOSTRIL BREATHING (anulom-vilom kriya).

This was done (see above picture) by closing the right nostril with the thumb and inhaling deeply through the left; then closing the left nostril with the two last fingers, one should exhale deeply through the right nostril and inhale deeply through the same right nostril. This is one cycle of even or balanced breath. Then, closing the right nostril with the thumb, one should exhale deeply through the left and inhale deeply through the same right nostril. Then, one should close the left nostril and breath out and in through the right nostril, etc. The basic principles involved here are: (a) one should start with inhaling through the left nostril (cooling the mind) and (b) exhalation through one nostril should be followed by inhalation through the same nostril (disconnecting from bodily sensations and impulses).
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After some cycles of balanced breathing, participants were asked to LET GO of their breath and remain ATTENTIVE AND RELAXED at the third eye centre. As the breath resumed silently and peacefully, participants were advised to just be attentive and relax in the PRESENT MOMENT OF EXPERIENCING without any visualization, imagination, judgment or verbalization of whatever is being experienced. Participants were advised to remain in that RELAXED, ATTENTIVE AND PEACEFUL EXPERIENCING for as long as possible without explaining anything, without seeking anything, without expecting anything. Just being OPEN, RECEPTIVE & SENSITIVE TO THE PRESENT MOMENT OF LIVING AND NON-DOING. Those who wished to adopt the corpse posture were encouraged to do so in order to deepen their relaxation so that a deeper inner layer RECOVERY and HEALING could be allowed to operate.

HEAL YOURSELF BY MAKING YOURSELF WHOLE & WHOLESOME. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BHAGAVAD GITA ON YOGA WHAT IS YOGA? Bhagavad Gita: 2.48. Established/engaged in yoga, perform all actions and duties without attachment or identification (without doership), O Arjuna, being unperturbed in success and failure. This unperturbed evenness of vision and humour (BALANCE) is defined as YOGA. 2.50. One endowed with this balanced awareness instantly goes beyond the effects of good and bad actions and reactions. Therefore engage yourself in life for the sake of yoga. YOGA is the sublime art of enlightened action (without doership).
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2.53. When your intelligence, fed up with the various scriptural doctrines and their interpretations, settles in steady and unwavering evenness of consciousness (direct non-dual experiencing), then you will attain YOGA. 4.41. O Arjuna! Accomplishment of actions does not bind one who has abandoned the sense of doership through YOGA, whose confusions and doubts have been dispelled by self-realised knowledge, and who is poised in oneself (whole or healed). 6.23. Know the severance of connection with miseries or the disconnection with the root of misery/suffering (ego) as what is designated as YOGA. This YOGA of disconnection (healing) has to be undertaken with a relentless conscious mind. Note: Patanjali Yoga Sutra defines YOGA as yogash chitta-vritti nirodhah- YOGA is the non-perturbed observing or overviewing (nirodhah: non interference) of the waves/ fluctuations (vritti) of memory-based mental materials (chitta).

BHAGAVAD GITA ON MEDITATION & MEDITATIVE STATE MEDITATION & MEDITATIVE STATE Bhagavad Gita, 2.66. The inattentive (preoccupied, contracted, distracted) mind cannot have direct understanding. It also cannot have connection with direct, immediate experiencing flowing in awareness, that is, no meditation. For the mind unconnected to the flow of immediate experiencing (actuality) or for the unmeditative mind, there is also no real peace. How can there be happiness for the restless mind? 5.27-28. Allowing external sensations to occur outside, allowing the vision to find rest in between the eyebrows, allowing the incoming and outgoing breath moving through the nostrils to flow evenly, allowing the senses, mind and intellect to rest (in the herenow awareness) without moving away (from actual experiencing) through triggering of thoughts and emotions of desires, anger and fear, and with the destruction of illusion (of doership, experiencership) clearly established- one, so established in silent contemplation, enjoys a lasting sense of liberation.

MEDITATION TECHNICALITIES 6.11-12. In a clean place, neither too high nor too low, a seat for oneself is to be made with grass covered by skin and cloth (or as per convenience). Steadily seated on it, the yogi should be meditatively attuned to pure undifferentiated awareness, with the movements of imagination and bodily sensations (consciousness) completely relaxed and with the minds attention being one with the forward-moving moment(of actual experiencing). 6.13-14. Maintaining body, head and neck along a straight line and motionless, maintaining the vision at the root of the nose without looking around (third eye: so rotate the eyes clockwise and anticlockwise for a while and let it rest naturally between the eyebrows), fearless, serene, silent in mind, established in gathering the scattered energy of attention, let him settle in the awareness of I AM as his highest being. 6.15. With the mind having withdrawn from conscious activity and always attuned to the self-effulgent awareness of being, the yogi rests in peace, which is supreme emptiness of all contents of consciousness and establishment in pure I AM or Being. 6.18. When the attention of the relaxed/surrendered consciousness remains established in and as Pure Being alone, when it is free from longing for all objects of self-centred pleasure- this state is said to be spiritual attunement or communion. 6.24-25. Letting-go completely of all the imagination-born longings, gathering energies scattered all around by sensory and mental activities, steadily resting the attentive mind on Being through the silent intellect, one relaxes (into Being) little by little by not getting involved in thinking of anything at all. 6.26. From whatsoever direction or object, the wavering and inattentive mind wanders away from actual experiencing, it is to be observed, recalled and put to rest in Being or Presence alone.

MEDITATIVE STATE & YOGA 6.20. That state in which the movements of consciousness come to rest through resorting to yoga (of attunement), in which the seeing of the Self-existent Light through undivided attention provides spiritual joy
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6.21. ...in which the yogi experiences a transcendent bliss, beyond the grasp of the sensory instruments of experience but intuitively reflected by the silent intellect, established in which, one does not move away from the underlying truth 6.22. ...which having realised, no other gain or attainment is considered as superior and remaining in which one is not afflicted by the greatest of sorrows/stress 6.23. ...know this disconnecting from the relationship to sorrow as what has been described as yoga. It has to be approached with earnestness and without depression of spirits (joyfully). 6.27. Transcendental joy wells up in a yogi, whose mind is poised, whose impulses are at rest, whose intellect is free from false notions (intellectual impurities) and whose heart is united with the Non-dual Undifferentiated Awareness (Brahma-bhutam). 6.28. Thus, ever involved in attentive awareness and attunement and free from the impure notions (of becoming, gaining, etc), the yogi enjoys the intense bliss or joy of union with non-dual Being. 6.29. One having spiritual insight through yoga, when established in undifferentiated awareness, sees the One Being underlying all particular entities and all particular entities as resting in the One Being.

MEDITATION AT TIME OF DEATH (BASED ON PRACTICE) 8.9-10. The person who, endowed with enlightened devotion, contemplates, at the time of death with an unwavering attention, having through the developed power of yoga settled his life force/breath in between the eyebrows, on the inner Being, which is ever-knowing, original, subtler than the smallest particle, sustaining and directing everything, self-effulgent like the sun beyond the darkness of unconsciousness /ignorance- that person merges into the Supreme Enlightening Being. 8.12-13. Withdrawing mental attention from the sensory outlets, settling the attentive mind into the heart, gathering ones life-breath/ vital energy into the head, established in yogic absorption, intoning the monosyllable Om, denoting Brahman (Transcendent Being) while recognizing It as the I AM. Thus, departing from this body, one reaches the Highest Destination.

SIGNIFICANCE OF MEDITATION & LIMITATION 6.46. A yogi involved in spiritual attunement or meditation is better than those involved in austerity or penance, those involved in the accumulation and mastery of knowledge as well as those involved in rituals and ceremonies. Therefore, be a yogi, O Arjuna! 12.12. Seeking knowledge for understanding is superior to practices and rites. Meditation is better than accumulation of knowledge. Even better than meditation is the ability to abandon attachment to the fruits of actions done with the egoic sense of doership. Immediately after relinquishing the sense of doership, peace ensues.

These verses from the Bhagavad Gita are shared with those who are interested in good deeper and further into the journey of total healing or wholeness or holiness. The Gita contains very clear-cut and precise instruction regarding meditation practice that results in total healing and liberation from the root of sufferings. Koosraj KORA VENCIAH, koosradha@gmail.com, Mauritius

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