I understand the importance of positivity and positive thoughts, but I sometimes think that if we also have understanding in terms of navigating through the negative thoughts or negativity, it will help us look at neutrality with the importance that it truly deserves.
Yoga has always encouraged self-observation. You have to become aware of what you are and what transpires in your mind, whether good or bad, positive or negative. You have to be a witness to it, and of the influence on your behaviour, thinking, nature, performance and actions. If you understand this much, you will also understand that we do look at our negativity, yet the focus is on cultivating positivity. The principle in yoga is simple – you have two sides of a weighing scale. On one side of the weighing scale, you put all your tamasic nature. On the other side of the weighing scale, you put your luminous sattwic nature. Which side will be heavier? Some people may say the positive will be heavier. Good on them, for they believe that the positive in their life is heavier than the negative. Some people will say that the negative is more, as they are more aware of it. The effort has to be to reduce the negative and increase positivity.
What do you do to lighten the negative side of the scale? Do you remove things from there to make it light? Many will attempt to do this; there are a few who will try to make the positive side heavier, so that whatever is on the negative side becomes lighter by itself. The first approach of removing the negative is the normal human approach. The second approach of making the positive heavier is the yogic approach. In both ways, you are aware of the positive and the negative, and you are responding with wisdom, clarity of mind and the understanding of dharma, the right and the wrong.
What is the way to gain spiritual, mental, physical strength in life? Or what is the way to be less attached to the body mind system, so that one can focus on the important tasks in life?
Life has its own range of experiences, from birth to death. This entire range of experiences is governed by the six natures or qualities of mind: kama, kroda, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya. These are the six natures or conditions of mind, which shape our behaviour, interaction and understanding of life. They take us through the different experiences of life in the form of pleasure and pain, suffering and enjoyment. Behind every experience of suffering and behind every experience of enjoyment, there is the influence of the six conditions of the mind, which cannot be negated. These six conditions can be modified and made positive with the cultivation of the positive qualities, positive conditions and positive natures.
Swami Sivanandaji has advocated the practice of pratipaksha bhavana, a process of connecting with everything that is good within us. A negative thought comes and you make it positive; maybe a thought like, ‘I don’t like this person,’ or ‘She is too arrogant.’ Change that thought, ‘That person has many qualities which I can learn from.’ Learn to appreciate a situation, a person, anything that comes your way rather than negate it. It is the appreciation of the positive, which helps you overcome and transcend the limiting qualities of body, mind, senses and intellect. This was the path defined by Swami Sivanandaji. We live our life without awareness. We do not apply our wisdom of right and wrong, and many times, our natural inclination is to do wrong, even unknowingly. That happens in relationships between husband and wife, between guru and disciple; it happens at every level, as everything is tainted by the mind.
Paramahamsaji has said, ‘Except ‘you’, everything else is the mind.’ So, now you can figure out who is ‘ou’. Maybe you might be a bigger mind than the other mind. The statement is true. He also used to say that this mind is distracted. A thought comes, ‘I should become peaceful and quiet.’ Where is that thought coming from? It is coming from another aspect of the mind, another dimension of the mind. So, distraction is one experience of the mind, and the thought, ‘I should become quiet and peaceful,’ is another expression of the same mind. According to yoga and jnana yoga, it is control over the mental expression in a positive and righteous manner, which leads to the development of higher awareness. Therefore, Swami Sivanandaji’s system of pratipaksha bhavana becomes an effective tool in connecting with the positive. It is through our positive connections that we gain the strength to face every challenge and situation in life. Whether it be physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, the more you connect with the positive, the more gains you will have. The less you connect with the positive, the further back you will go. Therefore, the intention has to be clear. One has to remain true to the intention, and that opens up the path.
Could you please talk to us about kundalini?
There are three stages in the yoga practices of kundalini. First, comes working with pranas, leading to pranotthan, awakening of the pranas; second, is chakrotthan, awakening of the chakras, and third is kundalini utthan, ascent of the kundalini. These are the three stages of kundalini yoga, and other yogas lead one to this experience, including hatha yoga. Prana, chakra and kundalini constitute the advanced yoga. The basic yoga is pranayama, to make one aware of the pranas, and with the prana vidya techniques one is able to experience and move the pranas. The pranayama and prana vidya techniques have to be perfected before coming to pranotthan, which is the third level of working with prana.
When you practise pranayama, the energy moves. You activate the prana shakti, which is connected with your breathing. Pranayama is more about the awareness of prana with inhalation and exhalation, inhalation and exhalation. Later on the experience changes. You begin to notice a change of temperature in the breath, you begin to notice other sensations in the trachea and lungs. There are different sensations that crop up, and they indicate that your pranayama practice is going well. The pranayama practice ends in kaivalya kumbhak, external retention, a comfortable state of external retention. So there is a process and a system. With pranayama, you come with your breath to the activation of prana and to kaivalya kumbhaka, retention of breath. Prana becomes hundred percent active. Of course, this is with preparation, yet there are some people who experience spontaneous awakening of prana.
Depending on what movements the prana is making in the body, one discovers whether this movement is caused by a block in the nadi, or by activation of prana in the nadi. Both things happen there. So, the question is how do you differentiate between a movement which is caused by a block and a movement caused by the flow of prana. Here prana vidya comes in.
In prana vidya, you are going through the distribution of prana shakti, and you will discover if there is a block anywhere or if there is a free flow. Then, you begin your meditation, focus on prana in each chakra and awaken it. When that is happening, the body goes again through spontaneous movements, as the pranas flow freely.
The mudras are spontaneous and natural. In the pranayama practice, it can be due to a block, the movement which you are involuntarily doing, yet in pranotthan it is a clear passage, and therefore any practice of mudra will be an indication of flow of prana in that region. After that, the pranas are focused on the chakras, and with mantras the chakras are awakened.
The six chakras represent the crossing of the nadis, ida and pingala. Therefore, the six chakras represent the pranic component of kundalini. After the six chakras, mooladhara, swadhisthana, manipura, anahata, vishuddhi, ajna, there are four more chakras in the system of ajna which relate to different aspects of consciousness, like manas, buddhi, chitta and ahamkara.
There are six chakras up to ajna which relate to prana, and four chakras relate to consciousness. After that, there are two more, the guru chakra and the sahasrara chakra. These twelve chakras play an important role in the awakening of kundalini, not six or seven. These are the twelve chakras through which kundalini ascends, creating a change in the energy, the pranic system, transforming manas, buddhi, chitta, ahamkara, overcoming the duality in guru chakra, and merging with the transcendental nature in sahasrara chakra.
Kundalini goes up to ajna; and up to ajna it is all criss- cross. In ajna everything mixes and merges: ida, pingala and sushumna. The three meet in ajna chakra, and from there they go as one. Sushumna is there alongside ida and pingala, going up straight. Inside sushumna, there are two more nadis, which connect the manas chakras and give energy to these manas chakras. After that, only sushumna goes up to guru chakra and sahasrara. It is a long process of actually creating a change in the personality and nature. Some rare people can awaken their kundalini by fluke; ninety-nine percent of people have to go through this progression.
There are two places where natural, spontaneous movements of the body happen: at the level of pranayama and at the level of pranotthana. Pranayama is always suspect; a block can be there as we have not cleared our nadis through asanas, shatkarmas, mudras and bandhas. Still there is tightness. When you work through the whole system and come to pranotthana, lightness is felt, no restriction, no constriction, but expansiveness. Anything that happens after prana vidya is clear. Anything that happens before prana vidya has to be observed and rectified. Only a person who has some experience can help you.
Each person, according to their sensitivity, experiences a different level of intensity of the pranic awakening. We may do the same meditation, the same practice, yet I may experience fifteen percent, you may experience twenty-five percent, he may experience eighty percent, somebody else may experience hundred percent and fall flat in ecstasy. It is the same practice, yet our sensitivity is making us experience different levels of the same experience.
21 October 2023, Progressive Yoga Vidya Training, Ganga Darshan, Munger