Aligning to the Source of Yoga

On Tuesday, 21st June happened to be the International Day of Yoga, Paramahamsa Nithyananda (fondly known as Swamiji), a living Yogi and an enlightened master, gave three important revelations about the Source of Yoga that the world should know.

First, he declared that Yoga does not originate from Patanjali (a great sage and siddha) as taught by many secular Gurus and Yogis. Patanjali is a great organiser of Yoga Sutras but at least 15,000 years before Patanjali, a being walked on this earth, he is AdiGuru Sadashiva. He is the originator of Yoga and there had been sufficient evidence to show that Sadashiva had clearly outlined detailed manual of yoga postures, Pranayama, Kriya as science of enlightenment. The complete works of Sadashiva are called Agamas. The source of Yoga is Sadashiva himself. Patanjali is a great devotee of Sadashiva who lived in Chidambaram and organized this science and presented it in a very systematic way as the Yoga Sutras. As a living representative of Sadashiva, Swamiji reminded that knowing the original source and the scriptures revealed by the original author is needed to keep the purity of any knowledge branch. In Vedic tradition, any sacred knowledge branch will be complete only if the founder’s intentions are revealed “as it is” to the person studying the knowledge.

Swamiji is not only an enlightened Guru, he is also a Shiva Yogi – one who has attained the state of Shivatva (Oneness with Lord Shiva). The moment he came into my life, he had been guiding me towards the authentic source of Yoga. Prior to meeting him, I had learned from several yoga teachers and attended a few Yoga teachers training from India and New Zealand but I struggled to practise Yoga Sutras because the sacred knowledge had to be heard from an enlightened Guru. I remembered in Sept 2005, I was in Christchurch, New Zealand attending a 7-day Yoga teachers training and I asked my room-mate: Gerry, I know Yoga originated from India, but I have yet to find my connection back to India.” Five months later in early 2006, the Universe sent an enlightened Yogi in the form of Swamiji to me who fundamentally was set to change my entire Yoga journey. The moment he started the discourse on Patanjali Yoga Sutras in 2009, I was absorbing like a sponge. Everything he uttered simply fed my thirst for this knowledge. At that time I knew he is the one who will guide me in deepening the knowledge of Yoga, so it was natural for me to align my understanding and practice to Nithya Yoga. Then Yoga Sutras started to become an experience in me with the sacred secrets revealed by him and his initiation. One great thing happened to me – with the blessing of Swamiji, I become a living teacher – I live what I teach and teach what I live. He is slowly moulding me into a perfect teacher as Sadashiva wanted.

The second revelation is: Always ask for the original source, Yoga is not something to be developed. When you practise from the original source, the atma pramana – personal experience always matches with apta pramana – the earlier Rishi’s experience. Atma pramana should be in tune with apta pramana. The individual experience should always be in tune with the original source – the great enlightened masters, the founding fathers of Yoga. Sadashiva very clearly defined the qualification of a Yoga Guru – He should have atma pramana and he should be completely in tune with apta pramana. Through his own personal enlightenment experience and in tune with the revealed scriptures he should be able to make the science into sakshi pramana – witnessing of the truth, only that person is authorized to teach.

Swamiji had opened up a whole new world of possibilities in me in terms of deeper exploration of Yoga through various scriptures from the source. Now, I am ready to embrace the Yogapada from Agamas once it is available in English. Swamiji has taken the responsibility to collect and archive all these ancient scriptures and make this knowledge accessible to everyone absolutely free without copyright at the website hinduismnow.org. Soon we will be able to read everything from the source. From my own experience so far, if you listen  to his insightful commentaries, take his guidance and initiation, he can simply transmit the experience to anyone if you are open to dive to the depth of Yoga in its purest form.

The third important truth he revealed is: Yoga is not just the science of keeping you healthy, it is the science of radiating enlightenment. Yoga gives you the power to manifest what you want, making you a superman. Yoga is a powerful alchemy system that gives result as soon as you start. So many yoga practitioners are struck with just learning the precision of body postures as a physical workout and some techniques of  blowing nose. To experience the depth of yoga, one has to have the courage to throw out his/her belief system and vested interest because Yoga is an independent intelligence which can lead us to the self-realisation. Sadashiva will reveal himself to you when you are guided by an enlightened Guru.

After having been initiated by Swamiji from several Inner Awakening programs and the recent Suddhadvaitam program in Kumbh Mela at Ujjain, I am now starting to play with a new dimension of Yoga – manifesting powers in creating a reality I want. Just a couple days ago, in the Wednesday samyama practice which I facilitated taken from original source of Patanjali Yoga Sutra with Swamiji’s blessing, I witnessed the first miracle in front of my eyes. A lady who had a blocked ear for 3 weeks, was healed from the Sound samyama practice itself. Another fascinating thing is my body is capable of living without solid food after Nirahara Samyama – the science of going beyond food patterns and living with pure cosmic energy gifted by Swamiji to the world. Since December 2012 after the initiation, the body is constantly in such a high energy level with no tiredness and boredom. With a powerful inner space like hiranya garbha (cosmic womb), I am living a life with constant new possibilities and miracles! I just know the knowledge revealed by Swamiji is coming from the authentic source!

In essence, I may not have started my path to Yoga from the authentic source but I know through my self-effort of practice and pure intention to learn from the very the Source of Yoga, Swamiji happened in my life as my Guru. Having found the right Guru means 99.9% of my job is done, now it is just a matter of aligning myself to the Source of Yoga and letting him do the necessary alchemy process for the ultimate flowering! Namaste! 😀

Uncertainty is life! Live it!

How do you cope with life’s uncertainty?
Are you one of those who gets totally shaken by chaos?

We all know that life is nothing but filled with uncertainty. One thing I learned is whenever we relate with ourselves as this body-mind – matter, we express a deeply engraved quality of matter which is to be certain about things in life. Matter by its very nature is certain, as such the material existence part of us always wants everything to be certain, this gives us a false sense of security. The moment life brings some unexpected changes in front of us, we are completely shaken. Consciousness by its nature is spontaneity, that is why whenever the Universal Spirit takes over, we are not able to handle spontaneity. We call that spontaneous movement as uncertainty.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda, a living incarnation (fondly known as Swamiji) gives this sacred secret – To embrace the very uncertain nature of life, firstly, we need to wake up from this illusion of certainty! Whenever life presents itself in the uncertain moments, just have this ONE understanding – life is in front of you, Consciousness is in front of you. Handle it, play with it and live it. There are some moments where you can change the matter and get rid of uncertainty but there are some moments where you just have to live with it.

The next sacred secret that Swamiji shared – ‘Be prepared to handle uncertainty 24/7. That courage to face uncertainty will take care even during those moments when you need to change the uncertainty. So the basic thing which we need is – decide to handle uncertainty consciously, go through it. That courage is enough.

Let me share my recent experience in the Suddhadvaitam program in May at Ujjain. On the first week, we were put in utter uncertainty as we encountered heavy shower on the first day and the camp was flooded which resulted in a challenge in the living condition. But we recovered from the situation shortly within 2 days. Then on the 7th day, we witnessed the happening of a cyclone which blew a few things away, that really shook many people. I remembered that moment I was just watching life in front of me like a movie, I took care of the safety and did what I could do to recover from the situation. Having a complete trust in the Master helped me to summon the courage to face the uncertainty and live it, knowing that he will take care of everything.

In essence, whenever we experience the uncertainty, anything we can change in the outer world, we should do it immediately. Whenever life shows the uncertainty, we should reframe from claiming that as chaos. Instead, we just declare spontaneity, the courage to live spontaneously! As per Shiva Sutras, it says very beautifully – Living in utter insecurity is enlightenment. When we live in utter insecurity, our intuition, intelligence and many divine qualities gets awakened by force. Uncertainty is Life – live it! Namaste. 😀

Silence is the source of inspiration and creation

Do you know the power of silence?
Are you aware that our body actually heals faster when we are in silence?

After coming back from the 21-day Suddhadvaitam program at Kumbh Mela in Ujjain for 2 weeks, I am experiencing this vibrant silence in my inner space – the no-mind zone. I just want to sit by myself and unclutch from this mind maze because I could clearly see the inner chatters but the main difference is I can stop the thoughts whenever I want. As per Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra Verse #2, it states that ‘Yogaha chitta vritti nirodhaha’, meaning ‘Withdrawal from mental patterns is Yoga’. Now I am living it! I can say it is such a tremendous freedom!

I am able to distinguish that thinking is a simple yet subtle action of the mind. I am the only one who is responsible for the mind to go on in action. The moment I become aware, I can reclaim my responsibility over my unconscious actions, the mind can just be stopped by centering on my breath awareness and applying the unclutching – a powerful technique initiated by my master, Paramahamsa Nithyananda (fondly known as Swamiji).

Swamiji said that if the Cosmos (brahmaanda) is reflecting as it is in the inner space (pindaanda), the human body heals itself when we infuse silence and put the mind in restful awareness. The macrocosm is in a state of eternal silence, if we are able to get back to this original silence of a meditative state without the disturbances of the mind, the body (microcosm) naturally heals by itself. Unfortunately, we have been habituated to move away from this meditative state as taught by society. We always turn to solutions from outside because we have forgotten that it is the state of being in the inner world which determines the state of doing in the outer world.

I notice a deeper level of healing is happening within me, for example, the eczema I used to have at the elbow joints and knee joints had cleared up since I returned from Kumbh Mela. Suddenly, there is so much love for self and the whole which I never experience before.

The more I rest in the silence, the more I discover the power of being silent in the gaps of the breaths. Another fascinating happening is the stream of inspirations which keeps bubbling out from that space of silence. I was inspired to create a new yoga module based on working on negative emotions which I will be starting next week. When I directed my awareness in the silence to the new book I started writing this year, I was shown the new thought trends in the book content. As explained in Shiva Sutra by Swamiji, it is said that the gaps between the breaths is the space where we experience the Shiva consciousness (divine consciousness). It is like you are plugged into the Source and there is a whole new Source of inspiration which is coming from the Spirit (energy) and it is no longer coming from the limited identity (matter) anymore. In that space of silence, you are flooded with energy and intelligence. You start existing in a difference space and constantly you will be having inspirations and expressing creativity because God becomes your supply of knowledge and creation.

In essence, silence is the very source of inspirations and creation. The more time you spend being in silence, the greater the healing and creativity you will express. If you observe the body language of mystics, sages and enlightened masters, you will be able to notice it is the silence which creates their intense presence. Namaste 😀