Are you confused by the plethora of types of Yoga out there?
How can you tell which is the authentic Yoga?
It was my sincere seeking which had led me to discover the Source of Yoga and for the first time I felt everything I’ve learned is coming together. I would like to share some of the fundamental discoveries I’ve made.
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! 😀
I was always fascinated by the power of intensity exuded by the enlightened masters. If you notice everything they do, intensity is the underlying common thread. This was one quality which I deeply aspired to develop in me in 2010 but I didn’t have the know-how at that time.
I remembered one experience from my master, Paramahamsa Nithyananda (fondly known as Swamiji), he shared that “In my young age, in the temple where my yoga teacher, Yogiraj Yogananda Puri would teach me yoga, there were twenty to thirty pillars. He would make me climb every stone pillar and come down. And I had to use only one hand to climb the pillars and come down! I had to do this from sunrise to sunset! One day I asked him why he was making me climb all these pillars because I couldn’t find any books or sutras saying climbing pillars was a part of yoga! He revealed a great truth – any movement you make with intensity and intention becomes part of your bio-memory. For whatever purpose you bend your body or move your body, that memory and idea will become completely recorded in your body-mind. That engram (samskara) will start expressing in your body.”
It was a strong click for Swamiji that moment – Yoga is any movement done with a strong intensity. When you bend your body with intensity for some purpose, that purpose becomes part of your prarabdha – the energy with which you create your body every day out of the Hiranyagarbha (the cosmic womb), it is the space where you rest every night, the same darkness which you experience in deep sleep, the space where all memories are available. Patanjali says any thought which you put inside intensely becomes your bio-memory. When you fall asleep with a certain thought and the next morning when you wake up, you will pick up that kind of engram and live it.
From the 12th Yoga Sutra, Patanjali says “Relax from these patterns (5 modifications of the mind) through constant and intensive practice of unclutching”. Swamiji revealed that intensity is the master key to experience Yoga! This is the ultimate sutra for the whole yoga regardless of the forms of spiritual practice you do. Intensity itself can lead you to the ultimate enlightenment without any technique or support. Whatever may be the obstacle you are facing in your spiritual journey, all you need is this one truth: Abhayasa and Vairagya – intense constant practice. You don’t have to bother about what technique you are following, who is your master, who is your teacher, whether he is enlightened – nothing is required. All you need is the ONE thing – intense constant practice. For enlightenment, all you need is the intensity of practice because intensity is an independent intelligence, you will be guided to the right master, right teaching, right technique and right enlightenment experience.
How to practise intensity?
You can pick up any idea and intensely internalise it through constant remembrance. When you fall asleep, be filled with that idea. When you wake up, be filled with that idea. You will see, in ten days your mind gets tuned to that idea, your thinking gets tuned to that idea. You will attract the right kind of people and situations around you.
Let me share my very experience after having practised the truth from Upanishad as instructed by Swamiji since March. I realised that I could smell the fragrance of intensity after I aligned my being with authenticity to ‘Who I am’. The idea I hold for myself is that of ‘I am consciousness’ not this body-mind. My breathing pattern is one with the Cosmic breathing pattern. Every night before sleep, I remember this one idea and burn everything to ashes – any association I carry about this body-mind on this physical plane and return to the state of pure consciousness. After two months of practicing this one idea, every yoga practice is becoming an intense experience of feeling connection with Oneness itself. The intensity led me to discover the Science of breath (pranayama) from Swamiji’s earlier discourse which taught me how to stop the mind and experience the cosmic breathing pattern. Everything seems to fall in place by itself!
In essence, anything you do with intensity becomes Yoga. Intensity is the unfailing way to the ultimate experience. Namaste. 😀