HYM-LA Readings

This page (currently under construction) presents readings on Himalayan Yoga Meditation.

Readings are being added regularly; check back for more.

First Step to Meditation -- by Swami Veda Bharati	A primer on meditation in the Himalayan Tradition
Gunda -- by Randall Krause	A personal story about overcoming fear
Conquering Sleep: Yoga Nidra -- by Randall Krause	The Yoga of Sleep
Sources of Energy -- By Swami Veda Bharati	How to Increase Your Energy Level

First Step to Meditation

by Swami Veda Bharati

This article presents the first level instruction in the method of meditation that anyone can start and practice any time and anywhere. It is seldom found in books, and when suggested in the books, it is less frequently understood. Yet it is so simple that even a three-year-old child can take to it.

Steps in the Method

Here is a systematic, point-to-point method of starting the practice. Anyone at any age may begin; the younger the better. On the other hand, it is never too late. Starting even during a terminal illness will be helpful, and may prolong life, or at least it will impart peace. The practice should be done at least once a day, for whatever length of time is available.

It is not in the length of the period of sitting that success lies, bit in intensifying the awareness, which comes gradually. One may also practice it at other times of the day, when one is tired and needs a quick recovery of energy, when one gets angry or frustrated and wants to be gentler, when one is very busy and is consequently tense and needs to relax and be more effective.

One may do it waiting at a railway station, airport, or in a car when someone else is driving. There is no restriction and no limit. No harm can ever come from this practice. In the Raja Yoga meditation system, as taught by the Himalayan yogis, these are the first steps. They constitute the foundation.

The reader's ego may want to say: I have been practicing meditation for a decade or two; I want something more advanced. I do not need elementary lessons. This attitude is incorrect. Many aspirants practice blanking the mind, or holding the breath like an athlete, but they have not even learned the correct method of breathing. In our system, we check everyone on these points, and only when these foundations have been properly laid do we go any further.

The steps in the method are as follows:

1. Diaphragmatic breathing.

2. Correct posture, with a straight spine, and no feeling of discomfort in the legs, back or neck. One should be able to maintain such correct and straight position of the spine without encountering discomfort.

3. Shithili-karana or systematic relaxation. One should maintain total relaxation of the neuro-muscular system throughout a
meditation session.

4. Awareness of breathing. It has some subtler modes that one learns gradually.

5. Using a mantra or a sacred word from whichever spiritual tradition:
(a) Initially a sound that flows easily with the breath, such as the word Soham.

(b) After such a step has been mastered, a mantra diksha is given and more advanced methods of refined japa are gradually introduced.

Let us go onto the details of these steps.

Diaphragmatic Breathing

The chief organ controlling the breathing process in our body is the diaphragm, a muscle just underneath the ribs, separating the chest cavity from the abdomen. Ideally, the diaphragm contracts so that we may inhale fully even into the lower lungs. The diaphragm relaxes to push against the lower lungs so that the exhalation from this part of the lungs may be complete. A child at birth breathes diaphragmatically, but later forgets this natural process. One has to re-train himself to breathe correctly.

In deep and correct breathing, no pressure should be felt in the lungs, and no tension should develop. Breathing should be a relaxed and relaxing process of rejuvenation.

Diaphragmatic breathing is taught in (a) Makara asana, the "crocodile position", lying on one's stomach, and is practiced further in (b) Shavasana, the "corpse position", as well as in sitting and standing positions. When one breathes only diaphragmatically at all times, it is considered that the practice has been mastered.

To learn the practice, lie on the stomach. Heels touching; toes apart; or in whatever way the legs feel relaxed. Place the right palm down over the back of the left hand, and rest the forehead on the hands. The neck is not to be bent sideways. Let the shoulders relax.

Bring your awareness to the breathing process. In this position, it is not possible to do chest breathing. Observe the flow of the breath. Observe the gentle rise and fall of the stomach and the navel area with the smooth flow of the breath. Let there be no jerks, no breaks, in your breathing. Let it flow like a smooth stream. Let it slow down. Observe the gentle flow, along with the rise and fall of the stomach and the navel area. Take note of the breathing process. Resolve to breathe in this way at all times.

After doing this practice for five to fifteen minutes, turn over on your back in the Shavasana position (body in straight line, legs a little apart with toes turned a bit out, arms a little away from the body with palms up). Continue to breathe and observe the process of the diaphragm relaxing and contracting (the rise and fall of the stomach and the navel area).

Place your left palm on the chest, right palm on the stomach. No movement should be felt under the left palm; the right palm should feel the rise and fall smoothly, without a jerk, without a break.

Let uniform breathing develop, the length of the inhalation and the exhalation should be equal. When this practice has been mastered, one graduates to 2:1 breathing (where exhalation is twice as long as inhalation), but not right now.

Correct Posture

It is most important that your spine should be straight for sitting in meditation and ideally at all other times. Unfortunately, all chairs, sofas, modern beds, seats in cars and airplanes are designed to force people to breathe incorrectly by making them sit in positions with convoluted spines.

One often sees people sitting in prayer, in kathas (spiritual story tellings) and satsangs (spiritual gatherings), with their spines looking sadly like a bent bow. It prevents correct and full breathing, causing short breaths, reducing the life spans. It generates or worsens many diseases like asthma and heart problems. It also adversely affects the entire neural system whose central flow is in the spine.

A straight spine is not a straight line. It is a slightly S-shaped curve: convex at the lower-third (lumbar vertebrae one to five); concave at the middle-third (thoracic vertebrae two to twelve); convex at the upper part of the back (cervical vertebrae five to thoracic vertebrae one); and straight at the neck (cervical vertebrae one to four).

It should be learned under expert guidance. But a few hints here will be helpful. One need not try to sit in the advanced postures like Siddhasana and Padmasana, especially if age, physical problems, or lack of habit prevents one from doing so comfortably. Sukhasana or Svastikasana will do quite nicely.

Unfortunately, when people sit in the cross-legged positions, the center of gravity makes them bend their backs. The answer to this is a simple one: Fold a blanket, and make it into a neat and firm cushion. It is not to serve as your seat, not like a rug to sit on: Place it only under the hips, with legs or knees on the floor. This will uplift the hips from the ground. Gently straighten yourself.

If there is discomfort anywhere in the back or the neck, you need to experiment with the height of the cushion under the hips; you need to reduce or increase the number of folds in the blanket. Experiment for a few days till you obtain the optimum comfort. Resolve always to sit in this position.

If sitting on the floor is very difficult, you may sit in Mitrasanaon the front-edge of a hard chair, with feet on the ground. But do sit with the spine straight. Form this habit. Let it become your natural position at all times. You will notice psychological changes in yourself, such as heightened awareness, intentness, effectiveness in life and self-confidence without unnecessary pride.

Having sat in the correct posture, continue breathing diaphragmatically, with mental observation of the flow, and of the gentle rise and fall of the stomach and the navel area, with no feeling of pressure in the chest. If there is tension, the breathing is incorrect.

Systematic Relaxation

Shithili-karana, after diaphragmatic breathing, is the second step, practiced in Shavasana. There are numerous progressively complex mental exercises done in Shavasana. They finally lead to Yoga Nidra (yogic sleep), and to the entry into the subtle body.

Let us learn here the basic methodical relaxation. Lie in Shavasana, with feet apart, arms separate from the body, alongside the body, palms up. Continue breathing diaphragmatically. Now, take a mental inventory of your limbs in this sequence down the body:

Forehead, eyebrow, eyes, nostrils, cheeks, jaw and the corners of your mouth, chin, neck, neck joint, shoulders, shoulder joints, upper arms, elbows, lower arms, wrists, hands, fingers, fingertips. Fingertips, hands, wrists, lower arms, elbows, upper arms, shoulder joints, shoulders, chest, heart area, stomach, navel, abdomen, pelvis, thigh joints, thighs, knees, calf muscles, ankles, feet, and toes.

Now in the reverse order up the body:

Toes, feet, ankles, calves, knees, thighs, thigh joints, pelvis, abdomen, navel, stomach, heart area, chest, shoulders, shoulder joints, upper arms, elbows, lower arms, wrists, hands, fingers, fingertips. Fingertips, fingers, hands, wrists, lower arms, elbows, upper arms, shoulder joints, shoulders, neck joint, neck, chin, jaw, corners of your mouth, cheeks, nostrils, eyebrows, eyes, forehead.

Remember this sequence. Go over the body in this order; relax each of these parts in this sequence. Let them go limp. For example, the hands should become like the hands of a baby.

If you do not succeed in relaxing them at first, or you have been so tense that you have forgotten what it is like for a muscle to be relaxed, do it differently. Tense each of these limbs, one at a time, and then relax each one-by-one as deeply as you can.

After completing the entire sequence, down the body and up the body, continue breathing diaphragmatically, with the observation as described before. Lie in this way for a few minutes, then sit up for meditation. Do remember to sit with (a) hips elevated on a folded blanket and (b) with the spine straight.

Again, quickly scan the body for any sign of tension that might have developed in the process of changing the position. Relax.

Re-establish diaphragmatic breathing.

Breath Awareness

Let your breath flow, smoothly and evenly, with no jerks, no break in the middle of the breath, no break between the breaths, no sound, no gasping. Become aware of the flow. No break in the awareness.

Feel the flow and touch of the breath in the nostrils. Continue to do so, without jerk, without interruption. The awareness of inhalation should immediately merge into the awareness of exhalation and vice versa. Especially, the awareness of the exhalation is important.

If the mind wanders off, because of its usual habit that has been given to it over many lifetimes, straighten your spine again; relax quickly again; re-establish diaphragmatic breathing; continue with the awareness of the flow and touch of the breath in the nostrils.

Mantra or Sacred Word

To begin with, use Soham. Some prefer to say Hamso and call it the Hamsa mantra. While exhaling, remember in your mind the word Ham. While inhaling, remember in your mind the word So. It means "I am that."

Those in a different religious tradition may use the word prescribed by their tradition, but is should be properly learned from someone who knows meditation according to that tradition.

Let there be no interruption in breath awareness, nor in the awareness of the flow of the word as a thought. Observe how the breath, the word and the mind are flowing together as a single stream.

Slowly, lengthen the timenot how long you sitbut how many seconds you manage to maintain awareness of the flow of that stream without interruption. Too much effort is self-defeating. But you cannot fall asleep by making a determined effort, nor can you enter a meditative state by fighting your self. Let if flow; let it happen. Don't do meditation. Observe and experience.

Mantra Diksha

Seek out someone to give you the first initiation, mantra diksha. After the mantra initiation, one may be led to methods of meditation individually appropriate for the aspirant.

Both a mantra and a meditation mode are assigned according to the individual's samskaras (subtle imprints in the mind), spiritual needs, and his or her adhikara (level of preparation/mastery). There are many different ways of refining the mantra experience through the various koshas (subtle levels of the mind/body) all the way final silence. The ajapa (mantra flowing without effort) state also occurs through the guru's grace.

One may be taught to proceed on the path of internal sound (nada) or light (jyoti) and go on the path of the kundalini (the subtle energy that flows up the central channel of the spine). One may be assigned a particular chakra (subtle energy center in the body) to meditate on from time to time, but the entry into such a meditation occurs only when the initiator mentally touches the disciple's particular chakra.

In the chakra, one may be assigned a visualization on a certain diagram or other object or the presence of an Ishta Devata (personal form of the deity). At this time, the aspirant will also be taught how to merge his mantra with the energy of the given chakra and how to penetrate through its central point (bindu vedhana). The secrets of these practices are taught in specific Tantras but understood only in the live guru-disciple relationship.

Swami Veda Bharati is the Preceptor of the Sadhana Mandir Ashram in Rishikesh, India, and has been an initiator and meditation teacher in the lineage of Swami Rama of the Himalayas for nearly thirty years.

Copyright ©1995, 2000 Swami Veda Bharati. all rights reserved.

Gunda

© 2005 Randall Krause

I was taking an evening walk along the river and across the bridge at the dam when it happened. He was obviously a gunda, a thug. As I walked along the bridge, he started crossing the road to intercept me. He lumbered across, one heavy arm leading and then the next. His aggressive maleness showing in his nonchalance, and in how his testicles hung down red for all the world to see.

I'd been in India for months and had seen monkeys like this before and knew of their reputation. My friends told me how monkeys would grab their bags of goods and spill them all over just for fun, or steal the contents. "He's after my bag of biscuits," I thought. I was carrying a polyethylene bag filled with cookies.

One look at him and I turned around and started back in the opposite direction, afraid. Just then a smiling swami with eyes beaming through dark-rimmed glasses walked by and said "he won't hurt you." I knew different, knew this monkey was up to no good, and yet decided in that moment not to give in to my trepidation and let this criminal monkey ruin my walk. So I turned around and continued in my original direction.

The monkey saw me coming and started towards me again. I crossed the road to put some distance between us, and yet he came. He had a red face and a silvery coat and was big for a rhesus monkey. One of the lead males, perhaps one kicked out of the troupe by one yet stronger. Perhaps he was a ronin, a renegade, who had turned to the occupation of mugging passersby. I knew I was in for trouble.

As I walked, he kept coming, until he was perhaps 7 feet away. I felt my skin tighten. I wanted to run. Instead, I looked him in the face, pointed at his eyes, and shouted "You STOP!" He did, and he stood there staring at me, almost stunned, perhaps wondering if I was an easy mark after all. I grasped the opportunity his pause gave and dashed away, looking over my shoulder to see if he followed. He didn't. Rather he swaggered across the road and put his head through the railings, looking down at the river flowing beneath the bridge.

I felt so relieved. Another test passed. This sort of thing, being forced to face my fears, had been happening constantly since a day a month earlier when my meditation teacher came up fast one evening, and with a voice sharp like a scalpel, said “You have to get over your fears! Do you think he is afraid?” pointing to one of the others standing nearby. “No,” I said. “He is fearless.”

My teacher looked into my eyes, then walked away, leaving me red-faced and feeling very small. It took me a week to get over my emotions. In the meantime I’d realized my fear was hindering my life and my teacher had done me a service. Rather than anger at him, I now felt profound gratitude: He was a spiritual surgeon lancing a boil, enabling healing to begin. The way he’d delivered the message went deep into my mind, and I became determined to face fears as they arose, and the opportunities starting coming.

Immediately afterwards was the Holi celebration, the Indian springtime holiday when anyone who steps outdoors gets painted in bright colors. In past years I’d hidden inside, worrying my clothes would be ruined and I’d get sick from being colored, but feeling that I was missing out.

This time I forced myself outside, got completely covered in color, and laughed, played and colored others, until some wicked pranksters threw me on the ground and poured pails of colored water over my head, and the water and colors were everywhere, including in my mouth and eyes. My clothes were ruined and the next day I got sick, and it took a couple weeks to recover. Yet, I’d had fun and the sickness went away.

Then there was the time in the mountains when I momentarily took my eyes off the path and squashed into a pond of liquid human excrement. I’d always been terrified of germs, and now I knew they were all over my right tennis shoe, oozing in. I ran in circles for a moment, not knowing what to do, wishing I could peel my skin off.

Then I limped back to my tiny room at the mountain retreat, got my shoe off, and shuddered when I saw the wet brown color on my sock. I bathed my foot in soap and water and washed my hands several times. It didn’t seem like enough. I wanted to pour disinfectant all over myself. But there wasn’t any, and I realized I just had to stop reacting to the fear. By dinner time I was able to eat, but kept thinking of what I’d stepped in, and it was not a good mix. By the next day, it all started seeming funny.

Another time, when riding my bicycle along the river, a big grunting monkey chased me, and I learned how fast I could pedal. Now, I’d had to face this simian-gunda.

After leaving him at the bridge, I continued on my walk along the river, but didn’t really enjoy myself because I’d have to go back across that bridge to return to the ashram for dinner, and feared my assailant would still be there. Eventually, not wanting to delay the inevitable any longer, I turned around and headed back toward the bridge, hoping it would be monkey free. But it wasn’t. That same monkey was sitting in the middle, waiting for a victim.

"Oh, no," I thought, as I held my little cookie bag close so it would not be obvious. He immediately started towards me. It was déjà vu of the worst kind. I crossed the road and so did he, and as he approached I felt my hair go straight and imagined kicking him in the face.

In studying yoga, I’d learned that fear is violence, and knew this to be true from observing myself: For a time, I had lived at a yoga center in the woods, and often ran across big Black Widow spiders hanging from their webs in the outhouses. The first time this happened, I impulsively killed the spider. Then, when it happened again and again, I learned to feel the fear, contain the violent urge, and use a long-handled broom to take the spiders outside rather than smashing them.

So, I wasn’t surprised when my first impulse was to hurt the monkey, and I held the impulse in abeyance and kept walking. The monkey came right up to me and when he was about five feet distant, I let out a piercing shout to “STOP” and stared hard into his eyes. His mouth wavered into a subtle snarl and I imagined he was about to jump and bite and then, to my surprise, he froze, and I got away.

I’d heard my meditation teacher say that when confronted by an assailant, Ahimsa, non-violence, the first principle of yoga, requires using only the force required to repel the attack and no more. Somehow I’d done that. It required all the presence of mind I’d cultivated over 16 years of meditating, and three plus years with those black widows, and it worked: He didn’t attack me, I’d gotten away, and neither of us were hurt. I even had my cookies.

Later that evening, I wondered if I should have offered the monkey some cookies and realized that he would not have stopped at one. No, my lesson was not to appease him, but to face my fears and make skillful choices in their midst. Also, it was good that I hadn’t acted out my violent thoughts. Violence just begets violence.

When back at the ashram I told my friend Vikaas what happened and wondered aloud about carrying a stick and using it. Vikaas said "No! Then he'd slap you." That would be bad. Better to walk the razor’s edge and learn to apply only the force necessary in the midst of fear.

Conquering Sleep: Yoga Nidra

It was 10:00 P.M., and I was fading. Sitting in a meditative posture, I was doing my best to stay awake and listen to the words being spoken by Swami Veda Bharati, my meditation teacher, but my head kept drooping forward. Then I'd wake and pick it up, and it would droop again. Opening my eyes, I saw I was not alone in my drowsiness: Others in the room had lolling heads.

The conquest of sleep is an important practice in yoga, so much so that in the Bhagavad Gita, the hero Arjuna is called Conqueror of Sleep (Gita 2:9). But I was being conquered, not conquering.

Many years before, I'd read about a great yogi from the Himalayas who visited the Menninger Clinic, in Kansas, and was hooked up to brain-wave instruments. When the devices showed him to be in deep sleep, and he was snoring loudly, the researchers chatted amongst themselves near the sleeping body. Later, much to their surprise, the yogi was able to recount everything they had said while he was "sleeping." Rather than being asleep, he had been in yoga-nidra, "yoga sleep", a state in which the body and mind are deeply relaxed in sleep-like restfulness, yet with full conscious awareness.

Swami Veda Bharati, is a disciple of that awake-yet-sleeping adept, and he too is a master of yoga-nidra. I lived in his ashram along the Ganges river in India, and learned never to say anything near him when he was sleeping that I didn't want him to hear.

Swami Veda had a habit of staying up all night long reading, doing correspondence, working on projects, writing jokes, and meditating. He slept in the morning for only four or five hours. When asked how he got by with so little sleep, he said, "yoga-nidra."

"People", he said, "only go into deep sleep for a relatively brief time each night, and then spend much of the rest of their sleep-time dreaming. But dreaming isn't so restful. When I sleep, I drop into deep sleep for the first two hours like everyone else, and then wake up and enter conscious sleep after that, and get all the rest I need in a much shorter time. Why waste all that time dreaming?"

Now it was 10:30 P.M., and my head rolled again. As I struggled to listen to what Swami Veda was saying, wishing he'd end the talk but wanting to hear what he was saying, I thought, "Maybe this is a way of forcing us to learn yoga-nidra?" He had been prompting his students, for years, to learn it and I knew he was not beyond setting up a situation to motivate us to learn.

I was motivated. I wanted to learn yoga-nidra to be better rested, and also because yoga-nidra enhances learning. One time Swami Veda was in Italy, and he was to speak before a large Italian crowd. He wrote out his talk in English and handed it to his Italian-speaking student, who translated it into Italian. Then, Swami Veda laid down and went into yoga-nidra, appearing to be asleep, and the student read the speech to him, in Italian, one time. That night, I witnessed Swami Veda give the hour-long address in Italian without notes. He had remembered the whole talk, in a foreign language, after hearing it only once while in the yoga-nidra state.

Seeing how yoga-nidra was so helpful, I made sure to get trained in the practice. In one class, Swami Veda instructed the students to lay on the floor on our backs, in shavasana, the corpse pose. He asked us to lay with heads slightly raised on a thin pillow or blanket, arms a little away from the body with palms up, and legs separated. He had us cover up to stay warm because when deeply relaxed, the body can get cold.

Then, in his resonant, musical voice, he guided us through the preparatory techniques of relaxation, first establishing smooth diaphragmatic breathing, and then guiding us to be successively aware of various parts of the body and relaxing them. After that, he led us through a "point-to-point" relaxation, with inhalation as if through the crown of the head and exhalation as if through various points that he named. The whole process concluded with breathing in and out through the heart center with silent awareness.

I ended up extremely relaxed, energized and rested.

It is one thing to be led into yoga-nidra by one who has mastered it, and a different thing to get there myself. This is because yoga-nidra is a state of awareness, as is sleep, and not a technique. A technique invites the state, like laying down and closing the eyes invites sleep, but as anyone who has ever experienced insomnia knows, sleep may not accept the invitation. It's the same with yoga-nidra.

I had experienced yoga-nidra in the class because Swami Veda taught from the yoga-nidra state, and drew my mind into it. It was an initiation. The next day, when, in the privacy of my room, I went through the process from the previous day, my mind kept chattering and I didn't go nearly as deep. I realized that Swami Veda had given me a glimpse of the goal and taught a technique, and to attain yoga-nidra on my own, I would have to practice.

In a subsequent yoga-nidra seminar, Swami Veda said that yoga-nidra is "a matter of slipping yourself between the sheets." The sheets he was referring to were the "waking" and "sleep" states of awareness. "Practice right upon awakening, when the sleep and waking states are both present, and learn to keep your awareness right in-between." This was very helpful.

Back at the nighttime lecture, at just after 11:00 P.M., I gave thanks when the lecture ended. Dragging myself to bed, I instantly fell into deep nidra--sleep--but not yoga-nidra. It says in Patanjali's yoga-sutra (chapter 1, sutra 14) that one has to practice a long time, without a break, and with respect, love and positiveness, for the practice to become firm. I have a long way to go. Yet, sometimes, my mind slips into a little more peace, and this encourages me to keep at it. Besides, I just know Swami Veda is going to give another of those late-night gem-filled talks, and this time I want to be awake.

Sources of Energy

by

Swami Veda Bharati

The definition of the weakness and strength of the mind is analogous to the weakness and strength of the body and its vital functions. Through the practice of yoga and meditation and other attendant disciplines, both the body and the mind may be energized.

We feel low on energy sometimes; we feel high sometimes. Sometimes we feel weak; sometimes we feel strong. When we feel weak, we have a lack of initiative, a lack of memory, a lack of concentration; fatigue, inability to endure a situation, a relationship, a difficulty, a job, a course of study, any kind of dedication or devotion. At that time, we have a preoccupation with ourselves.

The weakest word in the human dictionary is "I." It is one of the major sources of weakness of the body and mind -- the thought me . . . "What about me?" . . . what I want. When people write letters, for example, notice how many times the word "I" is used -- how many paragraphs begin with the word "I," how many times the word "me" is used: "I" want, "I" feel, it happens to "me," "my" reaction, "my" feeling, "my" disappointment, "my" frustration, "my" expectation, he told "me," I told him, "I'm" not like this, "I'm" not like that, "I" am this way, that's the way "I" am. This shows their weakness. And in a spiritually strong person, the frequency of the word "I" and "me" becomes less and less. It is said that one of the greatest yogis of this century, or of the last 500 years, Ramana Maharshi, in the last 25 years of his life simply did not use the pronouns "I" and "me."

When we are energized, we have endurance; we have strength; we can carry weight -- physical or mental. Things that before made us quit, now seem as nothing. We can carry through and enjoy doing, so. Energy is creativity. Without energy, we do not have the inspiration to create.
Without energy, we do not have the initiative to begin the creation nor to carry it through, nor to complete it, nor to perfect it. This is true whether it is carrying a physical weight, entertaining guests, becoming a great musician, or in serving others. We need to find sources of energy for ourselves.

Let us summarize some sources of energy through which we may energize ourselves.

      FOOD. When eaten in a regular and balanced manner, when not overeaten, food is a source of energy. Overindulgence in food de-energizes us. Food eaten in moderate amounts leaves less residue to block the energy channels of the body. One of the most debilitating and de-energizing factors causing inertia is the residue from foods left in the body which are not properly assimilated or cleaned out. Irregular eating, constant nibbling and eating between meals do not allow the system, sufficient time to rest, assimilate and clean house. If the dead cells and phlegmatic flows are not eliminated, if the putrid stuff just lying in the internal organs is never removed, a de-energizing, debilitating, tamasic influence is exerted on the nerves and the mind.

      THOUGHT is a great source of energy. For example, having a firm faith in something

often becomes a driving force of such potent strength that a wiry frame, a bag of bones, like Mahatma Gandhi can lead an entire nation to almost impossible lofty heights. His energy did riot arise from muscles and nerves; it arose from carefully cultivated positive thoughts in which he had firm conviction and faith -- which were not dogmatic nor competitive with anything else. [Gandhi said, "Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."] To be pure, a faith must not be competitive; it must not be against something. Any faith that is against, something is not an energizing faith. Any faith which is an abandoning of something else is not an energizing faith.

Blockage of energy occurs through wrong karmas. The words, "wrong karmas" do not mean past karma   They mean the karma of now, the karma now being gathered in the form of our thoughts. The karma that you are now doing will affect your future energy levels. Wrong, karma, for example, is a jealous thought, a guilty thought, an unloving thought, a me-centered thought, a thought in which the washing-soap of the Four Right Attitudes (friendship and love, compassion, joy at seeing others make spiritual progress, and indifference to evil) is not used. Therefore, any me-centered thought is a de-energizing thought. An energizing thought is not a thought that suppresses a negative thought; an energizing thought is a thought that replaces a negative thought. Such a positive thought is an energizing thought.

A beautiful thought, a peaceful thought, is the greatest source of human energy -- a thought such as love. For example, I spoke of food. Food purchased from a fast-food place and gobbled, not eaten is not a source of energy. But food that someone prepares with gentle an loving thoughts, with you in mind and then is given to you and you enjoy it because it is an act of love, this food then is a source of energy. It is more a source of energy than food which is prepared without the

thought of love in the mind. Without love being directed to flow through the fingers of the person who is cooking, there is no energy. For this reason, the pie made by grandmother was seldom overeaten, but pie made in the popular pie shops is over-eaten because, though it fills the stomach, it does not fill the mind.

The love that gives you energy must be repaid. Food that you do not eat, but that you give to someone else out of love, also gives you energy. The energy there is the energy of a loving thought. Food prepared with someone in mind and handed to them personally is a source of energy to both the giver and the receiver.

      WATER is a source of energy, both as you drink it and as, it bathes the body. Again, a proper thought-flow, a mental connection with the Cosmic Reality, is the true source of that energy. When you are taking a shower, if you are taking a shower with the Divine Flux of the universe, the flow of all the galaxies in your mind -- the sacredness of the Jordan and Ganges in your mind, then that bathing acts as a daily baptism. If bathing is a preparation of the body as a temple for the Divine whom you invite to be present in your meditation, then that bathing becomes a source of energy.

      BLESSING. One of the great unknown sources of energy is a blessing, and one of the

most debilitating things is a curse. By a curse, I do not mean a curse placed upon you by a witch, but rather the ugly thoughts that others are thinking about you. If you have lived a life in which there has been too much of the "me-thought," then you have created a "non-me" -- you have created its opposite. The moment you separate yourself from the Great Cosmos, you create a duality, you create an "other," an opposition. That opposite tries to destroy you, tries to I compete with you. You say, "Me?" and the other one says, "No, not that 'me,' this 'me' -- ME!" Which "me" in the Great Cosmic Consciousness is more important -- the "me" inhabiting this body, or the "me" inhabiting that body?   So other minds think ugly thoughts about you, and those thoughts hit you if you keep your mind open those thoughts. On the other hand, if you avoid wondering, "Is that person still thinking bad thoughts about me? That person must be thinking bad thoughts about me. I cannot believe he or she would ever love me. I wonder if that person will ever trust me." If you avoid those debilitating, de-energizing thoughts and cultivate indifference to evil, those thoughts cannot affect you. But thoughts directed toward you can be debilitating if you are open to them. When you are open to such thoughts, you also think thoughts that are negative, harmful, and self-destructive. It is not that person's curse that is affecting you, but your own curse that says, "Who me, selfish? No, no, that other person is the selfish one!" And that thought is the source of your mental and physical debility and eventual disease.

To repeat, one of the greatest sources of energy is a blessing. There is a saying in India that from the parental blessing flows all other blessings in life -- the parental thought of tenderness and love that, although a child is going wrong, yet, "I would like my child to prosper, grow and be happy." We speak of specific sources of blessing. The first source is the mother; the second source is the father; the third source is the teacher; and, of course, the fourth source is God. Always try to obtain the blessings of these sources. Please them: "May they be pleased with me." Why? Because the very cells of your body respond to the thoughts that permeate them. From the moment of your conception, a synchrony exists between you and those with whom you are sharing an inherited structure, an inherited body structure. Similarly, between a loving teacher and a loved student there exists a mental synchrony, and the good thoughts of these people should always be sought irrespective of any differences of opinion. These thoughts will bring you blessings. The Muslims call it a barakat. In India the blessing of friends brings you energy: "He's such a fine person, such a wonderful person, such a giving, loving, gentle human being. They say sampati: a prospering. They bring you a prospering in the same manner in which the happiness of a pregnant mother brings health to the child in her womb and the unhappiness, depression or dejection of the pregnant mother brings debilitation to a child in the womb. That relationship that you have with the mother while you are in the womb is never quite broken; it is not cut with the umbilical cord. This the type of blessing is efficacious, then, as well as a person thinking, "May he ever prosper, may all good things happen to him." When others think such thoughts about you, whether you know about them or not, you grow. May others think such thoughts about you! If in our minds there are such thoughts about others, others will think such thoughts about you. Consider how to eliminate the "me," and instead think, "How may I serve?"

      SELFLESS SERVICE. One of the greatest sources of energy is selfless service. It comes as a surprise to many when someone resents or resists helping, or resigns from his organization or church because he has to tithe or to work. Giving is a virtue. Giving is a source of blessing. Sharing is a source of blessing. Sharing one's strengths, sharing one's mind -- these are all sources of blessing. You cannot live without giving, without serving, without helping, without sharing. How would you live? You would be. very lonely. So we have this constant feeling of being debilitated, not having enough strength to keep going, wanting to quit, to drop out, to get away. Irrespective of where you are, whether it's a job or a relationship or a church or a study, rid yourself of this debilitating depression by cultivating the Four Right Attitudes, by seeking proper, hea1th-giving sources of energy, and by eliminating negative, me-centered though selfless service to others.

      CONCENTRATION. There are other very, very great sources of energy. One is concentration. Concentrate on any given sense. From how far away can you smell a flower? Concentrate at the tip of the nose where the nose bridge joins the upper lip and feel as if the breath is going in from there and is branching off into two. Take a slow, deep, fine, breath; then see if you can smell the flowers that are sitting at the other side of the room. If you cannot smell them from where you are, try moving closer . . . closer . . . closer. Gradually, as your concentration improves, you will be able to smell them from a greater distance. You will increase the energy of your smell organs and will give yourself a greater joy.


Or concentrate on tasting your food. Concentrate on the food and on the taste buds, and you will derive a greater amount of energy while eating. Then you need not eat large amounts of food hoping for mental energy and mental fulfillment from eating.


Concentration on a mantram also energizes the mind.

      LIGHT. Light is a source of energy concentration through gazing at a flame of light energizes us. If the eyes are closed after gazing, and the mental after-image of that flame is focused between the eyebrows, this creates a reaction in the pineal gland. Thus, gazing at a flame of light -- a pure, still, steady, white-light candle flame, energizes the pineal gland which then starts further reactions which control the pituitary gland. This awakens the mind from its lethargy and we are energized. Concentration on any form of light, whether external or internal, in any one of the chakras or centers of consciousness, is a great source of energizing the mind as well as the body. For example, a red flame visualized and concentrated in the upward triangle of the navel center is a source, of energy that helps the process of digestion and the functioning of all the internal organs.

      PRANAYAMA. Another source of energy is pranayama, lengthening and deepening the breath, doing the 108-breath channel purification, deep breathing, real deep breathing, not chest breathing, but abdominal and diaphragmatic breathing. Concentrate on the left nostril and the right nostril and then merge the nostrils, letting the ida and pingala join, and become the flow of sushumna itself.


You need not start with the highest forms of energizing. Start with the smaller ones. Eliminate thoughts that do not invite or bestow blessings, eliminate unnecessary residues of dead cells, the remains of half-eaten meals, etc. And constantly, constantly observe ways in which to serve and share as one of the greatest energizing forces. When you give somebody a gift, aren't you pleased? That pleasing state of mind is the energy of the mind. In India there is a custom on certain occasions when gifts are given in which we say, "Thank you. Please accept this gift." Not "Thank you for giving me the gift," but "Thank you for taking the gift from me, giving me the opportunity to be happy." That is energizing.

So go over these sources of energy in your mind and lead a life that is full of shakti, full of fulfillment and realized potential. That becomes your creativity, your completeness, and your path to perfection.

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