InnerEngineering

Self-transformation is achieved by experiencing the limitless nature of who we are. Knowing this is yoga. One who embodies this is a yogi and who guides you is guru.

Part One maps the terrain

Born in Mysore, Karnataka, at the age of 10, Malladihalli Sri Raghavendra Swamiji taught him yoga asanas. At Chamundi Hill sitting on a rock, he had a spiritual experience which changed his life.

Don’t allow your thoughts and emotions to take instructions from out. Do the right things, right things will not happen to us. Being peaceful, joyful, loving – have become ultimate aspirations because we are living without paying any attention to the life process. Life is not accessories but the process itself. Access and organize the inner nature of your being.

Destiny is a consoling word, but disempowering. To mold situations know who you are. You are not the body, you are not the mind. Everything in this existence is happening naturally according to a certain organic law. Know the nature of life within you, take charge of the way it happens, but within the broad parameters set by the laws of nature. Your destiny is written by you unconsciously. With Mastery over physical body, 15 to 20% of life and destiny will be in your hands; mind it would be 50 to 60% and with life energies 100%.

The quality of our lives is determined by our ability to respond to the varied complex situations that we encounter. When you move into the fundamental dimension of who you are, you are beyond all polarities, master of your own destiny. Responsibility does not mean taking on the burdens of the world, accepting blame for things you have done or not done, living in a state of perpetual guilt. It means ability to respond, be conscious, freedom. Reactivity is enslavement. The choice is respond consciously to the present or react compulsively. With ‘I am not responsible’ attitude; you can’t even get along with yourself. To be loving is a willingness to respond freely and openly, we can extend this ability to embrace the entire world. Recognize consciously: “My ability to respond is limitless, but my ability to act is limited. I am 100% responsible for everything I am and not, for my capacities and my incapacities, for my joys and miseries. I am the one who determines the nature of my experience in this life and beyond. I am the maker of my life.”

If you desire is for the limitless you arrive at yoga. The science of yoga is being in perfect alignment, absolute harmony, complete sync with existence. We are composed of five ‘Sheaths’/’Layers’/bodies viz: the physical body-the annamayakosha (hardware); the mental body- the manomayakosha (software); the energy body – the pranamayakosha (power) – each more subtle than preceding like lightbulb, electricity and light. The fourth is transient state called vignanamayakosha or the etheric body means ‘extraordinay knowledge” – that which is beyond the sense of perception. It is link between physical and non physical. The fifth is anandamayakosha, indefinable dimension, producing overwhelming experience of bliss. Work is only with the first three bodies, yoga is the science of aligning these three dimensions to reach ecstatic union with life itself. If your employ your physical body to reach this ultimate union, it is Karma yoga, employing intelligence is gnana yoga, employing emotions is bhakti yoga or yoga of devotion and if you use energies, it is kriya yoga, the yoga of transforming energies. Yoga is not about being superhuman; it is about realizing that being human is super. There are two fundamental ways in which spiritual journey can be approached; slow step by step, or by taking inward leap. We are free to choose our path, balance between the two is the best.



Part Two offers a way to navigate it.

Our body is the ultimate machine, complete and self-contained. There are two forces, one of self preservation, compelling you to build walls around for protection and the other to become boundless. Separate the two, avoid conflict. Yoga talks only about the barriers that you have set up as these resistance needs to be attended. We need to know life beyond the senses as they are relative. The human predicament is the very seat of experience is within us, but perception is entirely outward bound. The science of using body to hasten evolutionary process is hatha yoga. Ha denotes the sun and tha denotes the moon. Hatha is bringing balance between these two dimensions within human system understanding the mechanics of body, creating certain atmosphere and then using physical postures to channel or drive energy in specific directions known as yogasana. Listen. A painful body will want us get rid of the pain so a compulsive body (hunger, lust) will not allow you to look beyond the physical. Asanas help level the physical body. Annamayakosha is the morsel of the earth. Earth, water, air, food, are organic parts of life process and not just commodities. Food is the fuel, your body knows what it needs best.

Once your intellect gets identified with something you function within the realm of the identity is called ahankara. Mind is an express train that cannot be stopped. If you are able to disentangle, dis-identify yourself from everything that you are not – the mind turns just blank and empty like death. Employ your intelligence and make an attempt to reach your ultimate nature i.e. gnana yoga/ yoga of knowing. The mind has sixteen dimensions falling into four categories. There is the discerning or discriminatory, the intellect (buddhi), the accumulative dimension or memory (manas), which gathers information and what is called awareness (chitta), which is beyond both intellect and memory. The fourth dimension, ahankara you derive your sense of identity. Soak your intellect in your awareness, you enjoy liberation. Don’t leave your intellect in the sack of memory and identification you will draw conclusion about life that are completely distorted. Awareness is aliveness. This means that ones you distance yourself from the compulsiveness of your own genetic and karmic information, life becomes unburdened, flexible, incredibly effortless. Knowledge is accumulated, knowing is transmitted it does not need thought, like beehives. Every aspect of life is a manifestation of a greater intelligence than minuscule intellect. All that is considered to be negative in the world actually springs from limitation ‘me’ versus ‘others’, in this space all crime and negativity is born. Move from limitation to liberation. Your mind can be in five different states. It could be inert not activated at all; rudimentary state. energize it, it becomes active but scattered. Further energies starts oscillating; further, it becomes one-pointed and further, it will become conscious. If it is conscious, it is magic; miracle; bridge to the beyond.

Everything in the universe can be seen as one energy/kundalini, the formula E=mc2, also confirms that. Per yoga system the anatomy of the human energy body has been mapped to seventy-two thousand channels (or nadis)in the energy system The prana, or energy, moves through these channels. These springs from 3 basic channels – on right pingala symbolized as masculine or sun, left ida symbolized as feminine or moon and central sushumna independent of other nadis but fulcrum of the whole system. The chakras are powerful centers in the physiology where the nadis meet in a particular way to create energy vortex. There are 114 chakras, 3 active. There are seven fundamental chakras:

The muladhara, located at the perineum, between the anal outlet and the genital organ if dominant then food and sleep will be dominant;
swadhishthana, just above the genital organ if dominant pleasure will be dominant;
manipuraka, which is 3/4th of an inch below navel if dominant you are a doer;
Helps keep body stable and rooted associated with earth and self preservation – Survival Instinct

anahata, below the point where the rib cage meets the diaphragm if dominant you are creative;
Middle Anahata is a balance between two, transition symbolized by two interlocking triangles, one pointing downward and another upward, forming star.

vishuddhi, at the pit of the throat makes you powerful person;
agna, between the eyebrows - intellectually realized; and
sahasrara/ brahmarandra, at the fontanel on top of the head makes intellectually realized.
Draws you away from the pull of earth, concerned with longing for the infinite liberation instinct,

Spiritual path is a journey from muladhara to Sahasrara.

Take charge of own destiny and be in a state of joyful inclusiveness. The way out is in, create a world of love, light and laughter. Let us make it happen.