Pranayam

Pranayam is generally required to do fine meditations. However, this is not always necessary. One can directly do meditation without doing pranayam. There are so many practical things to know. But you may not need to know all of them provided you understand. That's why I consider Gyan yoga as highest form of yoga. Whatever is the total configurational change by doing thousands of pranayam can be achived in a second by knowledge. Knowledge is the most powerful, it simply bypasses all the minor yogic pratices. However on the contrary, pranyam is not considered as minor yogic practice. At least that is what happneed to Janak. But you need that much ripe consciousness to understand what's going on...But unfortunately the average consciousness of the humanity is much lower than that of Buddha, Jesus etc. Jesus will not do pranayam. Because hee understands. You should do paranaym coz you don't know. There is a possiblity that pranayam can open another dimension for you.

Essentially what pranayaam does is to expand the pran. There is concept of Pran in Yoga. Pran means everything. Sarvam Pranmayam Jagtam. Whatever you see is the manifestation of pran is what they say. They are right. But for our purpose we relate pran with breath. Pran and breath are related. So, pranayam regulates the breath which in turn controls the pran. The final aim of pranayam is attain kumbhak. Kumbhak is the state no breathing. Rather I should say no appreciable breathing. Breathing frequency is too lesss. In samadhi, effective breathing frequency could be once in a day. Patanjanjali has given an excellent forumula to monitor samadhi. Usually 12 prayanyam is 1 pratyahar. 12 Pratyahas is 1 Dharna. 12 Dharana is one Dhyan, 12 Dhyan is one Samadhi. 12 Samadhi is one sanyam. Sanyam is final. Don't go to sanyam state. That's too far. I would recommend to go upto Dhyan state and come back. That takes approximately 3 hours of paranayam. So basically if you do pranayam for approx 3 hours continuously that should log you into Dhyan. Remember body should be standstill for 3 hours. No movements at all. That's not easy to do. So there are many meditative psotures to do that. Padmasan is the best. Buddha used to use Padmasan for his meditations. So try to sit longer time in padmasan. Then do pranayam. Again there are many ways to do pranayam. Choose on your own what suits your best. What Buddha suggest is to observe the breath. Just observe. You can choose anything u like. That's how pranayam aids in meditations.

Routine of a Yogi

I was thinking how much it takes to start a new religion. A unified religion. If I do couple of passover meals, few miracles, if few monkey comes and give me bowl of honey, if I go to battle field and make everybody my disciple, If I bring back life to a dead man, if winds start obeying me, if I am crucified on a Jews Cross, If my baptist declare me son of god at Jordan river, are these enough, if I know my apostle will betray me, if i profound my own truth. Perhaps no. It won't be that easy to start a new religion now. In fact none of the religion was started by prophets. When they die, it's their disciple who creates religion. Then John, Mark, Luke, Mathew start writing new testament. Then Roman caesar will change it the way they want. Then he will create pope which will create a huge propaganda of prayers. That he will pray for you and he will take you to kingdom of Godhead via Jesus. That's one reason catholics hate meditation. In meditation you are simply bypassing them. You are simply bypassing pope and Jesus and even God. You yourself connecting yourself to your source. None of the religion wants you to do that. Then what's the role of Pope and priest if you are directly able to connect to God. They will become unemployed. Lol. In Hinduism Upanishads allows you to do that. You know - temple priest hate Upanishads like anything. Because Upanishads will simply take away his job. And what to speak of Ashtavakra. They would get mad to see Ashtavakra geeta. Lol.

I again started philosophy. Philosophy apart. This post is all about life style of a Yogi. So here it goes:

He should wake up at dawn. At 4:30 am. He should go to river performs calls of nature, take bath there. Then he should start practising Yogasan. He should sit on Kushagrass. This is just to have an insulating material underneath. Otherwise there is possibility of energy getting grounded to the earth. Then he should perform Asan. Padmasan, siddhasan mayursan, chakrasan, paschimottanasan, sarvangasan, sheersasan etc. He should fouces on his breath while doing asan. Then he should to Pranayam. Before that he should do Nadi shodhan kriya. This is must before doing pranayam. Then he should do pranayam - kapalbhati, ujjai, bhastrika etc. Then he should do pratyaaahar. That is contracting consciousness within. Just like a tortoise contracts his legs. Then he should dharna. There is snkalp involved in dharna. It could be anything. Then he should do meditation. The savikalp samadhi should happen. Then nirvikalp samadhi should happen. That's one session from asan to samadhi. Then he should do his/her daily work. Like going office, going school college etc. At work place he should neither work too hard or too less. Then in the evening he should again do one session from Asan to samadhi. He should not eat meat, spicy, rotten, food. He should eat lots of butter, fresh fruits nut, grains etc. Yogis best food is rice cooked into clarified milk. He should not eat too much. Nor too less. He should treat every woman as his sister or mother except one. He should live a plain life. Simple life. Not too much of expectations. He should avoid greediness and cleverness. He should be always happy and cheerful. He should follow strict brahmcharya. He should not watch TV and vulgur scene. At night he should pray to god for giving him a wonderful day. Then he should rest on the lap of sleeping mother.

Above was for Patanjali Yogi. I mean those who follow patanjali yogi. Now coming to those who want to follow Ashtavakra geeta. He should do what he is doing. Coz, whatever he is doing is part of existence. He doesn't need to do pranayam, dhyan described above. Just little bit of understanding is enough. It can happen within a second. Ashatavakra says within a second you can be englightened. That's why I say where Patanjali ends, Ashtavakra starts. Patanjali ends at samadhi, Ashtavakra starts at samadhi. Huge difference. Jameen aur aasman k aantar hai.

So, friends choice is yours - Patanjali or Ashtavakra.

God Bless!