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The
Meditation Room
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separate meditation room under lock and key. Never allow anyone to enter the
room. Keep it sacred. If you cannot afford to have a special room for
contemplative purposes and for practicing Pranayama, have a place in the corner
of a quiet room, set apart for this purpose. Have it screened. Place the photo
of your Guru or Ishta-Devata in the room in front of your Asana. Do Puja daily
to the picture, physically and mentally, before you start meditation and
Pranayama. Burn incense in the room or burn Agarbathi (incense sticks). Keep
some sacred books there such as Ramayana, Srimad Bhagavata, Gita, Upanishads,
Yoga-Vasishtha, etc., for your daily study. Spread a fourfold blanket and over
it a piece of soft white cloth. This will serve the purpose of an Asana. Or
spread an Asana Of Kusa grass. Over it spread a deer or tiger skin. Sit on this
Asana for practicing Pranayama and meditation. You can have a raised platform
made of cement. Over this you can spread your Asana. Small insects, ants, etc.,
will not molest you. When you sit on the Asana keep your head, neck and trunk
in a straight line. By doing so, the spinal cord that lies with the spinal
column will be quite free.
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The
Five Essentials
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things are necessary for practicing Pranayama. First a good place; second, a
suitable time; third, moderate, substantial, light and nutritious food; fourth,
patient and persistent practice with zeal, ease and earnestness and lastly the
purification of Nadis (Nadi-Suddhi). When the Nadis are purified the aspirant
enters the first stage in the practice of Yoga‘ Arambha’.
A Pranayama practitioner has a good appetite, good digestion, cheerfulness,
courage, strength, vigour, a high standard of vitality and a handsome
appearance. The Yogi should take his food at a time when Surya Nadi or Pingala
is working, i.e., when the breath flows through the right nostril, because
Pingala is heating and digests the food quickly. Pranayama should not be
practiced just after taking meals, nor when one is very hungry. Gradually one
should be able to retain the breath for 3 Ghatikas (one hour and a half) at a
time. Through this, the Yogi gets many psychic powers. When anyone wants to
stop the breath for a long period, he should remain by the side of a Yogi Guru,
who knows the practice of Pranayama thoroughly. The breath can be suspended by
graduated practice from one to three minutes without the help of anybody.
Suspension for three minutes is quite sufficient for purifying the Nadis and
steadying the mind and for the purpose of good health.
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The
Place
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a solitary, beautiful and pleasant spot, where there are no disturbances; on
the bank of a river, lake or the sea or the top of a hill where there is a nice
spring and grove of trees, and where milk and articles of food are easily
procurable. Build a small Kutir or hut. Have one compound. In the corner of the
enclosure, sink a well. It is impossible to get an ideal place that can satisfy
you from all viewpoints.
The banks of Narmada, Jamuna,
Ganga, Kaveri, Godavari, Krishna are very suitable for building Kutirs or huts.
You must select one such spot, where there are some other Yogic practitioners
in the neighbourhood. You can consult them in times of difficulties. You will
have faith in the Yogic Kriyas. When you see others also who are devoted to
such Yogic practices, you will diligently apply yourself in your practice, as
you will get an impetus and you will strive to excel them. Nasik, Rishikesh,
Jhansi, Prayag, Uttarkasi, Brindavan, Ayodhya, Varanasi, etc., are good places.
You can fix a spot in a place far from the crowded localities. If you build a
Kutir in a crowded place, people out of curiosity will molest you. You will
have no spiritual vibrations there. You will be without any protection if you
build your cottage in a thick forest. Thieves and wild animals will trouble
you. The question of difficulty for food will arise. In Svetasvatara Upanishad
it is said: At a level place, free from pebbles, fire and gravel; pleasant to
the eyes, and repairing to a cave, protected from the wind, let a person apply
his mind to God.
Those who practise in their own
houses can convert a room into a forest. Any solitary room will serve their
purpose well.
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The
Time
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practice of Pranayama should be commenced in Vasanta Ritu (spring) or Sarad
Ritu (autumn) because in these seasons success is attained without any
difficulty or troubles. The Vasanta is the period from March to April. The
Sarad, autumn, lasts from September to October. In summer do not practise
Pranayama, in the afternoon or evening. In the cool morning hours you can have
your practice.
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The
Adhikari
(The Qualified Person)
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who has a calm mind, who has subdued his Indriyas, who has faith in the words
of the Guru and Sastras, who is an Astika (i.e., one who believes in God) and
is moderate in eating, drinking and sleeping and one who has an eager longing
for deliverance from the wheel of births and deaths—is an Adhikari (qualified
person) for the practice of Yoga. Such a man can easily get success in the
practice. Pranayama should be practiced with care, perseverance and faith.
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who are addicted to sensual pleasures or those who are arrogant, dishonest,
untruthful, diplomatic, cunning and treacherous; those who disrespect Sadhus,
Sannyasins and their Gurus or spiritual preceptors and take pleasure in vain
controversies, or of a highly talkative nature, those who are disbelievers, who
mix much with worldly-minded people, who are cruel, harsh and greedy and do
much useless Vyavahara (worldly activities), can never attain success in
Pranayama or any other Yogic practice.
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are three types of Adhikaris, viz., 1. good (Uttama), 2. middle (Madhyama) and
3. inferior (Adhama) according to Samskaras, intelligence, degree of Vairagya,
Viveka and Mumukshutva and the capacity for Sadhana.
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must approach a Guru, who knows Yogasastra and has mastery over it. Sit at his
lotus-feet. Serve him. Clear your doubts through sensible and reasonable
questions. Receive instructions and practise them with enthusiasm, zeal,
attention, earnestness and faith according to the methods taught by the
teacher.
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Pranayama practitioner should always speak kind and sweet words. He must be
kind to everybody. He must be honest. He must speak the truth. He must develop
Vairagya, patience, Sraddha (faith), Bhakti (devotion), Karuna (mercy), etc. He
must observe perfect celibacy. A householder should be very moderate in sexual
matters during the practice.
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Dietetic
Discipline
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proficient in Yoga should abandon articles of food, detrimental to the practice
of Yoga. He should give up salt, mustard, sour, hot, pungent and bitter things,
asafetida, worship of fire, women, too much walking, bathing at sunrise,
emaciation of the body by fasts, etc. During the early stages of practice food
of milk and ghee is ordained; also food consisting of wheat, green pulse and
red rice is said to favour the progress. Then he will be able to retain his
breath as long as he likes. By thus retaining the breath as long as he likes
Kevala Kumbhaka (cessation of breath without inspiration and expiration) is
attained. When Kevala Kumbhaka is attained by one, expiration and inspiration
are dispensed with. There is nothing unattainable in the three worlds for him.
In the commencement of his practice sweat is getting out. As a frog moves by
leaps so the Yogi sitting in Padmasana moves on the earth. With a further
increased practice, he is able to rise from the ground. He, while seated in
lotus-posture, levitates. Then arise in him the power to perform extraordinary
feats. Any pain, small or great, does not affect the Yogi. Then excretions and
sleep are diminished; tears, rheum in the eyes, salivary flow, sweat and bad
smell in the mouth, do not arise in him. With a still further practice, he
acquires great strength by which he attains Bhuchara Siddhi which enables him
to bring under his control all the creatures that tread on this earth; tigers,
Sarabhas, elephants, wild bulls and lions even die by a blow given by the palms
of this Yogi. He becomes as beautiful as the God of Love himself. By the
preservation of the semen a good odour pervades the body of the Yogi.
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