Corporate Yoga

Be alone.

Seek a solitary spot.

Selected spot should be clean.

Selected spot should neither be too high nor too low.

Spread a cloth on the floor.

Firmly seated on it, practise Breathing Exercise or 

Pranayama.

Steps for Breathing Exercise or Pranayama:

    1.      First Stage: 

    Breathe with both noses in a measured way, in and out for some time. Practise this for a few days.

    2.    Second Stage: 

    Slowly fill the lungs with breath through the left nostril and then hold the breath for some time. For beginners, holding of the breath is for four seconds and slowly it can be increased. Release the breath slowly through the right nostril. 

Repeat the breathing in the same with the right nostril.

This is one Pranayama.

   3.    Third Stage: 

   Draw the breath with the both noses in and then throw the breath immediately out slowly – without holding it as above. This is easier one.

Hints:

1.      The easiest way is to close the right nostril with the thumb, and then slowly draw in the breath through the left; then close both nostrils with thumb and forefinger; then take the thumb off from the right nostril, and let the breath out through the right nostril.

Next inhale slowly through the right nostril, keeping 

the other left nostril closed by the forefinger, then 

close both, as before. Then take the forefinger off, and 

let the breath out through the left nostril.

2.    The breathing in which you hold the breath in the lungs must not be practised too much. Do it only four times in the morning and four times in the evening. Then you can slowly increase the time and number. So, very carefully and cautiously increase as you feel that you have the power, to six instead of four.

Note: 

Pranayama is divided into three parts: 

Filling, Restraining, and Emptying.

Lowest Pranayama: 12 seconds. 

Middle Pranayama: 24 seconds. 

Best Pranayama: 36 seconds.

(References:

1.Bhagavad Gita - Yoga of Meditation: Chapter 6 – stanzas – 10 – 14.

2.Chapter 5 – The Control of Psychic Prana – pages 166 to  170  &  Chapter 8 – page 191 of The Complete works of Swami Vivekananda – Volume 1 – Published by Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta – 700 014.) 

Extracts of above References:

Bhagavad Gita – Yoga of Meditation:                                       Chapter 6 – stanzas – 10 -14.

Stanza 10 - Yogi lives in seclusion all by himself. Yogi has controlled his mind and body and free from desires and void of possessions. These have been achieved by Yogi by constantly engaging his mind in meditation.

Stanza 11 – To do meditation, Yogi chooses his seat free from dirt and other impurities with Kusa grass, a deerskin and a cloth spread thereon one below another - Kusa Grass at the bottom, deer skin in the middle and cloth at the top. The seat should be neither very high nor very low.

Stanza 12 – Yogi is to occupy such a seat. Yogi should then control the functions of the mind and senses. Yogi practices Meditation for self purification of mind.

Stanza 13 – Yogi holds his body, head and neck straight and steady. Yogi fixes his eye sights on the tip of his nose without looking in other directions.

Stanza 14 -  Yogi is firm in vow of complete chastity and fearless and calm. Yogi’s mind is held in restraint and is fixed on Lord Krishna. Thus Yogi sits absorbed in Lord Krishna in Meditation.

Swami Vivekananda on Practicing Meditation

(Brief Notes on the basis of Chapter 5 – The Control of Psychic Prana – pages 166 to  170  &  Chapter 8 – Raja Yoga in Brief - page 191 of The Complete works of Swami Vivekananda – Volume 1 – Published by Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta – 700 014. )

Chapter 5 – The Control of Psychic Prana

Pranayama is to control the motion of the lungs.

Mind has become externalized and hence lost sight of finer motions of lungs inside. One needs to feel the lung’s motions to control them.

Continuous exercises of Pranayama help to control motion of lungs.

Exercise of Pranayama:

First part: Sit upright. Body must be kept straight. The three parts of the body – the chest, the neck and the head – must be always held straight in one line.

Second part: Control nerves. Nerve centre that controls the respiratory organs has a controlling effect on the other nerves. Hence to control nerves, rhythmic breathing is necessary.

The breathing that we generally use should not be called breathing at all. Hence Pranayama helps to have rhythmic breathing.

First Lesson in rhythmic breathing is just to breathe in a measured way – in and out. That will harmonise the system. While doing this breathing exercise, chant some sacred words such as “OM”.

Let sacred word OM flow in and out with the breath, rhythmically, harmoniously, and you will find the whole body is becoming rhythmical.  This exercise will be a real rest – sleep is not a real rest. Once this real rest comes, the most tired nerves will be calmed down, and you will find that you have never before really rested.

After practicing the above mentioned breathing exercise for a few days, you should take up a higher one.

Here it is:

Slowly fill the lungs with breath through the Ida, the left nostril, and at the same time concentrate the mind on the nerve current.

You are, as it were, sending the nerve current down the spinal column, and striking violently on the last plexus, the basic lotus which is triangular in form, the seat of the Kundalini. Then hold the current there for some time.

Imagine that you are slowly drawing that nerve current with the breath through the other side, the Pingala, then slowly throw it out through the right nostril. This you will find a little difficult to practice. The easiest way is to stop the right nostril with the thumb, and then slowly draw in the breath through the left; then close both nostrils with thumb and forefinger, and imagine that you are sending that current down, and striking the base of the Sushumna; then take the thumb off, and let the breath out through the right nostril.

Next inhale slowly through the right nostril, keeping the other closed by the forefinger, then close both as before.

Lungs should be prepared for this exercise and hence it is well to begin with four seconds, and slowly increase. Draw in four seconds, hold in sixteen seconds, then throw out in eight seconds. This makes one Pranayama.

At the same time think of the basic lotus, triangular in form; concentrate the mind on that centre. The imagination can help you a great deal.

The next breathing is slowly drawing the breath in, and then immediately throwing it out slowly, and then stopping the breath out, using the same numbers. The only difference is that in the first case the breath was held in, and in the second held out.

The last is the easiest one. The breathing in which you hold the breath in the lungs must not be practiced too much. Do it only four times in the morning, and four times in the evening. Then you can slowly increase the time and number.

Of the three processes for the purification of the nerves, described above, the first and the last are neither difficult nor dangerous. The more you practice the first one the calmer you will be. Just think of “OM” and you can practice even when you are sitting at your work.

The Yogis claim that of all the energies that are in the human body the highest is what they call “OJAS”. Now this Ojas is in a man’s hand, the more powerful he is, the more intellectual, the more spiritually strong. One man may speak beautiful language and beautiful thoughts, but they do not impress people; another man speaks neither beautiful language nor beautiful thoughts, yet his words charm. Every movement of his is powerful. That is the power of OJAS.

All the forces that are working in the body in their highest become OJAS.

The Yogis say that that part of the human energy which is expressed as sex energy, in sexual thought, when checked into OJAS and as the Muladhara guides these, the Yogis pays particular attention to that centre. He tries to take up all his sexual energy and convert it into OJAS. It is only the chase man or woman who can make the OJAS rise and store it in the brain; that is why chastity has always been considered the highest virtue.

There must be perfect chastity in thought, word, and deed; without it the practice of Raja-Yoga is dangerous, and may lead to insanity.

Chapter 8 – Raja Yoga in Brief

Pranayama consists of Prana and Ayama.

Prana means the vital forces in one’s own body, Ayama means controlling them.

There are three sorts of Pranayama, the very simple, the middle and the very high.

Pranayama is divided into three parts:

1.   Filling; 2. Restraining; 3. Emptying.

When you begin with 12 seconds, it is the lowest Pranayama; when you begin with 24 seconds, it is the middle Pranayama; that Pranayama is the best which begins with 36 seconds.

In the lowest kind of Pranayama there is perspiration, in the medium kind, quivering of the body and in the highest Pranayama levitation of the body and influx of great bliss.

There is a Mantra called the Gayatri. It is very holy verse of the Vedas.

‘We meditate on the glory of that Being who has produced this universe; May He enlighten our minds;”

OM is joined to it at the beginning and the end.

In one Pranayama repeat three Gayathris.

In all books they speak of Pranayama being divided into Rechaka (rejecting or exhaling), Puraka (inhaling), and Kumbhaka (restraining, stationary).

The Indriyas, the organs of the senses, are acting outwards and coming in contact with external objects. Bringing them under the control of the will is what is called Pratyahara or gathering towards oneself.

Fixing the mind on the lotus of the heart, or on the centre of the head, is what is called Dharana.

Limited to one spot, making that spot the base, a particular kind of mental waves rises; these are not swallowed up by other kinds of waves, but by degrees become prominent, while all the others recede and finally disappear.

Next the multiplicity of these waves gives place to unity and one wave only is left in the mind. This is Dhana, meditation. When no basis is necessary, when the whole of the mind has become one wave, one-formedness, it is called Samadhi.

Bereft of all help from places and centres, only the meaning of the thought is present. If the mind can be fixed on the centre for 12 seconds, it will be a Dharana, 12 such Dharanas will be a Dhyana, and 12 such Dhyanas will be a Samadhi.

Dhyana is spoken of, and a few examples are given of what to meditate upon.

Sit straight, and look at the tip of your nose. Later on we shall come to know how that concentrates the mind, how by controlling the two optic nerves one advances a long way towards the control of the arc of reaction, and so to the control of the will.

Here are a few specimen of meditation.

Imagine a lotus upon the top of the head, several inches up, with virtue as its centre, and knowledge as its stalk. The eight petals of the lotus are the eight powers of the Yogi.

Inside, the stamens and pistils are renunciation.

If the Yogi refuses the external powers he will come to salvation. So the eight petals of the lotus are the eight powers, but the internal stamens and pistils are extreme renunciation, the renunciation of all these powers. Inside of that lotus think of the Golden One, the Almighty, the Intangible. He whose name is OM, the Inexpressible, surrounded with effulgent light, Meditate on that.

Another meditation is given. Think of a space in your heart, and in the midst of that space think that a flame is burning. Think of that flame as your own soul and inside the flame is another effulgent light, and that is the Soul of your soul, God.

Meditate upon that in the heart.

OM Shanthi OM Shanthi OM Shanthi.