Samadhi - The End or The Beginning?

In Siddha Samadhi Yoga, our main focus is on teaching Samadhi. Everybody feels, that Samadhi is the last step in Astang Yoga, ‘How are you teaching it as the first step?’ There are eight limbs of Yoga and each limb refers to different aspects of our being. They are Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi. The first limb, Yama is related to how you operate in the world? How you operate with others? Vyavahara i.e. behavior with reference to others is Yama e.g. being truthful, not to accumulate goods etc. are Yamas. Niyamas are your own personal habits like cleanliness, self-analysis etc. These are more to do with yourself rather than your interaction with others. 


It is basically, how am I to be with myself. Asanas is for the body. What is a Perfect Asana? Perfect Asana is not doing all kinds of acrobatics. Asana means - a steady and comfortable posture. To attain a steady and comfortable posture is the process of Asana. Pranayama is subtler than Asana. It is about your life energy or your prana shakti. Your body is vital, only as long as it has Prana. The body may have everything, but, if it doesn’t have Prana it is useless. Pranayama means to expand or extend the Prana. Pratyahara is for the senses. Pratya means different and ahara means food. Normally, objects are the food for eyes. Sound is the food for ears. Touch is the food for skin. Smell is the food for nose. Taste is the food for tongue. In this way, our five senses have got different aharas. When the senses instead of going outwards, go inwards they begin to have a different ahara. They begin to feed on something that is different from the external flow. All sensory organs are attuned to outer food or inputs. When in meditation the mind is turned inwards. The senses start getting different food i.e. Parabramha Stithi. 


So taking the sensory organs inwards is called Pratyahara. Dharana relates to the mind (Manas) i.e. what you hold in your mind. If you hold crazy things in your mind, then the body will be disturbed by that. If you hold a nice, wonderful picture in your mind, then the whole body will relax. The mind is like a TV screen, you can project anything on your mind. The projection on the mind comes from two places - either the external senses, which give you the stimulus or your past memory will give you the stimulus. In computer language you can draw the input from your memory or it is coming from the periphery. Whatever the mind holds that begins to happen to the body. Dharana has to do with what you hold in your mind. If you hold negative things, then negative things will begin to happen to your body. If you hold positive things, then positive things will happen in your body. What you hold in your mind shifts very rapidly with knowledge for e.g. if you hear the sound of a door opening in the dark, one person may say a ghost is making the sound and starts shivering. A person, who knows that there is wind, and because of that the door is  moving, will not get scared. 


So what you experience depends upon the knowledge you have. So knowledge - right discrimination is very important. Dhyana is concerned with the intellect (Buddhi) i.e. with what you understand. Dharana is concerned with the mind, Dhyana is concerned with the intellect. Now Samadhi is concerned with the Being i.e. the ego-state (Ahamkara). Ahamkara means the sense of identification - What you consider yourself to be. Your discrimination depends upon what you consider yourself to be.  The reason you hold certain things as right or wrong, good or bad, all depends on the sense of identity. The function of the intellect is to simply protect your identity (somebodiness), which you are bound to. 


So, Samadhi is to puncture that state of somebodiness and become a nobody. So, as you go on meditating, you start feeling more and more free. The more you let go, the more freedom  you  experience. So what is it that we must teach people? If we tell them you must be truthful, you must be straight to others, you must do good things. After you have attained these Yamas then we will go to Niyamas - your personal habits and refine them. After you have become perfectly pure and clean then we will think about sitting in a particular Asana, that is comfortable. First get yourself perfectly okay then decide to sit comfortably. Is this the way Yoga goes? It is the most foolish way to go about it. Do you think that from Yama, Niyama it is possible to go to Samadhi? So is it going to happen? It is impossible! That is why all of the Yoga is dead, because they have gone in  the  reverse  direction.  When a person begins to let go, by going inwards, he gains strength, gains inner happiness, he will automatically do things better than before. Then the Yamas and Niyamas happen naturally to him.  He will naturally live in freedom, strength and the beauty of life  will  naturally  open  up.


                                                                       - By Guruji Shri Rishi Prabhakar

Meditation to Relieve Stress

For many, many years, Easterners have used meditation as a tool for their spiritual practices, but also as a tool for relaxation. The truth is that meditation itself is not affiliated with any religious practice and therefore, anyone, anywhere can use and benefit from the incredibly calming and relaxing benefits received by practicing meditation.

1. Breathing Meditation

This is probably the easiest type of meditation but yet still very effective. Breathing meditation will relax your mind and body and slow down your heart rate to a more healthy level. You will be able to think more clearly and be more in balance.

2. Mindful Meditation

Mindfulness is also a great way to get your body relaxed. You will be working on feeling your body and becoming aware. Paying attention to the different sensations in your entire body starting from your feet and moving up through your body and ending with your head.

3. Imagery Meditation

This type of meditation is great for clearing your mind and retreating from a stressful day. It will get you in a total relaxed state and then let you go to a place that you find calming and peaceful. There will be no one else than you and your chosen scenery. And when you return to your day, it will be much more relaxed and with a much clearer mind that will help to make discussions and take action without feeling overwhelmed.

4. Deep Breathing Meditation

In this all you have to do to get deeply relaxed and forget the body is lie down comfortably on your back, listen to beautiful, flowing music, just let go, and let God. By concentrating on our breathing, deep breathing allows the rest of our body to relax itself. Deep breathing is a great way to relax the body and get everything into synchrony. 

Samadhi the base for all Discoveries

Classical physics falls in the paradigm of cause and effect where everything is predictable. According to the ancient Rishis this predictable zone is called the zone  of  Karma (cause and effect). Modern physics no longer talks  in terms of certainty. It has changed its language from certainty to probability. It has recognized the law of uncertainty which simply states ‘Nothing is certain.’ It no longer emphatically concludes   that ‘this is how this  or  that  will  be.’ Rather it says, ‘It is more probable this way than that.’ It has unknowingly stepped from the predictable zone to the unpredict-able zone, which according to the ancient Rishi's is the zone of Akarma  (Samadhi).  

Samadhi is a conscious shift from the classical mode to the quantum mechanical mode of operation, from the analog mode to the digital mode of operation, from the predictable zone to the unpredict-able zone of operation, from the fragmented zone to the unified  zone  of  operation. Scientists today are working to formulate a unified field theory which is based on the fundamental level of human consciousness, that of Turiya Avastha, the thoughtless   state  of  awareness. This is a great adventure and  this   is the right direction to proceed with. All great discoveries have happened in that very state of meditative awareness. Archimedes discovered the laws of specific gravity sitting in a bathtub, Newton realised the laws of motion staring at a blank white wall, Gandhiji realized his plans of action in the quietness of the prison. Vivekananda received   inspiration in solitude of the rock and  sea  at  Kanya Kumari. Every great scientist has intuited solutions to various puzzles in life.   All great discoveries are made when you are in thoughtless abandonment and  not by brooding over it again and again. 

You are simply retired from the world of activity. You are  in your ‘think tank room’ with all facilities for survival without any need to communicate with anybody. Only such an inwardly directed person  can  be  a  great  discoverer. I think that scientists need to meditate deeply enough and grasp this foundation of inner silence, which is the basis of the creative process itself. Only by going deep into oneself will one be able to discover  the  ‘Unified  Field Theory.’ All ancient Rishis were great scientists and have made phenomenal discoveries. According to Darwin the first evolutionary process of  life started with  the  fish, then other life forms  followed. This has been stated long ago in the Puranas, that the first avatar (incarnation) is  Matsya  Avatar.  Our Rishis spoke a symbolic language. But up to now our scriptures have not been properly explained. The reason is that the Puranas instead of being in the hands of scientists have fallen in to the hands of ignorant and illiterate  people. Also we have lost the key to decipher the code of our scriptures. 

Science says that man cannot exist on this planet for more than 5000 years. The sun will cool down, its rays will diminish and it will become cold. This too was stated  in  the  Puranas  a  long time ago. So what science is discovering now has already been discovered by the ancient Rishis. The basis for their discovery was the  inner silence of Samadhi. All the Vedas, the science of creation and mechanics of the universe have already been discovered by the great Rishis while  in  Samadhi. Even now all discoveries are happening by accidentally getting into the state of Samadhi. So all scientists need to know how to consciously get into this state.   They also need to refer to the works of our ancient scientists which will aid their investigations. Samadhi is the basis for all discoveries and understandings to dawn effortlessly. It is the Science  of  all Sciences. 

                                                                       - By Guruji Shri Rishi Prabhakar