Bindu No. 12

Don’t be deceived... Who wants to learn to swim from someone who just sits and splashes around at the waters edge talking, but who does not dare to dive in? these books, because they cannot judge whether the content is correct. But less scrupulous publishers will probably print the books, because there is a great interest and people will buy them.

Ingela Hageman © 1998

“I don’t care whether the teacher has any training. People want a yoga course, and that’s what they’ll get,” said a woman who arranged my yoga courses at one of Stockholm’s most respected health clubs. My own courses were completely full, with 25 people on the waiting list. She was determined to arrange an extra course and was looking for an instructor, as neither I nor the other teachers at our school were able to take the course. My argument that the quality would drop, if this teacher had insufficient, or no training at all, didn’t impress her in the least. This total lack of respect shocked me. To be honest I hadn’t thought that things were that bad. In a naïve kind of way we often see what is written and printed as being true, but be on your guard when it is about yoga and meditation. Someone I know who works as an editor in a publishing firm, recently told me that they receive manuscripts on meditation from people who have never learnt to meditate. They just sit at home and write well-formulated books. The publishing firm does not print

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Last spring, I was asked by another publisher to read through and comment upon a newly translated book on yoga. The translator was professional, but knew nothing about yoga. This resulted in my finding numerous mistakes and misunderstandings in the translation, especially concerning the mind, relaxation and

editorial by Mira meditation. I discovered that if one does not have a good working knowledge of the subject, then it is impossible to know how certain words and expressions should be translated. And how many translators have that knowledge? Those who do not have a thorough knowledge of meditation, often resort to nature and confuse beautiful experiences such as looking out over the sea at sunset, with meditation. But there are important differences. When you are out in the countryside, it is the tranquillity that is there which makes you feel more harmonious. Pleasant, of course, but how much satisfaction do you get out of that when you are in a pressing situation at work? With yoga and meditation, you find tranquillity within. You learn to rest within your self. This experience you bring with you into your daily life - and you can return to your self when you want to. Do not be deceived by angelic people, who meditate on exotic beaches with swaying palms. Of course it is nice to meditate when on holiday in the Bahamas, but yoga and meditation belong most of all in daily life.‰ (Also see the article on page 4)

Contents “You want people to have the best” 4 A comment to the editorial.

Yoga for “mouse arms” 5

How to use the hands and arms differently. Description of the yoga pose “the crane.”

Yoga tool-kit for computer users 6

research is being done into the consequences of long term computer work. We present a program of simple yoga exercises relieve the problem.

Mapping the brains activity after Kriya Yoga 10

An article on how deep-going Kriya Yoga really is, and of its positive effects.

On learning to teach Kriya Yoga 14

First part of an article by Swami Janakananda: on Sadhana, cycles in healing and learning and what it means to be silent during the initiation into Kriya Yoga.

Retreats at Håå Course Center in the south of Sweden 26

This year ends with our annual 14-day course over Christmas, followed by the 10-day New Year course. Next years courses are also presented. In January 1999, Swami Janakananda starts his 25th three months course with advanced methods from the Tantric yoga tradition, including Kriya Yoga.

Yoga, Tantra and Meditation in daily Life 28

Swami Janakananda’s book on yoga from a yogi’s point of view.

Courses in Copenhagen 30

...and other cities. Introduction evenings, free trial classes, short intensive courses, “drop-in”, pregnancy courses, as well as weekly courses that run for 10 or 20 weeks and classes in English.

Yoga at Home 30

From our shop we send books, relaxation and meditation tapes, nose-cleansing pots, ear candles, yoga mattresses, the periodical Bindu and much more to people all over the world.

Experience Yoga Nidra 31

Two deepreaching relaxations with Swami Janakananda. Now also on CD.

Bindu’s rolling again Welcome to an exciting new number of Bindu. Since the last edition was published, we have bought a new and badly needed printing press, which will improve Bindu’s quality and shorten the production time. We print Bindu in English, Danish, Swedish and German and in future will again release two issues a year. A warm thank you for all the large and small contributions to our printing press. To all our subscribers and students: you should also have a big thank you for your support and the inspiration you have given to the school.‰

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“You want people to have the best”

(quote: Swami Satyananda)

A comment to the editorial by Swami Janakananda In the field of yoga, the one who teaches and the one who wants to be trained, have the same responsibility as anyone who wants to help people and work with them. If a would-be doctor went to a “banana republic” (wherever that might be, excuse the expression) and bought himself a quick education, then it is naturally blameworthy and irresponsible, both for the “doctor” himself and the people he will come in contact with as a healer and an adviser. The student who wants to become a teacher must take responsibility when choosing a teacher (whatever the qualifications) who dilutes the tradition and makes the education “short and simple”. The tradition is improved only by constantly returning both to its core and towards what you have learnt from your teacher. At least this is my experience, both in relation to my teacher and in regard to the tradition from which I teach. Beginning with an inadequate education as a yoga teacher, no matter how conceited you are or who you cooperate with, sooner or later you will run dry. Instead of throwing yourself into a liberating process together with the students, the whole thing becomes tedious, because you don’t know the process and haven’t acquired the insight that comes with a daily training. You have neither the courage nor the ability to go further than the limits of your own learning and insight. You believe that you have to entertain the students, or make a

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lot out of next to nothing, when there is nothing left to give - you have no experience of the transformation. To bring other superficial ideas and methods into your teaching to avoid fear and emptiness, or to take a lot of money for what you do, does not make it more valuable. You cheat both yourself and others. Yoga is “any age”, not New Age, for instance, even though some teachers, who teach a superficial yoga, may give that impression. The most important thing about a proper yoga teacher training is surely not what you learn theoretically and the quantity of methods it contains, but that you receive a daily training also, where you learn the things in a practical way so that a capability is attained from where you can diagnose and see the solution to a problem. You should also have experience of associating with students. The training must include a comprehensive practical part of teaching under the supervision of an experienced teacher. Furthermore, your own Sadhana (see page 14) and the experience you gain from this, should be deep-reaching. The daily life together with the teacher that runs the education, should remove the underlying anxiety from people who help others. Also the teacher must have a special ability and be able to guide the student towards an insight that goes beyond what is written in books and can be learnt on a few courses. The would-be yoga teachers will then confidently be able to teach and guide others, when they

have completed their education - and they will be able to continue to do so when the novelty wears off. I allow myself to doubt whether the shallow courses that are currently offered in some places, mostly in the form of a series of weekend courses, where it is claimed that the education lasts up to three and four years, have a sound background. The students are gathered together only a few hours at a time, once in a while, and if the hours of teaching are counted, then in reality the education has a total length of from less than a month (at an institute in Stockholm), to a maximum of three months (at an institute in Denmark). Not to mention a company in England who offer a yoga teacher education by correspondence, where you never even meet a teacher! A full time training lasting several years is an absolute must. Why is it so important to be a yoga teacher, if you don’t become one anyway, when you get neither practical training nor sufficient theory, not to mention a lack of initiation in altered states of consciousness? You should be aware that in the long run, you are helping to ruin something very valuable with your limitations. The responsibility lies with you. That others commit criminal acts, does not justify that you do too!‰ Also see an extensive article on the yoga teacher education at the Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School in Bindu no. 9.

Yoga for “mouse arms” by Ananda Murti Many yoga poses are well suited for both prevention and healing of mouse arms. If you want to learn them properly, you can attend a yoga class regularly for a while. The whole body is worked through during the yoga exercises, and the long Yoga Nidra (deep-relaxation), which ends each class, helps to integrate every part of you and gives lasting relaxation. Nowadays many companies hire a yoga teacher for a few hours of weekly yoga for their employees.

Use the hands differently Those parts of the body which become weak and painful due to prolonged repetitive work need to be used. That is to say used differently. The wearing down of joints and muscles arises due to the same movement being repeated again and again. You might feel it, when you start to do yoga, but after a while the body loosens up. The normal reaction to stiffness and pain is not to use or burden the body where there is resistance or where it hurts. Many years ago I had a student who avoided certain yoga poses where the weight of the body rests upon the wrists. She had tenosynovitis, and wore leather bindings around the wrists. I kept telling her that if she didn’t use her wrists they would become even weaker. Eventually she agreed to give it a try, even though it went against what she had heard from

experts. After six months of following precise instructions for working with the wrists in the yoga classes, the pain had gone completely, and she was both pleased and amazed that it was possible.

The crane The crane is a yoga pose where you rest the weight of the whole body on the forearms and wrists. The moment you learn to relax in the pose, something extraordinary happens. The sensation in the wrists and arms is no longer uncomfortable. It is a pose that may need training, and a knowledge of yoga is definitely an advantage. If you have, for instance, learnt the headstand and can stand completely relaxed and meditate in this pose, then a pose like the crane should not prove difficult.

This is how you do it Stand in a squatting position (the nature pose). Place both hands on the floor in front of the feet. The arms are slightly bent. Position the knees on each upper arm. Lean forward, so that the toes are lifted off the floor. Stand in the pose as long as possible. Come down again and rest the arms. Do it three times altogether.

There are many possibilities There are quite a lot of suitable poses that do something for mouse arms. If you are familiar with the yoga poses we use (or see Yoga, Tantra and Meditation in daily Life by Swami Janakananda), they are called: the boat, the double-angle pose, standing swinging pose, the clown and the reversing pose.‰

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Yoga tool-kit for computer users Yoga can teach you to be compatible with yourself - and your computer work by Omkarananda Good ideas, perspective and understanding come when we are inspired and have plenty of energy - not when we are stressed and tense.

Every other computer operator complains of tensions and pain! During the last decade there has been a lot of research done on “mouse injuries” and other problems that arise with continual use of a computer monitor and keyboard. Lena Karlqvist from Karolinska Institute in Stockholm concludes after ten years of research that nobody can manage the monotonous strain in the long run without problems. Danish experts believe that

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Don’t let the body come to a standstill in front of the monitor. These four small exercises can be of great help to avoid the build up of tensions in the neck, shoulders and back.

the solution lies in rotating the employees or students between computer work and other activities, so that they only sit for a maximum of 4-5 hours in front of a monitor per day. Unfortunately, it is admitted that in many instances this is unrealistic due to increasing specialisation and shortage of time.

A tool to remain in contact with energy and inspiration With simple yoga exercises one can release tensions as they arise and consciously put oneself in an inspired and creative mood. Computer users often have tension and pain in the “mouse hand”, arm, elbow, shoulder, neck or back. Other common ailments are headaches, eye complaints and lethargy, which also arise due to tensions, and which prevent the afflicted to be him/ herself and work efficiently.

Here follows an introduction to a few yoga exercises that are good for relieving tensions that can occur in front of a monitor. For these exercises you do not necessarily need a special place to practise the yoga. It is enough to turn off the monitor, while you print or make a back-up, and do one or a few of the exercises suggested here. After five to fifteen minutes you are ready - with increased clarity and concentration - to continue your work. Besides this, you can take part in a weekly yoga course, a weekend course or perhaps a residential course. This will enhance the effect of the yoga you do yourself. Gradually you will learn to let go of tensions as they arise. Then they will not accumulate and develop into pain and an occupational hazard.

The exercises in the following short program should be done without effort or haste. The text (but not the pictures, due to copyright) are quoted from the book Yoga, Tantra and Meditation in Daily Life by Swami Janakananda. In the book, which is richly illustrated with instructive pictures, there is a chapter of eye exercises, that are of considerable use for those who sit in front of a computer monitor. The book is inspiring reading. See also page 29.

Tension releasing exercises for the arms and shoulders 1. Extend your arms forward, shoulder level, palms up. Bend your arms, placing your fingertips on your shoulders. Keep your upper arms horizontal. 5-10 times

2. Do the same movement, but with your arms out to the sides of your body. 7

3. Shoulder Rolling - Rest your fingertips on your shoulders throughout this exercise. Begin with your upper arms at shoulder level, elbows pointing sideways. Then rotate your arms in a circular motion, moving them backwards and down, and then let the elbows meet in front 1.

2.

of your stomach. Keep them together as you rise up in front of your chest and face, and then turn them out to the sides, back and down again. 5-10 times. Repeat this exercise in the opposite direction. Shoulder rolling limbers up your shoulders and the upper part of your neck.

3.

Head Rolling 1. Let your head slowly fall all the way to one side, your nose forward, not towards your shoulder. Hang your head like that for a while, then bring it slowly over to the other side and keep it there briefly. Repeat this 5-10 times. 2. Turn your head all the way to one side, pause a moment, then turn your head slowly to the other side and pause there. Repeat this 5-10 times.

3. Let your head slowly sink down to your chest, let it rest there briefly, totally relaxed then slowly raise it and rest it there, hanging it back a while. 5-10 times. 8

4.

5.

4. Let your head rotate all the way around 5-7 times in each direction. Do it in a very relaxed way and take your time. Feel the position of the head at any one point of the circle.

5. Pause immediately after the head rolling: sitting relaxed and completely still with your head upright and your eyes closed. It is important to do the first three exercises each time as a warm up to the head rolling. If you have a tendency for dizziness or an extremely high blood pressure, you should do the head rolling very carefully. This exercise relaxes the neck and shoulder area and has a general relaxing effect on the entire nervous system. Good against headaches and lethargy.

Spontaneous Breathing This is a breathing exercise, relaxation and meditation exercise. Start by lying on your back with your hands by your sides (or directly following the head rolling, remain sitting in a chair with the hands resting on the legs or in the lap.) The eyes are closed.

Experience your whole body, the whole body at once, feel how motionless it is concentrate a long time on the motionlessness. Then begin to experience that this motionless body is alive, it is breathing; let it breathe freely, avoid slowing down or speeding up your breathing, avoid controlling it, breathe freely, spontaneously go on, go on as long as possible ten minutes - fifteen minutes - half an hour.

After a while make sure you are breathing with the stomach. Otherwise use your will a little, but avoid disturbing the free rhythm of your breath, feel that you breath with the stomach; let the stomach expand as you inhale, and let the rest follow; let your stomach sink down and relax when you exhale; do not bother about your mind; breathe freely and spontaneously with your attention on your stomach, go on now notice how your stomach rises and falls with the natural movements of breath, go on -

Use this exercise as often and as long as you like any time but preferably at regular times. ‰

It is best if you can do the relaxation with subdued lighting.

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Mapping the brains activity after by Erik Hoffmann, Ph.D. Kriya Yoga In the living brain, millions of nerve cells communicate with each other by emitting tiny electrical impulses. In this way, the brain is electrically active night and day throughout ones life. This activity can be registered as oscillations (popularly called brain waves) by placing electrodes on the scalp, amplifying the signals and displaying them on a computer monitor. This method of measuring is called electroencephalography (EEG). The brain oscillates at different rates (frequency) depending on the state of consciousness, just as the height of the waves (amplitude) can vary. There is a direct correlation between a persons activity or level of attention and his brain wave frequency (see fig. 1). During unconscious states (e.g. deep sleep) the slow delta waves with high amplitudes appear in the EEG. In the half conscious state, between wakefulness and sleep, theta waves are often dominant, and during the wakeful, mentally relaxed state with closed eyes, alpha waves dominate in most people. Finally, the high frequency beta waves with small amplitude appear during conscious wakeful activity. Thus the EEG measurements can verify whether a person is conscious (alpha and beta waves) or unconscious (delta and theta waves). The lower the EEG frequency, the more unconscious the state (fig. 1).

associated with thinking, problem solving and active attention directed towards the outer world. Beta waves may be classified as beta1 (13-20 Hz) and beta2 (20-36 Hz). Mental tensions, excitement and anxiety can increase both amplitude and frequency of the beta rhythms. This can cause a shift from beta1 to beta2. Alpha waves (8-13 Hz). Alpha is the most dominant of all brain rhythms. Most people have some alpha activity in their EEG, especially when they close their eyes, turn the attention inwards and relax. This increases the amplitude of the alpha waves. Alpha waves, which signify conscious awareness, are the “bridge” or “entrance ticket” to the unconscious, which is represented by even lower frequencies (theta and delta). Theta waves (4-8 Hz). Theta is the dominant brain rhythm of small children. In adults, theta waves normally appear

Fig. 1. Brainwaves and states of consciousness The meditative state builds a bridge between the conscious and unconscious. It is a drowsy/dreamy state observed by a clear, conscious awareness. The EEG pattern is a mixture of alpha and theta waves. Theta signifies subconscious activity, while alpha reflects the conscious awareness. Unconscious

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Meditation

Deep sleep

Drowsy/dreaming

Delta

Theta

The four types of brain waves Beta waves (13-36 oscillations (or waves) per second (Hz)). This is the brain rhythm in the normal wakeful state

only during dreaming or drowsiness, as well as during strong emotions. Theta waves are formed deep in the brain and reflect unconscious activity associated with emotions and dreams. Both when one comes close to unconscious memories during deep meditation and close to repressed feelings in therapy the theta activity tends to increase. In order to have conscious access to and remembrance of the unconscious content, alpha waves must be present in the EEG. Without alpha the unconscious content remains unconscious. The presence of a certain amount of theta combined with alpha in the EEG recorded during rest may signify personal insight and creativity. Delta waves (0,5-4 Hz). Delta is seen in new born babies and in adults during deep sleep. These slow rhythms are associated with basic survival functions

0.5

4

Conscious

Relaxed

Active

Alpha 8

Beta 13

40Hz

Fig. 2. Increase of alpha and theta amplitudes after two hours Kriya Yoga % increase

Position of the electrodes on the head during recording.

Theta Alpha

Frontal Temporal Parietal Occipital Frontal Right Left

Temporal Right Left

deeply seated in the brain. During psychotherapy, where patients relive their own birth, the appearance of delta waves has been observed. Delta waves are associated with the deepest states of consciousness. Some consider that delta signifies contact with the collective unconscious. Delta rhythms combined with alpha can reflect an inner intuitive, empathetic radar, a kind of sixth sense.

Purpose of the Study We wanted to study the effects of Kriya Yoga on the brains activity (EEG). In scientific literature there are often reports of an increase in alpha and theta waves during and after various forms of meditation. The ancient Tantric Kriya Yoga is a powerful method for awakening and expanding consciousness, as well as for strengthening the vital and psychic energy. We therefore anticipated that the EEG measurements before and after a single Kriya Yoga session would show significant changes. Furthermore,

Parietal Right Left

Occipital Right Left

we wanted to chart the brains activity on coloured brain maps (see fig. 4 and 5) during the distinct changes in consciousness that occur in connection with Kriya Yoga.

Results Eleven yoga teachers from the Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School - all with many years experience of Kriya Yoga - participated in the research. EEG measurements were taken immediately before and after two hours of Kriya Yoga from eight electrodes, four over the left side of the brain and four over the right, placed on the scalp with the aid of elastic bands. The amplified EEG signals were transmitted to a computer, displayed on a screen and simultaneously stored on a hard disk. Subsequently the EEG data were analysed for distribution of delta, theta, alpha and beta rhythms in the EEG. Following the meditation, a significant rise of alpha and theta rhythms in the

(Wilcoxon test: *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001, ns=not significant)

Fig. 3. Change in the temporal

right/left (R/L) alpha ratio after two hours Kriya Yoga 1,12 1,08 1,04 1 0,96

Before After

(Wilcoxon test: p<.05 (n=11))

With mentally healthy human beings, an ideal R/L ratio is 1,05 - 1,10 - a little higher (culturally determined?) activity in the left compared to the right side. During deep relaxation, though, human beings come nearer to a balance of 1,00 between the brain halves. On the other hand, with neurotic and psychiatric patients, a R/L ratio far below 1,00 is found. The greater the mental disturbance, the lower the ratio: People suffering from anxiety neurosis, for instance, show values from 0,93 to extremely low values from 0,50 to 0,60 where you find schizophrenic paranoiacs (Hoffmann,1982).

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Fig. 4 Mapping the activity of the brain before and after Kriya Yoga After two hours of practising Kriya Yoga, both the alpha and theta activity has risen considerably. This shows that the subject is more relaxed after the meditation and in better contact with his/her feelings and his/her subconscious.

spread from the rear part of the brain forwards. In ten of the eleven right handed people, the alpha increased more in the right than in the left side of the temporal regions (fig. 3). The significance of these changes will be discussed below. All the above mentioned results are statistically significant and therefore cannot be ascribed to coincidence.

Better contact with emotions and the subconscious Before Kriya Yoga brain was observed in ten out of eleven subjects. For some, the alpha waves more than doubled. The increase of these rhythms was greatest in the rear part of

After Kriya Yoga the brain (parietal regions), where both alpha and theta rhythms rose by an average of 40% (see fig. 2). There was a general tendency for these rhythms to

The considerable increase in alpha and theta activity in most regions of the brain after meditation (fig. 4) indicates that the brain is deeply relaxed and focused following Kriya Yoga. It also shows that through the meditation the subjects have obtained a better contact with their subconscious and their emotions.

Comparing Kriya Yoga with other states Four examples of brain maps which show an increasing degree of contact with the subconscious. The strongly repressed person (a) has poor contact, while the meditating person (d) has the best contact with his/her subconscious. NB. These four brain maps come from various independent studies, fig. d. is from previous research done on some of the schools teachers where the measurements were taken during Kriya Yoga. Present research, however, measures the difference before and after Kriya Yoga meditation (see fig. 4.).

a. Repressed - Extremely low alpha and theta indicates emotional blocking and poor contact with the subconscious.

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b. Normal - Moderate alpha together with some theta shows a good balance between conscious and unconscious activity with some degree of contact with the subconscious.

c. Hypnosis - High theta activity during deep hypnosis shows activation of the unconscious. Low to medium alpha shows that there is little or no conscious experience of what is happening in the subconscious.

Fig. 5.

Pictures of the brains electrical activity = brain maps

These brain maps are made on the basis of approximately 60 seconds recording of the brain waves from eight EEG channels during rest. Four electrodes are placed on the left side, four on the right side (and a reference electrode on the top of the head) (see fig. 2.). A brain map is constructed on the basis of a frequency analyser which shows the distribution in the brain of delta, theta, alpha and beta waves. As shown in fig.5, a brain map is made up of seven oval pictures, which with various colours indicate the distribution in the brain of a specific EEG parameter. These pictures depict the brain as seen from above, where the small tip is the position of the nose. Most interesting are the five pictures to the right, which show the distribution of delta, theta, alpha, beta-1 and beta-2 waves. The individual pictures show, in accordance with the tall vertical colour scale, the brain waves of the mean amplitude beneath each of the eight electrodes. Thus, the dark blue colour indicates a very small amplitude, while the red and white colours indicate maximum amplitude. The two oval pictures to the left on the brain map display respectively the distribution of the mean alpha frequency and distribution of the total amplitude regardless of frequency (0,5 -36 Hz).

d. Kriya Yoga - High theta activity during Kriya Yoga meditation shows activation of the unconscious at the same time as the very high alpha reflects a strong concentrated conscious awareness. There is optimal contact with feelings and the subconscious.

The great increase of alpha in the right temporal lobe is an interesting finding. Recent research in the US has shown that depressed, introvert people have more alpha in the left frontotemporal region, while optimistic, extrovert people have more alpha in the right side. According to the American research, an increase of alpha in the right side, as found in this study of Kriya Yoga, counteracts stress and depression. Several scientific

studies have demonstrated that theta rhythms in the EEG (mixed with alpha) correlate with the appearance of previously unconscious feelings, images and memories. Brain researchers claim that a person in the high alpha/theta state is able to confront and integrate unconscious processes. This knowledge from modern research supports the experience that yogis have had from Kriya Yoga over thousands of years, that the meditative state, characterised by high alpha/theta activity, can bring about a release or “cleansing” of unconscious material in a person. This study demonstrates that Kriya Yoga is an extremely effective technique for raising the alpha/theta activity in the EEG and therefore it also strengthens the associated positive effects.‰

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On Learning and Teaching Kriya Yoga by Swami Janakananda

I am not seeking to change and no one needs to tell me what to believe in. Life to me is a gift. My Sadhana is to be constantly able to accept life as it is and to receive it, as it comes. Yoga and meditation are the tools for what I want - to keep the transformation alive. In the 60’s, Swami Satyananda’s Tantric teaching was at its height - culminating in 1968-69. During the 70’s, it was gradually replaced with other areas of the yoga tradition to which his interest turned, or that of the students who came to him then. My article is based partly on Swami Satyananda’s teaching from that time, the life together with him in the daily work in his ashram, as well as his direct instructions to me as to how Kriya Yoga ought to be taught; and partly on my nearly thirty years experience with using

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Kriya Yoga myself and teaching it on the yearly three-month and one-month courses here at Håå in the South of Sweden - about 2000 people have participated over the years in these courses. This has given me a steadily growing insight into the processes, which make it possible to pass on a deeper (mystic) experience. The composition, length and timing of different methods and their interplay is essential when imparting a real initiation. This corresponds with certain principles that you find in the Tantric rituals (see

also my article on Yoga Nidra in the previous issue of Bindu). In this part of the article, I shall deal especially with Sadhana, with cycles in healing and learning, and with what it means to be silent during the initiation in Kriya Yoga, why you do it and what you can get out of it.

The Children of Goraknath The mystic explores, works consciously with him/herself, and comes to know him/herself. Contrary to the philosopher

or the preacher - who thinks and talks theory, without having experienced that which he teaches others (and with “experience” I do not include the euphoria that anybody can work themselves into) - the mystic acts, seeks and finds. Was it the fault of the mystic from the beginning that people would rather listen to a sermon or a prophecy than explore and experience reality? Was it because some mystics talked about their experiences (rather than teaching the methods that gave them insight) that prejudice, zealousness and censoriousness developed and were used against different-minded people? Or was it perhaps that later successors, in the third, fourth or fifth generation put up rules for how to become “worthy” of the “pure” teaching? Did they impart a parrot-learning, which hindered the individual from having deeper experiences, from obtaining insight and drinking “the water of life” (also called Amrit, Nectar, Ambrosia or Soma)? Fervour and devotion are the finest marks of religion, and this it has in common with mysticism. However, did the organised religions teach co-operation and sensitivity towards others, or show consideration and understanding also towards those who have another view of life, another culture or faith? What does history tell us, and how does it look today? Isn’t it tolerance, insight and individual experience we need, rather than people who patronise us? One of the fundamental ideas of wisdom is furthermore expressed in the innermost teachings of the world religions - have no expectations: if you form a picture of the god or call it by name, then you will not be able to

recognize it when you stand in front of it. You will not be able to open yourself and receive the gift, the boon, the grace… At a certain point in time the individual reaches a stage on the path of evolution where understanding and knowledge from books and preachers is not enough anymore. Then the human being must, as a part of evolution, consciously intervene in his/her own development by using the available methods, by taking part in that experience which is passed on from one individual to another.

“With all my heart, I wish that in the exploration of consciousness mystical tradition - not the methods of traditional psychology - were to be followed to bring a correct awareness of its evolution to the world. Intellectual dissertations, beyond a certain limit, would only lead to confusion and chaos in a province where first-hand experience is necessary to know the truth. Like the exploration of the sky, intellectual exercise can carry us only a short distance. After that, the use of the telescope becomes absolutely necessary for correct knowledge of the position. In the same way, for the study of the inner firmament, a dive into the depths of one’s being is essential to know the reality.” (Gopi Krishna)

Gopi Krishna is from India, but even there, there are “yogis”, who are so infatuated with the simplified, the popular and with explanations and holiness, that they don’t want to look through the telescope of mysticism. Throughout the history of yoga, the actual yoga has been kept alive by those yogis who have practised the exercises and used the meditations. Let me mention the master Goraknath. He is seen as one of the very greatest teachers, and is looked upon as standing side by side with Buddha and Patanjali. But he did not give people anything to dream about, no ideals, he pointed to action and consistency, when he was asked. Therefore he did not become so well known among the masses. Goraknath and other yogis were often succeeded by interpreters and writers of commentaries, therefore they were mistaken for philosophers and moralists. Those “followers” were people who had not themselves sought advanced yoga and meditation, nor did they explore it by long and thorough use. They did not have the desire for transformation, for discovering the possibilities and the finer states, to discover the whole thing, the self. Instead they came up with interminable explanations, where they idealised yoga and put forward unnecessary demands.

The fourth Article on Kriya Yoga - hopefully an inspiring, but also critical article on one of the very finest and most profound meditation methods there is. A method which demands respect, careful preparation, precise and thorough learning and wisdom in using it. The topic comes in two parts, of which one of them is printed here and the other will appear in one of the following issues of Bindu. (You will find the three earlier articles on Kriya Yoga in Bindu nos. 4, 5 and 7.)

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The yogis experience that yoga is transforming. No change of your temperament or your behaviour is necessary in advance, since, as a result of the use of Kriya Yoga, for example, a harmonisation happens in body and mind and thereby a change in your fundamental state takes place. While moralists and philosophers demand understanding and ethics, as a precondition for beginning to meditate while they slander and throw suspicion on people who think differently than themselves and start religious wars, then the common man begins to meditate, gets results and wonders what all the fuss is about. If there is something that brings us closer to harmony and a natural ethic, like not tormenting our fellow beings human beings as well as animals - it is a good and genuine meditation. But those guardians of morality who pass judgement on how other people live will not even hear this. They would rather live on pretence and mirror their own fear in whatever warnings they send out, than realise that the human qualities and the human genius can very well be strengthened as a result of the use of meditation. Maybe, dear reader, you want to say that people would rather dream, hear about things and believe in tales, than tread the path themselves and experience the transformation. That they would rather torment themselves and others with feelings of inadequacy and frustrations stemming from not being able to live up to their own hopeful ideals, than really seek clarity and the experience of unity. And maybe you are right.

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Rama Krishna told about a corridor in a house, where there were two doors at the end. On one of the doors there was written “heaven”, on the other “lecture about heaven”. When you looked at the floor in front of both the doors, the floor in front of the door that led into the lecture was worn through the varnish and way down into the floor boards. In front of the other door, the one to heaven, the varnish was as clean and fresh as the day it was applied. Lectures, however inspiring they may be, remain lectures, second-hand knowledge and spiritual entertainment. This is not only about the personality or the mind, or the body - but the essence, that which resides deeper, the soul, the self … When you reach your own essence, then you experience at once that you include it all and that all is part of the same whole. But if you only identify with a part of the whole, for instance the mind, then you lose it all. The German word: “Geist,” signifying mind, originally meant: “that which scares the soul.” The soul, the consciousness, that which you really are, forgets itself. Instead it identifies with the content of the mind, with understanding, worries, plans, that which I have to do in a while, in a month, in a year, time, death and the dream of a life after this, another place. Then it does not matter whether you call it resurrection or reincarnation. The door to heaven is called here and the key to it is called now. “What is the greatest hindrance to self realisation?” a student asked me on the three month course this year. “It is expectations of any kind,” I answered. The mystic is present and attentive in everything he does - or strives to be.

While others are busy inventing conditions and mythologies to follow and believe in, to “understand” life and become “worthy” of living it, the mystic sees through this and gets results using yoga. He knows that you do not have to be a perfect human being to make use of the tools of yoga. Such an idea only gives you a feeling of guilt and bad conscience, because no changes appear in the world of expectations. This is not to say that there are not things that one has to be able to do and precautions to take into consideration, if one wants to undergo a transfor-mation. And that I am also going to write about in this article. Then what are the merits of Goraknath? That he was never tempted to make himself look knowledgeable at the expense of others, to become a philosopher, prophet, or the like? That he did not sell yoga for morality or religion or New Age? That he did not modify it, make it easier, shorter or lesser - so it lost its effect. No, he gave instructions, so people could have their own experience. He trusted that they were able to do that, because he knew what he was teaching. He sought and walked the path unasked. He knew the effects of yoga and its possibilities from personal experience. Today even doctors know that yoga works. In the British journal, The Lancet, there is a mention of the research done on Yoga Nidra in a PET-scanner that we described in the last issue of Bindu. The article concludes: Yoga is not a quick fix for health, but it may hold surprises for those who are willing to make the effort. (Kelly Morris).

On getting used to the light … Sadhana - to consciously take part in your own maturing “The term ‘Sadhana’ comes from the root ‘Sadh,’ which means to exert, to ‘endeavour to get a particular result or Siddhi’ [special ability] Sadhana is a means to attain the goal of human life. Without Sadhana no one can achieve the purpose of life.” (Swami Sivananda) During a part of the course I experienced the blackest depressions, but at the most, for five minutes at a time. Before it had taken me months to go through the same. It was partly due to the wonderful Kriya Yoga and partly to the Tantric training.” (Synne, a student on a three-month retreat from Denmark)

Ingela Hageman ©1998

For me the yearly three months retreat, the Kriya Yoga teaching, the work with the yoga teachers and the structure of Håå International Retreat Center, as an Ashram, is a great help to live an intensive life. This applies not only to my inner life, but to my communication and my encounter with other people. It is very much working in the midst of society. Here I am part of a creative process together with the people who for a period have chosen to work with themselves. This interaction helps me wear off my edges and realise that my inner world is not the only one, but that each person represents a unique world of their own. They come from different backgrounds, with different potentialities and capacities. The Tantric awareness training, which is both part of the teaching and of the daily life in the ashram, is a form of artistic work. For every artist and in every teacher-student relationship, it is about

mastering your field and your instrument. Here, however, the instrument is the body, the mind and the personality - and it is about teaching yourself to actively participate in the creative process we call life. We proceed step by step: “The Yoga and meditation made me aware of the tensions, which had been sitting in my body and my mind for a long time. After all, the same crises returned again and again, but each time I got more adroit and better at handling them.

A three month retreat is a course of a very special nature. It is a Sadhana retreat. In a Sadhana, you make use of “that which leads to the goal”. It includes everything which awakens your consciousness and keeps it awake, from the life together with a teacher, the use of methods, unselfish work and acts, to awareness training in daily life - and the three months gives enough time for this to take root. During the three month Sadhana retreat, not only do you learn to use some of the most advanced yoga and meditation methods, like Kriya Yoga, Prana Vidya, Chidakash Dharana and advanced vari-

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ations of Antar Mauna (Inner Silence), but - with the culmination of 33 days of silence - a real perspective grows forth. This is truly an initiation. In certain respects it is similar to what we know from the Vision Quests of the North American natives and from the Walkabouts of the Australian Aborigines - to spend one period (or several) in your life, taking a break from all outer influences, to be able to see better, both forwards and backwards, and, above all, to be able to rest in your self and awaken your inner resources. Such a period also symbolises the daily meditation, that you can use later on to maintain that which you have achieved. The urge to practice Sadhana for a period of time is deeply rooted in many people. To stop for a while and be free from the unbroken bombardment of information, news, advertising and media noise and, through Sadhana, to use concrete ways to seek and reach the innermost, the sincere and genuine. One day you have had enough of thinking, reading, hearing and talking about well-being, energy, concentration and other states. Now you want to experience it yourself - to do something about it. One might say that the urge to do Sadhana is a prerequisite in order to learn, for instance, Kriya Yoga. Kriya Yoga is not just something you collect, like, “I also want this.” One who wishes to learn Kriya Yoga, is seeking more than just a mere method. He or she is seeking something immensely valuable, of which Kriya Yoga is only a part, and which is expressed in the word Sadhana - a transforming process which leads to the meeting with yourself. In the East, there is a tradition that people go to Zen cloisters in Japan, to Buddhist

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cloisters in Thailand and to Indian ashrams to undertake training - which lasts for several months, yes, sometimes even years - at least once in a lifetime. They do it to create a foundation for their unfolding in life and to maintain a spiritual anchoring - to themselves and to the values which ensure a real quality of life. They are people who are sincere, they do not do it because of conventions or because it is in fashion. They seek no compromises, neither outer theoretical knowledge nor diluted instant-methods to satisfy their curiosity - methods which have only short term effects or no effects at all. They seek an unavoidable situation, which has been prepared in such a way that you can meet your self, discover your capacities and realise your unity with the universal. They do not travel from course to course, from guru to guru or only attend weekend courses. They know, that it is not possible in a short time or piecemeal to reach a real insight or initiation which lasts. They do not build their search on busyness, restlessness, “easy” or “new” solutions. That was never part of the timeless tradition of mysticism. Nor do they overindulge their bodies or get obsessed by a mental/emotional narcissism or self-involvement, which you find today within certain branches of yoga and in certain therapies, where the body and/or thoughts and emotions are all - and where the self and a greater whole is not perceived. The three month Sadhana course is an indispensable part of the four year yoga teacher

training which takes place at the Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School. As the course is very comprehensive, yoga teachers with other backgrounds and training also participate in this retreat. They do it to go further as teachers and gain a better personal knowledge of yoga and meditation, but also to get their inner base in order. What kind of people, both here in the South of Sweden, in the East and probably also in other places, decide to experience a real Sadhana period? They are people who want something with their lives, they are artists, actors, musicians and above all “common” human beings and - what is typical, especially for Japan, but also for us here in Sweden - managers from the business world and people from the field of science, medicine, politics and the media. For what is it all worth if you bring about something in life and don’t bring yourself along?

The Silence

“I also discovered that there was a difference between thinking something about something and really experiencing it and living it.” (Synne)

It’s great, I’m sure, to take a walk in the countryside and talk about how beautiful it is and what the trees are called, or to remember the name of the constellation of stars you see above you, among all other stars. But it is something else to be together with it all. To experience the fields, trees, houses, animals and all stars at once, as part of the same whole, as the all. Without talking about it, without describing it or giving it names - but to be in it and part of it - that state is called Brahmacharya - you are one with yourself and everything else. In the face of this experience, the mind becomes silent.

Is it sensational to keep silence? A few years ago it suddenly became headline news in the media that people from many countries come to our three month retreats to keep silence for 33 days. “The Whole World keeps Silence in Ljungby”, Expressen, one of the major Swedish newspapers wrote on their placards. “The news” spread like wildfire and newspapers and radio stations around the world focused on this one thing, the silence and that people paid money to be silent for about a month. That the silence was part of a larger context with all that went on at the retreat, e.g. yoga - relaxation - karma yoga - intestinal cleansing dance - music - meditation and awareness training, apparently was less interesting. “What news?” we thought to ourselves, while we welcomed the journalists and let ourselves be interviewed. We have, after all, run these courses for nearly 30 years, and before us others have used silence for thousands of years, within yoga and elsewhere, also in the West.

The Rest is Silence “From pure sensation to the intuition of beauty, from pleasure and pain to love and the mystical ecstasy and death - all the things that are fundamental, all the things that, to the human spirit, are most profoundly significant, can only

be experienced, not expressed. The rest is always and everywhere silence.” (from Music at Night by Aldous Huxley, from the essay: The rest is silence) To be silent while you learn yoga and meditation increases your ability to go deep and gives a more direct experience of everything. The silence helps to remove deeply rooted tensions in the brain. When I don’t have to defend or hold on to some opinion I express, when I don’t have to explain or evaluate everything around me, then my mind will relax and open itself. Since the more intellectual activities in the brain, like analysis, appraisal, reading, talking and writing take place especially in the left hemisphere of the brain, then the silence, together with the breathing exercise Nadi Shodan and the deep relaxation Yoga Nidra, contributes to a better balance in the brain. That part of the brain which deals with totalities, colour, form, music and emotion is allowed to play a role. The openness enables our resolutions (which arise during this period unhindered by your own habits or the doubts and the faint-heartedness of others) to influence life from then on. Together with yoga and meditation, the silence strengthens both the experience of one self, of other human beings and of the nature surrounding you.

“As the senses were sharpened the experiences in everyday life got stronger. Now and then I stopped and wondered: ‘Is this possible’?” (Synne)

Silence is part of all the courses we teach at Håå Silence, Mauna, is not Kriya Yoga in itself but an original condition for the initiation. You learn Kriya Yoga under complete silence. No reading, no writing, no talking. On the three months courses, as mentioned before, you are silent for 33 days and on the one month courses for 21 days during the learning of Kriya Yoga. On the 10 and 14 day courses, there is silence for 2½ days, while you learn the finer of the nine steps of the meditation Ajapa Japa. Curiously enough, it is often those who are going to be silent for “only” 2½ days, who experience it more sensationally than those who have decided to be silent for a month. Probably the participants are prepared to be silent for a longer period of time, but this is also due to the thorough preparation we give them during the first five weeks of the three month course. Here, among other things, they learn at greater depth the meditation and yoga methods usually taught on the 14 day courses, and we have even more time to go deep and get used to the practice. So when we begin

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Sweden about 25 km from Ljungby, the nearest town. It is an area with a great variety of nature forests, fields, lakes and a river, with plenty of opportunities for horse riding, walks and canoeing. The surroundings of the Retreat Center therefore are quite peaceful. Also there are no shops, no newspapers, no radio or TV and during the silence the students’ mail is kept aside. The teaching and the whole set-up however give you enough to do and experience. You do not get bored.

the long silence, the body is well trained and fit and the mind more concentrated and peaceful.

Being together “We became more sensitive towards each other in the group, there was a greater affection present among us, but also our clashes were more strongly experienced.” (Synne) You experience each other more clearly during the silence, than when you talk all the time. You are more fundamentally present for each other. As a rule, people discover that there are other ways to communicate. However, not in a way that you are constantly playing pantomime for each other. All the energy you normally spend in talking, is preserved and channelled by

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yoga. Thus you rest more in yourself and misunderstandings do not arise so easily. This is also important in the relationship to the teacher and the teaching. Over the years, several mothers (who have been on a three month course together with their children) state afterwards that being silent has opened a new dimension in the contact with their children. Also there are those who experience that their intuition has become clearer from the silence and the meditation together.

The mind is left in peace “It is, literally, as if an armour has been removed, so I have a more direct contact with the life that exists around me, with light and air.” (Synne) Håå International Retreat Center is situated in the countryside of Southern

When the outer stimuli and influences lessen, when restlessness and self-indulgence diminish with the help of yoga and the meditations, and your own desire to move in this direction, then inner and outer awareness is strengthened. “After my first 33 days of silence I regretted that, although I had not talked at all, I had not been truly silent. I knew I had foregone a very precious opportunity. On subsequent courses, I have grown to appreciate the silence even more.” (Robyn Taylor from Queensland, Australia) Life receives a richer dimension (quality instead of quantity). This is one of the reasons that Kriya Yoga is taught during a long period of unbroken silence. The longer the silence lasts, the more the brain relaxes and that strengthens the ability to perceive even very fine things. Now the student can, in quite another way, receive the subtleties in the teaching and learn what he or she needs. When you do not talk together, you don’t disturb each other with another concept or a grandiose description. It is one’s own

experiences that count and that is the best. Every one in this way is equal. From here you go deeper. When Kriya Yoga is taught as an initiation with all conditions in order - as we shall see in the second part of the article and not as a hurried and busy mechanical teaching, then it can contain things, which can only be perceived or become possible during a long period of silence. This sensitivity and awareness does not arise, or can even be lost, if you talk it all away and let opinions and judgement stand in the way of insight. Therefore the learning period itself contains very little or no theory and explanations - so the teacher is in this way rather silent. Through his instructions and his guidance, he intends to give the student a direct experience.

This pyramid to me is a symbol for what has been called many names, i.e. a retreat, “pax”, a Sadhana course. The silence and the lack of distractions in and around the Retreat Center is necessary, if you are to calm down and go deep confidently with the methods we use.

The Length of the Silence and the Initiation A biological cycle We are used to machines carrying out our commands immediately, at the press of a button. Sometimes we compare our brains with computers. Most of us exist in a world of noise and automation. All

The Retreat and the Pyramid At the Retreat Center, we have an isolation tank built according to the ideas and instructions of Dr. John C. Lilly. Added to that, it is comfortably big, extra sound proofed and has the form of a pyramid. Here an environment has been created, where the sense impressions are minimal. You don’t hear or see anything, you lie completely still and float on the back in body-warm saline water. The water carries you so you hardly feel the gravity, the air is well ventilated and the temperature is stable. When the mind does not get any new impulses through the senses for a while, it calms down. No “new” thoughts arise. The mind gets time to empty itself and is strengthened to meet future influences with composure and perspective. After an hour in the pyramid, you come out in a state of strong and undisturbed calm.

the time we hurry on to the next sense experience, the next task, next movie, next piece of music on the radio, next piece of news, next high. Therefore it is easy to forget that life unfolds itself according to organic laws, and that all takes time, like the cycles of the year, and the cycles of the moon.

Nothing in our nature can be forced and if we try anyway, then we may risk all kinds of consequences, from a strong shock, to reaction, disharmony, frustration or complete indifference, because we find nothing and reach nothing of what we are actually looking for. You can’t buy Kriya Yoga - what you pay, apart from accommodation, food and the space you have reserved on the course, is making it possible for us teachers to be there for you, and for this situation or ashram to be available. In North and Central Europe and North America, you can just walk into a shop or a railway station, and demand what you want, as long as you pay for it. In a number of southern and eastern countries, this cannot be done. You have to give the human being on the other side of the counter your attention. I have seen a European having to give up trying to buy a box of matches in a little shop in Israel. It was impossible for him not to treat the shop owner as a slot machine. I have seen an American at the railway station in Delhi getting near to breakdown as he, glowing hot and red in the face, just kept demanding things without any respect for the person sitting on the other side of the hatch. And it does not help to pretend, you have to be present yourself. We don’t know what we have missed no matter how much we pay, no matter

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Apart from observing silence for longer periods of time during a course, here are some ideas for daily life: “They have a notion that when people are met together, a silence does much improve conversation: this I found to be true; for during those little intermissions of talk, new ideas would arise in their thoughts, which very much enlivened the discourse.” (About the Yahoos, from Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift.) Keep silence every now and then together with others, for example at dusk. This is an old tradition in Scandinavia, among other places. An exert from Bindu no. 6: “In the spring and in the autumn we children used to play outdoors after the evening meal. I remember coming boisterously into the living room where my parents sat silently in the dusk. My disturbing them wasn’t popular, also not at the home of friends when their parents sat like that.” And then of course the obvious: Don’t talk about unimportant things which make you and others forget your presence in the now. Gossip can also be cut away, and the eternal judging: positive-negative, wonderful-terrible. You can complete the list yourself if you want to waste the time. Prana = Vital Energy. When I came home from India in 1970 I met many Danish yoga teachers with a long experience of teaching. They called a person who talked too much a “prana eater”.‰

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how many courses we sign up for, no matter how many journeys we embark upon - because we never really experienced it, we did not have the time. After all there was something else, that we had to do afterwards, tomorrow, after the retreat, next summer, next winter, when we get better conditions… We forgot to live, while we did it. Therefore we try to choose easy solutions - quick solutions - diluted solutions, that do not come up with a real challenge, but just a taste, a flirt, an interest - and our preconceived ideas stand in the way of us learning something new. In other words, if we don’t follow our biological cycles, we risk missing the target. Seven years is one kind of biological cycle, I have learned. During that time, the idea is that the body changes all cells, apart from some nerve cells. Also there are cycles of twelve years and twenty years. 21 days is also a cycle, that is the time it takes for the body to establish the healing process. The proteins for instance are renewed within 21 days and so is the outer layer of the skin. Not only is the body part of this process, the mind also consciously or unconsciously - needs time for change and adaptation. When I learned the Kriya Yoga from Swami Satyananda, it took about 33 days, apart from the preparation that preceded it, as well as the period following it, to digest what had been learned, where you got used to practising the different Kriya Yoga programs under conducive conditions. He took time to honour those conditions, which he said were part of the tradition. For instance, every kriya has to be learned in a certain sequence, the instructions have to be repeated a certain number of times and, with most of the kriyas, you only learn one new kriya a day, while you “warm up” with those already learned, and end

the sequence with a certain meditation which is used during the learning period. There are said to be other cycles than those mentioned above, so called biorhythms, 33 days for the intellectual cycle, 28 for the emotional cycle and 23 days for the physical cycle. So it is important that this kind of initiation takes place over a period where you can live through these cycles. Therefore the shortest Kriya Yoga retreats are one month, and the longest three months, with 33 days of silence. We are not machines, but living organic beings. As the life of a flower, from seed to full blossom, can be described as a cycle where all phases take their time to unfold, so the best learning of Kriya Yoga is ensured during a complete cycle of around 33 days of silence. On the one month courses only those people come who have been well prepared in advance after participating on a 10 or 14 day course and who therefore have meditated before - so the body and the mind can better absorb what they learn - and the energy can go through the cleansing it involves to learn the 24 kriyas I teach. Many things are legitimately called kriya within the yoga tradition, for instance, the Hatha Yoga Shatkarmas or kriyas, the physical cleansing processes. Also in Raja Yoga, Patanjali has some disciplines that he calls kriya yoga, which however are more of a disciplinary mental nature and have nothing to do with the Tantric Kriya Yoga. The meditations we teach on the 10- and 14-day courses, the Source of Energy and Ajapa Japa, are preliminary Kriya Yoga, and by some teachers they are also called kriya yoga. Concerning the cleansing processes, they are a natural part of our courses, among other things in preparation for the great Tantric Kriya Yoga.

On one of the first three month courses I taught, one day toward the end of the silent period I had to go down to Copenhagen together with our cook. When we came off the ferry, I started to wonder about the facial expressions of people, they seemed hard. It made me ask my companion whether there was a crisis going on or what? We did not find any explanation then and there. But when we came back to the students at Håå Course Center, we realised that we had grown used to the soft faces gradually acquired by the people on the course. The silence and the yoga had relieved them of the conscious or unconscious need to hold on to a mask. It became clearer to me which things inhibited me in every day life. For instance, my worrying about how I looked. After all, I also judged other people in that way. I began to realise how much easier it would be if I took it more naturally. (Synne) For the mind to open and become receptive to the deeper kriyas - and to be able to perceive what happens behind the

instructions - since Kriya Yoga is not taught with words alone - for the mind to let go of its content (of habitual thoughts, limiting states, attitudes …) and for this ability to last, the silence must be as long as possible. It takes time for the mind to get used to taking it easy and to going deep, and really experience all nuances in the teaching and in life - in this situation, here and now. “In one of the Upanishads it is said that atman or spirit is homogeneous silence. How do you experience this? Not by the sensory or psycho-emotional communications, but by tuning yourself into silence. This is what you must do to experience the process of transmission. You don’t have to become rigid at all and you don’t have to put on that serious ‘Sunday face’. Be as bright and as natural as you are. The barrier is not in spirit, because spirit is one. The barrier is in man’s mind. Once you surrender this personal mind, then the mind becomes homogeneous and is called the cosmic mind.” (Swami Satyananda)

You can compare the period of silence and the Kriya Yoga initiation to a meditation - it will never get deep if it is short. A meditation of 10 minutes is no meditation, compared to one of 30 or 40 minutes. An unbroken silence from two to say ten days will give an experience and will most likely have a certain effect, but it does not compare to the level you reach through a silence that at least includes a cycle of 21 days - and better still 33 days. It is about slowing down and reaching a calmness, where the mind is given time to think, time to let memories come forth, to dare to be creative and to get a general view - and time to let go of the thoughts and “experiences”. “During the 33 days of silence, I realised that Swami Janakananda did not just want to teach me something, he wished to give me the opportunity to explore dimensions of my being that I hadn’t been aware of before.” (Morten Jon Jepsen)

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The State Antar Mauna, the inner silence - a Tantric meditation technique From a meditation in one of my classes: “It is important that you don’t explain to yourself, why you have an experience. During the silent period of this course, I am sure that you have experienced different emotional states. Probably you also had a reason to have these experiences. But to know the reason does not help you here. It is your ability to be content with experiencing what happens in your emotional and mental life, which counts. By not making up your mind for or against anything, by not reacting, you can stay with the experience until it has exhausted itself. “This course is composed in such a way that it mirrors the way you react and how you experience things. It will constantly show you where you forget yourself. When do you end up in self-indulgence instead of being present in what you do, think and feel - and how do you find your way back to the direct experience from the essence of your being? “When you meditate, and that is what we are doing right now, then of course you can avoid the naked experience all the time by explaining to yourself, why you have this thought or emotion and what it is about. Of course there are situations in life where you need analysis and making up your mind about things. But here you are silent! You confine yourself to experiencing the thought. Then it stops being something that influences you automatically. It loosens its grip and you don’t have to take it for granted anymore, you don’t have to follow it blindly. You are able to see it, purely and simply, as just a thought.

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“It is not necessary to tell yourself, or me, or anybody else why you have this feeling of hatred, this reaction, or why you feel this hope or this intense joy! Settle for the experience alone. Let it be. “This is important. “During the meditation no analysis is taking place. No understanding either. And if your mind becomes analytical here, you don’t try to stop it. You again look at it as just another thought. Let things come and go. Feel them, see them, taste them, smell them ... That is all. “With the experience that ‘I experience this’, ‘I accept this’, you free the fetters of the mind. And when you have let go of things you don’t need anymore, then there is no reason to look back for them. When you are finally rid of your headache, then you don’t search for it again so you can find it and get it back. “The meditation teaches you to allow and accept these emotions or thoughts. You let go unconditionally, with no resistance and without wanting to pursue them afterwards - you get time to experience them, you are allowed to feel them and experience them. You have a choice, you need not pursue your thoughts and emotions, and therefore they do not create any unwanted consequences in your life. “So if you suddenly feel hate, feel hate! If you live through this hate in your meditation, it will not drive you to act afterwards. No, it is the things we don’t allow ourselves to feel, or that we feel without knowing that we do or that we explain away, that mak us behave unreasonably towards others - and towards ourselves. “Therefore no understanding, no explanation, no justification during the meditation. Settle for the best: Experience and let go!”

(The basis or requirement to use this is to follow those techniques that are included in the seven steps of the meditation Antar Mauna (Inner Silence), and which is fundamental in this work. Read more about it in Bindu no. 8 and later in this article, and supplement it with no. 3 and 6 and future issues.) “During the silence, I felt that I wanted to say stop to certain thoughts. These were thoughts that seemed to me that I had only by the force of old habit - there was not really anywhere in me where they could get a hold. ‘Stop’ I said, like in the fourth step of Antar Mauna. It is a wonderful feeling, for instance during a walk, ‘stop!’” (Anna, a student from Sweden, on a three month retreat) For the student who understands how to use the silence on the course, it can, in connection with the meditation Antar Mauna, become rich and fruitful - also in the long run. The silence, together with the meditation Antar Mauna and supported by the Kriya Yoga, shows you the “place”, your self, from where you experience. A state to return to again and again, to be, to rest and restore the fundamental harmony in body and mind. From here I gaze upon life: Life changes constantly, but here nothing changes. Here is still, here IS silence, the background on which life unfolds.

- after the course After the silence the effects also show themselves when the influences are launched again. The inner strength lasts longer, when the silence has had its full length, and if the course has been long. It

goes without saying that students from a three month course feel it the most, but also people from a one month course experience an unmistakable effect. “When I came home, [from the three month course] I suddenly realised how much information you are engulfed by every day. The advertising also was overbearing” he says. The surroundings saw him in a new light. “My father and my fiancee said, that I had become calmer, happier and more harmonious. I have always had a nervous nature, but after the course it has become more difficult to throw me off balance.” “During the course you get all your habits and automatic thought patterns broken at a single blow …” says Christian Frøkjær Thomsen. … Today seven years later, he has found a balance between yoga and his job as a medical doctor at a alcoholics out-patients’ clinic. (Quotations from an article by Thomas Bjerg Mortensen in the Danish newspaper Berlinske Tidende 12.5.1995).

Other places A tool in the mystic search and realisation has always been seclusion (and therefore silence). Apart from India, for instance in the desert in the Middle East, in the mountains of Tibet and in Catholic monasteries, like one you find nowadays on the island Bornholm in Denmark, where monks in white robes are always silent. A large group of Quakers, after sitting in silence for three days on the East coast

of the USA, “agreed” upon where they should go as settlers. The Quakers have silent church services. My friend the painter Sohan Qadri grew up in Punjab in India. One day when he was young, he had to go from his village to another, which was about a

day’s walk away. He had had the route explained, but knew that he would probably have to ask for directions when he reached a village which was situated about half way. When he reached the village, however, it had become noon and everyone was asleep, so he decided to try and find the way himself on the other side of the village. On his way out of the village he saw an old man in the distance coming towards him. “Well, I can probably ask him,” he thought, but as he approached the man he lost the desire to ask him and passed him without doing so.

A little bit later he arrived at a crossroad, and since there were no signs, he had to give up and return to the village to ask for directions. The first house inside the village was a bicycle shop. The midday break was now over so he entered the shop and asked a young man there for directions. While they talked, he saw the same old man sitting in the yard. “Now it suddenly strikes me that I passed that old man who is sitting in there,” Sohan told the bicycle man. “But I could not ask him for directions, isn’t that odd?” “No”, said the bicycle man, “it is not, he is my father, he is a Muni, he is observing silence (Mauna).” ‰

In one of the following issues: The Process and its conditions The second half of this article may contain among other things: The three steps of the Tantric Kriya Yoga. “The Green House” - Prerequisites for learning Kriya Yoga Preparation - The qualifications and abilities of the teacher. A Kriya Yoga initiation, the way it is taking place in Håå, is not just a retreat where you learn meditation. It is a process which you live through. It has such a lasting effect that even if you never again use any of the yoga and meditations that you learned, you still take something valuable home with you, which may be of importance for the rest of your life. It is a dynamic process, which gives strength and breaks through fundamental inhibitions.‰

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Retreats at Håå Course Center in the south of Sweden Where you stay for 10 - 14 days, one month or three months At the Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School in the south of Sweden (two and a half hours drive north of Copenhagen, Denmark), our most intensive courses are held. Håå Course Center is international and the courses are held in English. Only here do we teach the deep meditations such as Ajapa Japa, Prana Vidya and Kriya Yoga as well as the meditation Antar Mauna, yoga, breathing exercises, relaxation, music and dance. From May to September, in the autumn, at Christmas and at New Year, there are 10 and 14 day courses, and each winter from January to April the three months course is held. Every autumn and in January there are also weekend courses. Håå offers vegetarian cuisine and comfortable accommodation in single, double or dormitory rooms. During the free time, the Swedish countryside surrounding the school is inviting for walks in the forest and in the open landscape. Our horses are at your disposal for riding, and there are canoes and a boat by the lake. You can also use the relaxation tank, the pyramid. Swami Janakananda has put these courses together, which are run in co-operation with the schools teachers and teacher aspirants. Participants not only come from Scandinavia, but also from the rest of Europe, USA, New Zealand, Australia and India... With the exception of the one month Kriya Yoga course, a prior knowledge of yoga and meditation is not necessary for participation. Order the course brochure for Håå Course Center. It gives a detailed description of the courses’ content and the course center.

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“In my job as a lawyer, I have a busy day with pressing projects and deadlines that have to be kept. I can easily get stressed if I don’t persistently return to the relaxed state. I have practised yoga and meditation for a number of years, and feel that it gives me strength and an attitude to my life so that once in a while I can lean back, contemplate everything and see things in a wider perspective. In this way, stress and tensions lose their hold and energy returns. However, some of the best times of my life have been the times I have given myself a break at Håå Course Center. To be able to step out of daily life and into a setting which is arranged so that I can explore and deepen the possibilities of yoga and meditation, feels like a great privilege. I have just come home from a summer course and can feel that my daily yoga practise has been given new life. My stays at Håå have given me the possibility for introspection, which I find difficult at home. I feel inspired and look forward to tackling the tasks in my daily life. At the same time, I know that when the time is right, I can return to a new intensive stay at Håå.” (Amrit Fossan, student on a course during the summer of 1998)

Current retreats at Håå Course Center The Christmas Course

Weekend Courses

19 Dec. - 1 Jan. 5150 Sw.Cr. Swami Janakananda and Yoga Shakti

20 - 22 November 15 -17 January Síta et.al.

The New Year Course 2 - 12 January 4550/3550 Sw.Cr. Síta and Erling Christiansen

The Three Months Course '99 20 Jan. - 17 April 19.500 Sw.Cr. Swami Janakananda, Síta et.al.

The Kriya Yoga Course '99 17 July - 15 August Swami Janakananda et.al.

1400/1100 Sw.Cr. 1400/1100 Sw.Cr.

Summer Courses '99 13 - 23 May, 23 May - 5 June, 6- 19 June, 20 June - 3 July, 4 - 17 July, 29 August - 11 September 7 - 17 October

Read more about the retreats at Håå Course Center, and check out the price in your own currency, on internet: www.scand-yoga.org/english/haa

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Read Bindu - Previous issues are still available No. 3: The ability to experience. Headstand. Nose Cleansing... No. 4: Kriya Yoga I. The effect of yoga on the finer energy. The Source of Energy - a Tantric meditation...

No. 11: On Yoga Nidra and Relaxation Tantra - Nyasa - Chakra resolution - consciousness - research Attitude or insight Editorial Meditative deep relaxation A short introduction to Yoga Nidra. The relaxed state and science In the course of the last 30 years, research has shown that the relaxed state is highly beneficial for your health. We explain a little of what this state entails, how you achieve it and how you ensure it becomes deep and lasting. Pictures of the brains’s activity during Yoga Nidra A new chapter in research on meditation, it was called, when the scientists published pictures of yoga teachers doing Yoga Nidra. The research was done with one of modern medicine’s most advanced instruments - the PET scanner at The State University Hospital in Copenhagen. Tantra and Yoga Nidra Swami Janakananda writes for the first time about the knowledge and methods in Tantra which lie behind Tantric rituals and which make Yoga Nidra so uniquely effective and deep - about Nyasa, Chakras, consciousness and the resolution in Yoga Nidra. What on earth do they use it for People’s very different experiences with Yoga Nidra ...

No. 5: Kriya Yoga II. Psychic energy. Six years of scientific research on the 3-Months Courses in Håå, Sweden. “The Pyramid” and Pratyahara. No. 6: The twilight hour - did we have a living meditation tradition in the North? Invent tomorrow's education, about R.Y.E. (Research on Yoga in Education). Shoulderstand... No. 7: Silver Jubilee issue! Read about Kriya Yoga III. Yoga for pregnant women. Savasana. No. 8: Harmony between the experiencer and the experienced. On the Tantric meditation Antar Mauna (Inner Silence), its ancestors and cousins. The Lotus Pose. Intestinal cleansing. No. 9: Instructor or Guide? Yoga for the Back. Experience and Knowledge - about the yoga teacher education at the Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School. No. 10: Nada Yoga, meditation on the inner sounds. Vibrations create forms. Song and dance. The Bumble bee.

Read more about Bindu on internet: www.scand-yoga.org/english/bindu

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Yoga, Tantra and Meditation in Daily Life Swami Janakananda’s book in a revised and extended edition (Rider Books, UK and Weiser, USA). (Yoga, Tantra et Méditation dans la Vie Quotodienne, Editions Satyanandashram, France).

“In my opinion this is one of the best yoga books available at the moment. Yoga, Tantra and Meditation in Daily Life is an inspiring and, above all, a refreshingly practical book. It has been written by a man who understands his trade and knows what he is talking about, you feel this when reading it. Swami Janakananda has had a lifetime of practice and more than 20 years experience in teaching yoga and meditation. He imparts this yoga consistently, as he himself has learned it from his teacher Swami Satyananda Saraswati - without any superfluous religious or philosophical interpretations, and equally without any fashionable New Age dilutions. Simply and clearly formulated one finds all necessary instructions for inquiring independently into the original methods of Tantric yoga and meditation. The entire book is generously illustrated and there are photographs of all the various yoga programmes, which facilitate practising the

exercises by oneself. Breathing exercises and deep relaxation (Yoga Nidra) are also carefully and thoroughly introduced. Even people who already know something about yoga will be surprised at how much this book offers. Many yoga books today unfortunately lack a usable description of real meditation, but here we find both a theoretical introduction as well as concrete instructions. The last four chapters exclusively treat the theme of meditation and belong to the best of what I have read on this theme up to now. One of the chapters is devoted to the sexual rituals. Here the reader finds original Tantric instructions for approaching sexual energy and

experiencing it as it is: one of the fundamental forces in Mankind. The Tantric attitude to sexual energy is, however, often falsely inflated and overestimated; this is a pity, for the sexual rituals are only a small part of the manifold Tantric tradition. In a total of 13 chapters Swami Janakananda gives an excellent survey of the various aspects of yoga and meditation, including chapters on concentration, on Kundalini Yoga and the Chakras, and a Sanskrit glossary. But, as I have said, Yoga, Tantra and Meditation in Daily Life is above all a manual to use.” (Swami Pragyamurti - from a review in Spectrum, the journal of the British Wheel of Yoga)

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Yoga shop The book: Yoga, Tantra and Meditation in Daily Life by Swami Janakananda 175 Sw.Cr. + 55 Sw.Cr. postage. Also available in other languages. New French translation of the book! See also page 29. The CD: Experience Yoga Nidra 165 Sw.Cr. + 30 Sw.Cr. postage. The tape: Experience Yoga Nidra 120 Sw.Cr. + 30 Sw.Cr. postage. Hopi Ear Candles: made of 100% bees wax and cotton; cleanses the ears. 50 Sw.Cr. + 30 Sw.Cr. postage.

Subscription Nose cleansing pot with instruction brochure: Joghus, (short spout) blue, red, yellow, green or black. 165 Sw.Cr.+ 55 Sw.Cr. postage. Krutis, (long spout) blue, sand, white or green, 195 Sw.Cr. + 105 Sw.Cr. postage. The periodical: Bindu, no. 3-11, 25 Sw.Cr. each + 20 Sw.Cr. postage. See also page 28. The brochure (free): about the retreats at Håå International Course Center. (See pages 26-27).

You are welcome to support us, so we can continue to publish Bindu. Pay 45 Sw.Cr. for one issue or 80 Sw.Cr. for 2 issues + 40 Sw.Cr. postage (payment, see below). Further contributions are also welcome.

We can only accept payment in Swedish Crowns by international postal money order or to our postal giro account 73 86 03 - 0 in Sweden. If you send an international bank cheque, please add 50 Sw.Cr. (cashing fee). NB Euro-cheques are not accepted any more in Swedish Banks! Please send money and order to: Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School, Håå Course Center, 340 13 Hamneda, Sweden.

Håå Course Center, 340 13 Hamneda, Sweden • Tel. +46 372 55063 Fax. +46 372 55036 • Email: [email protected] Norway Sweden • Västmannagatan 62, 113 25 Stockholm tel. +46 8 321218, fax. +46 8 314406 email: [email protected]

Denmark • Købmagergade 65, 1150 Copenhagen tel. +45 3314 1140, fax. +45 3314 1434 email: [email protected] • Vestergade 45, 8000 Århus tel. +45 8619 4033, fax. +45 8619 4013 • Kongensgade 12 B, 3000 Elsinore tel. +45 4921 2068

Germany • Sextrostrasse 3, 30169 Hannover tel. +49 511 803 9941 fax. 803 9942 email: [email protected]

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• Georgernes Verft 3, 5011 Bergen tel. +47 5614 3310 fax. +47 5614 9738 email: [email protected] • Skjolden 1, 1322 Høvik, Oslo tel. +47 8800 6488 email: [email protected]

Finland • Sukula, 30100 Forssa, Helsinki tel. +358 3 4350599 Contact in Australia Robyn Taylor, Concept Training PO Box 89, Mackay Q4740 tel. +61 749 531 594

Internet • www.scand-yoga.org

Publisher: Bindu, Håa Course Center, 340 13 Hamneda, Sweden. Circulation: 4,000 in English (Also printed in German, Swedish and Danish) Printed: Håå Course Center, by Erling Christiansen & Mark Richards Layout: Robert Nilsson & Swami Janakananda. Translation: Nicola Birch, Mark Richards & Robyn Taylor. Pictures: Back page and p.2,14,17,21 Ingela Hageman, Sweden; front page, p.5-9,23,26,27 Omkarananda, Denmark; p.18 PhotoDisc inc.; p.20,25 Corel PhotoCD; symbol p.26. Swami Janakananda. Copyright © 1998 Bindu and Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publishers.

CD! n o w o N Experience

Yoga Nidra

Inspiration for a richer life with SWAMI JANAKANANDA 1. The Wholeness of Your Nature, the relaxation Yoga Nidra to the sounds of Mother Earth. Composed and guided by Swami Janakananda. 20.41 2. Travel through the Space of Experience, a piece of music, composed and played on a SwaraMandala harp by Roop Verma. 7.44 3. Discover Your Self, the deep Yoga Nidra. The relaxation is guided by Swami Janakananda, to the music of Roop Verma. 45.16 With the CD there is a 20-page booklet about Yoga Nidra, and how to get the full benefits from the two relaxations. “Relaxation is a state. It is best achieved through a technique that triggers it. The blood pressure is normalised, the immune system is strengthened and the brain relaxes and cooperates better. All the organs and senses of the body are rested in a way that sleep seldom provides. Thus the senses are sharpened and you feel invigorated afterwards. The more familiar you become with Yoga Nidra, the easier it is to glide into the relaxed state. And as you come to know harmony, you are soon able to recall it instantly - in the middle of the activities of your day. What makes Yoga Nidra so special is that it touches all parts of your being through the different methods it contains. After having made the body and mind thoroughly aware and relaxed, I use, among other things, the mantras (spoken sounds) and the visual symbols of the chakras - to awaken and harmonise these energy whirls or fields of consciousness. On this CD Roop Verma, as the first musician, has been inspired to record the ancient music symbols of the chakras, which you experience with my text and guidance during the deep Yoga Nidra.” (Swami Janakananda)

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“Passage” - Ingela Hageman 1997

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