A Satsang at Ganga Darshan 1989

In California there was a centre for the rehabilitation of alcohol and drug-abused children aged from about twelve to twenty two years. I went there with a doctor who used to be our student. He felt that the practices of yoga, specifically yoga nidra, would somehow help a person to come out of their addiction. So one day he took me there and we spoke with the different people at the helm of administration.

We devised a yoga program without actually knowing what things would be beneficial, just by looking at the type of personalities and considering their nature; whether they were violent and how they might react to not having any kind of drugs, injections or medications. We considered what kind of reactions we might expect from them, what type of understanding they had about certain practices of yoga, about yoga itself and whether they would be willing to accept yoga. For the initial teaching, I had to go. I would go in my orange skin, so would they accept me as a teacher or not?

Keeping all these things in consideration we devised a plan which initially consisted of the normal talk to encourage addicts to come out of their addiction. This was given by the doctor, Todd Mekuria, himself. He used to give an introduction which would last fifteen to thirty minutes, depending on the mood of the addicts. Then he would invite me as guest speaker, but of course I would not speak, Instead I would say, ‘Let us do some things’.

Calming practices

We started off with practices in which we divided the whole group of children into two, one half having a violent nature and the other half a depressive nature. To the violent group we gave pranayamas:

1. Nadi shodhana: just the simple alternate nostril breathing was given.

2. Brahmari: we asked them to imagine they were driving a car and changing gear with the pitch of the brahmari sound.

3. Ujjayi: we asked them to touch the back of the throat with their tongue in khechari mudra, without telling them what khechari mudra was.

After six sessions which lasted about forty minutes on a daily basis, the doctors found that the addicts became very quiet, passive, in fact docile. They would listen to things, they would discuss their problems, their family matters, social conditions, the environment or situation which forced them to take drugs or alcohol. And this was after just six sessions of pranayama.

After the sixth session they stopped pranayama completely and we introduced the concept of willpower and sankalpa in one session and from the second session we started with the simple practice of yoga nidra. We continued with the practise of yoga nidra for six sessions again. After doing this, the doctors noticed that these people who used to be dependent on drugs, both nicotine injections, which would create some sort of stimulation in the system, and other kinds of drugs which they used to give, reduced their intake by 30-40% on a daily basis. Of course I do not remember the exact figures now because it happened seven years ago.

The next step: in order to further enhance their mental awareness, to focus the mind, to develop concentration, we started the practice of ajapa japa. We practised ajapa japa without mantra. We used to say that they should simply observe the breath while sitting in a chair with the eyes closed, the body upright and straight, and try to listen to the sound of the natural breath. They just had to keep listening to the sound of the natural breath. The introversion used to be so powerful for these people that after the class, many used to say that they could feel and hear the blood flowing through their veins. Listening to and talking about the heartbeat is quite obvious because it is a major movement within the body, but they used to talk about the flow of blood and that means that their concentration was quite intense. And their violent nature subsided; they became more accepting and understanding.

After the third week I had to leave so I do not know what the report is now or whether they even continued with the practices. In the three week course they had eighteen days of practice: six days each week with one day talking. During that time there was a very great change which was felt by the practitioners and also by the people who monitored them.

Stimulating Practices

With the other half of the group, the depressive group, it was slightly difficult to get them to do anything. They would simply not do anything at all. So with these people we started off with yoga nidra, and not the common practice of yoga nidra. Instead we created a story and asked them to visualize the story. Maybe once we visualized a hike in the mountains, another time a boat trip on the ocean. Like this we created certain short stones which helped to focus their attention and their minds.

In fact we considered that the practice was not a yoga nidra but more like visualization in shavasana.

Gradually we started introducing the concept of different sensations in the body along with the visualization. ‘The body is feeling light, so light that it is now flying, going up off the ground, flying. While you are floating up in the atmosphere, suddenly a bird passes you and you realize that you are actually floating. Then start to feel heavy, so heavy that you are sinking into the floor.’ Then we gave that Jules Verne story, ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’. As their bodies became heavier and heavier, we tried to describe parts from the story which they already knew and so could relate to easily. Then again we made the body feel light so that they came back to ground level.

Once they became interested in this form of storytelling, visualization and imagination, then we started them off with some pranayama combined with bandhas. Bhastrika was practised for a few days and later we introduced agnisar without the bhastrika. We told them that instead of actually breathing rapidly in and out through the nostrils, they should imagine that they are doing the same thing, without breathing, through the stomach. So the contractions of the stomach started while they imagined that they were breathing in and out, but without actually breathing. Why did we introduce bandhas? To stimulate the blocked centres of energy, for example agnisar kriya and uddiyana bandha stimulate the vital pranic centre. Nadi shodhana was the last pranayama we introduced.

After they had completed this set of practices we started meditation. This was more in line with chidakasha dharana, for with the depressive group we tried using only the visualization techniques for example, imagining that they were writing on a blackboard-different symbols, names, numbers and colours, shapes and sizes. Later we practised the advanced form of chidakasha dharana, where the brain is viewed as a room, and you go into that room, deep down.

Achieving balance

I’m not sure of the end result, but during the time we were there, conducting the course, the children became more outgoing and communicative. The depressive group asked better questions in the question and answer sessions, as if they were constantly thinking, due to their introverted nature. It felt as though they were more aware of their feelings, emotions and need in life than the group who were just reacting to situations violently. So eventually the communication was better with the depressive group.

The last communication that I had from this doctor was that he had trained social workers in the system that we had devised. These people were being sent out to teach in different rehabilitation centres in the Bay area in California, and they were establishing this yoga program.

(Courtesy : Yoga Magazine, May,1990)

In the ashram we have so many children. I too was a child when I first came here, and we were never given formal teaching or education. We did not have any text books to study, although now there are so many spiritual comics and other books which the children read. The children are also coming from schools where they were studying in first, second, third, fourth or fifth grade. But at the time when I came to the ashram, most of the children were illiterate, they did not know a letter. Not only myself, there were others too. And we all received our education, the best that we could get, at the feet of Guru Deva. By his grace and by our open button, we got everything in record time.

Of course, in those days, we were more respectful and we did not use so much slang and abusive talk as the children do today. But sometimes we did, and no one reprimanded us for it. No one told us what to speak and what not. Likewise today, the ashram children are allowed to develop in an atmosphere free from suppression. No one tells them how to behave. Even if they speak in an abusive manner, no one will stop them. In fact, Swamiji often instructs the children to abuse or tease certain aspirants in order to bring them out or to chip away their ego. The ashram children are encouraged to express themselves fully and to be independent. We do not even make any suggestions, we just try to keep everything open for them. We consider that the child must be right, and so far as we have seen, the children know best.

Even in regard to sannyasa, children were always most successful as far as history goes. Consider Suka Dev, Adi Shankaracharya, Prahalad or Dhruva. They were more successful than those sadhaks who retired to the forest in later life with husband or wife and took sannyasa.

Even in the present day the sannyasins who come for sannyasa at a later age, experience so much difficulty adapting to this way of life. They arrive with their set behaviour and living patterns and their set faith and belief. But in sannyasa these things have to be renounced. Unless you can renounce them, the cloth of renunciation has no meaning. Shaving the head and giving up the family life do not make a sannyasin. Worldly people also leave home. They go to England, America, Japan; or to Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra or Bengal. Sometimes they don’t return at all.

In sannyasa, however, there is a certain purpose in renunciation of family and social ties. That is why, once the sannyasin has left, it is for good, and there is no more correspondence. Of course, householders may go away for a long time, but they still correspond and keep the memory. This is the difference. In sannyasa one must try to forget the past life completely. This is why renunciation comes quite naturally to the children. They live in the present moment and there is so little for them to remember or to forget.

In the ashram the very first instruction that one receives is that the body is a vehicle for the enlightened soul. As such it is neither male nor female. Definitely older people come to spiritual life with so much knowledge, but they are too conscious about male and female. This applies to the sannyasins as well as the householders. In our country the little children are constantly reminded that they are a boy or a girl and that it is necessary to keep apart. People say since you are a girl, it is necessary to do this, or if you are a boy, you must do that. But for sannyasa, first of all you must forget that this body is male or female. Then only can you have the correct feeling for others. Sannyasins must regard all as pure self, without any consideration for the body.

In the ashram no one will say to the children, ‘Hey, you are a boy, why do you sit with a girl? It is not good.’ We do not wish to remind the children or to reinforce in any way the idea that they are boy or girl It is our aim simply to remind them that they are sannyasins, A sannyasin is a sannyasin and that is all. They have to unfold themselves and realise the light.

Similarly, sannyasins should not be continually plied with questions about their parents or native place. Some people say, ‘Hey Brother, come here’. But we are not brothers. This belongs to the Christian tradition. Sannyasins are not part of any religious order. We have renounced religion. Similarly, if the sannyasin is elderly people call her ‘Mataji’ or ‘Mummy’. However, this is also not correct. It brings up the same family samskara which has to be renounced. Such feeling or identification has to be removed from the personality altogether.

Therefore, do not speak to the sannyasins as though they were your relatives. Sannyasins should have no feeling of mother, father, brother, sister, son or daughter. You should address them with reverence by their spiritual names which they have received from the guru as his blessing and prasad. That name is not just for the body, it is something which the guru gives to arouse our inner potential, to remind us of him.

This is an important point to remember with all the sannyasins and especially with the children. When you call them by their spiritual name, even if they don’t remember their inner self, they will at least be reminded of the guru, and through that they can remember the purpose of their life. Therefore, in the ashram, we never call the child beta or beti (son or daughter), we call them by their spiritual name with reverence.

(Courtesy : Yoga Magazine, Feb, 1983)

“Let me be like a child, running barefoot through the forest of laughing and crying people, handing out flowers of imagination and wonder that God gives free.”
Swami Satyananda Saraswati

It was a warm summer day. The crowd in the waiting room looked harassed by the morning heat. The fan overhead whirred monotonously and hot air ruffled the papers on the table. There was a subtle blend of restlessness and lethargy that comes with boredom. A little child walked into my room shepherded by his very efficient looking parent.

Sukhdev was a dreamer. As he approached my desk, his eyes were like stars, and following his gaze I saw it reach the single rose in an empty medicine bottle. I knew then that this boy would go far- that he was more perceptive than every adult in that room, whose minds had strayed beyond the flower to the dust on the window ledge and settled there with discontent.

We want him to shine

The mother had brought him to a psychiatrist because his teacher felt that there was something odd about the boy. She was upset that an eight year old child did not play rough games with other children, that he often looked out of the window of the crowded classroom at the clouds floating by. He liked playing with mud at home and made himself dirty in the process. He studied only two hours in the evening, while the neighbour’s child laboured’ at his desk for four hours or more.

Besides, his father held a very important post in government service and ‘he had a tradition to maintain’. Tell me’, I asked the mother, ‘What sort of tradition is this?’ ‘His father comes from a very well known family. His grandfather was a high court judge and we are perfectionists, Doctor. We love our child. We would like him to be at the top of his class academically and in extracurricular activities; we want him to shine. His sister is no bother. She is very smart. It is only this boy who causes us endless worry.’

I looked at the boy they so ‘loved’ and yet had brought to a mental therapist for emotional plastic surgery- so that what he was could be replaced by a socially acceptable personality. It took me less than fifteen minutes to see that Sukhdev was above average intelligence. Finding the routine cramming of classroom facts stifling, and unable to escape the situation, he had intuitively taken recourse into little forays of adventure in fantasy to keep alive the spark of creativity. It took me all of three months to help the mother accept him and his unique individuality- to help her learn the beginnings of real love- that which does not bind, but frees.

The roots of violence

Day after day Sukdev’s mother rediscovered herself as she discussed mothering and parental attitudes. It requires courage in a mother, a courage born out of love, to set a son free from oneself, free from small values. Sukhdev’s mother had that love.

We read daily, accounts of rapes, violence, strikes, suicides, corruption, assaults. We reflected on the fact that hardened criminals, at one time, were innocent children. Where did they learn to be violent? We often recognise violence only when it is physical. If a deeply insecure parent goads a child into running the rat race of ambition, is he not injecting violence into-the child’s personality?

When a father tramples on the love and trust in a child for the sake of petty desires is this not violence? What is this generation doing for its young? We are busy building departments of education and health, projects and institutions, but we forget the foundation; that of wonder and comparison. Children all over are told to shut up and study whenever they ask, ‘Why are there so many stars in the sky? Why do butterflies have beautiful colours? Can I make mud balls?’

Often children are told that if they do not get good marks in school, they will have no future. ‘I often wonder what future we are talking about,’ I said to the boy’s mother, Is it a stereotype of today built with our insecurities, or a tomorrow of compassion forged by these little ones inspired by an inner freedom?’ She was trying out her wings, but conflict between the inner and the outer continued, ‘Parents sometimes say that children need to be spontaneous and creative, but the system today demands that they compete,’ she replied.

There is magic

This idea is an illusion we hold to justify our weaknesses. Millions of people in the west are satiated with luxury and feel discontented, bored and frustrated. Much of the problem is that they are ignorant of their potential, their inner capacity to move through a chaotic world and find magic in it. Because beyond the violence, cruelty and turmoil, there is magic. But you can see it only through the eyes of a child.

Watch your child follow an ant to its destination, rapt in its pilgrim progress. See him smell a half forgotten wayside flower. Look at his eyes light up as a cat uncurls. This is a wonder- a part of yourself that turns this monotony driven world into a symphony of love and faith.

Each individual has more than 15 billion nerve cells in the brain. Considering that the whole human organism is built from the potential of one single cell, consider the power lying dormant in each nerve cell of a highly specialised organ. Is it not all delusion to look at such a vast reservoir of possibilities and call it colourless, useless or inferior?

Few people know the implications of the research by Sperry, who was awarded the Nobel Prize last year for his split-brain experiments. He proved that the left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for the verbal conscious aspect of the mind and for logical, sequential and rational thinking. The right half is the seat of the subconscious and unconscious, the deeper layers of personality, the intuitive, artistic, creative dimensions of the mind. It is this aspect that is responsible for musical creations, masterpieces of art, scientific discoveries- in fact the essence of genius.

These deep and powerful parts of ourselves are often choked by logic, strangled with anxiety, and kept suppressed by the millions of impulses that bombard the average mind- the impulse to be cleverer than the other, to run down a rival, to market oneself and the world in a constant endeavour to fill up the growing vacuum within.

Building a firm foundation

Up to the age of eight years a child’s intuition is alive. Around this time, the pineal, which is a small pea sized gland at the base of the brain, starts atrophying and the child has the physical, mental and emotional turbulences of puberty thrust upon him before he can learn to cope. Yogis have known this from time immemorial.

Traditionally, a child was given a mantra, taught pranayama and surya namaskara at this age. These practices work through the endocrinal system, the autonomic and central nervous system delaying the sudden onset of puberty. This allows the emotional development to catch up with the physical and mental development, thereby creating an inner harmony which becomes a firm foundation for later responsibilities.

These techniques which have come down to us through the ages have been contaminated with social value systems and are rapidly losing their true purpose. Today, with the vast amount of research going on in western countries, in schools and hospitals, there is a resurgence in these well known yogic practices. They are being rediscovered in the light of practical, effective functioning; in the light of increased relaxation and awareness that goes towards realising the heights of one’s potential, to soar beyond one’s limited self.

Lighting a candle

If we see suffering and hardship around us, let us not throw stones or moan. It is only in the dark that one has the experience of lighting a candle. We have shackled ourselves far too long. We have held on to our external identifications of social status, power, family name, social values, cars, etc.

Let us sow the seeds of peace, creativity, pride in oneself, compassion for the other into the lives of the next generation by example not instruction. Let us renounce this need to see ourselves in our children. Let us allow them to break away from our limited concepts into the fullness of their own unlimited inner being.

(Courtesy : Yoga Magazine, May, 1983)

At 6 p.m. on the 15th July 1979, Mrs. Sarita Bhandari, aged 30 of Monghyr, was driving along the Patna-Monghyr highway with her husband when the car skidded and hit a tree. The impact caused her great pain to the left shoulder while her husband received a mild shock. They then drove to Patna in search of a hospital, and to distract herself from the pain she used breath awareness techniques she had been taught at the Bihar School of Yoga. Despite the numerous jerks and bumps of the car caused by the poor condition of the road she felt little pain and was quite relaxed when she reached Patna hospital at 8.00 p.m. The other people in the car who were not injured took tranquilizers but she decided not even to take a painkiller until doctors had seen to her injury.

At Patna hospital, no doctor could attend to her as it was a Sunday and they were off duty. That night she slept with the help of Novalgin and yoga nidra and the next morning was admitted to the hospital after her X-ray report revealed a fracture with slight displacement. The next evening at 5 p.m. it was reduced under general anaesthetic and she was advised to take 6 weeks of bed rest. During this time both her arms developed oedema (swelling) forcing them to be suspended by a sling.

After 6 weeks, the bones had still not set and an X-ray on the 28th September showed non-union. She was suffering from pain at the fracture site and the left shoulder joint could not be raised more than 45 degrees. She could not use her left hand either for lifting or for simple jobs such as holding a glass. From September to mid-December it was recommended that she perform some physiotherapy, however, there was no change on her X-rays or in her subjective symptoms by the 27th December.

She then went to visit a leading Delhi orthopaedic surgeon who recommended surgery followed by a consultation with a second opinion in the hope that she might gain a reprieve. However, he told her that as union had not taken place after so many months, there was no hope apart from bone graft surgery- a radical procedure.

On the 1st February she came to visit BSY and we advised her to postpone surgery for two months and practise pawanmuktasana part 1 with emphasis on the hand, shoulder and neck exercises. At the end of March she returned to Patna for X-rays. Much to the surprise of all concerned, union had taken place and her subjective symptoms of pain and stiffness had subsided.

We feel that the dramatic improvement in Mrs. Bhandari’s condition after she started the correct sequence of yoga practices occurred for the following reasons:

1.  Her 6 weeks of immobility in bed caused her blood circulation to become sluggish and thus oedema occurred. Then her arms were placed in a sling which further constricted blood flow flow to the affected area.

2. There is no provision in medical science for adequate relaxation of tension, let alone to reduce the severe muscle spasms which accompany traumatic injury.  Physiotherapy is insufficient and mind science is not developed in this line.

3. The pawanmuktasana series of exercises allowed gentle exercise to be given to the surrounding area releasing tension and thereby decreasing the excessive sympathetic nervous system activity which had been initiated by the pain and preceding trauma. Blood flow to the site was enhanced.

4. The process of healing was aided by the use of other yogic practices such as prananyama and yoga nidra.

The fact that yoga had a significant role to play in this fracture of the clavicle should alert doctors and specialists in the field of orthopaedics to utilize the principles and dynamics of yogic therapy for other forms of fracture and for trauma in general.

Yoga’s ability to exert considerable influence on the mental sphere and to improve relaxation at both mental and physical levels has the added advantage of inducing greater calm in the face of injury and this in itself helps to speed up the healing process. Yoga can also eliminate, to a certain extent, the fear component of pain. People with fractures (and especially those of the neck of the femur) may be saved considerable pain and suffering, if yoga is used as an adjunct to their therapy.

(Courtesy Yoga Magazine, March, 1981)

Taken a head trip lately? Feel like giving the old brain a buzz? The hippies who coined these graphic expressions were referring to the state of ‘bum bum’, the drug-induced flight of fancy, the fascinating world of LSD or hemp hallucinations. But a generation before the drug culture, Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield was mind tripping in a way that is even more bizarre. Working with patients who had neurological disorders that made brain probing necessary, Penfield stimulated different parts of the cerebral cortex with minute electrical impulses. These stimulation studies allowed him to demonstrate the existence of pathways that carry information to the brain from various parts of the nervous system. In particular, Penfield was able to identify the different brain regions associated with certain parts of the body. As he moved electrodes to assorted locations on the brain surface, specific parts of the body would twitch as if in answer to a normal command from the brain. At other times, bodily sensations would be aroused exactly as if that organ had been activated by some sense stimulus from the external environment. When the visual or auditory cortex was stimulated, the patient saw light flashes or heard buzzing or musical tones. In this way Penfield was able to map those areas of the brain directly governing sensations and muscular activity in the various limbs and organs.

This area is known as the sensorimotor cortex and as we move across its surface we come to the areas associated with the face, neck, thumb, index finger, middle finger, ring finger, little finger, and so on, down to the toes.

This is where we make the connection between the latest neurosurgery and the meditational technique of yoga nidra, a yogic practice evolved from the most ancient tantric scriptures. Yoga nidra is a systematic method for inducing complete physical, mental and emotional relaxation. The state of yoga nidra is one of relaxation so deep that we seem to be asleep to the outside world. If you have ever practiced this technique, then you’ll recognize the signposts on the sensorimotor cortex as precisely those parts of the body through which your awareness passes during the ‘rotation of consciousness’.

“Rotation of awareness by taking a trip through the body… Right hand thumb, second finger, third finger, fourth finger, fifth finger, palm, wrist, elbow, shoulder, armpit, right waist, right thigh, kneecap, calf muscle, ankle, heel, sole, big toe, second toe, third toe, fourth toe, fifth toe…”

Consciousness is no incorporeal phantasm, but a fine mesh that encompasses the body as surely as the gossamer glory of the spider’s web is spun from her abdomen. The brain is the physical mediator of consciousness, linking mind, body and emotions into one harmonious unit. The neurosurgeon affects the body by stimulating the brain. The practitioner of yoga nidra begins at the other end of the nerve pathway by heightening awareness of the body. The progressive movement of awareness through the parts of the body not only brings physical relaxation, but also relaxes the sensorimotor cortex of the brain. If we begin at the toes and end with the tongue, we clear all the nerve pathways to the brain, both those governing physical activity and those concerned with incoming information. At the same time we make a total run of the brain surface from inside out. In this way, yoga nidra relaxes the mind by using the mind to relax the body.

In some forms of yoga nidra the rotation of consciousness does begin at the toes, but it is more common to start with the right hand thumb. Just as it is easier to travel along a much used highway than a rarely trodden cart track, so the more often a nerve impulse travels along a particular pathway the easier it is to activate that pathway in the future. Because the connections with the hands are frequently used, during yoga nidra it is relatively easy to develop mental awareness of the hands. The hands are also among the most sensitive of man’s organs of action, with a greater number of nerve endings in the palms and fingers to transmit messages to the brain. For these reasons most people find it easier to develop awareness of the hands than most other parts of the body. This is especially true for beginners in yoga nidra. When you refer to the motor homunculus, you will also note the disproportionately large amount of brain space concerned with the hands and fingers. This region is almost as large as for the entire remainder of the body from the wrist to the toes ! Beginning with the hands is not only easier, but also affects a huge area of the brain, giving an initial impetus to the process of relaxation.

Scattered through the periphery of the body are numerous cells which are sensitive not only to normal electrical nerve impulses, but also to mechanical stimulation such as pressure or touch, temperature and so on. Although we do not usually think of them as such, these cells (proprioceptors) are actually tiny sense organs that are continually gathering information from all parts of the body and sending it to specified sites deep in the brain. Neurologists have located these focal points, the most important of which are those concerned with food and water intake, heat and cold, pain and pleasure.

Once again it is impossible to ignore the connection between the discoveries made by today’s brain explorers and those made by the seers who long ago evolved the practice of yoga nidra. After relaxation of the sensorimotor surface of the brain, the practice of yoga nidra moves our attention from the separate outlying areas of the body to arousal of feelings that seem to emanate from the core of our organism yet bathe the body as a whole. As we awaken the sensations of heat and cold, pain and pleasure, we stimulate those centres of the brain responsible for maintaining harmony between our inner and outer environments. Each of these centres has its reciprocal for balancing our basic drives, and the pairing of these sensations in yoga nidra helps this balance as well as bringing normally unconscious functions under control.

Characteristically the first of these feelings to be awakened is that of heaviness… “You are feeling so heavy that you are sinking into the floor.” Although this sensation of heaviness has not yet been localized in the brain, it is a whole body sensation that is a product of deep muscular relaxation. At the same time, if relaxation is not complete, awakening the feeling of heaviness acts as a command from the brain encouraging the muscles to ‘let go’, to drop their burden of upholding the body. The weight of the body is then deposited on the floor, giving the impression that we are sinking through the surface on which we are lying.

As the feeling of heaviness intensifies, so it is superseded by a sensation of lightness… “Awaken a sensation of lightness and weightlessness in all parts of the body… Your body feels so light… that it seems to be floating away from the floor.”

To induce a sensation of lightness is not an arbitrary choice but a direct outcome of the way the brain functions. When a nerve cell (neurone) fires, that is, when it transmits an impulse, this is registered in the brain. However, if the cell continues to fire for some time, the message is no longer acknowledged by the brain, it becomes a constant feature to the brain’s environment as it were. You can verify this particularly with smell. When you first enter a room where incense has been burning, you are very much aware of the perfume. However, after you have been in the room for some time, you no longer notice the incense. Researchers have called this phenomenon habituation. The brain becomes habituated, accustomed to the stimulus, and ceases to register it as important.

It would seem that this is what happens during yoga nidra. While focusing awareness on the sensation of heaviness throughout the body, the nerves fire a volley of impulses to the brain. After some time, however, the brain ignores these impulses, it breaks the connection with the body. The feeling of lightness then arises spontaneously and our awareness floats free of its physical vehicle. Now, rather than physical sensations shaping our consciousness, our consciousness can determine what will be felt by the body.

Stimulation of these homeostatic mechanisms moves us right into the midbrain, and brings greater awareness of the region known as the hypothalamus. This region is the primary regulator of the autonomic (involuntary) nervous system which is intimately bound up with the glands and emotions. Electrical stimulation of certain parts of the hypothalamus gives rise to the emotions of rage, aggression and fear. Most of us find these negative feelings much stronger and harder to control than positive emotions. Nevertheless, in advanced yoga nidra we are asked to submit voluntarily to these threatening emotions, while still maintaining a state of deep relaxation.

This brings into simultaneous operation nerve circuits that, under normal circumstances, never operate at the same time. Thus a new circuit is established incorporating these two apparently irreconcilable states in such a way that relaxation predominates.

In. this way, yoga nidra allows us to experience mental control of our emotions and senses (at least temporarily) and establishes fresh neuronal patterns that we can fall back on to carry this control into our normal waking lives.

The end state of the practice of yoga nidra is ‘psychic sleep’ or sleep in a state of inner awareness. It is a state on the borderline between sleep and wakefulness that allows contact with the subconscious and unconscious mind. Next month we will discuss this state in terms of its psychological and spiritual implications.

(Courtesy Yoga Magazine, January, 1979)