“Are you all ready?”

Are you all ready? So, how does the class begin? Instructions. I am only hearing is biz biz biz. That’s all I am hearing. I am hearing no words, what’s happening, eh?

Question: 2:06 to 2:21

So when the Acharya says that, how should the Acahrya sound and look? Relaxed, ok? When you tell them something, not only your words but what is inside you should be transmitted to them. So if you are tensed and say,’ sit in Sukasana, hmm, spine erect, mmm shoulders relaxed, eyes closed’. It should come very smoothly and very easily.

So whenever you give the instructions, feel yourself doing it. That’s the main thing. You should feel your body doing it. When you feel your body doing it, your instructions will come out very easily. Your instructions should not come from your head. Please do not think it is necessary to instruct anybody in a class from the head. You don’t need to mug up anything.

If you feel your body doing what you want your students to do, the instructions will come out of you automatically. But for that, don’t think if you are just going sit, it’s going to flow out of you. That will not happen. In the initial days, you need to learn the words because if you say Sukasana, you should know its Sukasana. Those are the words you need to learn.

But once you have settled in your practice, these words should just roll out of what is inside you, ok? Am I clear? So, when you give instructions, you should feel your body going through it. Then you will feel so easily the words easily coming out because you are instructing yourself. You are seeing the space from where it’s coming.

So when that happens in you and you give instructions to the students, they will not catch your words alone, they catch your feelings that you are expressing through your words. And you will find that the students’ body will just move into the positions better than the words and your feelings expressing through them. So please remember this: you don’t have to speak from your head. The whole process has to come. Then only there is joy, there is juice. Otherwise it’s like a military training. Raise your hands, bend down, bend this side, bend that side: it’s not yoga. Ok?

Sit in Sukasana, spine straight, your shoulders relaxed, hands in chinmudra, eyes closed. Take a deep breath, inhale: feel your lungs expanding, and as you exhale feel your lungs contracting relaxing you completely. Inhale and exhale consciously. Inhale and exhale with deep awareness. Connect yourself to your center. Now move deeper into your centering and placing your palms together in front of your heart center, chant the sloka by giving gratitude to the master for bringing you here and for making you part of this wonderful process to become Nithya yogacharya. Let’s chant:

Nithyanandam parama sukhadam Kevalam gnaanamoortim Dvanvaateetam gagana sadrisham thathvamasyaadi lakshyam Ekam nithyam vimalam achalam sarvadee sakshi bhoodam Bhaavateetham triguna rahitam sadgurum tam namami Harihi om thath sath sarvam sathduru padugarpanamasthu

Relax your hands, open your eyes. Let’s do a recap of yesterday. What happened yesterday? Quickly, five minutes.

Started vinyasa krama what did we do for Ustrasana. What was the conclusion we arrived at finally? Its difficult? Ha, ha. It’s difficult to go about vinyasa krama, you need little bit more experience in teaching and in doing. but apart from that? See, understand one thing: I may have taken years to come to this state of talking like this to you all. Please remember one thing. You are all in the energy field of the Master. You are all in his field. You all feel his energy flowing through you.

So what I took thirty to learn, you can verily do it in five years. Truly: five years, because His energy, His transformation is happening in you. Whatever happened in him is happening in you right now. So the learning will become that much faster for all of you. All you need is intensity and passion to learn. That’s all.

So it’s not far off when I will see gyanathma drawing vinyasa after vinyasa and I will be sitting there and doing the asanas. Really it’s not very far off. It will happen soon. So keep that in mind when you are doing yoga.

So this apart, apart from that, what did you learn from yesterday? Something very 8:33 ( no audio).

Ok, before we go to the main posture we need preparation. So we use the breath and intellect. How to work smart not work hard, the minimum of postures used in vinyasa for maximum effect be gained by you. That is one thing we learnt. Because there are any number of ways of going into the main posture, any number of ways of coming out of the main posture. But how well you do it, how intensely you do it, what is the shortest to get the maximum benefit from the asanas is what we are looking at. Ok?

So, that we saw how to go into Ustrasana and after that we saw the vinyasa krama. We went into, oh, yes, we went into office yoga. How many of you remember office yoga? How many of you applied office yoga to your routine today? I am seeing one hand going like this and another slowly climbing up. Eh! That’s nice. That’s good. Did you scare anybody by doing that?

Arunamani (10: 08 poor audio) no? Ok. So please, when you are taught something do it and check out for yourself whether what has been said is true or not. Otherwise it has no meaning. Sitting for two hours here is waste of time especially in yoga. It’s such a experiential learning. Unless you use what you have learnt and do it, it’s of no use at all. You will remain here, whatever we discussed yesterday; you will remember half of it next morning. If you have not practiced it, quarter. Tomorrow if you don’t do it, it’s gone forever. Then you will say, ’yes, yes, Maneesha , something she said office you. She carried a chair from there and came.hey, what ya, what did she say?’ Then the other fellow will say, ’yeah, something she turned her head and I think we have to keep turning our head to relax the tension’. Don’t do that, immediately the whole time that you spent here s gone, wasted.

So put it to use. It’s worth it. It’s your health. It’s your productivity. Two very important things: health and productivity. Ask the HR. she will tell you. That’s the main area of focus: How healthy people are and taking care of their productivity. That’s a beautiful combination. And only she can’t be going around and doing it. The Hrs can’t be running around. We have to take responsibility. And that responsibility is what yoga is all about. That’s all. Very simple.

Ok, we went into Ustrasana, we did the vinyasa. Then we went into yoga for office. Then what did we do? Hm? What, Pranayama means what? What did we do? Basics of breathing. So what are the basics of breathing? Belly breathing, chest breathing, and then what did we do yesterday? ok, Shanmuki mudra was the end. But what did we do in our class? What did we learn? Who can tell me what we learnt? Inhale happens naturally. We have to work on exhale and before that? Don’t tell my drawing was so bad that you can’t remember, ribs and lungs and diaphragm? Eh? What is this? Yesterday what was drawn was your diaphragm, your lungs and your ribs. So what did you learn yesterday with that diagram?

How the diaphragm plays a very major role in the process of breathing and how you need to use your abdomen for the diaphragm to work freely. When you relax your abdomen and allow your belly to come out, the diaphragm comes down and expands the rib case so that your lungs can expand. When you take your belly inside, the diaphragm gets pushed up. So these brings the ribs cage in and the air from the rib case gets squeezed out. I asked you people to remember this as visualization. You all remember that? Yes? People are looking blankly. Do you remember this board yesterday and what was drawn on that? I know there is something called table memory and some other memories, please be in the present moment, ok?

So we learnt that. And we also said who is the best module for breathing: babies. Babies are the best modules because they are still in their natural state. Still they have not accumulated too many samskaras for their breath to be disturbed. So they are the best people to watch as far as breathing is concerned. Ok. Today what we are going to do is: we are going to do four things: first you are all going to do vinyasa for Ustrasana. Second, you are going to learn about shavasana . Third, you are going to learn about shivasana and fourth, you are going to learn about sectional breathing leading to complete yogic breathing.

So, what are we going to learn? Let me test your memory, the present memory.eh, eh? Vinyasa for Ustrasana, Shavasana, Shivasana, sectional breathing leading to complete yogic breathing. So, are you ready? We have got one hour and I think forty five minutes, ok? Keep your books aside. How many of you did the Yogasana this morning? So you are still doing your Suryanamaskar? How did you all find it today? You are feeling alive, intense, bright? What about these guys? What did the LBTs do? Both? Ok, what is it? eh? what did you do, some new asana you are saying? Bending backward, What? Matsyasana, good, very good. You did your Matsyasana, excellent, it’s a great posture and we will be going into that very soon. We are moving slowly slowly to Nithyananda yoga now, ok? Catch up fast. Now, Keep your books aside: your laptops everything nothing to obstruct your movement.

Ok, stand up. Ustrasana is not sitting down, stand up. Samasthithi. Your feet slightly apart, your toes lifted up pushing your soles of your feet to the ground. Drop your toes down, lift your spine up, shoulders relaxed, hands in prayer position. Just connect to your core, your inner sole. Inhale and exhale deeply. Feel an intense relaxation happening within you. Just feel yourself centering, your breath, your mind, your body, all coming together as one. Inhale slowly and exhale deeply, smoothly, allow your mind to relax with both. Inhale, hands by your sides, inhale raise your arms getting both your palms together and look up at your arms, arms together overhead. Hold the inhalation for three full seconds. As you exhale, bring your arms down to your sides. Lower your chin.

Once more: Inhale, raise your arms, let your palms touch each other. Look up at your arms. Complete the inhalation; hold the breath for three full seconds, feeling the work on your spine and chest. Exhaling move your arms to your sides. Once more: we will go into the posture this time going with your breath at your pace. When you are ready, start.

Go to the back of your mats. Step your right foot forward, left foot at a slight angle. You know you have turned your foot completely away. No. Step back, stand straight first. Why are you turning the left foot now? Step the right foot forward. That’s it. The left leg will automatically find the balance. Ok? Right, keep your spine straight. Your hip bone a little forward, your back is straight, shoulders relaxed. Get both your hands behind your back and link your fingers. Keep your elbows straight, your chest will open up the minute you keep your elbows straight.

Inhale in this posture. As you exhale, bend from your hip bone and bend your right knee. Get your forehead towards the knee. Lift your arms as high as you can. Staying in this posture, just lift your head up on an inhale, stay in this posture. Exhale: drop your head down, the arms coming as high as you can.

On the next inhale, using the strength of your feet, lift your whole spine up, straighten your knee. Exhale, relax your hands. Once more: first check whether your back knee is straight, your hipbone little forward. Look at the angle of your left leg. It’s pointing straight. How can you turn your hip? Now step your leg back. Step the leg back, get into Samasthithi.

Now step the right foot forward. That’s it. Look straight, loot in the front. Ok, link your hands behind your back, elbows straight, your chest thrown up. Inhale in this posture. As you exhale bend your right knee and bring your forehead to your knee. Allow your linked hands to go up as much as they can. Stay in that posture. Inhale: lifting your head up, Just the head. Exhale, drop the head down. Get your hands as high as you can. On the next inhale straighten your spine, straighten and drag your right knee, lift your head up. Exhale, relax your hands.

Let’s do it once more: link your hands behind your back keep your back knee straight, your elbows straight, let us inhale in this posture. As you exhale, bend your right knee; bend your forehead towards your knee. Allow your arms to go up as high as they can. You can bring it forward also. Stay in this posture. Inhale; just lift your head up. Nothing else should move. Exhale; lower your head to the knee. On the next inhale, lift your spine up, straighten, straighten your right knee. Exhale, relax your hands, step the right foot back.

Again: stand in Samasthithi. And now step the left foot forward. Your hip bent to the front. Both your hands behind your back, linked. Just check whether your back knee is straight, your elbows are straight. Your chin lifted up, don’t look down. Your gaze should be straight and steady. Inhale in this posture. As you exhale, bend your knee and get your forehead to that knee, left knee. Lift your hand as high as you can. Stay in this posture.

Inhale, just lift the head up. Exhale, drop the head down. On the next inhale, using the strength of your feet, raise your spine up. Straighten your knee. Exhale, relax your hands. Just check whether you are balanced, your feet is free. If you are want to change the position, step your foot back and start. Don’t adjust in this posture. And then step your left foot forward.

Let’s begin: step the left foot forward. Your hip bones little in the front. Your back knee straight, your hands linked behind your back. Your elbows straight, your chin looking up, your gaze steady, inhale in this posture. As you exhale, bend your left knee; take your forehead to the knee. Lift your arms as high as you can. Stay in this posture. Inhale; raise your head up, stay in this posture. Exhale, drop your head down. On the next inhale, straighten your knee, lift your spine up. Exhale, relax your hands.

Once more: let’s get ready. Hands linked behind your back. Your back knee straight, just check whether your back knee is straight, your elbows straight, your shoulders thrown back. Inhale in this posture feeling the stretch. Exhale, bend the forward knee, take your forehead to the knee. Lift your arms as high as you can. See what’s happening to your shoulders. Stay in this posture. Inhale, lift your head up. Stay in this posture. Exhale, drop your head down. On the next inhale, straighten your spine, straighten your left knee. Exhale; relax your hands- and step left foot back.

Now, sit in Vajrasana in the middle of the mat. Your spine straight, hands relaxed on your knees, you are moving into the vinyasa working towards Ustrasana. Let’s begin. Inhale, come up on your knees, raise your arms over your head. Inhale fully and hold the breath for three complete seconds. Move into a deep Namaskar position. . Stretch your arms out in front of you. Hips on your heels,. Head to the ground. Stay in this posture, inhale deeply. Stay in this posture, exhale deeply.

On your next inhale, come on to your hands and knees, your tail bone and chin lifting up. Inhale fully and hold your breath for three seconds after complete inhalation. Now tuck your toes in, exhale into Adhomukashvasana. Lower your heels to the floor. Stay in this posture, inhale. Stay in this posture, exhale. on the next inhale slide your hand into Urdvamukasana, your knees off the floor. On full inhalation, hold this posture for complete three seconds.

Exhale, back into Adhomukashvasana. Stay in this posture, inhale. Stay in this posture, exhale. On the next inhale, lower your knees to the floor. cat’s pose, toes out. Your chin and tail bone lifted, full inhalation. Now hold that inhalation for complete three seconds, allowing the breath to work on your spine, exhale into a deep Namaskar. Stay in this posture, inhale. Stay in this posture, exhale. On the next inhalation, come up on to your knees, straightening arms overhead. Breathe fully and hold that breath for three complete seconds. As you exhale sit back in Vajrasana, hands by your sides.

Now, take a deep breath, inhale and exhale. Now move your feet, your feet apart, knees apart, sit in Yogasana. Your hip bone in between knees, Keep your spine straight, hands relaxed by your sides and from this posture, you are going to move your body into, on to your knees, ok? Sit, spine straight. lets take an inhale, come up on your knees, arms over your head. Hold the breath for three full seconds. Exhale into deep Namaskar. Stay in this posture, inhale. Stay in this posture, exhale. On your next inhale, cat’s pose, breathe completely and hold the breath for three full seconds. Tuck your toes in. exhale into Adhomukasvasana. Hold the posture, inhale. Hold the posture, exhale. On your next inhale, swipe your hands into Urvamukashvanasana , knees off the floor and hold the breath for three full seconds. Exhale back into adhomukashvasana. Stay in this posture, inhale. Stay in that posture, exhale.

Now bring your knees to the floor, toes out .Inhale: cat’s pose take your breath in for full three seconds on complete inhalation. Exhale, into a deep Namaskar position. Stay in that posture, inhale. Stay in that posture, exhale. On the next inhalation, come up on to your knees, your spine straight, straightening your arms over your head, put your elbows straight and hold the breath for three full seconds. Exhale: sit on your feet, arms by your sides.

Now, get your knees and feet together. Sit in Vajrasana. And just repeat the whole thing yourself, this time you will go completely by yourself. No instructions from me because you need to know the rhythm of your breath. But remember wherever you are inhaling, take a complete inhalation and hold it for three seconds. The way you count is: one, two, three. That is three. Not 1 2 3. So remember that and when you exhale, hold that exhale for one breath. One inhale and one exhale is one breath. Remember this and allow your body to move at your own pace when you are ready, start.

When you have finished sit back in Sukasana, spine straight, shoulders relaxed, eyes closed and hands in Chinmudra. Just connect to those twenty one points: ten toes, ten fingers and the crown of your head. Visualize these points breathing in the Pranashakthi into the body. Be with the breath. Be intensely in your body. Breathe consciously, breathe with complete awareness.

Fill yourself with energy and feel the energy within you as you exhale, Just getting back that energy, just feel it intensely in your body. Relax your fingers and open your eyes. Let’s get ready for Utsasana. Come into Vajrasana and come on to your knees, your spine straight, your hands relaxed by your sides and on to your knees. The first thing, you take your left hand behind your back and place it with your fingers pointing down. Then take your right hand behind your back and place it with your fingers pointing down.

Arunamani please come here. Now all you are going to do is, just arch your spine and drop your head back. That’s all. Arch your spine and drop your head back. Now I didn’t ask you to, do I said keep your hands behind your back. Just arch your spine and drop your head back. Stay in this posture, inhale and exhale allowing your body to understand the movement. And then slowly remove your right hand and hold your right heel. Keep the left hand on your back.

Heels are held by your right hand. Now remove your left hand and hold your left heel. Drop your head down. As you inhale, push your hip forward. Push your hip forward as you inhale drops your head down, stay in this posture for six breaths, inhaling and exhaling. And every time you inhale, see whether you can push your hip forward without moving your hand from your heels.

When you finish six breaths first release your right heel and get your right hand behind your back, ma, that’s not the way to come out of this asana. Release your left hand, hold your back. Now lift your spine up using your abdominal muscle and sit back in Vajrasana, inhale deeply. As you exhale, move into Balasana, your forehead to the ground, your hands by your sides, your palms turned up near your heels. Keep your hands down. Please sit on your heels. Don’t allow your forehead to take the weight of your hip. Stay in this posture, inhale and exhale deeply, six breaths. When you exhale, take your abdomen in as much as much as you can. When you finish six breaths, first allow your hip to be lifted up, then your chest, then your spine and get your hands on to your knees.

Slowly lie down on your back. Bring your knees on to your chest, hands by your sides. Both your knees on to your chest, hands by your sides, as you inhale raise both your arms behind your head allowing the back of your hands to touch the floor. Simultaneously, lift both your legs up. Lift your legs up. Don’t round your hips. We are not moving into any other asana. Exhale; bring your knees towards your chest, arms by your sides. Now stay in this posture, inhale deeply, exhale deeply. On your next inhale, raise your legs up, taking your arms behind your back. Keep your feet relaxed. Exhale; bring your knees to your chest, arms by your sides. Now stay in this posture, inhale deeply, exhale deeply keeping your feet and ankles completely relaxed.

Once more: inhale, raise your legs up. Exhale, get your knees to your chest, arms by your sides. Stay in this posture, inhale deeply, exhale deeply. Now hold both your knees with your respective hands. Do not link your fingers. And hold your knees from the sides not from the front: from the sides. As you inhale move your knees away from your body. But hold on to your knees. Don’t let loose your knees. As you exhale, get your knees towards your body. Inhale, move your knees away from your body. Please hold your knees; move them away from the body. Exhale, get your knees towards your chest. Such a nice rhythmic movement! Inhale, knees away from the body. Exhale: the knees towards your body.

Now place your feet on the floor, hands by your sides. Do not stretch your feet out now. Keep your fingers in chinmudra, palms turned up, your face relaxed, six deep breaths: your whole awareness on relaxing the back completely. Inhale with that awareness. Exhale with that awareness. And with your fingers in chinmudra , allow that bio energy to be circulated within you. Intensely be in your body. In inhale fill yourself up, your chest expanding, your whole chest expanding, your abdomen being lifted up. As you exhale, in to yourself completely. Allow your back to relax. Now relax your mudra. Stretch your feet out.

And we will move into Shavasana, the classical relaxation or else it’s a guided relaxation technique. Just follow the instructions and do exactly what you are asked to do.

Starting with your feet: intensely tighten your feet, your toes, your feet, your ankles, not the rest of your body, tighten them intensely. And suddenly relax them. Once more: tighten your feet intensely, nicely tighten them. Suddenly relax them. Let us repeat it once more: tighten and relax.

Now take your awareness to your shin bones, your calf muscles and your knees. Tighten this whole area completely. Hold the tightness, a deep tension within you. Now suddenly let go. Once more: tighten intensely with your awareness on your shin bone, calf muscles and your knees. Suddenly let go. That’s nice. Once more: intensely tighten these areas and suddenly let go.

Now take your awareness to your thighs, your hip bones and the groin region. Intensely tighten this area completely using all the muscles to create tremendous tension. Now just let go. Once more: tighten completely your thighs, your hips and the groin region. Hold the tightness. Relax. Once more: tighten intensely, consciously feel the tightness in your body. Now just relax.

Now take your awareness to your abdomen and the back corresponding to your abdomen. Intensely tighten this area. Relax. Once more: intensely tighten this area. Your shoulders can not be tightened now, just the abdomen and the back. Now relax. Once more: intensely tighten this area and relax.

Now move your awareness to your chest and the area it corresponds with it at the back. Tighten this area intensely feeling as if something is squeezing it tight. And let go. Once more: tighten intensely feeling the tightness in your chest and your back. Let go. And once more: tighten intensely and now let go.

Now move to your fingers. Clench your fist completely. Close your fingers, clench your fist deeply. Relax. Open your fingers. Just relax, don’t stretch them, relax them. Once more: clench your fist. Hold it tightly. create tremendous tension in your fingers. Just relax. Once more: tighten your fingers, clench them. And relax, don’t stretch, relax.

Now take your awareness to your lower arms, from your wrist to the elbows. Tighten these muscles. Relax. Don’t curl your fingers now, relax your fingers, just the muscles from your wrist to your elbows: your lower arms. Tighten them completely. And relax. Once more: tighten intensely and relax.

Now take your awareness to the point between your elbows and shoulders: your upper arms. Now tighten your upper arm. Not the lower arm, just the upper arm. Relax. Once more: tighten your upper arm. Feel the tightness. Relax. Once more: tighten your upper arm. And relax.

Now take your awareness to the top of your shoulders, your upper back, your neck. Now intensely tighten these areas. Relax. Once more: intensely tighten these areas. Relax. Do not use your arms, just intensely tighten these areas. And relax.

Now take your awareness to your neck, your face and your head. Now tighten these areas consciously, deliberately. Relax. Once more: constantly, deliberately tighten these areas squeezing your face, squeezing the neck muscles. And relax. And once more: intensely, hold it tight and relax.

Now take your whole awareness from the tips of your toes to the crown of your head. And just see how your body is relaxed. Allow your body to move as you inhale and exhale. Letting the rhythm of your breath feel deep relaxation through your mind and therefore your body relax your being. Breathe deeply. Breathe easily. Breathe smoothly. Just the breath. Slowly, very slowly move your fingers and your toes. Allow movement to come into this relaxed body. Have your feet together, hands to your side. Stay in this trans position for few breaths, enjoying the change, welcoming the change and sit.

How many of you are feeling deep relaxation? How many of you are feeling, ’oh, can we sleep for some more time’? huh? How many of you are feeling, ’why is she giving instructions to me to move up?’.

The whole point of Shavasana, this is the Shavasana technique, it is called a guided, relaxation technique, where we use tension to understand relaxation. Throughout the day we all have this habit of keeping our bodies tense. You will be surprised how many of your body’s areas are tensing. You are tense in your eyes. You are tense in your ear lobes. You are tense in your mouth. Your tongue is all the tense and therefore your jaws. You are tense in the back of the neck. You are tense in the lower back. You are tense in your elbows. You are tensed in your wrists. You are tense in your abdomen. You have lot of tension in your knees and ankles. This is the regular state we are in.

So because there is so much tension, if we tell people to relax, they won’t know what to do. They will become very restless. That’s why when you tell people, ’lie down’; you will find them all the time fidgeting their body. How many of you have seen, in yoga class when you tell them to lie down and relax, they will be moving their fingers, their toes, something will be happening because they don’t have 55: 58 ( no audio.)

So what you do is, a very classical therapy this is. How you use snake venom to remedy the poison of a snake bite, the same way you integrate tension for the body, in order for the body to understand relaxation. Ok? So what you do is, part by part of the body. You ask the person to tense. Of course because the body is connected to the muscles, when I am tensing here, something is going to happen here. It’s not like I can only tense in that part and the rest of the body is relaxed. No. But your awareness should be on that area, so that the tensing is much more in that area than anywhere else. Because wherever your awareness is, that’s where your attention is. And wherever your attention is, that’s where your energy is. And wherever your energy is, that’s where the action is.

So if you remember that, whenever you tense the body and you just take your awareness to that part and keep it really tensed. So when the instruction is given, relax and let go’, suddenly the body will know what it is to relax. How many of you suddenly felt as if something was loosening up in you? Uh? Just let go. Suddenly something is gone from your body, isn’t it? So like that progressively you have to give the instructions. That part and this part and then coming here, and that part and when you are talking about the abdomen, we should talk about the back corresponding back. Why should we do that? Why can’t I take you separately to the back? The muscles are coming from back to front. So they are related naturally. So when you tense here, automatically the back will also respond. So you have to give instructions accordingly, ok?

And when you are tensing your fingers like this, and when you are told to relax, don’t do this. This is not relaxing. This is stretching. Relax means this. Isn’t there a difference between this and this? After doing this, when I are told to relax, just let go. That’s all. Nothing more to do, you don’t have to do anything else. So like that progressively do and you allow the student to lie down for a minute. More than that, the student will go to sleep. We don’t want them to go to sleep.

Because please understand one thing: when you generated energy through your yoga practice, and with that energy if the student goes to sleep, the whole energy falls into deep tamas. You generated so much of energy to fall into tamas, mere laziness of the body. So you should know when to exactly get your students to get off their relaxation posture. Otherwise very soon you will be hearing different different sounds coming from different different parts of the room. Ok?

Just enough for them to feel an intense relaxation and then sit up. Are you all clear? This is Shavasana. We will not do Shivasana today. We will do Shivasana tomorrow, because you need to see the complete difference between the two. Ok?

So now we will sit up and move into sectional breathing and move on to complete yogic breathing. Before I do that: any question? Any sharing? Can somebody switch on the more lights? I am feeling this whole room is dark and I am not able to see anything. HR, if you don’t mind tell people can come a little forward. I am really not able to see anything. See: what the HR is trying to tell us is, it’s more like a saying ‘if you come late, you will be in darkness’. Thank you pa.

Now we are going to move into what is called sectional breathing. So yesterday when we spoke about the lungs, we divided them into three sections. So what is the first section?

One is doing this another one hand is going like this. Eh? What Praneshwar? Yeah, but when we start we start from the top, then the mid section and the we go to the bottom, to understand the breathing, not otherwise, ok? Right, the best posture for this, if you can’t sit in Padmasana, how many of you can sit in Padmasana, comfortably? not pulling your legs, not pulling yourself, not waiting after five seconds to drop your legs off.

Those of you, who can sit comfortably in Padmasana, sit in Padmasana, otherwise sit in Vajrasana. Vajrasana is a very good posture to sit down. Sit in Vajrasana. We are going to do a breathing called upper clavicular breathing. What is it called? Upper clavicular breathing. Why do we have the word, clavicle? Any idea? Anybody knows? Because this bone which you call the color bone, this is called the clavicle. This part of the lung is just below that. The upper lobe is below that, so literally got your lungs up till here.

Now we are going to do something to make that part of the lung functional. Remember we learnt yesterday that the upper lobe and the lower lobe are never used by the chest breathers. Ok? And if you are not using the deep yogic breathing. So what happens? What happens if we don’t breathe deeply? All the stale air, air which we breathe in, things inside, all the toxins, everything is hanging around n your upper limb and lower limb.

So now we are going to do a breathing which will activate all that and allow it to be dissolved as you breathe out. So, keeping your spine straight, take your hands and keep them like this, first like this. (62:44 to 63:20 audio too low) now on an inhale what you are going to do is, you are going to start lifting your elbows up as you inhale. And keep on lifting it till this part of your hands touches your ears. Do not lift your shoulders now, just do this. Ok, you are just down like this and just do this.

Inhale: as you are inhaling do this. And as you exhale, bring it down. Get your elbows to touch your ears. So your hand is going like this helping your ribs to go in and your lungs to squeeze the air out. Right, now as you are doing this, start lifting your elbows and then lift your hands as close to your ears as possible. Exhale, now you got an idea how the movement is?

Now close your eyes. Keep your hands there. Did I give the instruction to get your hands down? I just said close your eyes. Your hands on your shoulders, elbows close to your ribs. Now visualize, do not move your body, visualize as you are moving your elbows up, you are taking in cool , sweet air inside you through you nostril and feel that air travelling through your nostrils straight down your throat to the upper part of your lung. And feel that air going in cleansing the lungs and you are exhaling completely, deeply. As you are exhaling, you are bringing your air back down to where you started.

With this Visualization, six breaths as you inhale raise your elbows up, start moving your elbows up. feel the air completely in the upper lung. And as you exhale, start getting your elbows down and feel the air coming out of your upper lung. Repeat this five more times at your own pace. Remember to keep your fingers on your shoulders holding that area. Do not allow your fingers to slip down. Take your elbows up as much as you can till the back of your hand touches your ears.

Continue to inhale after the movement is over with your whole awareness on your upper lung. Your whole awareness on the upper lung keeping the visualization of the air, pure sweet air going inside your lung and feeling the upper lung come to life, cleansed live of that cleansed beautiful air inside of you. Do not slouch. Keep your spine straight when the movement is happening.

When you finish six complete breaths, relax your hands. Place them on your lap. If for any reason you want to change your posture, please change. Now open your eyes

Let’s move into the mid sectional breathing. What you did was the upper clavicular breathing. Now we are going to go into what is called the mid sectional breathing. Please hold both your hands very lightly on your chest, Anahata chakra, very lightly on your chest. At no time, your hands should be away from your chest. Now as you breathe, feel as if your chest is pushing your hand away. But don’t leave your hand. Just as you are inhaling feel that your hand is moving with the chest. Feel it, let the chest push your hand.

Exhale: as you exhale feel your hand just relaxing with your chest inside. Once more: keep your hands lightly on your heart center. Don’t press it with your hand. Inhale, and feel the chest pushing your hand. Now, don’t leave your hand. It will create pressure here. Just place it lightly, one hand on top of the other. And as you exhale, feel your chest relaxing and your hand coming down with the chest. Keep your spine straight. Don’t slouch.

With your hands on your chest, visualize deeply as you inhale, pure sweet air going into the mid section of your lungs. Feel that area with clean air. And feel that cleansing happening in you, and you exhale that cleansed air. Keep that visualization strongly in you. See it very clearly happening inside you. And now six deep breaths: inhaling, pushing your hands away with your chest, at all times keeping contact with the chest, and as you exhale, feeling the hand coming down with the chest. Keep your visualization strongly as you inhale and exhale the pure clean air into, experiencing a beautiful cleansing happening inside. And as you exhale, the exhaling air cleansed within you.

When you finish six breaths, relax your hands on your hips: Inhale and exhale. Open your eyes and lets now move into the lower ribs

(72:10 to 72: 45 poor audio) At no time in the breathing should you allow your thumb to move. Your fingers can move. Your fingers can move if they want to but your fingers can’t come out. There is a meridian, a strong pressure point here. When you are inhaling and exhaling that point gets worked, gets massaged, extremely beneficial in yoga. So remember, never let go of the thumb. Other fingers can relax. It’s perfectly alright. (73:17 to 74:05 poor audio )

Now close your eyes and as you inhale, feel clean pure air travel into your movements and feel the lower lungs getting cleaned. And as you exhale experience that energized cleaned air moving out of you. Let the visualization be strong and clear. And when you are ready start to breathe with the movement. As you inhale, up and down, keep your shoulders relaxed; don’t lift them up, just the opening and closing of the butterfly which is enjoying the movements in slow motion. And keep the visualization strongly in you. With pure clear air travelling through your lower ribs and your lower ribs getting cleansed, energized feeling alive, clean. And exhaling that energized air outside.

When you finished six breaths, relax your hands. Take a few breaths, inhale and exhale. If anybody wants change in posture , please change right now.

And now let’s move into complete yogic breathing. What is complete yogic breathing? Using the maximum capacity of your chest is yogic breathing. Because, you must understand that as per yoga, when you breathe in, you are not just taking in oxygen. You are also taking something much much deeper, what’s that? You are taking in Prana.

Please understand: the human body has the capacity to access Prana from every pore of the body. But we have forgotten that. We have forgotten that science of accessing Prana through every pore in our body. Now we have limited our breathing only through our nostrils. And Swamiji vey beautifully explains how this process happens.

He says your oxygen is like a lorry. Ok, what does lorry carry? They carry goods in them, isn’t? So the oxygen is the lorry which is carrying the Prana. Prana is not oxygen. The oxygen is like a truck. For those from America, it’s a truck on which is carried the Prana, that’s the goods. It seems when the oxygen and the Prana go in, the minute they touch the Vishudhi: the area, the Prana separates from the oxygen. And the oxygen goes into the lungs. The oxygen goes into the lungs and does its job. It cleans, energizes it makes the blood that much deeper and then it takes out all the toxins and the carbon do oxide is released.

Now what does this Prana do? If it has left the oxygen, what does this Prana do? Where does this Prana go? Eh? Wonderful! He is giving the explanation that the Prana goes to every muscle in the body. True! But what does it do once it goes into every cell and muscle in the body.

Yogadharman, no Achrayas will answer. I need to know whether they have understood, ok? So what do you think he said? He gave an explanation that the oxygen goes to lungs. Fine, it does the physiology or whatever it has to do. The Prana goes into every cell and every muscle in the body. Ok, so what does it do? Oxygen, you all know what it does. It goes and cleans up something do throws up something. What does this Prana do? Uh, it releases tension and makes it come out of the body huh? Hey, then you will be giving tension to the whole world.

Why oxygen can’t make it relax? Oxygen is giving you so much of energy, so much of life. Ok, the prana energizes the cell, so what happens? Ok, what does it do? It clears, not clears the Samskaras. We have not yet come to that level. So what does it do? It goes and empowers all your Samskaras. Please understand: where are your Samskaras? Are they in the air somewhere there floating around? Where are your Samskaras? It’s in your muscles and every cell of your body, right? So, what does the Prana do? It goes and empowers everything inside. And what is inside us? What is inside us? What are the kinds of Samskaras that we are carrying inside us? Knowledge?! What? Negative means anything, give me some words. Emotionally charged which could be anger, which could be grief, which could be depression, which could be so many things.

So, what it means is, Prana is life energy. Prana does not judge. oh, this muscle is carrying bad Samskara, I will not go there, this fellow is carrying good Samskara. It will have to search for good Samskaras somewhere. Oh! I will go only there and energize. No. whatever is inside you gets activated. Please understand this truth very clearly. So if you have, to put all these things together, if you have negative Samskaras lodged in your muscles , all the negative Samskaras will get strengthened with your Prana. Because Prana is life force: Its total energy. That’s why in Nithya yoga, when you start the session, we first center, then we do Patanjali dyaan, in order to shake the, fight Samskaras which is sitting here and start loosening then creating the heat to dissolve them. Then in that space, we say, set the intension today. What do you want? Why do we set the intension? Because we believe we are the architects of our destiny. Whatever is inside is going to bring the next moment which is going to create our world.

So when we place a clear intension and we have a clear visualization and then we move the body with the breath in the movement, we start cleansing at one level and engraving this very strong visualization in your muscle as your memory. Are you all clear now why we do what we do? So when you are unconsciously breathing, because unconsciously we are breathing every moment isn’t it? And we don’t even know what we are thinking. We are not so aware to know what we are feeling every moment. So, as we breathe along with the oxygen we are taking in the Prana and the Prana is empowering the Samskaras. Are we all clear now?

So a yogic breathing means: breathing with complete awareness, breathing deeply with complete awareness. We have to breathe with complete awareness. Yogis are already in awareness. That’s why they are called yogis. Yogis are already in awareness. So whenever they breathe, their inner space is so clear that when the Prana goes in , there is nothing negative for it to empower. Whatever is there, the nice pure inner space just gets it deepened. That’s all.

Question

Of course you need. Physiologically the body will to do what it has to do. But your body is not running just by your oxygen. That’s the whole point, why we are doing this.

Question: Provided ma, the day comes when you learn to access the energy to each pore in your body if you can do that, yes it is. When Swamiji went to Kumbamela last time, there was this Japanese lady who is buried under sand. Logically we know she can’t breathe there. If she takes breath through her nose, the mud will go inside. Of course she was covered inside. Even then, she was totally covered. Where is the oxygen since she was underneath the ground? She had learnt to access prana through every pore of her body. She was buried I think for ten days or whatever, how many I don’t know , how many ever days, but when she came out she was sitting as though she was in Samadhi, nice, bright, alive. Everybody came to see her and pay the respects to her, because it was not something ordinary.

What she was trying to prove was, it is possible. She was trying to prove that if I can do it, anybody else can do it. It’s like when Swamiji says,’ when you do Suryanamaskar, the whole purpose is to activate this. See: he says if the plant can access the energy of the sun through its leaves, why can’t you do with your body. We did before. We have forgotten it. That’s all. So it’s time to, reclaim that experience.

So remember this very clearly: in Pranayama, See, if you do any Pranayama technique , now why we are talking so much is, if you do any Pranayama technique, however wonderful the Pranayama technique may be, without clearing your inner space either through asana or some practice etc or with complete awareness of what is happening inside you, then what you are really doing? The dangerous part of it is, consciously we are talking in Prana to empower the negative Engrams. You are consciously taking in Prana but you don’t know what it is doing. Without cleansing your inner space if you are breathing in deeply, you are doing shanmuki mudra , bhramari pranayama, nadi sodana, kapalabathi, basthrika, god knows what else. Thinking you are doing something, purifying yourself. You are taking the capacity of the oxygen higher. But what are you doing really. With that you are empowering your Samskaras.

That is why it is very very important to cleanse your inner space to be living with breath in your body with that awareness. Whatever thoughts that are inside me, if I am going to breathe, whatever is the quality of that thought, that quality is getting embedded in my muscle memory. So please be aware, when you are doing whatever you are doing, sleeping when you are doing it, deep memory of tamas, mere lethargy will get lodged in your muscle memory. And whatever is in your muscle memory is what is going to radiate.

So are we going to radiate enlightenment? Yes. If you cleanse your inner space and you are able to live with awareness. Ok, let’s see what this yogic do, ok?

to 89: 02 poor audio

When you inhale , just focus on the air going in, to push your abdomen out and when you start the exhaling take the abdomen deeply inside so that the hands comes with you. Don’t worry about anything else. Whatever else happens let it happen. Am I Clear? Don’t get tensed. Just relax. Keep one hand on your abdomen, the other hand on your chest and now start inhaling.

Inhale: push your lower hand up not your upper hand, the lower hand out. As you exhale, take your abdomen in, allow your movement to come in with you. Relax your abdomen and then take the next inhale. Push your lower hand out. As you exhale, take your abdomen in allowing your lower hand to come with you. Just be natural, easy.

With your eyes closed, visualize the air going in 90: 15 to 90: 44 no audio.

Take six deep breaths. Inhale: experience your abdomen coming out, pushing the lower hand out. Relax. And as you exhale, take your abdomen in allowing the hand to go in. Do not keep anything tight. Just be relaxed. The chest will do what it has to do without you even thinking about it. Keep your face relaxed. You do everything with awareness not with concentration. Just be aware.

Six breaths, inhaling and exhaling, feeling the abdomen moving and when you finish six deep breaths, relax your hands. Rest them on your lap. Now take six complete breaths without your hands on your body. Just inhale. Fill yourself up like a balloon. Exhale: collapsing like a balloon. Let your whole body relax. Do not lift your shoulders. Don’t be tense. Inhaling: your whole body filling up like a balloon, and as you exhale, all the air coming out and your body collapsing like a balloon. Just feel that intensely.

Please do not sleep in this posture. Remember, if you sleep, whatever you are taking in, the Prana is going to convert all that energy into lethargy, into laziness. We don’t need that.

Stretch out your feet. And just clasp your knees a bit moving them up and down, your hands resting behind you, relax. And repeat it a few more times. Now open your toes out ( 94:26 to 94:40 poor audio ) open them out this way. Bring them in.

Ok, now sit in Sukasana, your hands in Dyani mudra, you know Dyani mudra? Thumbs touching each other lift it up; don’t drop the thumbs down, spine straight, eyes closed and your body completely relaxed. Now that you have learnt yogic breathing, take a deep inhalation and exhale chanting the ‘Om’ Pranava Mantra. When you are ready take a deep breath exhale through the chanting. Continue your chant.

Relax. Open your eyes.

Today, the first thing we did was the recap of yesterday’s class. Then after that you all did your Vinyasa for the day which was Ustrasana. So what is your feedback? How many of you are doing it for the first time? Only one person is doing it for the first time? Ok, so you have done it before, isn’t it? So when you do Ustrasana in the evening, how does your back feel? Pardon? Speak loud, I can’t hear you. It’s more flexible. It’s more relaxing. It’s easier. Why do you think so?

Since you got up in the morning, physical activity is more. The heat of the body is more. The atmospheric heat is more. So all these factors add together to help you move into some of these strong postures easily. So generally when you teaching, just suppose you have regular students and you are teaching and you have evening classes, introduce all these back bend, all these tough back bends, though this is basic back bend, all the tough back bends in the evening class because your students won’t feel so frustrated.

If you try it in the morning, the body is stiff, you feel so unhappy that you have not been able to do the posture. So always give them in the evening. Once they learn it, morning they will have no problems at least attempting it. They will be no frustration inside. There will be an understanding with the body.

Ok, so we did the Vinyasa. After that what did we do? We did Shavasana. And what did we learn in Shavasana? Use tension to handle tension so that the body will know relaxation when you let go of the tension. That is the learning. Use tension to handle tension that is already inside the body so that when you suddenly let go, the body will know what it is to relax. If you make a person lie down and say, ’relax, relax, relax’, the person will get more and more tensed because they won’t know how to do. So the analogy we gave was what was the analogy we gave?

How when the snake bites you, the poison is inside. The antidote for that is to inject venom inside you not to make a snake bite you. Ok? To have the venom inside you, so that you can come out of it, the same principle in which we operate in Shavasana. So the whole of Shavasana was about how to progressively relax your body starting from your toes and slowly moving up till you come to the crown of your head. Please understand: it’s a progressively graded relaxation. you can’t ask a person to tense and relax toes and jump into the hand, jump into the head, come to the chest and suddenly go to the nose. No. it should be graded, progressive and then the whole body is relaxed.

Then, after that we went into little bit of pranayama. We said let’s see how these yogis breathe. And we started by learning how to focus our awareness to different parts of our lungs. So, that area would get empowered and energized. And then after that we went into complete yogic breathing, how to breathe fully. How many of you had pain in this area when you did complete yogic breathing. Eh, when you did that hand down and hand on the chest and then you were asked to put your hands down and breathe completely, isn’t it? How many of you felt a little pain in this area? Anybody felt a little pain? Nobody? Then you guys are macho abdominal breathers. Put your palms together and activate these chakras.

I think all the yoga that you have been doing, being in this energy field, going through all your classes, etc has relaxed you. Normally when you get people from outside, when you go outside and teach yoga, you will find whenever you teach them; first they won’t know how to move the abdomen. What do you mean abdomen? Air doesn’t go there! Air is only in the lungs. Of course we know air is only in the lungs. It doesn’t go to the abdomen. But unless you move your abdomen the air does not go into the lower lungs at all. And your whole ribs will not move. So you will find them all struggling with breathing. And the first symptom to tell you that they are chest breathers is, when they have pain. Some of them will have intense pain because they have never moved the diaphragm. The diaphragm has never moved the way you all moving it now. So from this, whenever a person feels that way, tell them it’s not a problem. It’s like working out a muscle. If you use the muscle which has never been used, there will be pain for some time. Then the body will get used to it.

So what you need to tell them, so that they don’t feel the frustration, tell them when you are in the house, lie down on your back with your knees up and feet flat on the ground, keep your hand on the belly and on your chest and just allow your belly to move up and down. It’s very easy to learn breathing when you are lying down that way. That’s why babies do that breathing so easily. When you are lying down that way, the belly will be very relaxed. There is nothing to hold. You are not holding your spine, you are not holding your hip, nothing is happening here. So you are relaxed and you can move your belly up and down. So that’s a very nice way of teaching a person how to do abdominal breathing.

Then after that, what did we learn, after your complete yogic breathing? After that complete yogic breathing? Yogadharman, what did we learn? We learnt something extremely important. We learnt that there is something called Prana and something called oxygen in the air that we breathe. Throughout the school life you have been told we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide, isn’t it? That what you are told, isn’t it? But yoga says, ‘no, there something else that’s happening inside you’. Along with oxygen you are taking in Prana. Oxygen goes and does the physiology of breathing. What does Prana do? It goes and activates everything inside you. And everything inside you is your muscle memory, your Samskaras.

So that is when you breathe in awareness, when you have done some practices to cleanse your inner space and then you breathe with awareness, you breathe in and lodge something more positive inside your muscle memory. You first release something which is not needed to crate the space. Unless you remove something, something new cannot come inside. So you relieve it, you dissolve it, you relieve it and then you replace it with something. Are you all clear about that? That is the most important lesson in Pranayama. Anybody can teach you techniques. But you need a master to give you all these inner secrets of yoga. That’s exactly what Swamiji tells us. Never in our lives have we heard that, in oxygen there is Prana. Then we all keep saying, inhale Prana, exhale Prana.

Its only after Swamiji told, the realization came that there is something like this and this Prana will go and activate your Samskaras. Which is lodged in your muscle memory, which is there in every cell of your body. So this is a huge learning that you get from Nithyayoga. Ok? Right.

Any question? How many of you, I saw so many of you sleeping today in complete yogic breathing. What happened? In spite of me frightening you, telling you that if you sleep, all that energy will become laziness, still you people were just sleeping. Please don’t sleep.

Good one. Ok, but better I tell them now, so they will know that they should not sleep. Ok, if there are no questions, tomorrow we will be getting into little groups. And each group will have one yogacharya handling that group. Pardon? Oh! Ok, tomorrow means, next class. When I say tomorrow it’s not literally tomorrow, it means the next class. So start studying, what you are going to do is, you will start your presentations. Small small groups, you have each other. You will start presenting Nithya yoga concepts. If somebody asks you, ‘what is Nithya yoga? Is it something new? I don’t know anything about it. I have never heard anything about it. What is it?’ how are you going to tell them about Nithya yoga. So take out the book and read the main points from that book. Of course the Acharyas who are in charge of you will give you the other points also.

So you need to make a presentation for seven minutes, ten minutes, whatever it is. You will be told. And after that you will start learning about presenting Nithya dyaan. Then you will start presenting Suryanamaskar. Then you will start presenting Shavasana. Ok? Then you will start teaching a small Vinyasa with the Pranayama , etc.

Once you finish that, your first level gets over. Only then, after that we will move into second level. So there is lot of reading, learning, jotting down the points and presentations. Now we are going into the practical. Your theory is over, now we are moving into practical. Then the examination will start. Once the theory and practicals are over, then we will have a test. Are you all clear? This is not going to drag on. We have to finish it soon. Quickly we have to finish.

Question:

Nithya yoga intro talk, Vinyasa, Shavasana, how to guide the group to Shavasana. So keep your book with you. Keep reading. Noting down points, asking Acharyas, you know the Acharyas here. Anything clarifications you need. Talk to each other when you have free time-.ok, this is what Suryanamskar says: this is what this says: this is what that says: only when you know all that information and you do the written test and the practicals we give you, when you pass that, you will be called Nithya yogacharya-level1.