TV Channel

We are here for practicing as well as for learning. This is just a few days, but whatever we learn we should put into practice, and that is for a whole year. Yoga is a practical way, not a theory. The terms of theory you cannot compare with the grammar of practice. Practice has to be understood properly, and one should never hurry. If you think that in one weekend you will be enlightened, I doubt it. It is not so easy to get enlightenment. And it is good that you are not enlightened. Then we would have too many yogīs—what would we do with them? There is too much competition around the world. We have different programs, and one of the programs is what we call Anuṣṭhāna, Kriyā Anuṣṭhāna. The advanced group is doing this. Kriyās have a very deep effect on our body, mind, consciousness, and soul. But the āsanas which we are doing every morning, especially from the first level, they are very, very effective āsanas. Because that is a fundamental of our physical, mental, social, and spiritual development. When the foundation is strong, then we don’t have to worry. If the foundation is not strong, then we cannot come through. Therefore, this first and second part of yoga and daily life, the first and second steps, should be practiced every day, disciplined. If you think that these exercises are too simple, then you don’t know what you want, if it is simple or not simple. You should know what is the effect of this. The doctor knows which medicine you should take. You think, "Oh, the tablet is so little." Some doctors give so big. But you don’t know: little, but powerful. So though these exercises are only like this, you don’t know what all this means. So, everybody, sit in Vajrāsana. And now, put your hands on the shoulders. Your fingers should touch the joints. And now, bring the elbows to the front. And very consciously move your shoulders, rotate your elbows. It’s not important that you are rotating your shoulders, but close your eyes and concentrate on the movement. Means, how many muscles are influenced or affected by this movement. Do it very slowly. Just feel the back muscles, shoulder muscles, the muscles under the shoulder blades, your ribs, chest muscles. Now other direction. You are doing only as experience. To make experience is trial, experiment. Do it very slowly. Don’t hurry. For me, the round is not necessary. At the present, I just want to know how to feel what this simple exercise does in my body. Ah, yes. Also, my respiratory... both nostrils are flowing now equally. You feel very pleasant in the throat, the vocal cords, even. Very good. Put your hands down. So there are many, many muscles. I’m not a physiologist, you know, but I understand a little bit of anatomy. So it’s all fine muscles and nerves; they are gently, all give the movement, all give the exercise. They are muscles like this, holding our back. You know, if someone has a problem with the shoulder, they even can’t move. "Oh no, no... that’s all, doctor, don’t do more." But thanks to God that we are healthy. Not to worry. So this is simple but powerful. And now inhale deep, while hands here. Now we will do again: inhale, elbows up slowly, exhale. Very good. The next experiment, which we should do again, something... oh, this is a very simple movement. It’s not very simple. It is very big. Now you do this: close the fist and open. How do you feel? Till the shoulders, when we will be old, go on doing. Maybe we will not be able to hold him like this. Thanks to God, we are healthy. So, close your fist strong. Come inside and hold it like this, and hold your wrist, and now open the palm. Look to the palm. Hold the wrist very tight. Look to the palm, and now release the wrist. Now, compare both hands. Like this hand is alive, and this is still. Didn’t wake up, so let’s do with the left hand also. Other hand, so tight the wrist. Up the fist, and hold your wrist tightly. And now, open the palm and look at your palm. Yes, our palms look pale, like pneumonia. And now, consciously concentrate on the palm and feel the sensation. And now, release. So, simple but powerful. Therefore, Sarabhitāsana is a fundamental exercise that will build our body, rebuild our body, that it will be solid health. So, same thing with the neck: if you move the head left and right, you should feel the muscles stretching. And if you do one, two, three, four, it’s nothing. One, two, three, four, finished. That’s not. You have to do consciously. You have to be with, one with it, one with your body. Put your soul, your concentration, your attention, your consciousness. Now, what’s happening with my body? Even you feel the middle of the ear. And you know, many people have a problem with the inner sound. And for them, this is the best one. Remain for a while, and slowly, it stretches the muscles, it purifies the blood flow, the circulation towards the brain, and that’s very, very important. That’s much more important than having big muscles. You have big muscles, but no circulation towards the head. Then you look like this, but here like this. So physical strength is a limited strength. But the mental willpower is strong. And after the mental willpower comes ātambala. That’s called self-confidence, the power of the self. That’s very important. Similarly, these exercises, if you do like this one, this exercise strengthens your abdominal muscles. Now, you are doing only here, you are doing nothing here. But if you concentrate, you will feel that your abdominal muscles are supporting you, and the hip joints, because the body is balancing by itself. So they are simple, you think very simple, only thanks to Mahāprabhujī that they are easy to do. Thank you. And the same thing, stretch your legs, and now contract your toes. And expand. Now, it looks like you are sitting very comfortably in the meadow. Why not? We should be sitting comfortably in the meadow. If someone has something against something, we have a problem. Should we sit on the meadow on the head standing? So we are comfortable, yogīs. So now, when you contract your toes, feel the whole body, where it is affected, influenced. If you understand acupressure, then you will feel it going till the brain. Some points are for the throat, some are for the ears, and some are for the liver. So you feel all the muscles of the leg, but one thing you will feel: when you contract your toes and then when you release them, you feel immense energy in the body. Like you have been walking a long distance, and now you are relaxing and getting energy. So, what’s happening? We are contracting our entire foot sole. Like we contracted our palm, so when we contract or press the muscles, these muscles are like a sponge, and all liquid that is in the sponge is pulled out. If you squeeze the sponge, the liquid goes out. Similarly, the blood runs away from the muscles. And that means all old stuck energy, all dead cells, all are pulled away. And as soon as we release, the sponge sucks in the liquid again. And so, as soon as we release the tension or contraction from the muscles, the blood pressure and blood circulation are running in. It’s shooting. The blood is shooting, and so the new energy comes. And we feel relaxed and lighter. So do it consciously, please. Contract, hold it, and relax. Contract and relax. Contract, don’t bite your teeth, and relax. Leave your jaw relaxed. Not like this. That end for it. Now, you must feel it. I feel very much energy. Do you feel it? And now, second, stretching. So, stretch your toes towards the ground, touch the ground, and now towards the body, and touch your legs. That’s it. So one side is touching your legs, and the other side is touching the ground. So, what are we doing here? One side is we are stretching, and when we stretch, the blood also goes out. On the other side, we are contracting, and when we move in the other direction, by releasing the tension, blood flows in, and again blood goes away. And again. So do it as slow as you can. Most yoga teachers in their class are doing one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Next one: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. So then you will not get the right benefit of yoga. We don’t need quantity, we need quality. Therefore, in yoga, there is no competition and no challenges. There is only one challenge, and that challenge is to challenge oneself to be disciplined and practice. So all these Sarabhitāsanas, they are all very scientific. And they are for the healthy as well as the ill. What we call the therapeutic movements. Now, similarly, you can sit in Vajrāsana, hands on the knees, and while exhaling, keep your hands on the knees; don’t stand on the knees. While exhaling, slowly move your head forward. And while inhaling, head up and go backward. And slowly forward. Now, what you have to analyze is how many muscles are involved in this movement. How do you feel in your neck joints? Not only the neck muscles, but the whole back muscles are involved; chest muscles are involved, also the respiratory. Also, your tonsils, the throat muscles, and you will feel that both your nostrils flow very freely. Very good. So, that’s what I want to tell you. The people think, "No, I don’t want to go to the first step." I’m practicing yoga now for seven years. Yes, seven years you’re practicing yoga, very good. But still, you didn’t test the sweetness of yoga. And that you will feel with the first level of the experience. Now, be honest. How do you feel after these three exercises? Or is it psychologically that you are manipulated? No, no. It is reality that we practiced how it should be, and now we do one more. We interlock the fingers, backside of the neck, and very slowly bend to the right side by exhaling. It doesn’t matter how far you can go; slowly come up. Wonderful. Left side. Now I am awakened. Other side, and up. These exercises are very economical. We don’t need so much space. Very good. Go ahead. And middle. Other side, and middle. Very, very good. Hands down. It’s very safe. You don’t fall down. You can’t break anything. How nice it is. So, I feel like after having a one-hour massage. And even in the massage, you don’t feel so good. Now, while doing yoga exercises, you should never come sweating. As soon as you begin to sweat, then you are doing wrong. That’s it. So the body gets warm, the body gets relaxed, and you are not exhausted. So first step, second step, third step, fourth step, and all steps should be done with great concentration. So, don’t hurry, thinking that in one hour you have to do forty postures. That’s not a competition. You don’t have to do forty. You can do four, but the quality. And the same thing is with the breath. So when you do prānāyāma, after, it’s a great difference. Entire system gets calmed down, and your breath movement becomes very natural and slow. We are breathing like this, not like this, but our breath flows between the stomach and the nostrils. Always breathe, stomach breathe, so I’m happy for you that you could do your exercises peacefully, and you have time for that. And every movement is to be done consciously, with self-control. Self-aware. Then you will enjoy it. And you will give the maximum benefit to your body. And that’s what we need for every movement. So now you can sit in Vīrāsana. You are all experts now in Vajrāsana. In Vīrāsana, the toes are standing. And this is another beauty. Now, if you understand acupressure, then you will understand this position and all the centers. They are nicely stretched, your heart muscles. You can feel your heartbeat, the flow of the blood towards the heart. You don’t feel any unpleasantness towards the heart. This is the first thing. Because your spine is nicely straight. Chest is expanded. It means the ribs are relaxed, free. The volume gets bigger, and nicely your hand is supported on the knee, and you don’t have the heaviness of your head, so nicely, and now you feel the immense amount of oxygen going in. Yes, and the Vajranāḍī, Sūryanāḍī, Chandranāḍī, and the Piṅgalanāḍī, and Brahmanāḍī, you know, Brahma nāḍī, Śiva nāḍī, Viṣṇu nāḍī, yes, it’s not a joke, it’s a name, but what I want to tell you is that all are on. The high position, that’s why we wrestle, change, change. You see, when you do it quickly, it’s easier. If you give someone a slap on the cheek, you do it quickly. Very hard to do slow. And when you do slowly, then on the halfway you decide not to do. And you know, there is a call, karate or judo. And there is a call, qigong. So in karate and judo, you are going quickly. I didn’t see all that. Yes, so that is a mental training. It is very hard to wait for something. Very hard to wait, so you are aware of what you are doing. You are conscious of what your body is doing. And that gives you immense energy and the ability of resistance, and therefore Vajrāsana, Vīrāsana, gives you an immense feeling of resistance, that you feel resistance. You can think, "I am not the body; the pain has the body, not you." And now, sit on both toes; that’s called Utkaṭāsana. Okay, this is knees in the air and hands are folded. You know, when you have to repair some plumbing, then you sit in Vīrāsana, even 10-15 minutes, you don’t notice. So that’s a matter of awareness. So now, this is a concentration technique. Try to close your eyes without movement. Open your eyes and hands up, with folded hands. And now, slowly stand up. Hands sidewards and down. Again, hands up, and slowly sit in utkaṭāsana. Hands towards chest, on the knees. Knees down, and vajrāsana. Hands on the knees, close your eyes, and now feel your physical being.