Om Yoga Its Theory and Practice by Swami Nirmalananda Giri ©Copyright 2006 by Atma Jyoti Press http://www.atmajyoti.org http://blog.atmajyoti.org Contents Preface: Yoga and Freedom.............................................................................................5 Chapter One: Why Yoga?................................................................................................. 6 Chapter Two: The Word That Is God............................................................................ 15 Chapter Three: Om Yoga Meditation............................................................................ 21 Chapter Four: Breath and Sound in Meditation.............................................................42 Chapter Five: Points For Successful Meditation ...........................................................52 Chapter Six: Om Yoga–Ashtanga Yoga.......................................................................... 65 Chapter Seven: The Foundations of Yoga..................................................................... 69 Chapter Eight: Om in the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Yoga Sutras ..................... 86 Afterword: It Is All Up To You.......................................................................................91 Appendix One: The Yoga of Sound................................................................................ 93 Appendix Two: The Glories and Powers of Om.............................................................97 Glossary....................................................................................................................... 106 Preface: Yoga and Freedom “Which is the form of meditation that came to be foremostly employed by seekers after liberation? What should be the object of meditation by such seekers? The form of meditation that came to manifest as the foremost of all, for the regeneration of all seekers, was the First Word, indicative of Brahman: the Syllable Om. Meditation on Om should be resorted to by seekers after liberation. This Syllable is the Supreme Brahman.’” (Atharvashikha Upanishad 1:1,2) (Please see the Glossary for the definition of unfamiliar words and also for brief biographical information on unfamiliar persons.) Yoga is all about freedom. Only a fraction of the world’s population is formally imprisoned, but the entire human race is imprisoned in the body and the earth itself. None are free from the inevitability of sickness, age, and death, however free of them they may be at the moment. The human condition is subject to innumerable limitations. Who really controls his life fully, attains all his goals, and knows no setbacks of any kind? No one. Our real self, the spirit, is ever perfect and free. But we have forgotten that. So we identify with our present experience of bondage and consequently suffer in countless ways. Our situation is like someone who is asleep and dreaming that he is being tortured and beaten. In reality he is not being touched at all; yet he is experiencing very real pain and fear. He need not placate, overpower, or escape his torturers. He needs only to wake up. Yoga is the procedure of self-awakening. Om Yoga is the way to freedom from suffering and limitation. “What world does he who meditates on Om until the end of his life, win by That? If he meditates on the Supreme Being with the Syllable Om, he becomes one with the Light, he is led to the world of Brahman Who is higher than the highest life, That Which is tranquil, unaging, immortal, fearless, and supreme.” (Prashna Upanishad 5:1,5,7) Regarding Om, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (1:28) simply says: “Its repetition and meditation is the way.” The Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, as well as the Yoga Sutras, advocate meditation on Om, the sacred syllable that both symbolizes and embodies Brahman, the Absolute Reality. (See Chapter Eight: Om in the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Yoga Sutras.) It is my hope that you will test for yourself the spiritual alchemy of Om Yoga that is set forth here. “This is the bridge to immortality. May you be successful in crossing over to the farther shore of darkness.” (Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.6) Swami Nirmalananda Giri Atma Jyoti Ashram www.atmajyoti.org 4 Chapter One: Yoga “Yoga” is a Sanskrit word that means “to join.” Yoga is both union and the way to that union. What do we join through yoga? First, we join our awareness to our own essential being: the spirit whose nature is pure consciousness. In yoga philosophy this is known as the Atman or Self. Next, we join our finite consciousness to the Infinite Consciousness, God, the Supreme Self (Paramatman). In essence they are eternally one. According to yogic philosophy the individual atman-spirit originally dwelt in the consciousness of that oneness. But in its descent into the material world the spirit lost its awareness of the eternal union, and lost the capacity to live in and manifest the union on a practical level. Through yoga the lost consciousness can be regained and actualized in the individual’s practical life sphere. Regarding this, a yogi-adept of the twentieth century, Dr. I. K. Taimni, remarks in his book The Science of Yoga: “According to the yogic philosophy it is possible to rise completely above the illusions and miseries of life and to gain infinite knowledge, bliss, and power through enlightenment here and now while we are still living in the physical body.…No vague promise of an uncertain postmortem happiness this, but a definite scientific assertion of a fact verified by the experience of innumerable yogis, saints, and sages who have trodden the path of yoga throughout the ages.” Since rational thought precedes rational action, we should begin with the philosophical side of Yoga. Yoga philosophy Hinduism embraces six systems of philosophy (darshanas), one of which is the Yoga Darshana. The basic text of the Yoga philosophy is the Yoga Sutras (also called Yoga Darshana). It is the oldest known writing on the subject of yoga, written by the sage Patanjali, a yogi of ancient India. Further, the Yoga Philosophy is based on the philosophical system known as Sankhya, whose originator was the sage Kapila. Sankhya is the original Vedic philosophy, endorsed by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, India’s most widely-read scripture. (Gita 2:39; 3:3,5; 18:13,19. Also, the second chapter of the Gita is entitled: Sankhya Yoga.) The Ramakrishna- Vedanta Wordbook says: “Sankhya postulates two ultimate realities, Purusha and Prakriti. Declaring that the cause of suffering is man’s identification of Purusha with Prakriti and its products, Sankhya teaches that liberation and true knowledge are attained in the supreme consciousness, where such identification ceases and Purusha is realized as existing independently in its transcendental nature.” It is not surprising, then, that Yoga is based on Sankhya. In contrast to the other five systems, Yoga is a philosophy which stimulates its investigators to engage in yoga as a practice through which they will experience and demonstrate its truth and worth. What begins as theory develops into practice which culminates in realization. Yoga is philosophy, discipline, and experience. It is a revelation of consciousness. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna the teacher tells Arjuna the student: “There was never a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor any of these kings. Nor is there any future in which we shall cease to be.” (Bhagavad Gita 2:12) We are eternal beings, without beginning and without 5 end. Originally we were points of conscious light in the infinite ocean of Conscious Light that is God. We were gods within God. And so we still are, for it is not possible to be outside of Infinity. Yet we are also here in this ever-changing world–a place that completely overwhelms the truth of our immortal life within God. For countless life-cycles we have found ourselves embodied in material cases, little body-prisons within the greater prison of the cosmos. And that is where we are right now. God the Lord In writings on Yoga, the word for God or Lord is Ishwara–the Ruler, Master, or Controller possessing the powers of omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience. Ishwara is the Supreme Power, Parameshwara. It is toward this Ishwara that our life is to be directed if we would attain perfection in yoga. In Yoga Sutra 1:23, Patanjali says that samadhi, the state of superconsciousness where Absoluteness is experienced, is produced by Ishwarapranidhana–the offering of one’s life to God. This is not merely dedicating our deeds and thoughts to God, but consciously merging our life in the greater life of God and making them one. Since yoga is a practical matter, we need some workable, pragmatic understanding of the nature of God. For how will we seek and recognize Him if we have no idea who He is? Patanjali supplies us with exactly the kind of definition we need: “Ishwara is a particular Spirit Who is untouched by the afflictions of life, actions [karma] and the results and impressions [conditionings] produced by these actions.” (Yoga Sutras 1:24) The unique Being God is a special, unique, conscious Being–not just abstract Existence. God is a “particular Spirit” in the sense that God can be “picked out” or “singled out” from among all other things or beings. Though God is within all things and all things are within Him, yet He stands apart. This is stated several times in the Bhagavad Gita: “They are contained in me, but I am not in them…I stand apart from them all, supreme and deathless” (7:12, 13). “For my spirit stands apart, watching over Maya,