Naad Loop
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 3 years before Sep 29, 2016
MiBeloved 3 years ago
This morning during meditation, I had a most unusual visitor. This is despite the fact that I am currently holding an early morning class and meditation session thereafter. As it is in this practice, it is an individual endeavor. Each student is more or less on his or her own during the practice, to be sure to be attentive inside.
This practice will lead nowhere if there is not internalization during the practice. Ideally the mind is not allowed to wander around outside the material body. The mind is not allowed to be dreaming up thoughts and images as it usually does.
Each student is required to keep track of his or her energy situation as the breath infusion is done. Then immediately after, while sitting to meditate, each student should be attentive to what happens in the psyche, and should note change of space and change of feeling within the mindscape.
Students should record these observations in a private journal which may or may not be shared with the teacher. The journal is primarily for the benefit of the student for reviewing sometime after. It is not mandatory that it should be shared with the teacher.
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The unusual visitor this morning during the meditation was Sri Lahiri Baba who is a legendary kriya yoga guru. I had rung a chime for the benefit of the two students. This lasted maybe for three minutes for the most. Then I remembered that my feet curled in a specific way when I first sat down to meditate. It was a special tight lotus posture.
As soon as I remembered that my back changed posture slightly which it usually does not do. I then became aware of Sri Lahiri Baba because he was the one who influenced my body do that version of the lotus poster. I even felt as if my body was like his, as it is in the famous photo below.
After this he quickly began to do a bead loop kriya in the top of the spine at the back base of the neck. This bead loop kriya was never used by me before. I never saw this described in a book. Some students have wondered how I am inspired to do yoga without going to India and without meeting with physical teachers. Some doubt that I know what I describe. Some feel that my imagination is super-active; that the whole thing is a charade.
Who can tell what is really happening, if I am illusioned or inspired by advanced astral entities?
Let us leave it to history, because for sure, history never fails to hold court and pass sentences down to dead people who made claims of discovery.
What is the purpose of this kriya?
Well I did not ask, because the system of dealing with yoga gurus is that one does not ask one question after another, one complies with instructions and have faith that the teacher knows what is required and will divulge the information as one progresses.
In any case, even though I did not ask, I got an answer when Baba gave a reference to what Krishna told Uddhava about naad sound mixing in the spine of the subtle body, in the sushumna nadi.
Here is it:
The Blessed Lord said: Sitting on a flat surface, in an easy posture, with the body balanced, placing the hands on the lap, and with the visual energy applied to the highest point on the nose. (9.32)
One should purify the passage of the vitalizing energy by inhalation, retention and exhalation, and by graduation in the reverse order, having the sensual energy controlled. (9.33)
In the heart chakra, the Om sound which is like the continuous peal of a bell, resonates continually, like a fiber in a lotus stalk. Raising it by using the vitalizing energy, one should blend that sound with the musical tones. (9.34)
Thus, one should carefully direct the pre-mixed Oṁ sound and the vitalizing energy, ten times, thrice per day. (9.35)
Situated within the heart chakra, there is a lotus with its stalks above and dropping downwards. Without becoming drowsy, one should conceive of the flower facing upwards with eight petals and a pericarp. (9.36)
One should conceive of the sun, moon, and fire, one after the other. In the midst of the fire one should reflect on My form which is auspicious for practicing the effortless linkage of one’s attention. (9.37)
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By continuous linking of his attention with the concentration force which is focused on subtle sound within the mind, and on Me in the spiritual atmosphere and in the energizing energy, the advanced yogin directly hears the sounds of distant living beings. (10.19)
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In performing full purification within his body, by air and by fire, he should meditate on the effortless linking of his attention to the concentration force which connects with My subtle but supreme partial manifestation, which is situated on a lotus in the bosom area, and which the perfected yogis experience at the end of their progression through nada subtle sound resonation. (22.23)
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This kriya should be done only when one is in naad sound in the back of the head of the subtle body. One must be fully surrounded by naad sound. Here one means the core-self. Then one should lower the self into the neck area as shown in the diagram below. Once there one should again check for naad. If naad sound is not in that location, then the meditation is off and one should not attempt to complete it. One should just be with naad wherever it is for the rest of the session.
In another session one may again repeat the instructions to be in naad, then to be lowered just where the neck meets the shoulder on the central spinal passage in the subtle body. Then one should check for naad. If naad is there surrounding the self, then the self should move in the loop in a clockwise direction as shown in the diagram.
This should be done over and over again, until one feels that the naad sound of the sushumna has mixed with the naad sound which is heard on the outside of the subtle body and which in some experiences actually penetrate the subtle body.
In the description given to Uddhava there is mention of sounds being heard but the yogi should not hold an expectation about this. The yogi may only hear one naad frequency. From down in the sushumna he may only be aware of a blank hollowness and nothing else. This is okay.
Alfredo 3 years ago
Some quotes from the letters of Lahiri Mahasaya to his disciples.
Sri Lahiri Baba:
- Many who receive higher Kriya think that they no longer have to do much Pranayam. This causes most of the problems for the higher Kriyavans. You should do six hundred Pranayam and fifty/sixty Mahamudra; do Navikriya and the Fourth and the Fifth.
- In order to attain liberation while remaining in the body, Kriya that is relentless and exactly according to the discipline (or, exactly according to the rules) is demanded; only then, by the Grace of Guru, does all that is prayed for happen. Those who say, "We want pleasure, comfort and long life; we don't want liberation;" they are full of falsehood. They want blessings but that is not possible.
- Do not grieve over untimely death. One believes that there are timely and untimely events [but] there is nothing untimely for Time. For this reason a life's duty is to remember at all times the Soul manifested as [in] Time. Because of this, I tell everyone to be careful and verbally advise them to always be aware of Time. Sadly, many do not heed such advice.
- 1728 Pranayam brings atonement - meaning that sins are eroded away, and the Soul is revealed. (this means 1728 cycles of thokkar kriya pranayama that took some of the disciples 10 hours to complete).
- Keeping attention on things borne of ignorance and having incessant attachment to such things keeps bringing them back to the mind. Always remember that all is the Lord's and nothing is mine, and remain in the post-Kriya state (Kriya Paravastha) after doing Kriya.
- No one has attained happiness from acquiring wealth, and it will never happen. The desire for wealth comes from the restlessness of the mind. Why think so much about the future? All of this - just dancing dolls. "Oh, money, money!!" - everyone is squealing with this babble. There is no other anthem in India.
- One must do Kriya with this kind of strength in mind - "I am no one; no one is mine; one day one must leave everyone and everything. When that will happen is uncertain." People remain contented but when "that event" suddenly comes about, they go about wailing with remorse and regret. Therefore, with vigilance should everyone be aware of the coming of "that event".
