Practice Report - Alfredo - Tapas over Tapas
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 5 years before Apr 01, 2018
Alfredo 5 years ago
तीव्रसंवेगानामआसन्नः ॥२१॥ = tīvrasaṃvegānāmāsannaḥ
For those who practice forcefully, in a very intense way, the skill of yoga will be achieved very soon.
Jai Shri Krishna
Om Yogi Madhvacharya Namah
I am sure I am not the only one who has hesitated about whether to file practice reports after they become dull and drab. The fact is, windy or spectacular results are rarely coming in yoga, especially at the beginning, thus, perforce, most practice reports will be dull and drab. What to do then?
The Acharya has insisted in doing so several times in writing, and at least once personally, upon my asking, as he thinks that someone, somewhere, will read them and get some tiny benefit from it, so I bow to him. My apologies to all, though.
Perhaps if we could find a central motive for the daily practice, something that marked it or characterized as a thought or intuition coming into it during the breath infusion and/or meditation, then maybe it will be easier to read and more fruitful to others.
Today I conducted a 35-minute breath infusion practice in the AM with good rhythm and concentration. It dawned on me the interesting nature of Tapas (Tapasya, austerities). I have realized in the last few days that Tapas is an exponential quality, and not necessarily an additive one. In other words that, given certain specific conditions, the power of Tapasya will increase exponentially in the practitioner of Yoga. This is a great, but it comes with a catch.
Mind you, these specific conditions must be met 100% or else. Or else what? Or else the whole thing will dissipate like when you puncture with a pin a balloon full of air. Then one must start afresh from scratch, and as when you must take a new body and a new life, success to inflate the balloon again is never vouchsafed. That perilous is the yoga path, as the Upanishad said, it is like walking on a razor's edge.
Not only that, dear friends, but that as the balloon fills, there is a proportional increment of the powers of darkness to cause an explosion and a failure.
The question, thus, hitting me today, was whether one can live with one's success. Think about that. How unnerving can be your success in yoga to you? How prevalent can be the pull of mediocrity, laziness, inertia, tamas, lassitude, negativity? And when facing these perils...where are you gonna turn for help? Will your deity help you, will any deity help you?
Meditation was nothing out of the ordinary, it is just that I can take refuge on Naad once and again and that is already a blessing.
My dream recall is good, but lately mundane dreams accost me often as a reminder of how important is it to purify the lower chakras, especially the root one, if I want to return to only entertaining the good personages.
chris_hall1951 5 years ago
Prabhuji, when did you first here the naad, either it's spontaneous manifestation or it's willful one.
When I say willful, I mean did you practice some of the procedures in the Acharya's books, or did you get it from a process?
given to you by Blessed Sri Aurobindo?
Alfredo 5 years ago
Chris!
So nice to hear from you. I always remember our meeting with great joy.
It is a combination of some of the things you mentioned.
But first, the credit must go to Swami Hariharananda Giri.
You see, the cornerstone of the Kriya Yoga of Lahiri Baba, Swami Shriyukteshwar and Hariharanandaji is to develop the ability to hear Naad all day long. Some of the kriyas used in this process, such as the so-called Jyoti Mudra (Yoni Mudra) are conducted after the Kriya Pranayama (Thokar Kriya) and besides covering the eyes, one plugs the ears with the thumbs to start developing the sensitivity to Naad. Hariharananda encouraged this constantly, as the best mantra.
I have also studied carefully "Meditation Pictorial" and other writings of the Acharya.
Blessed Sri Aurobindo did not leave any specific Kriya or Mudra on this issue even though at one point in his life, around the age of 29-30, he practiced pranayama for about 6-8 hours daily for almost 2 years with interesting results.
So, my first Naad experience comes from that Kriya Yoga.
Nowadays I can discern Naad if I want to, mostly willfully, but after breath infusion and during meditation, it is quite spontaneous, it then leads the meditation most of the time.
