Subtle channel purification question
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 5 years before Dec 31, 2017
rishi 5 years ago
Dear Michael and other experienced members.
I am currently reading a book titled "Sivananda Buried Yoga' by Yogi Manmoyanand. It is an autobiographical account of his life - The book mostly describes his journey from an atheist; questioning every single belief about God until he meets a wandering yogi from the Himalayas in one of the cities in India. The author mentions that before meeting the yogi he has tried many yoga practices and has also spent six months in a Christian ashram before becoming disillusioned with life.
Eventually the Himalayan yogi takes the author under his tutelage and the remainder of the book is a full description of how he is transformed into an enlightened yogi under the guidance of several rishis in the himalayas.
Now, there is a chapter in the book where the author is advised to do nadi shodhana for the purification of his subtle bodies by his guru and the author automatically complains that he has done this very pranayama for years without seeing any benefit and is not inclined to try this practice any further.
The Guru says
'The practice of a yogic kriya is like an experiment in a science laboratory. An absolute clear understanding of the experiment is required in order to do it effectively. The result of the experiment is not dependent upon how long you practice; rather it depends on how correctly you practice. It is important to keep the body aligned with the natural energy axis of the earth and sun. With a conflicting gravitational or magnetic field it will be extremely difficult to achieve success of the purification practice. The usual length of the purification practice is sixty days. However, some people achieve it much earlier, while others take years to even have a first glimpse of the purification. The entire purification of the subtle energy channels takes place in approximately 4 stages. The accomplishment of each phase is heralded by some beautiful, super-human experiences called sidhis.'
In the history of this Psychic purification, no one is known to have accomplished it without the constant presence and guidance of a guru.
My question to you folks is:
1. Body Alignment - Is he talking about exercising in a particular direction?
2. Do you know what the four stages are that is mentioned?
3. What are the mistakes that one makes in the practice of purification of the subtle channels? I saw quite a few videos of the nadi shodhanam practice including Baba ramdev and Anmol mehtha's kundalini yoga website and they all seem similar. I do desperately want to get my subtle channels purified as quickly as possible, so any suggestions from you experienced meditators would be great.
I don’t want to go about doing this practice for years if results can be seen in a few months.
Alfredo 5 years ago
Rishi Ji!
You are here and now.
May the Mother always give you quiet in the mind, purity, calm, and peace!
Nadi Shodana is great, but it will take a long practice to show returns.
So, because you are here, may I suggest a course for you?
Review this video by the Acharya.
Video Link: http://www.veoh.com/watch/v207109612W6t7wb2
Video Title: Kundalini Yoga_4 by bhagiratha5
Gather yourself.
Seat down and start little by little to develop Bhastrika pranayam.
It takes a few days.
You will need Mumukshut.
As you practice, there will be some questions.
MiBeloved 5 years ago
rishi's query:
Body Alignment - Is he talking about exercising in a particular direction?
MiBeloved's Response:
He may have explained what he meant in another part of the book or in another of his writings. You should check there. Another yogi cannot guess this unless he knew this yogi personally and knew his process intimately.
It makes sense to me in terms of alignment with the devatas or supernatural beings who control the sun and moon. This would happen if the student lived in the ashram or lived apart from the ashram while following the procedures for brahmins which include certain ritual acts, chanting gayatri, using the right hand for sacred handling and the left hand for profane usages and so on.
Each sect has its own stipulations about this. One also has to eat at a certain time and only eat what is offered ceremonially to deities. One cannot smoke nor take alcohol. One cannot have sex except by regulating for begetting children and only on certain days of the reproduction cycle of the woman’s body.
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rishi's query:
Do you know what the four stages are that is mentioned?
MiBeloved's Response:
Your best bet is to read on from the same author and from people in the lineage he is from. There should be explanations elsewhere. It is also important to note that this person’s name ends in ananda which usually means that he was a sannyasi celibate monk.
Are you celibate or grihasta (married) or unmarried and engaging in sex?
That matters because when sex is in the picture, the rules are a bit different for the student.
………………………………………………………
You are trying to beat the Indian system for guru-student relationship and that is alright but know for sure that without that, you will hardly be able to excel because there are many intricacies in these process which you will never figure out by yourself.
These practices like nadi-shodana usually require individual checking by a person who is expert in it. Doing it after looking at the videos and never meeting with the specific teacher (like Guruji Ramdeva) means no one will check on your practice and I do not see how you will do it efficiently like that unless you have a super-sharp intuition that you are carrying over from a past life.
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rishi's query:
What are the mistakes that one makes in the practice of purification of the subtle channels? I saw quite a few videos of the nadi shodhanam practice including Baba Ramdev and Anmol mehtha's kundalini yoga website and they all seem similar. I do desperately want to get my subtle channels purified as quickly as possible, so any suggestions from you experienced meditators would be great.
MiBeloved's Response:
It is totally unfair to ask one teacher about the mistakes one would make while following another teacher. The teacher concerned is the one who has to answer that. The answer should be based on following the procedure himself. In other words, what process it is, one is qualified to describe it according to how well one used it and according to the success one achieved with it.
I do not do nadhi shodana. I did it about 30 or so years ago and I was dissatisfied with the results. I realized that it was not working. It only works in the ideal way if the student is isolated and if the student has tons of time on his hands to do it for at least 2-4 hours of practice under a very strict time count.
It is very strenuous if you use the time ratio counts of the inhale, retention, exhale and holding breath out procedure.
I got on to Bhastrika pranayama from yogi Bhajan and that worked for me but even that doing it on a daily basis takes years to complete, what to speak of 60 or 30 days. That is not possible as far as what I experienced.
After doing bhastrika efficiently for some years, I went back to nadi shodana and then I got some result from it, which meant to me that unless yourself is already purified to some extent you cannot use that procedure successfully.
The best thing to do is to meet with either of those teachers whom you mentioned in regards to their video and learn the procedure one on one from either of them, rather than trying to do it on your own.
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rishi's query:
I don’t want to go about doing this practice for years if results can be seen in a few months.
MiBeloved's Response:
If you are destined to practice for years, no amount of information will stop that. Your practice time is based on what you came with from your past lives. If you came with much practice from the past, and if your providence is suitable, then you will quickly recover yourself and will advance. To do that you have to have an instinctive aptitude from the past life and also have a mind which is free from yoga-negative energy. Let us look in the Bhagavad Gita for the statement about this. If you qualify under this statement then you will quickly advance not otherwise:
Bhagavad Gita English, chapter 6:
Arjuna said: What about the undisciplined person who has faith? Having deviated from yoga practice, having not attained yoga proficiency, what course does he take, O Krishna? (6.37)
Is he not like a faded cloud, lost from both situations, like being without a foundation? O Almighty Krishna: He is baffled on the path of spirituality. (6.38)
You can, O Krishna, remove this doubt of mine fully. Besides You, no other remover of doubt, exists here. (6.39)
The Blessed Lord said: O son of Pṛthā, it is realized that neither here on earth nor above in the celestial regions, does the unaccomplished yogi lose his skill. Indeed, O dear Arjuna, no performer of virtuous acts, goes down permanently into misfortune. (6.40)
After obtaining the celestial places where the virtuous souls go, having lived there for many, many years, the fallen yogi is born into the social circumstances of the purified and prosperous people. (6.41)
Alternately, he is born into a family of enlightened people. But such a birth is very difficult to attain in this world. (6.42)
In that environment, he is inspired with the cumulative intellectual interest from a previous birth. And from that time, he strives again for yoga perfection, O dear son of the Kurus. (6.43)
Indeed, by previous practice, he is motivated, even without conscious desire. He who persistently inquires of yoga, instinctively sees beyond the Veda, the spoken description of the spiritual reality. (6.44)
From a steady effort and a consistently controlled mind, the yogi who is thoroughly cleansed of bad tendencies, who is perfected in many births, reaches the supreme goal. (6.45)
rishi 5 years ago
Thanks very much for both of your replies. It did resolve some of my doubts.
I am married (only a couple of years back), so i am not celibate. And yes, i do admit that it would be impractical for me to find all the subtle points that accompany these yogic practices on the internet. I will try my best with what i have and leave the rest to providence.
