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Daily Yogic Tips

Sleep Kriya: Yoga Nidra

Sleep is the moment of rejuvenation and the space of timelessness to incubate our mind. Yogic sleep empowers the mind to expand in consciousness. 

Sleep quality affects the quality of our mind’s abilities to perceive, remember and produce optimal thoughts. Sleep resets our mind. The quality of sleep matters and is directly proportional to the wellbeing of our mind and body.

For a Yogi, sleep is a sacred moment. The vaster Consciousness is expanded, the deeper the sleep and lesser the time required to sleep.

Yogic deep sleep has no dreams. Time condenses requiring shorter time of needed sleep. Upon awakening from a yogic sleep it should feel a brand new moment filled in optimism, mind supercharged, body healed and each thought from clarity.

Turiya is attainment of yoga. Superconscious states of mind. 

Yogis who master Consciousness are able to condense sleep to the extent of going beyond “sleep”, the state of turiya, called the sleepless sleep.

My experience of the states of turiya was with my Guru Ayya who meditated atop near the peak of Arunachala mountain. He drank a glass of milk a day, never moved and he never slept. I would climb up the mountain to be near his cave enclosure through the night to meditate. In the beginning of my need to sit near Ayya was my curiosity – what made Ayya love his solitude and inner journey so much that made him cut off completely from the external world and journey within? Once a day, early in the morning, his devotees would remove thorn bushes that blocked Ayya’s cave entrance and Ayya would start a fire to make herbal tea. All pilgrims who came to see Ayya were served Ayya’s tea. He seldom spoke to anyone other than his helpers. After two hours, the helpers would again close up the entrance of the cave so Ayya to enter back into his solitude, until the next day.

I spent my time sitting outside the cave through the night wanting to absorb his meditative energies. Through the night I heard Ayya speaking to the Divine. Sometimes he would burst into ecstasy singing. He was in a vortex of powerful energies- in states of perpetual overflowing joy. It was now easy to understand how Ayya had transcended sleep- he was in realms of turiya, the super consciousness state of the mind.  It was this sublime ecstasy experience that inspired me to create my music Turiya Nada. To know the states of turiya is to know the three states of mind- sleep, dream and awake- as an observer. Sleep and mastery of sleep is the vital element in  attainment of states of turiya.

My quest to learn more about sleep made me eager to ask enlightened Masters. In my pilgrimages during my years seeking my light within through solitude was another of my Gurus, Siddha Maha Siva Swamy. Maha Siva Swamy lived in a forest shrine of Nambi Hills, a  tiger sanctuary all by himself. I enjoyed every moment with him as he was alright taking my questions and he would answer me. I remember walking with him through the jungle to reach Nambi Hills. It felt eerie initially. It felt unsafe as I knew this was a tiger sanctuary and only a few would walk into this forest. I asked him if he ever felt afraid walking in this forest all by himself mentioning how frightened he should be of the tigers. He smiled at me and mentioned, “Tigers walk away from human sensing us. But some tigers are too old. One old tiger would sit over there and roar. Its roar was so weak unlike others. But they never will harm me.” I did not tell him how that old tiger could have become a maneater. I felt safe with him knowing he must have the higher vibrations safeguarding him. 

When we reached this sacred shrine after a five mile walk through the forest, we bathed in the sacred jungle stream and in the evening, did our puja (worship). As night time came, I told Maha Siva Swamy I needed to learn how to sleep. I had watched him enter into samadhi many times, with ease. Any time he entered into samadhi, the whole area around him would buzz in light. I was certain that if he could enter into samadhi with so much ease and meditate through days and nights, he must have mastered the art of sleep.

We lay side by side near the ancient Temple entrance on the ground with cloth underneath me. He did not need anything underneath him. I asked him what he was doing with his breath and how he was preparing his mind for sleep. He said, ” Go into the mantra fires. Surrender your breath. Descend into your heart. Fall asleep there.”  I spent the next few minutes trying what he told me. A few minutes later I was ready to ask the next few questions. I said, “Swamy, now that I am in my heart, now what?”… and all I heard was his snoring. He was fast asleep. In another world. Soon I fell asleep too. 

What I learnt from these ultimate moments with Guru Ayya and Guru Maha Siva Swamy the mind in its journey. The mind in its states of being awake, sleep and realms beyond sleep is states of Consciousness. These Yogis had mastered Consciousness itself by being able to enter the sleepless sleep realms of Turiya.  Ever since, I have delved deep to make sense of sleep to understand sleep as a tool of wellbeing, an instrument to intense meditation and a proponent to enhance the mind’s clarity.

Practical steps to Yogic Sleep- Yoga Nidra:::

  • Through the day attain, maintain and generate the ease of mind. Do yoga, meditate & do pranayama or run, play basketball or walk. Doing physical activities does tune the mind into a long lasting meditative experience.
  • Doing puja (worship of the Divine) or prayers helps setting the mind in a meditative state through the day. Prayers helps us discard worries, anxieties & stress.
  • Every breath, enter into our core of harmony within retention- with mindfulness & awareness. Being in a continuous meditative state throughout the day nourishes the mind that requires less time to revitalize. The meditative mind works sleep effectively. 
  • Set a daily time to shut down our work and prepare for bed. Scheduling and setting a daily time helps the mind subconsciously tune into the sleep ready mode. 
  • Just before getting to bed, shower, bathe or wash our face & forehead. Water as an energy cleanses away unwanted thoughts.
  • Do gentle stretches or yin yoga before bed if feeling unable to cope with stress or worries. The best yoga always happens when our mind is low. Yoga helps come back into our body. 
  •  Meditate using mantra chants. Even if for just 5 minutes. Make this moment a time of prayer. All the reality experiences; thoughts, anxieties,; needs, wish, fear- and emotions; surrender into the mantra fires. Let go of realities to the Divine Source God. No realities belonged to us before birth. Now in sleep, consider it the moment of death when all of realities is surrendered to Source God.  

THE PROCESS:

  • Select consciousness expanding books. Set a habit to read before sleeping every day. Reading conscious books imprints the mind with good thoughts. 
  • Lay down on the bed turning over to the left side. Use pillows or elbow as prop and start reading the book. Be aware of the right breath that gains predominance as we rest our body on the left. We are tapping into the moon energies of breath that activates sleep. 
  • Sleep will come soon especially if the book is philosophical in nature 🙂 Chase sleep away by wanting to read more. Affirm for ourself that the night is young and we have all night to read. Sleep will come as a threatening lion or a cute puppy wanting to be held. Chase it away! Close eyes a minute when sleepiness gets heavy. And start reading again. 

– Now we are ready to sleep. Put away the book. Flip over to the right side. Start reciting a mantra that makes us feel connected to Source God. Enter into the heart like allowing ourselves to float away into the womb of Light. 

– Step into timelessness of sleep like meditation. The mind flows into states of deep sleep where dream occurrence is rare. With practice, in this womb state we gradually activate more awareness of our mantra vibration of our unconscious mind connected to Source God. In this sleep our mind is incubated like a caterpillar turning to be a butterfly, we transform our human to Angelic. This yogic sleep reduces in time due to its depth and intensity and ability to serve the mind and body in rejuvenation. 

– Upon waking up, the first thoughts on arising out of sleep is reaching out to the mantra recitation and connecting our mind to Source God. Our first thoughts, “Please God Source give me the right thoughts.” Our first prayers- rub both the palms thinking of our Mother as our left palm and our Father as our right palm in gratefulness. Feel every cell in our body grateful to our Mother & Father. Place it over our eyelids in gratitude. 

Let gratefulness be our vibrancy gifted by the depth of our sleep. We are now the vibrancies that aligns and manifests all that our heart intends. 

 Gratitude Beloved Sleep Goddess who gifts our mind the grandness of our Now. 

Interesting observations of yogic sleep:

  • In depth of sleep there are no dreams. Sleep is like death.
  • Sleeping hours reduce.
  • Wake up feeling like we slept ‘hundred years’.
  • Wake up with a mind that is crystal clear.

🔥 ஒ 🙏

Nandhiji www.nandhiji.com is a Siddha yogi, humanitarian and visionary, awakening humanity through mystic wisdom, community and service. He is an artist, ecstatic chant musician, author and teacher, representing the path of the Liberated. He lives in Los Angeles, where he shares the life-enhancing wisdom and teachings of the Siddhar sages, the liberated mystics of South India. Nandhiji was gifted with a childhood experience of the Divine when he was four years old. Later as a young adult, while leading an active family life, he was initiated through a death experience by his first Guru, and his journey into the mystical realm of the Siddhas as a yogi began. After years of seeking ‘wholeness’ through connection with the inner world, Nandhiji woke up to understand his highest purpose: to uplift humanity in consciousness. One of the fruits of his journey are offered in Mastery of Consciousness. Nandhiji says, “When we awaken the inner lamp, we liberate ourselves to the grace of our own wisdom, our Inner Guru, Consciousness!” Nandhiji envisions a humanity awake through yogic wisdom, enterprise and community.

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Daily Yogic Tips

Linga Puja: Multiply Consciousness

The Lingam Worship:

Lingam

The worship of Lord Siva, represented in the form of a Lingam is the Siva Linga Puja.Each year, based on the lunar calendar, the Mahasivratri is observed by millions, the yogis and householders alike throughout India. Mahasivratri is a sacred vortex of time that easily confers enlightenment and grace to evolve in ease with observation of yogic disciplines. Each year when we celebrate Mahasivratri, the Siva Lingam Puja holds a key to an inner journey.The Siva Lingam puja is the most personal and intimate time for a yogi as moments of absorption into the Divine, fully aware and intensely in union with Source through breath and as breathless joys. The yogic discipline of doing the Siva Lingam puja is considered the most potent of all yogic practices in being able to push a yogi through states of consciousness and as grace, evolve to be the object of worship, to be Lord Siva- as in the journey into One to be Oneness.In the yogi traditions of mystical India, each precious moment as human is for the purpose of enhancing more of consciousness and closer to Source. This journey beyond consciousness is enhanced each day with deeper and even more empowerment in the awakened inner wisdom. After having woken up to be the Spirit, the yogi then starts enhancing this experience through intensifying the bliss state for the mind to be at all times. In this journey through consciousness guided by bliss, the yogi understands effort and progress as a yogi through the push factor of own effort and divine grace as the pull factor- through the Siva Lingam puja.

What is a Puja?

A puja is not meditation in the sense, a puja requires a highly alert and involving state of mind. A puja is when Source/object of worship is celebrated in the physical form with offerings of flowers; milk; water etc along with mantra. A puja is a concentrated enhanced form of worship and can be called the mother of all meditations- a puja leads to a mind that is meditative, the natural state of the mind that is be defined as meditation. By doing a Siva Linga Puja, the yogi aligns in the receiving end of grace by invoking the power of the infinite Source in human realities for themselves and for the entire world.Utilizing the Lingam as representation of the infinite with the mind in super aware state of connecting as a bridge between the Divine invoked and the object of focus with through offerings of the heart, a Siva Linga Puja is done.

So,

what is the meaning of the Lingam?

To yogis, the Lingam is the most apt form representing the Infinite. The Lingam is the infinite as in Form referred in Sanskrit as stambha- beginning-less and endless pillar. The traditional description of the Lingam representing the phallus is not the entire meaning behind the Lingam. Yes, the Lingam is the representation of the Wand of Light as the experience of our own inner Light rushing above through the spine.

When a yogi does the Lingam Puja, the yogi is invoking the infinite Spirit from within and the Infinite God Almighty of formlessness to be the dweller in the Lingam, the form. The Lingam serves to house, represent and radiant the energies of Infinity.Later through history by way of Western historians and through ways of convenience in hypothesis, a Lingam began pegged with the meaning of phallus as in being shape.

How is a Siva Linga Puja done?

  • Attain or purchase a small Siva Lingam. You will need a few utensils that will help contain the water, milk and other offerings you may pour over the Lingam.
  • Attain, receive or learn simple mantras, preferable for Ganesh, Lord Siva and Goddess Sakti. Your Siva Linga Puja is an inner journey through mantras, journey of uniting your external realities and infinite inner realities through the puja using the mind in focus and surrender of all thoughts through the fire of bhakti, devotional love.
  • Once a day or once a week or whenever convenient- commit to doing a Siva Linga Puja.

The Inner Journey of the Siva Lingam Puja:

  • Prepare Yourself:Prepare yourself for the Siva Linga Puja as a very personal journey between you and Source. Having a shower or washing your face helps to refresh your mind and body. Set aside atleast 45 minutes of uninterrupted time. Create a sacred space for yourself, preferably an altar space that can hold and carry forward positive energies of a Siva Linga Puja. Pick up offerings of flowers, water, milk or anything else you may feel like offering to the Lingam.
  • Abishekam:There is no right or wrong way in a pure heart’s ritual. Begin at first reciting the mantra invoking Lord Siva. Connect your breath to the mantra resonance and feel the invoked Presence through your chanting. Now begin pouring water over the Lingam slowly invoking the Divine Infinite in the Lingam. You may pour milk over the Lingam collecting the milk for later use as Prasad, Divine sanctified offerings. After the final slow pouring the water finally to bathe and cleanse the Lingam, the Lingam is ready for the Puja.
  • Siva Lingam Puja:Have many flowers, if not, many petals of flowers as that you will offer the Lingam with every mantra recited invoking Lord Siva. Ideally, when Lord Siva is invoked, it is perfect wisdom to invoke the Divine Goddess to complete the wholeness within the Divine. We end this puja invoking the awake mind state, the God of sustenance and abundance, Lord Vishnu.
  • Invoke Blessings of Source:-A Siva Lingam Puja is powerful as we have invoked the power of Infinity in our realities. As we bring the Siva Lingam Puja to closure, from the depth of depth, invoke peace through reciting “Shanthi by expanding to the infinite vastness we are and bringing forth this energy blessings of peace into our own human form and realities. Create an intent in “Peace” ie, may this Peace for all the living or; may this Peace be for my own health and the health of all of humanity. Blessed are the messengers and custodians of Peace.
  • Sacred Shrine/Altar at your Heart Shrine:-After a Siva Lingam Puja, store the Lingam at an altar space as to keep the divine energies and blessings vibrant in our physical and spiritual realities.

Benefits of a Siva Linga Puja:

  • Grace to be a Yogi:When we surrender our total focus of the mind to Source, through the puja, the mind develops the ability to rejoice in the dance of stillness. This dance of stillness is the Mother of all meditative practices.
  • Evolve and Be God:As we invoke the presence of Source through our mantras holding the focus, we are drawing more and more proximity to the object of worship and gradually, we attain all the attributes we are invoking, ie, we slowly evolve to be angelic, invoking the presence of God/Source.
  • Awaken our innate genius:We awaken to the deeper dimensions of consciousness within ourselves that triggers the innate special powers within ourselves, the “Siddhis”. The Siddhis are the unique special abilities awakened in each of us such as musical genius, the ability to see the future, the awakening of various extra sensory perceptions, ESP etc. Yogis tend to disregard this awakening of various facets of the mind as it distracts us from the power of worship that grows in potency through humility.
  • Soul Empowerment:We wake up to the joys and bliss of experiencing Source/God- “Ananda”. This joy ebbing from the bottom of the heart through our Lingam Puja is a higher conscious vibratory state. To be in this bliss form state is to be God- with Lord Siva described as Satchidananda, the bliss form. Slowly but surely, our realities too begin to vibrate the higher frequencies of this divine bliss.
  • Deepen our yoga practice:When we do our daily yoga practice through the various sequences, we understand the deeper journey within after having done the Siva Lingam puja. In fact, it is advisable to do the Siva Lingam Puja after doing our hatha yoga practice so to seat the enormous vast immense energies of Source within us through the awake enerve centers, the nadis. Hatha yoga and the Siva Lingam Puja is naturally compatible and enhancing to each other.
  • Live the Magic of Now:To experience being God/Source; worship the Infinite Almighty through the mind and breath; attain grace of inner wisdom as a journey through consciousness- makes us Angelic and God like. Slowly but surely, we not only awaken to the vastness we each truly are but are also guided, protected and gifted with the most valuable gift of this human birth- to be able to celebrate the Now moment completely.
  • Multiply Potency of Consciousness:Worshipping the Lingam is multiplying consciousness. As we invoke ourselves to be Spirit, the Holy Ghost, we celebrate Lord Almighty Source of Infinite as in Form, empowering this Form to be Formlessness ever more.
  • Be Blessed:Lord Siva, the nameless Infinite Being invoked represents blessings of wellbeing, wisdom and highest purpose as the Yogi.

Nandhiji offers his guidance to any seeker on the journey on this sacred Mahasivratri night. Please join his Facebook page: Nandhiji Word Yogi Day: Maha Sivratri page to receive inspirational videos and guidance throughout these sacred 14 days of inner pilgrimage. https://www.worldyogiday.org/

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