About

yachnayoga

Thank you for visiting my blog. Yachna Yoga was born out of my sincere desire to create a reservoir of resources that would help people on their journey to healing their mind, body, and spirit through the regular practice of yoga, meditation and pranayam;  a space where individuals could come together to share invaluable information and positive stories that would help people heal from the inside out and inspire them to continue on their spiritual journey.  Yachna Yoga is not about yoga poses.  It is about all things positive that help create a life of balance, fulfillment and contentment.

Having always had a keen interest in the metaphysical and spiritual, I started practicing Yoga at age 16, but it was only in the past six years, after a series of spiritual glimpses which involved self-realization and hearing spontaneously the chant of Aum from within, that I developed a deeper understanding and appreciation for it.  You can read about them in greater detail below.

I was born and raised in India, where I received my Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Chemistry.    I am a QA professional with experience in the field of biomedical devices, tissue banking and biopharma.

I recently started a separate blog where I will be sharing simple summaries of each chapter of Srimad Bhagavatam.  Those interested can join me on this journey by visiting below:

https://srimadbhagavatamblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/chapter-1

Below I share my spiritual awakening experience:

yachnayoga

I am sharing three of my most significant divine experiences with readers. Hopefully this will dispel any doubts and inspire you to continue on your spiritual journey.

The Unstruck Sound-From the Spiritual Diary

I wish I had written this down sooner, but the demands of a family responsibility took first place. So here I am now a week later and I still wouldn’t have written this down if it weren’t for what I learned yesterday. It is May 29, 2005. Last week I awoke to a pleasant reverberation of Aum in my mind. No, I was not chanting Aum, nor was I thinking Aum, but as soon as I opened my eyes I could hear the harmonious reverberations loud and clear, effortless in my ears and mind. It was a beautiful sensation; Most divine. I just lay there in bed quietly without blinking almost in a state of daze for fear of losing it. I felt the calm of the break of dawn and the calm in my mind energized by the unstoppable sound that all of a sudden sprung forth out of nowhere. It only lasted for a few moments, but I feel blessed that I am one of the very few individuals who got to taste that divine nectar, that feeling of bliss however short lived it was, but for a brief period it was mine.

Following the experience, I did some research and found an article on-line: http://sannyas.org/quotes/chakra06.htm. To my surprise, it mentioned my Aum experience exactly the way I had experienced it – as something that you can’t force. You can hear the Universal sound without any effort on your part and without any need for deep concentration or meditation. It flows freely and the individual has no control over it. I have realized that I may have experienced something so special and indescribable. I think only someone who has experienced the same will be able to understand what I mean.

2011 Update: Unfortunately the page doesn’t exist anymore, but below is part of the article that I had saved back in 2005. I believe it was written by Osho.

“And the heart centre is the centre from where the soundless sound arises. If you relax into the heart centre, you will hear Omkar, Aum. That is a great discovery. Those who have entered the heart, they hear a continuous chanting inside their being which sounds like aum. Have you ever heard anything like a chanting which goes on by itself? – not that you do it. That’s why I am not in favour of mantras. You can go on chanting aum, aum, aum, and you can create a mental substitute for the heart. It is not going to help. It is a deception. And you can go on chanting for years, and you can create a false sound within yourself as if your heart is speaking – it is not.

To know the heart you are not to chant aum – you have just to be silent. One day, suddenly the mantra is there. One day, when you have fallen silent, suddenly you hear the sound is coming from nowhere. It is arising out of you from the innermost core. It is the sound of your inner silence. Just as in a silent night, there is a certain sound, the sound of the silence, exactly like that on a very, very much deeper level a sound arises in you. It arises – let me remind you again and again – it is not that you bring it in; it is not that you repeat aum, aum. No, you don’t say a single word. You are simply quiet. You are simply silent. And it bursts forth like a spring…suddenly it starts flowing, it is there. You hear it – you don’t say it, you hear it.”

A month or so after I stared doing Pranayam, I had yet another experience worth mentioning. I was trying to fall asleep at night and after a while I felt myself ease into a slumber only to be woken up by extreme silence. I felt as though I was 3 times bigger than my actual body. This experience actually intimidated me and led me to suspend all yogic practices for a while.

In the summer of 2007, I experienced spontaneous bliss ( which later I later learned was self-realization).  Words cannot begin to describe the feeling. Emotions of intense love and compassion flooded every fiber of my being. I felt a connection to every living organism and the presence of a force bigger and stronger became intelligible. Intense bliss took over. The hollowness and falseness of the material world at once became clear. The esoteric finally made sense. The only thing I remember that led to this state of ecstasy was that I was in a meditative state (not sitting and meditating, but going around my daily activities while meditating and preventing any thoughts from arising in my mind (chitta vrittii nirodh-preventing the rise of thoughts (vrittis) in the mind (chitta).

God realization/Self Realization
What is Brahman.

Over the years I read several Hindu scriptures and discovered that  my experience above matches the description of what is called Self-Realization or God-Realization or realization of Brahman-the formless God that pervades the entire Universe.

My experience was temporary. However for those who have achieved the permanent state, the body gets rid of all ailments, disease and pain. When I went through my experience I remember at night I could feel waves arise in my body as if a force was trying to heal my body. Not being used to that feeling of complete surrender to a foreign energy, I kept resisting this force which I now regret.

08/27/2013:  I just learned that this type of bliss is can be achieved through Bhavana Samadhi which is achieved through meditation that involves ceasing of thoughts. There are other paths that lead to Self realization that involve rigorous Yogic Kriyas/techniques.

I have included some information below if you want to know more about this.  This kind of Samadhi is does not involve the union of kundalini Shakti with the Siva which gives the practitioner various psychic powers and siddhis and which is actually achieved through rigorous practices and might also be extremely dangerous.

Point to be noted is that most spiritual experiences usually happen when the mind is at its calmest, which is very early in the morning when you are just about to wake up or at night when you are just drifting into the dream state. Some paranormal experiences can be scary, but remember, they are very rare and don’t repeat themselves often. They happen when you least expect them.

NOTE:

In the first place, there are two main lines of Yoga, namely, Dhyana or Bhavana-Yoga and Kundalini Yoga; and there is a marked difference between the two. The first class of Yoga is that in which ecstasy (Samadhi) is obtained by intellective processes (Kriya-Jnana) of meditation and the like, with the aid, it may be, of auxiliary processes of Mantra or Hatha Yoga (other than the rousing of Kundalini) and by detachment from the world; the second stands apart as that portion of Hatha Yoga in which, though intellective processes are not neglected, the creative and sustaining Sakti of the whole body is actually and truly united with the Lord Consciousness. The Yogin makes Her introduce him to Her Lord, and enjoys the bliss of union through her. Though it is he who arouses Her, it is She who gives knowledge or Jnana, for She is Herself that. The Dhyana Yogin gains what acquaintance with the Supreme state his own meditative powers can give him and knows not the enjoyment of union with Siva in and through the fundamental Body-power. The two forms of Yoga differ both as to method and result. The Hatha Yogin regards his Yoga and its fruit as the highest;

the Jnana Yogin may think similarly of his own. Kundalini is so renowned that many seek to know her. Having studied the theory of this Yoga, one may ask: “Can one get on without it?” The answer is: “It depends upon what you are looking for”. If you want to rouse Kundalini Sakti, to enjoy the

bliss of union of Siva and Sakti through Her and to gain the accompanying powers (Siddhis), it is obvious that this end can be achieved only by the Kundalini Yoga. In that case, there are some risks incurred. But if Liberation is sought without desire for union through Kundalini, then, such Yoga is

not necessary; for, Liberation may be obtained by Pure Jnana Yoga through detachment, the exercise and then the stilling of the mind, without any rousing of the central Bodily-power at all.

Instead of setting out in and from the world to unite with Siva, the Jnana Yogin, to attain this result, detaches himself from the world. The one is the path of enjoyment and the other of asceticism.

Samadhi may also be obtained on the path of devotion (Bhakti) as on that of knowledge. Indeed, the ighest devotion (Para Bhakti) is not different from Knowledge. Both are Realisation. But, whilst Liberation (Mukti) is attainable by either method, there are other marked differences between the

two. A Dhyana Yogin should not neglect his body, knowing that as he is both mind and matter, each reacts, the one upon the other. Neglect or mere mortification of the body is more apt to produce disordered imagination than a true spiritual experience. He is not concerned, however, with the

body in the sense that the Hatha Yogin is. It is possible to be a successful Dhyana Yogin and yet to

be weak in body and health, sick and short-lived. His body, and not he himself, determines when he

shall die. He cannot die at will. When he is in Samadhi, Kundalini Sakti is still sleeping in the

Muladhara, and none of the physical symptoms and psychical bliss or powers (Siddhis) described

as accompanying Her rousing are observed in his case. The ecstasy which he calls “Liberation

while yet living” (Jivanmukti) is not a state like that of real Liberation. He may be still subject to a

suffering body from which he escapes only at death, when if at all, he is liberated. His ecstasy is in

the nature of a meditation which passes into the Void (Bhavana-samadhi) effected through negation

of all thought-form (Chitta-Vritti) and detachment from the world—a comparatively negative

process in which the positive act of raising the Central Power of the body takes no part. By his

effort, the mind which is a product of Kundalini as Prakriti Sakti, together with its worldly desires,

is stilled so that the veil produced by mental functioning is removed from Consciousness. In Laya

Yoga, Kundalini Herself, when roused by the Yogin (for such rousing is his act and part), achieves

for him this illumination.