DHYAN FOUNDATION

Patanjali Yogsutras were given 4500 years ago, they do not give a description of any asana . There is only one line –  sthir sukham asanam . That is a posture in which you are still and at peace. So any posture that can be maintained for long hours without movement or discomfort is an asana .  Sage Patanjali is called as the fountainhead of yoga . The purpose of asana is cleansing the body – nadis (etheric channels) and chakras (energy centres). 4500 years ago, there was no requirement for this cleansing, the thought, actions and environment were relatively pure and conducive to the practice of yoga. Therefore, no mention of asanas in Patanjali Ashtanga Yoga. With the passage of time, the bodies and minds started becoming polluted as did the environment, therefore various forms of yoga came in and around 500 years back, Hatha Yoga was formulated by yogis like Matsyendranath and Gorakhanath which describes certain physical postures to cleanse the nadis and chak...

There is a lady who has been doing dhyan for quite some time. Every day without fail she would write to me seeking my blessings, so that she can move ahead in dhyan. Recently, I got an email from her asking if I could help her find a camera that got lost recently. Such emails, specially from those who have been practising it for long, set me thinking. Why do people do dhyan? It is foolish to think that dhyan would make you immortal. Everything in creation is a combination of five elements, including your body. You are tied to this creation with those five elements through specific centres in the body called chakras .  When you sit for dhyan, you get plenty of thoughts. The thoughts that come to you during dhyan indicate the chakra or sense with which you are tied to creation. That thought will keep coming back to you and when that thought comes, only the lower regions of brain (that control the five senses) will be active. You can have only five kinds of thought...

We have been discussing how to maintain a strong spine with the help of asans. Asans are often misunderstood as an exercise for losing weight. While exercise deals with physical body, asans work on all five layers of body training the being through power of consciousness. Exercises increase metabolism & ageing process in the body, asans slow it down. Sage Patanjali describes asana as ‘sthir sukham asanam’, that is, a posture in which you are comfortable and still. Stillness and slowing down is the key to longevity.  Sanatan Kriya details the asans to decongest the pranic flow in the sushumna nadi which in turn translates as a strong and youthful spine. Sanatan Kriya, is the essence of yoga sutras, which has been tried and tested by thousands at Dhyan Ashram. So perfect is this science of yog that there is not a single asan which strains the 5th and the 6th vertebrae that otherwise under strain can lead to spinal injuries. On the contrary, injuries to the spine can succe...

The Article was published in Hindi milap.

Yogi Ashwini Ji's article in #Hindimilap newspaper.

Winters have set in and this is the time when most people suffer from respiratory problems.Here we detail the Vedic method of doing Jal Neti which helps in cleansing the nasal passage and blocking the entry of allergens into the respiratory passage. A virus cannot be killed. However, by strengthening the immune system, it can be made nishkriya or ineffective and its spread be arrested by following the ancient techniques given by the Vedic Rishis. Here are three steps to follow, especially after returning from public places: 1. JAL NETI   Nasal cleansing. Take 500ml bearably warm water in a neti pot, add ½ tsp black/rock salt and a pinch of turmeric. Stand evenly and bending slightly forward tilt the head at 45 degrees angle towards left. Insert the nozzle of the pot into the right nostril. While breathing from the mouth, tilt the pot so that the water runs into the right nostril and flows out from the left. Repeat on the other side. Breathe normally afterwards. Sa...

Go back by 20 years and the video games available were Mario, bricks et al. Later, the games were upgraded and they became more interactive. Then there came games like Prince of Persia where human involvement increased; though both Mario and Prince of Persia were played using the same four buttons. Mario had only 8-10 stages; there were far more exciting levels. Next came motion sensors; today we have 3D games. You get into the game and feel that you are in real life. There may come a time when you will be able to put your consciousness into the character and be able to live in a virtual environment where you will feel pleasure-pain, death and birth. The knob and buttons being your five senses. In Mario, the player would collect gold coins; in this virtual game too, you will be busy collecting gold coins—better looks, bigger house, fancier car or a prettier girlfriend. You forget how many hours have passed. Then suddenly, the power goes off. You cannot retrieve the coins collecte...

When you see a great work of art, you marvel at its beauty. When you hear a beautiful piece of music, you want to listen to it again and again. When you read an interesting book, it stimulates your mental faculties. But these are the creations of that artist, that composer and that author. Isn’t it ironical that we engage day in and day out in taking pleasure in things that are someone else’s thought and creation, someone who, at times, we do not even know? How many of us care to access the source which triggered that thought process in that person to create something that we all admire? In the last 20 years of teaching yog, I have met many spiritual aspirants, the most learned and well read. I have attended countless spiritual meets where the discussions and concepts usually stem from the intellectual understanding of great works by masters. Adi Shankarcharya, based on his revelations, gave us the Saundarya Lahiri. Patanjali gave the yogsutras . Krishna summarised his gyan in the...