Tag Archives: Chakra

Life

True Essence of Yoga

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Yoga

The literal meaning of this word is – Union.

The marketed meaning of this word has become – Breathing and Stretching Exercises.

We celebrated International Yoga Day Yesterday on 21st June 2019. Something which originated in India centuries ago has now widespread on an International level. Its popularity has gained a stronghold, especially in western countries. By declaring 21st June as International Yoga Day, we are now celebrating this rich heritage of India worldwide. The most profound thing here is that Yoga is accepted everywhere by all age groups and ethnicities. Despite the fact that some people confuse it with Hindu Religion and try to deter non-Hindus in accepting this healthy way of living; its positive life-altering experiences has credited in its success and popularity among masses.

But, my question over here is -The Yoga that we are celebrating and promoting, is this the true Yoga in its complete form?

If you google yoga types, you will find Hot Yoga, Yin Yoga, Hybrid Yoga, Power Yoga, etc… I couldn’t comprehend how did we reach here from a simple word which meant – Union.

person meditating — Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

Yoga is as simple as the word Union, its literal meaning.

It is a union of you with your higher self. You may call it God, Universe, Existence, Non -Existence, Nothingness, Everlastingness, or just a union with your true self. Once you will understand the Union aspect of it, then you will also realize that you are never apart. So, why the Union? How can we unite with something from which we were never apart? This union is not physical. This is spiritual and psychological. This is more like a realization through self-discovery.

What we see today everywhere is more of Aasans and Pranaayam; which on a broad level can be categorized as body exercises/postures and breathing techniques to attain a healthy physical body for a healthy mind and in turn, they help you in progressing towards spiritual union(the true Yoga). We certainly need to go step by step and thus this is the most important step to lay the foundation upon which you can climb higher in your spiritual growth. It is as important as a baby’s first step. But, we also need to keep that in mind that purpose of teaching a baby how to walk is not limited to him taking a walk but also teaching him a way of life where he knows what he should be walking towards to.

There are various paths given to achieve this self-realization from Raaj Yoga to Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Hath Yoga, etc. There are ‘Yama’ and ‘Niyams’ to be followed like Ahimsa, Asteya, Aparigraha, Santosha, etc. The intent is not to just clean your body of toxins but also your mind, your actions, and your thoughts. We need to integrate it into our behavior and our actions if we want to call it Yoga; otherwise what most of us are doing are just aasans and pranaayaam. This should be the role and responsibility of Yoga teachers who when opening up Yoga Studios and Yoga Workshop teach their disciple that Yoga is done by integrating a way of life where not only our physical body but we also take care of our psychological and Spiritual well being.

In Yoga, we talk about harmony. We talk about our connection with each other. We talk about how we are connected to nature. We talk about how we are one with everything around us. How we are one with The One. It is much much much larger than what we have shown to the world so far. I know with time, we will teach our young generation that how they can start with Aasans and Pranayams and progress through Meditation and a Yoga Path to reach to their full potential and live a life which is filled with joy and compassion.

Happy Yoga Day.

Life, Spiritual

Chakra Meditation

Image January 21, 2016 jcisnowjs 2 Comments

We are fooled by the term Yoga(Yog). We do Surya Namaskar and say we have done Yoga. We will do kapaalbhati, Praanayam, a few OMs and we will start preaching ourselves as Yoga Guru.There is nothing wrong in doing all these, but to term them as Yog is like ignoring the big picture. Pardon me for using the term Yog and not Yoga, I just prefer it as this is more apt to its hindi nomenclature, like it is Lord Raam and not Lord Rama. I don’t want to pronounce it Yo-Ga. It is Yog.

Yog in simple plain hindi means – To Add, To Sum,To Join.

It is the Yog of us with our spiritual being. Joining of body with mind and soul.

Yoga, however is the most popularized version of physical exercises which are teachings of Yog, to make your body apt for meditation. Only a healthy body can have a healthy mind; and only a healthy mind can have a healthy soul. This is the basis of Yog. We use Pranaayam, and other type of Yogic exercises to make our body fit. Meditation is used to make our mind distraction free and focused, so we can receive the knowledge of beyond. When this is reached, Yog helps us to reach our highest spiritual self. To be one with The One. This joining of trinity. Mind + Body +Soul.

There are so many ways to practice Yog in your life, like Hath Yog,Raaj Yog, Tantra, Mantra, Gyan, Karm. One of them is Kundalini Yog, which involves almost everything from breathing exercises to mantras, to meditation. Kundalini enlightenment works by awakening our Chakras.

I felt fascinated with Chakra Meditation and Kundalini Yog, as somehow, this is the most scientific and processed form of a ritualistic meditation. It’s not just about making your mind blank, it is about enriching your mind/soul. It works on body, mind and soul simultaneously.

There are 7 Chakras, 6 in our body and 7^th on our outer body, just crowning us on top.

Muladhar – Base chakra, or Root Chakra is at the end of our spine. Its representing color is Red and Mantra is Lam. In senses it represents smell. It’s element is Earth. How apt is that when we say – come back to earth, put your foot down, to touch your roots; what we actually means is to be stable and secure, to become grounded; and all these take us to our root which is earth, our Muladhar, our base. This is the Chakra of stability, of the first step. We start from earth. This is our base.

Svadhishthana – This Chakra represents reproductive organs, and our emotions. Water is its element. Water which also represents emotions, feelings, and reproduction. Have you noticed how much watery terms when it comes to our reproductive organs, like flow, blockage, pipes, swimmers, etc… In senses it represents taste. It’s color is orange and Mantra is Vam. Water over Earth.

Manipura – It is the fire element, and quite suitably denotes our digestive system. This fire is used to digest our food, to burn it. Fire over water. Yellow is its color and Ram is its mantra. Sense is sight. It governs fear, power, and anxiety etc. Butterflies in stomach, feeling sick in stomach… we say all these things when we are anxious or scared.

Anahata – It is the Heart Chakra. It governs circulation, love, compassion, and well-being. All matters related to heart. Its color is green, and mantra is Yam. Sense is touch. Has anyone touched your heart? Its element is Air. Air over Fire. It is the most powerful chakra for emphats. Person with strong and awakened Heart chakra is full with love and compassion. It is one of the strong point in being an empath.

Vishuddha – This is throat chakra. Visuddha meaning pure. This chakra govern communication and expression. Its element is Ether. Ether is what this universe is made of. Our sound can not travel without this medium ether. Sound which is a part of communication, ruled by throat chakra. Its color is blue, mantra is Ham, and sense is hearing.

These were 5 chakras with elements of Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. 5 elements. Our body is made of these 5 elements, 5 matters. These are those 5 matters. Now, what resides over matter.

Mind.

Mind over matter.

Ajna – Aagyaa, or gyan chakra. This is our 6^th Chakra. Our mind. Mind over all the matter. It is above all the physical elements. Our mind can go beyond this Ether filled universe. Its color is violet, or indigo. Its mantra is OM. It is also called as third eye chakra. It govern intuition. Clarity. Knowledge. Our consciousness. The sixth sense. This is our 6^th Chakra giving us 6^th sense. This is our inner voice. Its sense is insight.

Sahasrara – thousand petals chakra, also known as Crown chakra is at the crown of our head. It is not inside our body but rather just on the top, where our aura is. This is the final destination of Kundalini shakti, where she unites with her Shiva. Shining like millions of sun put together. The perfect union of Shiva-Shakti. Perfect Yog. This is the place of pure bliss. Enlightenment. Samaadhi. This is where our higher spiritual self resides. To reach there is attainment of Moksha. To attain pure knowledge. To know all. To be all. To be The One. Where there is no difference in body, mind and soul. It’s just a single point. Nothing matters. You are one. Shiva is one with her Shakti. Yog.

This is Yog for me.

Life, Spiritual

Wednesday Words – Bindi – More than Just A Red Dot

Image July 9, 2014 jcisnowjs 6 Comments

If you ask someone to draw a sketch of an Indian Girl, most probably they will draw any girly face and then draw a Bindi (sort of a red dot), on her forehead. 😀 In reality, if you go to any Indian city, you will be disappointed to see, that not every girl, wears this red dot on her forehead. 🙂

I couldn’t find out, who started this tradition of wearing Bindi? But, I do found out why it started, and what is it’s actual significance?

Now a days, mostly north Indians women wear Bindi as a symbol of their marital status. A Red Bindi is mostly worn by married women on their forehead. Widowed and unmarried women don’t wear Bindi. Even if they do, they wear a Black Bindi or Sandalwood Bindi. But, these customs are not followed religiously everywhere, and I think it’s for the best, because Bindi is not supposed to show your marital status or your fashion statement, but rather your spiritual self.

Before we go about exploring Bindi, lets first see the importance of place where we apply it. Bindi is applied at the center of the forehead just between the eyebrows. Why this place is important?

The position directly behind the center of forehead is of Ajna Chakra, the Sixth Chakra. This is also known as the position for the Third eye. Sixth Chakra is the highest chakra in our physical body. If you remember my several posts on Chakras, the highest Chakra, Seventh Chakra is rather placed in our outer body, also called as our spiritual body, just above our head. Thus our Sixth Chakra, Ajna Chakra, is the highest center of Spirituality in our physical body.

Sixth Chakra is for command, intuition, intelligence, as it represents mind, knowledge, and also connection between our physical self to spiritual self. Sometimes it is also referred as the gateway to attaining spiritual energy and Moksha.

In earlier times, when people used to pray, they used to awaken this Ajna Chakra, through their Kundalini Shakti. In a very simple term, during praying or more specifically Meditation, this place being the gateway for energy, becomes active, and as Kundalini passes through it, it becomes hot. Focusing on your Sixth Chakra also create headaches for some time. To calm this effect, and cool it, people started putting Kumkum and Sandalwood on their forehead, in the form of a Bindi or Tilak. Both of these have a cooling effect.

Now a days, it would be very rare if anyone has this capability to awaken their Kundalini Shakti to such a level as to took it to Ajna Chakra. But this practice of putting Kumkum and sandalwood Bindi, just before praying started based on this basic notion. Also, to show importance of this super dynamic place filled with heightened spirituality, we place a mark of respect and devotion. It is also a representation for the Third eye.

So more than Bindi, it’s the place where we apply Bindi, is of utmost importance. More power to our Ajna Chakra.

Keep watching this space because soon we will talk about significance of color in Bindi. Till then Happy Reading, Happy Learning. 🙂

Spiritual

Learning about Pyramids is like Knowing Your Spiritual self

Image June 6, 2014 jcisnowjs 2 Comments

When I was first taught about Pyramids, in my school, I was told that they are used to store mummies of Egyptian kings. I believed it till date, until my curiosity took over and I researched through books and internet to learn more about Pyramids.

If you still believe that Pyramids are just made to satisfy some Egyptian King’s larger than life Ego, then you have to read the post below, because the case is totally different.

It’s so unfair to teach our kids a history that is half corrupt and half ill rotten to fill their mind with garbage. But, why?

Maybe, it’s got to do with the regimes who have ruled us and the way they want to portray our history. We always believed that our ancestors evolved from apes and we are actually much more advanced than them. But, what if it’s not true? What if they were much more advanced scientifically, spiritually and humanely than us?

Learning about Pyramids

Egyptian pyramids have proved all our hypothesis wrong and made a strong point favoring the high intelligence of our ancestors. Till date none of us has come up with a way to replicate a Pyramid. Then how did our ancestors made such huge structures?

Pyramids are not only just a triangular structure erected in the dessert, they were actually build around the civilization of Nile river, in a way that all three largest pyramids aligns with the Orion constellation. It is constructed in such a way to align itself with sunrise and sunset of every new cycle of Sun.

What amazes me is that most of the people correlate Pyramids with Mummies and dead bodies, irrespective of the fact that they are never found in them. Their was never a Mummy placed in Pyramids. In fact Pyramids were built to be used as a machine kind of structure to vibrate and resonate high frequencies.

If you look inside of a Pyramid, they are like inside of a machine which uses sound as it’s basic theme and convert all the energy into positive vibes or frequency. Now, what kind of frequencies do they resonate?

Our ancestors understood the importance of being one with nature. They were quite advanced spiritually and have understood the true happiness. Just like in Hindu vedic culture our whole body is considered as a temple and is further considered to be represented through Seven Chakra, so does the Egyptian pyramids are built to influence those Seven Chakra through sound and frequency. If you saw the Seventh and the higher most Chakra in our body, it is triangular in shape with three dots joining together to denote Shakti, the ultimate divinity, so are the pyramids. They were considered as a means of communication with the higher self, and to balance the harmony in world.

Now, we have lost that touch with our higher self. Our spirituality is now limited to going to temples, mosques and churches. We have forgotten, that fundamental spirituality is actually derived from humanity and harmony. One day will come when we will understand this and maybe that day we will attain the knowledge which our ancestors have already captured in these Pyramids.

Till then, we have Pyramids to explore more. 🙂

Books, Life

Enough Seriousness, Let’s Read Some Fun

Image March 21, 2014 jcisnowjs 1 Comment

Since last two months I am reading books on Meditation, Yoga, Chakra, Buddhism, and Holistic Healing etc. So, believe me when I say that these two months have been very hard in terms of reading. It took me double the time to read these kinds of book, than I have taken to read a murder mystery or a fantasy or thriller. It’s just so hard to read and learn.

It reminded me the time when I used to study my course books. Gosh! How I used to wish that phase to get over. Reading is my favorite activity but it becomes a task when you are reading to learn new things. I mean you always learn, when you are reading, even if you are reading Twilight kinds. At least I learned how boring it could be to love a vampire, just staring in the eyes, for hours and hours. Boring.

When I was reading all those books, they did give me a different perspective of life. Whole universe and our existence in it, harmony of our body with the nature around us. This perspective helps in answering a lot of questions about everything that happens in life. It helps us to bear the pain of tragedies, it also helps in controlling the flow of happiness, to be at ease with ourselves.

But, sometimes, you have to let loose. Life is supposed to be fun along with true happiness. So, now I have picked out a fun read. Watermelon, a chick flick, a girly girly read. Irony, it’s also based on a tragedy in the protagonist life. But, it’s written with wit and I am kind of liking it so far. Will post a review as soon as I’ll finish it. This time I am positive that it won’t take much long.

So, let’s have some fun. Happy Reading. Angel