11. Raja yoga.

 

 

We understand from Indus valley findings that Yoga was being used 5000 years before by Dravidians. But, at present the Vedic Upanishads in Sanskrit are the only oldest books on yoga that are available. Subsequently, Bagavath Geetha, Pathanjali’s yoga Sasthra and few others were found written in Sanskrit. Later, many yogic books were written in local languages by  saints.

‘Thirumandhiram’ in Tamil written by Thirumoolar has the details about Raja yoga.

This is the most popular yoga. Raja yoga is being taught in most of the foreign countries by different missionaries on their own fashion. The main reason for it’s popularity is that it never mentions about any image of God in it’s techniques. There was a opinion among ancient Hindus that this yoga itself was a separate religion.

Most of the siddhars (saints) in Tamilnadu, India were practicing Raja yoga. There were eighteen recognized saiddhars lived in the past. All of them were connected to Tamilnadu. Agathiyar, Bogar, Pulasthaiyar, Pulippani, Pattinaththar, Badragiri, Sivagnanar, Thirumoolar (Above), Pambattich chiththar, agappei siddhar, Konganavar were few to mention.

Most of them have written poems in Tamil on the subjects philosophy, chemistry, medicines, astrology etc.

One of the siddhar wrote a poem with the meaning as follows:

‘What manthras being murmured after planting a stone stating it as God and garlanding it? Will the planted stone speak when the God is within (Your body)? Will the spoon used for preparing curry in cooking pan feel the taste of it?’ 

We can understand from the above that Raja yoga is against the worship of any external images. Bakthy yoga followers will call Raja yogi as atheist.  

Saint Pathanjali’s ashtanga (Eight steps) (Raja) yoga is so popular at present among most masters.  

The eight steps of Raja yoga are ‘iyamam’, ‘Niyamam’, ‘Asanam’,                   ‘Pranayamam’,  ‘Prathyaharam’, ‘Tharanai’, ‘Dhyanam’, and ‘Samadhi’.

I. Iyamam: General morals to be adopted to treat the society as our own relatives. 

1. Do not kill anything or hurt anyone.

My Guru ‘Pamban Swamigal', once went to one of his friend’s house for lunch since he invited. Swamigal sat for his lunch and the food was being served. The friend saw a bug running behind Swamigal. Immediately, he crushed the bug and killed it. As soon as Swamigal watched it, got up from his seat and went out of the house telling that ‘there is a death occurred in this house. I won’t eat for the whole day’. Swamigal’s approach is the meaning for above statement.

 

2. Do not steal:

There was a road side robber who threatened the passers on his way and robbed their belongings to lead his life. One day, a person wearing jewels came and became the target of the robber Frightened person asked the robber “Stealing is a sin. You are stealing to maintain your whole family. Whether the sin is going to be yours alone or will be shared by your family members too?”

Robber answered that whole family members will share in his sin.

Again, the targeted person asked the robber to get it confirmed from his family members.

The robber went and asked his family members with confidence whether they are also going to share the sin?

To his surprise, all the family members answered that the total sin will go only with him, and not going to be shared.

Then the robber returned  realizing his fault and asked the gentleman what he has to do? The gentleman taught him a sacred manthra to chant. After chanting for several years, the robber became a great saint. His name is Valmiki. He wrote the famous Ramayan.

3. Do not lie:

There are many stories or puranas insisting to live truthful. Harichchandra purana is one among them. By seeing the drama of this purana, Mohan Dass Karam Chand changed his pattern of life and gave importance to truth. Thereby, he was called by all as Mahathma Gandhi.   ‘Sathya meva jayathe’ are  the words in Indian national emblem.  The menaing of these words are ‘Thruth will trumph’.

4. Do not addict to illegal sexual relationships:

Thoughts on sexual relationships will spoil our concentration. Legal limited sexual relationships are not condemned in Raja yoga. It is the duty of ‘Grahasthasramam’ stage to have sex and bear children. Purpose of sex should be for bearing children and not for mere pleasure. 

5. Do not consume liquor:

Human life is the gift given by God to clear our earlier karmas. It is possible only when our thoughts are focused on God.  

Brain will become sedated and stop to do the search inside our body if liquor is consumed. Also it stops the analyzing capacity to distinguish between good and bad. All the above bad habits will continue.

It is necessary to follow the above rules properly to do yoga and improve our concentrating power.

II. Niyamam: This is a self improvement moral which will be helpful to keep the mind fit to do yoga.  

Pure heart, contented life style, patience, keeping the ego under control, practicing the yoga as prescribed, keeping limited wealth, showering the equal affection on all are the rules of Niyamam.

1. Pure heart: Yoga is a mind technique. It is not enough to be good on our activities alone; Purity should be on our mind too. The mind should be tuned to show equal affection / sympathy on everyone’s (All lives) suffering.  

2. Contended life: Raja yogis should not possess excess wealth. They can have minimum wealth to maintain self and their family.

Food habit: ‘Sathva guna' is a character required to improve and sustain concentration. This Character could be achieved through food habits only.

It was found by ancient saints that vegetarian food will create sathvic (Soft) character. Killing of other lives like animals, birds, fishes etc.. and eating them will lead to create lower level characters. Hinduism believes that killing plants are less evil than the others. It is not practical to avoid eating. So, reducing to limited food is possible.

The body is not going to grow beyond certain years. The food is required to provide energy to do daily duties only. As the age goes up, fasting to be practiced. There are many fasting occations mentioned in the books (Sasthras) to follow by Hindus.

Eleventh days following the full moon and new moon are considered suitable for keep fasting. Few will follow either the fourth days following the full moon and new moon or sixth day following the new moon day for fasting.

In general, aged people will never use cooked meals in nights. Quantity of food also a determining factor for Hindus saints.

Indian food of olden days is considered to be the best in diet system. But due to many reasons, traditional food has changed to modern which became harmful.

 

 

 

 

Most of the orthodox Hindus were not eating full meals in the nights. They ate food (Cooked meals) only once a day. They ate fruits and milk at night. 

‘Early to bed and early to wake’ is a good habit to practice. All inner organs function to normal level during sleep. So for good health, good sleep is essential.

Because of sathva guna, Raja yogis will appear with peaceful smiling and bright face. They will never speak or think evil about others. 

Raja yoga must be practiced three times a day for not less than thirty minutes at the same time and place by beginners. 

Early morning before Sun rise is considered as a good, fresh and aspicious time. Mind will be calm and suitable to do yoga. Evening, just before Sun set is a the time prescribed for second session of yoga. The third one is before bed time. Devine thoughts developed before bed will continue in the morning while awakening. We have to understand that deine thoughts should always be in our mind throughout.

Time management is very important as the yoga timings may affect regular office timings. it will be better to keep a suitable time table by individuals according to their way of profession.

It is not necessary to quote that other clean habits like taking bath, using clean clothes should be followed.

 

 

 

 

III. Asanam:- Asanam means posture. There are handicapped people too in this world. So, to practice yoga by all, different postures to continue yoga for a long time without feeling the pain were explained. ‘Padmasana (Lotus posture) is the common posture followed by most of the yogis. There are about 63 asanas like sarvanga asana, sirasasana, mayurasana, savasana and so on explained in sasthras. There are many modern books are available on Asanas alone. They explain the asanas as health excercises.

There is a second part in asana which refers to the seating arrangement. Yogis should sit on any one posture using seat made out of either wood, dry thick cloth, animal skin or dry straw. Yoga sasthra books quote that while doing yoga, the energy (Like electric current) will raise. That energy should be allowed to flow upwards and not downwards. It seems that seat must be made out of insulating materials which will not allow the energy developed be pulled by the Earth.   

IV. Pranayama: Pranayama is breathing practice. The saint Thirumoolar has explained the breathing technique in a simple way. The breathing consists of one intake and the other is letting it out. There is one more event in pranayama called ‘bandhanam’ which means holding. Holding can either be after the air intake or letting out.

Example: 1.closing the right nose, make air intake through left nose.

                  2. Hold the Air by closing both noses.

                 3. Closing the left nose, release the air through right nose.

                   Repeat the process by changing the noses.

When completing both the cycles, it is called one ‘Pranayama’. But, there is a specific time sequence is there to do this practice.

It is easy to remember the timing as 1 : 4 : 2. If the air intake is for four seconds, holding the breath for 16 seconds and the letting out time is 8 seconds. THE RATIO IS IMPORTANT than the time mentioned in seconds. There is one more system that if intake is for 4 seconds, letting out time will be for 8 seconds and holding the lungs free of air for 16 seconds. Any one method  can be practiced.

We may feel difficult in the beginning of practice. To make it easy, intake and letting out can be practiced with lesser time on holding. Slowly, this will become regular after practicing for few months. There are health benefits because of this system which will be dealt with in the next chapter.

 

 

 

 

V. Prathyaharam: Actual practice of Raja yoga starts here. This is the practice to improve our concentration on a single point. Wavering Thoughts will be focused on single thought only.

Each ancient saint had focused his thought on anyone of the images of God. Thereby, different images were used by different saints. Now, what we see in Hinduism are only those images.  It is understood from their teachings that they got enlightenment from the God with the image meditated.

FOCUS SUSTAINABILITY IS MOST IMPORTANT THAN THE IMAGE ON WHICH MEDITATION MADE.  

As a result, actual form of soul could be realized. Most of the books written by great saints mention that it is in the form of light.

Those who wish to do Raja yoga should keep the following points in their mind.

1. The God is everywhere and even within our body. Vedic Upanishads having these important sentences: ‘AHAM BRAHMASMI’ AND ‘THATH VAM ASI’. The meaning of these sentences are ‘I AM BRAHMAM’ AND ‘THAT, I AM’. We understand that soul and the God are same.  

2. Maintain full and strong confidence on the image (whatever form it may be) attracted or selected as God  Repeating to express: Strongly believe that The God exists only in the particular selected form. Those who do not believe in any existing forms of God can select Sun, Lotus, candle (flame alone, not the stem) etc.. We should not forget that other forms too were used by others elsewhere and proved to be good in yogic practice. So, comments should be avoided about other forms of God. 

3. Believing the stories (Puranas) connected to the image selected will help to sustain the concentrate for long. It is my opinion that Puranas were written only for this purpose in Hinduism. The authors of Puranas used stories to expalin certain philosophical facts too. But, philosophical facts were forgotten and only the stories remain.

Example: If a yogi select Hanuman (Monkey God) as the real image of God, he should believe the connected events mentioned in Ramayana, Mahabaratha etc. There should not be any doubts or feel the events as unbelievable.

Then yogi can concentrate on Hanuman for long by thinking on the events connected to it alone. If yogi doubts ‘whether a monkey can jump over the ocean?’, Hanuman will also jump out of his concentration.

FOCUSSING THOUGHTS ON SINGLE IMAGE IS PRATHYAHARA.

VI. Tharanai: It is general nature for human to get distracted by sounds, smell, vision etc. even during deep concentration. Apart from focussing thoughts, senses also need to be controlled.

This practice may be compared to a snail. When  it faces danger, it will pull its head within the shell to get protected. This example is quoted by poet Thiruvalluvar.

It requires constant practice to hate all senses. As a result, yogic practice will not get disturbed by any senses. Such practice is called ‘Tharanai’.

VII. Dhyanam:  Manthras (As mentioned in previous chapter) will be chanted in praise of the image of God  This will also help to increase the yoga timings. Adhi Sankara quoted in his book ‘Viveka chudamani’ that such chanting is equal to pusai in Bakthy yoga.

CHANTING MANTHRAS IN THARANAI STAGE IS CALLED DHYANAM.

VIII. Samadhi: When Dhyana is continued, the image that used for yoga was said to be shining in the form of light. The yogis who reached this stage will never like to return from that state. Guru Pamban Swamigal mentioned that he stayed in this stage for 48 days. There were many saints who lived in this state for years together.

 

 

 

 

We could see such yogis even today in samadhi state at few caves of the Indian mountains or hills. 

THE YOGIS IN SAMADHI STATE WILL NEVER LIKE TO RETURN TO CONCIOUSNESS. THIS IS THE STAGE AT WHICH SOUL STAYS IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE GOD. THEY WILL COME TO THIS WORLD FOR SOME REASONS ABUT WHICH WE DO NOT KNOW .