THE NITHYA YOGA PRACTICE🔗

Part Five - Listen to the Guru Pooja Mantra

Silent Belly Laughter

Silent Belly Laughter, Intention, Visualization

Intention

Following Nithya Dhyaan, students will remain seated and enter into one of the most important aspects of the class. Technique three contains three elements that make Nithya Yoga unique.

The whole idea of Nithya Yoga is to experience bliss and then to radiate this inherent nature of ours for the other 22.5 hours of our day.

In the West, when people consider the word 'bliss', most conjure up images of 'new age people', people that are unproductive, uncreative and airy. Bliss means the intense excitement which happens in you, without taking anything from the outer world, through touch or seeing or intake or smelling or hearing or by any other method which is hereby mentioned or not mentioned. That is bliss.

In technique three, we firstly work to experience this natural state of bliss. We practice silent belly laughter. Students are asked to simply bring the awareness to the navel region allow bubbling energy to rise up from that center. Students are asked to understand that this energy is their true nature; that their inherent energy is 'THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM'. It is Eternal Bliss. 'Eternal' means past, present and future. So students understand that they were bliss, they are bliss and they will be bliss.

Once students have experienced their blissful energy during the practice of silent belly laughter, they are asked to set their strong intention for class. They intend that each movement, each breath will have life. They intend that each movement, each breath will be an complete expression of the THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM state.

Why do we ask students to constantly reinforce the truth that they are bliss?

Thoughts and beliefs have a profound effect on the functioning and well being of our body and mind. So much so, our body is shaped according to our belief system and emotional make up.

Paramahamsa recalls: 'Raghupati yogi would repeatedly tell me that with whatever intention you move your body, bend your body or activate your body, it is that intention, that purpose that will be recorded into your body; those samskaras will start expressing in your body. He meant that the way in which you bend, the method you use to stand up or do yoga asana, all these things are not too important. He said the intention is all that matters. If you have the intention to have good health and do whatever you want for that intention, move your body any which way for that intention, simply health will happen to you.

This is very difficult for you all to understand because you have invested so much of your time on grooming your body through yoga asana. Instead of transcending body consciousness you have become completely caught up with body awareness. By doing this, the sublime science of yoga has been reduced to the level of a body work-out.'

The truth uttered by Raghupati yogi to Paramhamsa when he was a mere boy so many years ago are being shouted out loud in the corridors of contemporary science!

'We are what our perceptions are; as are our perceptions, so become our actions; as are our actions, so becomes our destiny.' This is not a quote from the Brihadaranya Upanishad, but from 'Biology of Belief', a recent work by Dr Bruce Lipton, a celebrated molecular cellular biologist who has presented a groundbreaking theory of how cells behave.

We have all been taught that we behave the way our genes are designed. Dr Lipton disagrees. He postulates that our genes are designed the way we behave!

Our body-mind system constantly transforms itself. Billions of cells are born, live, die and get reborn (a classic parallel to the concept of Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver) and Shiva (destroyer). We all are totally new beings every one or two years. Yet we behave in the same unconscious way. We never learn from our mistakes. As THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says, 'We are too ignorant to make new mistakes, so we just repeat the same old ones again and again'.

What makes us repeat ourselves and become entangled in our past behavior is the deeply embedded memories, beliefs and values (samskara) that we are taught and we cling onto. Though our body is renewed and rejuvenated regularly we do not do the same with our minds. We carry the same mental set up with us in the form of our samskaras. These samskara lie in our unconscious zone, which holds 90% of our brainpower. It directs us all the way without our being aware that we are being directed. The unconscious brain is far more powerful than our conscious brain. To give an idea, if the conscious brain can process 60 images at a time the unconscious brain can process 60 million images in the same period!

However, we can change. We can change if we become aware of what happens in our unconscious. The agent of change is meditation. Once we become aware of the deep, dark secrets of our unconscious we derive the power to reprogram and rewire ourselves, to transform our cellular structure, to redesign our genes as it were.

Medical science has come up with startling research material that adds further impetus to the fundamental truth that by our very nature we are bliss.

It is interesting to know, that the human body produces several neurotransmitters and neurochemicals, including serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins, which have a specific primary effect of elevating mood and causing feelings of joy and bliss, but none which are designed to primarily lower mood or cause sadness and depression.

Stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline are designed to help the body cope with adverse events. Originally, in man's evolution, stress was frequent, for example encountering a tiger in the forest. In such cases, the 'fight or flight' reaction was necessary for survival. These hormones provided the flood of additional energy and heightened alertness needed for these situations. However, living in modern society unfortunately causes us to encounter all kinds of stressors on an hourly and daily basis. This is a tremendous drain on the body and mind, and taxes our vitality.

It is seen, that continued exposure to stress results in an uncontrolled self-perpetuating cycle of cortisol increase, which affects the body's well-being by affecting normal serotonin levels. Meditation breaks this cycle and thus elevates mood by increasing endorphins, thereby enabling us to re-connect with our natural stress-free state of bliss.

Recently, in 1992, scientists discovered a neurochemical produced by the body, which attaches to receptor sites in the body that were originally found to be specific for the drug marijuana (ganja), a drug which causes feelings of euphoria in the user. This neurochemical was named anandamide by the scientists, after the Sanskrit word for bliss, ananda! So, it does appear that the body is designed to express ananda and not dukkha!

The psychic pain hypothesis of depression proposes that psychic pain, similar to physical pain serves to remind the body and mind that it is causing suffering, and motivates the person to withdraw from the factor causing the pain, and to avoid similar circumstances which could be a threat to health and well-being in the future.

As a wise person once said, 'Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional'. We thus have the choice of whether to allow the cycle of physical, emotional and psychological stress to continue, thereby increasing susceptibility to physical illness as well as depression, or to break this cycle by yoga and meditation, thereby allowing the body and mind to rediscover its true blissful nature, by allowing the balancing of neurochemicals to happen in a natural manner to its natural state of ananda.

What may have been heresy to scientists a decade ago is now the truth that is being slowly accepted, a truth that the Eastern sages and mystics who practiced the inner science knew tens of thousands of years ago and recorded in the scriptures.

Therefore, we are bringing this ancient belief back into practice with the support of scientific findings that bliss is our birthright and whatever we think deeply and continuously has a profound effect on us physically and mentally.

Visualization

Where visualizing the postures is concerned, the reason we are asked to take a few moments to mentally do the posture rests on sound scientific research. Contrary to popular belief, intelligence is not confined to the brain cells. Each and every cell in the muscle carries the intelligence of the body. Whatever signals are given to it whether conscious or unconscious is stored within.

When we send in a focused suggestion to our body, our body will be ready to do that. In this manner a*sana* and pranayama, practice will become easier and more joyful. Instead of pushing our body into a posture, fighting and being violent with it, this visualization allows our body and us to flow harmoniously into the posture. We learn to collaborate and not compete, which again is a fundamental truth in cellular biology. Cells are by their very nature collaborative. They join together to perform a task. They do not understand competition. The thought of competition arises in our minds alone; it is not our basic nature.

It is very clear that if we operate with awareness and clarity at a conscious level, we have the power to reach down to the cellular level and bring about enormous

changes. Therefore, our perceptions play a great part in the way we look and behave.

The way in which we perceive ourselves is dependant on the ideas and beliefs we have about ourselves at both a conscious and unconscious level. Through the transformative practice of Nithya Yoga for Being, we are able to bring about a change in the way we see ourselves; we can look forward to enjoying the riches of the material and spiritual world.

If we empower ourselves with this knowledge we can start to realize that every human being is God, waiting to be uncovered. It is just our belief that we are limited in some way that keeps us from realizing the potential of who we are.

Our body is equipped with innate intelligence to produce energy from the sun. According to the ancient science of Ayurveda, the human organism is the ultimate system on planet Earth. It is a living memory bank, a storehouse of the enormous intelligence of all the other bodies on Earth.

Nithya Yoga operates on the belief if plants can produce energy directly from the sun, why can't man? After all, every human being is composed of the same five elements, earth, water, fire, air and ether as the rest of the universe.

The practice of Nithya Surya Namaskar will awaken the body intelligence to directly create energy from the sun. For centuries we have suppressed, denied and forgotten the fact that the body has its own intelligence; the wisdom of the ages is stored in each and every cell. The ancient rishis understood this truth and therefore declared time and again that we are filled with cosmic consciousness.

Every cell in the body actively responds to environmental stimuli both internal and external. According to Hindu tradition, the body is a wonderful mechanism that has the intelligence and capacity to produce energy. Nithya Surya Namaskar is designed to access the etheric energy all around us. When performed facing the East in the first rays of the morning sun along with the appropriate breathing technique and Nithya Surya Namaskar Mantra, the effect on the individual mind, body and spirit is incomparable.

It is said that a daily practice of Nithya Surya Namaskar comprising a complete set of twelve repetitions is enough to reap enormous benefits. Nothing else needs to be done.

The Nithya Surya Namaskar is so designed that it works on all body parts, every organ, every system, and every chakra. It is a moving set of postures done dynamically with the appropriate breathing.

In every Nithya Yoga class, we commence the asana series with six to twelve repetitions of Nithya Surya Namaskar (Sun salutation). Of all the asana practice, the Nithya Surya Namaskar is considered the