Nithya Yoga
Raghupati Yogi is the inspiration behind the creation of the new yoga system that I am introducing to you all. It is called Nithya Yoga. ```
We are bringing forth all of the basic truths of yoga as originally revealed by Patañjali. I don't mean only from Patañjali's verbal language. Everyone has that from the Yoga Sūtra. Nithya Yoga is being delivered from Patañjali's body language. It is the body language that can be expressed only by a person who has experienced the inner space of Patañjali, the consciousness of Patañjali. We are trying to express yoga according to Patañjali's body language, according to Patañjali's inner space. We call that experience Nithya Yoga.
The purpose of Nithya Yoga is to experience bliss. With Nithya Yoga, your body will start working towards bliss, experiencing bliss and expressing bliss. With Nithya Yoga, the capacity to experience bliss will explode in your inner space. The capacity to radiate bliss will start happening to your body. Your bio-memory will be rewired for bliss.
Everyone does experience bliss. In some part of our life we are experiencing bliss otherwise we cannot be alive. Unless we experience bliss once in a while we can't keep our body alive. We can't keep running. The very truth that we are alive proves that some time, in some part of our life, we are experiencing bliss and joy. The problem is that our system is not prepared to stay in that bliss space. Our system is not ready to radiate that same experience continuously. Nithya Yoga prepares our body to experience, stay in and radiate the inner bliss, the eternal bliss. The whole purpose of Nithya Yoga is enlightenment; un-clutching and enlightenment.
Nithya Yoga is not simply just to achieve physical healing or physical health. Even if you are physically healthy and live for one thousand years, what is the use if you have not achieved enlightenment? After one thousand years you will still be the same person and you will feel dissatisfied in the same ways if your consciousness is not expanded or if you have not had the experience of enlightenment.
If you have lived one thousand years and not grown spiritually, there will be no other difference in your inner space. Besides, one thousand years is too much. The world has become so small. Even being her for thirty years, I feel that I have been staying here for a very long time. There is not much to do here. What will you do - same house, same car, same spouse and same routine day in and day out. For how long will you do that and feel fulfilled?
If you don't have the inner experience, life will become boring. You all saw today how excited and happy I am to see this hill that looks like Arunachala. Some devotees came to see Bhagwan Ramana Maharishi. He is a great, enlightened Master who lives in Tiruvannamalai (the place where Arunachala stands). When these devotees came to see him, they were excited to see the Arunachala hill. They told him, 'Master, what a wonderful place! What a beautiful place. It is so peaceful here!' Then in a very nice way, Bhagwan says, 'Stay here for one week and this idea will disappear'.
You will be shocked to know that Ramana Maharishi himself expressed so much devotion to that hill. He composed at least one thousand hymns in praise of that hill. He describes the whole hill as an embodiment of Lord Shiva. He was such a great devotee of that hill and here he is saying, 'Stay here for One week and all this idea will disappear'.
The reason for why this happens is that our mind is not capable of staying in bliss or excitement. Our system is not capable of staying in that high excitement. We have neither trained it nor is it capable. Through Nithya Yoga we train seekers to not only experience the bliss, but also to stabilize the experience in them and continuously radiate that experience in their life.
The purpose of Nithya Yoga is to help people to un-clutch and experience the eternal bliss. Physical healing may be the side effect but it is not the purpose. Let us understand deeply that yoga cannot be reduced to a mere physical exercise for health and meditation cannot be reduced to techniques meant only to give you a little peace. No! They both have a deeper and more sacred meaning and purpose.
Yoga is for much more than just physical health. Physical health is one side effect happening through yoga. In the same way, meditation is not just for mental wellbeing. Mental wellbeing is one side effect that happens with meditation. Yoga and meditation cannot be reduced just for physical or mental health. They are meant for a deeper purpose totally. They are meant to help you experience a different space. It is meant to transform the body and mind to experience eternal bliss, nithya ananda.
We are bringing this truth to life through Nithya Yoga, this new, or I can say, the oldest system of yoga on planet earth. I can't say it is a new system. It is the oldest system as Patañjali originally expressed it.
'Clicks' of Nithya Yoga
'Clicks' of Nithya Yoga
Yoga is a continuous happening.
Nithya yoga is the updated version that re-presents Patañjali's Ashtanga Yoga.
Yoga and meditation have both got a deeper and more sacred meaning.
Yoga is the process of uniting.
The whole purpose of Nithya Yoga is Enlightenment; Unclutching and Enlightenment.
Nithya Yoga is the intense enthusiasm that happens moment to moment; every moment
'Clicks' of Nithya Yoga
Nithya yoga is a lifestyle.
Nithya Yoga trains the Body/Mind to experience, sustain and express the energy of enlightenment.
Your mind creates your body.
Nithya yoga helps one to flower as a unique being.
Your body holds memory in its muscles. When you change the memories, you can change the system also.
Add life to your movements. Not just more movements to your life.
Your Yoga Questions Answered
Question: Swamiji, there are a lot of yoga teachers here in the US and a lot of them would be interested to teach this Nithya Yoga.
Question: The time you spent with Raghupati Yogi inspired you to create this system?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Yes, I had the fortune of studying at his feet from the age of three. He chose me. He was born and brought up amongst Tibetan monks and lamas in Burma. Then he came and stayed in Bharat to start his life and stayed in my native place.
I learnt yoga from him from the age of three. Whatever essence I imbibed from him, I have delivered it in this system called Nithya Yoga.
I wandered the length and breadth of Bharat for nine years without any assurance of regular food, clothes or a place to sleep. This was possible because of the yogic body he helped me to develop. I was able to manage with the yogic body. Still this body does not ask for food.
Question: Can you say a little bit about your intention in this international mission that you lead?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Yes. Just as the research in the outer science was going on in the West, in the East, the search in the inner world and the science of inner transformation was going on for the last ten thousand years. I am bringing all those things back to life. Because I myself have experienced that, I wanted to create a formula to reproduce the same inner experience for this modern society. I also want to preserve it and keep it alive for future generations.
We want to bring the vedic science, the science of inner transformation back to life. Our mission is to keep it alive by spreading it all over the world.
Question: Is there an essence, an important aspect in spreading that?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Yes, meditation.
Question: In the past thousands of years we have had thousands of wars.
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Yes, in 3000 years we have had 5000 wars.
Question: So creating peace on earth, depending upon what side you are on, seems a pretty complex vision. I know it is a very central part of your teaching. Can you enlighten us about how you feel peace can happen?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: We have created 3000 wars in 5000 years just because we are always striving to change the world and others. We believe in revolution but any transformation can happen only as individual evolution, not as a revolution. Many individuals evolving will make a revolution happen. Otherwise, a revolution itself cannot happen. Whenever we try to create a revolution of the whole world or whole country or whole place, we create and entertain wars. So transforming individuals, which is individual evolution, is the only path. Do you understand the difference? Instead of trying to teach others, the revolution depends on each of us raising ourselves, completely cleaning ourselves, and putting more energy into purifying ourselves. Raising ourself is the method.
Question: Can you speak about the balance between tradition and the roots of yoga and this evolution? The roots sometimes are taught very traditionally with no variance and other people who are more evolved bring in more evolved teachings.
Your Yoga Questions Answered
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: The basic understandings should be kept alive but the way in which practice goes on can evolve. There is nothing wrong with that. The basic understanding, like 'Why?' and 'What?', those basic few things should be kept alive, otherwise the juice will be lost.
In the Eastern tradition there are two levels of scriptures, shruti and smriti. The basic truths in the yoga system itself have these two paths. Shruti means the basic truths. They are eternal and changeless. Shruti is the basic truth of philosophy that is universal and applicable to everyone. Smriti refers to the dayto-day way of practicing these truths. The basic software should be kept alive but the lifestyle can be changed. Truth should be kept alive. It's the lifestyle that can evolve and change according to the times. For example, using yoga mats or some instruments, straps or ropes. All of those things can evolve. There is nothing wrong in that. But the posture, the basic posture and the purpose for which it is done, must be retained and preserved. That's all. It's a very subtle balance.
In a way, every person will come and evolve his own system. That is the real purpose of Patañjali. He gives freedom for every person to evolve his own system of yoga. If you just catch the root, you can evolve in your own way. That should be the goal.
Question: In the West, Patañjali's Yoga Sūtra is often considered the 'Heart of Yoga' and often the way it is translated is related to classical yoga system – different from Tantra and Vedanta. Some people feel that if they go More towards Tantra, they can't accept the Yoga Sūtra.
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: It is nothing like that. Tantra and yoga are not against each other. The idea exists that they are opposite paths.
However, they actually compliment each other. Tantra leads you to enlightenment with a particular energy. Yoga leads to enlightenment with a particular energy. Yoga is like a beginning. It can appeal to everyone in the beginning. When you go deeper and deeper, even if you follow the yoga path, you will evolve. It's like steps! They are only steps. They are only paths. They are not something too completely different or opposite to each other. Surely tantra is not against yoga and yoga is not against tantra. They are two different trademarks. That's all.
Question: Can you say more about tantra because it is a word that is very misunderstood and misinterpreted in the West.
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Tantra means technique. Anything that you do can become a technique towards enlightenment when it is done with that purpose! With whatever reason you move your body, that idea will get deeply engraved into your body's cellular memory. For any idea that you carry in your heart while you move your body, that idea will become engraved. So any movement of your body, if you do it remembering that it is for enlightenment that will lead you to enlightenment. Masters understand that you may not be able to do what they are telling you to do. Out of sheer compassion they decided that you could do whatever you want to do. As long as you do it with the idea of enlightenment, you can grow. In that way you can grow and touch your enlightenment. That is the purpose of tantra.
Tantra is not just confined to sex. This is an important thing to understand. Tantra is not just sex! Through sex you can also achieve enlightenment. Tantra is like using all possible doors. People start using these doors. Basically, in yoga, you are given
Your Yoga Questions Answered
something to do. On the other hand, in Tantra, you can do anything. All you need to add to the doing is awareness. Both paths have the same purpose and lead to the same goal.
Question: Does Nithyananda and Sachitananda mean Samadhi? Are they the same thing?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Yes nithyananda, sachitananda and samadhi are one and the same, all just different brand names. For example, just as we have so many brand names in yoga, it is the same with samadhi. Nithya means 'eternal'. Eternal means past, present and future all put together. You can touch the eternal or eternity only through the present. You can't touch it through the past or the future. You can only access it in the present. Eternal bliss means that this very moment you are supposed to be blissful. That is the method to become eternally blissful. Don't bother about whether you had bliss in the past or not. Don't bother about if you will have it in the future or not. Just be blissful now. You will see that you are experiencing nithya ananda, the eternal bliss.
Question: I am experiencing bliss and duality…
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Whenever you say that you are experiencing duality, bliss and coming back, be very clear that what you are experiencing is not bliss. You can only say that you are experiencing a state that is higher than your normal state. The very bliss itself is practically enlightenment. Maybe you are experiencing a higher consciousness than the normal level, but not the complete bliss that we call 'ananda'. The purpose with which I am using this bliss word is enlightenment. Once you experience this, you may not have this duality. When the duality is happening, experiencing a state that is higher than your normal state. The very bliss itself is practically enlightenment. Maybe you are experiencing a higher consciousness than the normal level, but not the complete bliss that we call 'ananda'. The purpose with which I am using this bliss word is enlightenment. Once you experience this, you may not have this duality. When the duality is happening, understand that bliss is not happening. Maybe you are going to a higher level of consciousness and coming down. This is because the body is not prepared to handle this energy.
Of the things that we are bringing to life, just try this one simple technique. It will help you. Visualize your body as a bliss bag. For ten minutes in the morning, move your body any way that you want to move, whether it is upside down, bending this or that way or this posture or that posture. For just ten minutes, visualize your body as a bliss bag and move it any way at all for those ten minutes. That is enough. You will see that your body becomes matured and holds that bliss for a long time and you will remain in that same higher state of consciousness for a longer period of time.
Question: When does one experience bliss? What does one use or do to experience eternal bliss?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: It is not just about getting away from the senses. It is getting away from your very self and what you think of as yourself. You go beyond your very self. This is bliss. Bliss is freedom from one's self. One's self is whatever you think of as you, both of your identities - the identity you show to the outer world and the identity that you carry in the inner world and believe to be you. Liberating yourself from both of these identities and all of the tension and inner chatter they create is what I call bliss. Going beyond both of the identities is bliss. Un-clutching or relaxing from creating a thought shaft is the best method. As of now you gather all of your thoughts and create a shaft. If you can relax from creating the shafts, suddenly you will see that you are beyond these two identities and will experience the bliss.
Question: Do we originate from bliss?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Our original nature is bliss but we don't come from the bliss. When we come down, we are carrying a few desires to be worked out through this body. If we are already in bliss we don't have to take the body. You think that by using the body and mind bliss can be achieved. That is why you assume the body. When you realize the truth that you can experience bliss without using this body and mind, you just drop the need for this body. After that, if you are not alive, then you have left the body and became enlightened. If your body is still functioning then you are a living enlightened Master. Deciding 'I can experience bliss without the body and mind,' and experiencing it is enlightenment. After that your body may or may not be active. If it is not active it is called videha mukti. It means that you have left the body. If it is active, you are called a living Master, jeevan mukta - a living, enlightened one. So these are the different kinds of samadhi expressions.
Samadhi experiences are also categorized by Patanjali as savikalpa, nirvikalpa, sampragnada, and asampragnada – by many different words. Except one memory,call if all other memories have disappeared from your mind, it is called savikalpa samadhi. If that memory also disappears it is called nirvikalpa samadhi. If your presence does not have a body you are called videha mukti - the dead Master. If your presence has got a body then you are called a living Master, that's all.
Dead masters are not dead in the way that you think. Living Masters are not living in the way that you think. Don't think that dead Masters are dead. You can connect with them. Their presence does not have a body, that's all. Living Masters are not present as you think. Their absence has got a body. There is no personality or individual sense of self.
You need to understand this. It's a little tricky. The living Master is not a human being, present as you are present. As you are present, he is not present. In the same way, dead Masters are not absent as you understand the word absent. They are neither absent as you understand, nor present as you understand. Their presence does not have a body. My presence has got a body, that's all. Or I can say my absence has got a body because if I say the word 'presence' you will understand it according to your dictionary. You have an idea about presence. You know you are present but I am not present in that way. So my absence has got a body. In their case their presence does not have a body.
Question: What exactly does a Nithya Yoga class consist of?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM:In a typical Nithya Yoga session we start with a simple two-minute centering meditation that gives time for the class to settle down. Then we move into a powerful, dynamic meditation called Nithya Dhyaan. This technique is like taking a daily bliss shower. It helps to flush out our physical and emotional toxins. It clears our inner space of psychological debris. It cleanses, energizes and empowers us. Then we begin the class in a state of lightness and inner bliss.
Your Yoga Questions Answered
The Silent Belly Laughter (SBL) follows this for a couple of minutes to spread the energy of bliss into every cell in the body. We then set the intention for the class and follow it up with an intense visualization so that our logic and emotions are in sync with one another.
Next, we move into the practice of postures, be they the Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskar) or the chakra specific vinyasa sequences (intelligent placing of postures that can create a smooth flow in the body and breath). These asana (postures) are primarily to awaken our inner intelligence and allow it to guide our sessions. By working with the body and linking it with the breath we engage the mind. When this process happens, the body, breath, and mind move in one single, harmonious flow. Prathyahara, the withdrawal of the senses happens. The first turn from the outer to the inner begins.
This is followed by shavasana (relaxation pose) with an exhilarating difference. During this pose we offer gratitude to every part of our body. Finally, the whole session is deepened with a particular pranayama (breath control) technique and sealed with a meditative mudra (hand gesture). We move into the day with a deep affirmation and experience of who we are and of the space that we reside in.
The essence of Nithya Yoga is to make your whole life, every activity and every movement an expression of yoga - eternally blissful uniting.
Question: Can you explain pratyahara?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: According to Patanjali, pratyahara is moving away from the aharas. Ahahra means whatever you take in through the eyes, nose, ears, mouth and through touch. Ahara means what you eat through the five senses. Pratyahara means moving away, moving beyond the food that you take in through your five senses. That is what Patanjali means by the word pratyahara. Pratyahara means moving away from the memories and the experiences given to you by the five senses so that the higher level of consciousness can be awakened in you. This is a simple, direct experience of pratyahara.
We can give a lot of commentary but this is the meaning of the word pratyahara. There are thousands of techniques to experience pratyahara. Pratyahara means moving away from the food. Ahara means food. This does not mean only the bread and butter that you enjoy through the tongue. All sense enjoyments are aharas. Even the cold that you experience through the breeze is also one of the ahara. The scene that you are seeing is one ahara, the music that you listen to is one ahara. Everything that you experience through the senses is aharas. Moving away or going beyond the food, the experiences and memories given to you by all the senses is called ahara.
Question: If we practice pratyahara as we practice asana, will that take us into bliss?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: When I tell you to visualize yourself as a bliss bag and move the body, I mean only that. Whatever you visualize as bliss, the more you start visualizing it, you will start moving away from the sense memories. In the beginning you will visualize bliss as an experience of the senses. Suddenly you will see that the very visualization shows you that whatever you are experiencing through the senses is not Bliss.Practicing pratyahara during asana will take you to higher levels of your inner space, higher levels of your consciousness. This is the truth. Practicing dharana and
Your Yoga Questions Answered
pratyahara during the yoga will take you straight to enlightenment because for whatever reason you move your body, whatever you think when you move your body, those memories will get strongly inscribed inside your body. If you are moving your body for some purpose, that idea will get deeply inscribed in your system. If you are moving your body by concentrating it on some object with the purpose of one goal, your body will naturally start moving towards that goal, living for that goal and expressing that experience in your body.
Question: What are your thoughts on pranayama?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: In the West we are taught to inhale bliss and exhale negativity. This is not the correct way of teaching pranayama. Your very being is bliss! Therefore, you can only inhale bliss and exhale bliss. If you continuously tell yourself to exhale negativity two things can happen. The first is that you start to create the memory or samskara within yourself that you are filled with negativity. The second is that when you exhale negativity, you are exhaling it into Existence. Where does that negativity go? It goes into the Whole. So just hold bliss, exhale bliss and suddenly you will see pranayama brings a miraculous change in you. It is not just a breathing exercise. It is extremely rejuvenating and it brings about tremendous bliss in you.
Question: What is the process of healing? How does it naturally occur when we are in your presence?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: When the sun rises, the lotus blooms by itself. The fog disappears. In the same way, in the presence of the Guru, the enlightened person or the person who is connected to the Guru, just by his very presence the disease disappears.
Their very presence radiates so much health and wellbeing. By being around that harmony or bliss, you will see that you simply start getting healed. You will start to catch that well being-ness. Health is infectious just as disease is. You can categorize diseases, some as infectious and some as non-infectious. However, health is simply infectious.
Question: How can we tell if we have become enlightened or not?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: This very question will disappear, 'Am I enlightened or not?' When you are enlightened, you will not have this question. There will be no doubt.
Question: You described the practice of Nithya Yoga as a 90-minute process inscribing new memories of…?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: No! Not new memories. You will be inscribing no memories. Bliss is not a memory. It is not a new memory. It is not inscribing the memory of the experience of bliss. When you inscribe the experience of bliss, the object of experience disappears. As long as you hold onto the object, you will not be able to inscribe the experience itself. The experience of bliss is different from the object of experience (the object through which y ou ha v e the experience).
There is nothing wrong with experience getting inscribed in your system but the object of the experience getting inscribed is the problem. For example, you eat a sweet and experience The taste or the sweet feeling. The sweet is one thing and the experience of the sweetness is totally different from the sweet itself. The experience of the sweetness getting inscribed is not wrong. That will only lead you to your Self. However, the memory of the sweet getting inscribed will create a problem
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because that same sweet may not create the same sweet feeling. It's like the excitement once a couple gets married. That is why it is called a 'honeymoon' and not 'honeysun'! After a few days the same person may not give that same feeling of high excitement and fulfilment. This is where the problem starts.
Question: I am wondering, since we are here to be human to have this human experience, I would like to know how you think this bliss is still achievable by us?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: You are not a human being expecting or working for a divine experience. You are a divine being in the human body having a human experience. The very concept of saying we are human beings working toward having a divine experience is wrong. You are a divine being having a human experience. That is the truth. That is the very base. Naturally you will go back to your nature when you start working towards it. If you take the stand of the ego and say, 'I am a human being. How can I have a divine experience?' you will feel that the divinity is something new and being human is your nature. No! Being human is something new. Being divine is your nature.
Question: Why do we have the human experience?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Because you chose! You chose to have the human experience. Why you chose you have to ask yourself. I Asked! Therefore, I am very clear why I chose, and enjoyed it. Now I am very clear that I don't want to have that experience anymore. And you should ask yourself why did you choose and what are you going to do. Only that will solve the problem.
Question: Do you see the yoga tradition constantly evolving from Patanjali to now?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: I can say that the expression of the teaching methods has evolved but not the original system itself. The original system itself can never be evolved. He is a Master, such a great Master. He created a system for beings that was, is and will always be. You can't develop and you can't add a single word to his yoga sutra. Maybe you can use the website or visual presentations, different examples, and different theories to support and express his yoga sutra. The method can evolve but the very experience or the truth itself can't be evolved.
Question: The evolution is the process of passing on the methods of experience?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: With Nithya Yoga, I only developed the expressing method of that truth. I've done it in the way that people will be most able to relate. Otherwise, the truth itself is not developed and can't be developed. How can you develop the truth? You can't develop the truth.
Question: Do you teach Nithya Yoga yourself or do your teachers offer it?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: No I have teachers that teach. I might not be able to spend so much time because we have developed ten or Twenty meditation programs. And I'm refining and bringing all these things back to life by scanning them with my inner consciousness or my experience. So that itself takes a lot of time. I don't have the time to constantly teach.
Question: Did you say earlier that visualization is the power to manifestation? Is it a powerful way to create manifestation?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Yes, it is a powerful way to create manifestations. That's right. Anything you manifest, you visualize. Anything you visualize you manifest.
Question: So if I visualize that I don't want to come back, will it manifest?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM:Yes, naturally. If you work towards not coming back, you will not come back.
Question: Could you share with us your reason why you chose to have the human experience?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Oh, that is a very intimate question, Ma. Maybe I love some of you and want to be around some of You, to enjoy all of you. Maybe that is the reason. Otherwise, I don't see any serious reason. That's why I am not doing anything serious in my life. I may act as if I am doing something serious but actually I don't do anything serious.
Question: Can you project the feeling of the state of being blissful onto others?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Yes, reproduction is possible. That's why all these systems and meditation techniques and all those things are created. Reproduction is possible. We have successfully done the reproduction of what I call eternal bliss or nithyananda in at least a handful of beings.
Question: As an enlightened being, are you still learning and growing? It sounds like you are already perfect.
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Enlightenment is the ultimate experience but it is not final. The ultimate is happening every moment. I can say that I started learning only now after becoming enlightened. Until enlightenment you always have arrogance that 'I know' or the ego that 'I know'. You never learn. Only after enlightenment can you start really learning. At least from my experience, I started learning only after enlightenment. Before that I never learned. I always thought, 'I know.' When I became enlightened, I started learning. Until then I only had the idea, 'I am learning.' An enlightened person also constantly learns. A constant learning process goes on within them. Another beautiful thing with enlightenment is that the more learning happens, the more you feel it is coming only from within, not from outside. The revelations start happening from within.
Question: So you learn until you get a solution? Is the journey like that?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: No. All of your solutions are done when you are enlightened. When you are enlightened, the solution, practice, learning, everything is done, over. After that, when I say 'the learning' it is sort of an expression, expressing in your own system. You always thought you had an idea that learning should happen only when you felt that you are not full. But I tell you, after you feel fulfilled will a different kind of learning will start happening in you. You will experience that only after enlightenment. You are full. But simply you are learning for no reason. You don't know why. And that becomes your life.
Question: How does a person leave here singing your song and start singing their own song?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: If you understand and appreciate that I am having some beautiful songs in me and I am really singing, that very appreciation will inspire you. Swimming can't be taught but you can learn to swim. It can't be taught. You simply can't read a book, 'How to Swim' where it says, 'Move your right hand four times, move your left hand three times, move your left leg six inches, move your right leg seven inches', and after reading that you can jump into a river and swim. Actually, these 'How To' books are the greatest problem creators on the planet earth. I am really surprised at how many 'How To' books there are in this country. For anything there is a 'How To' book. I was shocked.
Anyhow, you can learn to swim. But it can't be taught. When You see somebody swimming you will first discover the possibility within yourself that man can float in the water. 'Oh, man can float in the water.' The second thing is the inspiration that you get. 'When he can do, why not me?' The third thing is that you will gain the courage to do it yourself. 'Let us jump!' These three will only happen in you when you see someone swimming. In the same way, when you see someone who is enlightened, if you can smell his presence, these three will happen. Man can become enlightened. The possibility exists. You now have the assurance of the possibility. The second thing is the inspiration. 'If he can become enlightened, why not me?' The third thing is the courage. 'Let me start.' That's all. You can learn. It can't be taught.
Question: Do you believe in Ramayana? Do you believe they happened?
Let me clear up this big question that has been going on for thousands of years. The core of the story, the pandava and gaudava, when the poetic versions are written, there are a few things added, that's all. Otherwise, the core itself is true.
Question: Was Rama God?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Whoever has experienced the enlightenment consciousness is called God in Bharat. Because Rama experienced that enlightenment, He is called God. Because Hanumanth experienced enlightenment, He is called God. Ganapathi experienced enlightenment, so He is called God. If you want to follow the path in which Ganapathi was enlightened, you choose Him as your idea, your God. If you choose the path in which Rama became enlightened, you Choose Rama as your God. There are so many people who have become enlightened, experienced God consciousness. They became God. So you choose the path in which you want to become enlightened and the one who used that path becomes your God. All Gods existed in flesh and bone, in the human body. In the course of time, maybe one or two things about their description may have changed because of poetic expression.
Question: Are you God?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Now he has put me in trouble! I am God when you are in love with me. That's the truth. When you fall in love
Your Yoga Questions Answered
with somebody, the other person will be God for you. When you are in love with me, I am God. You will see that all the divine qualities are simply expressing through me. If you talk with my close disciples, many times they will tell, 'Oh he does this miracle and that miracle. He has expressed himself in this way and that way. He appeared to me in my house. He spoke to me like this. He healed me.' They will recall all these incidents. There are hundreds of incidents.
People come and ask me, 'Master, can you show me some miracle? Can you show me some extraordinary things?' I tell them 'No, what happened for that disciple was only because that disciple was in love with me and he felt that I am God. So that dimension was expressed to him. That dimension was experienced by him'. You can also experience this when you are truly in love, not in a commercial or professional way. That Godliness cannot be expressed in order to impress you. If you are already impressed it can be expressed! Do you understand the difference? It can't be expressed to impress you. It can express if you are already impressed.
I think that I have somehow escaped this question. He almost caught me! But somehow I slipped through. Every Master falls flat with this question because it is a big one: 'Are you God?' Every Master falls flat with this question. They can neither say 'Yes' nor 'No'. If they say 'No', the disciples who are already there with him will run away. If they say 'Yes', they are in big trouble and they have to prove it. It's a big problem.
Question: Is that why you chose to be in this plane?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: To tell you honestly, I did not even choose with a big reason. It was just a casual thing. Do you see how casually I came here today? I did not have a big plan. I didn't bother about where I was going. When we reached here, we went inside the back room, relaxed for a few minutes. They came and asked me if there was anything they could arrange. I said, 'There is nothing. I will go there and let's see how things turn out.' There is no big reason for doing this. It is just a casual joy. There is no big mission or any big thing to be achieved.
The yogis always suffer with one problem and that is the idea that they have too much to achieve. This enters you when you start reading all of the yogic literature. The words in this literature may be very difficult. However, the lifestyle itself is very easy. I always tell people, 'If you start living the life without learning the words, it will be much easier.' You can never speak English by learning English grammar step by step systematically. Try that way. You will see it is so difficult. Try to learn English in a systematic way. Learning grammar, then vocabulary, then starting to use the expression, then experimenting with your friends, then speaking in public, will you ever finish? Never! At least you will not finish in one Lifetime. Simply start living and expressing. Suddenly you will see that it is happening. The same is true with yoga also. If you learn systematically and start one point by one point you will feel that these things are too difficult.
People come and ask 'Is bramacharya very difficult? The celibacy? Is it difficult?' I tell them, 'It is neither difficult nor easy'. The moment you say it easy, it is difficult. It is neither easy nor difficult. It's the way of life, that's all! It's a simple way of expression, that's all. I am sitting here. Can you say sitting here is difficult or easy? No! If I stood for a long time, sitting like this is very easy. However, it is only comparison, a comparative reality. Surely sitting like this is neither easy nor difficult. It is just a way of sitting. It is a way of being, that's all.
Your Yoga Questions Answered
Yoga is a way of Being. It is neither easy nor difficult. When you learn more words and want to go through a kind of system that fulfils the ego, which gives ego fulfilment, you will find things very difficult. And ego is fulfilled only when you do difficult things, not simple things. Ego will never feel fulfilled with simple things.
Question; It sounds like you had the chance to study with an enlightened master?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: No, I can't say I had the opportunity to study with an enlightened Master who was in the body. Even when I was young, the yogi I studied with had not achieved complete enlightenment. He could have achieved it, but he himself said, 'I want to remain here to do one or two simple things. I do not want to enter into samadhi.' Of course, he became enlightened before his death. That is true. Maybe he was waiting to do one or two different jobs. So Raghupati Yogi Had not become completely enlightened but he was a master of the whole art and science.
Question; You have had darshan from MahavatarBabaji?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Yes, I had the great fortune to be inspired and blessed by Mahavatar Babaji. The name that I have is given by him. I had the fortune to have his darshan in Gaurikund in the Himalayas.
I tell people to believe but I myself don't actually believe anything. That's the truth. I inspire people to believe but I myself am not the believer kind. I also can't believe that someone is alive in the body on planet earth for 2500 years. So when I saw him, the first thing I did was that I started checking his body. Is it a body or am I just hallucinating? You may not be able to believe but I have to tell the truth. His body is literally a physical body. He was not standing on the ground but he was standing about one foot in the air. When I started checking his body, he started laughing.
Usually in Bharat whenever you meet an enlightened being or a great person you touch their feet. That's the tradition. But I did not even do that! What I am supposed to do? I did not even do that! I was only holding his hand and poking his body. Just imagine if the moment I enter the hall, you just catch my hand and start poking your hand into my body? How disrespectful would it be? This is exactly what I did to Maha Babaji! I did not even touch his feet or bow down to him. He started laughing, then he said 'Paramahamsa Nithyananda.' I though he was telling me to go to meet someone called Paramahamsa Nithyananda. I didn't understand what he meant when he said that. Then I experienced the essence of The name he had given to me, the initiation from the great Master.
Question; I was doing some meditation and sending love to my children with my cards and giving them meditation. Then suddenly I felt somebody was around here, around me. Can you call this an experience?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: You see, there are so many kinds of experiences that happen when you are in meditation. All I tell you is not to be stuck with meditation experiences. Just witness them. If they are solid experiences they will stay with you. If they are not, they will disappear. So just go with witnessing all the experiences. Let them take you to the deeper and deeper dimensions of your being. That's all I can say. It's the truth.
Question: In the Life Bliss Program and Nithyananda Spurana Program it was mentioned to forget everything you know about meditation or what you think you know to this point. Then you said that it is the act of awareness and the act of witnessing the thoughts (you can explain this better than I am, of course).
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: That is what goes on with the techniques. I just help you to have a deep catharsis so that the witnessing consciousness can go on within you. Meditation doesn't have to be taught or forced on you. You are doing so many things that are not meditation. I just take them out and then meditation will naturally happen in you. What I am doing is not giving you anything. I am just taking things out of you that block the experience of your natural meditative state.
Question; I love sitting on the floor but my legs usually fall To sleep within 15 – 30 minutes. What can I do about this? Should I consider sitting on a chair? Is that an option?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: If your leg is numb just touch this part five to six times. (THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM takes hold of his own foot and presses the point where each toe is connected to the foot). Suddenly you will see the whole thing becomes allright. This is the point (gestures again). These are all secrets of yoga. If you have any sitting problem, whenever you feel like your leg has become numb or dead, just touch this point five times. Suddenly you will see it becomes all right.
Question: I have had a few out of body experiences and I am afraid that one day I may not come back into my body.
As long as your prarabdha (the memories inside your body) are remaining, you don't have to be afraid at all about not coming back. You can't go out permanently. Even if you go out, the disconnection will not happen as long as the prarabdha is there. Prarabdha means the desires that are to be enjoyed through the body.
When you came down and assumed this body you may have come down with one hundred desires. As long as these desires are there and until the one hundred desires get exhausted, you will never have the disconnection. You will be made to come back again and again and again. If you have an attachment to somebody or some object or some job or for something, don't be afraid. You will come back.
Never coming back, no it will never happen! I can say that if you keep a little food that you like near you and then enter into meditation or the out of body experience you will simply Come back. That is what Ramakrishna used to do. He used to always keep a jalebi in one corner of the room. Jalebi is a kind of sweet that is made in Bengal, in the Eastern part of Bharat. He used to always keep it in one corner. Whenever he used to come down from samadhi, he used to say, 'Hey, get me my jalebi.' People used to wonder whether he was meditating on God or jalebi. You don't know!
When you have a desire or prarabdha, you will come back. You don't have to have the fear, 'If I don't come back what will happen?' If at all you don't come back you are in samadhi, that's all! It never happens as long as you have the prarabdha or desires that you have yet to experience and live out through your body. Even enlightened Masters come back if they have to do something through the body.
Question: If an ordinary student asks 'What is bliss?' can you give an example in our ordinary life where we accidentally felt blessed so that we can compare the rest of life's events with what is bliss.
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: It's a wonderful question. Bliss means that it will not be the same when it happens a second time. If you already accidentally felt bliss a second time, when it happens it will not be the same. If it is the same, it won't be bliss. Ānanda (bliss) means 'new'. Nitya means 'eternal'. Eternal does not mean 'old'. Understand, eternal does not mean old. Eternal means 'present'. You need to understand this important, basic truth about the bliss happening. If it repeats it will never be bliss. It is just pleasure. Anything that you try to reproduce again through the same path or the same method will only be pleasure, never bliss. Meditation leads you to new, new moments of bliss. It is not reproducing the same moments of Bliss over and over. True bliss will never be the same. It will be new. So you can't give an example. If I give any example I will have started a shop - The Bliss Shop. That is not the truth so we can't give an example as you are asking for. We can't. That is the problem.
Question; In the West, especially in California, the word bliss can bring up images of new age people - spacey, airy, not creative. Can you talk about the qualities of the word bliss for those who believe that this word is 'new age'?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: This new age problem is just because of drug addicts. Bliss means the intense excitement that happens in you without taking anything from the outer world, whether it is through touch, seeing, intake, smelling, hearing or by any other method that is hereby mentioned or not mentioned. That is bliss.
Question: In Nithya Yoga we say all the eight parts of yoga happen together. I can see how parts fit in. But how do Yama and Niyama happen?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Yama and Niyama happen when you start unclutching. Yama and Niyama mean discipline in the inner space and in the outer space or in your actions in the world. Inner space disciplines are yama. Outer space disciplines are niyama. Don't bother about yama and niyama too much. They will just happen. Please just relax.
Question: Master, is it true that yoga is independent of religion and does not require us to belong to any religion?
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: I do not accept that statement because yoga is dependent upon religion. Nithya Yoga is dependent upon Religion, on v*edic dharma*. Nithya Yoga is from that source and I feel gratitude towards that source. Nithya Yoga is not independent of religion. It is not just physical exercise as you've been led to believe. It is an entire lifestyle!
I declare today that anything that comes out of me is dependent upon the Vedic religion. It is rooted strongly on Vedic dharma. I don't agree that yoga is independent of religion. It is as if you take property from your parents and then you don't respect them, offer gratitude or even remember them. Of course, I am not asking you to follow dharmas or theories of the Vedic religion. I am not asking you to do anything like that but I can't say that we are separate from it. It is our responsibility to feel grateful to Patanjali and to feel grateful to Shiva. It is our responsibility to feel grateful to all the people who preserved these sciences for thousands of years. So I don't agree with the idea that yoga is independent of religion.
We gave our whole life for Vedic dharma! All of my ancestors gave their lives to maintain the science and practice of yoga and meditation. Otherwise, they would have built better bridges like the Western countries did. We would have built bigger dams and we would have had bigger bridges and a big infrastructure. Our ancestors spent their energy maintaining all this yoga and meditation. So they have the right to demand our gratitude. They have given the greatest gift that it is possible to give humanity!
We should all be obliged to be grateful to them. Our ancestors have the right to expect gratitude, as does every Hindu. These great truths are in the very air and blood of Bharat and the Hindu culture has preserved them and made them available for everyone's benefit.
For anyone who has experienced some benefit through any of my teachings or any of my techniques, you are indeed indebted to the Vedic tradition. I can't say that we are independent of religion. To say that would be abusing the great Masters who spent their time and energy, their very lives, preserving this great technology.
TESTIMONIALS
Mike Nelson, Wyoming, USA
I am sharing my story, not because I was asked to, and certainly not because I am unique. I simply hope that if anything I share is helpful to even one person then I have achieved a good thing. Most, if not all, of what I write here has already been communicated to my yoga instructor, but I am choosing to put it all in one letter.
My name is Mike. I am likely not the stereotypical yoga follower. I am 47 and grew up in Wyoming, not a hotbed of yoga to be sure. Everything I thought I knew of yoga was not what I experienced with Nithya Yoga. On February 16, 2008 I fell while mountain biking, fracturing my left scapula and ribs. While recovering, I began to explore less hard impact ways to return to a more healthful and active life.
On April 30th, after doing some checking about yoga, I sent the same email to six yoga studios . Three never responded. Two emailed back, and one actually took the time to call me. This was Gilbert Yoga in Arizona. It took me until August 28th to finally get the courage to actually go there. I picked the session after talking with her, and I decided to try the one called Nithya Yoga For Being.
Knowing fully well how long it would take for me to drive there, and that I was required to be early to fill out a short form and not come in late, I left with exactly enough time to make it with no room to spare, hoping traffic, lights, etc. would give me the excuse to not go in. I hit every single green light, and made it to the studio with over ten minutes to spare.
The first session had such an impact on me and afterwards, as everyone was talking and rolling up his or her mats, I kind of sat hunched over. My teacher came over and asked me how I felt. I simply told her that I was okay but I was trying not to cry. She said it was okay and asked if I wanted to talk. I mumbled 'Yes, sure', and everyone else left. We sat in the front and talked. The tears started and came out quite heavily. As we talked, I looked at the teacher and could see her quite plainly through the tears and simply blurted out, 'You really care'. Not a question, but a true realization. She said 'Yes', which I knew was the total truth and she said she wanted to hug me. We knelt and she hugged me and I began shaking quite hard, almost violently. She said she did not want me driving like that, and then she moved behind me and simply placed her hands on my head. I have no idea how long it was, but an absolutely incredible peace filled me. When I finally left, it was such calm and peace. I waited four days to do anything, as I am not a knee-jerk reaction type, but then knew this was something very powerful and real.
I bought a yoga class pass that first night knowing this was not a whim but very real. I have been on two different high blood pressure medications, and after my third Nithya Yoga session, I had a check-up with my doctor. The blood pressure was so low he actually thought I might have doubled my dose. I told him 'No', and he had me come back later in the day to test it again. The end result was that he took me off one of the pills.
He didn't understand it but I still shared with him what I felt what the reason: Nithya Yoga. There is no other explanation. Nothing else in my life had changed.
Testimonials
I have invited friends, co-workers and such to this experience of Nithya Yoga and more. I truly believe it is not all about the poses, which was my original conception of yoga. I feel that without the first part, the meditation especially, I would not have found what I sought in a typical western yoga class. I told my Nithya Yoga teachers and firmly believe that while my birth date might be 9/29/61, I completely feel that my LIFE date, when I realized what life can and is truly is all about, is 08/28/08 - the date that is now on my shirt that I wear quite proudly to every Nithya Yoga session. I have not experienced the Life Bliss Program yet, but fully plan to, as I feel it is an essential part of life.
This has changed my life to the point that I plan nothing else for the night. I get to go to Nithya Yoga. I am early to the classes now, usually by at least twenty minutes. I cannot risk missing out.
Narthana, Calabasas, Los Angeles
Being a yoga practitioner for over ten years, Nithya Yoga caught my attention, especially when the answer to my question of what to expect in a Nithya Yoga class was answered with, 'The best advice is not to expect anything.' The only pre-requisite was to enter the class with an open mind and innocence.
The experience of Nithya Yoga was so profound and the effect stayed with me long after I rolled up my yoga mat. It was as if the vibrant silence I had created in class became a constant companion in my every day life.
To my surprise, after the centering meditation using a breath awareness technique, the class started with a dynamic meditation technique. It was only later that I understood how important it is to clean our inner space with such a powerful technique before we start the practice of postures and breathing. On the physical level I experienced being fully inside the boundary of my body. I learned that yoga is not about the perfection of the poses but the fluidity of the body moving with the awareness of the breath and a centered mind.
In my previous yoga classes, a selection of great music helped me get into the mood of the class and the Nithya Yoga class happened with a lot of silence. The only sound was our teacher's gentle voice guiding us through postures. Her powerful Sanskrit chanting of the healing mantras still resonates within me. As our class was doing a series of sun salutations (sūrya namaskār) and specific postures for the Energy centres of the body the only sound heard was my own deep oceanic breath echoing down the throat. This experience of uniting the body, the breath and the mind brought me deeper and deeper into myself.
On the mental level, the noisy mind became quiet, calm, and relaxed. My restless eyes were effortlessly turned inward instead of outward with their usual wandering and looking at how everybody else is doing and what everybody else is wearing. Clarity of thought simply happened.
A Nithya Yoga class has it all, from intense movement to deep stillness. I learned how my body is shaped according to my belief system and how my thoughts and beliefs have a profound effect on the functioning and wellbeing of my body and mind.
Testimonials
One of the most important aspects of Nithya Yoga and one of my favourite parts is the Body Gratitude Meditation where the body can relax, rejuvenate and heal as I give thanks and appreciate the uniqueness of my body. With Nithya Yoga I experienced transformation at all levels - body, mind and being.
Thank you, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM for bringing back the Inner Science of Patanjali!
Christina James, RN Pullman, WA
I experienced Nithya Yoga for the first time during a twenty-one day meditation program, Inner Awakening, offered by the Nithyananda Mission. I have taken several yoga classes before and have even been on a week long yoga retreat in the past. Still, I was a little apprehensive about what to expect and how I would get through the daily classes.
The entire experience was a beautiful surprise for me! The Nithya Yoga system approaches yoga from a completely different perspective. Instead of focusing just on struggling to get in and out of postures, I really enjoyed each of the steps leading up to the actual poses – the centering meditation, setting an intention for my practice that day, and awakening the experience of bliss in my body. It was all very new to me and felt quite wonderful. I was delighted to see that whatever my body could manage was perfect and the visualizations actually helped me to go deeper into the postures and the feeling of being aligned – body, mind and being. The instructors were amazing ambassadors of this ancient science, so calm, knowledgeable and blissful themselves.
The greatest benefit was the lasting, blissful effect it had on me each day. Learning that no matter what I'm doing, the intention that I have sets the stage for what is recorded in my body created a big change in my awareness and thinking as I move through my activities. I am very glad that I was introduced to Nithya Yoga and look forward to experiencing it more and more in my daily life.