CHAPTER 2 - SAPTANGA YOGA🔗

Two techniques for Completion

Introduction

Saptanga Yoga plays a major role and is the underlying thread in Nithya Yoga practice. What is Saptanga yoga? Saptanga yoga is a seven part system for enlightenment revealed by Paramahamsa Nithyananda. Saptanga Yoga is to be practised continuously, becoming the lifestyle. It is the basis for your thinking, logic, actions, interactions and methodology in teaching. Nithyananda Yoga acharyas teach from the space of awareness and consciousness, the space of completion, to enrich and cause the realities of the people around them.

All these seven parts are to be practised simultaneously. These seven are:

• Right listening to self and others
• Completion with self and others
• Integrity in one's words, thoughts and actions to self and others
• Practice of authenticity
• Live with responsibility
• Enrich (constantly expanding) self and others
• Be the catalyst for people to manifest their reality

There are four powers or energies in life which are continuously available to you, and when unlocked are the keys to wealth, success and happiness. Unfortunately, you do not use them properly. When used consciously and with clear intention, they will shower you with everything you want as they are great energies. The four powers are:

• Power of Words (vak-shakti)
• Power of Thinking (mano-shakti)
• Power of Feeling (prema-shakti)
• Power of Living (atma-shakti)

These powers are related to the four major dimensions of life - words, thinking, feeling and living. The key to unlocking and enjoying these powers is to know more about you and to create the right inner space. These powers are described in the sections below.

Each of the four powers is guided by a spiritual principle called tattva. Each tattva is the key to unlock the corresponding power. The power of words will be unlocked when you practice integrity. The power of thoughts will be available when you practice authenticity. The power of feeling will be possible when you practice responsibility, and the power of living will be unlocked when you decide to enrich others.

Right Listening

Listening is an independent, intelligent technique which can directly lead you to the higher space and higher reality. Hearing and listening are different. In hearing, sound enters the ears, gets processed and creates different emotions. Right listening means that when sound enters your system, it gets absorbed into your system and leads you from sound to silence. The possibility for right listening happens greater in the presence of an enlightened master.

Listening is always connected to the ability to handle reality as it is, without creating your own unconscious ideas and conclusions. When there is no listening, you always come to a conclusion even before the information is fully cognized; this is commonly known as jumping to conclusions. That is why the very first step in Hindu spiritual practice is integrated listening – Shravana.

You never really listen either to yourself or others. When was the last time you really listened to yourself? When you start listening to yourself, there will be a growing awareness of the words you continually say to yourself and others. The right words start with YOU. You are the first person to hear the words you utter. Practice listening to yourself and you will be able to listen to others' words in their totality, without forming conclusions and judgements as you are listening.

In the beginning when you listen to yourself, do not believe everything that mind tells you; listen authentically. The first thing the mind does is to throw tantrums. It will cry, and then it will make you feel bored and then tired. Listen to all three. Only after that, you will know what the incompletions are that you are carrying. Listen authentically to everything that your mind says. Don't pass any judgement as to whether it is right or wrong. Don't believe and don't disbelieve. Just listen! Listen even when you are talking, driving or sitting.

Completion

The science of completion is the essence of Yoga, Sankhya philosophy and Vedanta. Human beings reach their highest possibility only through completion. The science of completion will not only help you to experience life, it will teach you how to remain eternally blissful and in love with life!

Completion directly leads to liberation. It directly liberates you from karmas to experience the truth, the reality of life. All spiritual practices will have the component of completion. For example, completion is present in the Catholic confession, Hinduism's atma vichara and the self-introspection of Buddhism. The component of completion is present in every successful spiritual practice, regardless of the technique or religion.

What is an Incompletion

A thought pattern is a pre-defined way of thinking and responding to any situation based on powerful past experiences like failure, rejection, being punished or being subjected to abuse. During these moments, you create an idea about yourself and life. For example speak these words internally, "I am weak. I am a failure. I am poor. Life is cruel and uncaring." Thought patterns are many, but root thought patterns are few; they are the defining thought patterns which continuously run your life without your knowledge. Your bio-memory carries a heavy load of root thought patterns.

When faced with situations in life, you continue to respond to life based on these past thought patterns although they are based on inadequate beliefs or cognitions about yourself, others and life. Incompletions are anything from the past that hinders you from responding to life as it happens. They are the result of cognitions which you adopted in the past but which are inadequately controlling you even now.

When incompletions are relived again and again, they get strengthened and become your bio-memory and then become your Life. They resurface without your awareness when similar thoughts and situations arise. Incompletions will make you feel powerless, tired and bored. When you are driven by incompletions, you may have one dimension of success in life, but you will fail in life itself! Success in one dimension of life is not success!

What is completion

Completion is a powerful process to awaken the inner most intelligence in you. Living in the space of completion means living and acting without carrying either your own, or others' hangovers of past incidents, words, actions or emotions. It does not mean ignoring or forgetting your past. It means that the past incident or action does not have the power to cause pain, anger or guilt in you anymore. It will not put you in the space of feeling powerless. You will be in the space where you feel positive, powerful, energized and that everything is possible in life.

Here is a small story of how completion will give you the feeling that it is enough for you to live your whole life. There were two lovers who felt their love for each other was enough to live on and they did not care for anything else. They felt the space of completion with their love for each other. It is that space, and not the lover, which gives the feeling of completion. The lover's love is never enough as it will go away, disappear. If you are in love with someone, and also feel complete with that someone, be very clear, it is not the person who is causing your completion experience. Your space of completion is actually the reason why that person looks more colorful than color itself, and more beautiful than beauty itself.

If the space of completion is the driving force of your life, you will find solutions to your problems very easily; the solutions will simply happen! The space you create, and the ability to create the right space, is the true wealth. You are the embodiment of consciousness, and that consciousness is the universal energy that you use to create your own reality. The time you spend in completion makes your consciousness grow. That is the time you make new decisions to have breakthroughs in your life.

When you look at yourself in the mirror, how do you feel about yourself? Many times, you will feel that you are the number one enemy to yourself; you don't want to see yourself. When you can see yourself, you will feel connected to you, and you will feel completely settled in you. Start listening to yourself. Completion starts to happen when you are listening authentically. Listening becomes a part of your life when you start the completion process. One is connected to the other. Discover and intranalyze your incompletions, your patterns.

So, first, complete with yourself, then, complete with the other person as this is also required. When you complete with other people, you become matured. You will understand that other people cannot be changed. Only when you are complete with yourself, will the world around you change.

You can complete with your mental thought patterns, with your life and even with your body. You can complete with anything and everything. You can complete with your poverty consciousness patterns, you can complete with your ill-health patterns and you can complete with your addiction patterns. Completion is like a powerful key you can use to transform your life, and make it into what you want.

Completion with life brings peace, eternal love

All the incompletions in you and in the world start with hatred and violence towards yourself and others. It is imperative to start completing with everything you hate or dislike outside of you. Only then, can you discover and overcome the self-hatred you carry inside. Hatred has zero justification, and needs to be completely eliminated from life. That will cause peace within the self, and ultimately, in the world. All completions on planet earth start with love for self and others.

Technique for continuous completion

Sit comfortably in front of the mirror. The mirror should be large enough to show the entire body or at least the entire face.

Maintain a deep eye to eye contact with your reflection. The moment you have this, the first thing you will have is tears. Allow it.

Sit in front of the mirror and say whatever you want to tell yourself. Spend time with you. Talk, talk, talk.

Now, try to identify the earliest memory that created this cognitive incompletion in you that formed the root pattern of your suffering.

Go back to the first few situations in life where you experienced conflict. This situation would have typically happened between the third and fifth year of your life. Relive that situation and the emotion that came with it.

If tears or anger comes, allow it and relive it.

When you stand face to face with your past and relive it with awareness, the pain and the anger disappears. When the anger disappears, you will only feel love.

Completion will not come if you just work on that root pattern. Every incident which stems from that root pattern must also be completed.

Technique for spontaneous completion

Completion does not mean blindly accepting everything that happens in your life. It simply means not resisting life as it happens.

The root of all incompletions is this idea we carry - "Life should not be this way".

We spend our whole life asking, "Why, Why, Why? Why is life so bad? Why did this happen to me? Why do bad things happen to good people?"

Spontaneous completion or instant completion means simply dropping the wrong understanding that is creating conflict for you in a particular situation.

It is possible! Don't ask, "Why is life this way?" Instead, decide that this is life. So, what next? Do I want to accept it and move on? Do I want to reject it and move on? Or, do I change it to the way I want? The solution from completion is - accept, reject or change.

Whatever decision you make from this cognition will be right for you. When you act out of completion, you are empowered to resolve any conflict that happens inside or outside you.

When you relive past memories again and again during the process of completion, they will lose their power over you. You regain the ability to live spontaneously and stress free. You start living in integrity, harnessing the power of words. You become a single, unified being - your inner space, body and mind come under your control.

Once you complete with the root pattern, you will truly experience the state of yoga described by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras: yogaha citta vritti nirodhah. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM explains it as: "Yoga is the spontaneous disappearance of mind patterns - the space of completion".

Integrity and Power of Words

Whether you realize it or not, your life is built on your words and commitments. The strength of your life is based on the words you give to yourself and to others. If your words are conscious, your life will be conscious. If your words are unconscious, your life will be unconscious. That is why integrity forms the basis of your life. It is part of your very life energy.

What is Integrity

Integrity is a spiritual truth, a tattva. It is not an ethic or moral value. Integrity has two dimensions – honoring the word you give yourself and honoring the word you give to others. Integrity is you fulfilling the words and thoughts you give to yourself and others. Integrity is not just about the big commitments we make in life. It is also something as simple as making the commitment to you to do yoga every morning at 5 o'clock.

Your unkept words create a hangover

Many times, you forget the commitments you make to yourself or to others because of the unconscious use of words; saying without thinking. When you do not keep commitments, they will create a "hangover" in you or in the other person that can destroy your self-confidence and the other person's confidence in you.

Integrity brings power to your words

When you honor the words you give to yourself, your self-confidence grows. Your self-doubts start to melt away. When you honor the words you give to others, their confidence in you grows. Your relationship with that person becomes strengthened and powerful.

Always use words consciously, with awareness, as it will help you understand the impact of the words on yourself and others. The right words can immediately change the way you think about yourself and others. The right words can also keep your inner space conflict free and peaceful. By creating and expressing the right words, you can actually shape the reality as you choose. You can make or break your life with your words. The words you utter are YOU.

What happens if I cannot keep my words

Do your very best to keep your commitments to yourself and others. If you find that you still cannot keep it, complete with yourself and inform the other person that you cannot keep the commitment. Either fulfil or complete! Completion is also integrity.

Integrity is practising Dharma

Taking responsibility for your words is practicing right dharma, right living. "Do not do unto others, that which would cause pain if done unto you (from Hindu epic Mahabharata)". This is dharma. Remember dharma and ask yourself, will these words cause pain to me or the other person? Always be aware of the power and impact of the words you utter to yourself and to others.

Integrity and reduction of thoughts

Patanjali says, "The first step of yoga is reduction of speech". Swami Nithyananda explains - to achieve the reduction of speech, reduction of thoughts needs to happen. For reduction of thoughts to happen, integrity must be lived. This will naturally lead to a reduction in thoughts, not just to oneself, but in speech to others. For integrity to become part of you, you must go on sharing this truth with others. You will find yourself practising and living what you share and teach to others.

Power of Declaration

To strengthen your decision to be integrated and complete, declare the decision to do so. Whenever you declare, it helps gather your scattered energies and focus them towards making your declaration a reality through responsible actions.

Power of words

When you continuously, and consciously align your words and actions, your words become powerful. You will have the spontaneous intelligence to use the right words and the most effective words in life. You unlock the Power of Words. You achieve Vak Shakti or Vak Siddhi, the power to make anything you say into a reality. This is the ultimate experience of the Power of Words.