Shailesh Basani

Namaste, we started discussing the concept of vegetarianism in relation to the first yama – Ahimsa (Non-Violence). Should a yoga practitioner be vegetarian? There are different schools of thought on this, but, generally most gurus recommend a wholesome and nourishing vegetarian diet, which assists you in deepening your sadhana as you move towards meditation. You can find a lot of literature on the Internet arguing for and against a vegetarian diet in general. Our Guruji gives the following four important reasons on why one should choose a vegetarian diet: 1. An average vegetarian can survive (over lifetime) with 1.5 acres of land , while a non-vegetarian typically needs 12 to 15 acres of land . Why should I be such a big burden on this environment? Couple of facts to ponder: a) According to soil and water specialists at the University of California’s Agricultural Extension, it takes 5,214 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef , but only 23 gallons to produce a poun...

Namaste - we started studying Yamas, the first limb in Ashtanga Yoga, in our classes recently. Yamas are the great, mighty, universal vows unconditioned by place, time and class (religion) – PYS 2.31 . There is still a myth that ‘Yoga is religion’, while we can see that Patanjali begins yoga instruction stating that the first limb is universal in nature and beyond any religion. One of the first definitions of Yoga can be found in Vedas: “ Tam Yogam iti manyante stiram indriya dharanam ” - Controlling all of the senses, including the steadying of the mind, is known as yoga. The term ‘religion’ became popular only since 2000 years ago when Christianity came into existence, while Vedas existed for several hundreds of years prior to that. I recently had an opportunity to visit a beautiful yoga center that embodies this universal nature of yoga. This is Paramahansa Yogananda’s center. Paramahansa Yogananda brought yoga to the West in 1920s and has profoundly impacted lives of millions...

Namaste, we started studying about Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga concepts in our yoga class today.   Patanjali describes Ashtanga Yoga in second chapter called Sadhana Pada.  Ashta = Eight and Anga  = Limbs.  He gives systematic and progressive steps to start our journey from ‘Yamas’ towards deep absorption state called ‘Samadhi’. Yoga is primarily an inward journey, though most of the focus these days is primarily on asanas.  The first five steps together (Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama and Pratyahara) is called Bahiranga (external) yoga and the last three steps (Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi) together is called Antaranga (internal) yoga.  The first limb is called yama.  Patanjali says to begin our inward journey we should first improve our interactions with outside world, have a proper attitude towards everyone in this world, eliminate negativity about others and appreciate the beautiful world .  Only when we eliminate such negativit...

Patanajali suggests three different meditation techniques in this context to calm a distracted mind. Please note that there are several hundreds of meditation techniques and meditation should really be learnt from a trained teacher. Most of the meditation techniques revolve around fixing your concentration on an object, a mantra, your breath etc. We will look at the first of the three here. In sutra 1.36 ( visoka va jyotismati ), Patanjali asks us to concentrate on an object which is the innermost core of the heart, wherein alone the sorrowless, effulgent light glows. Meditating on this light helps you to cultivate feelings such as love and compassion. The idea here is similar to what some techniques teach as meditating on ‘Heart Chakra’. There is a lot of mystification on the term ‘Chakra’. Especially, it is hard to understand for many folks when a technique says ‘do this practice and appropriate chakra will open’. Our guruji gives a simple and logical explanation on this Chakr...

Namaste, last week we studied how our senses play a role in affecting the mind. We will study a little bit more about them in the context of next couple of techniques Patanjali suggests to calm the mind. Patanjali talks about a couple of meditation techniques in subsequent sutras (1.36-1.39). To understand how to meditate, it becomes important how our minds ‘think’ in general. Our minds can broadly be defined into two categories – ‘verbal mind’ and ‘pictorial mind’. Verbal mind – someone who thinks more in terms of language, names and numbers . Pictorial mind – someone who thinks more in pictures and visuals . All of us operate in both these categories, but there is generally a domination of one type over the other. The verbal mind expresses what’s within us to others through our ‘talking’ faculty. If we observe carefully, all our senses (hearing, touch, vision, taste and smell) are only ‘ input’ mechanisms – they receive something from outside and send to the brain for furth...

Namaste, let us continue to study the techniques Patanjali suggests to calm the mind. Please note that Patanjali suggests that you adopt one of the techniques suggested and practice it with deep conviction, sincerity and earnestness to accomplish the quietness of mind. The technique we are going to study today is an inquiry into how our senses (hearing, touch, vision, taste and smell) can affect our mind. Our senses can be affected by what we eat, what TV shows we watch, who we interact with, where we go on our vacations, what music or talks we listen to, where we live etc. Based on how the senses are affected, they can either become an attention (citta svarupanukara) or a distraction to our sadhana. The effect of senses on the mind can be explained with a beautiful illustration from Kathopanishad. This illustration is symbolically denoted by the chariot driven by Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita . It describes the five horses as the five senses , the reins as the mind and the...

Namaste - last week we studied one of the techniques Patanjali suggests to calm the mind (cultivating proper attitude).  Let us look at the next one this week. When our mind is disturbed or is ‘anxious’, it typically is occupied with three activities.  a) Speed of thoughts b) Too much ‘focus’ or ‘fixation’ on the cause of disturbance c) Negativity.  Think for a moment what goes through the mind when, for instance, there is a calamity back home and you are unable to reach your loved ones for a couple of days. There is a lot of speed and negativity, all focused on what may have happened to your loved ones.  However, once we know that all is well, the anxiety just ‘drops off’ of the mind!    When we don’t learn to calm the mind in general, it becomes disturbed more easily even due to ‘routine’ activities such as airplane travel, guests coming home for dinner, lost keys and even traffic! Patanjali suggests deep breathing techniques that involve...