Six kriyas in Hatha Yoga ( Shatkarma )

Kriyas are special cleansing techniques in Hatha Yoga to prepare body for effective pranayama and meditation. Primary purpose of Kriya is to make clear channel for the energy to flow in right direction.
Before soul and mind can be purified it is necessary to purify body. Six kriyas were developed in order to purify body from various impurities. Kriyas are used by shadhaka for purifying the body and by common people for curing certain diseases related to certain organs or body systems. For example Neti can be used for sinus, Trâtaka for eye, concentration and will power.

According to Ayurveda all disease generate because of imbalance kapha(mucus), pitta(bile) and vata(wind). Kriyas are used to bring balance in three to stay healthy. Literature says that if there is perfect balance of imbalance kapha(mucus), pitta(bile) and vata(wind) in body then there is NO need to practice Kriyas. Each Kriya must be performed based on need of shadhaka. For example if nose is blocked Neti would be wise to practice, if there is acidity in stomach dhauti would be wise to practice.

There are 6 kriyas defined in Yoga literature; they Dhauti, Basti, Neti, Trâtaka, Nauli and Kapâla Bhâti. These are called shatkarmas (the six actions). 

1. Dhauti is for intestine, teeth, cardiac and anal cleansing
2. Basti is for anemic cleansing
3. Neti is for nasal cleansing
4. Trâtaka is for eye and concentration
5. Nauli deals with abdominal massaging
6. Kapâla Bhâti is for frontal brain

These six are fundamental kriyas and each one of them has sub-kriyas, those will be explained in subsequent writings.

Reference: Hatha Yoga Pradipika Verse 22 and 23

Asking a question

Saying that I believe in something is easy way out, saying that do not believe in something is more easy way out. Questioning something takes courage and trying to find answers takes even more courage. Same is true for existence of God. Believing in God is easy and requires almost no effort, questioning the God requires courage, and try to find God requires not only courage but also effort.

Newton’s question of  apple falling on his head is perfect example of a question that changed an era. Questioning is an important part of learning and development of society. We are taught not to question established facts and traditions in almost all the societies. However whoever have questioned established facts and put an effort to find an answer have changed the society and beliefs.

A dacoit Ratnakar asked a question and become Valmiki, he later became so learned that he wrote epic Ramayana. Questioning to others is easy and can be done with no effort and almost no courage, however questioning to self requires courage. It may shatter beliefs, it may make one undesired by family, friend and society. Only few people do it and whoever does it gets a new personality.

Questioning is integral part of Jnana Yoga, Śrīmad bhagavad gītā shloka 4.34 says that one shall approach a teacher with questions in order to gain knowledge.

tad viddhi pranipatena pariprasnena sevaya

upadeksyanti te jnanam jnaninas tattva-darshinah - gītā 4.34

(Learn this truth by approaching guru with respectful behavior, questioning and servicing. Then self realized saint will instruct you in that knowledge.)

Travelogue: Maha Kumbh Mela Allahabad 2013

I took Indigo flight from Bengaluru to Lucknow and landed Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport at Amausi at 6PM. I took a cab and reached Charbag railway station where I took a hotel. Next day I roamed around in Lucknow and visited Sahara Ganj Mall, Hazarat Ganj and Ambedkar Park in Gomati Nagar.

Flight: early bird advantage

Lucknow is a place I love for listening delicate Nawabi language, hospitality and politics. it was seconded when I encountered an interesting Auto driver. I wanted to go Ambedkar Park at Gomati nagar from Shara Ganj mall. I tried to hire an auto from Sahara Ganj Mall, auto driver said Rs 150, while I said Rs 100. He agreed in Rs 100 on a condition that I would visit a Chicken Saree Shop on the way to see some Sarees so that he gets some benefit of bringing customers to shop. I visited Saree shop, after Saree shop I enjoyed auto driver's lucknowi talk of Akhilesh Yadav’s election promise of unemployment allowance, bad roads, and  nothing new in new government of Uttar Pradesh.

Ambedkar Park in Lucknow

In the evening I took Ganga Gomti train to Allahabad and reached Allahabad around 11 PM, then took a hotel and slept.

Next day morning, I got up early, took tea and Dahi Jalebi in road side shop and got ready to go to School, where I was invited to do a yoga camp. My friend who arranged the yoga camp came with car and picked me up. When I reached school, assembly was over, I was disappointed as I was suppose to deliver a lecture on Yoga in the school assembly. However, principal said that they have changed assembly time and arranged some 500 students and 25 teachers in assembly ground again for Yoga session. I first spoke about Yoga with focus on 3 things (Good code of conduct, Experiment and self less action) and then taught Asana and Pranayama.  I was pleased to know that this work got a place in Amar Ujala Hindi newspaper next day. After yoga camp I went to mela area and took a holy dip in Ganges river.

Yoga camp coverage

Snan(holi dip) area

Next day morning me and my friend went to roam around in mela again, we took a manual rickshaw till start of mela area and then walked on foot whole of mela.  With their camps, almost all big spiritual personalities were spreading philosophy of Hindu religion, Yoga and Peace… All of India was visible in mela as people from every part of country came to take a holy dip.

Ricksaw went upto this point

The  Naga

Three children in mela area

After walking around many spiritual camps, we thought of having some fun and visited Maut ka Kuan(well of death), giant wheel, and shooting. We watched in amazement as the fearless riders performed their tricks with cars and motor bikes, displaying their balance and perfection in well of death. View of spellbound Mela area from top of giant wheel reminded me an watching an old movie. Shooting gave me an opportunity to test the power of silencing the mind. I took a deep breath in, silenced my mind, stilled my body, aimed and pulled the trigger... Result was that 95 percent of my shots were on exact target. After this, my friend advised me of doing it for a living.

Well of death

View of camps from giant wheel

Made line between orange and blue in continuous shots

Then, we went to Chauk area to get a Banarasi Saree. It was a very crowded area, we looked at many shops to see Banarasi Saree and then bought from a very old fixed price shop as suggested by friend.

A beautiful Banarasi Saree

Next day I left Allahabad by intercity express to Lucknow, train reached Lucknow 8 hours late and I missed my train from Lucknow to my hometown. Jai ho Indian Railways…

Some people come to Kumbh to wash away their sins, some people come to spread knowledge and some people come to gain knowledge. Whatever is the reason of their coming to Kumbh, there is a strong belief that brings so many people to the sides of Sangam, perform rituals and take a holy dip. When I look back, I see that this Journey was a memorable experience to witness a captivating phenomena of belief…

Romancing with time

Ramesh, a mid level software professional was having difficulty in managing in his personal and professional tasks. He recently missed deadlines of many of his tasks while his team missed few deadlines on project schedule. His family members were also not happy as he was not able to give time to his parents and fiancee.

He was suggested various trainings and books by his immediate and other seniors. He read various books and attended few trainings on time management and started following in real life what was taught in trainings and books. He was confused that Steven Covey related time management to self management, David Allen (Getting things done) related it to organized work and others related it efficiency and tools. When he started using all of this in real life he found that things were little bit different than books and suggestions suggested in books were not working as expected. He was able to see some improvements but he didn't get any relief from overwhelming pending tasks.

Unintentionally, he was also postponing his private time with his fiancee named Seema who was very supportive, understading and mature. He tried to explain his workload to Seema, she asked him for a date instead. They went to watch a movie and then for a candle light dinner. She opened up his problem of not able to focus on managing tasks. He was unwilling to discuss this over a candle light dinner, but was persuaded by Seema by promising that she would speak only 3 point in 5 minutes and then move on to his fairy tale talks.

After looking at aquarium in dim light for some time, Seema turned to him and asked first question: “Do you remember how many tools you use for managing the your tasks”. Ramesh was blank and started counting the tools. He was using mobile phone, post-it, outlook and a diary for writing down all of his tasks. Seema said "I need you to think of just one" and moved on to second question. She said that she had been observing him doing the same work again and again and asked if he had ever thought of taking less time in doing the same task again. Ramesh was again blank and had no answer as Seema moved to her third and final question. She asked him if he was aware of his priorities in life. Ramesh was fast to answer this time and started with list of number of things in work and personal life. Seema listened to all carefully and said that she will have to spend seven lives with him to see all this happening in real and she is happy to do so. And they continued their candle light dinner with their fairy tale talks…

Ramesh was restless and could not sleep whole night. In the monring, he called up his team lead to tell that he was not be coming to office due to tiredness. His team lead was angry but Ramesh said that he would finish his pending tasks when he would feel well. Ramesh took rest and kept thinking about three things Seema told.

Ramesh was using many tools; many of tasks were duplicated in various tools; and was also not able to carry all his tools to the places he used to go. He decided to just use one tool as told by Seema and spent the day marking all the tasks in one simplest tool.

He then thought about second question of Seema and realized that this concept he had been hearing all the time in workplace, but thought that this was only for performing work in workplace and had never thought of using it in real life. He then spent whole evening thinking of many personal and work related tasks where he can save time or delegate. He was still tired and fall asleep after dinner before he could pay attention to third question of Seema.

Ramesh woke up with Seema’s third question wavering in his mind; he again applied leave and started thinking about it. He had many professional and personal aspirations and was working for each one of them on and off. However he had made no significant progress in any of those aspiration in recent years and some of them were just resting in his heart. He called up his childhood friend and discussed all of them. After discussion he found out that many of his aspiration were far away from reality and he really didn’t and would not need them in his lifetime. He also found that he was doing many things just because someone asked him to do and he really did not enjoy doing them and their results. As a result of this awareness, he was surprised that he had picked up a goal for lifetime while doing away with many unnecessary goals. He was also clear on things he wants to do in office and decided to focus on activities he was good and enjoyed while giving away activities he never liked to other colleagues.

Ramesh was feeling exuberant and wanted to tell this to Seema. He went to her home in the evening; both of them then went to a park and he discussed his revised personal and professinoal goals. Seema was happy and called up Ramesh's parents to invite them to a surprise family dinner...

Omkara - the mystic sound

I started learning Asana from books and videos on Youtube few years ago. After learning and mastering a set of Asana I started performing Pranayama but started chanting only after I went to Yoga School(SVYASA). There in Yoga school I learned starting and ending Dhyana mantra. I started using these mantras in my practice once in a while just to follow the tradition.

Today I will write about Omkara from my experience of performing MSRT(Mind sound resonance techniques),  chanting of Mantras and just simple chanting of OM.

If we look carefully at OM, it is combination of A, U, M sound produced by mind. Chanting of these sound separately is called A-kara, U-kara and M-kara respectively. A-kara is produced with mouth wide open, U-kara is produced mouth half open and M-kara is produced mouth fully closed. So OM encompasses the entire range of sound human vocal cord can produce. With little bit of practice one can resonate lower parts of body with A-Kara, mid part of body with U-kara, upper parts of body with M-kara and one can feel resonance in entire body with Omkara. It is possible to feel all 4 phenomenon with little bit of practice by adjusting pitch of voice. With little bit of practice one can resonate all parts and entire body with mental sound(Ahata) as well, where no vocal cord is used.

One can also experience silence following the Omkara chanting. This must be the reason behind reciting of Omkara before and after every dhyana mantra. Omkara is a mystic sound that has many reference in various upnisads; it symbolizes the creation, existence and destruction of the universe and the associated gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh. Gita says that one who leaves this body with chanting of Omkara he reaches the supreme.

After I understood the effect of Omkara(OM or AUM) on mind, I started using Omkara regularly not only in Yoga practice but also any time when I want to energize my body and bring my mind to a peaceful state of silence.

Business, spirituality and success

Co-founder of Infosys, a very successful and respected business leader N. R. Narayana Murthy asked a spiritual leader Dalai Lama, a question about success in one of the NDTV programs. He asked how does Dalai lama defines success. Answer was that a man who fights always just for selfish reasons and gets success isn’t happy in the end, however who gets success with harmony is happy in the end.

Above question caught my eye because it was bridging the gap between business and spirituality. Success in worldly terms may be quite different from success in spiritual terms, and what happens when we combine them was immediate question in my mind.

On one hand, we have examples of one ignoring the other and becoming successful (top dog Vs renunciate), on the other hand we have examples of one turning the other and becoming successful.

While Buddha is a real life example, a best seller “A Monk who sold his safari” by Robin Sharma gives an imaginary example of top dog turning a renunciate. A month ago I read about a successful business man in USA who lived a near renunciate life in India for more than a decade and later became successful in energy drinks market. However, renunciate to top dog examples are not so easy to find or not always on the top of mind.

Most of the business organizations pay less attention to spirituality, and most of the spiritual organization(or teachers) pay less attention to worldly success. However business organizations pay good attention to their core values and spirituality organizations run their business successfully …

When I tell my mom to  not pay attention to worldly matters, she tells me that everything is important till we be live “Jab tak jindagi hai tab tak sabhee kuchh chahiye Beta” and I agree with her. I couldn’t agree more  with one of my friend, who told that assimilate and cherish every single moment of her life is success for her.

A man always gets the time for what he wants to do

Time is most precious and limited for each one of us. Some relate time to money and some to relate to mental peace and satisfaction. Steven Covey related time management to self management, David Allen (Getting things done) related it to organized work and others related it efficiency and tools. I have attended some 10 trainings, read many books and have delivered several training on time management to my team in my previous companies about time management.  

According to my experiences following three things are most important:

1)      Ability to define the priority

2)      Ability to be efficient on any task whenever done again

3)      Using simplest tools

Ability to define the priority:

There are many people who just say that they want to do something but they never do it and if you ask why answer is  “Time”. Anything that is most important to someone always get the time by one way or another. Identifying that is important.

Ability to be efficient on any task whenever done again:

Simple law of learning, anyone who thinks about it saves lot of time.

  

Using simplest tools:

There are many tools available but tools shall be simplest else they themselves will eat lot of time.

I can expand on these lines but let me be efficient and sum it with “A man always gets the time for what he wants to do”

Power of a still mind

I watched a movie 'The Karate kid' this Sunday on TV, and enjoyed it very much. One thing caught my attention was stilling the mind and being fearless.

Dre Parker continued in competition despite broken leg because he wanted not to be scared anymore.

"Because I'm still scared. And no matter what happens, tonight, when I leave, I don't want to be scared anymore."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1155076/quotes?qt=qt1423145

And key thing he did to win the fight was stilling his mind. Same phenomena was in Kung Fu Panda-2 as well.

Can stilling the mind bring enormous powers?

Yoga text describes these enormous powers as siddhis. These are obtained by a sadhaka in the path of Yoga while achieving Samadhi. These enormous powers are to be ignored by sadhaka else he falls from spiritual path and doesn’t reach the highest point. There are 8 main powers (asta siddhis) and 10 secondary powers defined in ancient religious text. There is little bit difference on what exactly these siddhis are, but the concept is more or less same in all the texts.

Even if we leave siddhis beside, anyone can experience some power of a still mind with little bit of practice even though its not easy.