Essays on Yoga, Tantra and Meditation

In the present technological era, there is an almost obsessive tendency for human endeavour to be completely concerned with and absorbed in outside activities. Everything in society is orientated towards the external. Our education is such that it only commends outer success, whether in work, business or play. We are encouraged, even obliged, to be incessantly busy.

Your reason for wanting to practice yoga or your reason for currently practising yoga is not important. The important thing is that you have overcome previous prejudices and postponements to try yoga for yourself. You have overcome the biggest obstacle.

Accept your nature as it is now, whatever its obvious faults. Try not to continually feel that you are inferior to others or that you are riddled with shortcomings and defects. It is only in this way that the grosser aspects and neuroses of the mind will drop away.

In order to succeed in yoga and in life, personal attainment and prosperity are not enough. We need three things: commitment, dedication and devotion to that which is beyond ourselves. Unless we are able to develop these three qualities in our yoga and in our lives, we can never find satisfaction or fulfilment. Real success is not measured by status, monetary gain or any personal achievement, but by how much one is able to offer others in their time of need, for their upliftment and for the removal of their distress.

In the modern scenario, human life has become very fast, hectic and demanding. The present lifestyle demands adjustment on the part of the individual. Each of us, as per our coping resources, tries to adjust in this changing world. Some adjust by becoming overactive and others by withdrawing from the situation. When we fail to make a proper adjustment according to the demands of the situation, a state of negative stress or distress develops in our personality, which gives rise to mental or psychological problems. In most people the mind always remains in a state of arousal and tension. Yoga nidra, as a technique of pratyahara, not only provides relaxation to the body and mind but also has a number of benefits.

Our habitual responses to the world around us are often the source of our suffering; we go through the same reactions time and time again, apparently unable to change. For people who experience extreme anxiety states, such as phobic anxiety, life is indeed a cage; they are unable to act freely, hedged about by terrors which, while they appear to be externally caused, most often come from within the mind. These people often despair, avoiding the situations which trigger the anxiety, and even coming to rely on the anxiety to secure the support and energy of others.

"A resolve or sankalpa is made during the practice of yoga nidra. It should be something of immense importance to you. Resolves are short sentences of moral significance to be embedded in the subconscious such as 'I resolve to stop smoking.' In the state of yoga nidra passivity, this autosuggestion is very powerful. Such resolves can change your whole life. They will certainly come true if you repeat your resolve with enough conviction. By this method you can change old habits and cure certain mental illnesses. Sankalpas can have a spiritual objective like 'I shall become more aware.' Your sankalpa or resolve should be repeated several times during the practice. "Swami Satyananda Saraswati

What is the relationship between yoga and tantra? Yoga is a process of fission and fusion. Therefore, tantra and yoga have exactly the same meaning. They are not two separate philosophies. They are only two different terms belonging to the same way of life. More accurately, we can say that yoga is the practical aspect, while tantra is the theoretical aspect. What tantra explains, yoga asks us to practice.

"Kalagiya" (Kal- ah - guy- ah) is a sacred call that means "The Way is Open!"

There is a prophecy that arose in Tibetan Buddhism over 12 centuries ago. I learned it from my Tibetan friends in India when, in 1980, I heard many of them speaking of this ancient prophecy as coming true in our time. The signs it foretold, they said, are recognizable now, in our generation. Since this prophecy speaks of a time of great danger - of apocalypse - I was, as you can imagine, very interested to find out about it.

The text below was written in the 6th Century by a man called Seng- Ts'an. This is a description of the path of equanimity. How to live your life simply, with a calm, balanced and even mind. It is still as relevant today as it was then. Dharma is timeless.

Many people believe that tantra and Advaita Vedanta are contradictory, because tantra is based on the dual forces of Shiva and Shakti, while vedantic philosophy is strictly monistic. However, in this talk, Swami Satyananda shows how these two philosophies represent different stages of the same continuous spiritual process.

The subject of ecology does not exist in isolation. It is linked with the economy and with industry, and for this reason it is very difficult for people in the world today to become environmentally aware. At the social level, the environment is related to industry and commerce. At the individual level, it is linked with how the individual perceives the environment in which he or she lives. Each individual either connects with or isolates himself/herself from nature because of other compulsions and needs.

There was an old lady, from the "Cree" tribe, named "Eyes of Fire", who prophesied that one day, because of the white mans' or Yo-ne-gis' greed, there would come a time, when the fish would die in the streams, the birds would fall from the air, the waters would be blackened, and the trees would no longer be, mankind as we would know it would all but cease to exist.