Routine 1
Morning:
Wake up – sit up in bed, repeat the three oaths one took at the time of initiation
Full bath or half-bath
Meditation, ideally do chanting of Baba Nam Kevalam mantra before meditation; finish with “Guru Puja” mantra
Yoga asanas (postures)
Breakfast
— Daily work —
Evening:
Half-bath
Meditation, ideally doing kiirtan (chanting Baba Nam Kevalam) before meditation; finish with “Guru Puja”
Yoga asanas (postures)
Dinner
Routine 2
Morning: Same as Routine 1 above
Evening: Half-bath, early Dinner e.g. 18:00
Half-bath, Asanas – yoga postures (at least 2.5 hours after dinner) e.g. 21.00-21.30
Meditation e.g. 21.30 – 21.50, Guru Puja
Tip: Regularity is the key to success in meditation
This means that:
- it’s more important to meditate everyday, than miss a day and do a long meditation the following day
- you’re aiming to meditate twice a day, for a least 20 minutes each time
- if you’re very busy and can’t meditate for 20 minutes, it’s better to do shorter (e.g. 15 minutes or 10 minutes) than miss it all together
- if your meditation is shorter, make up for it later, when you have time
Tip: You can meditate anywhere
While it is ideal to have a dedicated space in your home or even in your bedroom where you can meditate daily, there will be numerous times when you will have to meditate in other places. That is fine!
As a touring yoga monk I regularly have to meditate while traveling on buses, intercity coaches, trains, underground metros, boats and planes. It can be done! It’s far better to meditate on a bus traveling to work than to miss your morning meditation. The deeper you go in your practice, however, the more you will want an ideal environment and will work your schedule so as to achieve this.
What “emotion” do we want to bring into meditation?
Love. Remember, meditation is a spiritual practice. When we experience our inner Self, our pure consciousness we experience infinite love or bliss. There is a Supreme Being which is Infinite Loving Consciousness. For an established meditator this is not an opinion it is a realisation.
Everything in the creation is made from this infinite loving Consciousness. Infinite Loving Consciousness is the essence of everything! Our ego may find such an idea very difficult to grasp, but, as we progress in our daily practice our minds naturally expand and we come to this realisation as we begin to experience our own inner Consciousness.
At that point we become very humble and simple. We realise everything we’ve ever wanted is within us, in our own inner consciousness. We get the first hand experience that the bliss we feel in meditation, as we experience consciousness, is vastly greater, vastly more pure than any physical or worldly enjoyments. This is simply a fact!
We realise that our own Soul is a reflection of the Supreme Soul, the Supreme Consciousness and the quality or character of that Supreme Consciousness is Infinite Love and that It’s calling us, calling us to come nearer, to bathe in that ocean of Supreme Bliss! The Supreme Being is with us, each of us individually, waiting patiently for us to become aware and to explore that bliss!
Spirituality is a relationship, a relationship between oneself and the Supreme. It is a personal relationship that is absolutely real and becomes absolutely intoxicating! One has only to open one’s heart with love and sincerity to begin to experience this relationship. When one does this, the Supreme becomes very, very happy and cannot help but pour more and more love upon us! What do we do with all this love pouring into our hearts? We give it all back to the Supreme! This is called “shuddha bhakti” – pure devotion! And the one who has this sort of devotion for the Supreme is called a devotee!
So, indeed, love is the “emotion” – the subjective feeling – we want to bring into our meditation. Infuse love into every breath , into every incantation of ones mantra, and may we direct all our love to the Supreme Being who is our Bábá – our “nearest and dearest and most beloved”!
The great yogi saint Ramakrishna Paramahansa in Kolkata in 1879, absorbed in bliss during kiirtan – the chanting of spiritual mantra…
Yoga Ethics – Yama & Niyama – why so important?
In the following Shrii Shrii A’nandamu’rti clarifies why Yama and Niyama (cardinal human moral principles) are so crucial in the life of a spiritual aspirant. Underlining their great importance, we find that in the eight branches of Yoga – known as “Ashtaunga Yoga” – the first TWO branches are Yama and Niyama. The are literally the foundation on which everything else in spiritual life is built.
“The first stage of sádhaná (spiritual pracatice) is yama and niyama (strict moral observances), the foundation of spiritual life, the light which dispels the darkness of static ignorance.
By perfecting the ten principles of yama and niyama, spiritual aspirants gain the spiritual vigour required to wage the constant war against the dullness of staticity. Theirs is a valiant and relentless fight against the obstacles created by avidyámáyá [the cosmic crudifying force] which try to detract them from the path of the attainment of Brahma, their supreme goal, their final desideratum, their polestar, the only ideal of their lives.
In the social sphere they struggle not to reform society for the sake of reformation, but to combat the defects and inconsistencies in all walks of life which are detrimental to spiritual life and a stumbling block on the path of attaining the Supreme goal. In short, they seek to build a balanced, harmonious spiritual society. Their endeavour to remove the thorns scattered along the path of progress is ceaseless.“
Subháśita Saḿgraha Part 5
The reading continues:
“Usually those people whose sole aim is to bring about social, intellectual and economic reforms collapse in exhaustion after achieving a certain amount of success and either give up or get confused. But this does not happen to sádhakas [spiritual aspirants] because their main focus is not the struggle, but how to reach the goal. Thus they wage a ceaseless struggle against all kinds of defects and distortions with their two most important weapons: yama and niyama. All sádhakas are soldiers whose rations are knowledge, whose drink is action and whose salt is devotion.”
Subháśita Saḿgraha Part 5
Yoga Ethics – Yama & Niyama – explained
Yama
(i) Ahim’sa’: Not to inflict pain or hurt on anybody by thought, word or action, is Ahim’sa’.
(ii) Satya: The benevolent use of mind and words is Satya.
(iii) Asteya: To renounce the desire to acquire or retain the wealth of others is Asteya. Asteya means ” non-stealing.”
(iv) Brahmacarya: To keep the mind always absorbed in Brahma is Brahmacarya.
(v) Aparigraha: To renounce everything excepting the necessities for the maintenance of the body is known as Aparigraha.
Niyama
(i) Shaoca is of two kinds — purity of the body and of the mind. The methods for mental purity are kindliness towards all creatures, charity, working for the welfare of others and being dutiful.
(ii) Santos’a: a state of proper ease. Being contented with the earnings of normal labour, without any undue pressure on the body and mind. To remain contented, one has to make a special type of mental effort to keep aloof from external allurements.
(iii) Tapah: To undergo physical hardship to attain the objective is known as Tapah. Upava’sa (fasting), serving the guru (preceptor), serving father and mother, and the four types of yajina (actions), namely, pitr yajina, nr yajina, bhu’ta yajina and adhya’tma yajina (service to ancestors, to humanity, to lower beings and to Consciousness), are the other limbs of tapah. For students, study is the main tapah.
(iv) Sva’dhya’ya: The study, with proper understanding, of scriptures and philosophical books is sva’dhya’ya. The philosophical books and scriptures of Ananda Marga are A’nanda Su’tram and Subha’s’ita Sam’graha (all parts), respectively. Sva’dhya’ya is also done by attending dharmacakra (group meditation) regularly and having satsaunga (spiritual company), but this kind of sva’dhya’ya is intended only for those who are not capable of studying in the above manner.
(v) Iishvara pran’idha’na: This is to have firm faith in Iishvara (the Cosmic Controller) in pleasure and pain, prosperity and adversity, and to think of oneself as the instrument, and not the wielder of the instrument, in all the affairs of life.
Half Bath – Vya’pak Shaoca – “thorough cleanliness”
Vyápaka shaoca (“thorough cleanliness”) or “half bath” is done prior to meditation, yoga postures (a’sanas), eating and sleeping. Use cold water, or in very cold weather, luke warm water can be used.
- If needed empty bowels and bladder; clean the urinary organ with water. Wash hands with soap.
- Wash hands up to elbows (no soap needed)
- Blow nose to clear any mucous; ensure nasal passage is clear
- Hold water in mouth then splash water in the eyes at least 12 times; spit out water
- Flush nostrils with water ( na’sa’pa’na’) but only if your stomach is empty: cup water in right hand and pour it into the nose to flow into the mouth; spit out; repeat at least 3 times
- Wash ears and neck: wet hands, place at back of neck and behind ears
- Clean from the knees down to the feet with running water or with wet hands
New Meditators 