2010-2013 Practice Transcript

Published: 16 February 2010 | Written by Shivananda

 

This is a transcription of the new three-year practice presented by Swami Veda Bharati Tuesday, 16th February 2010 at SRSG. Please see https://www.ahymsin.org/main/index.php/Initiates/2010-2013-practice.html for a complete explanation.

akhaṇḍa-maṇḍalākāraṃ vyāptaṃ yena carācaraṃ
tat padaṃ darśitaṃ yena tasmai śrīgurave namaḥ
Now we extend worship of the Gāyatrī:
OM bhūr OM bhuvaḥ OM svaḥ OM mahaḥ OM janaḥ OM tapaḥ OM satyaṃ
OM tatsavitur vareṇyaṃ bhargo devasya dhīmahi dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt
OM āpo jyotī raso ‘mṛtaṃ brahma bhūr bhuvaḥ svar OM

Now, for the word OM, read Swami Rama’s commentary on the Māndukya Upanishad, Enlightenment without God. On the Gāyatrī-mantra you may ask for my series of lectures in which each letter, not just each word, is explained. If you are familiar with the basics of the mantra science, you will know that a translation is not the meaning of the mantra. In this mantra the first seven words are known as vyāhṛtis – ‘utterances.’ According to the Vedic precepts of genesis, the divine Brahman released the emanated the sound principles of the Universe, and these Vedic sounds, as they were uttered in the cosmos, came into being, the cosmos external and the cosmos internal to you.

The rest of the translation is well known, but I still recommend that you ask for my lectures, recordings. In the last part there are these words:
āpaḥ, āpo = ‘waters’
jyoti =‘light’
raso= ‘flavor for the senses of the joy or bliss of Brahman’
amṛtam= ‘the principle of immortality, eternity, infinity’
brahma = ‘Brahman, the transcendent being,’
and then bhūr bhuvaḥ svar OM

Now, for those who are prepared, those whose breath is naturally diaphramatic – naturally, not with tension or stress – those who have been undertaking spiritual observances for a considerable time, those who understand the principles of the chakras, may undertake this observance (not like those who will do 51, 71 or 108), and you may chose to do 3, 5, 7, 11, 21 or 31, depending on your time and inclination. If you can do the entire practice 108 times, that is a great achievement. You may set aside one day in a month when you take to silence for 36 hours, and you may do this 108 recitation practice the way I will now describe:

The sound of the OM will be thought in the chakra. The seven words, one after the other, representing the sounds of the seven heavens, the seven chakras, like –
  1. OM in mūlādhāra, bhūḥ, as though the breath is flowing from mūlādhāra through the brahma-randhra upwards, back to . . .
  2. OM in svādhiṣṭhāna, bhuvah, as though the breath is flowing from the svādhiṣṭhāna upwards through the brahma-randhra.
  3. OM in maṇipura, svaḥ, as though the breath is flowing from maṇipura upwards through the brahma-randhra.
  4. OM in anāhata cakra, as though the breath is flowing from the anāhata upwards through the brahma-randhra. At this point caution: many people when they come to the anāhata they forget about diaphragmatic breathing and become chest breathers. Caution, that that not happen. Continuing –
  5. OM in vishuddha-chakra and janaḥ, as though from the vishuddha-chakra upwards through the brahma-randhra. Remember to maintain diaphragmatic breathing. You did mahaḥ from the anāhata upwards through the brahma-chakra, through the brahma-randhra. From vishuddha you take janah upwards through the brahma-randhra.
  6. OM in ajña-cakra, tapah upwards from the ajña-cakra, though brahma-randhra.
  7. OM satyam in the brahma-randhra.  And here in the seed of your mind: Tatsavitur vareṇyam bhargo devasya dhīmahi dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt. Breathing out: OM āpo jyoti raso’mritam brahma bhūr bhuvaḥ svar OM. OM in mūlādhāra-cakra and you continue the circle.

If you cannot do OM āpo jyoti raso’mritam brahma bhūr bhuvah svar OM in one breath, you may divide it over several exhalations and inhalations coming down to mūlādhāra and back again with the entire cycle.

If you have further jijñāsā – ‘desire to know,’ you can ask for my lectures recordings on Kundalinī and the Chakras. Make sure that for this longer practice you always establish diaphramatic breathing. Your spine is as you have been trained to keep it. And you have done your anuloma-viloma, that is, nadi shodhana-prānāyama. We will do the final fire offering of this from 26th February to 11th March, call it 12th so you have time to recover.

You may ask, “Can non-initiates, who do not have their personal mantra, undertake this practice?” It is best that you consult with the closest spiritual adviser. A list of those has been circulated to you. And the spiritual adviser may advise you to just do the simple Gāyatrī if you have never done it before. Now, two principles about any observance: For this do read my little booklet: Special Mantras. You begin your practice with this saṃkalpa, resolve, “I undertake this observance so that by Guru’s grace I may attain mokṣa, liberation.” You will do this practice with this intention, with this purpose.

One addition: “May I attain mokṣa,liberation, by having my wisdom impelled and inspired” – so that all your acts come from deep wisdom, all your words flow from the depth of wisdom, and in all your communications and relationships that wisdom makes its presence felt, so that the entire AHYMSIN family also, as your own personal family, may be guided by that divine wisdom.

When you complete the day’s practice say – OM tat sat brahmārpanam astu. I repeat it again: OM tat sat brahmārpanam astu. OM tat sat brahmārpanam astu.OM – that alone is real. May, in that knowledge, this observance of mine be accepted as my surrender and an offering to the divinity. OM tat sat.