chhaya sadhana

Exercises for controlling the mind

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There was a request for more practical type posts. This despite having written about so many small things that you can do to increase your ability to concentrate, ie to increase your power of making your mind still at one point. So here is one more exercise. But you must do one of these exercises sincerely and regularly, just reading about them is of no use.

I have written about Tratak, ie staring at one single point. The following can be used as your focus,

  • The center of the Shri chakra, 
  • The rising or setting Sun, ie when it is a red colored dot at the horizon
  • The full Moon.
  • The flame of a Deepak, ie Agni.

These are the best options, they are pure energies directly from nature ie Prakruti herself. But apparently if you find these original geometries and focus points boring, let’s stare at something more interesting, your own face.

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This is how you go about it.

  • You will need a good quality clean mirror. If you have the water of the river Ganga, sprinkle a few drops on this before starting, with the intention that she cleanses it of all negativity, enhances positivity. Or pray to your source of faith to clean it of all negativity, to create positivity in it and sprinkle regular water on it.
  • A reasonably lit, neat and clean room. Sprinkle Ganga water all around to clean the room of negative vibrations and entities. Or you can clean out your space using your preferred method, eg blowing a conch, ringing bells, burning incense etc. 
  • Sit on your Asan. The position should be in an Yog Asan, ie yogic posture, choose any in which you can sit for about 5mins comfortably. Your back, neck and head should be aligned, no slouching. Breathe deeply, relax. Recite Om 3 times, drag out the ‘mmmmm’ part. Call on your favourite deity, ie source of faith etc to help you in your endeavour. 
  • Keep your mirror in front of your face at eye level about 3-4 feet away, so that you can clearly see your own face. Take a few deep breaths, relax yourself. 
  • First look at your face reflected in the mirror for a minute. Take in your eyes, eyebrows, forehead, nose, chin, cheeks, lips, neck etc. 
  • Then focus on your own third eye position, ie the point between your eyebrows in the mirror. Do this for only one minute initially. 
  • After you finish, close your eyes, remain sitting for a few minutes. In case you see any visions etc, observe them dispassionately. Get up.
  • This is all there is to the exercise itself. It is quite simple to perform.

This mirror needs to be stored carefully. It should be wrapped in a red paper or a red cloth. Do not let others view it or see their face in it. (If you are already using a mirror for scrying then get a different one for Tratak, do not mix the two)

Your Asan too is your personal object of power. Do not let others touch it or sit on it.

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The T&C.

Breathing – Breathe in an even rhythm, slow deep breaths, abdominal breaking. If you feel the breath is agitated, it means that the mind is agitated and you must slow down or stop your exercise .

Mantra – Do not recite any mantra. There should be no thought, you cannot think of anything, even of a mantra. Your mind should be trained to focus only at your chosen focus point in the mirror. For a few days you will not be able to concentrate on your own reflection, the mind will wander. But as you progress, it will get will get easier. Even later, your reflected face will vanish from the mirror, as your subconscious mind starts getting active, you might see visions before you. Be careful when this starts happening as this is often past karma is dredged out from the depths of the subconscious. After this the thought-less stage which comes while during Dhyan will happen.

Time – You will be doing this alone with no teacher with you, so do it for max 5mins or less if you feel scared. Do not exceed your personal time limit. If you do so, the subconscious mind can get activated to such an extent that it can cause problems. It can put up so many things before your conscious mind that it can crack.

There is a reason why the subconscious mind is not allowed to act freely, it has all the stored information from your past, present, future, parallel lives and it can be dangerous for people who are not ready to experience all this at once. As with any practice involving the mind it is best to slow and steady. And stop at the first sign of internal restlessness or fear. If you are not feeling comfortable, it is your mind telling you that it is not up to it, listen to it. 

Siddhi – Tratak is a first step for those who wish to achieve Siddhis like Vashikaran etc. I never advocate pursuing Siddhis as they are of no use. You invest significant time to achieve them and they last only for this current life time. Also there is a high possibility of getting caught in self-ego and creating negative karma by unethical use of Siddhi on others. Do not use the powers of the subconscious mind to damage others. Negative karma created in such a way is very intense and will eventually damage you, ie hat you have done to others will be done to you to achieve karmic balance.

Hypnotic power – People who do Tratak regularly, can hypnotise others by just looking into their eyes for a few mins. So teach yourself to look at other people’s nose or mouth as you interact with them, do not stare into their eyes for too long. If you do, they will get uncomfortable, be receptive to suggestions that you make and later get hypnotised. Also you will pick up random information from their subconscious mind. In case you accidentally hypnotise others, sprinkle some water on them to get them back to normal. In my personal opinion, hypnotising others is a crime. I never do it.

Programming objects – You can ‘programme’ objects, ie infuse a desired thought pattern into an object. Use this ability only for positive actions, do not create negative karma for yourself.

  • Take a object, eg a pen, and stare at it for 5 mins. Then intend that whoever looks at this object will be under your control and blow on it. Now onwards whoever looks at this pen can be easily influenced by you. You can use this cheat code for getting through interviews etc. Or you can use this to suggest that your clients take up some spiritual practice or behave in a better way or give up addictions. This pen will retain this energy for about a month or so.
  • Later you can ‘implant’ ideas in others heads by just staring at them and mentally telling them what to you want them to do.
  • If you stare at food that others are eating it can cause them ill-health or make them better just by your thoughts. So avoid randomly staring at things /people and keep a strict control on your thoughts.
  • A positive way of using this is to programme your food and water. Stare at it for a few mins before eating it and intend that it helps you be healthy.
  • Take a object, eg a brooch. Stare at it and think of your source of faith, eg Shri Ram. Visualise him as clearly as you can and intend that his energy now resides in this brooch. Wear it on your dress and it will work as an amulet help you and protect you. Its energy will wear out in a month or so.

This trick of mildly hypnotising others for subconsciously influencing them is very common. But I have observed that the effects of such exposure stop after having a bath or even after sprinkling water on the victim. Even programmed objects lose their programming after you sprinkle water on them.

In my personal experience this simple seeming exercise can get very intense. The subconscious mind gets active very fast as the conscious mind is sort of ‘self-hypnotised’, tranquillised. It will show you scenes from your past lives, unfinished karma etc which is a generally problematic thing. Then you will be required to resolve it, ie repay back the energy to the person who is to receive or come to terms with it. In case you do all this, this exercise can give results equivalent to Chhaya sadhana.So if you do this form of Tratak, be prepared for what can happen. Ultimately you are responsible for yourself.

Energy flows out through the eyes and you are enhancing this inherent power of yours by this targeted Tratak, it is a full fledged sadhana in itself. If you do it sincerely then you can help yourself and others around you.

www.psychologicallyastrology.com

Create and animate your astral shadow

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This post is how to create and animate your astral shadow. Astral shadows have several uses but these two are quite common,

  1. If you wish to use the astral pathways to travel.
  2. If you wish to create an astral guard for yourself while you are busy doing something.

Creating an astral shadow self is a two step process.

  1. First is to create an exact copy of your astral self. Your astral self is composed of the subtle-body and the causal body (You leave behind the gross anna-mai-kosh). For creating an astral copy of yourself you need to know how you look on the astral planes. Every tiny detail has to be replicated. You focus and create this copy of your subtle body.
  2. The second step is animating this astral self. You pull out the consciousness from your current body and put it into the astral shadow body you have created. Thus it gets animated and you have consciously left your physical gross body anna-mai-kosh. Your physical body is not dead, the soul is connected to it by a ‘silvery cord’. It is actually more golden-silvery-shimmery. Or you can animate it for a specific task which can be ‘programmed’ into it, here you don’t transfer your entire consciousness.

All this requires a significant amount of energy. To create the astral self and then animate it. So think twice about why you are doing this. Then there are the dangers of the astral, so you should never never attempt these things alone. Always have your real-live teacher guiding you.

So this post is, in a way, just for information.

Some of us travel astrally at night. Here we are doing it under the control of the sub-conscious mind. This impacts on the physical body after you wake up, like typical pressures on the head, intense body pain, nausea etc. Creating and using an astral shadow self is different as you are doing it under the control of the conscious mind. But the physical symptoms will occur, be prepared for this.

The easiest way is to use the Chhaya-sadhana method. I have written about how to focus on your shadow as a spiritual practice in my earlier post here. Do read it. I had mentioned that tantriks use this method to create a shadow of themselves. If you do this shadow-practice for 21 days with full focus and intention, you will sense your after-image projected into the skies becoming more than just an after-image. This now starts becoming a ‘chhaya-purush’, an astral replica of yourself. Depending on how strong your mental energies are, this chhaya-purush will become stronger and more defined. It might take upto 6 months to get the highest possible details. As you practice and focus deeply, you will be able to call your chhaya-purush at your third-eye chakra at any time you want to.

Till this point this exercise can be done by everyone. Recognising your astral self and being aware of it, is a good thing for the student of the occult.

Marak, rulers of the 2nd and 7th houses

Now you know that your personal soul/ jiv-atma or personal consciousness, resides at the third eye chakra. The ajnya chakra is very important for just this reason. If you are able to visualise your finely detailed chhaya-purush in your third-eye chakra, you can easily transfer your entire personal consciousness into it. Understand this statement. You are transferring your complete consciousness into an astral shadow. You will be seeing, working, moving out of this shadow. So the first thing you will see is your material body sitting in front of you, without animation. So even if you are not scared of anything, this is one thing which will scare and scare badly, guaranteed.

Removing the consciousness from the physical body and putting it into the shadow is a mental process. You visualise it, intend it and it happens. There is no need for any ritual or ceremony. However before attempting something like this, it is always better to cleanse the room, this will reduce interference. Switch off the lights, as darkness and silence allow greater focus. Sit on your asan, meditate or breath deeply a few times. Request energy and help from your source of faith, your favourite deity, etc. Concentrate in your third eye chakra and call in your chhaya-purush. It will float in front of you. Now visualise yourself exiting your material body and entering your shadow. You will. Also keep track of the silvery cord linking the two bodies now onwards. Go wherever you want to and do whatever it is. After you finish, follow the silvery cord back to your physical body and just visualise entering it again. After you re-enter, remember to dissolve the shadow. This is all about intention so be very clear about what you are thinking/ feeling/ intending.

You have travelled astrally consciously.

After you return, the body will feel the strain. There will be a dull ache all over, a point of pressure within your skull etc. This should resolve eventually. But to set all your bodies back properly you will have to do some self-healing. (I like using the extended form of Gayatri Mantra for this, as it fixes the bodies back within each other perfectly.)

However you don’t need to push your entire consciousness into your astral shadow. Intending that it goes and does something is rather a small task so you can just programme it and send it off. It will be less draining than transferring your consciousness completely. eg If you want to create a guard shadow as a watchman while you are busy, you will programme your chhaya-purush accordingly. You will instruct it to look for danger/ disturbance coming towards you from all the 10 directions, east, west, north, south, NE, NW, SE, SW, up and down. It will remain inert and watchful. In case of psychic attack it will respond by fighting back. Just remember that it is your projection, your energy, so as it gets battered while fighting astrally you will feel the effects too. When you pull it back into yourself, you will gain a report of what it was doing or what did it observe.

Then there is the second method which is used by western occultists. I haven’t used it, my brother has. (He experiments, he used to take more risks when he was younger.)

So the basic theory remains the same. But here you visualise an exact physical body, same as yours, right down to your nails and hair! In chhaya-sadhana you use a mantra, the energy of the sun/moon, your chakras and things. In this second method you are simply focussing on your physical appearance. Look at your actual physical body in the mirror. Try to remember how you look. Close your eyes and re-create your physical image here. Imagine every bit of your physical body strongly. As you do this intensely, maybe a 6 month time-frame, and you will be able to call on your exact physical like-ness to the tinest detail to your third eye.

Once you have achieved this, the further process remains the same. You pull out the consciousness from your third eye chakra and put it in your visualised body. It also separates just as easily and you will be able to move into the astral dimensions using it. And yes, the visual of your actual physical body sitting like a mass of flesh will unnerve you at first.

There are a lot of things around us. The astral dimensions are not peaceful glowy lights and soft music. There are very real dangers there. Things which attack the mind. If you get scared or emotional or feel disgust or anything for that matter you are in trouble. Most of us have no need to fiddle about with these things. And even for those of us who are required by karma to get involved with the invisible, proper guidance is essential. You need a live person teacher in front of you while actually attempting these antics.

So whoever it was who asked this question on astral projection start by building up your mind. Learn to keep your emotions, your feelings, your mind in your absolute control. This is not easy, but yes, if you build yourself up and practice you will be able to do create your astral shadow, animate and use it.

 

Marak, rulers of the 2nd and 7th houses

There is a fundamental difference between methods which use Sanskrit mantra and those which do not. If you are not using Mantra, the energy of the process becomes tamasik, ultimately damaging the practitioner. In India too, there are several dubious people/ tantriks who work with entities, spirit slaves etc. This is very dangerous.

There are several movies which show entities fighting back and harming the exorcists. This happens if you do not use the energy of Sanskrit Mantra. My brothers and I use the energy of Mantra-s, intentions, the blessings of our Devi and our Guru. Thus we do not get harmed in anything that we do. We dedicate all that we do to the Ultimate Parabrahma so that we do not attract karma.

The secret of all Tantra is clarity of intention and the power of your mind. This comes only with regular spiritual practice.