siddhi

Length and Rate of your breathing

astrologerbydefault2 Comments

We are breath, or more more correctly we are linked to this manifested creation primarily by the movement of air through our nostrils. To go beyond the limits imposed by the manifested, the first step is control of the breath. If you control your breath, you naturally control the pran moving within you. If you can control your pran, you automatically control your mind. Your mind is like a ball in your hand, it jumps up and down with the movement of pran. If you still the movement of pran, you also still your mind. The pran’s movement stills when you still your breathing, ie achieve Keval Kumbhak state, where there is no breathing in nor breathing out. If your Mind goes still, you achieve the ‘unmani-state’, beyond-Mind. After you reach this Unmani state, you hear the continuous ‘Nada’, the sound of the unmanifested. If you can dissolve your limited consciousness in the sound of the Nada, you achieve the Eternal.

Length and Rate of your breath

Our regular breathing is very turbulent. It depends on the physical movement of the body but it also depends significantly on your emotions and your thoughts. Check your breathing pattern when you are happy, sad, angry, upset, relaxed, focussed, etc and observe for yourself how it varies.

All texts on breathing and Dhyan will talk about the length of the breath and the rate of breathing.

  • This is how you determine the length of your breathing in comparison to your own finger-widths, a measure called angula. Switch off the fan in your room first, it should not be windy inside. Place some cotton fibres or a very thin thread on the back of your hand and keep it at some distance from your nose. Be at rest, relax and breathe normally. As you exhale on the cotton fibres they will move with the force of the exhaled air. Try to find out till what distance from your nose, the cotton fibres visibly move with your exhaled breath. Measure this distance from your nostrils to the fibres with a piece of thread. Now count how many finger-widths long is your breath when you are at rest.
  • Now to measure your breathing rate. Sit in a relaxed position. Set a timer for 5 mins. Count your breathing, ie one inhale and one exhale is one breath. eg If you count 52 breaths in 5 mins, then it is average at about 10 breaths per minute. eg If it is 68 breaths in 5 mins it is approximately 14 breaths per minute. As per science, the average human breathing rate at rest is 12 per minute.

Your life span is measured in breaths, not years. If you breathe slowly, you will live longer, look younger and be more healthy. But you should not force yourself to stop/slow breathe, if you do so, you will damage your body and your nadi-s. This should happen spontaneously and it will happen gradually as you do your spiritual practice.

(This photograph of my Sat-guru was taken in 1990, he was physically 85yrs old then.)

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If your breathing is fast, forced, laboured, intense etc the air will be displaced for a longer distance from your nose. ie the length of the breath will increase. As per the texts, this is how the activities affect your breath, eg eating increases the length to 18 angula, walking increases it to 20 angula, run­ning to 24 angula, sexual activity to 60 angula etc. If the length of the exhaled breath is longer, it reduces your life-span. The reason is that with every exhaled breath, you are also exhaling pran from your system. Generally you lose more pran than you pull in from the universe as your exhaled breath is always longer than your inhaled breath. And if the exhaled breath is made longer by engaging in strenuous activities or mental turbulence, even more pran goes out. (So over-indulgence in sexual activity is not advisable for spiritual aspirants, 60 angula long-breath!)

When you breathe slowly, without any jerks, the exhaled air moves out with less force, ie it’s length in angula becomes shorter. As the breathing becomes slow, it also becomes less turbulent, the flow of the pran in the nadi-s becomes smoother, more subtle, thinner? It actually becomes a fine needle of pure gold/ silver shimmer. In Dhyan, you are supposed to actively open your central Sushumna and close the Ida and Pingala. When such smooth subtle flow of pran moves through the Sushumna it effectively ‘cleans’ it out. Once the Sushumna is ‘clean’, all karmic impurities/ blockages are removed, it becomes very easy for the kundalini to rise up through it in one continuous smooth flow. It is always better for the spiritual aspirant if the Kundalini moves only after the Sushumna is clean from the Mooladhar to the Brahmarandhra.

So the point is that if you reduce the breathing rate and reduce the length of breath which actually happens simultaneously, you will increase the length and quality of your life and also gain control over your pran, Mind and also on the people around you and the environment you live in. Here is what the texts say,

  • If it is 10 angula, you gain peace of mind which lasts for a long time.
  • If it is 9 angula, you can spontaneously write, prose, music etc which have deep impacts on others.
  • If it is 8 angula, you will be able to speak spontaneously without hesitation. Your words will cause deep impact on those who hear you.
  • If it is 7angula, your vision will change, seeing into the past, present, future, parallel is possible now.
  • If it is 6 angula, you can move your body through air.
  • If it has gone to 5 angula, now onwards, your progress in your spiritual practice becomes very fast.
  • If it goes to 4 angula, you will attain the eight major siddhis (anima, mahima, garima, laghima, prakamya, ishitva, vashitva, kamavashayitva) and the several minor siddhis.
  • If it goes down to 3 angula, you gain the nava nidhi vidya the 9 types of consciousnesses. These are said to be under the control of Yaksharaj Kuber.
  • If it goes upto 2 angu­la, then the body is not longer a binding, you can change the shape of your 5-layered body.
  • If it reduces to 1 angula, you can become invisible and exist in just the subtle or causal body. Time, space and other dimensions lose their dominion on you.
  • Finally when the breathing stops, ie there is no exhalation or inhalation, Keval Kumbhak is attained, now the further process of Self realization starts in real earnest.

So as you do your spiritual practice, with time, your breathing will slow down and stop intermittently and then fully. It is nothing to be scared of. You don’t need air to remain alive in this created world. You need only pran, and it can be pulled in not just through the nostrils but also via the skin and majorly through the top of the head. This ability to consciously pull in pran increases, as you do your spiritual practice. So as an aspirant, your only job is to breathe with Soham, the rest of it will happen spontaneously and naturally.

 

Length and Rate of your breath

Experiences in Dhyan

astrologerbydefault6 Comments

Here are a few things which may help you be more at ease with your Dhyan and the experiences which you will get while you engage in your spiritual practices. There is always a Guru (Guru is energy so can be in any form, physical, astral, anything) to guide through this phase but with so much misleading information on the internet, this is just to bring clarity and sense. If someone needs to read this, it will remain available.

Experiences in Dhyan

Doing Dhyan or having experiences while doing it is nothing special. It is natural and not an achievement. If you create labels for yourself like- I am a ‘yogini’, ‘sadhak’, ‘kriyavan’ etc. you are falling even subtly into the trap of ego. This ego will be colored by ‘spirituality‘ thus even more difficult to get out of.

Do not expect anything to happen during Dhyan. Once you start expecting, you will feel the mental/ emotional response of achievement and disappointment. Anyways these experiences are as fleeting as the manifested Universe. There is no point in remembering and reliving them. If you think that you are controlling your pran or controlling your kundalini or whatever, your own thoughts are going to magnify your experience. Whatever you think of you will manifest. Do not think of anything. You are trying to manifest the Ultimate, you cannot think of That as it has no attributes. If you put labels in your thought processes you will never realise the Ultimate.

And stop thinking of Kundalini. It is over-hyped. It is the restriction on your self. It holds back the force of self-realisation, it is a lock. The first lock in a series of locks. It is the basic energy holding you to this manifested universe. If you have to break the ego you have to break this kundalini, not desire it! The lock of the kundalini is under the control of Devi Mahamaya. It is by her blessings that it will be opened. Thus Devi is often visualised as a compassionate benevolent protective mother. She is the Mother as She has created this illusion of ‘jivatma’/soul and the playground Universe. Visualising her as ever helpful, ever generous and protective helps. As you visualise you manifest.

As your Dhyan deepens you will have ‘paranormal’ experiences, you might even doubt your vision and other senses. You might hear voices, see things, feel things, get strange disconnected from reality thoughts. This can happen even when you are doing your regular daily activities. So just be careful especially if you drive, you might lose your sense of coordination. These are random things and will eventually resolve as your body balances out the energy.

Now this is important, as you progress more deeply into your own self, try to limit physical contact. Interactions with others might also reduce, they will continue on superficial levels of course. Try to eat satvik food, cook something for yourself everyday, even a cup of tea! It might help if you wash your clothes separately, not with the general family’s clothes.

Remember you have activated the force of self realization. You are not your body and neither your physical environment. You might face strange responses from your family/friends. You are actively dissociating from them internally. Your physical body may act strange e.g. you will stop feeling hungry or thirsty, as your Dhyan generates enough pran for your sustenance. But consciously remember to eat, drink and sleep adequately. Yes, you are not attached to your body, but your body is the tool. You will attain reality only with the support of this body, so always take good care of its health. And the vehicle is only useful till you reach your destination, so do not get attached to your body/vehicle.

During this no-hunger phase do some fire related yagnyas/homa of whichever mantra which appeals to you. This will help in maintaining the digestive fire and create appetite. Or you can give Surya arghya every day at sunrise. After you Realise Yourself at the final step of your journey at the Dwadashant, you will have 2 choices, one is to simply discard the vehicle. The vehicle has served its purpose you have reached your destination. Or second option is to continue in the vehicle and function in the manifested Universe with full Awareness. This is Your Ultimate Self bring kind to the other mortals. If You choose the second option, you are going to need the body, so take care of it. Then you will be a Guru, guiding others on their journey to Moksh.

Now the idea is to have no desires and no thoughts. You have to discard everything related to the manifested universe and this is difficult as this creation is all you consciously know. Your mind consciously knows only these things, thus silencing the mind is necessary. So your foundation has to be strong, the more strongly you discard all evident and subtle desires during your initial phases, the easier it will be later after the locks on self-realization open.

Experiences in Dhyan

Now Siddhis. As the force of pran and then later the force of self realisation moves upward in the brahmanadi, at each point you will be shown an aspect of Yourself. (remember the 33 koti/classes of gods each occupying one segment of your vertebral column). Each of these ‘deities’ energies will offer you gifts, these abilities are called Siddhi. Siddhis are available only for that one life as they are not carried forward into next lives. Engaging in Siddhis will slow down your journey. If you get fascinated by these Siddhis and use them with a sense of self/ego, you get caught in the trap of ego. The higher up you get caught the more tightly and subtly you get entangled. You will require even more lives to resolve this subtle ego- trap.

Some might justify that they are using the Siddhis to help other people and do good. But this is self-delusion. You have started on your journey to experience yourself, first complete what you have set out to do. Helping people can be done later, first experience what you have to! Unless you know the Ultimate how can you help others in their journey?

Be very clear about what you think yourself to be at the deepest levels. Whatever you think of yourself to be deeply, a king, teacher, leader whatever, this entire Dhyan process will augment this thought. So be very very careful of your thoughts.

This path to self realisation is for everyone and still is extremely personal. Each one has a different experience depending on what his past expectations and studies have been. If you have followed the Devi Mahatmya, (you might see events described in it) or the Bhagwat Gita (you might perform the entire battle of Kurukshetra) or the Vignyan Bhairav tantra (you might experience the 108 ways of self realization) or anything else you will experience things differently. However one thought should be uppermost, ‘I am the Parabrahma, I have no attributes and no limits. I Am.”

Finally trust yourself and do not discuss what you experience with others. If you have doubts or questions, ask Yourself, before sleeping at night ask your subconscious self that question, it will be shown to you in your dreams.

Always, you are the Parabrahma, you cannot be defined by anything of this manifested Universe. All ideas, all words, all concepts are of Mahamaya, the creative force of the Parabrahma, these cannot be used to define ‘Parabrahma’. That is why it is called Para = beyond/other/higher, Brahma = knowledge/existence/absolute etc.

“Om Yoham-asmi brahma-aham-asmi | aham-eva-aham-maam juhomi svaahaa ||”

(Om, I am That, I am Brahma, I Am what I Am, I worship Myself, I offer Myself to My Ultimate Consciousness!)

 

Experiences in Dhyan