Namaste everyone I hope you are doing all just fine and sharing the best of your knowledge and light coming through your self-journey towards yoga and meditation or any kind of other spiritual practices you follow the path.
Disclaimer: Anything written below in this content is out of my sole experience and doesn’t meant to hurt, harm, or disrespect anyone or anything by any means.
Today I would like to answer a very deep question asked to me by almost every single student or yoga friend or spiritual practitioner I met during my journey so far in teaching Yoga asanas to meditation and beyond.
This is going to be a long topic so fasten your seat belts please if you like to fly further…. I am also not good with giving shortcuts too.
The question was how do we come to know when we are in yoga?
And what is the proper way to reach that state and how it is very easy for some few practitioners to reach there and why it is almost impossible for lots of practitioners who either keep pushing it for many years from what they know or dont get it and mostly end up giving up and ending up in disappointment and depression and even deeper negativity and darkness and finally give up and say that's it it's not for me at all? The answer to the question is entirely based on my self-practice and experience so far so with due respect, I don’t mean to offend anyone or anything in a way of sharing my light and experience throughout my journey so far. Well, let's start it then! The answer has many aspects but the most common and core aspect is the ashtanga path of yoga. The eight limbs: Yama, Niyamas, asanas, pranayama, pratyahara , dharana, dhyana, and samadhi. I know I know you all know about it must have read it almost everywhere when even when we google or go to any yoga school or teacher training and whatever, but the first and most important step is the base strength or can say the core strength in a way to define also as a discipline on this ladder of 8 limbs are the YAMAS and NIAYAMS which almost everyone tries to skip and jump straight away to asanas and pranayama and even meditation. I would not lie to you everyone likes shortcuts in this world of Maya, after all this is kalyuga - the age of darkness with even more illusions that we can even carry in our bags of desires and wants, it’s a takeaway and 30 minutes pizza delivery service age where time is very fast in minds than in real life and life and mind are very unstable. I was also a part of this lifestyle a long time back so my practice in earlier stages was also like this too and I was also not able to let yoga happen to me no matter how hard I try no matter how early I woke up it was all an illusion I got trapped into and also got frustrated. So when we keep skipping yamas and niyamas we are making it impossible to let yoga happen. No one can do yoga but can surely allow yoga to happen is a choice a very big choice. With lots of tapas required. Because for a bulk of a lot the name yoga is a fitness kind of thing and they are always overwhelmed by its tiny miny miracles it gives to them for a very short period of the course. But I am not judging anyone guys it's just my observation, no offense..thank you. But just to let you know don’t confuse yoga with fitness otherwise all gymnastic people must already be…. you know what I mean sorry again. I can assure you yoga and meditation are not a piece of cake but they can become a piece of cake when you put every single piece of your body, every single cell and soul, and your true self, not mind its not needed at all.
You must surrender completely without any doubt at all with pure love, trust, devotion, and dedication to it. Be it any path of yoga you choose not to mention I guess. And if you get in touch or know a genuine guru or a teacher, not an instructor I strongly say teacher because they also teach the sacred spiritual meaning of the practice and its deadly side effects if done in a wrong way, also don't allow shortcuts to happen again no offense pardon me.
I know it’s a very delicate and controversial topic again no offense That`s what I always say to my students we must die to connect in the cosmic flow and live again in that flow with pure love and surrender that is what I did myself no lie. Well here death doesn’t mean the death of the physical body it means the death of all that we know far as ourselves in the form of experiences and databases collected so far in the forms of some are good, some very good, some bad, some very bad, some very very bad, and even scarcely traumatic. And they are like poison that flows into our whole body system within our blood and vessels and fractures every single cell of the body, destroying our core skeleton system, nervous system, and even neurons in the brain creating lots of blockages in the flow of the pranic energy. Do you know what is pranic energy?
Well, I hope you all know right? If want to know more about it then I can share some other day if you want.
So the key point is Yamas and niyamas and all that I talked about above are the most important if you like seriously very seriously want yoga to happen to you. Only then any pose we make as a physical practice or flow become the pranic flow then asana is happening and allowing a very high dimensional cosmic frequency a channel to connect by surrender to the pure true self and trust me you will know when yoga is starting to happen. You will know in your gut, your heart, and every single cell. Then your body and your soul will automatically leave behind those poses and asana ladders and lift and shift you to the next step of the ladder Pranayama.
You will find that you have no more interest in the physical body now you will no more be obsessed with making poses and clicking them to show the world or anything outwards and its short-term desires this is the first sign of vairagya (dispassion)and brahmacharya (path to the divine). You will find a set of asanas you would like to practice and open up the pranic body before going to pranayama and meditation and you will yourself feel like old-time yogis I kind of practice like a devotional prayer to the divine. You will feel your self-practice is very sacred and spiritual and you would not show it off too much like daily making your practice video and taking pictures is itself destroying your power of vairagya and brahmacharya. And will destroy your energy even long before when anyone will come to learn from you as a teacher if you are a teacher of course.
It is ok once in a while in terms of bringing awareness but you must know and be aware of there is a very thin line between energy getting distracted and flowing outwards and inwards. Sorry again no offense. For example, in many authentic temples in INDIA, it is not allowed to take a picture or video of the deity inside the temple or show it off as they say it disturbs the energy inside the temple by those actions and bring lots of distraction too. So beware of your energy and use of your electronic devices around you and their uses.
Let's go ahead so where are we…
So once vairagya (dispassion)and brahmacharya (path to the divine) take their seat in you. Your journey will go deeper and more intense and once pranayama is mastered you will reach yoga I mean the real yoga, not any pose or asana or anything like that you will know when your all chakras are aligned and are purified and you are no more earthly attached anymore, your desires will cease in the light of your true self and experience and witness everything and act through the divine flowing in you when you are in yoga with your supreme conscious pure true self detached from everything will start acting as a free spirit and then your true powers will wake up by the touch of light of yoga and meditation it will happen to you all the time every single second every single breath, like very tiny cosmic explosions and will happen deeper and stronger when you go deeper by sitting in asana and aligning the chakras and allowing pranas and opening the channel of the crown chakra and let yoga happen far deeper with every single breath. Your enlightenment starts at this point this is the time when you start receiving love, peace, and wisdom in abundance and will feel it to share as your part of karma in this life and will get answers to all the questions you may put off course nonmaterialistic.
Everything becomes crystal clear as it is the perception advances with time, with age, with every single breath and the mind becomes quiet and sits like a cute little puppy just waiting for your command as if it does not even exist anymore.
Well, that’s it about some sharing and some little idea but there could also be many more reasons like karmic reasons blockages, your ancestral blockages, some energy spiritual blocks, lack of complete surrender, and faith in the practice. All these can be easily handled by teachers like me as these are very tiny things to handle if your core is very strong because of the first 2 main steps of the 8 limbs of yoga.
Thank you for your kind patience, again and again, sorry for what is said is my own experience, no offense to anyone so forgive me as a child of the divine as we all are.
Love and light
Namaste