One of the most important realizations in understanding a little more about the mysteries of life – lies in the value and importance of sound.

The sacred texts of all cultures include this factor, even to the point of suggesting that all natural creation is the result of Divine Sound as is given us in the Bible, the Vedic wisdom, and in fact is inherent in all of our present religions.

Whereas ‘Amen’ is the ritualistic recognition of cosmic energy or Divine life in the Christian prayer, so ‘Aum’ is the recognized traditional sound that represents the Allness that we call God.

In classical yogic and Asian tradition it is written as either ‘OM’ or ‘Aum’ but in the sounding of the mantra it is the 3 fold trinity of sound that is expressed. This involves the guttural, tongue, and finally the lips.

As with all mantra or sacred sound, it is as important to focus the mind upon the quality we aspire to as we use our voice to ‘tune us in’ to the power and energy of the universe.

It is therefore never to be sounded casually.

There are many ancient traditions, many of which are retained in the classical teachings even today.  However, in western application most are modified and adapted to suit the current lifestyle but the principles are adhered to nevertheless.

In India it is seen as natural to seek a spiritual Guru at some stage following maturity, usually after a period as a householder and adherence to the general cultural practices and values required for daily living. It is not a foreign concept for the spiritual aspirant to look forward to commencement of a new stage of life as a renunciate or to devote time to philosophic studies and cultural refinement. In the classical eras the spiritual stage of life was perceived as a fine reward after practical effort.

It is common for Indian parents to encourage a child’s early memories of previous incarnations. This is in stark contrast with western parents who will often chastise any child who speaks of ‘imaginary’ or ‘make-believe’ events unrelated to the present.

Occasionally an exceptional soul instinctively attracted to the spiritual life will initiate a spontaneously programme of intense meditation as a child. Such an inspired child requires exceptional care and tutoring.

In conjunction with spiritual care and teaching in the home, centres of spiritual teaching called Ashrams were established for the purpose of spiritual training and meditation and this continues. As with the monasteries of the west, part of their function was concerned in healing through herbs, food as well as and yogic health practices.  No doubt much of the classical training is incorporated into the national health education system today.

Until comparatively recently there were no formal yoga classes nor was Yoga taught in the schools in India.  Parents are seen serve as the initial spiritual guides for children in a training that begins with learning ethical and moral principles.

Practising the physical disciples of Hatha Yoga has certain formal simple preparations and traditions including the following ….

Prior preparation includes attention to hygiene that bowels, kidneys and stomach are empty. Clothing must be as light as possible. Barefoot when entering the ashram or place of practice is symbolic of shedding contact with worldly activities.

Firstly a natural environment in the fresh air if possible with Incense, flowers, natural water, lakes, gardens etc all assists.

A personal mat made of natural fibres placed directly upon the earth or floor serves as a personal space.

North/South polarity is used for Relaxation in prone position.

East or North facing positing is used for practising meditation.

Mala – A string of beads or mala is usually encouraged as a personal sacred rosary for prayer and mantra – this held in the hands for meditation. The Guru will usually magnetize or impregnate the beads with his influence to assist the chelae, but after this, only the chela touches the mala.

Yoga Practice is recommended at dawn, midday, sunset, midnight or 6, noon, 6, midnight

Vegetarian diet is obligatory in India and with all serious students of Yoga.

Fasting at special times and prior to spiritual festivals is universal.

If suffering illness – herbs and foods and water are taken as medicines.

Reading and studying the wisdom teachings and sacred writings is imperative for personal understanding and in the classical tradition the beautiful Upanishads are used as a focus for the mind.

Included here is a beautiful quotation for contemplation upon life and the values we place upon our own experiences of the soul through its many successive incarnations

And thus shall ye think of all this fleeting world

A star at night, a bubble in a stream

A flash of lightning in a summer cloud

A flickering lamp, a phantom – and a dream.      Katha Upanishad

In a relationship as a chela or student of a Guru, the aspirant is expected to demonstrate to his teacher and mentor, loyalty and devotion. In turn the chela is to dedicate his talents to helping serve mankind.  In the system there are many other strong traditions and customs that still prevail but are unfamiliar to those outside.

Generally in society, as when greeting the Guru or Acharya, greetings in India are not by touch, but by the customary gesture of placing the two palms of the hands in the prayer position and slight bow of the head in sign of respect for the god or higher self within the other person. This gesture is usually assumed to indicate appreciation at the conclusion of teaching or in private practice as a sign of devotion to one’s higher self, one’s teacher, to Nature itself or to God.

Understanding some of the customs allows respect for the age old traditions that have reason and design.  Westerners should ensure that they comprehend the purpose before adopting any custom that is not in tune with their personal inclination or their own birth culture.

The Great Gurus or Mahatmas are the wise ones who have lived through unknown numbers of human existences to have experienced all that life on earth dictates and learned all that has been necessary to achieve human excellence. They are the earth graduates, who have become more than human, or greater human beings.  They are the wise ones who have found the answers to our common questions about ourselves, about life, the universe and about the Supreme Consciousness we call God.

Some of these wise ones remain with us as leaders, guides or teachers. Many have developed great insight into human nature in their particular line of teaching. Others reveal the potential for development and application of human talents. Some offer us a simple philosophy as a guiding light through our difficulties and pain. Others make us aware of the power of our spiritual self beyond our personality limitations. Each possesses an understanding of human nature, including our own.

It is said that ‘Every pleasure, pain and problem has an echo in the Master’s heart’. We are drawn to the teacher who will not only direct us, but understands our personal problems and yet encourages us to overcome them. We seek their wisdom and compassion and need, perhaps most of all, to know of their existence so that by their example, they can inspire us.

It is a common experience that when we are in need of a little wisdom, the right book, or words often seem to present themselves.  The following is a limited selection of words of wisdom from great and wise men and women, whether they are advanced human beings known as saints, philosophers, poets, scientists, religious leaders or traditional Gurus.

Be active, with the Activity of Inner Life.

Lao Tse

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Life is a quarry, out of which we have to mould and chisel and complete a character.

Goethe

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Perfection has to be worked out, has to be accomplished.

Imperfection, limitation, death, grief, ignorance, matter are only the first terms of the formulary; they are the initial discords of the musician’s tuning.  Out of imperfection we have to construct perfection, out of limitation to discover infinity, out of death to find immortality, out of grief to recover divine bliss, out of ignorance to rescue divine self-knowledge, out of matter to reveal spirit. To work out this end for ourselves and for humanity is the object of our Yogic practice.

Sri Aurobindo

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The strongest desire of everything, and the one first implanted by Nature, is to return to its source.  And since God is the Source of our soul and has made it like unto Himself…therefore this soul desires above all things to return to Him.

Dante

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The knowledge of the absolute Spirit, like the effulgence of the sun, or like heat in fire, is naught else than the absolute Essence itself.

Shankaracharya

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The unity of life is man’s great truth upon which foundation he may build the empire of his soul.

Manly Palmer Hall

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Religion is the search for a value underlying All things, and as such is the most comprehensive of all the possible philosophies of life. A deeply moving religious experience is not readily forgotten, but is likely to remain as a focus of thought and desire.

Professor Allport in Personality, A Psychological Interpretation

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There is a continuity of mind, as the yogis call it. The mind is universal. Your mind, my mind, all these little minds, are fragments of that universal mind, little waves in the ocean; and on account of this continuity, we can convey our thoughts directly to one another.

Swami Vivekananda

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He is rich who is rich in truth: he is poor who is poor in truth.  All else is of little moment.”

Manly Palmer Hall

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Association with the wise leads to detachment, then to freedom from delusion, then to unshakable truth, and then finally to Jivanmukti (Liberation while living).

Shankaracharya

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A new religion will be given out, yet it will be but a facet of the old.  There is but one religion, as there is but One God.  Truth Itself is infinitely greater than can ever be mirrored in all the teachings, the philosophies, the  religions of the world. Each of them catch and reflect, as it were, one beam of the Light.  Whether the reflection is a true one or not, depends upon the purity of the mirror.

Jesus

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Neither shall they say Lo here! Or lo, there! For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Jesus

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I believe in God – who reveals Himself in the orderly harmony of the universe. I believe that Intelligence is manifested throughout all nature. The basis of all scientific work is the conviction that the world is an ordered and comprehensible Entity, and not a thing of chance.

Albert Einstein

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Our life is simply what our thoughts make it.

Marcus Aurelius

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For there can be no religion more true or just than to know the things that are.

Hermes Trismegistus

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He who would understand the Plains must ascend the Eternal Hills, where a man’s eyes scan Infinity.  But he who would make use of understanding must descend onto the plains, where Past and Future meet and men have need of him.

Tsiang Samdup

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Man is a seed which he himself must make to sprout, and he must die as a seed in order to live as a tree.

Claude Bragdon

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Most men are vexed and miserable because they do not use their hearts in the enjoyment of outward things, but use outward things as a means of delighting their hearts.

Lin An

Indian Vedic wisdom originated in remote antiquity and covers a wide range of knowledge including astronomy, mathematics, grammar, philosophy and physical health matters.

Yoga is one of the six classical schools of philosophy and was established as a system by the early Rishis and saints with Patanjali and Shankara being amongst those best known and followed ever since their written work dating several centuries before the time of Christ.

The science has since been developed further by the experiences and discoveries of generations of  successive teachers or Gurus and by exponents who continue to apply simple natural laws relating to health and to human consciousness. This valuable science that has endured for so long, offers benefit on all levels of man’s being. It is an integral system with the purpose of combining knowledge of the body, personality, mind and spirit.

The aim of yogic philosophy is to assist an individual to spiritual realization of truths for himself. It comprises several margas or pathways which have been designed to satisfy people with different approaches. For instance, an emotional person who seeks to realise God as Love will be attracted to incorporate the Bhakti marga of devotion. An intellectually inclined aspirant will no doubt be satisfied to develop the mind through Raja marga and someone wishing to know all about physical health matters will choose the path of Hatha Yoga. However, essentially all knowledge is to become integrated and all disciplines incorporated in the spiritual practice of the student which is known as his Sadhana.

Meditation is common to all yogic disciplines, not only for relief of stress but to stretch and expand the mind, enabling us to experience deep relaxation and peace as well as heightened states of consciousness.

The natural simplicity of yoga teachings attracts the attention of many people today who are searching for guidelines as to how to help themselves towards a healthier, happier, more meaningful and nobler way of living.

Yoga is one of the 6 major Indian classical schools of philosophy within the ancient system of the Vedas. Although something is known of the development of some aspects of the yogic methodology and several great yogis are known to us from that early period, in the west we are humbled by the immensity of the coverage of subject matter in Vedic teachings. We would be overwhelmed by the studies necessary to understand in depth its wisdom. Nor are we in a position to fully evaluate the accumulated contributions made to the science over the thousands of years of its existence by the wise. Even Indian scholars find it difficult to penetrate the extent of its teaching and rely upon traditional legend to provide them with a basis for their insight and understanding.

The Vedas would seem to be the blanket wisdom teachings from antiquity which inherently possessed or perhaps gave birth to the methods for developing spiritual consciousness by which we identify the branch of the teaching known to us as Yoga.

Yoga as a philosophy is traditionally woven into the living mental fibre of all people of any race and culture who accept natural ethical and moral laws and precepts and seek to integrate these universal teachings into their lives.

The law of Karma and consideration of re-incarnation although considered a new concept by many in western culture is understood as a natural human recycling experience by those tutored in cultures that have embraced the idea for thousands of years. Our opinions matter little when considered the truth of this law. Nature’s laws function, whether we observe them working or not. Personal confirmation will remain as our only proof and this can only come to us through our own experience.

To seek the truth in physics or science is one thing. To try to prove a non-material law can be a waste of time when we have every great spiritual teacher instructing us similarly regarding life certainties and laws. Eternal truths, when embraced, offer us a support to move forward with acceptance of the larger issues, and encourage us to apply what we know to our advantage. This is the advantage of a tradition that focuses upon age-old truths and the wisdom of great men and teachers who have lived, and still live in various countries and cultures throughout the world.

Yogic disciplines commence with the aim to know God. Its methods are designed to discipline the body, emotions and the mind in order to focus upon the wisdom within our soul self.  It is this that prepares us to know the reality of our own soul before the ultimate spiritual reality when we experience a sense of at-one-ment with Universal Consciousness.

This expanded awareness is not possible without first consciously releasing ourselves from the enslavement of self consciousness of the personality ego. We must be able, having first built up our different parts of the personality, to let go our selves – to become selfless. This is so easy to say, so hard to do. The personality is designed to express itself and to defend its existence. Much of our early years of life are spent in building up the strength of the personality and asserting our individuality, and asserting our personal free will.

We then have to learn to re-evaluate life with selflessness as the requirement if we wish to seek wider adventures in consciousness.

ANCIENT INDIAN CUSTOMS

Various traditional practices of Yoga are maintained but most are modified or adapted to suit western culture. However, one should be aware of the Indian customs as they are generally regarded as the basis of Yoga teaching courtesies everywhere.

In India, generally after a period as householder and applying the general health practices and ethical discipline, it is accepted as natural for a mature person who wishes to advance his spiritual life and follow a life of renunciation and philosophic studies, to leave family life and seek a spiritual Guru.

Although many young people are encouraged to take interest in spiritual life, there are few who of their own volition, choose the way of austerity and are willing to renounce all the experiences of material life. However, in India these rare souls are respected and sometimes commence intense meditation and studies as children and grow to tutor others, but these are the exceptional ones.

Centres of general teaching, established for the purpose of spiritual training and meditation, are known as Ashrams. As with the monasteries of the west, part of their function is concerned in healing and they remain open to everyone in need.

As the practices of Yoga, both physical and ethical, are usually integral in the daily life of the householder from childhood, as is the acceptance of reincarnation, the idea of going off to a group gathering ‘to practise Yoga’, as in the west, is a foreign one. There were no formal yoga classes nor was Yoga taught in the schools in India until comparatively recently. The general philosophy was that parents serve as initial guides in ethics and morals as well as the spiritual principles until the child matures to seek his or her ideal personal spiritual Guru. The Gurus were considered supremely wise aesthetics living as recluses and were sustained by tributes and offerings of flowers, fruit and other foods.

A string of beads known as a mala provides a type of rosary used in prayer and mantra and held in the hands for meditation.  The Guru magnetizes or impregnates the beads with his influence when initiating the chela, to provide a psychic link, but afterwards, no one but the chela touches it. We respect this observance that applies to any sacred symbol.

WESTERN PRACTICE OF YOGA

Practising Hatha Yoga has few material requirements.  Some of the simple traditions are retained in western teaching according to custom when individuals are comfortable when adopting them.  However, the basic preparations and guiding rules for the physical health practices are adhered to universally before any Yoga practice and particularly classwork in Hatha Yoga.

Firstly a natural environment is chosen in the fresh air, preferably near water – or in a studio free of air conditioning but where an attractive atmosphere can be created by flowers, incense and natural influences.

Prior attention ensures that bowels, kidneys and stomach are empty

Clothing as light as possible and of natural fibre – avoid synthetics

A personal mat made of natural fibres placed upon the earth or floor establishes hygienic personal area in group work

When entering an ashram or teaching studio – taking off footwear is symbolic of a temporary shedding of the contact with worldly activities.  This rule is insisted upon.

A teacher is an Acharya.   A spiritual teacher who inspires and is responsible for spiritual guidance of a Chela is known as his or her Guru. Casual western use of the term is therefore offensive to those who understand its significance.

Courteous greeting and acknowledgement of the teacher or Acharya is natural. Generally in Indian society, greetings are not by touch and handshake but by the customary gesture of placing the two palms of the hands in the prayer position and slight bow of the head in sign of mutual respect and acknowledgement of the goodness within the other.

The traditional spiritual Asana of devotion to the Guru is modified when at the conclusion of practice the Yoga Mudra position  may be taken as a ‘thank you’ to the teacher or as an impersonal acknowledgement of God and the great Universal Consciousness.

The position facing East or North is chosen for practising meditation.

North/South polarity is used for placement of the body for relaxation.

Best Yoga practice times are recommended as dawn, midday, sunset, midnight or 6am, noon, 6p.m and midnight

Vegetarian diet is obligatory in India and followed by all serious students of Yoga who practise the ethic of non-violence

Fasting at special times for physical purification to cure disease and also it is advised universally prior to spiritual festivals.

If suffering illness, herbs and foods and water are taken as medicines as advised in Ayurvedic system or as now aligned to naturopathic practices.

A serious student seeking spiritual truths is called a Sadhaka and encouraged in study of all wisdom teachings and sacred writings of the world.