Unmani Mudra (State of "No Mind")

"Unmani Mudra"

The word Unmani means “thoughtless” or “no mind”. Unmani Mudra is easy to learn but very difficult to master. Unmani Mudra is very useful in developing awareness of chakras and this Unmani Mudra prepares platform for higher yogic techniques. In actual Unmani Mudra is having very deep effect on mental plane because this yogic technique is practiced more on mental plane than physical.

So let me explain how to practice Unmani Mudra. First you must sit in any comfortable asana in which you can keep your spinal cord straight along with neck for long time. It may be Padam Asana, Vajra Asana, Sukh Asana or Sidha Asana (best). Now first bring your awareness at “Bindu” (where Pandits keep their hairs locked) and your eyes must be open wide without focusing on any external thing. It means that though your eyes are open but your awareness is at “Bindu” (and when you will be perfected in this Mudra, then you won’t see anything despite of fact that your eyes are open). Then breath deeply and when breath starts going outside the body, imagine prana is going downwards through spine while crossing chakras in Spine i.e. from point Bindu to Agya chakra, Vishudhi, Anahat, Manipur, Swadisthan and then Muladhar. And your eyes in synchronization with breath and awareness, will also get closed slowly as you proceeds from Bindu towards Muladhar. And your eyes will be closed completely at the time of exhalation of breath completely and your awareness comes to Muladhar. This is one round. Again breath-in and do the same procedure for 11 rounds.

Some people do Unmani Mudra by fixing gaze in Shunya  but outside body for long time.

Please don’t get upset if not done initially but keep doing it and it will happen spontaneously. The important part of this Unmani Mudra is that a person learns how to shift his/her  awareness despite of active Gyan-indriya (eyes-sight, ear-smell, tongue-taste, nose-smell and skin-touch).

AGOCHARI MUDRA (Nose Gazing Technique)

AGOCHARI MUDRA (Nose Gazing Technique)-

Agochari Mudra or Nose Gazing Technique is very powerful and effective yogic technique to activate Muladhar Chakra in short span of time or we can say that this is the easiest and most effective technique to activate muladhar chakra, where Kundalini Shakti rest. Kundalini Shakti is represented by Snake having two mouths coiled three and half times and upper mouth of that serpent (kundalini shakti) is opened by which some Prana Shakti pervades in ourselves to sustain life by way of breathing etc. However, before activating Muladhar Chakra and activating Kundalini Shakti forcefully, it is always advised to first invoke Sushmana Nadi and only then start doing any other yogic technique of Kundalini Yoga. Hence it is always advised to practice any kind of Yogic sadhna only under any competent guru, otherwise it may possible that practitioner instead of getting any benefit may suffer irreparable damage/loss on psycho-physiological plane.

Agochari Mudra or Nose Gazing technique is primarily yogic technique to activate Muladhar Chakra but in actual it also activates Agya Chakra. As Muladhar Chakra is also directly connected to Agya Chakra. If any person is activating Agya Chakra then his Muladhar will also get activated upto some extent and vice versa.

Now I am going to tell you that how to do Agochari Mudra- First you have to sit in some comfortable Asana/pose like Padma Asana, Sidha Asana, Sukha Asana, Gupta Asana, Vajra Asana etc. in which your spine and neck must be in straight line and then close your eyes and first do 4 rounds of Anulom Vilom slowly. After completing Anulom Vilom, you just be aware about your incoming and outgoing breath for 4-5 minutes and then open your eyes and start doing gazing on tip of nose by pointing your eye balls on tip of nose. While doing gazing on tip of nose, you must be focusing on shape ‘V’ of Nose and if you are not able to see Shape ‘V’ then you must correct your focus. The easy way to do the same is by way of putting thumb in front of your face and start gazing on thumb and then bring your thumb slowly towards nose tip while continuing gazing on it and then shift your focus from thumb to tip of nose. By this way, you will be able to gaze correctly on tip of nose while having shape ‘V’. You have to focus on tip i.e.  on tip of ‘/\’. 

To get benefit of this Mudra, you must try to gaze on tip of nose atleast for 10 minutes twice a day. And you will feel that after some time your will power has become stronger and stronger and now you are able to counter your fear or any task of your life with great ability. If you will be able to continuously do this yogic technique for long period then you will start experiencing some divine experiences like smell of some divine fragrance and many people may also feel vibration in Muladhar Chakra and automatic kapalbhati kind of movement in abdominal area near “Manipur Chakra”, which you would not be able to stop on your own because its caused due to movement in Kundalini energy. Actually Kundalini Shakti trigger from Muladhar and settles in Manipur Chakra, so while practicing this Agochari Mudra, many of you may also feel activation of all chakras including Manipur Chakra. 

Last but not least, it is again advised to all readers that don’t try any kind of Yogic Sadhna on your own but only under guidance of Competent Guru. While practicing any kind of Kundalini Yoga technique, it is advisable to have pure life including pure vegetarian food.    Please also read my warning /alert post in the beginning of Blog.

Chakra Purification Technique

Dear Friends

In continuation of my last post, now I am going to tell you very easy and one of most effective techniques of Yoga to control your Prana i.e. energy inside your body. I have already explained about Prana Shakti and state of Prana in your body indicates your state of soul. Let me explain it with one simple example .. Imagine that there’s lake of pure and clean water and you want to see your face in its water but until ripples in water stop, you won’t be able to see you face. In like manner, Prana is vibrating in our body in some frequency and that frequency is our (Spirit’s) spiritual growth on the graph of time and universe. And until that vibration of Prana is not lowers down or stop, you cannot see or feel your own true state. Profound Yogies first attempt to control their Prana Shakti and then turns this Prana Shakti in their spiritual growth. The moment, this prana becomes static even for a moment, your breath ceased and your thought process also slows down and one day you will also have state of “no thought". And from here, you starts feeling real yogic experiences. In this stillness and state of “no mind”, you will be able to experience "peace" in its true meaning and gradually in due course of time, you will also find your true self, which we called “Atma Sakshatkar”.

Now I am going to tell you this simple but very effective yogic technique but before that you must go through my earlier post, in which I have told about the chakras and their location in our spine - First you have to sit in sukhasana or Padma Asana or Sidha Asana or any other Asana in which you can sit comfortably with erected spine and straight neck. You must first calm your mind by concentrating on your in-breath and out-breath and after 4-5 minutes you can start doing this yogic technique. 

You now first start from Muladhar Chakra (Root Chakra) and chant “OM” while imagine that such sound of “OM” is echoing on Muladhar Chakra location and immediately shift your awareness to Swadisthan Chakra and again chant “OM” mentally on Swadisthan Chakra in the same manner and then shift your awareness to Manipur Chakra and repeat the same procedure upto Bindu. From Muladhar to Bindu is half procedure and when you start shifting your awareness from Bindu towards Muladhar, you first shift your awareness at point where our neck connects with skull and repeat the same mantra “OM” and then to vishudhi, Anahata, Manipur, Swadisthan and Muladhar. This whole procedure is one cycle. And you can repeat this atleast for 12 cycles and upto any time.

While doing above mentioned yogic technique, you will gradually feel that, the location where chakras are located, there are some kind of knot type feeling in spine and you may also feel sweet pain in those locations of chakras and gradually these knots will dissolve with due course of time as you will progress in your this yogic journey. But the main part of this yogic technique is that you will feel that while doing this yogic technique, your awareness starts drawing inside and you will start forgetting the outside world at all. You will also feel that your breath starts slowing down and even it ceased sometimes for a moment upto few minutes. Many of my students have felt that their breath ceased upto 5-8 minutes without any effort or outer control. This cessation of breath start on its own and this is what we called “Keval Kumbhak”. You may chant any other single word of GOD like Ram, Krishna, Soham etc. in place of OM.

Please note that- you don’t have to think and feel the same thing, which I have told you. Rather you just start doing this yogic technique and you will start feeling the same. Please also tell your experiences on this blog, so that others may also know about the same.

Meditation by way of Kriya Yoga

Meditation by way of Kriya Yoga 

Many people find it difficult to control Prana directly by way of controlling breathing pattern. I have received many queries relating to difficulty in attaining meditative state. 

Actually mind and breath are two sides of same coin. Many of you have also observed on several occasions that whenever you mind is calm, your breath also becomes calm and when your breath is calm, your mind  also comes in calm state and very few thoughts emerge in your mind during such state of calmness.

Actually I have received many queries from many persons that they are struggling to get into meditative state. I am surprised that how the meditative state can be achieved or meditation can be done with struggle. Whereas, meditation comes on its own, it’s just your own state of mind and nothing else. In meditation, your all energies flows in one direction and your mental faculties got concentrated towards single point or in other words your mind becomes static for a moment and in that single moment you find more concentrated, more energized, more calmed, more focused without loss of mental energies.

 Let me explain it by giving single example.. Imagine that you are sitting somewhere and listening to music with open eyes and if someone will pass by you even then you may not have seen that person just because your mind is more attached to your ears than your eyes while listening to music. It means, though eyes were there --  but to see something we need one more thing and that is mind i.e. attention. Sadhus called it Surat means face of soul, the mind … and here is the key of Meditation… we only need to extend that state of mind to get focused on one point. This is one way …

But many Persons find it difficult to get focused on one single point for long time because mind is of flickering nature and it shifts concentration or attention from one point to another, which makes more difficulty for a person to come in meditative state… here comes another technique of Meditation.

Chakra Purification Technique / Kriya —It is called as Chakra Purification technique and it’s really so easy and effective that if you continue to do it regularly, your mind will become calmer and more calmer and one day you will also achieve the state of keval kumbhak i.e. static prana… Static Prana means where breath cease for long time.

I will post the Technique in my next post.

How to awaken Sushmana

Dear friends

As I have already explained the role of Sushmana (Sukhmana) which is one of vital prana currents in our body. As I have already explained that in human body there are three vital currents which keeps going day and night for whole life but alternatively. Left current which we called Ingla or Moon Current flows from our Left Nostril (Right Nostril is closed) and Right Current which we called Pingla or Sun Current flows from Right Nostril (when Left Nostril is closed), But sometimes you have also noticed that for a short time breath (Prana Vayu) is coming and going from both the Nostrils, here is the meeting point of Left current/Ingla and Right Current/Pingla, and we call it SUSHMANA.

In yog, unless and untill yogi attains the stage where his sushmana remains open for long long time, no fruit of yoga can be achieved or get. Hence, in yog our first attempt is to open Sushmana or you may understand in different words that breath should come and go from both the nostrils simultaneously in equal force.

You might have seen the alternative nostril breathing, which we call ANULOM VILOM pranayam. Many people do Anulom Vilom technique to open Sushmana but most of the people do it manually means with hands, which is not absolutely wrong but not correct also. Because the first aim of yoga is to have control over Prana Shakti means Life Force, and that can be achieved only by Will i.e. Sankalpshakti.

Hence First step in order to achieve awakening of Sushmana or Sukhmana which we also call Brahmanadi, we must first practice how to sit quite in comfortable asana in which we can maintain our back straight along with neck.. But there should not be any tension in upper torso. So you can sit in Sukhasana, Vajrasana, Padmasana or Sidhasana(best).

Second Step is - to keep awareness just below both the nostrils where your breath is striking when coming inward, just keep awareness on that base of nostril (just below your nose) for sometime. And then start shifting your awareness on left nostril while feeling that air is coming from left nostril and also going from left nostril irrespective of fact that whether it is coming fomr left or right or from both nostril. And then after few minutes (5 min.) you must again shift your awareness from left to right nostril while feeling that air is coming from Right Nostril and also going from Right Nostril irrespective of fact that whether it is coming from right, left or from both the nostrils.

You will be amazed to see that just by doing this simple technique your breathing starts changing as per your awareness on any of nostrils. And when you will put your awareness on below the space of your both the nostrils, then your breath will start flowing from both the nostrils which indicates that now your sushmana is opening and with continous practice and within a month, you will be having better control of your breath patterns which will not only infulence your body but also your mind and spirit.

As you all know that our breath changes as per our mood and vice versa. It is experienced that when people start doing this technique they got better control over their emotions, moods swings, depression, anxiety, fear, anger and decision making ability. And the reason behind this is that while mastering this technique alone, you start getting control over your Prana Shakti i.e. life force.

This is the First Step towards actual and real yogic practice....

~soham~