Yoga Vidya
योग विद्या
Light on Yoga
“No greater mystery exists and there is no greater journey than the discovery of one’s own greatness. Yogabhyasa – asana practice is the first step to discovering oneself.”
Light on Yoga
A practice for life
The reason we exist as human beings is to discover the timeless that is ourselves. Pending discovery Self is the mystery and eternal secret that the creation is hiding from you.
Yoga is a journey of discovery. There is no greater gift than discovering one’s own greatness.
Yoga exercise (yogabhyasa) is the first step. Lying dormant until you get to use your gift is the ever present secret of the universe.
Hatha Yoga prepares you for the gift that keeps giving.The teachers job is to reveal it. To do this, besides them knowing themselves as the secret, having had their secret revealed to them, they must be able to point out the destination by knowing the methodology intimately.
Life’s journey has many great surprises, but nothing as surprising or as great as the gift that nature has in store for you. Nothing has prepared you for your ultimate prize and outcome: the gift that is yourself.
This journey begins with you and you being the point of departure, are the journey and destination itself. The beginning and end of every journey, other than you, in life there is no other destination.
Whats all been missing our whole lives up till now, the most important part of any journey – is your Self.
To fill the gap left by our education requires knowledge. Knowledge of Self – Self-knowledge – fills the vacuum.
ISHTA-Mala इष्ट माला
How to become our own ‘Wish-Fulfilling Tree’
To lift the veil and discover life’s secret destination and prize, we need a body and mind that is available and well prepared. Otherwise our travel becomes difficult and destination hard to reach. The only thing standing between us and destiny is: apathy, laziness, illness or injury.
For us to be healthy requires daily practice.
Doing ISHTA Mala इष्ट माला a sequence of asana fits any lifestyle and ability and brings the destination that much closer.
Adjusting according to time, available and ability, once you have memorised ISHTA Mala इष्ट माला and the sequence becomes second nature Mala माला becomes a practice for life. To become adept takes just 20 minutes of practice a day.
- Learn the sequence
- Practice daily
- At a time that suits your lifestyle
The term इष्ट माला ISHTA MALA derives from Ishvarapranidana the heart of the Patanjali Yoga Sutras. इष्ट माला ISHTA MALA is a garland of practices that if done daily, balances the doshas and re-establishes ojas in the system. A healthy body paves the way for establishing a personal relationship with the divine, our Ishtadev – our personal deity and preference hence – Ishvara – God.
Kaya Kalpam
ISHTA Mala इष्ट माला brings life force into the body
Adhering to the timeless principles of the Tamil Siddhas, ISHTA Mala इष्ट माला is yoga in the classic style of India.
To live a positive, friction free lifestyle, and reduce ama, आम toxicity caused by wifi, air pollution and pesticides in the global atmosphere and to survive the food chain we need to exercise.
Opening the body’s nadhis (energy flows) and allowing energy; life force, ojas to flow and proliferate, ISHTA Mala इष्ट माला gives the body the traction we need to deal with lack of immunity. Just like the sun rises in the morning, rising with ISHTA Mala इष्ट माला brings life force and vigour giving us stamina wherever and whenever we need it.
ISHTA Mala इष्ट माला, boosts ojas and enhances our ability to ward off disease. Overflowing rasa, the sadhaka (practitioner) by milking the body’s juice, becomes a Raja Yogi (yogiraj) the ruler of their own kingdom.
The End of Yoga
SIDDHANTA
ISHTA Mala इष्ट माला is also designed to get the body into Siddhasana (accomplished pose).
Patanjali in his yoga sutra states ‘Sthira Sukham Asanam’ (Patanjali Yoga Sutras.) ‘Asana should be steady and comfortable’.
That turns out to be easier said than done. To sit comfortably long enough in Siddhasana to leverage the energy of the body through the breath takes practice.
Nadhis are the fuel lines which when clear join in launching the rocketship. Once the nadhis are purified through asana, they open the sluice gates of yoga.
Once you sit comfortably in Siddhasana, it signals your readiness for Kriya Siddha Meditation the pranabhyasa practice to begin.
Tantra
Siddha Medicine Alchemy and AyurvedaConsciousness is the thread woven in the tapestry of Tantra, Yoga and Siddha medicine (Ayurveda).
Shivoham
The body uses whatever it falls on to lift itself
The principle of Tantra is to use whatever limits us to free us of limitation. By watching the behaviour of the body, yogi’s noticed the body uses whatever it falls on to lift itself. Falling on the ground body uses the ground to lift itself back up. Following the body’s example, tantra uses the body through which we as conscious beings ‘appear to’ fall, to lift individual consciousness.
Then through using the limitation of the breath the yogi is able to expand and free energy. And finally, using the limitation of thought, the mind is set free in knowledge and, the person (jiva) is free.
The jiva (individual) no longer a wanting limited ignorant person imprisoned by avidya (ignorance) frees themselves, and as the limitless boundless ocean of consciousness, freed while living, they are jivamukta.
Throughout the ages, the goal of yoga has been one – Absolute freedom and liberation from all suffering – Moksha.
Our essential nature is free and eternal already. But because it is ourselves, being closer than the closest we cant see it by ourselves and miss it.
To be the freedom and immortality itself, we don’t have to do a thing or go anywhere. Eternally free and pure by nature mankind hasn’t discovered it yet. Or else we would have found it already and wouldn’t fight wars with each other. Unable and unwilling to recognise it until it is pointed out, all scriptures and teachings hinge and point out this one truth only.
The teacher’s job is to know it well enough that they know how to point it out.
Moksha
To be the eternal is effortless
Challenge
Unaware that the consciousness is common, all that is needed is someone who knows to point out the truth. The eternal having always been reached, our goal of immortality already won by birth. Unless we have it pointed out we struggle. No ritual or practice is need to get to what is already the Truth. Doing anything denies we are IT.
To be the eternal is EFFORTLESS. All that’s needed is a free person to point it out. The free person freed from ignorance is a happy person. The job of the teacher is to introduce us to to the happiness that is us already. Then knowledge and Truth being permanent, happiness never disappears. Once we are introduced to ourselves, Atma Vidya, affirms our true nature. Having reached the final destination of our journey our search is complete.
Solution
Finding out who we were, once our destination is reached, our outcome is assured. Free to explore the limiteless timeless expanse, keeping the body fit and healthy, the practice of yoga continues.
The truth being already who we are has always been man’s outcome and being inescapable, doesn’t end in a practice. Having always been the embodiment of Truth by birth, we just didn’t know it.
Discovering the bliss that is eternal, and what all the yoga texts talk about, Satchitananda, knowing our secret, explodes our personal mystery making a joke out of death.
Fully liberated jivamuktah while living, the successful yogi flowers in the absolute knowledge of truth that is themselves and is free to roam the vast expanse called universe.
इष्टम् ISHTAM…
“is resting in the knowledge of absolute power and completeness that is ever one Self.
Travelling, revelling, knowing joy and freedom is permanent and for no reason is Moksha
This is yoga
John Weddepohl