Soham Yoga

220 Pages·2017·4.42 MB·English

Soham Yoga
The Yoga of the Self
Abbot George Burke
(Swami Nirmalananda Giri)
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©Copyright 2018 by Light of the Spirit Monastery
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Contents
Preface
Chapter One: Yoga
Chapter Two: The Practice of Soham Yoga Meditation
Chapter Three: Soham According to the Scriptures and the Masters of Yoga
Chapter Four: The Yogi’s Subtle Anatomy
Chapter Five: Points For Successful Meditation
Chapter Six: The Foundations of Yoga
Afterword: It Can Be Done
Appendix One: Breath and Sound in Meditation
Appendix Two: Jesus, a Nath Yogi
Appendix Three: A Note to Readers of Om Yoga Meditation and Soham Yoga
Glossary
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Preface
Some history
Yoga is an eternal science intended to reveal and manifest the Eternal. Although
the identity of the Supreme Self (Paramatma) and the individual Self (jivatma) with
Soham is indicated in the Isha Upanishad (16) and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
(1.4.1) respectively, no one knows exactly when it was that the knowledge of
Soham Yoga was revealed in the world, but the following we do know.
A young man was wandering in the mountains somewhere in India–most likely
in the Western Himalayas. He had seen no one else for a very long time, but one
day he heard the faint sound of a human voice. Following it, he saw from a distance
some people seated together near a river. Slipping into the water, he began
swimming toward them. All along the river on that side thick reeds were growing
so he was not seen as he stealthily made his way closer.
Soon he began to understand what was being said. Fascinated by the speaker’s
words he came as close as he dared and for a long time remained absorbed in the
amazing things being spoken. For the science of yoga was being expounded by a
master to his disciples. Then he heard the master say: “There is a ‘fish’ in the reeds
over there, listening to everything I am saying. Why doesn’t he come out and join
us?” He did as suggested and became a resident of the master’s ashram and learned
both philosophy and Soham Yoga.
After diligent practice of meditation for quite some time, the master asked him
to return to the plains and teach that yoga to whomever would listen. He was given
a new name, Matsyendranath. (Matsyendra means Indra Among Fish and Nath
means Master. Indra is king of the gods.) We have no knowledge of what the
master’s name was. Matsyendranath and his disciples only referred to him as Adi
Nath–Original/First Master. Some believe Adi Nath was Shiva himself manifested
to teach yoga, or perhaps the primeval master Bhagavan Sanatkumara about whom
the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: “To such a one who has his stains wiped away,
Bhagavan Sanatkumara shows the further shore of darkness” (7.26.2).
Matsyendra wandered throughout India, teaching those who were awakened
enough to desire and comprehend the yogic path. One day in his wanderings he
came to a house where the owner’s wife gave him something eat and a request: that
he would bless her to have a child. In response he blessed her and gave her some
ashes from a sacred fire, telling her to swallow them. Then he left. The woman
followed his instructions and soon conceived and gave birth to a male child. Several
years later Matsyendra came there again and saw the little boy outside the house.
He told him to bring his mother, and when she came he asked if she remembered
him, which she did. Pointing to the boy, he said: “That is my child. I have come for
him.” The woman agreed and Matsyendra left with the boy whom he named
Gorakhsha, Protector/Guardian of Light.
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Goraksha in time became Gorakshanath–usually called Gorakhnath), the
greatest yogi in India’s recorded history. In every part of India there are stories told
of his living in those areas. He also lived in Nepal, Tibet, Ladakh, and Bhutan. There
are shrines and temples to him in all those countries, both Hindu and Buddhist. His
major temple is in Gorakhpur, the birthplace of Paramhansa Yogananda whose
younger brother, Sananda, was originally named Goraksha. Considering all the lore
about him, Gorakhnath must have lived at least two or three hundred years, and
there are many who claim that he has never left his body but is living right now in
the Himalayas.
Gorakhnath had many disciples, a large number of them attaining
enlightenment. They were the first members of the Nath Yogi Sampradaya, which in
time numbered in its ranks the great sage Patanjali, founder of the Yoga Philosophy
(Yoga Darshan) and author of the Yoga Sutras, and Jesus of Nazareth (Sri Ishanath).
For many centuries the majority of monks in India were Nath Yogis, but in the
nineteenth century there was a sharp decline in their numbers, which continues
today. However there are several groups of “Nath Panthis” that follow the
philosophy and yoga of Matsyendranath and Gorakhnath, and therefore are involved
with Soham as the heart of their sadhana.
Soham
Soham (which is pronounced like “Sohum”) means: I Am That. It is the natural
vibration of the Self, which occurs spontaneously with each incoming and outgoing
breath. By becoming aware of it on the conscious level by mentally repeating it in
time with the breath (So when inhaling and Ham when exhaling), a yogi experiences
the identity between his individual Self and the Supreme Self.
There are mantras that change things and others that reveal the eternal nature of
things. Soham does both. According to the Nath Yogis (see Philosophy of Gorakhnath
by Askhaya Kumar Banerjea) Soham has existed within the depths of God from
eternity; and the same is true of every sentient being. Soham, then, will reveal our
inner being. By meditating on Soham we discover our Self within which Soham has
existed forever. The simple intonation of Soham in time with the breath (see
Chapter Two) will do everything in the unfolding of the yogi’s spiritual
consciousness. For sound and breath are the totality of yoga sadhana (see Chapter
Four).
The practice is very simple, and the results very profound. Truly wondrous is the
fact that Soham Yoga can go on all the time, not just during meditation, if we apply
ourselves to it. The whole life can become a continuous stream of liberating
sadhana. “By the mantra ‘Soham’ separate the jivatma from the Paramatma and
locate the jivatma in the heart” (Devi Bhagavatam 11.8.15). When we repeat Soham
in time with the breath we are invoking our eternal being. This is why we need only
listen to our inner mental intonations of Soham in time with the breath which itself
is Soham.
It is my hope that through practice you will experience for yourself the value and
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benefits of Soham Yoga that is presented in this book. The important thing about
Soham Yoga is that it really works. It only takes perseverance.
Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)
Light of the Spirit Monastery
ocoy.org
(Please see the Glossary for the definition of unfamiliar words and also for brief
biographical information on unfamiliar persons.)
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Chapter One: Yoga
Yoga is a Sanskrit word that means “to join.” Yoga is both union and the way to
that union. What do we join through yoga? First, we join our awareness to our own
essential being, the spirit whose nature is pure consciousness. In yoga philosophy
this is known as the Atman or Self. Next, we join our finite consciousness to the
Infinite Consciousness, God, the Supreme Self (Paramatman). In essence they are
eternally one.
The individual Atman-spirit (jivatman) originally dwelt in the consciousness of
that oneness. But through its descent into the material world the spirit lost both its
awareness of the eternal union and the capacity to manifest it on a practical level.
Through yoga the lost consciousness can be regained and actualized in the yogi’s
practical life sphere.
Regarding this, a yogi-adept of the twentieth century, Dr. I. K. Taimni, remarks
in his book The Science of Yoga: “According to the yogic philosophy it is possible to
rise completely above the illusions and miseries of life and to gain infinite
knowledge, bliss, and power through enlightenment here and now while we are still
living in the physical body…. No vague promise of an uncertain postmortem
happiness this, but a definite scientific assertion of a fact verified by the experience
of innumerable yogis, saints, and sages who have trodden the path of yoga
throughout the ages.”
Since rational thought precedes rational action, we should begin with the
philosophical side of yoga.
Yoga philosophy
The basic text of the Yoga philosophy is the Yoga Sutras (also called Yoga
Darshana), written by the sage Patanjali, a yogi of ancient India. In contrast to other
philosophical systems, Yoga is a philosophy which stimulates its investigators to
engage in yoga as a practice through which they will experience and demonstrate its
truth and worth. What begins as theory develops into practice which culminates in
realization. Yoga is philosophy, discipline, and experience–a revelation of
consciousness.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna the teacher tells Arjuna the student: “Truly there
never was a time when I was not, nor you, nor these lords of men–nor in the future
will there be a time when we shall cease to be” (Bhagavad Gita 2:12). We are
eternal beings, without beginning and without end. Originally we were points of
conscious light in the infinite ocean of Conscious Light that is God–gods within
God. And so we still are, for it is not possible to be outside of Infinity. Yet we are
also here in this ever-changing world, the experience of which blinds us to the truth
of our immortal life within God. As Blavatsky wrote in The Voice of the Silence:
“Heaven’s dew-drop glittering in the morn’s first sunbeam within the bosom of the
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lotus, when dropped on earth becomes a piece of clay; behold, the pearl is now a
speck of mire.” Each one of us is a dew-drop of heaven, but for countless life-cycles
we have forgotten that.
God the Lord–Ishwara
In the Yoga Sutras the word for God is Ishwara–the Lord, Ruler, Master or
Controller possessing the powers of omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience.
It is toward this Ishwara that our life is to be directed if we would attain perfection
in yoga. In Yoga Sutra 1:23, Patanjali says that samadhi, the state of
superconsciousness where absoluteness is experienced, is produced by
Ishwarapranidhana–the offering of one’s life to God. This is not merely dedicating
our deeds and thoughts to God, but consciously merging our life in the greater life
of God and making them one. Yoga is the way to accomplish this.
Since yoga is a practical matter, we need some workable, pragmatic
understanding of the nature of God. For how will we seek and recognize him if we
have no idea who he is? Patanjali supplies us with exactly the kind of definition we
need: “Ishwara is a particular spirit who is untouched by the afflictions of life,
actions [karma] and the results and impressions [conditionings] produced by these
actions” (Yoga Sutras 1:24).
A particular Spirit. God is a special, unique, conscious Being–not just abstract
existence. God is a particular Spirit in the sense that God can be distinguished from
among all other things or beings.
Untouched. Though Ishwara is within all things and all things are within him, yet
he stands apart. This is stated several times in the Bhagavad Gita: “Know that [all]
states of being proceed from me. But I am not in them–they are in me.… [This
world] does not perceive me, who am higher than these and eternal” (7:12-13). “[I
am] sitting as one apart, indifferent and unattached in these actions” (9:9). “[I am]
outside and inside beings–the animate and the inanimate–incomprehensible
because of its subtlety, far away and also near” (13:15). “All beings dwell within me,
but I do not dwell within them” (9:4).
God is unique in the sense that he is Ekam Evam Advityam Brahman–the God who
is one, only, without a second. He is not one of many, nor is he even one of two. He
is one in every sense of the term. God is neither conditioned nor confined in any
manner. Therefore he is not touched or tainted by the afflictions or faults of life
(relative existence), in contrast to us who live within them as though they were the
air we breathe and the basis of our existence. Nor is Ishwara bound or in any way
conditioned by actions; therefore he is ever unchanging.
It should be noted that Ishwara is considered to be male in contradistinction to
the divine creative power–Prakriti or Shakti–that is female. Consequently Ishwara is
referred to as “he.” Brahman the Absolute is referred to as “it” because Brahman
transcends such dualities as male and female, positive and negative. Since the
English word “God” almost always implies Ishwara, in this book God will be
referred to as “he.”
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Infinite Consciousness: Omniscience
God is the essence and the apex of consciousness, so Patanjali further says: “In
him is the highest limit of omniscience” (Yoga Sutras 1:25). Commenting on this,
Shankara says: “The all-pervading mind of the supreme Lord is in simultaneous
contact with every object.” The omniscience of God is total and absolute, for in
truth God is Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence.
In this sutra Patanjali introduces a significant fact, for he does not just say that
omniscience (sarvajña) is in God, but that the seed of omniscience (sarvajña bijam) is
in him. Within God is the seed or potentiality of omniscience for those who are
united with him through their practice of yoga. Omniscience is not just objective
knowledge, but infinity of consciousness–the Being of God himself.
The two Selves
The age-old question asked along with “Who is God?” is “Who am I?” The true
“I” of each sentient being is the spirit-Self. But there is more. God is the Self of the
Self as the ocean is the “self” of every wave. The illumined know that they are the
immortal Self whose ultimate Self is the Immortal Itself. We are spirits within
Spirit, in a wondrous way both ourselves and Brahman, both finite and infinite.
“Two birds, companions (who are) always united, cling to the self-same tree. Of
these two, the one eats the sweet fruit and the other looks on without eating. On
the self-same tree, a person immersed (in the sorrows of the world) is deluded and
grieves on account of his helplessness. When he sees the other, the Lord who is
worshipped and his greatness, he becomes freed from sorrow” (Mundaka
Upanishad 3.1.1-2).
The key
Meditation is the key to knowledge of both the Self and the Self of the Self.
Knowing one, both are known–so say the sages.
Dr. I. K. Taimni, in The Ultimate Reality and Realization, says this: “It is only when
the realization of being a pure spirit or atma has been attained that it is possible to
achieve the final goal of union of the atma with the Paramatma, the Supreme Spirit
which exists eternally beyond the manifested universe and from which the
manifested universe is derived. When this final realization has been attained and
union of atma with Paramatma has been brought about there is not only a complete
sharing of consciousness between the two but also of the infinite Power which is
inherent in the Universal Consciousness.… It is necessary to distinguish between
the powers which are acquired on the realization that he is a pure spirit or atma and
those which are attained when he is able to destroy the last vestige of egoism and
his consciousness becomes united with that of Paramatma. The former, though
tremendous in some respects, are still limited, while the latter which are really the
Powers of the Supreme Spirit are infinite and can manifest through the center of
consciousness of a Self-realized individual because there is fusion of the individual
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consciousness with the Supreme Consciousness and the channel between the two is
open.”
God and gods
We are gods within God, finite spirits within the Infinite Spirit. But what is
spirit? Yoga philosophy tells us that spirit is consciousness. We are eternal
consciousnesses, each of us individual and distinct. Yet we are more. Each of us
takes our being from God as the wave takes its existence from the ocean.
God is the eternal root, the ground, of our being, our greater Self. We are not
God, but in some ineffable manner God is us–the Self of our Self, the Spirit of our
spirit. God is all, and we are the parts, each of us possessing an eternal and
irrevocable distinction. That is why Krishna told Arjuna: “There was never a time
when I did not exist, nor you, nor any of these kings. Nor is there any future in which
we shall cease to be.”
“There are two selves that drink the fruit of Karma in the world of good deeds.
Both are lodged in the secret place (of the heart), the chief seat of the Supreme. The
knowers of Brahman speak of them as shade and light” (Katha Upanishad 1:3:1).
God and creation
God, the infinite Spirit, is pure consciousness, but has extended or emanated
himself as the cosmos: physical, astral, and causal. “Brahman, indeed, was this in
the beginning. It knew itself only as: ‘I am Brahman.’ Therefore it became
all” (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1:4:10). This seemingly dual nature of God as Light
and Power, as Consciousness and Matter, has puzzled the minds of even the wise.
God, the Original Being, projects himself as the ever-changing dance of creation,
as the evolving Light that is the cosmos. God projects the creation, evolves it, and
withdraws it back into himself in a perpetual cycle. The creation can be thought of
as God’s body–that God becomes incarnate in creation again and again. And as parts
or reflections of God we do exactly the same through reincarnation.
There is a law that governs the place and kind of our embodiment. That law is
karma, the principle of exact and inevitable reaction to our own actions and mental
states, resulting in a seemingly endless domino effect of continual birth and death.
Yoga offers us the possibility of evolving our consciousness and ending this chain of
embodiments by the awakening-transformation from time and mortality into
eternity and immortality.
And us…
All conscious beings have existed eternally within the Being of God, one with
him, distinct though not separate from him. Rooted in the infinity of God, they have
within themselves an innate impulse to transcend their finitude and attain the
boundlessness of their Origin. This is impossible, since they are as immutable as
God, the only infinite being. They can become godlike, but they cannot become
God. Yet the urge for transcendence is part of their nature.
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