Exercises

Refining Exercises

The first three exercises will need the music. It is the music of the breath you and I have taken in the first nine months. This breathing that you are taking at various cycles, what it is going to do for you? I have just now told you that all this breathing ultimately makes you communicate, that is the purpose of these exercises – to communicate. This is the breath with which you were born, I was born. At that time every child takes 36 breaths every minute, but it is not a fast breath. It is rhythmic breath. There is particular rhythm in that breath. What is the rhythm? If you want to see this rhythm that Nature has, you see near the horizon. You will be able to see the rhythm of the ocean, like the note of this music one… two... three... five... six. One, two, three is breathing in and five, six is breathing out. But we will be doing exercise at thirty six breaths a minute and it should be a faster music.

Now kindly hear the music, look at me and start your breathing with me. Place your hands on your chest. Now look at me and breathe with the chest deeper... deeper... deeper….. Are you feeling little giddy? The nerves are choked. We clear the nerves with this breathing. When we pass through life, we pass through negative emotions, sometimes we do express, sometimes we do not. We have to gulp down many a times. If you are employed with the employer you have to gulp down. If your parents or your teacher scold you, sometimes you have to gulp down. And all these negative emotions settle in the various area of whole body. The first area is the chest area which will disturb the breathing and due to disturbed breathing we have Asthma, T.B. and various other diseases.

Now we shall go to the second exercise with the same music and the rhythm. Place your hands on the stomach above the navel. When you breathe in the abdomen comes out. When you breathe out your abdomen goes in. Remember this, not the other way around. When you breathe in your chest, your abdomen will come out; when you breathe out it will go in. Do it with the music… look at me… deeper... deeper…

This area is the stomach above the navel. All the organs are here in this region. We suffer from various diseases because we eat too much. None of you look as healthy as I am! And I eat earliest is every forty eight hours! Sometimes I eat after seventy-two or ninety-six hours and what I eat? I assure, less than what you eat in one meal. But why? Why I am so healthy? Why there is nothing that touches my body? This is because this part of the abdomen above the navel is normally empty. People have breakfast in the morning, then lunch in the afternoon, then in the evening there are some nasta (snacks), and in the night they have the dinner.

You will say why should we not eat? I will give you simple example. Suppose you build up a building or a factory, you need lot of materials. When you build human body up to the age of, say, twenty-five years, you eat freely. I am not stopping you from eating. Eat ten times a day, I do not mind. After twenty-five your body is complete. Once the factory is built what you need is maintenance of the factory and for maintenance how much you need? So, after twenty-five, all you have to do is to maintain this body, but for maintenance how much do you want to eat? Four times a day? Any one below twenty-five can eat. They have freedom up to twenty-five but by twenty-five the whole biological body is complete. Then what you need is only maintenance and maintenance requires very little quantity of food. In fact, the maximum amount of food in twenty-four hours that you can put in is twenty-four small morsels. That is all you have to eat in twenty-four hours, preferably in one meal.

Many people ask me if you have a long gap, don't you have ulcer? I do not know what an ulcer is, though I do not eat for forty-eight or even ninety-six hours! Ulcer comes if you are missing your food and not eating it. You do not require food when your body energy level remains high. We get up in the morning and by the time we go to bed we feel exhausted because our energy level starts falling. It is because of these reasons that we have to eat and we have to sleep. The shastra says that there are three types of people – Yogi, Jogi and Rogi. The Yogi sleeps for four hours – twelve to four a.m. The Jogis are common householders. They sleep for six hours – eleven to five am. And those who sleep more than this are all Rogis. You might say that science says you have to sleep eight hours. I say, quality of sleep is more important, not quantity of sleep. All you have to do is sleep for six hours – eleven to

5 a.m. I have been sleeping four hours a day – twelve to four a.m. By the time I go to bed by half past eleven I remain as fresh as when I get up in the morning, and I am afraid when you get up in the morning, you are not as fresh. May I tell you how you get up in the morning? Ah! O... Oh… Oi!..How much you do all this, when you get up in the morning? That means you have not slept well. When you get up in the morning you sit up in bed, put your legs out, stand up and walk, finish. That is a way you have to get up. But you can only get up like that if your sleep is fresh.

The exercises that I am going to show will reduce your intake of food normally, without making any control and sleep will be very sound. When you sleep in the bed you are not sleepy. You are tossing and turning in bed because whatever thoughts you had during the day, by dreams they come in your sleep and the way you sleep show what thoughts are going in your mind. You take the knees in your stomach and twist like this when you sleep like that it means, certain thoughts are passing through your mind and your sleep is not sound, so with these few exercises that you will see and do, will give you excellent health. No need for eating too much and yet very sound sleep, so that you get up fresh in the morning.

The third exercise is the combination of the first and second. You sit down on the ground, legs stretched in front of you. Normally, you have to hold the toes, but if you cannot hold the toes, every week try to come one inch nearer, so that after few weeks you can hold your toes. Keep the chin up. Now start with the combination of chest and abdomen with the same music and the rhythm.

In this exercise the important points to consider are the hipbone, the spine, the knees and the back of the thighs. These are the areas normally by the time one is forty to fifty years, he or she gets pain. So to remove this pain without medicine, this you can do for one minute. As I said, if you cannot hold your toes, hold your legs wherever you can, every week try to go by an inch further till you are able to hold your toes. So this is the third exercise. All these exercises you are doing with the music. This music tape is available.

Now the fourth, the fifth and sixth exercise are done without music. We see the fourth exercise. Here you take your breath in by three installments through the nostrils and blow out forcefully at once through your mouth. Shall we begin? Breathe in one... two... three... and forcefully breathe out through the mouth. Do it for one minute. Why do we do this breathing? You see, all our ailments begin with the nerves only. Our nerves have got wall that are perfectly round, but by the time we are thirty, thirty-five or forty, the size of the walls of the nerves fall in and they loose their elasticity. With the results you get blood pressure, you get many other defects of the blood and the skin and the heart and so on. So, in this exercise we once again make our nerves round and elastic, you once again get your health back. This is a simple exercise but it will remove a hundred ailments from your body.

Now, we go to the fifth exercise. Here the breath is in four stages. We take the breath, we hold the breath, we breathe out slowly, we keep the lungs empty. Here also we begin with the count of three. Slowly over weeks we go to the count of four and later we go to count of five. When we have count of three, we will have it with twelve seconds to one round and sixty seconds to five rounds. When we have five counts, we will have three rounds in one minute. With count one... two... three... we take breath in; with count one... two... three... we hold the breath, with count one... two... three.... we slowly exhale and with count one... two... three.. we keep our lungs empty. So it takes twelve seconds for one round and five rounds in one minute. This exercise is to cleanse your blood.

The final exercise is most important. You have experienced perhaps in your life, that you pass through a very strong negative emotion or very strong positive emotion, that is, when you are sad or you are very happy, your throat is choked. You cannot speak because the emotions choke your throat. This is the area where all negative emotions rest. So we have to clear this area. For that we take a very deep breath, keep the mouth shut, hold the nose with the finger and the thumb, press the chin against throat and then try to swallow saliva once, twice, thrice, and then release. Try to do for five times. Something happens to you? Something moves into your ear? Above the throat area there are all the five senses the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, and the skin. With this exercise you bring to normal all the five senses and all their sense organs. It is very useful exercise. It takes six minutes for these six refining exercises.

The main purpose of the 3SRB rhythm is the synchronizing of the prana intake in the astral body to intake of breath in the physical body. This is done mainly by doing three step rhythmic breathing for all twenty four hours. Achieving this is a long journey and there are many obstacles on the way. The main obstacles are the emotional granthis or knots which have formed in the astral body. The astral body is a body of fine energies or pranas which have the quality of emotions and that is why negative emotions create blocks.

These granthis have been formed by the collection of negative emotions and their memory patterns over very long periods of time (not only this life, but birth after birth after birth...).

Granthi means a deeply embedded negative pattern which keeps on repeating in our actions. Just as a block in the physical body leads to blockage in the circulation of blood, on the astral level these granthis are like blocks to the free flow of prana. Further, they tinge the prana with an emotional color, so the pranas flowing in the astral remain of a very low quality. Now these granthis form at certain specific places, connected with energy centers or nerve plexuses (chakras), in the astral - this leads to disease or illness manifesting in the physical at that same corresponding area. The granthi creates disease.

Tavariaji said that the astral is the primary body. But at present the astral is only primary in the sense that it creates disease in the physical body (that it is definitely primary, but in a NEGATIVE sense). Tavariaji also said that all diseases had their roots in the astral. It becomes apparent that in our effort to synchronise the physical with the astral, these granthis must be removed or dissolved. Further, quality of pranas in the astral must be upgraded and nerve plexuses (chakras) or energy centers must be able to work in a steady rhythm, the right speed and producing the correct amounts of psychic energies. Further these plexuses (chakras) and energy centers, with their upgraded energies should become the primary factor for the working of the physical body. When this happens, the astral in the real sense becomes the primary body (in the evolutionary sense). It is with all this in view that Shri Tavariaji designed the refining exercises. Not only are they scientific yoga practices but they are designed in a particular order so that as the refining proceeds, the granthis dissolve, the higher energies start circulating and they finally lead you to the throat center and end there. As we shall see, this is the area where we create the energy for communication. Thus the refining exercises take the student to an area where he can be further guided by communication from another dimension.
Each exercise is done with a particular area of the physical body and this area in turn is connected to the granthis and plexuses (chakras) at the astral level. So when the granthi and the emotional debris is cleared at a particular area, only then the emotional energies relevant to that area get upgraded.
For example, jealousy and anger could be upgraded to love and compassion. Also, by dissolving the granthi on the astral level, we begin to cure the disease or illness which manifested because of the granthi.
The first three exercisses are done at the 3SRB rhythm but at a faster speed (36 cycles/minute) This in effect 1) the rapid rhythm dissolves the granthi 2) the same rhythm is able to extract higher energies or pranas from the air and make them circulate in the area of the astral at 36 cycles a minute. These energies which are otherwise not available help to start certain higher functions in the body-brain system.
Before going any further let us summarize. These exercises help to : 1)   Remove the obstacles which prevent the synchronization of the astral and the physical bodies.
2)   Helps create higher emotional energies by transforming the lower ones or refining them.
3)    Provide the energy for certain plexuses (chakras) and energy centers for the astral to start functioning.
4)    To lead us to that stage / area / ground where an inner communication for guidance is possible. Now let us understand the astral and the physical and what it really means to make the astral primary (in the inner evolutionary sense). The human structure consists of seven or eight recognizable systems, supported by a skeletal framework and bound into solid whole by connective tissues. These systems are united and harmonised by the life maintaining action of the heart upon which depends the very existence of the organism as an individual. Each system covers the entire body and governing all these systems is a system called the endocrine system, which is made up of certain glands for internal secretion, usually in pairs. Each gland is set in a particular place and overlooks a particular system.

It individually presides over the system as a regulator and transformer of energy needed for the working of the system i.e. this gland transforms the general life produced by the organism from FOOD, AIR and INCOMING IMPULSES - to the tension required for that system to work.

Tavariaji said that each endocrine gland is a poor counterpart of something higher in the astral, what we call chakras so each endocrine gland is sensitive to or associated with an energy center or plexus (chakra) in the astral. It is these centers which give higher substances required so that the related endocrine gland can secrete in us the chemicals which lead to a higher quality of awareness, emotions and understanding. Only when this happens does the astral become primary in the real sense of the term. But at present in the areas of the nerve plexuses (chakras) we have created granthis. These granthis do not allow the energy centre or nerve plexuses (chakras) to work properly. On the contrary they lead to repetitive negative emotions and because they are counterparts of the endocrine glands these granthis with the negative emotions induce the glands to secrete poisonous chemicals in the body. This then leads to tension in the physical body and manifests in ailments and diseases. For example, if there is an emotion of jealousy, the granthis involved will make the related endocrine gland to secrete incorrectly (digestive juices secreted when no food is eaten or less no secretion when food is eaten) which can lead to rheumatism and arthritis. Thus the granthis do not allow the glands to function in a balanced and harmonious manner leading to over or under secretion of each gland and so creating or releasing poisonous chemicals in the blood stream. So, on the one hand we have to dissolve the granthis and the negative emotions for the energy centers to work properly and on the other hand the centers require a higher quality of prana to work which must be produced in the astral. As we saw in our last few meetings the astral takes in only one kind of food directly i.e. incoming impulses. Apart from that it also gets the needed higher energies from the physical food we eat and the air we breathe. Three step rhythmic breathing plays a very important role in helping the astral extract maximum energies from the air, which is why 3SRB alone can be responsible for providing the higher energy for the astral centers to work.

So on one side we have an astral energy center and on the other a physical endocrine gland. As long as the pranas circulating are of the lower grade, there is not much need of communication between the two. Once the pranas have been refined and upgraded a different kind of communication has to be established between the astral and the physical. The establishing of this will involve the regeneration of the      parasympathetic system. The nervous system in our bodies is divided into three separate sub-systems: 1)   The CEREBRO-SPINAL which serves the conscious functions of the bodybrain system.
2)   The SYMPATHETIC which stimulates the unconscious or instinctive functions.
3)   The PARA-SYMPATHETIC (VAGUS) which slows down the instinctive functions and complements them. Tavariaji said, "The first step is co-ordination i.e. synchronizing the prana intake of the astral with the breath intake of the physical. The second step is communication." In our talks on pause we saw how communication with the higher or astral center of the brain takes place. Apart from the centers in the brain there are minor brains or chakras which have communication with the glands. The establishing of communications in both the minor brain or brain centers, involves the working of the para-sympathetic system. Further, like we have physical or psychological nerve pathways throughout the body there exists a more subtle system of energetic passageways called nadis. These nadis at present are blocked with emotional debris. For the para-sympathetic system to be activated, these nadis must be cleansed and strengthened. 'Nadi Shuddhi' holds a very important place in Hatha yoga practices. As we shall see later, exercise number four cleanses the nadis and exercise number five ignites the parasympathetic. Once the nadis are cleansed and strengthened they are capable of withstanding the high voltage energies with which the parasympathet c works. Tavariaji said, "Of the two principal nervous system one is subconscious and animal and the other is sub-conscious but human. The latter is expected to fully function in some near evolutionary future. Can we generate this system and make use of it today?" Before we go into each exercise it is best to remember that TAVARIAJI - always said that these exercises are not just exercises but are valuable techniques and should be done with the attitude of worship i.e. keeping their higher purpose in mind. So a right attitude and inner posture is most important while doing these exercises.

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