Happy Trails

What is the secret to happiness? Michele Cempaka spends the day with Gurudev Shri Amritji, an internationally renowned authority on yoga and holistic living, to find out how we can remove our old karma and experience real joy.

With his flowing white robes and shoulder-length hair, Gurudev creates a sense of well-being and peace when he greets the roomful of people who have come from all over Bali to hear his teachings.

He began teaching yoga in 1960, and became one of its earliest pioneers in America. After experiencing a profound awakening from Kundalini yoga, he developed an innovative yoga methodology which incorporated a spiritual dimension in the practice of Hatha Yoga.

He called this new practice Kripalu Yoga (Meditation in Motion) in honor of his guru. Gurudev then went on to found the Center for Yoga and Health, one of the largest centers of its kind in America. Today, thousands of people around the world practice Gurudev’s yoga, which is known as the Amrit Method of Yoga Nindra.

Gurudev explains how the Amrit method works. When people practice the Asanas – the physical part of yoga -- and come to a point when the brain kicks in and tells them they have reached their limit, they can allow themselves to get into the flight or fight mode, but then they can’t experience yoga.

Another option is that they can learn to relax and go beyond their minds by making a conscious decision to let go of tension and reactive thoughts. When people develop consciousness through practicing yoga, they are then able to bypass limitations and experience real happiness and peace.

 “The first guru is the inner guru. That’s why they say in India ‘when the disciple is ready, the guru appears’. I think I want to make a little correction: ‘when the disciple is ready, the guru is recognized,’” says Gurudev.

“Your mind is playing very old tapes. You don’t even know it. Every problem that you think is due to poor health is not the real problem now – it’s actually a problem from your past which is reappearing now through your reaction. So, how do we get rid of it? This is where Yoga Nindra is most effective, because it teaches us how to remove all of our karma – everything that has happened to us like our traumas, pain, betrayals, etc.”

He believes that all of these unresolved feelings trigger a reaction. If we react to a situation without being conscious of why or how we are reacting, our lives will not improve, and things will only get progressively worse.

“There’s so much to Yoga Nindra. I have written about affirmations and visualizations that really clear your past. It’s not moving from negative to positive; it’s moving beyond negative and positive.”

“The literal translation of Yoga Nidra is Yogic Sleep. It is an ancient form of meditation that will take you into the deepest levels of relaxation while still remaining fully aware,” says Gurudev.

To illustrate how this occurs, Gurudev has the group lie down while he guides us into a Yoga Nindra state. As my brainwaves drop into the alpha and theta states, I experience a sense of deep calm while still being conscious. I feel myself going in and out of awareness; occasionally I hear the sound of Gurudev’s gentle voice as he instructs us to go deeper and deeper. Eventually I completely shift out of my identification with my mind and body, feeling a kind of weightlessness which I have never experienced before.

Gurudev later explains that during this state “we naturally realign with the spirit, which allows us to disengage from restrictive physical, mental and emotional patterns.”

People, he says, have the opportunity to live a life that is an expression of higher consciousness and experience pure bliss.

“You cannot do any action efficiently, effectively or creatively if you are not eternally totally present and acting without prejudice, anger, fear or personal bias. When you are in a meditative state you’re very powerful and creative. This yoga cultivates your consciousness and gives you the most amazing powers. It teaches us how to act from our source of integration.”

He says his yoga is all about “intention”.

“In this approach that I teach, you should have in the beginning what you want in the end. That’s the yoga I practice. You might be thinking, ‘if you can have in the beginning what you want in the end, then why should I practice yoga?’ Let me explain: in the beginning, suppose that you want a mango tree. You must begin with a mango seed, so that you’re nurturing that seed all along the way and it grows until it becomes a mango tree. So, when we are doing yoga, we must start with an intention for integration.”

He says there are many benefits to Yoga Nindra, including elimination of stress, reduction of blood pressure, more restful sleep, prevention of premature aging and help with overcoming fears and phobias.

One participant shared a story about how she suffered chronic motion sickness. Then one day she went on a four-hour drive from Agra to the Taj Mahal. When she got out of the car she realized that she was fine. Her childhood fear of riding in cars had vanished.

“That’s the kind of healing that happens when you connect with your inner power which you can access through the medium of practicing Yoga Nindra. Healing happens from beyond the mind, from beyond the ego doing anything to get there,” says Gurudev.

What is the secret of happiness? The answers lie within us and our ability to let go of our discursive thoughts and just relax.

 For more information about Yoga Nindra, visit: www.amrityoga.org

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