Sanjeev Newar - Conversations on Yoga (Vedic self help Book 3)

Conversations on Yoga

Copyright 2018 by Agniveer

All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Agniveer.

For information contact

books@agniveer.com

Book Design and Composition by Ronak Trivedi

First Edition: January 2018

Other Books by Author

The Science of Blissful Living

Essence of Vedas

Questions Only Hinduism Can Answer

Divine Vedas

A Hindu's Fight for Mother Cow

Attacks on Hinduism And its defence forever

Beyond Flesh there lies a human being

Dalits of Hinduism

Practical Guide to Moksha

Yoga is the perhaps the most glamorous word in Hindu lexicon. Its the in-thing. Be it USA or India; Yoga is cool everywhere. We even have a Yoga Day now.

Yoga is also one of the most confusing subjects. A lot of misconceptions are floating around. Many classify Yoga as Raja Yoga, Hatha Yoga etc.

Such classifications are artificial and defeat the purpose of Yoga - Union. Real Yoga is all about discovering your true self and uniting it with the Source. As humans, we have certain tools to achieve this. Like our mind, our body, and our society. Yoga is the framework to use all these tools in harmony to achieve the Union.

Since the Source is all-powerful, this Union must bring you more power. Since the Source is all-intelligent, this Union must bring you more intelligence. Since the Source is optimal, this Union must bring an optimal way of living in you. Since the Source is always in action - keeping everything dynamic - this Union must make you action-oriented.

You can immediately see that certain "types" of Yoga are thus not Yoga in the first place. Anything that weakens, anything that wastes your time in purposeless pursuits, anything that makes your maintenance efforts supersedes your actual actions. These are not Yoga. These are anti-Yoga.

Spending hours in Hatha Yoga practice is not Yoga. Doing sexual acts in the name of Tantra is not Yoga. Beer Yoga, Couple Yoga, Hot Yoga, and every other fad are not Yoga.

This book is for serious practitioners of Yoga. It answers a large number of topics and questions Sadhaks have asked on different aspects of Yoga. Both beginners and advanced practitioners can benefit immensely from this book that answers several questions not answered anywhere. You will also be surprised to find unexpected answers of many questions.

The source of these answers is - Vedas, Gita, Yog Sutras - the sources that current Yogic schools have currently forgotten. These are the sources from which entire framework of Yoga has been developed. Vedas are the primary source and rest form elaboration of certain aspects of Yoga. The language of these texts is cryptic and requires Samadhi and Karma to decrypt. This is not an easy process and hence ignored in the modern era. Yet, the fact remains that any attempt to understand Yoga without this foundation is bound to lead to anti-Yoga instead.

The collection of questions and answers in this book is not theoretical in nature. Yoga is a practical science, and so is the content of this book. The goal is to provide straight answers without beating around the bush in flowery language so that you can utilise the time for actual Sadhana. Life is short. Every second must be valued.

The questions are roughly categorised in different subjects, but that categorisation is not accurate. Yoga is all about rising above categorisations. Yet, it is a practical requirement to help you locate answers quicker.

There is no particular order in which you must read the book. You can jump in randomly as per need. However, I do recommend that you read the entire book at least once.

I wrote this book because I find lots of talented lives wasted away in pursuit of fake Yogas floating around. They end up being shells of insignificance instead of being change-agents. I could find no book that brings true Yoga in simple language for modern people. Yoga is the soul of entire wisdom of East and even wisdom of West. This book is an attempt to preserve the soul in the era of manipulations.

Yoga is all about being a magician. Not the one who creates illusion effects but the one who can change the realities in the real world. I hope this book helps you improve your realities. In the process, help you be more successful, more happy, more healthy, more intelligent, more efficient, more fast, and more purposeful.

The book follows no particular order. It contains a variety of content - answers to questions, pages from diary, confessions - to trigger the right Sanskars (instincts) to activate the Yogi inside you. The content has been roughly classified into different sections to ease reading. But the classification is not water-tight. The goal of Yoga is to see unity across all classifications.

A large number of topics are covered. I recommend beginners to read everything at least once to get the complete picture. And bookmark those contents that appear more useful today.

Life is temporary. This book is temporary. Memory is temporary. Yet, Sanskars are permanent loyal friends of the soul. I hope this book remains permanently with you through these Sanskars.

Happy Moksha!

Tasmaat Yogi Bhavaarjuna! (Gita verse)

Be a Yogi, right now!

Table of Contents

Whatever fancy jargons you impose to make it sound impressive and mystic, in essence, Yoga means the following:

• Proactive Self-control.
• Complete surrender to Supreme Source.
• A constant pursuit of all forms of strength.

Every other breathing pattern, acrobatic pose, the cleansing technique is secondary, and often irrelevant.

In my views, the perfect icon of Yogi is Lord Hanuman.

Avidya (ignorance) as per Yoga Darshan:

• To consider temporary to be permanent and vice versa.
• To consider impure as pure and vice versa.
• To consider sorrow as happiness and vice versa.
• To consider inert as conscious as vice versa.

The opposite of Avidya is Vidya or knowledge.

Avidya is the roadblock to be eliminated to achieve Moksha. This is the goal of life. Everything we do is to fulfil this ultimate goal.

Krishna says in Gita,

"O Arjuna, in the Yogic state, one obtains a constant connection with Supreme Source.

One who achieves this constant connection with Source is never deluded. After the death (or dissociation with the temporary body), such a Yogi becomes one with the Supreme Source and obtains the highest order of bliss.

This is called Moksha or Nirvana and is the primary purpose of life."

The only explanation I can give to someone for not being desperate to be a Yogi is "mental laziness". No, I will not be diplomatic in putting across this point. I shall rather put it most strongly and with zero regards to alternative viewpoints.