Stephen Sturgess - Yoga Meditation: The Supreme Guide to Self-Realization

This book is dedicated to my guru Paramhansa Yogananda (18931952), who brought the supreme technique of Kriya Yoga meditation to the West.

The wholehearted practice of meditation brings deep bliss. This ever-new bliss is not born of desire; it manifests itself by the magic command of your inner, intuitive-born calmness. Manifest this serenity always.

Paramhansa Yogananda

Knowingly or unknowingly, we are all seeking lasting happiness: a sense of calm, balance and completeness, true joy of total fulfilment, and freedom from suffering, pain and sorrow. Yet we can, at times, feel out of sync, lacking in joy, overwhelmed by life or have a sense that something is missing.

We may have all the material comforts that life can give us a house, a car, beautiful clothes, the latest technology, a good marriage or relationship, sex, family, friends, a successful career and good health all the things that are believed by most people to bring happiness and security. But happiness may still elude us or feel all too fleeting overshadowed by moments of worry, discontent or self-doubt. And what good is success in the external world if we have not found contentment, inner peace and true joy within?

Through not understanding the distinction between pleasure (an attribute of the senses) and happiness (an attribute of the mind), we often try to give our lives meaning and purpose by turning our minds outward. Hence we fill our time with external events, activities and objects pursuits that can bring only transitory happiness.

If, on the other hand, we choose to turn our mind and senses inward through the practice of Yoga Meditation, as outlined in this book, we have the chance to transcend the everyday external limitations by which we are held back and be united with our true, innermost, joyful Self. This is known in Sanskrit as Sat-Chit-Ananda: ever-conscious, ever-existent, ever-new bliss. By encouraging the thinking mind to become still through meditation, we will allow the light of the true Self to start to shine from within.

As such, we can realize, and start to become established in, the awareness of what is often called in yogic terms our own divine nature, which recognizes the union of the individual self, or consciousness, with the Absolute, or Supreme, Consciousness. This allows us to experience a sense of underlying unity in the world and vibrant connectedness with everything.

When everything we do in life is an expression of this inner divine state of bliss, we regain our balance, freedom and joy, and experience true happiness every day. As such, it is a wise investment to devote some regular time to the Yoga Meditation practices in this book, as they will guide you on this path of emotional and spiritual discovery, calming your mind, heightening your clarity, enhancing your joy, awakening your inner spirit and allowing you to realize your fullest potential for creative thought and action.

To fully understand Yoga Meditation, it is useful firstly to gain an understanding of yoga in its true, broad sense rather than in the context of the limited physical, on the mat practice that has come to be associated with the term in the West.

The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit root yuj, which means to yoke, join or unite. The ultimate meaning is the union between the individual self and the Universal Self. It is establishing oneness between the finite and the Infinite, between the inner being and the Supreme Being. So, as well as helping us to attain optimum health and a calm and peaceful mind, yoga can also lead us to self-realization and ultimately spiritual liberation and a sense of oneness with the Self.

Divine joy is like millions of earthly joys crushed into one.

Paramhansa Yogananda

In this book the emphasis is on what is known as Raja Yoga the yoga of meditation which is principally concerned with the cultivation of the mind by learning to quieten or master its many fluctuations in order to experience deep stillness, joy and, ultimately, enlightenment. However, the pages that follow also contain physical purification practices for the body, breath and mind that derive from Hatha Yoga the wider practice of yoga as defined in Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Such physical practices are also an essential part of Raja Yoga; Hatha and Raja Yoga are interdependent.

One way to think of the interaction between Hatha and Raja Yoga is that the physical practices of Hatha Yoga asana, purification and pranayama practices (see chapters ) to shine into the inner sanctum (the inner Self). After all, your physical body and mind are your primary tools for all spiritual practices. So without a strong, healthy body and mind, it is difficult to attain spiritual joy.

Raja Yoga teachings can be traced back to around 200 BCE when they were systematized by a great sage called Patanjali, who formulated them into 196 aphorisms called the Yoga Sutras, quotes from which you will see scattered throughout this book. Some modern translations give the number of sutras as 195 due to the interpretation that one is an expansion of a previous sutra.

Patanjalis ancient guidelines give instruction on the actions he believed we need to take if we want to regain the experience of our true divine nature from social and personal disciplines through yoga postures, breathing control and sense withdrawal to concentration and meditation techniques.

Stilling the mind

Patanjali tells us in his Yoga Sutras that when the mind is still and turns within, we perceive the self in its true, divine, ever-joyful nature, free from any obstacles that were previously obscuring this:

Yoga (the experience of unity) results from the neutralization of ego-feelings (vrittis) that produce desires, attachments, likes and dislikes.
Yoga Sutras 1:2

Then the self abides in its own (eternal) true nature.
Yoga Sutras 1:3

At other times when the self is not abiding in its own true nature, there arises false identification with the ego-feeling (vritti).
Yoga Sutras 1:4

The Sanskrit word vritti means whirlpool and it is these swirling vortices of feeling arising from the ego desires and attachments, likes and dislikes, feelings and memories that cause restlessness of the mind. Yoga is simply the stilling of such feelings, and therefore of such movements, akin to waves gently stilling on the surface of a lake, bringing about a sense of calm.

K RIYA Y OGA AND THE I MPORTANCE OF M EDITATION