Stephen Sturgess - The Yoga book: A practical Guide to Self-Realization

The

YOGA
BOOK

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO SELF-REALIZATION

STEPHEN STURGESS

Foreword by Swami Kriyananda

WATKINS PUBLISHING
LONDON

D EDICATION

This book is dedicated to my spiritual masters, Jesus Christ, Krishna, Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Sri Yukteswar and my beloved Master Paramhansa Yogananda who has shown me the true path to God.

I also dedicate this book to Sri Kriyananda, who inspired me to follow the Kriya Yoga teachings of Yogananda.

This book is for all my spiritual brothers and sisters at Ananda and for all those who have helped me along the way to Truth.

May this book inspire you, the reader, to live in the consciousness of God, that you may find the true inner joy and inner peace.

Stephen Sturgess was first introduced to yoga in 1969. He has studied their teachings and practised yoga under well-known yoga masters. These include three of Swami Sivananda's foremost direct disciples: Swami Satyananda Saraswati, Swami Venkatesananda, and Swami Vishnudevananda, who were making regular visits to England during the 1970s to give yoga seminars, workshops and retreats. This was a very inspiring time for Stephen to meet these spiritually wise yoga teachers from India, who prepared the way for higher teachings. Another excellent yoga teacher Stephen studied under was the late Yoga Maharishi Dr Swami Gitananda of Pondicherry, India.

In 1979 Stephen was given the spiritual name of Shankara (the auspicious one) and given mantra initiation by Swami Satyananda Saraswati. Then, after meeting many other spiritual teachers and exploring the different paths of yoga, and practising them, Stephen met his spiritual teacher, Swami Kriyananda (a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda) in London in 1982. Swami Kriyananda (Founder/Director of the Ananda Spiritual Communities in Nevada, California, USA and Assisi, Italy) initiated Stephen into the ancient science of Kriya Yoga meditation techniques and teachings that Mahavatar Babaji passed down in disciplic succession to Yogananda.

Stephen is the Ananda Meditation Group leader for the United Kingdom. He teaches yoga and meditation and is available to give yoga/meditation workshops on request. Stephen is also a spiritual healer, artist and graphic designer, living in London.

By the same author

Yoga For Life

L IST OF I LLUSTRATIONS

The subtle bodies and the chakras

The five sheaths of consciousness

Body regions of the five vayus (vital airs)

The seven chakras (centres of consciousness) are situated in the astral body. Here they are shown in relation to the physical body.

The chakras and nadis (subtle nerve pathways) in the astral body

The endocrine glands

The nerve plexuses

Padangushthasana (toe-balance pose)

Viryastambhanasana (semen-retention pose)

Bhadrasana (nobility pose)

Chanting with mala beads

The digestive system, showing the flow of warm salt water in the practice of shankhaprakshalana

Shankaprakshalana

Pavanamuktasana (gas- and wind-eliminating pose)

Nauli kriya

Nabho mudra

Kechari mudra

Ustrasana (camel pose)

Yogic breathing

Position for meditation seated on a chair

Sukhasana

Swastikasana

Siddhasana

Padmasana (lotus pose)

Ardha padmasana

A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book took nearly four years to write. The knowledge and experience I gained from various yogic paths and spiritual disciplines over 23 years inspired me to write a comprehensive book on Ashtanga Yoga to inspire others to raise their consciousness to a higher level so that they will know the purpose of this life and feel God's presence in their hearts.

I give my deepest thanks and appreciation to Jeanne Cook, who spent many hours typing the manuscript for me.

I am profoundly grateful to Sri Kriyananda, who very kindly wrote the Foreword for this book, also for his comments and inspirational support.

I give appreciation and thanks also to all other people who may have contributed to the creation of this book, or who inspired me.

Paramhansa Yogananda

Swami Kriyananda

P REFACE

Whether you realize it or not you are a soul, a spiritual being in a physical body. The body is the temple of the soul, and the soul is a reflection of God.

Your true identity, your true nature, is pure consciousness, infinite pure being, which is separate from the physical body, senses or mind-ego; but through ignorance and self-forgetfulness you have imposed limitations and wrong identification upon yourself. Due to ignorance and lifetimes of concentration on the material body, and attraction to the objects of the senses, the Self has forgotten its omnipresent nature.

It is the ego-mind that creates an illusory reality formed by its own thoughts, desires, imagination, memories and ideas, that keeps you from knowing and realizing your true soul-nature, your divinity within. In ignorance, the ego-mind cannot see truth, the divine reality, because it is blinded by its own desires.

It is the false identification of the Self with the body, mind and senses, and your separation from the infinite, that is the cause of all suffering and unhappiness.

Whether knowingly or unknowingly, there are two things in life that everybody wants:

freedom from pain, suffering and want

permanent happiness or bliss (joy)

Happiness and joy are the very nature of the Self; the Self is itself the very source of happiness, its nature is pure being pure consciousness bliss (satchidananda). There is no happiness in any object of the world. Truth and happiness are not outside you, they are within you.

The most important thing to know and do in life is to become consciously aware of your own spiritual, divine nature and your eternal relationship with God, the Father-Mother of creation to love God with all your heart (feeling), with all your mind (concentration), with all your soul (soul-union through meditation) and with all your strength (attention and energy), and to love your neighbours (all beings, regardless of their colour, beliefs, caste, creed or religion) as yourself.

This book is about Ashtanga Yoga, also known as Raja Yoga, and is not to be confused with the practice which is becoming popular in the West of Ashtanga Vinyasa Asanas, sometimes known as Power Yoga a dynamic series of connecting movements using ujjayi breath and uddiyana bandha, made popular by Krishnamacharya and Pattabhi Jois from India. This is a wonderful system to align the skeletal system correctly and to strengthen, revitalize and make the body flexible and to promote health. But if it is practised neglecting the important spiritual aspects of yoga, such as the yamas (ethical disciplines) and niyamas (moral disciplines) then it reduces yoga to the level of a physical fitness system. This is important to understand because some people are under the misconception that yoga is a physical fitness system for achieving outward results a slim healthy body, sexual energy, magnetism, psychic powers, beauty and longevity. To achieve these outward results only for the purpose of continuing a self-centred sense-oriented life is of no value from a spiritual viewpoint. In the West it seems that the practice of yoga postures (