Relaxation and meditation

1.17 Yogic relaxation techniques

Relaxation: letting go, wide awake

Two switches: the stress response and the relaxation response

Part of your nervous system runs on its own, without being asked. This autonomic nervous system has two branches that pull in opposite directions. The sympathetic branch is the accelerator. Faced with a deadline, a near-miss on the road or an argument, it speeds up the heart, quickens the breath, braces the muscles and puts digestion on hold, so that you can fight or run. That is the stress response. The parasympathetic branch is the brake: the heart slows, the breath lengthens, the muscles soften and digestion starts again. That is the relaxation response, often summed up as “rest and digest”.

The two branches pull against each other, so a body cannot be deeply tense and deeply relaxed at the same moment. That is the working idea behind relaxation methods: IGNOU’s unit on stress management uses it to explain why deliberate muscle relaxation works against stress. Source The nervous system itself is covered in the body’s systems.

Stress itself is not the enemy. S-VYASA, the yoga university in Bengaluru, calls it necessary for growth: it is what makes us alert. Trouble starts when modern speed keeps the accelerator pressed and alertness turns into hypersensitivity. So its stress-management programme, SMET (Self Management of Excessive Tension), pairs stimulation with relaxation, a principle it traces to the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad. Source

Śavāsana: the pose that takes away tiredness

The verse names the pose by its look, a body lying still like a corpse (śava), and by its two gifts: it removes fatigue (śrānti) and lets the mind (citta) rest (viśrānti).

The Common Yoga Protocol of the Ministry of Ayush teaches it like this: lie on your back with arms and legs comfortably apart, palms up, eyes closed. Relax the whole body on purpose. Become aware of the natural breath and let it grow slow. Stay until you feel refreshed. It says the pose relieves tension, rests both body and mind, and helps in managing stress, because the mind, usually pulled outward, turns back in. Source

Two more resting poses

Lying on the front

Makarāsana, the crocodile

Lie on your front, feet wide apart and toes turned out. In the Common Yoga Protocol you stack the palms and rest your head on them; Swami Satyananda’s Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha (Bihar School), like the photo, props the chin in the hands on the elbows. The Protocol uses it to rest between the front-lying poses and says it relaxes the whole body and helps counter stress and anxiety. Source Avoid it in pregnancy and with a frozen shoulder. In the āsana library

Kneeling forward bend

Śaśāṅkāsana, the hare

From Vajrāsana, fold forward, rest the forehead on the floor and stretch the arms ahead: a quiet pose that turns attention inward. The Bihar School groups it with the forward bends of the vajrāsana series and notes that it can also be held as a relaxing pose. Source The Common Yoga Protocol teaches a related hare pose, Śaśakāsana, with the knees apart and the chin on the floor, and says it helps reduce stress and anxiety. Source Avoid it with acute back pain; with arthritis of the knees, skip the kneeling. In the āsana library

Instant, quick and deep relaxation

S-VYASA teaches three graded relaxations in its SMET programme: the Instant, Quick and Deep Relaxation Techniques, known as IRT, QRT and DRT. Source In outline, as they are usually taught, all three lying in śavāsana:

Timings and details differ from teacher to teacher, so learn them from one and treat this as a map. The deepest relaxation in this syllabus is yoga nidrā, next.

1.17 · P1.6 b Yoga nidrā

Yoga nidrā: the body asleep, awareness awake

What the name means, and where it comes from

Nidrā means sleep. Yoga nidrā is often translated as psychic or yogic sleep: a state on the border of waking and sleeping, in which the body is deeply relaxed and awareness is still present. MDNIY describes it in just these terms: a state of awareness between waking and sleeping, reached through a careful guided meditation, in which you stay aware of your surroundings. Source

The method taught today was developed by Swami Satyananda Saraswati, founder of the Bihar School of Yoga at Munger, from nyāsa, an old tantric practice. Nyāsa means placing: in it, mantras are placed on one part of the body after another, with touch and attention. Yoga nidrā keeps that journey of attention through the body. The Bihar School describes it as a systematic method for complete physical, mental and emotional relaxation, in which consciousness works at a deeper level of awareness. Source

The stages

1. Preparation. Lie in śavāsana, covered if it is cool, and settle. Listen to sounds far away, then nearer, then in the room; feel the body lying on the floor. Quietly decide: “I will stay awake.”
2. Saṅkalpa, the resolve. A short, positive sentence in your own words, such as “I am calm and steady.” Repeat it three times in the mind, with feeling. It is a seed planted while the mind is open.
3. Rotation of consciousness. The guide names parts of the body quickly, in a fixed order: the right hand thumb, each finger, the palm, and on through the right side; then the left side; the back; the front, from the top of the head down; and finally the major parts and the whole body. You only move your attention where the voice goes. No effort, no movement.
4. Breath awareness. Watch the natural breath, at the navel or the nostrils, without changing it, often counting the breaths.
5. Feelings and sensations. Pairs of opposites are woken and then let go: heaviness and lightness, cold and heat, often pain and pleasure.
6. Visualisation. The guide names images one after another, or leads a short inner journey. You let them appear on the screen of the mind, without effort.
7. Saṅkalpa again. The same resolve, three times, now in a deeply relaxed mind.
8. Ending. Awareness returns slowly: breath, body, the floor, the room. Move the fingers and toes, stretch, roll to one side, and sit up only when you are ready.

MDNIY’s booklet on yoga for mental health names the same ingredients: awareness that relaxes every part of the body in turn, with breathing, feeling, visualisation and a positive resolve. Source

Tips for practice

• Lie on a mat rather than your bed, and keep a light cover nearby: the body cools as it relaxes.
• Keep still. If you must move, move once, deliberately, and settle again.
• Don’t try hard to concentrate. Follow the voice lightly; if you miss a part, join again at the next.
• If you fall asleep, the body still rests. With practice you stay with the voice for longer.
• Teachers usually advise keeping one saṅkalpa for a long time rather than changing it every session.
• Choose a regular time. The Bihar School’s daily routine for the International Day of Yoga 2024 puts yoga nidrā, or a short “yoga nap”, in the late afternoon or early evening. Source

What it supports

Put modestly, yoga nidrā gives deep rest. MDNIY writes that it helps relieve physical and mental fatigue, stress and stiffness, brings calm and clarity, and is used in the care of sleep problems, anxiety and stress. Source The Common Yoga Protocol names it among the practices an institution may add to the standard session. Source It does not replace a night’s sleep, and it does not replace treatment.

1.18 Dhyāna and its role in health and well-being

Dhyāna: when holding the mind becomes a flow

Patañjali’s three steps inward

NIOS’s yoga course reads them the same way: dhāraṇā holds the mind on one object, dhyāna is an unbroken flow of knowing toward it, and when the three are practised together on one object Patañjali calls them saṁyama (3.4). Source Editions count 195 or 196 sūtras in all (MDNIY gives 195, NIOS 196); the numbers on this page are the same in both. Source Iyengar’s Light on Yoga walks through all eight limbs, these three included, before it reaches the āsanas.

The ladder: pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna

1 · Withdrawing

Pratyāhāra

The senses stop chasing their objects and turn back, the way a tortoise draws in its limbs (Bhagavad Gītā 2.58). Source Sounds are still heard; they no longer pull you out.

2 · Holding

Dhāraṇā

The mind is held on one point: the breath, a flame, a mantra, a place in the body. It wanders; you bring it back. This takes effort. It is concentration.

3 · Flowing

Dhyāna

The returns grow shorter until attention simply stays, like oil poured in a thread. Little effort is left. This is meditation.

Concentration or meditation? In daily speech the words are used loosely. In yoga they are steps. Concentration is the effort of holding; meditation is what that effort becomes when it no longer needs pushing. That is why the Common Yoga Protocol’s instruction for dhyāna says you need not concentrate: keep a mild focus between the eyebrows, stay conscious of the breath, and let the thoughts settle into one. Source

The Gītā’s instructions for sitting

Chapter 6 of the Bhagavad Gītā gives the oldest practical instructions in this syllabus. Sit alone in a quiet place, with body and mind under control, free of craving and of grasping (6.10). Set up a firm seat in a clean place, neither too high nor too low (6.11). Make the mind one-pointed, rein in thought and the senses, and practise to purify yourself (6.12). Hold body, head and neck in one line, still and steady, with the gaze resting as if on the tip of the nose, not looking around (6.13).

Today the same advice is a folded blanket on a firm, clean floor: stable, not wobbly, and comfortable enough to forget.

Meditation, health and well-being

Meditation is not medicine, but it is one of the most studied parts of yoga. What Indian institutions say, put modestly:

More on the mind in yoga and psychology.

Practical tips

• Same time, same place. Early morning or evening, before a meal rather than just after.
• A firm, level seat (Gītā 6.11), with spine, neck and head in one line (6.13). A cushion under the hips helps the knees down; a chair is fine.
• Prepare the body. A few minutes of loosening practices and a few rounds of nāḍī śodhana settle body and breath before you sit.
• One object, kept. The breath, Om, So’ham or the point between the eyebrows. Switching every day keeps you a beginner.
• Start small. Five minutes you actually sit beats thirty you skip. Add time slowly.
• End gently. Rub the palms warm, cup them over the eyes, and open the eyes into the hands.

When it gets difficult

P1.6 a Praṇava japa and So’ham japa

Japa: one sound, returned to again and again

The Yoga Institute in Mumbai describes japa as the disciplined repetition of a mantra, usually counted on a mālā of 108 beads, practised to calm and focus the mind. Source MDNIY’s instructor syllabus lists the recitation of praṇava (Om) and So’ham among the practices that lead to meditation. Source

Patañjali on Om

Īśvara, in the Yoga Sūtra, is a special puruṣa, untouched by affliction, action, its fruit or its traces (1.24). Source Om is the word that names it. Notice what Patañjali pairs with the repetition: bhāvanā, dwelling on the meaning. Mechanical counting is not the point. IGNOU’s summary: meditation on God or on praṇava helps concentrate the mind. Source The same unit notes that this place for God is what sets Yoga apart from its paired darśana, Sāṅkhya. More in the six darśanas.

Three ways to say a mantra

The Yoga Institute and the Art of Living give the same three. Source · Source A useful order in practice: start aloud, let it become a whisper, then let it go silent.

Using a mālā

1. A mālā has 108 beads and one larger bead, the sumeru or meru (also called the guru bead), which marks where a round begins and ends.
2. Rest the mālā on the middle finger and move one bead with the thumb for each repetition. Keep the index finger away: it is said to stand for the ego. Source
3. At the sumeru, by tradition, don’t cross it. Turn the mālā around and go back the other way for the next round.
4. One round is 108 repetitions. Begin with one round and add more only when the first one is steady.

Praṇava japa and So’ham japa

Praṇava japa is the repetition of Om, aloud or in the mind, with its meaning held lightly in view; how to sound it is under Om meditation. So’ham means “I am That” (saḥ, that; aham, I). The Yoga Institute calls it a mantra that aligns breath with awareness. Source It is fitted to the breath: so on the in-breath, ham on the out-breath. When it is no longer said but only heard in the breath, it becomes ajapā.

1. Sit steady, spine erect, eyes closed. Take a few slow breaths.
2. Repeat the mantra aloud for a few minutes, then whisper it, then repeat it mentally.
3. Keep the meaning in view: let each Om point beyond its sound; let each So’ham be a quiet recognition, not a slogan.
4. When you stop, sit in silence for a minute before opening the eyes.

P1.6 c Chakra meditation

Cakra meditation: seven stations along the spine

Cakra (often spelt chakra) means wheel; NIOS’s yoga course prefers “vortex” or “whirlpool”. It places seven cakras in the subtle body, along suṣumnā, the central channel in the spine, from mūlādhāra at its base to sahasrāra at the crown of the head. Source Some accounts count six cakras along the spine and treat sahasrāra, the thousand-petalled lotus, as the summit above them; an IGNOU history unit describes it that way. Source The channels themselves are covered under Haṭha yoga.

The seven at a glance

Names, places, elements, petals and colours: NIOS. Source Seed mantras as Kaivalyadhama teaches them, with silence at sahasrāra. Source Colours differ between texts. Kaivalyadhama warns that the cakras have often been distorted into colours and mystical visualisations, and teaches them from the classical text instead. Source

A guided cakra meditation

1. Sit steady with the spine erect. Let the breath settle for a minute.
2. Take your attention to the base of the spine, mūlādhāra. Feel that point and repeat its seed sound, laṁ, a few times, aloud or in the mind. If a picture helps, see a small lotus there.
3. Move up, one station at a time: svādhiṣṭhāna with vaṁ, maṇipūra with raṁ, anāhata with yaṁ, viśuddhi with haṁ, ājñā with Om.
4. At sahasrāra, the crown, there is no sound. Rest in the silence.
5. Come back gently: feel the whole spine, then the breath and the body, then open the eyes.

Kaivalyadhama’s cakra course has the same shape: a guided ascent from root to crown, using the seed mantras in sequence. Source

P1.6 d Ajapā dhāraṇā

Ajapā: the mantra that repeats itself

A-japā means “not recited”. The Gheraṇḍa Saṁhitā, near the end of its chapter on prāṇāyāma, explains it like this: the breath goes out with the sound haṁ and comes back in with sa, and every living being repeats this mantra, called the ajapā gāyatrī, 21,600 times in a day and a night, without trying (Gheraṇḍa Saṁhitā, chapter 5; editions number these verses differently). That figure is fifteen breaths a minute, around the clock: 21,600 ÷ 1,440 minutes.

Dhāraṇā, as in Patañjali, is holding the attention. Ajapā dhāraṇā holds it on this self-repeating mantra, so the effort of japa drops away while the attention stays.

How the practice unfolds

Ajapā japa as taught by the Bihar School of Yoga goes in stages. Here is its outline, kept simple:

1. Breath awareness. Sit steady and watch the natural breath, without changing it.
2. Ujjāyī. Let the breath pass with a soft sound at the throat, slow and even. (Ujjāyī in the prāṇāyāma unit.)
3. The frontal passage. Feel the breath travel up the front of the body from the navel to the throat as you breathe in, and down from the throat to the navel as you breathe out.
4. Hear the sounds. So rises with the in-breath, ham falls with the out-breath. Don’t say them; listen for them.
5. Later stages, learned from a teacher, take the same awareness along a passage in the spine as well, and the practice deepens toward pure listening.

The Bihar School’s daily routine for the International Day of Yoga 2024 gives a short form for the night, before sleep: five minutes of ajapā japa with awareness of So Ham in the frontal passage between navel and throat. Source Claims should stay modest: this is a calming concentration practice that rides on the breath. Its gift is that it needs no counting and no effort.

P1.6 e Om meditation

Om: three sounds and a silence

The Māṇḍūkya is the shortest of the principal Upaniṣads, only twelve verses, and it is entirely about Om. It names four states of the self: the waker (vaiśvānara, also called viśva) who knows the outer world; the dreamer (taijasa) who knows an inner world of images; the deep sleeper (prājña), who knows no objects at all; and the fourth (turīya), not one more state but the awareness in which the other three come and go. Then, in verses 8 to 12, it lays the syllable over them. Source

“In the chant” is how teachers place the sounds in practice; the Upaniṣad itself maps the sounds to the states.

How to chant Om

1. Sit tall, shoulders soft, eyes closed. Breathe in fully and quietly.
2. A: open the mouth and let a low “aa” sound. Feel it low, in the abdomen.
3. U: round the lips into “oo”. The vibration rises into the chest.
4. M: close the lips and hum “mm”. Feel it in the throat and the head. Many teachers let the hum carry the longest part of the breath.
5. Silence: when the breath is spent, don’t rush the next one. Rest in the quiet that follows. This is the fourth part of Om, and the heart of the meditation.
6. Repeat a few times, then sit on in silence.

A flows into U and U into M, with no gaps: one sound that changes shape as it rises.

Chanting together

In a group, each person chants on their own breath; nobody has to match anyone. Listen to the whole room rather than to your own voice. The sound swells, overlaps and fades, and the shared silence after the last Om is often the deepest moment of a class.

What it supports

Put modestly: the long humming out-breath of M is the same thing that makes bhrāmarī calming, and the Common Yoga Protocol says the resonance of a humming sound has a soothing effect on the nervous system and mind. Source MDNIY reports evidence of favourable changes in mind and body from the chanting of mantras and ślokas. Source

Quick revision

Test yourself

Sources

Where this comes from

• Prescribed books: B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Yoga (its introduction to the eight limbs, and śavāsana); Swami Harshananda, Ṣaḍdarśana: the six systems of Hindu philosophy, Ramakrishna Math (the Yoga darśana); Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra; Swami Satyananda Saraswati, Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha, Bihar School of Yoga / Yoga Publications Trust, Munger (śavāsana, makarāsana, śaśāṅkāsana, ujjāyī); Hatha Yoga Pradipika with commentary by Swami Muktibodhananda, Bihar School of Yoga / Yoga Publications Trust, Munger (the śavāsana verse, numbered as in this edition). Yoga nidrā and ajapā japa follow the Bihar School’s method as its own website describes it. Explained here in my own words, with no quotations from these books.
• Classical texts: Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā 1.32; Yoga Sūtra 1.24, 1.27–1.29, 3.1–3.4; Bhagavad Gītā 2.58, 6.10–6.13, 6.26, 6.35; Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad 1, 9–12; Gheraṇḍa Saṁhitā chapter 5 (ajapā); Śiva Saṁhitā chapter 5 (the cakras).
• Yoga Sūtra, Bhagavad Gītā and Māṇḍūkya text: IIT Kanpur Gita Supersite (Heritage IITK), YS 1.27, YS 3.1, BG 6.11, BG 6.13, Māṇḍūkya 1, Māṇḍūkya 12 (other verses linked in place).
• Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā 1.32: School of Yoga, chapter 1; Karuna Yoga Vidya Peetham, Śavāsana.
• Ministry of Ayush, Common Yoga Protocol (English booklet, hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs): Makarāsana, Śaśakāsana, Śavāsana, bhrāmarī, dhyāna, institutional practices.
• MDNIY (Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga): Yoga for Mental Health; Friday Webinar series (yoga nidrā, sleep); Certificate Course in Yoga for Protocol Instructor, syllabus; Yoga Sūtra crash course (195 sūtras).
• NIOS: Physical Education and Yog, lesson 18, Hatha Yog (the cakras); Yoga Level C, chapter 9 (Vibhūti Pāda, 196 sūtras).
• IGNOU (eGyanKosh): Stress management techniques; Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad; Yoga (Īśvara and praṇava); Intellectual developments (cakras and suṣumnā).
• S-VYASA, Self Management of Excessive Tension (SMET).
• Bihar School of Yoga: practice (Swami Satyananda and yoga nidrā); International Day of Yoga 2024 routine (yoga nidrā, ajapā japa).
• Kaivalyadhama: Chakra meditation (Śiva Saṁhitā) and intensive workshop (seed mantras).
• The Yoga Institute, Mumbai, Mantra yoga; the Art of Living, What is japa.
• AIIMS New Delhi, Department of Physiology, Stress and Cognitive Electroimaging Lab.