The March Online Satsang with Swami Nirmalananda (Abbot George Burke) will be held on Saturday, March 1st, at 12 noon EST.
Home » Books » Page 7

The Science of Sound and Breath in Meditation: Essential Facts

Sound and Breath in Meditation

This article on Sound and Breath in Meditation is taken from “Perspectives on Yoga,” a book by Abbot George Burke to be published later this year.

Although there is a great deal of interest in gimmicks and tricks in yoga and endless expositions of “shakti” and suchlike, the yogi really has one all-absorbing interest: sound (shabda).

He begins with sound and ends with sound, and his involvement in sound is what carries him along the path and ensures his success and prevents his going astray. Those who do not follow this path will almost surely go astray and wander afar.

Every element (bhuta) has a sensory experience that is common or “native” to it.

  • Earth (prithvi) has smell;
  • water (apa) has taste;
  • fire (agni) has sight;
  • air (vayu) has touch;
  • and ether (akasha) has sound (shabda).

The power of sound alone has both an active and passive aspect. Akasha possesses the power to both generate sound and to hear it. Furthermore, Akasha alone is pure; all the other elements have admixtures of one another, including akasha.

Even more, the elements predominate in each one of our five bodies.

  • Earth predominates in the annamaya kosha, the physical body.
  • Water predominates in the pranamaya kosha, the pranic body.
  • Fire predominates in the manomaya kosha, the body that is the sensory mind.
  • Air predominates in the jnanamaya kosha, the body of the intellect.
  • Ether predominates in the anandamaya kosha, the body of the will.

The two powers of the Ether

Since Ether is the ruler of the elements, and it has two powers, will and sound, yoga is based on sound produced by the yogi’s will and in which he becomes absorbed in meditation.

This is an important principle to keep in mind because many aspirants throughout the ages have wasted their lives practicing methods not based on these two powers of ether, and therefore became wanderers, and often self-distracters and self-deluders.

Continue reading

Bhakti: The Yogi’s Perspective, from “Perspectives on Yoga”

Bhakti from This and That for Yogis

We have published a new book entitled “Perspectives on Yoga” by Abbot George Burke. We will begin posting excerpts here from the book, beginning with this one on Bhakti, which we hope to publish before year is out. Here is what the author says about the book:

This is a compilation of random thoughts I put down quite some time ago that were completely without any order. Unlike Satsang With the Abbot, it is now somewhat arranged according to subjects, though the final section is not. I hope it will be useful to those who read it.

I certainly wish someone had told me these things when I first attempted to be a yogi. Things would have been much easier and I would have avoided wasting a great deal of time.

Abbot George Burke
(Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

(Perspectives on Yoga: Living the Yoga Life is now available in paperback and as an ebook on Amazon.com here.)


 

This and That on Bhakti

Unfortunately bhakti is usually considered to be emotion directed to God, especially as love. But bhakti means dedication in the search for God. It is Ishwarapranidhana, the offering of the life to God, which Patanjali says is the way to superconsciousness (Yoga Sutras 2:45). Shankara simplified and clarified it greatly when he said that bhakti is seeking God and jnana is finding God.

In the sixth chapter of Raja Yoga, Vivekananda wrote:

“All over the world there have been dancing and jumping and howling sects, who spread like infection when they begin to sing and dance and preach; they also are a sort of hypnotists. They exercise a singular control for the time being over sensitive persons, alas! often, in the long run, to degenerate whole races. Ay, it is healthier for the individual or the race to remain wicked than be made apparently good by such morbid extraneous control.

One’s heart sinks to think of the amount of injury done to humanity by such irresponsible yet well-meaning religious fanatics. They little know that the minds which attain to sudden spiritual upheaval under their suggestions, with music and prayers, are simply making themselves passive, morbid, and powerless, and opening themselves to any other suggestion, be it ever so evil.

Little do these ignorant, deluded persons dream that whilst they are congratulating themselves upon their miraculous power to transform human hearts, which power they think was poured upon them by some Being above the clouds, they are sowing the seeds of future decay, of crime, of lunacy, and of death.

Therefore, beware of everything that takes away your freedom. Know that it is dangerous, and avoid it by all the means in your power.”

Vivekananda knew what he was talking about because Bengal, his native land, was gripped by the false bhakti of the “dancing and jumping and howling sects,” especially Gaudia Vaishnavism (the Hare Krishna movement in the West), and still is to a great extent.

His fellow countryman, Paramhansa Yogananda, said:

Continue reading