Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation

Practicing Yoga Nidra will help you experience:

* an incredible calmness,
* A release of tension in the body,
* quietness and clarity,
* purification of unconscious mind,
* Fulfilment of intentions introduced in Sub-conscious mind
* The ability to act calmly in all situations

It is a universally known feature of Deep Sleep that there

are no images in the mind. If there are images, that is the
Waking or the Dreaming state, not the Deep Sleep state.
Yoga Nidra relates to conscious Deep Sleep.
(“Nidra” means “Deep Sleep” not “Dreaming”)
Dreaming and Not-Dreaming are NOT the same thing.

Introduction

Yoga Nidra has been experienced as “the most powerful relaxation technique known to man”. Yet, in yoga, it is used much more than that. The power of this technique is such that it is regularly used as a therapeutic technique to overcome pain, act on the deepest neurosis and even overcome disability in certain cases.

At its simplest level, it may be understood and practised as a way of total physical and mental relaxation. The advanced benefits can be reached with regular practice.

Yoga Nidra brings an incredible calmness, quietness and clarity. Yoga Nidra is one of the deepest of all meditations, leading awareness through many levels of mental process to a state of supreme stillness and insight. The descriptions in the article below can be difficult to understand. With patient and thorough reading, the understanding is well worth the effort, allowing you to see the profound depth of Yoga Nidra, which is far beyond just relaxation. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes it takes thousands of words to get the inner “aha” of the meaning. Most important of all, it is the persistent practice that brings the real joy of the practice of Yoga Nidra, as with all useful practices in life and Yoga.

Yoga Nidra means Yogic Sleep.

It is a state of conscious Deep Sleep. In Meditation, you remain in the Waking state of consciousness, and gently focus the mind, while allowing thought patterns, emotions, sensations, and images to arise and go on. However, in Yoga Nidra, you leave the Waking state, go past the Dreaming state, and go to Deep Sleep, yet remain awake. While Yoga Nidra is a state that is very relaxing, it is also used by Yogis to purify the Samskaras, the deep impressions that are the driving force behind Karma.

Yoga Nidra, may be rendered in English as “yogic sleep” or “sleep of the yogis”. There are numerous traditions of Yoga Nidra sadhana that have been transmitted though parampara within the Indian religions. These aspects may include disciplines and traditions of dream, sleep and yoga. Fundamentally, Yoga Nidra is engaged to prepare and refine a sadhaka spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically prior to seeking sublime levels and aspects of consciousness and awareness through meditation, trance and other sadhana not constituted by sleeping and dreamwork. In some Himalayan lineages, Yoga Nidra is Yoga of Clear Light, is a sublime sadhana and transmission modality in its own right. However, general traditions of Yoga Nidra have related a version of the practice that has become synonymous with yogic relaxationand guided visualisation techniques.

History

Yoga Nidra has been known for thousands of years by the sages and yogis. Of the three states of consciousness of Waking, Dreaming and Deep Sleep, as expounded in the Upanishads, particularly the Mandukya Upanishad, Yoga Nidra refers to the conscious awareness of the Deep Sleep state, referred to as prajna in Mandukya Upanishad. This is the third of the four levels of consciousness of AUM mantra, relating to the state represented by the M of AUM. The four states are Waking, Dreaming, sleep, and turiya, the fourth state. The state of Yoga Nidra, conscious Deep Sleep, is beyond or subtler than the imagery and mental process of the Waking and Dreaming states. As a state of conscious Deep Sleep, Yoga Nidra is a universal principle, and is not the exclusive domain of any more recent teachers or traditions.

The true Yoga Nidra is a state of consciousness in which the yogi is in direct communion with the Divine energy, that may be understood as Dharma, pervading the whole phenomenal Universe and beyond.[citation needed] In the Vaishnava sampradayas this deified “energy” is Vishnu, the sleeping lord. This energy is beyond space and time, allowing the yogi to potentially access by grace, past, present, future and beyond.[citation needed] A tantrika engaged in this sadhana may also become aware of their past or future lives (refer bhumi).[citation needed] Through Yoga Nidra, as other sadhana, the practitioner may work through karma and samskara, cleansing the store consciousness. In some traditions, Yoga Nidra is employed to purify the unconscious mind through use of certain vows and commitments, samaya, known as shankalpas. Experienced tantrikas employ Yoga Nidra for astral travels and thoughtform projecting and in its advanced and refined practice, it may lead to samadhi (Eqiilibriam of mind) and satchitananda (Truth-Consciousness-Bliss.

In Yoga Nidra, you leave the Waking state,
go through the Dreaming state,
and into the Deep Sleep state,
yet remain fully awake.

Yoga Nidra works very effectively on mental resolve, will power and resolutions. Many people testify to the unbelievable power and effectiveness of the resolution (“Sankalpa”) made during the practice of Yoga nidra.

Why? Because it acts at a dormant or subconscious level that we are not aware of. It is just like watering a seed planted deep down in the soil. Each time you water it, you stimulate its growth though you can�t see it. You see it only when it breaks through into the light. Similarly, yoga Nidra works at a subconscious level and you realize it only when it becomes part of your waking life.

To sum up – Yoga Nidra is a superlative relaxation tool. One hour of effective yoga nidra is equivalent to over 4 hours of sleep. But, the true purpose of yoga nidra goes well beyond deep relaxation. Yoga Nidra establishes the link between the conscious desires, the will power, the subconscious and the unconscious mind. When this happens you reap all-round powerful benefits and feel in total control of all aspects of your life.

Guided Meditation CD’s for learning and practice of Yoga-Nidra are available at following links:

* Yoga Nidra by Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati – Most Popular CD on Yoga Nidra available today.
* Integral Yoga – Yoga Nidra Guided Meditation.
* Yoga Nidra.

References

[1] Swami Jnaneshwar Bharati, Yoga Nidra – a Conscious Deep Sleep – http://www.swamij.com/yoga-nidra.htm
[2] Yoga Nidra – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga_Nidra
[3] Swami Satyananda Saraswati, Yoga Nidra Bihar School of Yoga, Munger, Bihar, India; first edition published 1976.
[4] Arun Goel, Yoga Nidra – http://www.healthandyoga.com/html/news/nidra.html