Message #37581

[Jitendra Hydonus]

I began hatha yoga as a teenager, no doubt a carry over from a life in India. While other guys were playing basketball in gym during the winter, much to the gym teachers chagrin I put down a mat and practiced hatha yoga, in a corner of the gymnasium. Later i was also to become a yoga instructor. I practiced hatha yoga diligently in my 20’s. It was then that I also learned the energization exercises through being around SRFers in Southern California and taking all the Self Realization Fellowship Lessons. I have no problem devoting my time free without pay to give something back for all that I feel was given to me by SRF and Paramahansa Yogananda.

The Energization Exercises are exceptional as a physical routine because they strengthen the will. Yet I have found them helpful for many reasons. The Master, Paramahansa Yogananda created them as a unique part of daily meditation routine, separate though instrumental, in practicing the higher spiritual meditation techniques that were handed down from Babaji.

I have found the benefit from the energization exercises in their ability to help increase mental capacity, as two of them involve wrapping the head gently and massaging it while visualizing awakening brain cells. This has also has the benefit of maintaining hair growth in older age. The medulla oblongata is also massaged, which is the entry place for cosmic energy in the body. Surprisingly the energization exercises also help keep weight down, if someone looks for physical ways to do this. Yogananda also gave advice on using foods for gaining weight for those who wanted that.

Over the years I have found that hatha yoga, although it can be used in a gentle practice, is the most rugged of the Indian (India) contributions to physical routines. The energization exercises I see more as the Yang approach to exercise, while the Yin approach I see as embodied in Amma’s IAM techniques.

I was exposed to the IAM techniques while spending time with Amma in the United States on her tours here. I was grateful to receive her darshan but was at first reluctant to consider doing her spiritual routine. Her devotees continued to encourage and persuade me to do so. However, feeling a loyalty to Paramahansa Yogananda as a guru and his techniques I learned; I didn’t feel as though I needed anything else. Feeling a conflict over what made me more and more interested in Amma, as a living embodiment of Divine Mother and a loyalty to Yogananda as my Guru, I decided to ask Amma about having a Guru already. She replied to me; “ It is all the same.” Given that advice I decided to embrace her teachings while continuing my practice of Kriya and the SRF techniques of meditation.

I was given a mantra by Amma which included the name of Yogananda and eventually learned Amma’s IAM  techniques. I find her initial exercises before entering her meditation routine to be very beneficial to loosening up the body and combined with the breath very helpful in preparing the body for meditation.