Swamiji speaks on pranayama, changing habits and mind-monitoring.
Swamiji sounds a cautionary about the inappropriate use of pranayama, which is described as 'a science'. [It's all too often a fad and used as an instant 'recipe' for attempting to raise the kundalini shakti. There are known instances where advanced pranayama without adherence to strict criteria and brahmacharya, have led to mental derangement.]
Swamiji says regular rhythmic breathing is one thing, but sustained and disproportionate pranayama without the correct spiritual guidance, will heat the brain and unleash sense-activity that we will not be able to control. [Site admin: I have personal experience of someone who persisted with unsupervised pranayama to the frightening point where he could no longer feel his head or neck. He contacted me via Swamiji's Blog, from India of all places, to ask for help. I of course put him in touch with the swamis of the closest Ramakrishna Mission centre there, to get the right advice and assistance.]
Changing habits is Swamiji's next point of discussion. It appears to be centred around Swami Yatiswarananda's very sadhaka-centric compilation of spiritual classes, now published in one volume, titled, 'Meditation and Spiritual Life'. A key message is that changing habits isn't easy. The longer they've been there, the longer they'll take to modify, and we should not become depressed by even repeated failures. Perseverance and patience are required. 'Where there's a will, there's a way', is emphasised. Along with the suggestion: Don't cultivate any new bad habits. The old habits are troublesome enough.😉
There's some profoundly useful advice regarding the vigilance that we, if we're sincere aspirants, need to exercise over the thoughts arising in our minds. More so, when in 'less than ideal company' – for which read, 'bad'.
The analogy is that we'll suddenly find the untamed horse of the mind has thrown us off its back and into a ditch. And how did that happen? Because we didn't pay sufficient attention to the thoughts that flowed, subtly, unchecked or ignored, all the way to that ditch. The genuine sadhaka has to pay careful attention to a trend or pattern of emerging thoughts, to pre-empt such a happening.
The advice to us is: Never leave your mind unwatched, for even a minute. This is the general rule for all aspirants – whatever religion or path they may follow.
To listen to the words of wisdom in this audio clip, please click on the link below. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!
Duration: 06:37
For the free-to-read, draft 394 page expanded version of 'A Life Lived For Others'.
Click here: → Swamiji's biography
You may need to install a PDF reader on your phone if that's where you'll be reading the book.
The original audio recordings of these posts were made by close Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa and Swami Shivapadananda devotee, Mother Radha. The audio editing and noise reduction of the original 1970s-onwards tapes, has been lovingly engineered, over many years, by her son and our dear gurubhai, Brother Tim. May Sri Ramakrishna and Swamiji bless them both.
Admin tip: Underlined words are links. If you click on them, they'll take you to an explanation of the particular word or term. [In these overviews, Admin comments are typically in a smaller green font, and square bracketed, like this statement.]
Dear reader, if you spot typos or or other errors, please feel free to email the site admin on info@imbizo.com with your suggested correction/s.
Context: As always, care should be taken to remember that what Swamiji was saying, was often very specific to the needs of people with him at the time. Please bear this in mind.
Links to our Guru Parampara (spiritual lineage) organisations, which will broaden your knowledge base: Ramakrishna Math and Mission and our alma maters, the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa and the Sri Sarada Devi Ashram in Durban. The Ramakrishna Centre of Johannesburg is also active in Gauteng province in South Africa.
There are various publications [The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna etc.] which you can download at no charge, from the Ramakrishna Centre of SA website page, HERE.
The picture in this post was created using prompts to Microsoft Copilot Artificial Intelligence – AI.