Swami Adiswarananda, in his definitive work Meditation and Its Practices, says of the Gayatri Mantra:
The Gayatri Mantra is the essence of all mantras … it embodies in itself mystically all the meters and all the seers of all other mantras and their presiding deities, as well as the glory of those deities. By invoking the Gayatri all these are invoked in oneself. By the repetition of this mantra, every sacred mantra is repeated.
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The Gayatri Mantra is found in the most ancient Indian scriptures, the Rig Veda. In Sanskrit it reads as follows:
OM BHUR BHUVAH SWAH;
TAT SAVITUR-VARENYAM
BHARGO DEVASYA DHIMAHI;
DHIYO YO NAH PRACHODAYAT. OM.
Father Bede Griffiths, Andrew’s beloved teacher, once translated the Gayatri Mantra for him in this way: “We meditate on the radiance of the Divine Light. May that Divine Light lead us to the realization of the Truth.” Swami Adiswarananda offers these beautiful instructions when repeating the mantra:
When meditating on the Gayatri mantra, the seeker is instructed to direct his attention to the radiant light of the sun. From this he is led to meditate on the source of the light of perception and understanding within, without which one cannot perceive the light of the sun. In the final stage, he is asked to meditate on the identity of the light in him and the light of the sun—the identity of the Pure Consciousness of his inner Self and the all-pervading Pure Consciousness of the universal Self.
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One powerful way, then, that you can realize the presence of the heart is to visualize it as a sun pulsing and radiating in the core of your chest. Visualize that sun strongly, allowing its rays to penetrate every cell of your body and to create a field spreading out about six feet beyond and around your body. The sun within is now the sun-field of the radiant heart in which your practice will unfold.
Dedication of Your Practice
After preparing the heart, it is essential in Heart Yoga to let the heart’s unconditional love for all beings express itself in a dedication of all the merits of your practice to the liberation of all sentient beings everywhere from suffering and to the transformation of the world. We offer the following prayer that we use, and invite you to create one that expresses your own deepest longing for yourself and the world. “May all benefits flowing to me through this practice of Heart Yoga be freely offered as a prayer for the liberation of all sentient beings. May all beings be filled with peace, love, and joy.”
Practical Hints for Heart Yoga
Your practice is a prayer, your expression of honoring your own life and honoring life itself. People often wonder how to choose their own practice each day. The answer is simple: become the alchemist of your own transformation by choosing whatever practice you need to bring balance to your present situation. When you sense you need to wake yourself up, choose an active, energetic practice. When you need to relax, a peaceful, restorative practice is best. Sometimes a balanced sequence of both energetic and peaceful poses is beneficial. Observe where your body and mind are drawn, experimenting with letting go of any plan or agenda about what you should do, and responding to what feels right in the moment.
At times a focused practice, directly related to your current physical or emotional state, is appropriate. If you feel stuck in crisis or obsessed with a problem, for example, choose an expansive, spacious practice like the Joy of Transcendence practice. When you feel dissociated or blank, return to an earthy harmony and feel your kinship with all life with a grounded practice like the Joy of Creation practice. If you feel withdrawn, lonely, or depressed, choose a practice that releases the heart energy such as the Joy of Love of all Beings practice. When you feel separate, you can focus on renewing your connection with yourself or another with a practice emphasizing relationship like the Joy of Tantra. When you want to feel encouragement or passion to act in the world, choose a practice that awakens you to the Joy of Service. Explore an energizing practice to inspire strength and courage when you feel lethargic or afraid. A restorative practice helps you to relax deeply, restore your energy, and move beyond your ego to your vibrant connection with all beings and to your heart’s natural inclination to care for others.
Some days you’ll be feeling joyful, peaceful, or in a state of expansive well-being, and you’ll choose a practice that naturally emerges from, expresses, and enhances that state. Over time you’ll naturally move toward a practice that arises authentically from your deepest essence.
Whatever practice you choose, don’t let yoga become yet another part of your “self-improvement program” where you’re trying to change who you are and get “better.”
Let gentleness be your guide. The essence of gentleness is its fusion of yielding and strength, which is the source of its power to harmonize and heal. Ahimsa, or non-harming, is the essential root and foundation of all yoga practice, because practicing in its spirit fills the body with the tenderness of Divine Love. B. K. S. Iyengar explains that ahimsa “is more than a negative command … it has a wider positive meaning, love.”17 As we relate to the body, so we relate to the world. A body at peace with itself radiates the peace of compassion to others.
Rooted in this compassion, let your practice be a way to observe deeply and respond skillfully to how you’re feeling. Practice simply for the love of the practice, just because it feels true for you. This creates a spaciousness in your practice and in your being that is essential for healing and transformation.
Your mind or will alone will not help you choose which practice is best for you. Listen and be guided by your inner wisdom. Beginners may wish to stay with the suggested sequences in this book for a while. More experienced students will add poses to lengthen and deepen their practice. After a while, you’ll learn to trust your intuition, your own inner teacher, and explore your own natural sequences of movement. Be curious, explore your inner experience, and let it evolve.
Trust yourself to sense when to move into and out of poses. There is no prescribed time to stay in each pose. In general, at least five breaths will give you time to align your body and explore how you’re feeling, but in many poses you’ll want to stay longer.
Never push or force yourself into any position. The foundation of yoga rests in non-violence (ahimsa) and truth (satya). Honor yourself by being fully present with compassion and joy, and this will prepare you to enter the deep meditative and transformative states that the practices are designed to engender. Compassion is the beginning, the means, and the end of Heart Yoga, because it is through compassion that we are most seamlessly connected to the infinite energy of the universe.
Recently Karuna was blessed to attend a yoga class in Costa Rica taught by a radiant seventy-nine-year-old woman, who looked to be in her forties and has practiced yoga since the 1950s. It was extraordinary how long she could hold the poses. Karuna sat at her feet afterwards and asked, “Tell me about your practice of sixty years.” She simply replied, “Well, you know, there’s infinite energy in the universe. And yoga is about connecting with this infinite energy.” Her practice was beautiful, because she was both so absorbed and awake in it, and naturally compassionate with herself. She exemplified the deep truth of yoga, that yoga is an inner marriage of the body with the Infinite Beloved, and that what is essential is not physical perfection, but authentic inner abandon to Spirit. As Patanjali expressed, “Asana is mastered when there is relaxation and meditation on the Infinite.” (Yoga Sutras, II-47) From this meditation, a fountain of bliss-energy flows.