Airport Press Conference

Airport Press Conference

These questions were answered on October 7th 1977 by Swami Satyananda Saraswati upon his arrival in Sydney. They were also broadcast throughout Australia by TV, radio and press.

Question: Is this your first trip to Australia?

Swamiji: No, the third one.

Question: When were your other trips?

Swamiji: 1968 and 1969.

Question: What brought you here?

Swamiji: This conference- the yoga conference of the International Yoga Fellowship.

Question: How did you first come to yoga?

Swamiji: I was born with yoga. I did not accept yoga as a different way of life.

Question: How important is it when practising yoga to maintain a positive mental attitude?

Swamiji: Even if one doesn't have a positive mental attitude, he will develop it through the practice of yoga. It is not the positive mental attitude that is necessary for yoga, it is yoga that is necessary for the positive mental attitude.

Question: What is the main message of yoga? What is the main purpose of yoga?

Swamiji: Better control of the mind and creativity.

Question: How can yoga increase knowledge of oneself?

Swamiji: By practice, by emulating it, by living it.

Question: How do you live it, though?

Swamiji: There are methods of yoga, technical and practical, which you have to practise every day for some time so that you can develop the body and the mind, and bring about coordination between both.

Question: Our lifestyle is making us suffer more, and trust each other less. How can yoga change that situation?

Swamiji: Yoga is going to change that situation. The present picture is very dark, because the people who come to yoga arrive in very confused states of mind. Now that they have taken to yoga, in the course of time, their minds will evolve. As such all will change, and unity will come between man and man.

Question: Are there many world leaders, top politicians who practise yoga?

Swamiji: There certainly are. Of course I don't know every one, but as far as I can say top leaders all over the world are aware of yoga. And even those who are not practising are convinced of the effective role of yoga in the mental make-up of man.

Question: Is yoga a religion?

Swamiji: No, it is a science, definitely it is a science. Of course, ultimately a man's particular religion may accept yoga in the background of his own culture.

Question: But it does have spiritual overtones, doesn't it?

Swamiji: Certainly, when the mind evolves, it becomes spiritual.

Question: But there is no conflict between yoga and established religions?

Swamiji: There certainly should not be, just as there is no conflict between biology and Christianity. One is a science, the other a religion. As science is necessary for man, religion is also necessary.

Question: How can yoga be applied in everyday Western life, say, for a businessman?

Swamiji: Just by practising. He must find some time for the practice of yoga, either in the morning or in the evening, as it may be convenient for him.

Question: What can it do for him?

Swamiji: Here in Australia we have, I personally have a very good teaching facility. So let him first learn and then practise regularly for half an hour to one hour in the morning. Within a short time he will experience for himself the physical and mental well-being, which result from yoga practices.

Question: But it really sounds as though yoga has a lot to do with the state of mind.

Swamiji: I think man is mind, the body only carries it.

Question: When you said, 'yoga can make a man more creative', what did you mean by that?

Swamiji: The limitations of the mind must be removed. The mind has limitations. You see, in everyday society there are limited minds, there are unlimited minds, there are potential minds.

Question: So you mean that if a man did yoga very well and he wasn't very good at mathematics, he could become a mathematician?

Swamiji: Certainly he could become a brilliant mathematician; he could become a brilliant scientist, a great swami, a very great…

Question: A composer of music?

Swamiji: That too.

Question: Can you demonstrate some of your energy-producing techniques?

Swamiji: Yes. What techniques do you want me to demonstrate here? All of these swamis who are here in Sydney can demonstrate, teach and perform.

Question: Have you got any exercise that you can draw on at any time during the day, in any circumstances, to produce the energy you need?

Swamiji: I will get one of your Australian swamis here to demonstrate vajrasana and shashankasana. (Swami Purnananda demonstrated.) This is a most important pose. It checks nervous depressions, if practised every day. Depression is one of the major maladies of today. (Swami Purnananda stayed in the position and the interview proceeded.)

Question: What is yoga?

Swamiji: Yoga is a system of harmonizing the mind and the body together, and blending their activities.

Question: How can the energy-producing techniques be applied in daily life?

Swamiji: The techniques should be practised every day by one who wishes to.

Question: But if you want to draw on them in a moment of anxiety to produce the energy that you need; what sort of exercise could you do anywhere?

Swamiji: Oh, well, there are various exercises, but this particular exercise is one of the best.

Question: What is he doing now, this gentleman?

Swamiji: He is doing a yoga posture known as shashankasana. This checks the possibility of nervous depression coming over us due to overstrain and stress in our daily life.

Question: Well, what is it about this particular posture that gives him relief?

Swamiji: Well, in this particular posture, first of all, the adrenal glands are activated. Thereby more blood is sent to the extremities of the brain, making a difference in the oxygen conduction, which increases in the practice. The heart also becomes active in order to check the depression.

Question: Swamiji, outside today one of your followers was a crippled boy in a wheelchair. What can yoga do for him?

Swamiji: Oh, we can teach him asanas, we can teach him all kinds of yoga. In Australia, especially, we can manage it.

Question: But can you make him well again? Can he get out of that wheelchair and walk?

Swamiji: Well, if he cooperates he will be all right. It is the patient who has to cooperate.

Question: How many followers of yoga are there throughout the world? Can you put an estimate on it?

Swamiji: Oh, there'd be millions. Yoga is a very popular science all over the world. I think there are very few people in the world who do not know about yoga.

Question: Do you think yoga has any political aspirations?

Swamiji: No, I don't think so, because yoga brings about an evolution of the mind, thereby transcending political ambitions. Political ambitions belong to the lower category of evolution, not the higher category of evolution.

Question: How can yoga be taught to all people internationally?

Swamiji: Oh, as a science, you can teach it in the schools, in the public institutions. You should have academies for it. That's what you can do.

Question: Would you say that yoga is more of a physical thing than a mental thing?

Swamiji: No, it is a physical thing as well as a mental thing. After all, when yoga has to cater to the needs of the human being, it should cater to his physical as well as his mental needs.

Question: It has a very definite ritual about it. Is it a religious thing? I mean, are you a religious man?

Swamiji: I have a religion, but yoga doesn't have a religion. Yoga is a science. Even as I study a science like biology, anatomy or physiology, likewise I can study yoga also.

Question: But what about the ritual that goes with it? Is that absolutely necessary?

Swamiji: Not at all. Rituals depend on individuals.

Question: For instance, the colour of the clothes that you are wearing- why do you wear that particular colour?

Swamiji: This particular colour is the colour of a swami; it is the colour of a sannyasin. It means that we are dedicated to a purpose which concerns, which involves, the evolution of the inner personality.

Question: Do you get any physical vibration from that colour?

Swamiji: Definitely. Purity, strength, and an undaunted will to live.

Question: Swamiji, why have you shaved your head?

Swamiji: I have shaved my head in order to facilitate meditation, to be more receptive at
the time of communion with the inner self.

Question: How does shaving the head help you to do this?

Swamiji: This concerns the science of magnetism. When you have no hair, then you receive a greater amount of cosmic energy in the brain. During the period of meditation this cosmic energy helps you to maintain the height of consciousness.

Question: One of the greatest problems facing our society is hypertension, stress and heart attacks. What help can yoga be in this?

Swamiji: I personally believe and I have experienced that for stress and strain there is no better remedy than yoga.

Question: Well you know, an average businessman mightn't like to wear the gear, shave his head and that sort of thing. How can he get into yoga in a way that's acceptable to him?

Swamiji: He has to remain a businessman. But he must practice certain postures and other techniques while at home, and then he'll get rid of his problems.

Question: Would you like to estimate how much it's going to increase his efficiency?

Swamiji: Well, if depends on how much practice he does. If the businessmen, executives and administrators devote some of their time to the practice of yoga, even if they don't develop efficiency, they can go a long way towards preventing stress, strain, nervous breakdowns, hypertension and so on.

Question: Do you think that we would have a better world if there were a movement amongst politicians to practise yoga?

Swamiji: Well, I believe that politicians must practise yoga. Thereby their consciousness will evolve, and they will be able to look at the problems of the world from a broader and more powerful angle.

Question: Which is more important, the mind of the body?

Swamiji: Both are important for each other. The mind is important, but the body carries it. (Swami Purnananda, who had remained in shashankasana all this time, was then asked to sit up.)

Question: How do you feel now?

Swami Purnananda: Quite relaxed.

Question: How did you feel before?

Swami Purnananda: Not quite so relaxed.

Question: Tell me, how much travelling around the world do you do?

Swamiji: Almost every month, sometimes to South America, Europe, Africa, Australia, India, others…

Question: Who pays for your fares?

Swamiji: The world pays for my fares. I've got hundreds of thousands of good friends all over the world.

Question: You don't have any financial problems?

Swamiji: I have no financial problems. I have no personal bank account anywhere in the world. I don't own a penny. I have no money. I have no property.

Question: So when people want you to go somewhere they just send you a ticket?

Swamiji: Yes. From the other angle I'm a beggar. I have no bank account of my own; I have no personal property of my own; I have no relative.

Question: You have no wife.

Swamiji: No, not at all, never. I don't need one.

Question: Why do you not need a wife?

Swamiji: Well, I don't need one, that is all. It is my personal mind. A wife is not the need of everyone. A wife is a social compulsion. Society has created a tradition, so everybody is following it. Tomorrow society will change, and then maybe many people would not like to have one.

Question: What about the economic problems some countries have, unemployment and so on. Can yoga be of some help in solving these sorts of problems, mass problems?

Swamiji: I can tell you very frankly that I don't know much about economics, but I know that yoga can bring about a change in the mind, and then man can find the way for himself.

Question: You don't think there is any conflict between yoga and traditional ethics?

Swamiji: No. Ethics has its own and yoga has its own. There cannot be any contradiction.

Question: I mean yoga, for example, wouldn't encourage people to drop out of normal day to day life and lead a life of tranquillity, but without working.

Swamiji: No. Yoga believes in hard work, a disciplined mind and alertness of personality. Everything should be creative and not destructive. Yoga believes in the evolution of the human mind, the human body, one's career and everything. So naturally it is never in disagreement with any religion or science.

Question: Swamiji, is the physical fitness aspect important with regard to yoga?

Swamiji: No, not necessary. Even if one is physically unfit and takes to yoga, he becomes fit. Fitness is not important for yoga, but yoga is important for fitness.

Question: There are no strict rules about diet that come into yoga, are there?

Swamiji: No, not at all.

Question: How about if one of your devotees is a diabetic, and he can't eat a lot of rice?

Swamiji: He will eat something else which is good for him. He is not restricted. You see, yoga is also for sick people, and therefore the restrictions will apply according to the sickness. Yoga is also for people who meditate long hours on inner communion or awareness of the inner soul. There can be some restrictions then, because long hours of meditation can bring down the inner temperature of the body. If you eat a heavy diet when the inner temperature of the body is brought down, it will impair your digestive system.

Question: For the people who are listening here today who may doubt what you have been saying, would you suggest a quick little exercise that they could do right now which would convince them that yoga can bring about some changes?

Swamiji: (To swamis) Some of you could practise surya namaskara here.

Question: No, this is for radio, so I want you to tell people something they could do right now to demonstrate the power of yoga.

Swamiji: Well, first of all they should practise an exercise known as surya namaskara. After that they should quietly sit down, close their eyes and concentrate on their normal and natural breath flowing through the nostrils for as long as they can mange. This is the exercise with which meditation begins.

Question: How long should they do that for?

Swamiji: Well, they can start with five minutes, and work up to fifteen minutes.

Question: And what should someone who is a complete novice feel after that?

Swamiji: After that he will feel totally relaxed, as if he has come out of a mental crisis.

Published in 'YOGA MAGAZINE' January 1977

Chakras

Swami Anandakapila Saraswati (Dr. John Mumford)

We have an idea that the so-called Western civilisation has something to do with intelligence, that people today are more intelligent. In fact, this is not true. The classic studies of ancient India represented a depth, a grasp of fundamentals, with which we are still catching up. You have heard about the chakras and kundalini yoga. These are defined as an inner space voyage. The chakras represent whirling vortexes of energy at the linking points between the mind and the body- what we would call in Western medicine, psychosomatic points. When kundalini yoga is begun, when the kriya yoga, which is passed on by our order through Swamiji, is commenced, those chakras begin to awaken or ripen. Each chakra is characterised by an element. I think most of you here are familiar with the concept of earth, water, fire, air and akasha or ether. In order to relate to those chakras or centres, one need only look at the five fingers of one's hand, and you have a mnemonic device.

In Samkhya philosophy, when the ancient Indian mind talked about earth, water, fire, air and ether, it was not talking about earth that you can run your hands through, or actual water that you drink; these were concepts that were to stand for eternity. In our Western science we have something called the table of elements. We talk about hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, and so forth, and we keep on adding new elements. I think we're up around the hundred mark. The Samkhya classification broke all manifest existence down into five elements: earth, the principle of solidarity and cohesiveness; water, the principle of anything liquid, for example mercury, which as a liquid aspect to it; fire, the principle of incandescence or heat, anything which produces heat automatically is lumped into this category; air, the gaseous principle, involving the concept of motion; and finally, ether which belongs to what Western science would call the entire electromagnetic spectrum and is beyond the normal range of untrained human senses. It doesn't matter what you think about, you can allot to one of these categories anything you can grasp, anything that is tangible. If it is solid and concrete, it must be earth; if it is fluid and liquid, it must be water; if it is incandescent and heat producing, it is fire; if it is gaseous, it is air; and if it belongs to the whole range of cosmic radiations, which normally we don't experience, then it is ether. So this is a category for all time.

Each one of us represents a microcosm, or a little being inside ourselves. We have within us these very elements. When Swamiji talks about awakening the chakras, in one sense he is also talking about gaining control of these elements inside, releasing their power, for each one is related to a specific centre.

In any of the B.S.Y. publications produced by the swamis of our order, you will find a listing of the chakras and their attributes. When you look at a chakra diagram, it is an information storage and retrieval system. It is a condensed filing system, like a computer tape. If you know how to read that yantra or mandala, then information just pours out. The elements relate, so that earth is the element characteristic of mooladhara chakra, water of swadisthana, fire of manipura, air belongs to anahata, and akasha or ether to vishuddhi. At this point you might ask, 'So what? What has this got to do with you and me seeking the spiritual path?' Spiritual life, in Swamiji's system, begins with kriya yoga, with the awakening of the chakras. When they are awoken, the human being learns to control the input and the output. Both are increased.

In ancient India they had a viewpoint of man that was completely behaviouristic, completely mechanistic. They saw man as a black box, like some modern psychologists do. What is this black box? It has an input cord running into it, and an output cord. What we call a stimulus and a response, and the human being is a mysterious black box in between. If you stick a pin- the stimulus- in me, I jump- the response. What goes on in between is a black box. The ancients allotted a system in which the chakras were linked up to a sensory input, and an action output. This allotment proceeds very logically and very simply. The first five chakras, the five fingers of the hand, are the only ones we will discuss here.

The mooladhara chakra has its sensory path, or organ of sense, the nose, the sense of smell. So any of the kriyas that involve the nose and the sense of small are automatically going to allow that earth element, mooladhara chakra, to open up. Why? The sense of smell is man's most primitive sensory avenue, and it short circuits straight through to the brain in a very special way. The sense of small is related to the primal sexuality of the human being. Perfume is a sexual signal related to the mooladhara chakra, and we are reminded of Freud's famous case about a middle-aged man who fell hopelessly in love with his wife's maid. The maid was anything but attractive, and they couldn't work out why he was suddenly absolutely in love with her. Freud finally discovered that she wore the same perfume as the man's mother had. What he had actually fallen in love with was his mother! And this love was triggered off through his mooladhara chakra. So this chakra is powerful, very powerful. Perfume, incense, smell is the mooladhara trigger, and the legs are the output. The process of walking, of ambulation. Once you are upright you move from the infantile state of crawling on all fours to an erect position. Then your physical evolution is ended, and there is only spiritual evolution left.

In swadhisthana chakra the sense of taste is the sensory avenue or input. In tasting we use the hands, which are the motor output of swadhisthana, to take food to the mouth, and to drink. There is a very interesting relationship between the sensation of taste, the sexual fluids of the body and the awakening of swadhisthana chakra. How do you think we got the expression, 'She's a dish!' or 'He is good enough to eat?' This swadhisthana chakra controls the water element, and twenty-five hundred years ago the Hindu scientists worked out empirically that there is no sense of taste unless the water element is present. This is true. The taste buds will not function without the water element being present. If your mouth is dried up, and I blindfold you and plug your nostrils, you can't tell whether you're eating apple or onion.

Manipura chakra- the navel centre, the fire centre- is related to the element heat, incandescence, and its sensory avenue is sight. Without light we can see nothing. Also, when we are warm and jovial that is manipura chakra giving forth the warmth of human contact.

Anahata chakra, the heart centre, has as its sensory avenue the element of touch. It is perhaps the most beautiful centre in all traditions. If you meditate on anahata, it is something very special. In tantra, the heart centre is opened through the sensory element of touch. It is an area that represents the deepest psychological significance. We say, 'I am touched' or 'I am moved'. The element of the area is air; its sensory avenue is touch. Its motor output or organ of action is the procreative action, the act of reproduction, but that reproduction can take place in the mind as well as the body. In tantra and kriya the movement of consciousness, the rotation of consciousness around the body, is a tactile experience in which you create your own sensation of movement, heat, cold, pressure. Yoga nidra is an opening up of anahata chakra through learning to experience the tactile sensations of heat, cold, touch, pain, light pressure, deep pressure; all these sensations are deliberately activated. In this Western society we are out of touch. We are afraid of touching for to touch is to be involved. We don't even know how to focus our tactile sensations. There is an interesting experiment you can do that relates to anahata chakra. Reach out to the person next to you and have a brand new tactile sensation, by a very simple manoeuvre. Touch forefingers. Stroke from below to above with your forefinger and thumb, and your nervous system will have a new tactile experience. Stoke gently.

In tantra it says that you should reject nothing, you should integrate everything. One of the things we do with human sexual experience is that we take it and integrate it. We say that it is not necessary, or it may come as a holy sadhana, and then there is joy, there is bliss, it becomes a spiritual experience. The rabbit is better off than the human being. There is a little philosophical problem that goes, 'Why are there more rabbits than people?' The answer is, 'Because rabbits have more fun than people'. Then it goes on, 'But why do rabbits have more fun?' Answer, 'Because there are more rabbits'.

So we go to the throat, vishuddhi chakra. The sensory element is hearing, and its motor output is talking, the tongue. There is a relationship between what we hear and what we say. Hence we have the saying 'deaf and dumb'. In order to be able to speak, one must actually first have heard. You cannot speak that which you have not heard. There is the relationship between input and output again.

These chakras, these centres, represent an input and an output system, which is awakened through the practice of kriya yoga, beginning at mooladhara, and ending in the throat at vishuddhi. There are many subtle things, which I will leave you to think about. These chakras all interrelate between the sensory avenue and the motor avenue. For instance, we used to have a saying many years ago in England that somebody gets 'vapours', meaning they get dizzy or faint. If you over breathe you will alter the circulation of the blood to the brain, and you will produce fainting. Or, if you don't breathe fully enough you will faint. It has something to do with the 'vapours'. That is how the popular saying arose. When somebody gets the vapours and faints, smelling salts are pressed upon them. The sense of smell is stimulated, mooladhara chakra is awakened. Then they are grounded; they are earthed, and they come to.

There are all kinds of interesting relationships that can be thought about. The five fingers of the hand represent the chakras; thumb- mooladhara; index finger- swadhisthana; middle finger- manipura; fourth finger- anahata; little finger- the most subtle, vishuddhi.

I would like to think that each of us is a living altar. What is the purpose of an altar? The word comes from the root, which means 'something on high'. When we worship before an altar, we should get high. In fact, you only have to replace the second 'a' in altar with 'e', and you have an altered state of consciousness. That is what an altar should be. A place where you alter your consciousness.

Remember these five vital centres in your body, which must be prepared before you go to the guru centre, ajna chakra. On your altar you can represent the five elements thus: incense for mooladhara, smell; fruit for swadhisthana, liquid, water; candle flame for manipura, sight; cloth for anahata, touch feel; a bell for vishuddhi, hearing. This is a tantric altar before which devotees can alter their consciousness.

However, there is only ultimately one sure way, one safe way, one super way in which that consciousness can be altered. If you took a voyage on a ship, and discovered that there was no captain, no navigator, very few crew, none of whom knew what they were doing, you'd freak. I would. But how many people do we know who go through life in exactly that way? You know what the word guru means? It means 'dispeller of darkness', and to go through life without a guru is as silly as to be at sea without a captain or navigator. It is no good to curse the darkness when life seems dark. Get up and light a candle! That candle is the guru. Without the guru nothing can be accomplished.

Published in 'YOGA MAGAZINE' January 1977...........