We have discussed the chin pump (dynamic jalandhara) as being a "targeted" advanced yoga practice. Its main focus is in opening the channels for prana going in both directions between the chest cavity and the head. But it is much more than that.

All yoga practices are linked. Sometimes we can see (or feel) the connections, and other times the connections are not so obvious. It is a matter of how much purification we have cultivated in our nervous system. The more the purification, the more perceivable the connections will be.

Back in lesson #91 on yoni mudra kumbhaka, we introduced the static version of jalandhara, which is letting the chin go down to its comfortable limit and rest there during kumbhaka (breath retention). We mentioned that jalandhara stretches the spinal nerve for its full length from the point between the eyebrows all the way down to the root at the perineum. 

The chin pump takes this stretching effect on the spinal nerve quite a bit further. The rotations of the head affect the spinal nerve all the way down to the root also, in a much more stimulating way. The effect is a subtle twirling of the spinal nerve from top to bottom. With ecstatic conductivity rising in the spinal nerve, this twirling is also ecstatic, and plays an important role in the union of pure bliss consciousness (shiva) and divine ecstasy (shakti) in the heart, and throughout the whole body.

The chin pump evolves over time to find natural coordination with all of the mudras and bandhas in the body. In the end, there is only one subtle "whole-body" mudra that is made up of all the parts we are learning one at a time now. All the pieces start out "clunky" and end up subtle, smooth and intimately connected as unending ecstatic bliss is born and radiates out from the body. The chin pump is part of this refinement. Later on in practices, when the head stops, the spiritual twirling will keep right on going inside, centered around the spinal nerve, and sending divine energy out in all directions. Don't worry, by then you won't even notice, and no one will be able to tell by looking at you, except for the glowing smile on your face, and the pleasure of being around you. A mere intention on your part will be enough to set the spiritual currents in motion. Then you will be twirling the ecstatic energies without moving your head at all. 

If you are inclined to let the inner spiritual twirling manifest outside, you can go visit the Sufi whirling dervishes and dance the night away. Many spiritual rituals and dances are geared to our inner spiritual whirling. It is natural for some to openly celebrate the inner light. Others may prefer to sit quietly and dance in ecstatic reverie within. No matter what the culture, religion or personal preference is, it is the same dance. It is the dance of the divine inside us. 

As you become acclimated to doing the chin pump, you will notice many things happening. The energy flows between the heart and the head we already discussed earlier. You will also notice the stretching and twirling of the spinal nerve going into the lower body. As your head is on the up-swing during rotation, you may find a tendency for your knees to lift slightly, and then go down again as the head falls toward your chest after it goes around the back side of its rotation. Then, later on, you may find the knees going slightly up and down at different times during the chin pump. A kind of coordination between the rotation of the head and the small movements of the knees will develop. 

What is this? It is the beginning of the micro-movements of subtle nauli, as mentioned in lesson #129. And what is nauli for? Twirling kundalini energy upwards. There is that word, "twirling," again. In time, the chin pump and nauli naturally team up on the level of internal micro-movements to foster this twirling of the spinal nerve. It become visible as our chin pump advances and the legs, hands and abdominal muscles naturally find their way into the practice. Do not try and put all this together at this beginning stage. Just be aware of it. It is not mainly a physical act. It is the body's response to the movement of ecstatic energy in the spinal nerve. Ecstatic conductivity is the basis all natural connectivity between practices. 

The rise of these subtle movements during the chin pump also puts a new spin on siddhasana, making it subtly dynamic, and even more delicious. You can figure that mulabandha, sambhavi and kechari eventually get into the act as well. These are all techniques that stimulate different aspects of our nervous system. The nervous system is a single entity, and, sooner or later, all practices merge into a single multidimensional act that is the expression of the nervous system. At that point, we are no longer the instigator. God is. That is what yoga is, becoming what we are – the gateway to infinite bliss, ecstasy, love and joy.

The guru is in you.

Note: For detailed instructions on chin pump, see the AYP Asanas, Mudras and Bandhas book.

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Last month a condensed version of lesson #67, "Bhakti – The Science of Devotion" appeared in the web edition of the Hindustan Times, one of the largest newspapers in India. The article is in English.

It finally occurred to me that I should post this information here, as it is pretty good press for AdvancedYogaPractices. If you have been wanting to pass the word to others about the lessons, referring folks to the Hindustan Times article might be a good way to do it. You can find it at:

www.aypsite.com/hindustan.html

Note: A second Hindustan Times article has been added to this link called, "The Spin on Sin" (published in 2005, and based on lesson #132, "What is Sin?").

The bhakti article is a good reminder to all of us that spiritual practices begin with desire, continue with desire, and ultimately open our nervous system to enlightenment because of desire. 

The guru is in you.

Note: For detailed instructions on Bhakti, see the AYP Bhakti and Karma Yoga book.

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Q: This (chin pump) is just wonderful. I tried a couple of times the best to my understanding and it is indeed very powerful. Thank you for sharing such precious teachings. 

However, before I can incorporate effectively in my daily sadhana, I need some clarification. I want to make sure I understand the technique properly. When I go from right to left and left to right, is it done in one round of breath or they are separate rounds? As the head movement is in progress, one should also breathe? 

You have mentioned when we are first learning, we limit this practice to four breaths. Please can you clarify this point? Does it mean we do four rounds of head movement in each direction or take four breaths in each chin pump for a specific direction either R to L or L to R?

A: One full breath (kumbhaka/retention, exhale, inhale) is with head going in one direction. Then at the end of a new inhalation, switch and go the other way with the head for the next breath cycle beginning with kumbhaka/retention again. Then switch head direction again when full of air again on the next breath cycle. 

The head never stops, only switches direction upon starting each new kumbhaka (breath retention).

Four breaths means four kumbhakas (retentions) with four series of head rotations, switching direction at the beginning of each of the four kumbhakas. We always switch direction with the head at the beginning of a new kumbhaka. When it gets smooth and comfortable with four breaths, then you can go from counting breaths to using the clock, and do 5 minutes. The number of breaths does not matter when we are on the clock. Just do as many comfortable kumbhakas as happen naturally until time is up. When five minutes gets comfortable, then try ten minutes. Don't rush to that level. Just go there when your practice is smooth and you can step up easily. If you go too far, then back off and bide your time at a comfortable level of practice until you feel ready to try and step up again. 

The chin pump is very powerful, with far reaching effects. I will post some more about it in a day or two. 

The guru is in you.

Note: For detailed instructions on chin pump, see the AYP Asanas, Mudras and Bandhas book.

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With meditation and spinal breathing we are doing global house cleaning in the nervous system, stimulating and balancing the divine energies in us at the same time. On top of these two wonderful global practices, we added a series of mudras, bandhas and asanas to directly target certain areas of the body, top and bottom. With kumbhaka (breath retention) in yoni mudra, we greatly increased stimulation of kundalini and the flow of prana in the spinal nerve, and beyond. Then we added nauli, and began targeted practice to bring kundalini up even more from the pelvic region, through the abdomen, and towards the heart.

Now, with all of that under our belt, we are ready to target the energy flows between the heart and the head. This is the territory of dynamic jalandhara. We learned static jalandhara bandha with yoni mudra kumbhaka. It is letting the chin go down to its comfortable limit toward the chest. Now we will use it in a more dynamic way. The effect will be to stimulate the movement of prana between the heart and the head. I call it the "chin pump," because prana gets pumped up and down between the heart and head with this practice like you would not believe. It is a real cleanout and energy stimulation practice for the upper body and head. 

We will be adding a new kumbhaka session with the chin pump. More on the logistics of that later. For now, what we will do is set up the same way we do for yoni mudra kumbhaka, except we will not be using the fingers on the eyes or nose. We want the head to be free to move around. 

The same guidelines given for yoni mudra kumbhaka apply here regarding having the prerequisite practices in place and stable, and no health issues that could be aggravated by breath retention. You should be stable in all aspects of yoni mudra kumbhaka before you try the chin pump. An added precaution for the chin pump is that you should not have any neck or head conditions that could be aggravated by moving the head around.

So, we are sitting in siddhasana. We do our standard inhalation from the root up the spinal nerve to the point between the eyebrows, and we hold our breath closing the windpipe in our throat in the regular way we hold our breath using the epiglottis. Then we have ourselves in mulabandha, uddiyana, sambhavi and kechari, and looking out with attention through the third eye, all the same as in yoni mudra kumbhaka. With the chin pump, our hands are resting easily on our knees or thighs.

Now we begin to rotate our head slowly to the left, then back, then right, and then we let it "fall" down toward the chest in a faster swooping motion, sweeping across the bottom from right to left, and coming back up the left side of the circle, slowing down, and then around and dropping down again, and again, and so on. So we are making a slow circle with our head, except for the faster falling/swooping down toward the chest going from right to left. We keep doing this circular head motion when we are ready to let our kumbhaka out at the comfortable limit and are going back down the spine with our breath. We keep the head going as we fill up again, going up the spinal nerve with the breath. Then, when we are full again, we reverse the direction of rotation of our head, so we are falling/swooping from left to right as we go down towards the chest. We continue like this for the breath retention and until we exhale and inhale again. Then, when we are full, we switch the direction of the head again. And so on, rotating left on a complete kumbhaka breath, and right on the next kumbhaka breath, and so on, switching the direction of head rotation each time we are full with air again. This is the chin pump.

Now let's talk more about some more particulars. When we are first learning, we limit this practice to four breaths. Later on, as we get comfortable with it, we can switch to the clock and do it for five minutes, and eventually ten minutes, using self-pacing to get there. The chin pump is done right after spinal breathing, right before meditation. When we add the chin pump, we move our yoni mudra kumbhaka to the end of our practice, after meditation and before rest. There is no change in yoni mudra kumbhaka practice. It only shifts to a different position in our routine. So we have kumbhaka with the chin pump before meditation, and kumbhaka with yoni mudra after meditation. There is great power in this combination. 

The chin pump will feel clunky at first. You knew that would be the case, right? It takes some getting used to. It is worth the effort to make the adjustment. We don't force anything about it. We never go beyond the comfortable range of motion of our neck. And we go slow, being mindful not to strain. With practice, the range of our head motion will gradually increase. In time, our chin may come close to or even touch our upper chest when we swoop down. But don't rush it. We may never get that far down, and that is perfectly fine. As with all yoga, we never exceed our comfortable limit. Always start with a smaller motion of the head and let it increase naturally and gradually during a session to its comfortable limit. The chin pump will work optimally for you right there. You may notice some noise or sensation in your chest as you do the chin pump. This is normal. It can sound like a thumping, or feel like crunching, behind the breastbone. Your neck may crunch a bit too, which is also normal. But discomfort is not normal, so if you have any, back off right away. Do not overdo the chin pump. It will take some time to build up to it. Be very careful and be sure to use self-pacing, staying well within your comfortable range of motion. Remember that we continue to use all of the other indicated mudras and bandhas during our chin pump kumbhaka. And, of course, we are in siddhasana for our whole routine, as long as we are comfortable staying in it.

What might we experience as a result of dynamic jalandhara - the chin pump? If you have some active kundalini in your body, some prana moving in the nervous system, the chin pump will do two things. First, it will bring prana down into the heart area strongly where it is combined with prana rising up through the abdomen from the pelvic region. These are two different kinds of prana, characterized by the energetic polarities in the body. Second, the chin pump will bring the combined pranas from the heart back up to the head in large quantities. If kundalini is active in the body, the head will feel like it is being pumped full with vital essences and light. Every cavity in the head will light up. Even the sinuses can have these sensations. It can be a bit strange, but the strangeness passes soon. If kundalini is not very active in the body yet, the chin pump will facilitate its arousal, along with all the other means being applied. Everything is connected. It is only a matter of time with so many aspects of the nervous system being stimulated.

In the beginning, there can be some side effects from the chin pump. They shouldn't last long. Some dizziness can happen. Maybe a slight headache. Maybe energy currents not experienced before in the upper body and head. It is a powerful practice, and we are making a bid to break through to a higher level of functioning in our nervous system, so there can be a few bumps in the road. For this reason, you may wish to begin your chin pump practice for the first time on a weekend when obligations will be less. Be methodical and don't overdo. If any symptoms become uncomfortable, back off practice immediately, and give yourself time to recover. Then you can come back later and try again, slowly. Honor your limits and use self-pacing. Self-pacing is very important with the chin pump. We are moving a lot of energy with this practice, up through channels where the energy has not been in such quantities before. And we are dealing with delicate components of our anatomy, our neck and head. If we want enlightenment, we have to nudge open the doors so the spiritual energies stirring inside us can find their natural neuro-biological functioning. The chin pump is a powerful way to open the doors between the heart and the head.

As we continue with the chin pump daily over time, we will notice a strengthening in our chest, neck and head. It is a spiritual strengthening, as prana flows through us in commanding new ways. Our heart becomes full with a powerful and palpable love. Our spiritual vision will strengthen. The third eye is a direct recipient of the increased energy flow, as is the crown. It feels very good to have the energy moving in healthy ways in the higher regions of the body. There is also a physical strengthening that occurs with the chin pump. So there are many benefits, and it is a practice well worth learning and refining over time. Just start slow and build up very gradually. 

When we finish our dynamic jalandhara session, we will feel energized and we may wish to take an extra minute or two to settle into meditation. It is more of a pranic energizing than a physical one, though both can be there after doing kumbhaka with the head going around for some minutes like that. So take a couple of minutes to settle down as you go into meditation. Maybe delay starting the mantra for a couple of minutes if you feel the need. Make sure you start the mantra effortlessly as originally instructed, and follow the easy procedure of meditation as always. We will be going from high pranic energization to deep silence. Mixing these two is very powerful, and it will be a different kind of experience in meditation. It is the ultimate cultivation of chin pump kumbhaka marrying the ultimate silence of deep meditation. A new kind of luminous fullness will be born in our nervous system, and it will follow us out into our daily activity. So we will be both silent bliss and ecstatic radiance happening at the same time. 

Translation: Ecstatic Bliss! 

The guru is in you.

Note: For detailed instructions on chin pump, see the AYP Asanas, Mudras and Bandhas book.

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Q: (On lesson #35 – Enlightenment Milestones) Re your triad of Silence, Bliss and Harmony, in your discussion of milestones are they close or similar to the description of Brahman as Existence-Consciousness-Bliss (Sat-Chit-Anand)? Is the body-mind purification process another name for reconditioning or unconditioning?

A: Satchitananda (existence-consciousness-bliss) is what we contact in deep meditation and it is what rises in us as silence, also called the "witness state," and stabilization of this transcendent reality as our sense of self 24/7 is the first stage of enlightenment. The phrase "pure bliss consciousness," used often in the lessons, is synonymous with satchitananda, inner silence, and witness. Bliss is a key word in this. The immutable inner witness is a blissful one, and so are we when we become it, and there is much more to come after that.

Ecstasy is the key word in the second stage of enlightenment, caused by the movement of prana (kundalini) in the nervous system. With refinement of inner sensory experiences, devotion (bhakti) rises, and we accelerate in our neuro-biological transformation toward permanent divine experience. Technically, the movement of prana/kundalini is movement of satchitananda, because all is that, but we make a distinction between the bliss (of pure consciousness) and the ecstasy (of the body) for the sake of the coming union of these two aspects of our nature in the third state, unity, which is where the word "harmony" comes in, and the rise of outflowing unconditional divine love. Then we are a channel of the divine on earth, and loving every minute of it.

Lessons #85 & #113 revisit the stages of enlightenment from different perspectives, and it is looked at from different levels of experience in many other lessons as well. 

None of this would even be mentioned, except for the experiences that come up with practices. There is a need then for a framework of understanding (and milestones), so it is discussed for that reason. Otherwise, who needs all this mumbo jumbo? With the experiences, the mental framework and metaphors (shiva, shakti, etc.) describing what is happening inside are helpful to inspire continuation of practices.

"Reconditioning" or "unconditioning" are a bit vague for me on what is happening. I like purification and cleansing better. Once cleansed, the nervous system becomes a clear two-way gateway to the infinite within us. It is semantics really. Whatever words work for you are okay, as long as you understand your experiences clearly on your own terms and don't misinterpret what is happening. Misinterpretation (and fear, when experiences get way out there) can lead to a loss of motivation to practice, so having an understanding of what is happening is important. Always, the main thing is that we are motivated to be doing our practices and getting reconditioned! :-)

The guru is in you.

Note: For detailed discussion on the stages of enlightenment and on building a balanced practice routine with self-pacing, see the AYP Eight Limbs of Yoga book.

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Q: I am ready to start meditation again so I can feel what I did in the past. It started when I was in school. I always strived for something but till now I didn't know what. I started meditation back then. I always tried to meditate in shava asana because it is mentioned that the asana is a position in which you can sit or lay without straining your body for hours... 

It is around 5 years back when one day I felt the light. I can't explain what it is... but next day my whole family told me that in night I was up in the air and that is at least 3 feet above my bed and my body is glowing. From that day I have been searching about what happened to me. I continued doing meditation and after this it happened various times that I feel like I am weightless and I feel a strange sensation in my third eye area. After that because of studies, job and marriage, I left meditation and it is now around 3 years later but still sometimes I have a smell of flowers and sometimes I can't guess the smell but it is very pleasant. Sometimes I hear ringing bells inside and sometimes I here a sound of hreem which is like hreeeeeeeeeeeemmm. Please help me out or at least tell me how to proceed as I am not meditating now and want to start it again.

A: Thank you for writing and sharing. You can go to the beginning of the messages on the web and the lessons go step-by-step through instructions on meditation, pranayama and then into combining with physical practices (bandhas, mudras, asanas, kumbhaka). There is also discussion on the "Why?" that comes up in us, and using that to increase bhakti – desire for the divine. There is not much on philosophy or theory in the lessons. The focus is on practices and on dealing with the different kinds of experiences that come as a result.

Your experiences of inner light, weightlessness, sweet fragrances, inner sounds, etc., are all symptoms of some good purification in your nervous system. Of course the greatest "symptom" to have is unending divine joy. 

You will have good success once you begin practices again. Keep in mind that symptoms of purification are not the practices themselves, and that further progress is a function of practices, not focusing excessively on any particular experience, even the miraculous. This comes right from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, and is good practical advice for anyone on the path of yoga having any sort of experiences. 

Shava asana (corpse pose) is a wonderful posture which is usually done at the end of an asana routine, and it can also be done at the end of sitting practices of meditation, pranayama, etc. It is not traditionally done during meditation, and there are a variety of reasons for this. Recommendations on easy ways to sit during meditation are given in the lessons. You will see how the seat evolves as practices advance.

If your desire to meditate is strong, you will find the time to make a daily routine of practice. It only takes 20-30 minutes twice a day starting out. Managing the time is covered in the lessons also.

If you decide to go back to your previous practices, or have a teacher or guru who will be assisting you, then just regard the lessons as "food for thought."

It seems you have had one foot nearly in paradise already. Maybe now is the time to get both feet in. I wish you all success as you travel your chosen path.

The guru is in you.

Note: For detailed discussion on building a balanced practice routine with self-pacing, see the AYP Eight Limbs of Yoga book.

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Q: Pranam! Can I seek guidance based on practice as per dharmas of Vigyan Bhairav.

A: I am familiar with the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra scripture mainly through the writings of Osho/Rajneesh (Book of Secrets, covering the 112 techniques). The lessons of advancedyogapractices cover the principles of Vigyan Bhairav in a concentrated and practical way, with a series of effective practices that can be taken up in a building block fashion as one becomes ready. 

Besides Vigyan Bhairav (and other tantra yoga sources), the lessons integrate principles and streamlined practices from bhakti yoga, mantra yoga, kriya yoga, raja yoga, hatha yoga and kundalini yoga, not to mention some good old-fashioned Christian common sense. It is an open and integrated system of practices, scientifically derived for ease of use, effectiveness, and completeness. 

I hope you find the lessons useful as you travel along your chosen path. 

The guru is in you.

Note: For detailed discussion on the methods of tantra, see the AYP Tantra book.

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Q: I have been practicing yoga and pranayama for about six years. I started this practice to get rid of my asthma condition now I succeeded to 90%. Normally I do not do meditation except some self-affirmations and relaxation after my pranayama. The sound OM does not much interest me for my religious background. Now I found you and practicing the meditation as per your instructions for the past 50days. (For the past three years my yoga is not regular, but I do pranayama for five minutes a day, before starting meditation)

When I started the meditation it was good and in few days a sort of pleasant cool breeze (cool current) started flowing in my back during and after the meditation. During my prayers during the day and afternoon I feel the same sensation in my back spreading till my upper back. I do pranayama and meditation in sidhasana.

My question is, for the ten days during the day around 10 A.M. till 2.30 to 3 P.M. I am having the cool current sensation flowing in only in my both the legs and hands from the shoulder till the finger tips. Some times it is very strong but pleasant. Please le me know what this condition is. As for my understanding the energy flows in the upper parts of the body not down. Please let me know what it is or it is the energy flowing down instead of upward. Kindly advise.

A: It is kundalini energy. It can be very evident in the legs and arms. You have heard the expression, "lotus feet?" Kundalini goes wherever the nervous system goes. This means to every cell in the body. It begins in the spinal nerve (sushumna) and radiates from there, sometimes instantaneously with the rise of ecstatic conductivity in the spinal nerve, and other times with some delay in time as kundalini energy works its way out from the spinal nerve. Also, energetically, the subtle nervous system reaches far beyond the body via the aura, and kundalini goes there also. That is how others can feel our rising ecstatic bliss. Good vibrations, you know. 

Many years ago the same experience you describe rose in me. It was so pleasurably intense in my legs and feet that the only way I could calm it down was by walking barefoot all over the neighborhood. It was like having orgasms in my feet. I had the same thing in the arms and hands too. Being physically active helps smooth it out. You may want to check out the lesson on kundalini symptoms and remedies if you feel the need to smooth it out. 

The symptoms have much to do with friction between kundalini energy and deep obstructions coming out. In time it evens out to be much smoother unending ecstatic feelings everywhere in the body. Ecstatic living! 

If I have to take a guess, I'd say your pranayama has been opening your nervous system up over the past few years, and now meditation is taking advantage of that cultivated situation. You are very wise to be taking up meditation to complement your pranayama. The relationship of these two practices, and the importance of doing both, is discussed throughout the lessons, beginning with first instructions in spinal breathing. You may wish to bring your pranayama up to the spinal breathing level, if you have not already. This speeds up the effects of pranayama, while at the same time providing much more balance of energies in the nervous system, so there is more progress with less chance of excessive energy flows. 

Good things are happening. 

The guru is in you.

Note: For detailed discussion on building a balanced practice routine with self-pacing, see the AYP Eight Limbs of Yoga book.

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Q: I have recently joined your group and I am in strong disagreement of promoting meditation and other practices alone. When people being to focus on themselves sensations in their bodies, etc. they are in a very vulnerable position and at the same time they have the opportunity to uncover a great truth. In a situation where they do not have support they will end up in the same position or worse because they have not been able to understand their feelings, heal their pain, and express other emotions that might come along. You suggest that irritability is a result of an imbalance in a practice (note: as in coming out of meditation too fast) and I strongly disagree. I believe that and emotions that arise in meditation have a reason and the only way to work toward a greater awareness in this situation is to focus on that emotion, express it, and understand it. Once a person has gone through this healing process they will achieve a greater awareness. If people pass it of as something else they will be going through the same cycle and maybe for the rest of their lives. In this situation support plays a big role because the helper can guide the person into working through the situation. 

A: The part you may have missed about meditation is that when correctly done, the obstructions being released in a particular session are gone. Gone. So there is nothing left to process or analyze, only the inner silence and light coming through from inside where there was blockage before. So let's be clear about those mechanics. That is effective yoga, a neurological cleansing where the effects of past actions are released, not on the basis of meaning, but neurologically dissolved from the inside by the pure bliss consciousness inherent within us which we access in meditation. It is not a matter of belief or analysis. It is a mechanical process. It will work for anyone who does the procedure, even for someone who is a skeptic. 

It sounds like you are involved in western psychology, where thoughts and feelings coming to surface awareness are analyzed on the level of meaning -- psychoanalysis. This has some value, but is far removed from yogic methods that go much deeper where analytical processes do not exist in the mind. Western psychology is like analyzing the waves coming up on the surface of the ocean, while yoga (deep meditation especially) is like cleaning the ocean from the bottom up, at levels where analysis is not possible. Only the procedure of cleaning is there. Obstructions are energy, thinking is energy. Yoga deals with these at their root by going beyond the energy to pure bliss consciousness. Meaning is a less fundamental form of neurological energy, found near the surface of the mind. Meaning is the tail on the dog of thought energy, so to speak, and we all know that using the tail to wag the dog is not very effective. We can still use it if it helps us feel better in some way. If we are flexible, we will meditate daily also, which will be like having our cake and eating it too. It is not wise to try and do both methods at the same time, as neither will be served. 

Anyway, yoga is not only about cleaning up the psychology. That is a byproduct. Yoga is about enlightenment, a direct pathway to the level of attainment of Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Lao Tsu, Rumi, etc.

Compared to yogic methods, western psychology is still embryonic in that respect. Keep in mind that psychoanalysis has been around for a little over a century, while yoga has been around for something like fifty centuries. Not that "time in the business" alone qualifies something as being more advanced, but it is a pretty good indicator. The experiences of modern practitioners support the conclusions of the long history of yoga. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. 

From the standpoint of yoga, revealing "great truth" is not primarily about intellectual understanding or the resolution of emotional difficulties. It is about becoming the truth itself. This is done through systematic purification on every level in the vehicle of experience, the human nervous system. It is the divinity of the human being we are opening up here, using time-tested methods.

Logic indicates that western psychology can learn a lot from studying the methods of yoga in an open-minded way. Carl Jung realized this late in his career. 

The guru is in you.

Note: For detailed instructions on deep meditation, see the AYP Deep Meditation book.

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Q: Sometimes I feel a very sweet taste at the end of my throat. It's not exactly sweet but what can be called as madhur (an Indian word....not sure of the English equivalent). It happens on its own and goes off after an hour or so. I have not been able to relate it with anything. Neither to anything I do or eat. I really enjoy it when it happens and the more I gulp the more I can get the taste. Hope you can throw some light. 

A: Your description sounds like nectar, called amrita or soma, coming down from the brain through the nasal pharynx. It is stimulated by spiritual practices, especially pranayama, kumbhaka and kechari, though it could come from any practices, sometimes even only with bhakti.

The biology of kundalini involves sexual essences going up the spine, and also through the digestive system and other channels. Then, in the brain, there is a process that brings the nectar down into the digestive system via the front passage mentioned, where it is reprocessed and sent up again. So, it is a circular process, up the middle and down the front, like that. This biology is the basis of rising inner experiences. It is part of human spiritual transformation. Advanced yoga practices are designed to promote this. 

Nectar can be sweet with a fragrance like flowers. It is most noticed in early stages of kundalini awakening. Then later it is less noticeable. Don't get too fixated on it. Continue your practices, whatever they may be. The experience is part of the larger process, not an end in itself.

Good things are happening. 

The guru is in you.

Note: For detailed discussion on the inner neurobiology of the "nectar cycle," see the Diet, Shatkarmas and Amaroli book.

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