Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

Chapter 7 - Kriya Yoga  Day 53  The third type of fire is called Jataraagni - the fire of hunger and digestion. This is one of the important principles in Ayurveda - Jataraagni. If the fire of digestion is less or more, it affects your health and your balance. When there is fever, we just treat the symptoms. We do not understand the principles involved.  When a foreign body enters your body, it turns up the heat and there is fever. During a fever, your body is operating its defence mechanism. It is burning up all the foreign bacteria and viruses that have entered it. As soon as they are destroyed, the fever comes down. It purifies the system by getting rid of the foreign matter. Jataraagni - fire of digestion. You don't even allow hunger to come up in you. You keep stuffing things into yourself even before you are hungry. This makes you more toxic and your body is affected. Many people get disease or die because of overeating and not of hunger. Nowadays, very ...

Chapter 7 - Kriya Yoga  Day 52  Fire sustains life. There are five types of fire. One is Bhootaagni. Bhootaagni is the fire with which you heat your homes and keep yourself warm. This physical fire sustains life. It may not be so obvious in tropical countries. They don't give much importance to fire. But, it is very important in cold countries. Without physical fire, life extinguished. And this physical fire is present in the body to some extent. And then, there is the second type is fire which is called Kaamaagni. This is the fire of desire, lust or passion. This fire will engulf you. Life continues on this planet because of this fire. The fire of passion is present in all he species of creation. Now, you do not even allow this fire of passion to come up in you. The moment there is a desire, you fulfill it.  Then that desire does not stay in you, it doesn't burn you up. People who are very promiscuous have no kaamaagni. This is because they do not even allow ...

Chapter 7 - Kriya Yoga  Day 51  Kriya Yoga, the Yoga of action has three parts. The first is tapaha. Tapas is endurance and acceptance. You may be taking a long flight. You may be sitting in your seat and your legs would be getting numb. You may be feeling tired and heavy but you keep sitting.  You cannot say that you will not sit anymore and that you will get out of the plane. If the plane is delayed or held up in the air, you just have to continue to be on it. There is no choice for you. Now, if you had a choice, you would not sit in one place for eight hours the way you sit on a long flight.  But in a plane you accept the inevitable and sit - willingly and without grumbling. This is tapaha. Tapaha is experiencing the opposite values, willingly and without grumbling. You may be driving to some place at night. You are feeling sleepy as it is the time to sleep. But, you do not park somewhere and sleep.  Of course, you may do this if the sleep is too ...

Chapter 7 - Kriya Yoga  Day 50  When someone is anxious, they are aware of the passage of time; of every moment. However, then the total focus is on an event or a happening rather than just on time. Someone may be waiting for a train, a bus or a boat and they will go on thinking of it is coming. The focus is on the concerned object rather than just on time. But, if there is a little shift done by you, then when you wait for somebody or something, you will just wait for the moment - for "Now". This is uniting with the time. This is Yoga. When you do this, your mind is in he moment and waiting for nothing.  However, you are still waiting. This adds a different quality to the consciousness. It sharpens the intellect and softens the heart. This is called the Yoga of action. This is the next sutra, Sadhana Pada. Sadhna Pada means, the path of practice.  Kriya Yoga is the Yoga of action. Action is part of this creation. There is activity in everything in creati...

Chapter 6 - Steadiness In Samadhi  Day 49  This is another kind of samadhi where even the feeling of some impressions is not there. There is no end to this. There are many different states of awareness and types of samadhi being described. The path is long. Every step is complete in itself. It is not that you are aiming at a goal after sometime.  The goal is in every moment. Yet the path is long. The path is very long, yet the goal is there at every moment. The goal is where you are. You are not in a hurry and want samadhi immediately. There should be enthusiasm and along with it there should be patience. Those who are very enthusiastic have no patience.  People who have patience are very lethargic. There is either one extreme or the other. You can sleep but you cannot have a quick sleep. Hurried sleep is not possible. You cannot feel that, since you are in a hurry, you should sleep quickly and then rise and go. In the same way you cannot remember somethi...