By SRI SUBI LAKSMI DEVI

Ritual “Dharme Lakshana”. Take the position of vadjrasana, straighten your spine and close your eyes. In your mind detach from all external impressions and tune in your inner world. Feel the rhythm of your breathing, and the pulsation of your heart in all parts of your body. Feel the warmth of your body; sink into your inner world. In your mind pronounce: “I inhale. What a calm sensation. I exhale. What a calm sensation. I inhale. What a pleasant sensation. I exhale. What a pleasant sensation. My body is completely relaxed. It is being filled with energy. With every breath I am filled with prana. With every exhalation it spreads through all the channels of my body. I feel the healing effect of this inhalation in my whole being. My emotions calm down. I am in the moment, here and now. My mind is calm, concentrated, and steady. In my inner vision, I drop off my past. In my mind I am heading into the future. I imagine what could happen in the future. I grasp my whole embodiment with my inner vision. I see how fluid and changeable everything in life is. I am changing myself, changing. And it cannot be altered, stopped, or made over. I am the flow, the river, flowing through all the life. I am aware of that. And in this state I am preparing myself for performing this ritual.”

Let’s get connected to the Higher Powers: sing the sacred, ancient mantra and fill yourself with Divine Power. Take a breath. NAMO SOTIDANANDANA PARAM ANANDA SVASTI. Breathe in, breathe out. Let’s make a bow to the Higher Power. Hold your breath on exhalation. Relax in this posture while holding your breath as long as possible. Feel the fine energy coming into your whole being, and be filled with it and transform. Feel your will increasing while you are fighting with the wish to breathe in. All right.

Now let’s start with doing the warming-up practice, “Flame.”

Stand on the left knee. In your mind, imagine you are a spark emerging from the flame. Let’s bend to the right, breathing in. Feel how your left side is stretched. Breathe out. Return to the starting position. Breathe in. Let’s bend to the other side. Feel how your right side is stretched. Breathe out. The starting position. Breathe in. Let’s make a twist to the right. Feel your spine, breathe out. The starting position. Breathe in. Let’s make a twist to the left. Feel every vertebra, breathe out. Starting position. Breathe in. Bend backwards to the limit. Breathe out. Bend forwards to your leg, head touching the knee. All right. Smoothly get up. Change the positions of legs. Let’s do the same warming-up on the other leg. Breathe in. Bend to the left. Imagine that you are a spark emerging from the flame. Breathe out. The starting position. Breathe in. The flame starts to take hold of thin branches, grass. Breathe out. The starting position. Breathe in. Twist to the left. Big branches start burning. Breathe out. The starting position. Breathe in. The flame engulfs the whole bonfire. Big logs start burning. Breathe out. The starting position. Breathe in. The flame flares up. Breathe out. It goes out. Only cinder remains from it. All right. Smoothly get up, take the position of vadjrasana. 

Let’s do the purification breathing. Take a breath. One more time breathe in; and last time. Breathe in. Let’s start doing pranayama bhastrika. Concentrate on the breathing process. Straighten your spine, go deeper inside of yourself, feel the process of your breathing. We will inhale through nose and exhale through mouth. So, let’s start. Breathe in one rhythm. Inhalation is even with exhalation. Feel how with every breath prana is flowing into you and filling your whole being. Bhastrika in translation means bellows. Feel that your lungs work like bellows. Feel how they contract and expand; How energy in your aura pulsates together with your breathing. Feel how purification of the whole etheric body takes place. You experience the state of lightness and euphoria, bliss and weightlessness. All right. Breathe in smoothly and deeply. Hold the breath on inhalation and do jalabandha and mulabandha. Keep your spine straight. Feel how purification of your whole organism takes place. All the poisons are oxidized. All slag comes out. Your energy level increases. Feel how easy it is for you to do this pranayama and hold your breath. Feel how the length of holding the breath is extended. If it is necessary to breathe in, raise your head, place your index finger and third finger between the eyebrows, close the right nostril with the thumb, and breathe out through the left. Stop your breath while breathing out and do three bandhas: upper, middle, and lower. The middle bandha is swinging with your stomach and diaphragm. When it is necessary to inhale, you may raise your head smoothly and breathe in. All right. Let’s do the purification breathing. Take a breath; one more time, breathe in. And the last time, breathe in. Bhastrika is training our lungs very well, making them sturdy and increasing their volume and preventing diseases.

Let’s start the ritual “Dharme Lakshana -- from birth to death.” While doing this ritual, feel how you change. As much as possible, try to embody every stage of life, from the newborn, to the aged and the dead. Feel transience that occurs in our lives. Feel a keen need to comprehend the Truth during this short time.

In your mind, take a look at your body. Take a position of shalasana; completely relax, feel comfort and peace in your whole body. In your mind, imagine that you don’t exist yet -- that your soul has not embodied on this Earth. You are in the subtle plane, you don’t know anything yet about embodiment on Earth, about your past embodiments. You are a pure, free soul -- divine individual consciousness. But then the moment comes and, at the exact time, you embody in the womb of a woman bearing a little child.

Let’s experience this moment; let’s do the posture “newborn.” Bend your legs, stretching them towards your chest; put your body in a vertical position, crossing your arms on your chest. Place your knees on your forehead, shanks pointing straight up. In your mind, envision your whole body, feeling all of its muscles. In your mind send waves of relaxation to the muscles of your back and all the spine. In your mind, imagine that you are a little child in your mother’s womb. You know nothing about the world, life, the Earth. You are pure consciousness. You only hear your mother’s heart pulsation, and the sound of her blood. It is comfortable, easy, and convenient to be in this tranquil state. Nothing threatens you. You are not worried about anything. In a short time, you go through the evolution of all life on Earth, starting from a small, one-celled being and  ending as a person. In the womb state, you have gills appearing at one moment, fins, or claws of an animal at another moment, an animal’s face -- but at the final stage you become a baby of a man.

Here comes the period of your karmic embodiment on the Earth. You feel the planetary flows, which come in resonance with your karma, your causal matrix. The planetary flows of the planets are in the position at which they resonate with your matrix, and it is the moment of your birth. It is the karma that you have earned in your previous life. Your organism instinctively feels these fluids. It sends certain substances into the womb of the mother; her womb contracts and throws you out into this world.

Let’s experience the moment of birth. Do the somersault backwards over your head. Freeze in the posture “Bow to the Sun.” Take the first deep breath in your life. Feel it as it expands your lungs and fills all your body with energy. At this moment you become an independent being; your personal horoscope turns on. You are independent being from your mother. Concentrate your attention into the area of Muladhara chakra -- the movement center. Imagine that you are a small child who starts moving actively, moving your arms, legs. Crawl, climb, walk on all four. You grow and develop. Everything is so interesting around you. You stretch your hand towards everything. You want to try everything by tasting. You make a first effort to walk. You fall, hurt yourself, but you get up again, fall again and finally you learn to walk. You experience more and more movement moments. You learn more and more new movements. Your body does not grow by days, but by hours. You develop and grow. And you don’t notice how you grow from a little baby into a child. From a child into a teenager. From teenager -- into a young man or woman. You start feeling that something changes in your perception.

The time of carefree childhood recedes deep into the past. And you say hello to your youth. Let’s take the next posture, the posture of Lovers. Smoothly get up, stand on your left knee. Place hands in front of your chest and turn your body as far as you can to the right. Concentrate your attention on the area of Svadhistana chakra, the sexual centre. In your mind, grasp your whole body, feel every muscle of it. Feel the vertebras of your spine, its muscles. In your mind imagine you are a young man. You start being filled with a strange languor. The whole world seems wonderful and beautiful to you. You are filled with insane power. You want to rebuild the whole world, seeing how people suffer in it. You want to help everyone. You want to change this life, to help everyone -- transform, do revolution in this world. The huge power that is given to you makes you think that life is a rainbow picture. And it is no wonder that in youth a person looks onto the world through rose-colored glasses. Feel this sweet and ravishing state. You start creating, you start not sleeping at nights, your whole state is expressed in your way of creativity. And this state can never be forgotten, nor repeated. But gradually, the time of mad youthfulness ends and you go into the next step of your life.

Smoothly turn. Place your left hand on your hip, bend the right hand and make a fist, turning as far as you can to the right. Feel your whole spine -- turn the body, head and your eyesight to the maximum to the right. Feel the twist of every vertebra of your body. In your mind imagine that you are a man of mature age, your motivation goes into manipura chakra because you have become an independent person. Your own house appears, those close to you -- family, children, your second half. The whole circle of your interest is led towards social things: getting social means for existence, and a clear approach to these means. You constantly think what, how and why must be done further. Feel the state of responsibility, concentration, harmony of all your activities. There is nobody to take care of you, and you need to take care of all those close to you. That’s how, in never-ending chain of events, another period passes in your life and you don’t notice that you start feeling that your life is coming to a dead end. You feel dissatisfaction with life, and new stage starts in your life.

Let’s take the next posture, “farewell to the world.” Smoothly turn back, and stand straight, placing your hands in front of your chest. Focus your attention on the anahata chakra. In your mind, imagine such a picture. Your life has rolled halfway over. Your children have grown up and left you. The first gray hair appears on your head. You stay alone and think about the meaning of life. You think: “Why do I live on Earth? Why is it all on Earth? Why is everything as it is? You feel that you cannot live anymore in the way you lived before. You start thinking about the meaning of human manifestation. You see that money, politics, social confirmation, various plans are all unsteady -- not constant. Sooner or later all this will be destroyed, not to mention your relationships with people. Today people think one thing about you, tomorrow something else, and the day after tomorrow – the third thing. Their opinion is changing like the wind and you become disappointed about this world. And you think, “Why do I live? What is the essence of my existence?” You feel empty inside. You understand that everything is unsteady and smoldering in this world. And now a strong and final decision appears in your soul to go to the monastery, to go to the ashram. You want to go along the spiritual path. But how can you do it? You don’t know. And you are searching for an environment in which your spiritual development is possible. For the first time in all your life you step over the doorstep of the monastery and become obedient. Let’s experience this moment. Place the right hand on the hip, bend your left arm with all your fingers together, turn as far as you can to the left, bending your arm at the elbow, with fingers facing up. In your mind, visually grasp your body. Feel that you are your spine, feel all the muscles surrounding it. Yogis say that the spine is cured by twisting. Feel every vertebra twisting in your back and your asana straightening. In your mind imagine that you are obedient; a person, who has come to a monastery, ashram and has acquired 3 great values: a teacher, teaching and a community. The Teacher is the person, the only existing being on Earth who can tell you personally what you should do for your growth and development. The teaching carries one common doctrine: that which a person must do to get rid of suffering. And finally, the community gives the structure of life, a daily schedule that helps sadhani, the spiritual practice for personal development. And due to these three values you grow and develop. Feel sharp concentration in the vishudha. You start having an interest towards all types of science, knowledge. You want to understand why the world is built like this. What is the cause of human suffering? How should you develop and grow? You ask thousands of questions of your Teacher. You feel great gratitude to him for this precious favor that he gives to you. Your time is spent on studying practices, praying, and self-development. You grow, develop, and comprehend the Truth. And, of course, everything you have acquired you express in creativity. But it is not the same creativity that you had in youth. This creativity is bright and constructive; it is based on understanding all the laws of cosmos. It is objective art, which is expressed through you as through the flow. Feel the ravishing and penetration of this state.

But the maturity of your life passes and life starts inclining towards its setting. Your teachers, who were with you, leave this world. Life brings you a new lesson. Let’s do the next posture, the posture of “The Hermit.” Smoothly turn, stand on your right knee, join your hands in front of your chest and twist your body as far as you can to the left. In your mind, visualize grasping your whole body. Feel all your muscles supporting your spine. In your mind, imagine a picture: you are a person who is getting old. You have become alone. Your spiritual teachers have left this world. You feel not only sorrow about separating with them, but also the great responsibility that is on your shoulders. You understand that you are the one who must deliver this great knowledge to the world. Bring your concentration to your ajna chakra. Feel great concentration and purposefulness. All day long, you write treatises, you have discussions with your students -- the new obedient ones. You constantly think what else to do in delivering the higher knowledge. Your successors ask you spiritual questions In the same way as you did, some time ago. You devote all the rest of your life to this great task. At the same time, you feel that your days are counted too. Not many years pass, and you understand that the time has come for a new stage in your spiritual development. Now you must prepare yourself for transition into another world.

Let’s do the next posture, the posture of the Hermit, the ascetic. Smoothly turn and take the position of padmasana. Place your hands on your knees, join the thumb and index fingers together, concentrating on the top of your head. In your mind, imagine that you leave this world. You seclude yourself in a separate cell or go to a cave. You start your personal self-development in the silence of the cave, in the coldness of cave’s halls you feel calmness, deepening, pacification. Nobody disturbs you, there is nobody to remind you of your personality. You become a pure essence, you start praying, fasting, meditating. You are already a very old man; your beard and hair have been covered with white, your eyesight aspires towards the eternity. You make a review of your whole life; from the moment of your birth to its very end. You see how many mistakes, how many unsuccessful moments you have experienced in your life. You give a completely new meaning to all that happens inside of you. You experience something that you would do differently. You make review of your whole life. Your soul is purifying. The prayer is led towards the highest sphere. By fasting, your vital body is purifying itself from unnecessary, bad energies; your whole being becomes fine. In the information vacuum, in the conditions of pratyahara, the organs are disconnected from the objects of sensation, and meditation appears. And you see beings of the subtle world. With the help of prayer, you tune in to the higher spheres and start communicating with angels, archangels, with the spiritual teachers of the mankind. You understand how fast flowing your life was and you feel inevitability and closeness of death.

Let’s experience this solemn moment. Smoothly stretch your legs and take the position of shalasana, or speaking more precisely, savasana, the posture of the dead.

In your mind envisions grasping your whole body. Feel its every muscle. In your mind imagine that, in complete calm and peace, you move to another world. Your body is like old clothes, which were given us, for certain time. You take it off. You don’t feel sorry for that at all, and release from rags. In one moment, in front of your mental sight, all of your life flashes -- from the moment of birth, and ending with death. In the crazy kaleidoscope of event, your whole life rushes through in one moment. And in the next instant, you feel your detachment from the physical body.

When the free spirit is not distracted by anything, dying is as easy as falling asleep. In the black waters, like a ray of light I plunge; and its essence cannot be argued anymore. Feel that with ease, with prayer you strive to the higher sphere. Quietly you head towards another world and strive to eternity. The one whom today we were calling “I”,was completely different yesterday. But nobody knows who the “I” who is known today will become in the future. Those who always remember these words will be able to release their souls from all shackles.