The Birth of Yoga Nidra
| About 60 years
ago, when I was living with my guru, Swami Sivananda, in Rishikesh, I
had a very important experience which triggered my interest in
developing the science of Yoga Nidra. I had been appointed to watch
over a Sanskrit school where small boys were learning to chant the
Vedas. It was my duty to remain awake all night to guard the school
while the acharya was away. At three a .m. I used to fall into a deep
sleep and at six I would get up and return to the ashram. Meanwhile,
the boys got up at four, bathed and chanted Sanskrit prayers, but I
never heard them.
Some
time later, my ashram was holding a large function, and the boys of
that Sanskrit school were brought to chant the vedic mantras. During
the function they recited certain slokas which I did not know, yet
somehow I felt that I had heard them before. As I listened the feeling
grew stronger, and I tried in vain to remember where and when I had
heard them. I was absolutely certain that I had never read or written
them, yet they sounded so familiar to me. | |
| Finally,
I decided to ask the boy’s guru, who was seated nearby, if he could
explain the meaning of this. What he told me changed my entire outlook
on life. He said that this feeling of familiarity was not at all
surprising, because my subtle body had heard the boys chanting the same
mantras many times while I was sleeping in their school. This was a
great revelation to me. I knew that knowledge is transmitted directly
through the senses, but from this experience I realized that you can
also gain directly knowledge without any sensory medium as well. That
was the birth of Yoga Nidra.
The
characteristic feature of Yoga Nidra was the systematic rotation of
consciousness in the body, which originated from the tantric practice
of Nyasa (meaning ‘to place ‘or ‘to take the mind to that point ‘) Paramhansa Swami Satyananda Saraswati |
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