Introduction

It is a great chance that today we have a possibility to practice yoga. Most of us who practice yoga have to take many decisions. Whether to live in the society or to leave it and stay alone? Should be make a career or copy a lifestyle of people living in India? Who left as this entire yoga heritage?

And really, looking at the eastern countries for the last five hundred years they have been behind the western countries in terms of technology, standard of living, etc. And at the same time they had something that the Western world would probably not reach for a very long time.
So there are two questions. Firstly, where this knowledge has come from? And secondly, how it has remained in the environment non-contributing to yoga preservation? After learning a lot about this topic, talking to many people we have come to some answers in rough approximation. Let’s discuss it now.

It was found that advanced methods of yoga have remained among people with a special lifestyle. So there was a small social community leading a life in totally different way compared to the majority. And only this community was the bearer of yoga knowledge. Moreover, only thanks to this community the yoga knowledge has been saved. It is rather interesting that those were western people who were the first to get in touch with the saved yoga knowledge.
There have been many unbelievable hypotheses regarding this topic.

For example, some representatives of previous civilizations who stayed there just to pass this knowledge to us. But deeper and more detailed study has shown that it wasn’t quite so. This study shows there was a group of people bearing this knowledge and they still do that. They carry the knowledge that we use and sometimes we are not even able to understand this knowledge. They keep this knowledge us fire, not letting it to die out. And from time to time they share the fire with those who are capable to take it. It is no secret that several centuries ago yoga would hardly spread even in Europe because there was another way of life. Even if this knowledge would have come to us 500 years ago we would not apprehend it. Remember the medieval era – would yoga really exist there?Thus, some people say that now we are still not ready for yoga. But nevertheless yoga penetrates and spreads.
Yoga knowledge was passed on from one generation to another. It is interesting to know how it was passed on and who were the people who handed it down to us. These people were absolutely non-public (as it is said nowadays). They remained in the shadow for the thousand-year history, so it’s difficult to tell something about them. But what could we tell about them from the facts that we know?

How these people lived?
How do we live? We are born, day care centers, education at school, maybe university, and then we work somewhere or live on benefits. Even though everyone has his/her own life there are some common things that unite us. In the same way there are some moments uniting those who handed us the yoga knowledge. They lived in the environment with certain laws but they formed some kind of an independent state. On one hand they lived inside this environment, and on the other hand they practiced the advanced yoga areas. It’s a strange situation. So we will begin with their way of life. We have our life and we make decisions to live it somehow. And naturally logic enters into our life. What is logic? Let’s say mom and dad say: «It is necessary to get good education, ». Why is it good? Because it is logical – possessing of knowledge makes your life easier, you feel yourself more confident.

So the first level of explanation is LOGIC or the CONSCIOUS LEVEL, i.e. the common sense. For example: "I practice yoga" – "Why?" – "To improve my health condition" - it goes under the common sense. But again, our life is determined by other factors we know very little about - it's SUPERLOGIC, SUPERCONSCIOUS LEVEL. These are the moments, as for example, you live and don’t care about things much but suddenly you start asking yourself: “To be or not to be?”, you ask yourself about factors concerning life and death, “Where I came from?”, “Where I was before I was born?”, “What will happen after the death?” The logic can’t give any answers to these serious questions, it keeps silent. Also condition of being in love is related to this area. Amorousness is an absolutely out of logic, it smashes all plans of logic, and it comes somewhere from above. But it’s also the factor determining our life, our lifestyle. So one of the factors determining our life is Logic (consciousness), other factor is Superlogic (superconsciousness). At last, there is the third factor influencing greatly our life, it isSUBCONSCIOUSNESS or the SUBCONSCIOUS LEVEL. Animals have this level well developed. Subconsciousness for people means that they live at a level of animal body. These are our animal fears such as fear of hunger, etc. What worries an animal? An animal worries about food, shelter, preservation, and that’s all. Cat or dog is not worried about Hamlet-like questions. I hardly imagine a mouse struggling with unsolvable essence problems over a cheese slice. Or a mouse killing itself because it decided that everything was pointless.

Scheme 1. Factors defining a lifestyle of yogis who preserved the advanced yoga.

Our life, our lifestyle is determined by these three levels.

Sometimes we are facing things from above in our life.

For example, why all of us have gathered here? Because of our third superlogical level. We all strive for the Higher. Another part is quite reasonable. Why we meet here? Because it is convenient for us. At last there is the lowest level. Those who are present here have just overcome it but we still apply it in everyday life.

For example, if they don’t pay me a salary I have an animal fear of death from starvation. Though it is still very far from death, it forces me to run swiftly according to the society standards. As soon as I stand out, my instinct wakes up: " You are in danger, you are out of society, it will be difficult for you to earn living and you will die". These moments get on the surface level from time to time. Once again these are our crowd feelings in a bad sense of this word, our uncontrolled behavior, i.e. everything that has remained with us since our life in animal bodies. Pay attention to our actual lifestyle! It differs greatly from the one of our grandmothers and grandfathers. And it differs greatly from the one 300 years ago.
Let’s return to the main topic. What do we know about the lifestyle of Yogis thanks to whom the yoga knowledge has reached us?
Strangely enough these Yogis were equally represented in men and women. We do not see it in the medieval societies and even in our western democracies (take a look when women were granted the right to vote). But yogis initially were equal in the aspect of gender. Probably this equality was the heritage of ancient times when everything was balanced, but later it misbalanced in favor of masculine dominance. Yoginis enjoyed absolute equality along with the men in vital questions. Even now it is far from such equality.

And that is what we else managed to find...

Firstly, these groups had a GOAL. All of us are born, we live our lives and have absolutely different goals - some live just as it goes by habit, other live to succeed in a business, science, etc. But these yogis understood very clear why they lived in this world. Sometimes we need the whole life to come to this notion; and they began with it. The self-realization was their purpose. Self-realization is a very abstract concept. One may understand it as exploration of oneself or exploring of the Universe, disclosing of hidden abilities. In general, this is accomplishment of everything why we came into this world and why this world was created. This goal determined directly one essential aspect in their lifestyle. These Yogis tried to explore the Universe and themselves as one thing without slitting it as “me and the Universe”. But we divide it as me, my friends, enemies, other 7 billion people, and unknown beings on other planets. But according to view of Yogis there is me and there is the Absolute. Nothing more. Well, I was born, I live on this planet the Earth, and I perceive this reality here and now. And the only thing that remains is the Dvaita, duality, Me and the Universe (Supreme).
These are rather important and complicated philosophical issues. Why do we speak about them? Because then the specifics of their lifestyle will be more clear. As the result these Yogis perceived the world around them as one, and not in individual elements as we do. We see individuals among our friends, relatives, and partners. They saw that there was a person and there was the Higher Reality or the Absolute. They considered all the people as windows and the same sun shines through them. This attitude is very interesting; it is reflected in many yogic treatises. It means if we see the Absolute in a person, object, subject or phenomenon then this person, object, subject or phenomenon becomes interesting for us. But if we don’t see it in person, object, subject or phenomenon then is not interesting for us. In two words: we reach not for object or phenomenon but for what is standing behind this. And this is the Higher Reality, the Absolute. Here am I and here is the Absolute and it’s not clear at all whether there are other people or not. Whether they are people, whether they are displays of the entity? But in any case attitude of yogis towards their relatives, to their loved ones was not as towards a concrete people. It was like to the Higher Reality as the Absolute communicating with them through forms of these people. Thereby the situation is reduced to this 1:1, i.e. here am I and here is the Absolute. So if the person saw the Absolute behind something then the yogi was interested in this area. It led to assumption that there is the Absolute behind everything.

It was the goal that we discussed. Then comes the means (way to achieve it).

With means we undermine refusing from ignorance (lack of knowledge). To learn and to know, to achieve our goal we need to refuse from the ignorance. How to do it? Strangely enough the only obstacle is the ignorance. There are actually no more obstacles existing. There is only one thing preventing us to achieve our goal and it’s our ignorance. This motto “refusing from ignorance” was the means for this purpose goal. But this should be done in logic way (we are considering the logical level right now). It brings us further to the refusing from suffering. Thereby yogis who are applying the advanced kinds make a vow to refuse from the suffering. What is the vow? It is some obligations taken on by a person if this person wishes to reach something. This is a good vow, everyone should make it. But it isn’t so easy. After the analysis of suffering considering karma and many other factors, you’ll find out the one thing – people suffer only because they want to. And why they want to suffer?
There are two aspects: freedom of the will and ignorance. For yogis the vow of non-suffering is equal to non-ignorance principle. It is also the main means of their goal achievement. How strange it is: the purpose is so beyond comprehensible but the means turn to a very clear thing - we should refuse from the suffering. Here are many questions like “What is..?”.
I mean everything going on with the person is conditioned by karma – you get what you deserve. But when all karma knots are untied then all what is left – it is your willingness or unwillingness to suffer. And in the past anyone was allowed to access yoga knowledge only when he/she made the vow to refuse from the suffering.
You must have heard that mysterious tales that in the East only devoted people are admitted to the secret knowledge. Only after undergoing many severe trials they admit them to any closed ashrams. They study there and after finishing they get happy and satisfied. But everything is much simpler. Until the person didn’t accept a vow of refusing of suffering he/she was not admitted to such organization. Why? For one simple reason: each person is like a sleeping God or like an elephant not realizing own force; but the force exists anyway. Well, just imagine that this person receives the advanced knowledge of yoga and then decides to suffer a little bit. And this person begins to suffer at full of strength received from yoga practice. Everything around gets bad. It’s a direct road to a hell for this person. But this also may affect other people whose karma is related to him/her. Therefore the second moment – the means – is the refusing of ignorance; the same as the refusing of suffering.
And once again: if you plan to go to India, find a guru there and receive the ancient knowledge from “the first hands” you should remember the guru won’t teach you until you make a vow of non-suffering. So sometimes it makes sense to ask ourselves whether we wish to suffer and to live as the way we do now. This turned into another life principle for Yogis. It means to communicate only with like-minded people. Why? Well because, when communicating with “the wrong” people we copy their behavior, their mentality. They suffer and we also start suffering for a company. They worry about something we also do it. This is transmitted through the lowest subconscious level, through the channels that have remained since our life in animal’s bodies. You won’t even be aware of it! Do you remember the quote of Benjamin Franklin: "He who lies down with dogs, gets up with fleas?" Meaning that you should avoid a bad company if you don’t want to take over their habits. So trying to comply with this principle you should communicate with your soul-mates.
There is not much we can do in this world. We only can communicate people with whom it is necessary, pleasant, useful and remarkable for us. Also we can do everything that is in our power to avoid harmful communication. We have no right to change people. They live as they want and they will continue this way. It is their free will. If they want to suffer let them. They are entitled to live how they want but it does not mean we have to pick up their bad habits. It’s the second moment that differentiates yogis the majority of people. If they want to whine there is not much we can do. But we don’t need to make our life miserable just because somebody wants to be miserable.

The third is the METHOD.

It means two things. First is non-harming any live being unless we can’t avoid it. And second thing is not to waste time, energy, resources and not to bring our attention to.

We can apply this method in your life in different ways. Sometimes we don’t even pay much attention if we smashed someone or something under our feet. Sometimes we want be so goody-goody but only sometimes.

For example, a situation from life a person practices yoga, such a spiritual, divine man. Then the situation occurs at his work regarding getting a better job or salary raise. And this person starts using unfair methods .
All such things come from our deep levels when we are more like a beast rather than a human being with common sense. Because being in animal bodies we had to survive and dominate at any cost, such were the rules. At the level of human body the rules have changed. And as bad habit we continue to apply those uncivilized rules. It is nothing very bad about it but also nothing good. In the human bodies we have to refuse from the animal heritage that helped us to reach the life in a human body. We had perfect years in the bodies of mice, cats and dogs.
So the Method is: do not to harm any living being and not to waste energy, resources, our attention on trifles. It another methodology included in all reliable yoga manuals and texts. These are two methods so-called a method of consciousness and a method of energy, or a method of asceticism and a method of pleasure. We have to know when we need to hold ourselves in hands and when we can allow our creativity to flourish. As soon as there is an exaggeration in one way or the other the troubles start.

And finally the fourth thing that was important for the ancient yogis – the return of the holy debt. All of us are debtors because we live on this planet in human bodies. If you wouldn’t have a human body you would not have a possibility to get even near to yoga. You know they say: “Yoga is above everything” – “Why?” – “Because everything is really very bad without it”. No, your life is above everything. Without your life any yoga was not even mentioned here. That’s why we have a very holy debt to our mum, daddy, grandfathers, grandmothers and so on. Since we entered this world we should pay this debt at first. And only after we may think about rebirth or reaching our purposes. Therefore in these groups of Yogis this aspect is one of the most essential and important ones – continuation of a kin. How to implement this aspect? You can do it actively by yourself; it means you have children. Or you can also help those who have children. It doesn’t matter whether you have first or second situation. Here some karma aspects maybe involved. There can be various situations but in any way your debt is the most respectful, the most reverent attitude to children, continuation of a kin, and an active participation also. I often hear such statements from the a la yogis: “No-no-no, I don’t want a family, it will keep me away from my personal spiritual practice … A-a-a, the children? What do you speak about? I’m going to Kailas to learn to fly, kids and family are not for me”. But believe it or not even if you go to Kailas to look for this knowledge you’ll find out it would remain only among people considering children as their holy obligation.
If you think otherwise then you might be seriously lying to yourself. In any case aspect of children holy is sacred among Yogis who have given us the yoga knowledge. First you have to pay all debts to your parents, grandfathers, grandmothers, etc. for the opportunity to live on the Earth. And after you can practice any kind of yoga you like. When debts are paid you are free, if not – keep on working on this. Yogis understood it very well.
To pay back the holy debt Yogis have to search for a mother or a father for his/her children. Pay your attention: not a wife or a husband, but a mother or a father for children. This sharp emphasis seems now strange enough. The highest priority is to kin continuation and only afterwards your personal happiness. For the western person it sounds unusually and weird. But nevertheless it’s a reality of life.

Where to look for a mother or a father for your children?

Only among like-minded people. When you have kids you should look into one direction. Rather than going your own way like it often happens. But it’s not so simple. There is a ruining factor: when you fall in love. The history is full of facts when yogis fall in love and have children with non-yogis. Why it happens? It is the higher display of supreme logicality, it mixes all up even if we planned our process of enlightenment from today up to enlightenment. Thereby, the most logic variant (without considering superlogic) is to look for mother or farther of your children among the like-minded people and not “people off the street”. And this is your karma if you will have one variant or the other. You should untie your karma knots so that preferably everyone would be happy.
One more stress appears here. When a man and a woman live together for the sake of the children is equal to asceticism. That’s why I’d like you to reassure if your family life is not light and easy it was planned like that. This is nothing exceptional. It’s asceticism indeed to pay back your debt. You should respect your parents who brought you up, gave you the opportunity to live in this world.
I’m told a lot of stories: “I’m such an advanced Yogi and she gets nothing. She wants only money or clothing; she knows nothing about yoga…” But darling, you have chosen her by yourself, you haven’t got her from the Moon, and it’s not like Indian marriages between two people who even haven’t seen each other. Or an opposite situation: “Ah, my husband, he is nothing; he doesn’t take care of me, and so on and so forth…” And again: who chose him as the partner?
But it is true that you were under the influence of Maya, it’s your karma. Everything happening in your life is for the better, i.e. the Universe is not simply humane, it’s ultra humane. And your partner is the best and even better that you deserve based on your karma. So try to imagine what a karma you have if you don’t even like what you have.
Yoga doesn’t say how you should live. It may only recommend. But you should understand the general logic.
So I mean that having children is wonderful. They are not an obstacle for your yoga practice. It’s nonsense when someone says: “I can’t meditate, I have a lot of things to do because of children”. If you don’t have own children don’t dispute other people for having them. Your task is to help everyone who has children.

And one more thing – what to do?

Pay attention that we live in human bodies, and these are fine bodies even if they are unpleasant for us. Having human body is a great chance to reach enlightenment and we should bring it into a play without losing a day. We have to use all yoga treasures at full extent, everything suits for everyday practice: Hatha Yoga, Kriya Yoga, Mantra yoga, etc. We are not only a physical component. We should remember that there are as many kinds of yoga as there are ways people can express themselves. There is a special yoga for each aspect of a human. You can move so there is hatha and kriya yoga, you can sleep so there is Yoga of Dreaming, you can make a sound so there is a mantra yoga, you can breathe so there is pranayama yoga, there is even Tantra yoga – yoga of mutual relationships of men and women, and so on and so forth. And if you will fall in love there is yoga of amorousness.
So the fifth point is a regular and continuous practice with other yogis. They never come into the spotlight. They are very busy; they have no time to attract heightened interest to themselves. Sometimes some yogis come into a spotlight, but only to give the particular knowledge that we need to use right now. But if we can’t understand it, then they won’t explain us anything. There is a quote from yoga text: “Whenever the student is ready the teacher will be available.”
The point is an everyday yoga practice for reaching the goal. From time to time you practice with other yogis. Sometimes you have to stay alone and practice alone. But it does not mean that yogi was sitting on one place. He or she could go from one place to another and it could remind of pilgrimage.
You also can practice with your wife or husband at all levels. But first of all you need a husband or a wife to have children and to raise them up. Some of you might be surprise that the topic of sex is nothing strange for yogis. It is also a human aspect and very powerful. Unfortunately that brings some very weird people to yoga. In general it is rather bad. These marginal people do not reach for the goal, they don’t apply the means nor the methods. They are only interested in sex. Of course, such marginal people are also very important factor in the Universe. They tell us something just by existing.
Because of the ignorance (recall the second principle) person usually holds to the form. When they receive the form the content seem to vapor. This is the reason of numerous family tragedies. And then a person gets carried away, very often he/she looks for sexual adventures. You should understand that all these lifestyle problems have always existed. It just did not appear yesterday or a year ago. They are as old as the civilization. And here we are faced with the previous civilization know-how for settling these matters.
It is very dangerous when the person is dissatisfied, he/she will never get close to the enlightenment. Usually people think so: “I’m not satisfied now but I will practice yoga to reach Samadhi and to fulfill all my wishes”. It’s an extremely false approach. Dissatisfaction becomes an inhibitive factor. The famous “four and five” law follows right from this point. But do not misunderstand it. Sometimes people don't understand it at all and they begin to do another marginal thing.
Everything we are now talking about is the way of life of ancient yogis who have given us the yoga knowledge. But in any moment the superlogic may bring changes in all our life plans. There is another tough point – these are no instructions how you should live in the entire yoga teaching. There are some recommendations, advices, factors for helping you to solve your karmic problems, but there absolutely no specific instructions.
How did the commandments appear then? Every commandment was given to specific people.

For example, to a group of people inclined to kill or to steal were given the commandments “Don’t kill” and “Don’t steal”. There are no absolute laws how each person should live. Otherwise we would be like robots, and this code of conduct would be our program. And we are created in the image of the Supreme. Everyone has a free will and so everyone has own unique life.
Therefore do not consider this lecture as a guide for an action. But it’s a very useful point for reflection. Nobody knows what a life we will have, life keeps changing, new things are coming, and old things are disappearing. But there are some basic life principles; we can’t get away from them. So we should think about them. That’s what this OpenYoga material is for.

Questions and answers

“Concerning the first aspect. There is me and the Universe. They are considered separately or “Higher Self” is the manifestation of the Univerrse, i.e. the Universe is exploring itself itself? Should we explore the Higher Self and the Universe separately?"

You put a really good question actually. I didn’t quite finish the lecture.
We discusses the goals and how to implement them, lifestyle of yogis who have given us the yoga teaching, including the advanced areas of yoga. Amorousness yoga as well as Samadhi is the higher state when person reaches the superlogical level. It is considered that when we have completed the level of logic we clean our subconsciousness from some animal imprints. If we sort it out then the vast majority of problems results from the imprints that come from our life in animal bodies. Hatha yoga has a good reason to compare every pose with one animal or another one whose karma imperfections we have taken with us to a human life. So when the subconsciousness is cleared, logic level is finished yogi reaches to the higher existence. It is the level where the yoga knowledge comes from.
These five points (goal, mean, method, return of the holy debt and regular practice) don’t guarantee that you will receive this higher level. It’s a required but may not be sufficient. Do you understand the difference? Sufficient means that it necessarily leads to the result. Requirement means that it is mandatory but does not ensure the result. Thus compliance with the lifestyle of ancient yogis does not yet ensure that you will reach Samadhi. It only helps to eliminate karma defects passing from one generation to another. There have been some people who reached Samadhi during one lifetime. And there has been a continuous knowledge transfer chain. Why? Even if there was a single break in this chain we wouldn’t receive this knowledge. It was required for people to reach the supreme level periodically to keep this knowledge transfer going. So after finishing one level you get an opportunity (not a guarantee!) to get to the next level up.
Answering the question. We are accustomed to logic. Sometimes supreme logic seems us as unreasonable. Our Universe is more grandiose than space, time, cause and consequences, karma, logic and illogicality. And at the supreme logic level our “Self” expands to the size of the Universe, merges with it. I.e. we become everything; and the question “Where am I and where is the Universe?” disappears.

“Could you give a detailed information on the supreme logic?”

“If I say “Two and two is four” you’ll think it’s logical. But if I say “Well, it is five, six, well, seven, something like that” for you will it sound at least unusual. If I tell you a story you’ll think “It seems like the truth, it sounds logical”. Bunnies are running around the city, eat carrots and regulate the traffic” you’ll think it is not serious.
There is a mechanism helping us to differentiate intuitively logic from illogicality. Our mind doesn’t even consider anything apparently illogical. It only considers logical things such as science, common sense, etc. But the Universe is higher than the logic. Logic is a particular case of the Universe creation law.
I always cite Lewis Carroll. He was a mathematician but he wrote “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass”, and “What Alice Found There”. Read them once more; there are many funny illogical things happening with Alice: to stay in one place you have to run, and you have to run two times faster to move somewhere. Read about Hatter quarreled with the time and permanently having five o’clock tea with March Hare; it’s interesting.
Well, it seems to us as nonsense but the Universe is more compound than we suppose. There is something beyond the notion of logic; it’s in the superlogic plane. Also there is another part neither in logic plane nor in superlogic. Thus, all the spiritual knowledge, all the other-wordly yoga knowledge including Amorousness Yoga – they are the superlogic knowledge, our common logic doesn’t work here.
An example from the real world: why a young man falls in love with a girl? If it is real love, a gift from above, we can’t answer this question. Another example concerns the fundamental Universe organization principles: what is our “Self?” How it was formed? When analyzing yoga axiomatic we can see everything comes from the single source; but what about the Law “of four and five” (i.e. from the axiomatic) then? It is one of the most difficult to understand topics: how did single become numerous and endlessness become limited?
Such things (amorousness, Universe organization, etc.) we can’t analyze with logic. Logic here gives two incompatible results. In everyday life it’s a question whether God exists? I’m exaggerating now; it’s clear that notion of Higher is larger than notion of God. On one hand by giving a name to something (somebody) we limit it. But on other hand there are things we can’t name; there are no words to express them. They correspond to superlogic.
So the superlogic never comes before the logical level is completed. Therefore the higher knowledge never contradicts the mundane knowledge. If any revelation contradicts logic it’s not a revelation but rubbish or hallucinations. And a man propagating such views turns out to be a swindler who pretends to be a saint or a sage. But how can we identify whether it is superlogic or swindle? There is no such criteria; in any case we can’t do this by means of logic.
Therefore yoga recommends us to improve ourselves, sharpen our mind, always study, train, expand our knowledge, i.e. bring our brains to perfection; only afterwards the superlogic will be available. The next stage won’t start until previous is completed. Because starting to early it would make a mess the entire mechanism. In the same way the nature created us; more precisely those were the higher spiritual laws.
But even when we live on the logic level nobody cancels the superlogic. That’s why things we call “miracles” aren’t really miracles but displays of the general Universe law that seem impossible at the moment from our logic perspective.”

“Which kind of yoga teaches how to meditate?”

“Strictly speaking all kinds of yoga bring you closer to the state of meditation. Practicing seriously and regularly hatha yoga, kriya yoga you make a good foundation on a physical level. If your physical body feels good it generates powerful energy in necessary direction. That makes your mind to reach for a meditation state without any efforts from you. So physical exercises should be a start point; practicing only meditation is not quite reasonable.
Sometimes our mind can’t concentrate because of untrained body; so every kind of yoga will bring you to meditation but by its own way. As regards to meditation itself OpenYoga offers a course on the meditation. There you can find some practical moments, specific approaches, etc.”

“I’ve heard it was necessary to use beads from an appointed material for each mantra; for one mantra it should be wooden beads, for another – glass beads. What beads are necessary to use for the Om mantra?”

“For practicing of mantra the most important thing is the actual mantra practice and not beads or even material of beads. By repeating the mantra regularly you’ll get a result; no matter whether you use beads or not.
Sometimes beads have other meanings: they help you to count how many times you have pronounceed the mantra; they are as accumulators for some positive vibrations; also they are the keepers of these positive vibrations. Bead material is an important thing but don’t be very punctilious; because sometimes we spend more time for searching the material than for mantra practice itself. So every material suits for such a universal mantra as Om; or you can practice it without beads at all.
For more specific mantras there are some directions helping you to get a result quicker. We often get instructions what kind of material to use. However these list may contradict to each other. What should you do? In ancient text it is said that you should do as your guru teaches you. There are some unobvious moments in every tradition. But don’t play with such paranoia ideas as “I’m looking for the right beads for already three years; I can’t practice without it”. Because while searching you just could do something in your practice. And on the other hand there is some commercial aspect: it maintains a good demand for exotic materials.”

“What are the beads?”

“There is a notion “Mantra”. Mantra is the words of power; repeating them leads to the specific results and effects. To count mantras we usually use beads; these is a string with small balls of various materials and a small tail at the end. In yoga tradition we usually use 108 balls on a string, and the 109th ball is separating; it’s bigger than other and is called “Meru”. Every day I repeat mantra 108 times and every time I move a bead to count. Sometimes beads are called “Mala”, it’s Sanskrit; and there are twenty five thousand of other names.”

“In the treatise “108 Tantra Yoga Aphorisms” there is a notion of discovering of woman’s energy. Are there any signs to let a woman and her partner to see that this is happening?”

“Woman is conscious of her energy starts opening up; she goes through this process and feels it very clear; she has no doubts whether it happens or not. There are no more questions regarding this for her. And people around have only indirect signs showing that: a woman becomes more beautiful, more attractive and self-confident, more spiritual, more joyful and happy. A person may realize what happens to her (or him); but for side viewer it’s another universe.
It’s a tragedy sometimes (referring to the law of four and five): we think that we know the other person but actually we know nothing about him/her; we can’t even imagine what’s happening inside, in inner world of this person; so we can’t speak about their feelings. Sometimes people are married for a long time; but their difference emerge only after many years and then suddenly they found out that they are totally different. Returning to our today’s topic yoga postulates attitude that we should take the world and our surrounding as a secret. So a woman is other, secret half of the universe and we can’t demand to understand the undergoing processes. It is impossible as a principle. Only indirect factors are left over. Only external factors may show what is happening – woman is blooming, full of energy, happy, calm and balanced. Her character may change and become a complete opposite.
We don't know what happens with another person; it's another universe. This is were yoga and science go their own ways. Science is logical (it’s the strength and weakness of the science). There is no reference point. We can’t make it! There are no external signs that are absolute evidence of what is going on. And that for somebody is a realty, for somebody else may be hallucinations. So there is only one reference point for every yogi; it's own "Self". I'm sitting here and the only thing I know is that I exist. I don't know whether all the people around me exist or whether these are my hallucinations. May be I'm sitting her alone and giving a lecture to my hallucinations. I can’t prove anything.
All these moments were covered in German philosophy; but yoga is more practical. It says that well, we know nothing but we always have our "Self" as a reference point in our researches. Why? Because it's "Self" is receiving an experience: now I live, then I will die, then I will be born again. The only thing passing invariably from one life to another is our own "Self". And it does not matter I don't remember my previous lives.
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There is a question: is there a point for me to communicate with the manifestations instead of the Absolute? It would seem an abstract idea but it's a serious philosophic conception indeed: to communicate with a manifestation or with its source.Today I will not give you a detailed explanation of the second point – the means. But pay attention to the Buddha's teaching. Buddha said pessimistically: "Everyone who is born will die, everything created will be ruined". I.e. being happy today you are not protected from tomorrow’s misfortune; having got something you are not protected from the fact that tomorrow you would lose it. Reflecting upon it we give way to despair: "I have a good wife but she may abandon our family" or "I have children but they will grow up and leave me" and so on. And we again try to grab the form of something rather than the content..
This philosophy of extreme honesty is the Dvaita philosophy: me and the Universe. At the superlogical level a person understands theunity with the Universe; and here the Dvaita philosophy turns into the Advaita philosophy.
For example: somebody had a wife, he loved her very much and believed they would die in one day together. After fifteen years they have separated. Now he has another wife; just as earlier he loves his new wife and wants her to live with him up to the death. But maybe after several years he will get a new wife again… We have to make our priorities right in order to succeed. If we don’t do it then it is simply the matter of time when we will start suffering.
Once again a man meets a woman hoping to live together with her all the life and he starts holding to the form. He does not see the goddess in her anymore but a usual woman. Very quickly he gets bored of her and soon enough he will want to replace her. It is the same story over and over. Where is the problem? The form doesn't bring you the happiness. To refuse suffering you have to refuse ignorance, it means you shouldn't hold to ephemeral things such as your job, study, and place under the sun. These are the very transient things, at every moment they may take a turn in positive as well as in negative directions.
Does it make sense to become a hostage of anything transient? No. People who practice Amorousness Yoga say: "You shouldn't be upset about the things you don't have. Reach for the things that won't abandon you, won't go away from you". There is certain logic in this statement.