Question: Can you explain about yoga nidra?

Babaji:

What we have learnt from our Guru is that during the practice of meditation when you go into an advanced state deeply, sometimes the mind can drift back into a sleepy state, that is called yoga nidra. What happens is you will be stuck there. The mind does not progress. It does not get totally cleansed. So yoga nidra needs to be avoided. In meditation you have to always be aware of your self. You will not vanish and disappear and become totally unconscious. In meditation the mind gradually becomes unconscious of the surroundings: this body, the world and all its thought processes. As it happens it starts regaining the consciousness of the Self’s existence. Mind has no third way. Either it has to be into this world of imaginations or when it loses imaginations it starts going towards the Self. There is no other third path for the mind. One has to be very careful as you progress in meditation.

I remember the great sage Ramana Maharshi having told a small story: there was a sage who, before going into samadhi, asked his student to get a glass of water. So that remains in his mind and he goes into a type of yoga nidra for nearly a thousand years. This is mentioned in one of the scriptures. Suddenly one day, after a thousand years he comes out of samadhi and he still remembers the glass of water that he had sent his student to get. There are only some skeletons remaining around him so he doesn’t know how much time has passed by. So he was not totally Self Realized. So that is how things can happen, that is what is described as yoga nidra. One must be careful not to slip and if needed one must take the guidance of the Master. This would be better progress for the meditator.

Question: Babaji, sometimes it happens with me, also. I am sitting in meditation. There are thoughts, but I am not aware of the thoughts and my mind is not able to take all those thoughts as a reflection. There is just a peaceful semi-sleepy state, but I don’t have that awareness feeling. My attention is not there but it is just a feeling of something settled, peacefully, semi-sleepy. Is that yoga nidra?

Babaji:

It is likely to lead into a full yoga nidra. It is like a semi-yoga nidra that happens sometimes in the advanced meditation stages. But you need to be aware. Then only the thought processes get cleansed, evaporated. There is a technology: all of the things the mind has acquired, it has to get cleansed. But without the help of the brain it cannot get cleansed. That is why, when death happens to the brain, if there are still thought processes in the mind, based on the intensity of the thought processes only, it will watch its next birth. Normally we say, in this world human life is the rarest of rare gems that you have achieved. Such a beautiful developed brain which has this capacity to do cleansing work, but because of the nature of the brain, it cannot help. It shows every thought and decodifies and shows every visual effect. Watching that, the mind again catches it and tries to make a judgment. Your ability not to make a judgment can save you from getting further involved in this world. So during this process the mind might slip into this yoga nidra, as you have said, but then the cleansing process stops. If it goes into a sleepy state, the brain also stops functioning for a while or it goes into a sleepy state. That is how a yoga nidra happens.

Question: I am not sleeping. There is some internally peaceful feeling but my attention is not there. I am not aware of the Self. I do not get the awareness.

Babaji:

Yes, that is yoga nidra. You must be aware of the Self, otherwise how can you become realized? The mind can go into samadhi only when that awareness is maintained.

Question: To maintain that awareness should you keep watching here [between the eyebrows]?

Babaji:

Yes, keep watching, watching. It is such a tricky situation. The mind has to watch itself, without thinking. If it thinks, it jumps into its own imaginations and gets caught in the whirlpool of its own imaginations. So maintain the awareness.

Question: What can you do if you start to feel sleepy?

Babaji:

You should not fall asleep, you should try to maintain. If needed you can get up, wash your face and then sit again. That is why, normally we advise, when you sit for meditation, you should have taken sufficient rest and feel refreshed. The brain’s health is also very important.