SCIENCE OF PANCHATAPAS YOGA : EXPLANATION BY SWAMI NITHYA BHAKTANANDA

As Pancha Tapas Yoga at Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam entered into its eleventh day, many visitors and media persons have been requesting more clarity on this spiritual practice and its benefits.






What is the science of Panchatapas Yoga? Can it really promote peace and healing?

Today Sri Nithya Bhaktananda, a senior Swami of NIthyananda Dhyanapeetam, explained the process just before the commencement of today’s Pancha Tapas Yoga.

“ Pancha Tapas Yoga or Pancha Agni Tapas Yoga is an authentic and intense form of yoga practice followed since time immemorial. Even today, at the Kumbha Mela, hundreds of sadhus and saints can be seen practicing Pancha Tapas Yoga. There are many kinds of Pancha Tapas Yoga, depending on the way the practice is performed, who performs it, the purpose for which it is performed, etc.

In Pancha Tapas Yoga, the practitioner sits inside a circle of fire and enters into meditation. Pancha Tapas Yoga gets its name from pancha agni or five fires, because participants sit in the circle with fire in the four directions (North, South, East & West) and the sun overhead forming the fifth fire.

There is a general misunderstanding that Pancha Tapas Yoga is performed as a prayaschita (repentance) for wrong actions. No! On the contrary, Pancha Tapas Yoga is a powerful process for creating and spreading positive energies on the planet. When participants in the Pancha Tapas Yoga visualize the Omkara mantra in the anahata chakra (heart center), they allow the positive energies to radiate through the 21 end-points of the body (10 fingertips, 10 toes and the sahasrara chakra on the crown of the head).

In the ancient Naga tradition, it is said that the fire should not be higher than the knees of the practitioner when he is sitting down. Sometimes, the practice is performed within a circle of glowing hot embers instead of fire. Sitting within a circle of embers is a far more effective spiritual practice than sitting within a circle of fire, though the latter may provide greater dramatic effect.

Why?

Fire burns and destroys. Embers, because of the constant temperature and sustained heat which doesn’t die out like a fire, helps the system assimilate the spiritual energy at a steady pace. Just as a raw fruit cannot be ripened by fire, but only by the slow and steady heat of the sun, or raw food cannot be converted to cooked food by high flames, but only through a slow and steady flame, the spiritual process becomes much more intense when practiced within the circle of embers over many days.

This is the real meaning of ‘tapas’.

Healing, whether physical or mental, can happen when we replace negative energies with positive energies. Whether we realize it or not, thoughts are also a form of energy. Science has proved that just as we pick up the bio-energy of a person, we consciously or unconsciously pick up the thoughts released in our environment. The group meditation of the participants in the Pancha Tapas Yoga not only creates positive vibrations all around, but can positively influence the mental patterns in the environment also. So the harmonious energies released by this Pancha Tapas Yoga can energize the surrounding environment and promote physical healing and mental peace. The ripple effect of such a process can reach far and wide, helping to create peace and harmony in the world as well.”