An introduction to Yoga Nidra

An Introduction to Yoga Nidra

Yoga nidra, which originates in the tantras, is a powerful technique through which you learn conscious relaxation. In yoga nidra, sleep is not considered relaxation. People feel relaxed when they sink into an armchair with a cup of coffee, a drink, or a cigarette, and read the newspaper or turn on the television. But this can never suffice as a scientific definition of relaxation. These are merely sensory diversions. True relaxation is, in fact, an experience that goes far beyond all of this. That is yoga nidra, the state of dynamic sleep.

Yoga nidra is a systematic method for inducing complete physical, mental, and emotional relaxation. The term yoga nidra comes from two Sanskrit words: "yoga," meaning union or one-pointed awareness, and "nidra," meaning sleep. During the practice of yoga nidra, it appears as though one is sleeping, yet awareness continues to function at a deeper level of consciousness. For this reason, yoga nidra is often described as psychic sleep, or deep relaxation with inner awareness. In this threshold state between sleep and waking, contact with the dimensions of the subconscious and unconscious arises spontaneously.

In yoga nidra, the state of relaxation is reached by turning inward, away from external experience. If awareness can be separated from external consciousness and from sleep, it becomes extremely powerful and can be applied in many ways — for example, to develop memory, expand knowledge and creativity, or transform one's own nature.

The birth of yoga nidra, by Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Swami Satyananda Saraswati replies: When I was living with my guru, Swami Sivananda, in Rishikesh, I had a very significant experience that sparked my interest in developing the science of yoga nidra. I was assigned to watch over a Sanskrit school where young boys were learning to recite the Vedas. My duty was to stay awake through the whole night and guard the school in the absence of the acharya. At three in the morning I would fall into a deep sleep, and at six I would get up and return to the ashram. Meanwhile, the boys would rise at four, bathe, and chant Sanskrit prayers — but I never heard them.

Some time later, a great celebration was held at my ashram, and the boys from that Sanskrit school were brought in to chant Vedic mantras. During the ceremony they recited certain ślokas I did not know, yet somehow I felt I had heard them before. As I listened, this feeling grew stronger and stronger, and I tried in vain to recall where and when I had heard them. I was absolutely certain that I had never read or written them, and yet they sounded familiar to me.

Finally I decided to ask the boys' guru, who was sitting nearby, whether 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 these very mantras while I was asleep at their school.

This was a great revelation for me. I knew that knowledge is conveyed directly through the senses, but from this experience I came to realize that direct knowledge can also be gained without any senses at all. This is how yoga nidra was born.

From this experience, further ideas and insights came to me. I understood that sleep is not a state of total unconsciousness. When someone is asleep, they remain in a state of potentiality, a form of awareness that is awake and fully sensitive to external circumstances. I discovered that, by training the mind, this state can be put to use.

Its tantric origins

After this discovery, I began studying the tantric scriptures in a new light. I came across many important but little-known practices that interested me greatly. After practising them, I decided to construct a new system, called yoga nidra, that would capture the essence of these practices without any of their complicated ritual encumbrances.

A characteristic feature of yoga nidra was the systematic rotation of awareness through the body, derived from the tantric practice of nyasa (meaning "to place" or "to bring the mind to that point"). Nyasa was practised in a seated position and involved the use of specific mantras that were placed, felt, or experienced in different parts of the body. First the name of the part was recited, then it was visualized or touched, and the mantra was placed there. Nyasa was a means of consecrating the physical body by instilling higher consciousness, or divine consciousness, into its different parts during tantric ritual practices. For example, Angushtadi-Shadanga-nyasa was used to place mantras on the hand as follows:

(thumb) Hram angushtabhyam namah

(index finger) Hrim tarjanibhyam swah

(middle finger) Hrum madhyamabhyam vasat

(ring finger) Hraim anamikabhyam vasat

(little finger) Hraum kanishthabhyam vaushat

(palm and back of the hand) Hrah karatalaprishtabhyam phat.

In a similar manner, in Hridaya-Shadanga-nyasa, certain mantras were placed in different parts of the body.

The present form of yoga nidra that I devised allows people who are not familiar with Sanskrit mantras to gain the full benefits of traditional nyasa. It can be practised with benefit by people of any religion and culture. At first I called this practice "yogic sleep," but now I have become more aware of the immense possibilities of yoga nidra, and I think that yoga nidra is nothing other than yoga nidra. If you ask me to translate yoga nidra into French or Spanish, I will say "yoga nidra." It is an international practice.

Experiments with yoga nidra, by Swami Satyananda Saraswati.

Since developing this practice, I have carried out many experiments to test these ideas. First I tried it on myself, and then on various other people. I even managed to train an Alsatian shepherd dog. Later I experimented with some of my students and with many children, imparting knowledge, experience, and guidance to them while they slept peacefully.

One of my most interesting experiments involved a young boy who came to my ashram seeking sannyasa. I wanted to send him to school, but he flatly refused. He was a very naughty boy, an absolute monkey. All day long he broke things, harassed the guests, and caused accidents. Eventually he became such a burden to the ashram that I decided to try yoga nidra on him.

I began by chanting to him the fifteenth chapter of the Gita, about three minutes after he had fallen asleep. Then, when he got up in the morning, I would have him read the passage, which of course he did without any thought. After a week he was able to recite the entire chapter from memory. Once this succeeded, I moved on to other texts. In this way I managed to teach him the Śrimad Bhagawatam, the Upanishads, the Bible, the Qur'an, English, Hindi, Sanskrit — everything I knew — all while he slept.

Now that boy is twenty-one years old, and I have sent him to the USA. He speaks eleven languages, and writes and lectures in English better than I do, and yet he never went to school. All his study and learning took place over the two years during which I gave him yoga nidra, and he doesn't even remember it.

Not long after, I did another experiment. Thirty people were practising yoga nidra, and about ten of them were snoring loudly. At that point I instructed them: 'When I say Hari Om Tat Sat, you must get up.' I repeated this twice. When the yoga nidra was coming to an end, I said 'Hari Om Tat Sat,' and everyone sat up, even those who had been snoring the whole time. I asked them how they had woken up. They said, 'Suddenly.' They had not heard the final Hari Om Tat Sat, nor even the one given in the middle of the practice, and yet somehow they still followed my instructions. Now this is a very significant factor. It means that even while you are asleep, your self is awake and aware.

From these experiments I have drawn my own conclusions. The deepest sleep may not be sleep at all. Perhaps when you are in deep sleep at night, you have greater awareness, a greater potential, than when you are in the dream state. This means that you can learn more while asleep than while awake, and it is precisely in this way that we now use yoga nidra for the evolution of the mind.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati