Hello,
I am Amit: I have a question.
- How should I think of god while meditating.
- What visualizations should I make?
- What is prana, kundalini & virya?
Thank you.
—Amit Chaudhary, Nepal
Dear Amit,
Thank you for asking these questions. They are very deep subjects about which much has been written. It’s not possible to answer them fully here but I can give some simple explanations to get you started. You will, of course, need to study the path of yoga, and I suggest that you study Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. Swami Kriyananda has written much on this subject throughout most of his books, especially in the Art and Science of Raja Yoga and in Demystifying Patanjali.
Your first question — how to think of God while meditating? It is said that God comes in the aspects of love, light, sound, peace, calmness, power, wisdom and bliss. You can then meditate on any one of these aspects and go deep into them thinking of God while doing so to keep your focus on Him. An affirmation to use is: Thy light flows into me; I am filled with Thy peace (or whatever aspect you choose to focus on). Throughout the day keep calling to Him as He is with you always.
I’ll try to give you simple definitions of Prana, Kundalini and Virya, but know that these words hold deeper meanings.
A quote here for the meaning of Prana is taken from Art and Science of Raja Yoga: “The Hindu word for “breath,” “life,” and “energy” is the same: prana. . . When a deliberate mental effort is made to absorb prana from the air that we breathe, then breathing can give us psycho-spiritual benefits.”
Again from Art and Science of Raja Yoga on Kundalini: “Whatever energy flows in the superficial spine, even by deep yoga practice, is as nothing compared to the immense reservoir of energy waiting to be tapped at the base of the spine. This energy is spoken of in the yoga teachings as Kundalini… Kundalini represents the entrenched vitality of our mortal delusion. But Kundalini is also man’s greatest single key to enlightenment. Only by arousing this force from its ancient resistance to divine truth can the soul hope to reunite itself with the Spirit.”
Virya is spiritual vigor. It is the energy needed to find God. There is a whole passage about this energy found in the book by Sri Yukteswar, The Holy Science.
Bless you dear soul,
Seva
