PUBLIC TALK: Swami Lalitanandaji Addresses Faculty of Gyan Bharati School in Saket, New Delhi

On the morning of December 16, 2017, Swami Lalitanandaji addressed the faculty members of Gyan Bharati School in New Delhi's Saket area. Speaking on 'Yoga for a Stress-free and Balanced Life,' Swamiji adressed nearly 100 teachers of the school during his visit.

Beginning his talk through an illustration of how life has become stressful these days, Swamiji shared a letter from a devotee in which he was facing difficulties in the work and home front and how he is losing his balance by going into bad ways to cope up with his stress.

Swami Lalitanandaji then enlisted the various types of stress like workplace stress, occupational stress and so on, as classified by psychologists. Establishing the existence of the problem of stress in the current lifestyle and work scenario, Swamiji went on to illustrate how Yoga helps combat stress at various levels like the physiological, psychological, emotional, etc.

Swamiji introduced the audience to the Yogoda techniques of meditation as dispensed through the teachings of Gurudeva Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda. He elucidated the efficacy of Energization Exercises which use conscious tensing and relaxing as well as mental imagery not only to relieve stress but also to draw a greater supply of energy from the cosmos into the body. Further, he described to the audience how the other two techniques – of Hong Sau and Aum – when practiced correctly and regularly reduce tension and stress. He also brought out the spiritual objectives of practicing the techniques and how one’s progress towards God is accelerated greatly by following this system given by Gurudeva Yoganandaji.

Finally, for those who were interested, Swamiji elucidated the dynamics of Kriya Yoga – how the technique which was lost in the dark ages was revived and brought to us by Mahavatar Babaji, how this technique also removes the bad effects of past actions, which is the basic reason for all our troubles in this life. He also mentioned how this technique has to be obtained after due preparation, and through the right channel through initiation, for getting results.

Swamiji briefly discussed with the school's faculty about the "three bodies" of man – the physical, the astral and the causal – and how the soul manifests through these three bodies. Next, he spoke about how Kriya Yoga is the way to reverse the process of the descent of the soul into the body to ascend towards Spirit, by withdrawing the life and consciousness into the spine and brain and from the various chakras and into God.

At the close of the talk, Swamiji interacted with the faculty members through a question-and-answer session. The entire session was received with great enthusiasm by the faculty members and many evinced their interest to know more about Guruji and his path of self-realisation.