The Healing Power Of Mudras E-Book

Rajendar Menen

• Herausgeber: V&S Publishers
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 128

Beschreibung

Juggling, crossing & compressing fingers in ways illustrated for healing and health

Leseprobe

The HealingPower of

MUDRAS

THE YOGA OF THE HANDS

How simple positioning of the fingers for prescribed periods everydayrejuvenates the body, heals disease and slowlyleads to spiritual awakening.

Rajendar Menen

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© Copyright: ISBN 978-935-05730-9-9

DISCLAIMER

While every attempt has been made to provide accurate and timely information in this book, neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, unintended omissions or commissions detected therein. The author and publisher make no representation or warranty with respect to the comprehensiveness or completeness of the contents provided.

All matters included have been simplified under professional guidance for general information only without any warranty for applicability on an individual. Any mention of an organization or a website in the book by way of citation or as a source of additional information doesn't imply the endorsement of the content either by the author or the publisher. It is possible that websites cited may have changed or removed between the time of editing and publishing the book.

Results from using the expert opinion in this book will be totally dependent on individual circumstances and factors beyond the control of the author and the publisher.

It makes sense to elicit advice from well informed sources before implementing the ideas given in the book. The reader assumes full responsibility for the consequences arising out from reading this book. For proper guidance, it is advisable to read the book under the watchful eyes of parents/guardian. The purchaser of this book assumes all responsibility for the use of given materials and information. The copyright of the entire content of this book rests with the author/publisher. Any infringement/ transmission of the cover design, text or illustrations, in any form, by any means, by any entity will invite legal action and be responsible for consequences thereon.

 

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Prabhadevi, Suzanne, Pondicherry,G-304 Sameer and Hard Disc. There are several fellowtravellers, and the wind, the rain and the sun, and Hisgrace that made their presence felt every moment of my lifeas I continued to enter this vast, uncharted space of naturalhealing. May the grace encompass us all.

Most important, this book is dedicated to my mother,who nursed me through crises, weathered my innumerableidiosyncrasies with stoic calm and gave me the genes tofight for a better world.

Contents

Preface

Understanding Mudras

Ancient Healing Rediscovered

Some Interesting Facts

Mudras and Dance

Meaning and Purpose of Mudras

The Practise of Visualisation

Practising Mudras

Preferable Accompaniments: Music and Colour

The Meaning of “Namaste”

Mudras in the Martial Arts

Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Hindu Deities and Mudras

How to do a Mudra

Fingers and Mudras

The Yogic Life as Accessory

The Right Diet Helps

Preface

Life is a series of endless miracles which keep happening in our lives almost all the time. They happen so effortlessly and without warning that they often pass by unrecognised. They visit the humblest as well as the most powerful, without prejudice or favour, and defy all logic and rational explanation.

This is my fourth book on healing. In a career spanning over two decades as a journalist and writer, and having led a peripatetic life spanning continents, I have been privy to the most mundane, the colossally bizarre, the malignantly morbid, the ludicrously humorous and the profoundly soul elevating. I have spent quality time on the streets and in brothels and the corridors of the dispossessed while attempting to document their angst and joy. Miracles kept happening in their lives and in mine, in fact all around us, but we simply bypassed their pedigree, remained connected to the real world of cause and effect, and pronounced our everyday judgements.

But it was while researching the process of healing that I fully realised the miracles that were happening in our lives almost all the time. Our bodies are a miracle, birth and death are miracles, and the whole process of healing is a miracle. It is easy to pass it all off as ‘holistic healing’, the ‘mind-body connection’ and with other similar jargon. Conventional and alternative medicine men also take recourse in rational explanations, but they know that, beyond a point, remissions happen and healing occurs without easy explanation. It is then passed off as divine intervention.

Over the years I have also experimented with several healing techniques. Most of them work, but for different people and at different times. If they don’t work for a particular person, it doesn’t mean that the technique or the therapy is wrong. It is just that the person and the time are not right… or that the person is not yet ready to be the medium.

I have also been practising yoga and meditation for over a decade and have been privileged to spend huge quality time with several masters. There are several days during the practice when your entire being is elevated and you feel an endless joy floating through you. If you were to jot down the period with pen and paper, the milestones would be no different from the saddest periods of your life or even the most ordinary ones. Yet, there is an inexplicable joy that transports your being into a cascade of sheer ecstasy.

Mudras - as you will read in the book - are simple, free and easy to do. They can be done anywhere and they heal the body. I am not, at any stage, suggesting that you do away with your doctor and his prescriptions. But regular practise of Mudras has been shown to heal conclusively.

Several explanations are offered for the healing that takes place. But as you get regular with the practice, you begin to knock at the doors of an inner spirituality. With time, you are transformed from deep within at the cellular level. You begin to respect your body more and look at all life with new admiration. Slowly, you begin to give in to the powerful and comforting embrace of existence. You know, somehow, that it will take care of you.

Welcome to Mudras, healing, and the new you!

—Rajendar Menen

Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without the help of several practitioners of Mudra healing. Not much documentation is available but I tapped all sources I could lay my hands on. A very special note of gratitude to Gertrude Hirschi for her humbling and illuminating insights into the subject. She is blessed and is a true Messiah of healing. It is unfortunate that all these truisms from ancient India need the western world to document, perfect and improve upon. But now that they have done it, let the seeds scatter and pollinate the land. This is sharing at its profoundest.

Understanding Mudras

It is widely believed that the human structure is a miniature form of the universe that is made up of five elements - fire, air, water, earth and sky. These elements are present in fixed proportions and even the slightest imbalance of any of these can be disastrous.

Vajrapradama Mudra

Mudras help normalise the five elements in the human body. Nature has made the human body self-sufficient, self-contained and almost perfect. But a human being is prone to innumerable pressures. The food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and even our thoughts are in no way compatible with what can be called the ideal way of life. Since there is no equilibrium, as the body and mind are at war with so many external and internal pressures, we fall ill. Our bodies are in a constant state of flux, recharging and rebalancing all the time. When there is an imbalance we fall ill.

The balance we aspire to and need is a tricky business. Anything can upset it. From loneliness, break-ups in relationships, shifting house, even examination failure and not reaching peer group expectations, to name just a few, to the insidious attacks from viruses and germs that room with us on this planet. All mandatory props for a healthy life have been devalued today. The water we drink, the food we eat, and even the air we breathe has been compromised. We have moved far away from nature, and the germs and the human body that host them have also mutated several times. It is so very easy now to lose balance, to fall from grace so to say.

We will now examine how Mudras influence the human being. The five fingers of the hand represent the elements. The thumb represents fire, the forefinger air, the middle finger sky, the third or ring finger earth and the fourth finger water.

“Hands have a power of their own,” says Acharya Keshav Dev, a well-known practitioner. “Through the regular practise of various Mudras, a person can control his life.”

Director of the Vivekanand Yogashram in Delhi, soft spoken, articulate and extremely knowledgeable, the Acharya can talk endlessly and with authority on the science of Mudras. About hasta mudras (hand postures), the Acharya says that there is a tremendous flow of energy in our hands and each finger represents one of the five elements - the thumb is agni (fire), the forefinger is vayu (air), the middle finger is akash (ether), the ring finger is prithui (earth) and the little finger is jal (water). “The roots of all diseases lie in an imbalance of one of the five elements and can be corrected with medicines, willpower and Mudras,” he says. “The science of Mudras is one of the finest gifts of yoga to the cause of human welfare.”

The Acharya explains that Mudras are universal and suitable for everyone. They can be practised for half-an-hour everyday. It is advisable to sit cross-legged while doing a Mudra, but he adds that the Mudra will not be rendered ineffective even if it is done while on a stroll with the hands casually tucked in the pockets, fingers folded in a particular Mudra. They can also be done lying down, and so are easy to do.

Mudras never generate an excess of energy, he continues. Like a thermostat, they simply seek an optimal balancing of prana. So the next time you are ailing, remember it may just be an instance of maladjusted prana and an innocuous sleight of hand could be the cure!

Mudras are yoga movements involving only the arms and hands. They are extremely easy to do, but so powerful that they can transform one’s life. They liberate the energy locked within your body - in energy channels called nadis and energy centres called chakras. Mudras help create inner peace and inner strength, eliminate fatigue and anxiety, protect physical and emotional health, help transcend stress, depression, guilt and anger, calm the mind and sharpen intuition, and promote happiness, love, prosperity and longevity.

Considering the ease with which Mudras can be done, the little time and space they consume, and the enormous benefits associated with them at no extra cost whatsoever, it may just be the valuable tool to good health and mental peace that we need so urgently in a life that is so frenetically hurtling away from any type of balance. No previous experience with yoga is needed to do Mudras. You don’t have to be an athlete or be youthful either. In fact, Mudras can be done even from the sick bed. All you need to do is move your arms and hands freely and pay attention to your breathing. This is as simple as it can get. And you enrich your life - wherever you are - in as little as a few minutes a day.

In a modest, nondescript apartment at Juhu Gully in suburban Mumbai, 64-year-old Ramesh Shah practises Mudras everyday and also teaches them to those who are interested. “It is a simple way of preserving one’s health and my goal is to spread the message to all those who need it,” he says.

Ramesh Shah

Shah, who used to run “a mechanical workshop”, suffered from high blood pressure and gastric complaints. He met a Mudra teacher who explained the Mudras to him. Shah tried it, was cured of his problems, and there was no looking back. “It is a free medicine/’ he says happily. “You don’t have to go to hospital. You save a lot of money.”

Serene and scholarly, Shah explains Prana Mudra or the Mudra for life energy: “Bend the little and ring fingers so that their tips touch the tip of the thumb. As simple as that.” The benefits include an increase in the life force, improvement in eyesight, blood circulation and immune function. “In the Varun Mudra, put the tips of the thumb and little finger together,” he says. “It will cure impurities of the blood and skin and stomach problems.”

The Gyan Mudra is equally simple and effective. “Gently touch the thumb with the index finger. This will help in improving the power of the mind. In the Jalodhar Naashak Mudra the little finger should touch the mount of the thumb and the thumb should touch the little finger. This Mudra is good for water retention in the body,” Shah avers.

Ramesh Shah claims to know over 45 Mudras. He believes that no particular pose is essential for Mudras but it is “good to place a mat or cloth on the floor and sit in Padmasan or Vajrasan positions. But Mudras can be done standing, sitting and even walking”.

He then talks about the Akash Mudra: “Touch the middle finger with the thumb. It increases the person’s intuition, cures calcium deficiency, tooth and ear problems.”

(We detail all the Mudras comprehensively later on in the book. Please remember that though Mudras are effective and useful in treating various health problems, don’t stop medication without consulting your physician. Practitioners offen mention patients who started the Mudras and then slowly discontinued the medication without any adverse effects. In fact, they say that over a period of time the Mudras cure the patients completely. But please check with your attending doctor before discontinuing any medication.)

After almost a decade of practise, Ramesh Shah believes that Gyan Mudra, Vayu Mudra and Prana Mudra can be done everyday. “The other Mudras should be done only when you are suffering from a certain problem. They should be done for a maximum of fifteen minutes three times a day/’ he advises.

Shah believes that it is best to do the Mudras on an empty stomach but “Vayu Mudra can be done soon after eating as it eliminates gastric problems”.

Shah concludes with Vayu Mudra: “It is incredible. The body is controlled by five elements. All the energy is in the fingers. Through different combinations of the fingers, we can not only control these elements but also cure many diseases.”

Ancient Healing Rediscovered

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