Simple living with the integral component of yamas and niyamas is known as vedachara or vedic lifestyle. This is not a religious lifestyle, but a lifestyle in which the peaceful and positive dimensions of life have been given importance, and these dimensions are seen in the routine people followed. A good routine indicates setting aside a time to do something one really wants to do. Lifestyle is something where your heart is, something that you enjoy and desire to live because it gives you satisfaction and fulfilment. Lifestyle also means having a feeling for what you do. This feeling is based on a non-material, spiritual awareness developed through mantra and regulation of time, work, the family, the active and the rest periods. This regulation forms part of sanyam.
Smarana, remembrance through mantra, and sanyam, regulation, constitute the two limbs of the vedic lifestyle:
These regulations constitute the routine.
When waking up in the morning, the first awareness is of mantra, not of the tensions and problems one will have to face during the day. The first three positive sankalpas are for health, wisdom and overcoming distress.
Mahamrityunjaya mantra
Om tryambakamyajaamahe sugandhimpushtivardhanam.
Urvaarukamivabandhanaatmrityormuksheeyamaamritaat.
Gayatri mantra
Om bhoorbhuvahsvahtatsaviturvarenyam.
Bhargodevasyadheemahidhiyoyo nahprachodayaat.
32 names of Durga
Om durgaadurgaartishamanee durgaapadvinivaarinee.
Durgamachchhedineedurgasaadhineedurganaashinee.
Durgatoddhaarineedurganihantreedurgamaapahaa.
Durgamajnaanadaadurgadaityalokadavaanalaa.
Durgamaadurga maalokaadurgamaatmasvaroopinee.
Durgamaargapradaadurgamavidyaadurgamaashritaa.
Durgamajnaanasamsthaanaadurgamadhyaanabhaasinee.
Durgamohaadurgamagaadurgamaarthasvaroopinee.
Durgamaasurasamhantreedurgamaayudhadhaarinee.
Durgamaangeedurgamataadurgamyaadurgameshvaree.
Durgabheemaadurgabhaamaadurgabhaadurgadaarinee.
The regular morning routine follows with bath, and before breakfast some necessary movements and postures required for the body to stretch, pull, bend, twist and to allow blood circulation to flow properly and the internal organs to become active. After a simple practice of asana and pranayama follows breakfast with mantra awareness:
Om brahmaarpanam brahmahavirbrahmaagnau brahmanaa hutam;
Brahmaiva tena gantavyam brahmakarmasamaadhinaa.
Then comes the daily routine of work, involvement and participation. When having lunch there is again time to disconnect from mental pressures, time pressures, anxiety and worries. The meal is a moment to focus on the food and mantra. It can be repeated peacefully, mentally, to disconnect for a few moments.
Yoga nidra
In the afternoon or at the conclusion of one’s day’s work, there is time for a short relaxation, a yoga nidra to de-stress oneself. By changing street clothes into comfortable clothes one feels light, and by practising yoga nidra one will feel light and allow the accumulated stress to disappear.
Swadhyaya
After the short relaxation one can have some study time, swadhyaya time, for twenty or thirty minutes to read something on paper, not on one’s mobile, or digital device. In the course of time, the back light of the mobile creates a lot of problems for the eyes. Reading a book maintains the eyesight sharper and better for a longer period. One should not lose the habit of reading a book which is more beneficial for one’s health than reading on a screen. Swadhyaya is not reading the newspaper but something spiritual and inspirational. It can be poetry, the Bhagavad Gita, any scripture or literature; it is reading for the purpose of one’s health not necessarily for the purpose of gaining more knowledge.
Whenever possible meal times and sleep time should be regulated and regular without being dramatic and drastic about it. Before sleep, the practice of mantra, or one’s personal mantra improves the pattern of sleep.
Dhua – medicated smoke
Not that long back, there was a tradition that in the evening one Brahmin used to come to one’s home with a dhooni, prepared with burning goita and samagri and filled with fragrant smoke. It was carried to every room in the house.
The light and smoke were offered with eleven Mahamrityunjaya mantras for Ekadas Rudra. Then the dhooni was taken around the household. People believed that it would protect them from insects, like mosquitos, and clear the environment of negative vibrations. The smoke of the dhooni was used to spread good thoughts and goodwill and to maintain hygiene in the home. If any bad vibrations or bad spirits were lurking here and there, they would go away. One had good, relaxed, restful sleep, without nightmares.
The idea of living in a pure, clean environment and cleaning the environment with smoke and mantra is a simple practice which becomes a practice of dhyana, by chanting the eleven Mahamrityunjaya mantras. This practice can be done every night before sleep, and the same medicinal, aromatic smoke taken through the home with one’s sankalpa for peace, health, happiness and wellbeing.
With slight adjustment and fine-tuning this can become a daily routine for the week.
Once a week one can conduct a household havan chanting one mala of the Mahamrityunjaya mantra for the wellbeing of all.
Spiritual Diary
A spiritual diary is an indication of the effort and progress one is making – this past week, this past month, this past year. The spiritual diary is a map of one’s journey. One’s positive efforts made in life should be noted: awareness of one’s frustration, struggle and achievement. The effort made to improve oneself and the difficulties encountered should be highlighted.
Review of the Day
The Review of the Day should be used to cultivate yogic awareness moment to moment. It is not practical or possible to remain aware every moment for twelve hours of the waking period as one is not groomed or trained to do that. However, this training can be initiated with the Review of the Day which makes one aware of one’s strengths, weaknesses, one’s success and failure. At the same time, it develops an understanding of how one can deal with the same situation in a better manner the next time.
SWAN analysis
With the SWAN meditation all one’s strengths, weaknesses, ambitions and needs are written down, until by adding, subtracting and deleting a good picture of oneself emerges. Once the picture is clear, the next step is to find ways to develop and cultivate with continued effort a strength, to change and overcome a weakness, to reassess ambitions and needs.
Fasting for the body
Fasting is good for health. In physical fasting, one should have one meal a week without salt. One meal without salt is also a kind of fasting and will improve one’s health. Many of the bacterial infections in the body can be avoided by reducing salt. Having one’s regular food without salt will strengthen the immunity.
Digital fasting for the mind
For the mind fasting means to stay away from all electronic gadgets for one day. For people who have grown up in the mobile phone culture it is difficult to be without, and there is no sanyam. People are willing to leave their family and home but not their mobile and Facebook account. This indicates a trait and a habit of mind of over-dependency which in the course of time will become frustration. Digital fasting is important. One day a week, whenever convenient and possible, there should be the rule – no speech on phones, nothing to do with electronic media. For one day, there is a simple life - sitting in the garden with a glass of sherbet, reading a magazine and above all disconnecting from the idea, ‘I am connected to the world through my device’.
This routine will give a glimpse into the simple lifestyle in which yamas and niyamas are natural expressions of the sanyam that you live with the focus of maintaining a connection with your inner nature through mantras and sanyam in all activities and expectations: you are always trying to do the right thing in the right manner by adjusting your routine from morning until night, starting with mantra, ending with mantra. During the day you are trying to do your best while allowing enough time to relax. Activity and relaxation have to complement each other and be balanced.
Mantra Sadhana
Jignasu Sannyasa Sadhana
Karma Sannyasa Sadhana
Sannyasa Lifestyle
Vanaprastha Sadhana Satra
About Sannyasa Peeth
News
Living Sannyasa Vision Satsangs
Avahan
Contact Us
Events
Site Map
About Sannyasa Peeth
Vedic & Yogic Samskaras & Lifestyle
Vedic Lifestyle
Vision & Purpose
Membership