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Just be aware of yourself, do not create blankness. To sum up, with the vibration of so you ascend in the spinal column, then descend to mooladhara with ham, There you retain the breath outside and locate the kundalini for a few seconds.
Then you ascend the spinal column with the vibration of so and you exhale with ham.
After exhalation you take rest and practise simple self awareness.
Thus, the fifth practice of ajapa consists of rotating the consciousness in the ascending and descending passage of the spinal column with the vibrations of so and ham. Summary
First is relaxation.
Second is rhythmic breathing through the spinal passage and mindfulness.
Third is rotation of the vibrations of so and ham through the spinal passage
Fourth is retention in mooladhara and meditation on the inverted triangle and the serpent power encased within it.
Be constantly aware of the ascending consciousness, locating or centralizing the consciousness, and of descending con sciousness.
When exhaling, it is called descending consciousness’. When you meditate on mooladhara chakra, it is locating or centralizing the consciousness.
When you inhale, it is called ascending consciousness’. In this practice of ajapa, the important things to be considered are rhythmic breathing, heightened imagination, perfeet and continuous mindfulness, complete relaxation and awareness of what you are doing.
The best method of mental relaxation is selfawareness and auto-suggestion.
Rotating the consciousness seems to be a little difficult in the beginning because it requires great imaginations but with a little practice, it later becomes quite real and easy This practice is very important because if one can do it successfully, one will have peace, sereni’, good dreams and a change in mental outlook. It is said that the person whose kundalini awakens gains peace first and knowledge next. This meditation should be considered successful if the practitioner gains peace and wisdom.
This being over, we come to the last stage.

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First relax yourself mentally and physically, and sit in a comfortable posture.
Take to rhythmic and prolonged breathing.
Be mindful throughout.
Now, exhaling take the breath to ajna chakra, then to vishuddhi
chakra, anahata chakra, manipura chakra, swadhisthana chakra and lastly to mooladhara chakra, Circulate the breath-consciousness from ajna chakra to mooladhara chakra through the spinal passage. Now maintain your consciousness at mooladhara chakra for a while.
Locate the inverted triatigle and within it, the kundalini. Kundalini is the dormant potentiality in us which sleeps like a snake coiled at the base of the spinal column.
In the framework of the triangle is the kundalini, coiled three and half times around a lingam.
Meditate on this kundalini for a few seconds.
Now, inhale from mooladhara through the spinal column and the six chakras, then exhale down.
After simple rotation of the breathing consciousness in the spinal column, add so and ham to the inhalation and exhalation respectively.
The passage of consciousnes will be the spinal column, and the center of consciousness will be the mooladhara triangle and the kundalini within it.
Say so while breathing in.
Take the vibration of so up to ajna chakra with inhalation. From ajna chakra through the spinal column descend to mooladhara chakra with the mental vibrations of ham, Retain the breath-consciousness there for a while. Meditate on the kundalini.
Now, with the vibrations of so you ascend the spinal passage.
The ascending passage is from mooladhara chakra to ajna chakra with so, and the descending passage is from ajna chakra to mooladhara chakra with ham
Descend the spinal passage with ham and then take some rest.
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Second is rhythmic breathing through the psychic passage, and mindfulness.
Third is rotation of the vibration of so and ham through the psychic passage.
It is a psychological fact that when you want to control the
mind it wanders ruthlessly and you fail to control it But if you
quietly watch the mental activity, it will stop. Therefore, in all
the four practices of ajapa we have tried to emphasize this truth that, instead of commanding the mind to stop forcibly, you should be mindful of its every activity.
You have been given the practice of rhythmic breathing, mindfulness, synchronization of mantra with the ingoing and outgoingbreathst and finally of creating temponryb aiess in the mind.
In the fifth stage of ajapa, you have to use a lot of imagination in the beginning. Later on, it will become a real process. In the previous practices you introspected with the inhalation moving up from the navel and with the exhalation moving down to the navel. Now you have to change this process and circulate your consciousness in the spinal column through the six psychic centers.
The six chakras or psychic centers, starting from the bottom, are: mooladhara, between the anus and the genitals at the perineum in males and at the cervix in females; swadhisthana, at the base of the spine; manipura, at the level of the navel in the spine; anahata, at the level of the heart in the spine; vishuddhi, at the level of the throat in the spine and ajna, in the center of the head at the top of the spine.

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Now we come to the sixth stage of ajapa.
The first important thing in this practice of ajapa is rhythmic breathing. The second important thing is mindfulness. All through the process of meditation you must be mindful of every activity you do, If, while practising meditation, you forget that you are meditating you will never gain success in meditation.
While meditating there comes a state of unmindfulness akin to sleep, and this is the trouble with almost every aspirant who meditates You keep on thinking of a certain problem for fifteen minutes of so. During this period, when you were brooding over the problem, you were not mindful that you were brooding. kis only when you finish the process of brooding that you realize that you were thinking about such a thing. This is not meditation.
In meditation, whatever practice you are following you should be mindful. Therefore, we always emphasize one point:
be aware of what you are doing. Be conscious that you are counting. Be mindful that you are visualizing, breathing — In short, be absolutely awake and vigilant You have to be conscious of every process of breathing, and mindfulness should have an unceasing continuity.
In meditation, if you count one, two, three, your mind should not be unaware for even a single second. Even if it wanders, let it but be aware that it is wandering. If you concentrate, be aware that you are concentrating. It is the very nature of the mind to wander and sleep. You need not worry about this, but be aware of every tendency of the mind.
Whenever your mind, your consciousness, your awareness dissipates be alert. No mental activity should go unnoticed. You should never be unmindflil of the processes of concentration. This is the fundamental and the only point to be remembered. If you fail to remember and understand this most important point5 you will never achieve success in meditation even if you meditate for a century.

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Stage 5 AJAPA JAP
Thus far, four practices of ajapa have been explained. Now we go to the fifth stage which is rather more difficult and commands great imagination on the part of the aspirant. It consists of x’otating the consciousness in the spinal column.
The process of concentration and medItation consists of two factors: control of the external consciousness and expression of the calm and quiet soul in us.
A burning lamp cannot radiate its fall illumination if its glass is covered with soot. It is only when the glass is cleaned that the lamp shines most brightly. Similarly, the light or the power of the soul is within us, but it does not manifest itself in our daily lives because of the hindrance of thinking principles, the agaries of the mind, dissipations and distractions. Meditation helps one to annihilate the sense consciousness and awaken self-awareness. It removes the Impurities of the mind.
There are different systems of meditation. The first meditation belongs to the group of the body; the second meditation belongs to the group of the mind, i.e. thinking of an idea; the third meditation belongs to the group of the intellect; and the fourth process of meditation belongs to the higher regions.
Light manifests itself when the physical consciousness, the mental consciousness, the intellectual awareness, and lastly the personality itself, when all these are transcended in Mo. So long as you do not transcend the body, the mind and the intellect, you will not attain perfect serenity and peace. The various practices of ajapa aim at achieving this end.
In an academic career one has to go through primary, higher secondary, college and university education in order to get the highest degree Similarly in meditation there are four stages. First is relaxation, second is awareness, third is unification, and the fourth is forgetfulness. This has been explained in the previous practices of ajapa.

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Stage 4

Close your eyes and sit in a steady posture. Mentally relax yourself by auto suggestion, awareness of self, by the feeling of peace, happiness and bliss. Start rhythmic breathing.

Breath in and out from the navel.

Be aware of the different centers through which your breath passes, right from the nose to navel, and from navel to nose. 

Rhythmic, peaceful and relaxed breathing.

Now, so with the ingoing breath and ham with the out- going breath. But the form of your consciousness Will be a continuity of sohamso.

So merging in ham and ham merging in so making an endless circle.

Prolong the vibrations of ham and join them with the vibrations of the ingoing so.

Prolong the vibrations of so and join them with ham.

The latter part of hamjoins the early part of so and becomes a continuous circle of sohamso.

Now stop this practice and empty your mind, Create blankness.

Focus your consciousness on any of the centers of meditation. Remove all thoughts

Again after some time start the endless circle of sohamsoham. At the end of a practice of half an hour or an hour, heighten your imagination of peace and rest. Feel mentally: There is happiness and peace’.

All these practices of ajapa are mental, not verbal,

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Count one with the ingoing breath. Count one with the outgoing breath. Count Iwo with the ingoing breath. Count two with the outgoing breath. Go on counting like this till four When you come to five be alert, Txy to maintain undistracted awareness. Feel that you are definitely counting five.
Say mentally: l am aware of five with the ingoing breath and I am aware of five with the outgoing breath’. Then go on counting till nine.
Again, when you come to ten, be alert Maintain fullest awareness that you are counting ten. Repeat this whole process a couple of times. Now start rhythmic and deep breathing. Absolutely peaceful, prolonged and relaxed breathing. Practise mindfulness all throughout the process of breathing. Introspect neither on soham nor upon hamso, but with the mgoing breath upon the individual so, and with the outgoing breath on the individual ham.
Do not be aware of either soham or hamso.
Just feel so with inhalation and the upward movement of consciousness in the psychic passage, and ham with exhaIa tion and the downward movement in the psychic passage. Individual so and individual ham.
When this practice is over, create a mental vacuum. Localize your consciousness at any center of meditation. Again start breathing consciously and continue the practice of itidividual so and individual ham for a month or so,

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Stage 2
During the first practice of ajapa you introspected on so with the ingoing breath and ham with the outgoing breath.
Now, in the second practice, reverse the whole emphasis of the process.
Introspect on ham while exhaling and sowhile inhaling. Ham is the introspective sound vibration of the outgoing prana as it descends in the psychic passage. Sois the introspective sound vibration of the ingoing prana as it ascends in the psychic passage.
There should be no pause between hamso throughout. After the ajapa of ham.so, become blank. Do not think of anything Take your consciousness either to ajna chakra or anahata chakra.
There should be total awareness of the center of meditation. Do not put any pressure on the center, sImply concentrate your mind there.
The process of deep breathing, relaxation, total awareness and so on will be the same in this second practice of hamso as in the practice of soham.
One may practise this hamso for a month, After achieving success in it, turn to the third stage.
Stage 3
In the first practice of ajapa, you formulated your consciousness in the pattern of soham.
In the second practice you reversed it to hamso. Now we come to the third practice.
Relax yourself mentally.
The relaxation can be achieved successfully by auto-suggestion and by awakening awareness of 1 am’.
If one has tensions, there is another method of relaxation through counting.
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PRACTICE
Stage I
Relax yourself physically and mentally. Make yourself as light and relaxed as possible. Put aside for a while all your worries and problems.
Feel calmness and serenity, peace and bliss, complete mental relaxation before you start the practice of ajapa, Feel that you are sitting comfortably.
Begin breathing as above.
Be conscious of every ingoing and outgoing breath. The ingoing breath goes up from the navel to the throat and the outgoing breath goes down from the throat to the navel region.
No automatic breathing, but conscious, deep and relaxed breathing.
Do not produce any sound while breathing. Feel the two streams of breath. lntensifr the awareness of prana. Now add soham to this.
As the prana rises with inhalation, feel the vibrations of so, and as the prana descends with exhalatinn, feel the vibrations of ham.
Continue to breathe in and out, and try to synchronize soham with it.
So sounds during inhalation and the ascending of the prana in the psychic passage.
Ham sounds during exhalation and the descending of the prana in the psychic passage.
Maintain unceasing awareness of the prana and the man tra, Now centralize your consciousness either between the eyebrows (ajna chakra) or at the heart (anahata chakra). Stop thinking.
Centralize your awareness. Create a vacuum. Set aside all thoughts.
Simple awareness of a particular center should be maintained.
Continue breathing consciously in and out.
Start soham with the ingoing and outgoing breaths as usual.
Continue this practice for some time.
Practise this first stage of ajapa for a month. After you perfect
it, go to the second stage.
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Outline of practice of Ajapa jap
Sit in a comfortable posture. Relax.
Start deep breathing.
Then join so with the ingoing breath and ham with the Outgoing breath.
Feel that von are introspecting on soham.
There should be no mental pause between so and ham.
There should be continuity.
After ham pause a little.
Breathe in with so, breathe out with ham.
There should be continuous awareness of the ingoing and
outgoing breaths and of soham.
After some time stop ajapa and go into shoonya.
Take your mind to the place in between the two eyebrows
(bhrikuti) and concentrate on ajna chakra at the eyebrow center.
You can also meditate on the hridaya cholera (heart center) if
you like.
Think of nothing. Just become blank like shoonya.
Whatever thoughts come to you, keep on removing them.
Only think of blankness.
Let this continue for a couple of minutes.
After that, again start ajapa.
In ajapa. first there Will be concentration on the two streams of breath followed by the synchronizing of wham. You can adjust any other mantra you like with the breathing process.
There is misunderstanding about the soham mantra, Soham does not merely mean I am that’. So is the introspective sound of the ingoing breath, while the vibrations that are created on the outgoing breath are like ham. At any rate, solzam merely indicates the complete circuit of introspection upon the two breaths. You need not think at all of the literal meaning of the word soham.
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The most important point in ajapajapa is that first of all you have to breathe in and out consciously and not automatically. Automatic breathing goes on at night also It is not ajapa. You must consciously notice every ingoing and outgoing breath. Like a watchman, watch the continuous and unceasing consciousness of the two breaths
You must also observe how far the breath is going in. When you breathe in, the abdomen should rise first, then chest Breathing out, relax chest then abdomen. Lie down and feel as if you are going to sleep. You should breathe like a person who breathes deeply in sound sleep. After continued practice your breathing will be complete, systematic and proportionate. The normal rate of inhalation and exhalation is fifteen times a minute for each, In one hour, nine hundred breaths and in twenty-four hours 21,600 breaths are drawn. A person who has perfected ajapa will do 21,600 rounds ofjapa per day.
As and when the concentration becomes deep, the breathing will become slow. Instead of fifteen rounds, you will do ten rounds a minute. In ajapa you make the breath as long and as deep as when you are snoring. Longevity is increased by doing so because the entire system becomes absolutely calm and steady, thereby expending less prana.
Now we come to the technical side of ajapa. There is no other technical difficulty in doing ajapa. The only difficulty is tapas which means sustained endurance. You must sit in one posture. The body should not shake and the mind should not run here and there. It is not physical mortification. It is sustained endurance. You take the pledge that you will do ajapa for forty-five minutes every day. One day you do it, but the next day you lose patience; the third day you lose interest, and on the fourth day you lose everything. Keep up your resolve and continue your practice with patience for a month or so whether it is for ten minutes or one hour.

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The alternate functioning of ida and pingala keeps one away
from one’s inner consciousness. So long as they work alternately, samdhi cannot be attained. It is only when the two birds — ida and pingala — are tired and they retire to the center, the self, that the sushumna awakens and the process of meditation becomes automatic.
According to swarayoga when both the nostrils flow equally it indicates that the sushumna is flowing. At this time one should give up all worldly work and meditate. It is a common experience that sometimes the meditation is quite successful. This is because there is harmony in the entire system. When the sushumna does not function, one does not achieve concentration even with effort, So it is important that the functioning of ida and pingala should be harmonized by yoga practices and meditation, making it possible for sushumna to function.
In order to stop the chain of thoughts, one has to observe the thoughts, one has to see them consciously. During ajapa you must have a complete and unceasing awareness of what you are doing. Like the oilstrearn which does not break in the middle, let your consciousness also be continuous. Maintain continuous awareness of what you are doing.
The next important point in ajapa is that one should keep the mind fixed on the center of meditation. It may be ajna chakra (the third eye or eyebrow center) or anahata chakra (the heart center) or any other center in the body. This is called ishwara pranidhana. Three things are very important in ajapa: tapasya (sustained endurance), swadhyaya (continuous self-observation) and also ishwarapranidhana (fixing the mind on the center of meditation). Yet three more important points of ajapa practice are deep breathing. relaxation and total awareness. Not a single breath should go unnoticed. There should be no automatic breathing. You must have unceasing awareness of every ingoing and outgoing breath. As soon as the mind wanders, bring it back to the breath.
Thus ajapa is adjusting a man tra to the breathing process. It can be practised anywhere. in a chair. on the floor or in any asana, particularly padmasana, siddhasana, siddha yoni asana or sukhasana.

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