Your Bedtime Story and Relaxation: 1. The Lion

Namaste.

My name is Sandeep.

Welcome to your very first bedtime story.

Today's story sums up the whole spiritual journey in Vedanta very nicely.

It's a very old and popular story.

Even children,

They read about it.

And it can be applied anywhere,

Not just to Vedanta.

We can interpret in any context a very positive story.

So,

Aryan was a shepherd boy who grazed his sheep in the fields every day.

There was a jungle nearby,

So he had to watch over his herd very carefully.

Only a narrow river was in between the boy and his sheep on one side and a lot of wild animals on the other.

One day,

A loiness appeared on the other bank of the river.

Aryan saw her and became alert.

The herd too noticed the animal and quickly began to run home.

The loiness jumped across the river to within a few hundred feet of them.

Disaster!

No!

The loiness lay down,

Stretched her legs.

She was so still,

She seemed barely alive.

After a while,

Aryan cautiously went near to her.

The loiness had been in an advanced stage of pregnancy and on jumping the river had begun to give birth to a cub.

Now the mother was dying of exhaustion.

Aryan took the tiny cub home with the sheep.

The lion cub was surrounded by sheep and the sheep took care of him.

Slowly,

He grew up thinking he was a sheep too and over time he bleated like a sheep.

He made sheep friends and he ate grass and walked around in the herd of sheep till he grew to be this huge young lion.

But still he moved around with the sheep and ate grass.

Now,

On one day this big old lion was hunting.

He saw Aryan's herd of sheep.

He was going to attack them and eat.

But then he saw in the middle of the sheep this huge young lion,

Magnificent,

Handsome young lion,

But bleeding like a sheep and eating grass.

The old lion was very puzzled.

What's going on here?

So he carefully stalked that flock of sheep and isolated the young lion.

He ran after him.

The sheep ran,

Bleeding in fear.

The young lion also ran,

Bleeding in fear till the old lion went up to him,

Pounced upon him and caught him.

He dragged him off away from the herd and ran away.

He dragged him off away from the herd and said,

Why are you behaving like this?

You are a lion just as much I am.

And the young lion said,

Oh sir,

Please let me go.

You are scaring me.

And the old lion said,

But you are a lion.

Why are you bleeding?

No,

I am not a lion.

I am a sheep.

I am a sheep.

A sheep?

Well,

You come with me.

He takes him and shows him in a pool of water what I am,

That you are also.

Look at my face and look at your face.

At first,

The young lion was scared and trembling.

But then he saw,

Oh,

The same face.

Lion's face there and my face is the same thing.

I am a lion too.

Old lion said,

Now roar like me.

He roared.

The young lion also roared and realized his identity as a lion.

According to Vedanta,

The root cause of all our suffering is the ignorance or not knowing our true identity.

Most of us behave like the hypnotized young lion convinced that we are weak and powerless.

It requires a person of much wisdom to bring about a change in our ideas of ourselves.

Remember,

He was a lion to begin with.

What is the sheep,

The material universe,

This physical body and the mind?

Sitting in the midst of that,

I the consciousness,

I also think I am like this.

I am this material creature subject to all change,

Destruction,

Death,

Limitation and sorrow.

When confronted by the universe,

I get scared.

I am so tiny,

I am so helpless,

I am so limited,

Born just the other day and going to be extinguished.

And then the Guru comes,

The Vedanta comes and says,

You are the lion of Vedanta,

You are not a material creature.

Roar,

What is the roar?

Aham Brahmasmi.

I am Brahman,

The pure consciousness.

Not that I have to become Brahman.

I am a little creature now,

I have to become the infinite,

That's a big job.

No,

I am already that.

I have to awaken to my true nature and that's the spiritual journey in Vedanta.

Awakening to our true nature,

That is pure consciousness,

Sometimes referred to as Brahman.

With this,

Let's prepare to sleep.

Now before we get started,

Just take a moment or two to get comfortable lying in your bed.

Make sure you are under the covers.

If you do fall asleep during this practice and even if you don't usually go to sleep on your back,

I would like you to begin the practice by lying flat.

Maybe your knee is slightly bent.

You can keep a small pillow under the back of your knees if you like.

Just lie flat on the bed in supine position.

Now gently close your eyes and start taking a few nice big deep breaths,

Breathing in and out through the nostrils only.

As you breathe in,

Breathe out.

As you inhale,

Feel that whole body is getting healed and with exhalation,

Feel that all the cares,

Tensions and worries from the day are flowing out.

Let go of the deep breaths now.

Releasing any tension from your entire body.

It is not necessary to deliberately release tension in each part of the body.

Just develop the feeling of total relaxation.

Just enjoy that feeling of letting go.

Body is relaxed,

Sinking into the bed.

Beneath you.

We are going to have a simple practice to wind down.

Just follow along with the voice and the instructions.

Try not to overanalyze or intellectualize the instructions.

Now gently shift your awareness to your surroundings.

Start to notice all the different sounds present here.

Without getting struck with any one particular sound,

Try to keep your awareness moving from sound to sound.

Observe one sound,

Notice it and then move to the next sound.

Observe this sound Observe this sound and then move to other sound.

Like this,

Keep your awareness moving from sound to sound.

Keep the awareness moving from sound to sound and try to find the most distant sound which you can hear.

Let go the sound awareness.

And feel your body from within.

Now,

We begin body scan.

I will name a body part.

You just become aware of that body part.

Feel it and then just move to the next body part which is named.

Become aware of the right hand.

Right hand thumb.

Fingers of right hand.

Whole right hand.

Whole right arm.

Right shoulder.

Right side of the chest.

Waist.

Hip.

Whole right leg.

Whole right arm.

Right foot.

The toes.

Now left hand.

Left hand thumb.

Fingers of the left hand.

Whole left hand.

Whole left arm.

Left shoulder.

Left side of the chest.

Waist.

Hip.

Whole left leg.

The left foot.

The toes.

Feel the both legs together.

The buttocks.

Stomach.

Chest.

Back.

Shoulder blades.

Arms.

The neck.

The head.

Forehead.

Eyes.

Nose.

Right cheek.

Left cheek.

Mouth.

Lips.

Chin.

The whole face.

The whole head.

The whole neck.

The whole back.

The whole chest.

The whole body.

The whole body.

The whole body.

Again we will go through the whole body.

This time a little more slower and in detail.

Starting with the right hand thumb.

First finger.

Second finger.

Third finger.

Little finger.

Fingers and thumb together.

Palm of the hand.

Back of the hand.

Wrist.

Forearm.

Elbow.

Upper part of the right arm.

Right shoulder.

Right armpit.

Right side of the torso.

Right side waist.

Hip.

Right thigh.

Kneecap.

Calf muscle.

Ankle.

Heel.

Sole of the foot.

Big toe.

Second toe.

Third.

Fourth.

Fifth.

The whole right side of the body.

From toes to the fingers.

Fingers to the toes.

The whole right side of the body.

Now go to the left hand.

Left hand.

Become aware of the left hand thumb.

First finger of left hand.

Second finger.

Third finger.

Little finger.

Fingers and thumb together.

Palm of the hand.

Back side of the hand.

Wrist.

Forearm.

Elbow.

Upper part of the arm.

Left shoulder.

Left armpit.

Left side of the torso.

Left side waist.

Hip.

Thigh.

Kneecap.

Calf muscle.

Ankle.

Left foot heel.

Sole of the foot.

Big toe.

Second toe.

Third toe.

Fourth toe.

Fifth.

Whole left foot.

The whole left side of the body.

From toes to the fingers.

Fingers to the toes.

The whole left side of the body.

Now to the back.

Become aware of the lower back.

The right buttock.

And the left buttock.

Middle back.

Upper back.

Right shoulder blade.

Left shoulder blade.

Back of the neck.

Back of the head.

The whole back side together.

Now go to the top of the head.

The crown of the head.

Forehead.

Both sides of the head.

Right eyebrow.

Left eyebrow.

Left eyebrow.

The space between two eyebrows.

Right eyelid.

Left eyelid.

Right eye.

Left eye.

Right ear.

Left ear.

Right side cheek.

Left side cheek.

Bridge of the nostrils.

Right nostril.

Left nostril.

Upper lip.

Upper jaw.

Tongue.

Lower jaw.

Lower lip.

Chin.

Throat.

Right collarbone.

Left collarbone.

Chest.

Right part of the chest.

Middle part of the chest.

Left part of the chest.

Upper part of the belly.

Middle part of the belly.

The navel area.

Lower part of the belly.

The whole of the right leg.

The whole of the left leg.

Both legs together.

The whole of the right arm.

The whole of the left arm.

Both arms together.

The whole of the back.

Buttocks.

Spine.

Shoulder blades.

The whole of the front.

Abdomen.

Chest.

The whole of the back and front together.

The whole of the head.

The whole body.

The whole body.

The whole body.

Become aware of your breath now.

Just feel the flow of your breath.

In and out through the body.

The breathing is natural,

Automatic.

We are not trying to change the rhythm of the breath.

We are not doing it.

Just witnessing the breath.

Maintain the awareness of breath.

Dual awareness of breath.

Now,

Keeping the awareness on the breath,

Start mentally counting down your breath from 54.

As the breath comes in,

Count 54.

As it flows out,

54.

Breathe in,

53.

Breathe out,

53.

Like this,

Continue.

Not trying to fall asleep.

Just counting down the breath.

And knowing that it really doesn't matter too much when the sleep comes.

As you lie there in this way,

Both the body and the mind are getting all the rest that they need.

If you lose track of the countdown,

Come back to 54 and start over.