I'm Tanya,
And today is focusing on the Ananda Mayakosha.
And some people consider it the last,
But it's really the innermost.
And when we peel all these other layers away,
The physical layer,
The breath layer,
The pranamaya layer,
The mental layer,
We have access to this innermost kosha,
The Ananda Mayakosha.
Ananda maya means bliss.
And some of you may or may not have experienced a bliss state because it is a fleeting state.
And it may have come during a yoga class.
It may have come during a walk in nature.
It could have come during our project.
We can invoke it through singing.
We can invoke it through chanting.
We can invoke it through japa meditation,
Meaning we use the mala beads and we chant there.
We can invoke it through a devotion to a God,
To a guru,
Or to nature.
Singing is one of the best ways to invoke,
At least in my heart,
To invoke the Ananda layer.
But I'm not going to sing for you today.
We will do a little bit of chanting and may not experience today because it's something that we don't think about.
If we're forcing ourselves to think about this bliss layer and forcing ourselves to tap into the bliss layer and try to invoke it,
Then it may not ever come because it's something that just naturally arises.
It is a state of being.
It's not something we think about.
It's not something that we have to write out.
It just happens naturally.
So some of you may have experienced that in a meditation,
Certainly,
And you may have experienced it in Shavasana,
In yoga,
Or again,
Just a walk in nature.
So gratitude is another way to invoke this Ananda layer,
This Ananda Maya kosha.
So just go ahead and find a seat.
Get comfortable.
Your eyes can be closed or open here today.
Just letting the breath come in and letting it exit.
When we experience a state of bliss,
Really,
There's no words that can describe the bliss state.
So in another 15 minutes that we have,
It may not be possible.
So part of welcoming in the opportunity for bliss is to surrender.
And we can invoke gratitude in this practice as well.
And you might have in that moment felt connected to everything around you.
You might have felt one with everything around you.
You might have felt one with nature.
You might have felt at one with your surroundings.
Or all of the other layers,
Including the ego,
Ceased to exist.
A selfless service or seva is another way to invoke this feeling of Ananda.
So focus now on the center of your chest,
The heart space.
You can feel the heartbeat.
We have the emotional heart that can take up the space of our body.
Or maybe we feel it just at the center of the chest.
And then we have the divine heart.
This divine heart,
When we focus on this,
It helps to bring a sense of gratitude,
Unity,
And it is said to permeate the entire world as it feeds our own heart and it feeds the world.
I invite you to bring your hands in front of your heart,
Placing the heel of the hand,
The thumb,
And the pinkies together.
The remainder of the fingers upward like a funnel.
The hands can be in front of the heart here.
And thinking of the hands as a flower bud,
And breathing in softly as if to smell a rose,
And breathing out softly.
And in this rose bud or flower bud,
Make out as many details as you can,
The smoothness of the petals,
The scent,
The color.
And now feel the Ananda,
A state of bliss.
Feel your heart.
Feel the emotional heart.
Feel that you are connected to all living things as we begin to bring the hands upward towards the sky like a flower blossom emerging,
Growing.
When we get to just about the brow or a little bit higher,
Start to open up the arms,
Start to open up these petals of the flower,
Extending love,
Gratitude,
And surrendering to receive,
Surrendering to offer.
So as we offer,
We too receive,
Extending the arms even broader,
Feeling from the heart space expansion.
And as we offer,
So shall we receive.
As we bring the hands and the arms slowly back together,
We bring the hands,
Draw through the midline back to the heart,
Bringing in this love,
This devotion into our heart.
Om Shri Hanumate Namaha.
Om Shri Hanumate Namaha.
Om Shri Hanumate Namaha.
Om Shri Hanuman,
The most devoted individual,
Brought bliss and joy to his heart because of his devotion,
So we breathe in to the space,
Into the Ananda,
Feeling the expansion,
The devotion that we are all one.
There is no separation.
And as the hands,
The fingertips join together in Anjali Mudra,
We stay present with the breath.
We stay present with this heart of devotion.
Om Shri Hanumate Namaha.
Releasing the hands to the lap and just stay present.
And we can lift the gaze and welcome in our surroundings.
And just take a deep breath in and letting that out.
Maybe a little bit of movement in the head and the shoulders,
The wrists.
Namaste.
