Book Description
Yoga Nidra means "Yogic Sleep". It is a deep relaxation in which you leave the waking state, go past the dreaming state, and enter into the deep sleep state, while remaining fully awake and alert. This state of awareness is extremely beneficial, both for releasing stress, and for experiencing the joy of subtler spiritual explorations or experiences. The voice will systematically guide you to explore your physical body, then move through 61 specific points within the body, and then practice ascending breath awareness along the body and spine. Your attention will be brought to the space between the eyebrows, then to the throat, and finally to the heart center, where you will go deep into stillness and silence, beyond the activities of the mind. Following the custom of the ancient sages, the depth of Yoga Nidra comes from inner awareness of the levels of your own self, including your body, breath, and the subtler mind, rather than diverting attention throuh music or inner fantasies. This inner exploring through self-awareness is a more refined form of meditation that leads you deeper into the stillness and silence of your own being, while remaining fully awake and aware. The Yoga Nidra methods bring you to a place of awareness where you are able to completely let go of any words, thoughts, images, impressions, or pictures in the mind. You are guided to allow your mind to "empty, empty, empty" though you remain fully awake and clear of mind. The practices on this CD will gently train your ability to direct your own attention, which is the primary skill in the art of meditation. You will find that you are gradually able to use these methods on your own, without the CD, and the benefits will be with you not only during your practice time, but also during the activities of daily life. The Yoga Nidra CD has five tracks. The first track is an introduction (8:02 minutes), describing the state of Yoga Nidra and the practices on the CD. The next four tracks move through four sequential practices that are listened to together, so as to form a complete practice of 57:24 minutes (CD is 65:36 minutes in total). These four tracks can also be listened to individually, as complete practices unto themselves, which allows you to have the benefits of practice when less time is available. After some time of practicing Yoga Nidra, you will naturally find it to be a most enjoyable and spiritually inspiring part of your life.

About the Author
Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati is an American-born student and teacher of the ancient tradition of the Himalayan sages and is a monk of the Shankaracharya lineage, initiated as a dandi (staff-bearing) swami, a most honorific initiation of the monastic order.