For me it was my second year of participating in Surya Namaskar Yajna (SNY) and I replaced my morning treadmill runs with Surya Namskar almost every day.  During these 16 days we did many 2 hours of marathons all over Massachusetts in various Shakhas.  Other than doing it in Shakha, many families also got together via Skype and did SN over video conference from their homes.  On the last day of Surya Namaskar we did a 12 hour marathon in Sai Baba temple in Billeirca.

Shakhas from New England area did extremely well.  232 participants from 8 different Shakhas participated and did 64,406 Surya Namaskars (SNs). 45 participants from Azad Shakha, Billerica did more than 33,000 SN and were the second in the list of Shakhas for doing most SNs!  Not only adults but the kids and teenagers showed great enthusiasm during SNY too.   11 out of 25 youths who did the most number of SNs were from New England area. Srimitha Srinivasan (11), Sneha Prashath (10) and Smritha Srinivasan (6) did 3876, 3839 and 1482 counts respectively. Amazing to see such dedication at such an early age.

Mayors of 11 cities including mayor of New York City and mayors of city of Tampa also proclaimed a day for SN. Many public schools and universities through out USA also participated in this Health for Humanity Yogathon.

In recent times I had completely forgotten my childhood days and all about guru Dronacharya and Eklavya but guru dakshina at Azad shakha brought out a lot of my good old feelings.  It was great to see all swayamsevaks give gurudakshina with such great devotion.  The whole environment was very divine where each one of use waited eagerly for our turn so that we could pranam “dhwaj” and put our offering on Guruji’s feet.  The feeling for offering didn’t come from obligation but was a desire to do something for the shakha and sangh.  While we all waited for our turn, we were also singing geet which worked like “sone pe suhaaga”.  It was also touching to see may swayamsevaks who hadn’t had chance to come to shakha for quite some time made it a point to offer on guru dashkina diwas.  I look forward to many more years of guru dakshina in shakha.

Closed Eyes

Throughout the day our “brain” is busy in various activities and once we fall asleep in the night it gets break (if we aren’t dreaming wild dreams). I take every opportunity I get to give my brain a little break by closing my eyes and not thinking about “anything”. This is what meditation is all about, right? I realized this during the Surya Namskar Yajna that before every Surya Namaskar if I make it a point to close my eyes while saying the Mantras, it gives me a little bit of relaxation. That’s when I decided to start closing my eyes during the Prarthna we do in Shakha. During Prarthna when the Prartana pramukh does the Prarthana, we repeat after him/her. As we all remember the Prarthna (or at least know the words), when we repeat the Prarthna our brain isn’t doing a lot of work (and I think the sub conscious brain plays a part here). This gives our brain a few seconds to relax. On top of that when the line ends with “am” like “sādhikām, mātaram”, it kind of has the same effect as the word “Om ॐ”. And of course we all know how powerful the word ॐ is.

So next time when you go to shakha, try doing the prayer with your eyes closed and think only of the prayer and nothing else. When you open your eyes after the Prarthna just see if you feel any different…

Ajay Goel

Through out these 16 days we had a feeling of an ongoing camp/festival. Everyone did SN as and when possible. Some of us replaced our regular morning treadmill run with SN. Many decided to do at least 13 Surya Namaskars every morning and evening, and of course there were many bal ganas who did SNs many times a day. It was great seeing emails from various members of our shakha reporting their weekly SN counts. We also took this opportunity to make sure we are doing Surya Namaskar right (Are you doing Surya Namaskar Right?). In fact many of our shakha members were also able to memorize all Surya Namskar Mantras (Memorizing SN Mantras). HSSUSA dedicated a special page and blog for SNY and we saw many good blogs from folks all over the world. A Facebook fan page also was created. Even though this did not have a lot of fans, it was good to see SNY’s presence on Facebook. On Twitter we saw some tweets on Yogathon and tweets from sevaks definitely helped increase awareness of yoga amongst others.

The last day of SN was a big day for many of us. Many shakhas from MA decided to get together and do a 12 hour merathon. We took the responsibility of begin there in the last 3 hours of Marathon. The place was ATFS Learning Center in Shrewbury. Through out the day we saw sevkas coming in from various shakhas and being a part of marathon. We all were keep our count on a big white board. It was fun seeing how were running to mark our count on the board at the end of 13 Mantras and get back in line to the start the next set.

I personally feel that today was the end of a big festival that I had been enjoying for the past 16 days. We hope that many of us will make Surya Namaskar a part of our daily lives going forward.

Dhanyawad.

There are 13 Mantras so let us break it into 2, the first 6 and the second 7.  The first and the the last from the second set are the longest ones.

Remember two sentences (1st letter of each word is 1st letter of Mantra. MR (i.e. Mr.) has both letters)

• MR Shyam Benegal Ke Paas
• Hai Mera Apna Sabse Acha Bhai Shyaam

First three and last three are always easy to keep in mind.
Even though it is Surya Namaskar, Suryaaya is 3rd and we all know it starts with Mitraay.
As soon as I hear Arkay Namah I know we have 2 more to go, that’s how I remember Bhaaskaraaya and Shree Savitru Suurya Naaraayanaaya Namah.

With first 3 and last 3 taken care of we only have to work on remaining 7.  7th is simple as we said this is second longest so that’s just 6 more.

Also, if you look carefully at the ending sounds:

• All the odd numbered Mantras have an ending sound of aaya (Mitraaya, Suryaaya, Khagaaya)
• All the even numbered Mantras have an ending sound of aaye (Ravaye, Bhaanave)
• This does not apply to the last two (but hey we said we already know the last three, don’t we?)

There are a couple of letters that repeat but it is never difficult to remember which comes first.

• M (Mitraaya of course comes 1st and Mareechey later)
• A (Aadityaaya 1st and Arkaaya later.  Remember, Arkaaya is the 3rd last?)
• S (Suryaaya 1st, of course we remember as this is our favorite at 3rd position and Savitre is 2nd.  What about the longest one that starts with S; well you know that is the last so we are good there)

With little more practice and keeping these two sentences in our mind hopefully we will find it easier to memorize.

• MR Shyam Benegal Ke Paas
• Hai Mera Apna Sabse Acha Bhai Shyaam

How about you?  Can you come up with a better sentence?

MR:
ॐ मित्राय नमः
Om Mitraaya Namah (1st)
ॐ रवये नमः
Om Ravaye Namah (2nd)

SB (Shyaam Benegal, Sonali Bendre is another SB)
ॐ सूयार्य नमः
Om Suryaaya Namah (3rd)
ॐ भानवे नमः
Om Bhaanave Namah

KP (Ke Paas)
ॐ खगाय नमः
Om Khagaaya Namah
ॐ पूष्णे नमः
Om Puushne Namah

HMA (Hai Mera Apna)
ॐ हिरण्यगर्भाय नमः
Om Hiranyagarbhaaya Namah (Beginning of second half, 7th)
ॐ मरीचये नमः
Om Mareechaye Namah
ॐ आदित्याय नमः
Om Aadityaaya Namah
ॐ सवित्रे नमः

SABS (Sabse Achca Bhai Shyaam)
Om Savitre Namah
ॐ अर्काय नमः
Om Arkaaya Namah (3rd last)
ॐ भास्कराय नमः
Om Bhaaskaraaya Namah (2nd last)
ॐ श्रीसवितृसूर्यनारायणाय नमः
Om Shree Savitru Suurya Naaraayanaaya Namah (last)

Kudos to kids’ enthusiasm…

During the Surya Namskar Yagna 2010 we are trying to get as many SN as possible.  Let us take a moment to make sure we are doing it right.  Even though I have been doing it for quite some time I still find things that I do wrong whenever I see the video.  Few things to remember:

• Do you know there are 13 mantras in Surya Namskar? Are you saying the Mantras while doing SN?
• Are you doing it too fast? Set of 13 Surya Namskar takes approximately 6.5 minutes. If you are doing more than 9 rounds (120) in an hour, you are probably going a little too fast.
• Are you breathing properly? Watch the video carefully. You must be alternating between inhale and exhale (and holding when required)
• Are you alternating your leg movements?
• Are you bringing the same leg forward that you take back?
• Are you keeping your hips above the ground when you go down?
• Are your feet touching when you are standing up?
• When you bend down, are you bringing your hands to the side (and not to the front of your feet)?

I apologize if I made any mistake above. Please feel free to leave comments and add more.

SN Video
SN Steps

Dhanyawad
Ajay Goel