15 Truths I learned from Sri Dharma Mittra

By Sorsha Anderson

Picture by Natasha Phillips

1. To make progress you must learn to do three things: Fast, keep silent and wait...
2. Breathe as slowly as possible for an hour and watch your cravings disappear. 
3. See yourself in the practice you are not able to access right now.  Imagine yourself in it.   
4. Do the work.  Not because you expect results, but because it’s work that needs to be done.  
5. In the beginning, do the poses any way you can. 
6. You can become king of the gods by watching…
7. Cultivate compassion--the rest will come. 
8. Expect nothing.  Do it because it has to be done. 
9. Avoiding discipline is a trick of the mind.  It enjoys its pleasures.  The mind will throw you down.  It is powerful. 
10. There is no ‘mine’.  Where there is ‘mine’, there is bondage.
11. Be kind to all beings.  Everyone passes through the same obstacles.
12. You can reach higher states with drugs, but there is a blackness behind it.  You despair because you know you cannot get there without the help.  When you achieve higher states with meditation, you feel bliss because you realize no one can take it from you.
13. Yoga is…perfect obedience to the teacher.
14. Drop the elbows. Don’t think!  Forearm stand!
15. After enlightenment, there are plenty of exciting jobs for you to do! 

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Sorsha Anderson is a certified Dharma Yoga Teacher who lives and teaches in Vermont.  She has been practicing since 1991 and worked with very gentle and restorative yoga until her 30's when she wandered into a hot and sweaty, but meditative vinyasa studio.  Neither a dancer nor gymnast as a child, and after having had two children, she surprised herself by balancing in crow for the first time at 36.  She never looked back.  Sorsha approaches each new pose with a sense of optimism and adventure and delights in encouraging others to try what only seems impossible at first glance.  She particularly enjoys teaching older women who are trying to find their way back to their bodies after a sometimes very long absence.  Sorsha is thankful to have found her way to the Dharma Yoga Center and makes the trip from Vermont as often as she can.  She offers gratitude for the beautiful physical and spiritual teachings of Sri Dharma Mittra.

Psychic Transference

by Sara Schwartz  

When I first heard Sri Dharma Mittra say, “Psychic attack” I wasn’t sure I heard him right. How can an attack be psychic? Does it hurt? Then I pictured an exorcist type of event with convulsions. I was skeptical.  

As Michael Talbot explains in his book The Holligraphic Universe, “Psychic and spiritual phenomenon have played a significant role in aspects of our culture, but because they are not easy to rope in and scrutinize in a laboratory setting, science has tended to ignore them.”  

©Jeffrey Vock

Luckily, Sri Dharma is not bound by conventional scientific thought processes, and openly invites one to explore psychic phenomenon. Through the Dharma Yoga Life of a Yogi 500-hour teacher training, I began to learn what a psychic attack was. Slowly, the skeptic inside me turned from a judge into an observer. 

I learned that a psychic attack might be a thought that is not yours. A psychic attack might feel like you have a dark thought or craving that isn’t yours. For example, I might be walking down the street and suddenly crave a hot dog. I know I don’t like hot dogs, not even vegan ones. Perhaps it’s the person next to me who sees the cart and is tempted by its fare. Because we are all a part of the giant mind, her thought became my thought. 

A more obvious example might be when someone gets mad at you. His or her anger jumps into the pit of your stomach and you can feel it! That’s a psychic transference. Nothing physical actually happened between you, but you can feel the anger physically and emotionally. 

Subliminal advertising is a tangible example of a psychic attack. In 1957, James Vicary flashed, faster than most people can register, an image of popcorn and soda on a public movie screen. He found that the concessions sold more with this subliminal imagery. While this study was later debunked, it set off subliminal advertising fever. Later studies found that we are stimulated by these subliminal (often sexual) images in advertisements.

A psychic attack might be a mood. These moods can pass between lovers, friends, or even strangers. Riding the subway without your psychic defenses up can be a really harrowing experience. People are already in a bad mood when they have to be trapped in a small metal container and hurled through space at more than human speeds. Airplanes have the same general anxiety about them.

(Sometimes you can see a smile or hear good music, so these journeys aren’t always all bad!) 

©Sandra Pintaric

How do you combat a psychic attack? By strengthening your aura.

Yogi Gupta, Sri Dharma Mittra’s guru, in his book Yoga and Yogic Powers, instructs, “Rhythmic breathings, Nadi Purifier Breathing, Nadi stimulator breathing and Nadi Vibrator breathing are some of the techniques which will enable you to create a strong psychic aura of thought...”  

The psychic aura of thought happens on the subtle plane, which exists within the stage of the gross plane. The gross plane is your physical body, people on the subway, the subway car. The subtle plane is the amount of energy you feel you have in your body, all the thoughts and emotions of you and the people around you, and the hum of the engines. 

Because the gross and subtle planes are interwoven, he says, “...a strong psychic aura of thought, mingled with the forces of life, mind and prana, will serve as protection against a psychic attack.” 

Practicing the pranayama techniques will build your subtle psychic defenses and keeping your body healthy will help you on the gross level. Try an asana practice, cardiovascular exercise, drinking plenty of fresh water, eating raw/unprocessed foods, and reducing your consumption of animal products (where the fear of the animal might psychically make its way into your body). These are all ways you can help the prana energy flow clearly through your physical body.  

For your mind you need positive thinking so that the prana can flow freely. Yoga Gupta describes, “If the Great Lakes are full of sand, the ships can’t move through them.” So you have to clear your mind of heavy thoughts so the prana energy can sail free on the still waters of your mind. 

For your spirit, to purify your 72,000 psychic channels- the Nadi’s- that conduct prana through you, you can attend Sri Dharma Mittra’s Psychic Development classes twice a week.  The psychic development techniques help clear out and strengthen this weblike psychic shield of your astral body. 

Sri Dharma and any of his teachers can help you learn Rhythmic Breathings, Nadi Purifier, Nadi stimulator, and Nadi Vibrator breathings. Additionally, Sri Dharma recommends regular chanting of the Mantra for Purification, to purify your body and surroundings. 

Awareness of psychic attacks is key. Please, do not be afraid of psychic attacks or resentful towards anyone you feel is psychically attacking you. The goal is to strengthen your resolve to live a strong, positive, and healthy life. Keep your mind tuned into this positive direction and, as Sri Dharma says “may you acquire enough energy for the practice.”

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Sara Schwartz lives in Queens, New York with her husband Yancy. She currently teaches at Yoga to the People, where she received her 200-hour certification in 2010. She recently graduated from the Dharma Yoga Center Life of a Yogi 500-Hour Teacher Training. "Offer up the fruits of your practice" is her favorite advice from Sri Dharma Mittra. She is so grateful for the guidance of Sri Dharma and all of his teachers.