With most of us who choose to run each day as a form of exercise and as a stress relieving activity or simply as a habit, integrating yoga along with running must provoke a lot of thought. The sages walked unimaginable distances and on these long pilgrimages by foot that they undertook was the answer that could throw light into the deeper thought of yoga and running – how integrated are the two concepts?

Many years back, there was a young ascetic aged 16 whom I met in a cave called Nadumalai Guhai in Thiruvannamalai. His name was Muthu. He wanted to begin with the plunge into himself, a state called “nishthi,” a process of inward journey that could take months or years till he attained enlightenment, where he would throw himself into divine contemplation forgetting hunger and thirst. He would be absorbed in the light within himself, meditating with a lit lamp as his companion day and night in a cave.

Muthu was very enthusiastic about wanting to jump headlong into “nishthi” but as is a normal procedure to follow, he needed to ask his guru, Ayya for advice. Ayya is a siddhar Sage who is still meditating in his cave (it is his 17th year). A “siddhar” is a term that denotes a yogi who has developed miraculous “powers” called “siddhis” through meditation or divine grace. Ayya advised him to at first walk through every important sacred shrine of India by foot starting from the southern tip of India up to the northernmost frontiers, the Himalayas before he could sit down for good in a cave in Thiruvannamalai.

As a rule of a wandering monk on pilgrimage, he would not stay in any one site for more than a week. He would have to beg for his food each day and his walk would be over 6,000 miles. He would have to crisscross the entire vast terrain of India, all by foot, through towns, villages, thorn forests, the wilderness and the hot tar roads to visit sacred shrines and temples.

I had met Muthu just before he began his pilgrimage that was to be the journey of a lifetime. I still remember his youthful excitement and eagerness as he was to leave the next day.

Four years had gone by. Though I wondered how he was faring, I knew that this pilgrimage would be such a wisdom impregnated journey of inner discovery. The wisdom gathered from the freedom of living as a bird and in surrender while treading through to each sacred place must have been exciting!

I had gone to Sri Kalahasthi, a sacred spiritual center in south India on a pilgrimage. As I was sitting behind the temple meditating, I heard a familiar voice next to me. It was Muthu! He had just returned from his long pilgrimage. He was not the same “Muthu” I had known before. He was a radiant sage who seemed so calm and peaceful and so ready to begin the next journey awaiting him – the plunge within himself, perhaps in a cave in Thiruvannamalai.

He was now a mature Saddhu, an ascetic, who had been graced by the sacred energy of all the shrines he had walked to, barefoot. There was this absorbing silence about him. Perhaps it was due to his being with the divine company of other monks, ascetics, saints and pilgrims along his pilgrimage. I was so happy to see him again, just before he took his plunge into the silent solitary depth to find the Absolute.

I asked him what the deeper meaning behind this extensive pilgrimage meant to him and he said, “We have all evolved from the lower forms of life as insects to animals and as monkey to human. The lower chakras have more of animal nature and as the chakras ascend, we have more attributes of the divine entity we truly are.

“Our feet and our legs are imprints of karma from the beginning of our evolution starting as insects.

“When we walk and use our feet, we are gradually wearing out the karmic imprints. All pilgrimages especially when done by walking erases our karma. It is for this reason that most sacred shrines are located up above on the mountain or hilltops so to enable the seeker to climb and use the feet and in this process wash away karma. Be with the divine awareness every moment and as you walk, you are burning your karma.”

If we consider our daily run/walk a pilgrimage; a journey within ourselves, it is yoga.

Yoga tips while walking or running to awaken the inner fire (Kundalini)
to make it a form of yogic practice:

• Begin your walk or run with gentle long breaths.

• As you inhale, retain the breath for a short moment and become conscious of the inner fire at the base chakra (the muladhara) by flexing the muscles just below the navel and the base of the spine.

• Remember to always hold the breath with love and tenderness as you would hold a newborn chick in your hands.

• As you exhale, be conscious of the breath climbing up from below and exhale visualizing the third eye.

• Repeat every inhale with awareness of taking the breath deep into the base chakra and bring your awareness to a fire being created below you that is being fanned by each inhalation.

• Gradually, you will become aware of the inner fire growing upward to reach the spot just above the navel while every exhale, with your mouth closed, you are bringing your awareness to the third eye.

• Feel the legs lighten as the energy field within you changes from gross to subtle.

• Feel the liberating experience of being more in tune with the soul than the body even as the body is fed by the eternal energy of the inner fire.

• This process burns karma as the body is nurtured.

This transition from gross to subtle energy as we walk or run enfolds a magic metabolism, the infinite energy and joyful release of past as toxins, thought baggage and karmic residues.

The enlightened yogis of south India, the siddhars, mention that when the body experiences the inner fire (Kundalini), the body transforms to youthfulness and it becomes firm. This body is called in Tamil, “Kal Deha” meaning, “the stone body” that is capable of enormous strength and is in the peak of health always.

* The Sage, Muthu, who undertook the pilgrimage, is now in his deep meditative slumber. He is now known as Meynyanaswamy.

Nandhi was born and raised in India. He was initiated into the mystical path of the Siddhars 18 years ago. He now lives in Santa Monica, California where he teaches Turiya Yoga. His recently released yoga music CD Turiya Nada Cave of the Siddhar is Siddhar mantra chants. www.nandhi.com, email: aananda27@aol.com