Expand the Mind, Liberate the Emotions Astaunga Yoga Meditation with Dada Pranakrsnananda: meditation & yoga teacher in New Zealand/ Aotearoa and in South East Queensland, Australia. Dada Pranakrsnananda is a yogic monk and meditation teacher. He teaches Astaunga Yoga meditation through workshops and personal instruction. Dada has conducted workshops for over a decade in many places, including: Wroclaw in Poland; Cologne, Munich and Berlin in Germany; Verona and Florence in Italy; London and Manchester in England; Copenhagen in Denmark; Auckland in New Zealand; and Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Maleny in Australia. Those attending the workshops have improved the quality of their meditation and resolved difficulties that have demanded attention for years. Meditation can be done by anyone, anywhere at anytime. Dada can guide you through meditation. He gives group workshops which are an experience of great depth and energy. Meditation is a process of focusing on an Idea of spiritual significance (mantra) which dissolves mental boundaries and creates a devotional link between the finite and the Infinite. Its Eastern roots are ancient but the practices are easily understood by anyone anywhere. It gives strength to the mind, an ever present joy and a purpose for living. Dada's courses focus on "Where are we going? How are we going to get there? ... And why would we want to?" Some topics on the meaning of yoga and the spirit of meditation include: Biopsychology Madhuvidya Mantra Mind And Meditation The Process Of Tantra The Secret Of Initiation World Peace Through Spirituality -- Frequently Asked Questions - answered by Dada So, how do you pronounce "Pranakrsnananda"? My name is a combination of three words: - Prana means vitality, pronounced praana. "A" is pronounced like the "a" in father. - Krsna means the devotional nucleus of the universe. "R" is like a vowel and a bit like the Irish say it. - Ananda means joy or perpetual happiness. My name means one who gets his joy and inspiration from the devotional nucleus of the universe. Where are you from ... and where have you been ... And where are you now? I am originally from USA. I left there in 1970 and haven't been back since. I lived in India and Southeast Asia for 23 years. I went to Europe in 1993. I lived in Italy for 6 years and travelled to Poland, Holland, Germany, Scandinavia and Switzerland. Now I am living in Auckland, New Zealand. I also travel to Brisbane and surrounding areas in Australia. What's with all the orange robes? Actually the color is saffron. It is the traditional color of renunciation, giving up the usual way of living to be of greater service to others. It is a color that combines red, the color of activity, movement, dynamism, and yellow, the color of high thinking and philosophical thought. So I wear saffron because I try to occupy my mind with higher ideas and work dynamically to see those ideas put into practice. Are you a Buddhist? Or a Hare Krishna? I am neither a Buddhist nor a member of Hare Krsna. I am an Ananda Marga teacher. What is Ananda Marga? Ananda means perpetual happiness. Marga means the path. So Ananda Marga means the path to perpetual happiness; the happiness that continues to be in my mind in whatever circumstances I may be in. Ananda Marga is a socio-spiritual movement, discovering the real meaning of spirituality from the inside and expressing that experience through the way I act towards the environment around me. How long have you been teaching meditation? I have been teaching meditation since December 1971. How much meditation do you do? I meditate usually four times a day for a least an hour each time. What else do you do? In Southeast Asia people have greater difficulties with physical disease and natural calamities so I was involved in doing many types of physical service as well as holding workshops and seminars on meditation. I was also involved in projects that were aimed at raising social consciousness and thinking about spirituality as a base for social change. However in Europe I was more involved in doing workshops and seminars to help people resolve their emotional difficulties, difficult experiences and personal issues. I am doing the same type of workshops and seminars in New Zealand and Australia. Do I have to join a religion to learn meditation? There is no need to be a member of a religion. Meditation just needs to be practiced carefully and with sincerity from a qualified teacher. Ananda Marga is dedicated to maintaining the quality of the teachers and ensuring that unnecessary rituals do not pollute the practices. Is it difficult to meditate? Meditation is an internal practice that leads to the feeling that everyone and everything is part of me and I am part of them. It is inclusive and leads to unconditional love. The techniques of meditation are standard. Meditation guides each individual along his or her own path and feeds the growing awareness of the underlying happiness as difficulties and emotions that occupy the mind are resolved. Learning meditation is not difficult. It involves learning certain skills to make it successful, such as withdrawing the mind from the external environment and the physical body, focusing the self in a point, which is then associated with the Divine, my own, true Self. Will meditation help me feel less stressed? Stress is the result of looking at the world from the wrong perspective. Meditation gives the capacity to convert stress into selfless service. Are you related to Santa Claus? Well Santa Claus is the person who gives good things to people at Christmas time. I guess I am a kind of Santa Claus because I like to give good things to people all the time! I do look like him, don't I? -- What happens at a workshop? This can be answered as follows. The workshop series on "Therapeutic Meditation" consists of six 2-hour sessions. It is called Mantra as Therapy. Therapeutic meditation uses mantra to help resolve problems, difficult experiences and issues that individuals may be facing in daily life. It uses insights from many traditions: Tantra, Biopsychology, Gestalt, NLP, to enhance the process of transformation. When we have a challenge, an issue, a complex experience, there are four ways to deal with it. We either: 1. Express it, often indulging in the problem (whining, overeating). 2. Deny we have a problem (everything is fine, I am not an alcoholic). 3. Suppress our feelings (I shouldn't have this feeling, this is not what is supposed to be happening). 4. Oppress it by taking active steps against it. In all of these cases we feed our own energy into the problem causing it to grow brighter, stronger, louder. In mantra meditation we channel the energy inherent in the mantra to the problem leading to resolution. It is through the proper application of mantra and its energy that the root of the problem is resolved thus healing my planet and myself. A mantra has three dimensions: First: is its acoustic aspect or sound. Second: is its meaning. This is definitional, and is focused on heart (sentiments) and mind (intellect). Third: is the inherent power of the mantra, the spiritual authority of the person who made the mantra. The therapeutic meditation process has four stages: - Stage 1: Identifying your thinking style. Am I a visual thinker? Am I an audio thinker? Am I an emotional thinker? - Stage 2: Identifying the issue. What is bothering me that I wish to resolve? What emotion is occupying my mind often? What issues are distracting me from my goals, relationships or mental peace? This is the heart circle, and uses techniques borrowed from Native Americans Indians. - Stage 3: Using Mantra to heal. In this phase, a dialogue begins between the issue and the person. With the help of all the participants, in a safe and supportive group process and with the help of music the mantra is applied to the issue. - Stage 4: Resolution and healing. The core spiritual experience is understood in relation to the challenge, an issue or complex experience and the individual understands intuitively what needs to be done. -- What people have said... Acarya Pranakrsnananda who is better known as Dada has been teaching mantra meditation in the tradition of Tantra Yoga (the Yoga of Challenge) for the past 35 years and creates an audio, visual and emotional environment for the participants that captivates. He has a wonderful way of expressing difficult ideas in colorful and simple language. "An excellent pedagogical tool for reconciling emotional and spiritual development." Dr. Ivana Milojevic School of Education, University of Queensland "I had been practicing mantra meditation for many years when I first attended one of Dada's seminars that blends modern Western psychological approaches to achieving happiness with the sublime spiritual wisdom and powerful meditation practices taught in India. This has benefitted my personal life enormously, making me look at spiritual practices from a fresh angle, and adding new motivation and understanding to my meditation." Jo Voigt Software developer, Germany "Dada knows how to cheer up his audience with the sheer inexhaustible treasure of life's experiences, while sharing the timeless truths and benefits of a spiritual lifestyle." Frank Van den Bovenkamp Engineer, Netherlands "Dada Pranakrsnananda's workshops always help me to reach a deeper level of understanding of what I need to do to live a fuller, more meaningful life. I highly recommend his work to anyone serious about personal growth." Paul Adams Editor, New Renaissance magazine "At Dada's workshop, everyone helped me to pull my problem out at the roots. When it was out, we turned it into love and filled the holes where the roots had been with love." Meagan O'Brien Student, Christchurch, New Zealand " I have found the seminars very useful and inspiring. I have learned how to deal with thoughts or emotions that come up during meditation, that every thought is only a creation of my mind so I should not be scared by my own creations. The use of mantra is very useful to understand better this process." Massimo Barberi Musician, Italy "Dada is a masterful communicator who has reflected deeply on the significance of mantra meditation. As a teacher of meditation myself, I was surprised to feel the thrill of learning a new approach to the practice of mantra." Stephen Davies AMURT Europe Community Coordinator -- Find out how meditation and yoga expands the mind and liberates the emotions. Web page: http://www.dadaprana.com/ Email: New Zealand: Ananda Marga Meditation Centre 51 Sussex St Grey Lynn, Auckland Telephone: +64 (0) 9 376 2290 / 8011 Australia: 42 Abingdon St Woolongabba, Brisbane 4101 Telephone: +61 (07) 3391 5058 ---