Q:I am suffering from depression. I started doing yoga, pranayama and yoga nidra. Recently, I went to a doctor in Max Hospital and he diagnosed that the nerves of my brain are weak. Whenever I do trataka, mantra japa or urja dhyan, I feel low in energy. Gurudev, which meditation should I practice in the morning? Whenever I sit for meditation, I concentrate on my forehead and I feel blankness. I get afraid of it. Gurudev, I want to enjoy my meditation again.

A: You say that you are doing yoga and pranayama but I really doubt it. What kind of pranayam and what kind of asanas are you doing? If someone really practices them correctly, the the problem of weakness in the brain nerves are a remote possibility. And especially for someone who does sarvangasana for minimum 4 minutes and maximum 10 to 20 minutes, parvatasana (the mountain pose), ardha matsyendrasana, the cranial nerves grow so strong, that there is no possibility of any weakness.

These days everyone says, “I do yoga”, but unfortunately, not everyone is doing it correctly. To gain the real benefit of yoga, one needs a very diligent practice, which means an hour’s practice in morning & another hour in the evening, and pranayama should be done for minimum half an hour, both in the morning and in the evening. Along with this there should be some dietary restriction too as to what to eat and what not to eat.

So, only then one can experience the real benefit of yoga. Just by simply doing yoga once in a while and believing that you will be cured does not produce the real benefits.