The Naumukhi Mudra

In my last post, I talked about sound of silence. Meeraji asked about the closing of nine gates. So here I will be explaining the mudra as far as I have understood and practised it. I am no yoga expert or guru, I am just sharing what I do.

Naumukhi mudra means the sealing or closing of nine openings. We interact with this outer physical world through these nine gates or nine dwaras. Our consciousness moves outwards through these nine gates. Any impurity or blockage in these gates leads to diseases. That’s why Patanjali puts Shauch (purification) before asana, pranayama, etc. 

Coming back to this post, if you want to turn your consciousness inward, you have to close these nine gates. How? Very easy. Sit in any comfortable posture. Close your mouth, close your eyes, close your right ear with right thumb and left ear with left thumb. Place your index and middle finger on your eyes, ring finger in front of nostrils and small finger on lips. Don’t press your eyes too much and try to minimise eyeball movement. This closes seven upper gates. Now for closing remaining two gates, contract your anal muscles and your pelvic muscles in the same way when we have to control the urge to urinate in absence of any toilet (bhagwaan kare kisi me sath aisa na ho 🤭). This is naumukhi mudra as I do it. 

I use to do bhramari in this posture. Inhale and make a humming noise through your nose (There are many videos available on YouTube). According to my experience, vibrations of bhramari remove the useless voices and noise that we take in through our ears. After bhramari, it will be a little easy to listen to that humming sound. Feel your ears, you will hear that humming sound. I practiced in this way for 5 minutes per day for more than 2 years. I still practice it, just 5 minutes of it refreshes me.

P.S. I never started writing posts for money. But yesterday, I saw a support amount. I know you did that out of love but I felt little uneasy. Please don’t do this. There’s no requirement. You have already gifted me membership and lots of love. I couldn’t understand what to say. I would like to say what Ankita ji said in her post Holi – “please contribute to live events or other authors whose sole income comes from writing. ” My gratitude to your boundless love ☺️.