A more steady you,
brightens the world around you.
Dhāraṇā holds the mind to one place; dhyāna is that hold as one unbroken flow; samādhi is when only the object shines (Yoga Sutra 3.1–3; the glosses are ours).
An anushthan is a practice commitment over several days: japa, or minutes, each day for a set number of days. Log what you do each day; the app keeps count and suggests a pace.
Coverage: selected Yoga Sutra passages · Johnston.
Before your first question: what you ask, with the last few messages of this conversation, goes to Uma's server and on to the AI providers Anthropic and OpenAI to be answered. Leave out anything you would rather keep private.
Ask about a verse, a practice or a term.
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Sun-anchored for your settings location, recomputed daily (NOAA method). The offsets are a synthesis that keeps the original block lengths [inferred].
A suggested sequence. It replaces the generic Shatkarma → Asana → Pranayama → Trataka → Japa order with a gentler one.
Left out on purpose: Shatkarma (Jala Neti, Kapalabhati, Nauli), Bhastrika and Surya Bhedana. Deep pranayama and longer trataka can bring on anxiety in some people; add them only with a teacher. Jala Neti is optional on congested days.
Minimum day: your core items alone keep the streak and light the diya. The full dinacharya lights it brighter.
Uma is not a teacher or a doctor. What it says is educational, not medical advice, and not a substitute for a teacher.
Ask a doctor first, and leave out breath work, trataka, fasting and long sittings until you have, with: pregnancy; high or low blood pressure or a heart condition; epilepsy; glaucoma or another eye condition (and take contact lenses out before any gazing practice); recent surgery or a hernia; a history of psychosis, bipolar disorder, PTSD or dissociation.
Stop and get help if a practice brings on panic; a sense that you or the world are unreal (derealisation); sleeplessness that goes on; intrusive memories; an unusually high or racing mood; hearing voices; or thoughts of suicide or of harming yourself.
Help now: in India, Tele-MANAS 14416 or 1-800-891-4416 (free, any time); in the US, call or text 988; anywhere else, findahelpline.com lists free, confidential lines. In immediate danger, call your local emergency services.
A traditional dinacharya. Sources: an Organic India article on Brahma Muhurta and a Scribd document on dinacharya, both secondary. The "why" lines are traditional explanations, not measured physiology.
The muhurta of 48 min that begins 96 min before sunrise; many traditions treat the whole 96 min as the window.
Jagrana: sattva is said to dominate; the mind is naturally still. Ushapana: 1–2 cups of lukewarm or room-temperature water, drunk seated; by custom it is kept overnight in copper (a tradition, not a health claim). Saucha: empty bowels and bladder, scrape the tongue with copper, clean the teeth; practising with unreleased apana is said to drive it upward. Snana: cool to room-temperature water, treated as bhuta shuddhi.
Wait 20–30 min after the sitting so prana settles. Then light, warm, easily digested food: grain porridge, soaked almonds, fruit, herbal infusion.
Until about 15 min before solar noon: the hardest material. Engineering and architecture problems, deep reading, writing, planning.
The principal meal at solar noon, when jatharagni is said to mirror the sun. Mitahara: Hatha Yoga Pradipika 1.58 defines it as unctuous, pleasant food that leaves a quarter of the stomach free, eaten as an offering to Shiva. The ½ food, ¼ water, ¼ empty split is Gheranda Samhita 5.22 (numbering varies by edition).
Rest on the left side (vamkukshi) for 10–15 min rather than sleeping flat.
Priorities: work, study and family commitments come first. The fixed points worth protecting are the morning sitting and the evening sandhya; the other blocks are aims, not failures when missed.
Rate each from 1 to 5 after a sitting. Each Sanskrit term is Uma's comparison from the text named.
Flawless minutes: the minutes of a sitting free of the four flaws below. A short sitting kept clean counts for more than a long one that wanders; lengthen it once it holds.
An optional pick, 1 to 9, under More detail in the sitting form. The notes are Uma's comparisons with the texts, not equivalences.
The nine-state sequence is not a classical Hindu list, and Uma does not present it as one.
The sitting criteria, flawless minutes and the nine states of attention follow Om Swami, A Million Thoughts (Jaico, 2016), and his article Nine states of attention. The descriptions and the Sanskrit comparisons are Uma's own; Uma is independent of him and not endorsed by him.
Brahmacharya follows each sadhana's own rule, never a blanket rule. Daily practice and the beginner and intermediate levels usually have no abstinence rule. Where abstinence is mandatory (an advanced level, some anushthans), the rule shows before the sankalpa, so you can decide honestly whether that sadhana is right for you now.
No self-release is an optional private count, off unless you turn it on in Settings, and not a sadhana rule. Once on, a support card shows on days 6–9 of the count: a cold snana, a devotional chant such as the Hanuman Chalisa, the phone out of the bedroom. If it happens, log it and restart the count. It breaks a sadhana only when that sadhana's own rule says so.
Vegetarian day: usually required at the intermediate and advanced levels.
General, for any anushthan or a missed day
अपराधसहस्राणि क्रियन्तेऽहर्निशं मया।
दासोऽयमिति मां मत्वा क्षमस्व परमेश्वरि॥
आवाहनं न जानामि न जानामि विसर्जनम्।
पूजां चैव न जानामि क्षम्यतां परमेश्वरि॥
मन्त्रहीनं क्रियाहीनं भक्तिहीनं सुरेश्वरि।
यत्पूजितं मया देवि परिपूर्णं तदस्तु मे॥
Traditionally recited after the Durga Saptashati; no named author [tradition: hindupedia.com]
For the Shiva anushthans
करचरणकृतं वाक्कायजं कर्मजं वा श्रवणनयनजं वा मानसं वापराधम्।
विहितमविहितं वा सर्वमेतत्क्षमस्व जय जय करुणाब्धे श्रीमहादेव शम्भो॥
"Whatever wrong I have done by hand or foot, speech or body, act, ear, eye or mind, enjoined or not enjoined: forgive it all. Victory to you, ocean of compassion, Shri Mahadeva Shambhu."
Closing verse of the Shivaparadha Kshamapana Stotram (also the last verse of the Shiva Manasa Puja), attributed to Adi Shankaracharya [sanskritdocuments.org]
Any of these counts: feed an animal (a street dog, especially on Kalashtami; birds; a cow where there is one) · buy or share a meal with someone who needs it · an online donation to an annadana programme or a temple · seva, time or skill · a temple offering, optional.
Weekday table, a jyotish custom and optional (off unless you turn it on in Settings): astroyogi.com/remedies/donation. Kalashtami dog-feeding: astroved (unverified, snippet only). Which planet to support in your chart is a jyotish question for an astrologer.
| Level | Rules |
|---|---|
| Beginner | No strict rules. Vegetarian during Chaturmas. |
| Intermediate | Vegetarian. Same time, seat and place daily. Face East or North-East. A fixed sankalpa count. |
| Advanced | Strict vegetarian (no egg, onion or garlic). Complete abstinence. White clothes. |
A common three-level scheme. Individual sadhanas can add their own rules.
Source tags: [shastra] = scripture [tradition] [inferred] = a synthesis, not a source. (unverified) = seen only in a search snippet.