Antar Mouna

Antar mouna (अन्तर्मौन) — “inner silence” — is the tantric meditation of observing the mind’s contents without suppression: thought after thought witnessed, named, allowed, and finally released — the technique Satyananda Saraswati’s Bihar School systematized for the modern world.

Origins

The practice descends in the tantric-yogic oral tradition (the vichara of watching the mind); Swami Satyananda’s lineage gave it its graded modern form, taught at the Bihar School of Yoga from the 1960s as a foundation practice alongside yoga nidra.

Methodology

Four (or six) classical stages: (1) awareness of external sense-impressions without reaction; (2) awareness of spontaneous thoughts; (3) conscious creation and dismissal of a thought (the deliberate creating of an object of mind — grief, anger — and its release); (4) awareness of the pause between thoughts — silence itself. The discipline is non-judgment throughout: nothing suppressed, nothing fed.

Modern status

Taught widely in Satyananda-lineage ashrams and teacher trainings; its protocol parallels modern mindfulness and exposure-based approaches, which has made it a reference point in yoga-psychology discussions.

Verification notes

• The staged method follows the Bihar School’s published manuals (Satyananda’s systematization).
• Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).