Dear Friends,
Namaste!
During the last discussion we had promised to move on to the Yogic Routine that would enable us to put all the theory we are discussing into practice.
However, before we do that, there is a need to clarify a concept that some of us have communicated is not clear to them. It is vitally important to make sure all concepts are clear before we move on. For, a beautiful and robust structure can only be built on a strong foundation.
This is also the beauty of weekly mails. We have the opportunity to clarify before moving on. We have the opportunity for a dialogue rather than just dumping information one way. We have the opportunity to evolve our discussion just like the Soaps on TV.
The concept that needed further elaboration is – how does subtle rule over gross? So, let’s nail that down in this discussion and go on to the Yogic Routine subsequently.
As we discussed, we have three faculties, viz., body, mind and intellect. We are not body. It’s just like having a car that takes us from place A to place B. But we are not the car. Neither are we mind nor our intellect. These are just our faculties that change with time but we know we remain the same old John Smith or Helen Troy. We also discussed that among the three, body is the most gross and intellect the most subtle. Further we stated that subtle rules gross and therefore, mind rules over our body and intellect controls our mind.
And finally we postulated that Yoga is all about purifying the intellect so that it calms down the mind permanently so that our body remains healthy at all times. In other words, unless the mind stabilises, we can never enjoy full physical well-being and unless the intellect becomes clear or pure, it is impossible for the mind to reach perennial equilibrium.Yoga achieves exactly this. It removes ignorance and illusion from our intellect so the mind can experience infinite and eternal happiness and then the body falls in line – not so much because of pretzel positions people get into! Otherwise acrobats would have been model human beings!! In Lord Krishna’s words, those who have understood this fundamental principle have understood Life and have understood Yoga!!! (“Yah Pashyati Sa Pashyati” – Those who see this really see).
So let’s look at how mind controls our body and then at subtler level, how intellect influences the state of our mind.
(A) Mind over Matter
Let’s take an example. Let’s say we are walking barefoot on a road, there is darkness and hence visibility is poor. Suddenly, we step on something. It feels very slippery and long. Our antennae go up. Our imagination runs wild. “It must be a snake. And a poisonous one at that!”
Our heart starts pumping, sweat breaks out on our forehead. Our throat runs dry. We want to scream but are unable to. We want to run but we are frozen. All the energy in our body seemingly leaves us.
We become like Arjuna at the beginning of the Kurukshetra war.
Physically have we exerted ourselves unduly for these symptoms to occur? Decidedly not!
So what has changed to make our healthy, happy self a minute before to a veritable vegetable resigned to its fate?
The state of our mind has changed. Fear has crept in where there was no fear before. It has paralyzed our body.
If one second of bad state of our mind can have so much negative effect on our body, we can only imagine what havoc a mind that is consistently ill-at-ease can play with our body!
This is how mind is consistently “shaping” our body.
(B) Intellect over Mind
Let’s take our example a little further. Suppose we have a torch and we train the torch on what we have stepped on. Only to discover that it’s a piece of rope! Our mind and body slowly return to normalcy!
What has changed? Earlier we had wrong notion of reality. We had ignorance that adulterated our intellect, our thoughts. The moment truth dawned upon us, i.e., our intellect became pure, the mind stabilized and so did our body.
The natural question here is, what if the situation was reverse and we mistook a real snake for a rope? Of course the emotions would reverse in that case but the good news is Reality is not that way. Ignorance that we have is about our true identity (by design as we have seen) and when this ignorance gets eradicated, the truth shines through. And the truth is that we ARE that infinite and eternal happiness that we had always sought! This is ‘realization’ and it stabilizes our mind and hence body as well.
Stay tuned...
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