LIBERATION THROUGH BREATH? (SPIRITUALITY 2)

Problems, problems, problems. Who doesn’t have a problem? It just depends on what level of problem you are in. For someone, waking from bed might be a problem. For some, searching for some bread might be a problem. For some, living is problem, for some, dying is problem. For some, falling in love is problem; for some, getting out from love is problem. For some, being single is a problem; for some, being married is a problem. Why these many problems and how can even on tackle these joyfully? “Why joyfully?” one might ask. Well, wouldn’t it be better to act on life situations consciously rather than acting upon them in confusion without clarity?

The solution to all of these questions is just this- to live consciously. Living consciously is different from being mentally aware. Being mentally aware would be good for the brain and body. Being conscious is completely different. Yes, mental awareness is also a part of consciousness, but, it is not consciousness on the whole. What is conscious? What is unconscious? Consciousness is a dimension of life which is unsullied by memory. The fundamental dimension. Unfortunately, most of the people tend to approach life unconsciously and would ignore the fact of being conscious. This “consciousness” which we are talking is not based upon some morality; it is not based upon some ethics, not some imagination. It is the consciousness in its purest form we are talking about. We achieved marvellous feats in the outside world, but as generations passed, we ignored this dimension of life; we never took time to look within. It is only because of this ignorance, the world became the way it is right now. We have engineered the outside world, but we ignored the possibility to engineer the world within. Only because of this ignorance, even if one is surrounded by all the comforts from outside, they feel incomplete from inside. Even if one sleeps on a million dollar bed, he sleeps in fear. This ignorance costs us this planet and generations of lives. Not just of human, but of every possible life on this planet. There is a popular saying, “Ignorance is bliss”. People believe such kind of things and move with life. There’s nothing wrong with this, but one will experience“ the pain of ignorance” later in their life. Being ignorant to some external things is ok, acceptable. But, if you try to be ignorant to life itself; you’ll later know, life will takes its toll.

Consider this analogy; when you want to grow a tree, you don’t need to concentrate on the flower or the fruit, you just need to take care of the seed and give it necessary fertilizers, provide it with water, make sure that its uninfected and so many things at the gross level. Once the sapling finds enough stability to sustain itself in the environment, it will start to grow by itself without any support. Once in a while, we need to check it out. Once it starts growing into a tree, your involvement would be even lesser as the tree starts blooming by itself. Once it’s completely developed, you can enjoy the sweetness of the fruits that it would bear. If you observe; to get a sweet fruit, you need not concentrate on the fruit, instead, you need to focus upon the substances which helps the tree to bear fruits. When you see the fruit, it is not in the shape of fertilizers you gave or the water or the sunlight or anything which helped it grow. It’s just this; if you take sufficient care of the fundamental aspects of the life, your life will automatically bloom into something wonderful. The same goes with us. If you take care of the fundamental dimensions of life energies which drives you, you will become a wonderful human being and do things in a multitude of miraculous ways. Just visualize this; if your body completely takes care of itself by tackling with all the physical and mental ailments, if your brain works more efficiently without being controlled by emotions or situations, if the life energies within you works for you, if your thoughts and emotions work for you, what is not possible for you to achieve? Your mind literally becomes a wishing tree as your life energies work with you consciously. When the internal situations are this pleasant, when they are completely blissed out, do you think external situations would stop you from doing what you want? You’ll be walking on this planet with the least amount of friction!

Modern sciences are getting close towards spirituality. They are finding expressions in the existences with physical proof, where this “proof” is limited. But soon, they will start to look inwards and experience the true reality of life. Going beyond proof.

You can start to live consciously just by simply observing your everyday activities. Simply try to observe your breath. Just to this one thing, you can start it right now. Try to conduct this simple experiment- place your finger horizontally at the end of your nostrils. Feel the breath there. If you carefully observe , you’ll find that, one nostril dominates (i.e, you’ll experience most of the exhalation at that nostril). In yogic science, this was deeply observed to such an extent that, if you simply observe the pattern of the breath, your health condition, your age, how long you’ll live, your ailments, everything can be known. When one is in a deep state of meditation, they can see and feel how the energy within the body is moving. They don’t move randomly, instead they follow few paths or energy channels. These channels are called as “Nadi”. 72,000 nadis were observed . 36,000 to the right side, 36,000 to the left side. These 72,000 which are subdivided into 36,000 sprung from the root nadis which are, “ida” and “pingala” . These are not imaginations or some psychological build up. They exists in the very body of yours, but you can’t find them if you cut open the body. They exists in different energy dimension of the body. The pingala is on the right portion of the body and the ida is on the left portion of the body. If you do the above experiment and observe, you can see in which channel the energy is moving in this very moment. If you are conscious enough, just try to observe this- for every 40 to 50 ( 40 to be exact) minutes, the pattern of the breath changes. Yes, I observed, what shall I do now, what’s the use of this for me? This small experiment is said just to give you a small glimpse into a different dimension of life which exists within you. If both the nostrils have equal breath, your body-mentally, physiologically, psychologically, energy-wise is in perfect sync with nature. One might wonder “ Yes, if there are in sync, what now?”. If you truly experience these energy patterns and the energy which is flowing within you, the logical mind might not accept this, but, the experiences and the energy you feel would truly be speechless. These are things which are meant to be known experientially , not theoretically nor by imagination. If you put your imagination and expectations aside and simply observe, you’ll know. If you are able to get your breath to that state, the very chemistry of your body would change. How? Well, you might have noticed this, if you are peaceful , you breath one way. If you are angry you breathe another way. If you are loving , you breath one way, if you feel hatred, you feel the breath another way. The very way you breath is directly changing the way you think and the way you respond and react to things. If you have tried this- when you are angry or inattentive, one deep breath would’ve changed the very way you reacted to a particular situation. Next time you are angry upon someone, just try to take a deep breath, certain energy channels would be working towards making your mind clear; only then you can look at that situation, not emotionally, but consciously. This is just one aspect of breath. In yoga, there are several sadhana’s ( tools for transformation (practices)) on how you can use your breath. There is a whole science in yoga dedicated just for breath( pranayama). If you simply breathe and use your lung capacity to the maximum extent, you’ll know whole of the cosmos. If your breathe 11 times per minute, you understand the language of every animal and bird around you. If your breath becomes nine, you understand the very language that the Earth is speaking. If your breath becomes seven, you know everything that is worth knowing in existence. That means your body becomes so stable that there is no static, no crackle – it just perceives everything. Even now, the body perceives – otherwise you could not exist. You may not be conscious of it, but your body understands exactly how the Earth is spinning, what is happening with the Sun, what is happening with everything. As long as you live, your body is adjusting to all that. The moment we take out the breath, there is no life, isn’t it?; one just falls dead. If you focus on the way you breathe; deeply, it will take you to the source of energy within the body. Once you reach this source, you’ll be one with the creation itself. One need to be aware while practicing . These practices need to be transmitted from a live guru or from the one who knows the exact science of the inner dimensions of life, or else, if the practices are done without any guidance, or without the necessary science in it, the very way you breath can slowly kill you-not quickly, but slowly shutting down different dimensions of life.

Something as simple as breath can be used to reach the gross or the ultimate. Ever wondered about this? Something as subtle as breath. Soo subtle yet soo powerful. Every part and every inch of this human machine can be used in various ways such that they focus in one direction, the direction that you want to move your life in.