Column by Sri Sri Ravishankar

The big mind inside the miniature world
 
 EVERYONE is a spark of light. Everyone is light. Life is light. Yet we live in such darkness.
Why?
 
This is because the light is covered. If your nature is joy , if your nature is bliss, then why is there suffering in the world?
 
You have read it in the scriptures, you have heard people talking everywhere that life is bliss, life is aananda, and life is joy . The experience of life is however, contrary . There is a problem everywhere. If you like something, there is a problem. If you do not like something, then also there is a problem. If you hate, of course, there is a problem. If you love, even then there is a problem. You get more problems in love than in hatred. So there is a problem everywhere.
 
How come there is so much suffering?
What to do?
How to recognise that life is joy, as we have heard so much of it?
That is where Pranayama comes in. Through Pranayama, the veil that covers the light gets lifted. The veil begins to get diminished.
 
Previously, Patanjali also mentions, “Prachchardana vidharan— abhyam va pranasya which means retention and splitting of breath in a special manner. Changing the rhythm, cycles, root of the breath, changing the flow of breath is Pranayama. Attending to that dimension of Prana in you which has been ignored from birth and working on it is called Pranayama.
 
We work on the body level through the Asana. The next level is the subtle body, the pran that is body. See, our mind is like a glow. Our body is like the wick of the candle. When the glow is put off, even though the wick of the candle is there, there is no light.
Right?
Similarly, when one is dead, the body is still there, but the spirit that was there, the glow that was keeping every cell alive, is gone. That is the life force or the prana, the dimension we are not attending to and is out of our sight.
 
The prana creates an aura around you. In the aura you can see how every disease gets manifested subtly and then gets on to the physical body. Six months before you actually get sick physically, the disease shows up in your pranic body or your aura. So pranayama works on the dimension of your prana and cleans the whole energy field around you. It heightens the spirit in you. It reduces or thins out the veil over the light that you are. You are made in the image of God.
It is even said in the Bible that, “God made man in his own image.” That is exactly what is said in the Vedanta too, Yat Pinde tat Brahmande which means “Whatever is present in this little body is present in this Universe.” Your body is a miniature Universe. Your spirit is part of Divinity. It is said that Eshwara amsha jeeva avinashi. “The life force (jeeva) in us is part of the Universal spirit and is indestructible.” Your little mind is a part of the Big Mind.
 
Yet, what is that obstructing you?
What is that wall between you and God, between you and Divinity?
They are called Mala, aavarana and vikshepa. Mala is impurity , the mucous in your system or the imbalance in your body . Aavarana is the veil that surrounds the identity of who you really are, the veil that covers the light. Vikshepa is the mental disturbance. So, through pranayama, aavarana and vikshepa goes and through other practices you will be able to handle the mala to some extent.
 
There are so many techniques of Pranayama. The more deep you go into it, the more deeply you practise, you get better results.

Jai Gurudev!!