CHAPTER 2 Physical Body🔗

The physical body is this body that we can touch and feel. The physical body is what makes us feel physical pain and suffering on the physical plane.

First, we will work on the physical body. There are three things that we are going to do: one is balancing the body, the second is erasing the body consciousness or the outer line of your body from your mind, and the third is just merging the physical body back to energy. The physical body is more like matter right now. It will be merged; it will be put inside energy.

BALANCING THE BODY

Why are we supposed to balance the body? Unless you balance your body, your mind will be continuously in the body. There is a beautiful saying by Patanjali: sthiram sukham āsanam. Patanjali is a great, enlightened master from Bharat, known for his yoga science. The meaning of these words can be interpreted to mean 'When the shoe fits, the feet are forgotten!' Or, when the belt fits, the belly is forgotten, or when the chain fits, the neck is forgotten, or when the ring fits, the finger is forgotten. If the ring doesn't fit, you will be continuously remembering the finger, is it not? If the chain does not fit, you will continuously be remembering the neck; if the shoe does not fit, if it is either too

Physical Body

tight or too loose, you will be continuously remembering the feet, is it not?

What is the scale to see whether it fits or not? If you have forgotten the feet, you can be sure, the shoes fit. If you have forgotten the belly, you can be sure, the belt fits. If you have forgotten the neck, you can be sure, the chain fits. If you have forgotten the finger, you can be sure, the ring fits. So… when you can forget the body, only then can you be sure, the body is comfortable! Whenever your body is not comfortable, you can never forget about it. If you are not remembering your body in any way, it means that you are comfortable in it.

If you can forget about your body, you can understand that you are healthy. If you don't remember your head, it means that your head is without any discomfort. If you have a headache, can you forget your head? No! That is why spouses always give headache to each other, so that you will not forget them! If some part of the body troubles you, you will never be able forget that part, is it not? If you forget that part, what does that mean? It means that you are not having any trouble with that part, that's all!

If the body is healthy, you forget about it. We can also say, when you forget the body, it becomes comfortable automatically!

So get ready for the first session - forgetting the body! If you are a little bit balanced, you will be able to forget the body and you will be able to enter into the second session. First thing, you need to balance your body in order to forget it. If the body is balanced, you will forget it.

Now we learn a small technique to balance the body.

Just think of your mālā (red sandalwood chain that you are wearing) as the centre of gravity line of your body. If this line is straight, then it means the mālā is in the rest position. If the mālā is held to the side, then it is not resting. If I leave it, it will come back to the restful position. This down position, this mālā is totally resting and comfortable. In the same way, your centre of gravity line should fall in a straight line. If it falls so, you will be totally comfortable in your body; you will be able to forget the body. Let me teach you how.

Just sit cross-legged on the mat, with the right leg on your left thigh. If you can't sit on the ground, then sit on the chair, but try your best to sit on the ground. Sit with the right leg on your left thigh; your legs should be seen. See, if your legs are really under your control, you should be able to do the ardhapadmāsana – the posture I am telling you to sit in now. Only then, your legs are under your control. Otherwise, your legs are under someone else's control! You don't have to sit like this the whole day. Just once if you sit, it is enough. Then the whole day, you will be balanced; you will be comfortable.

It is good to sit often in the balanced posture at home or in office or car or wherever. Your whole body will be balanced. Until the age of seven, your body has its own builtin mechanism to balance itself. Once you have grown into society, you forget the original balancing technique. Now I am just giving the original balancing technique back to your body.

Once you learn it, you don't have to sit the whole day like this. You don't even have to sit straight. Whatever way you sit in it, the body will balance itself. It is like when you start training to ride a bicycle, you need to sit straight on the seat and hold the

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handles properly, but once you have mastered the technique, you can even put your legs on the handlebars and you will balance, is it not? So just the knack of balancing needs to be learned.

Actually, it is going to take only five minutes. Sit with the right leg on the left thigh. First thing: for one moment lean forward slightly and put your whole body's weight in front of you and feel the weight of the body. Naturally, you will feel that the whole body is being pulled by gravity. Now, slowly, inch-by-inch, if you raise yourself and make your body straight, at one point, you will feel weightless. You see, when your body is leaning forward, you will feel the weight, the heaviness of your body being pulled by the ground. Step by step, very slowly, in leaning backward to mid point, you will see the gravity becoming less. At one point, you will feel totally weightless. That is the line in which your centre of gravity falls in a straight line. Now, very slowly, lean backward and feel your weight again. Then slowly, bring yourself back to the straight position again. At one point, you feel totally weightless, relaxed. This is your center of gravity line. Now you will be able to feel this balance position well.

Only one thing should be understood. Your centre of gravity should be in a straight line, and you should feel weightless at that point. At that point which you feel you don't have any weight, at that point when you feel your body is the lightest, that is the point when your body is balanced*.* At this point the hip should be in complete rest; it should not be moved. It should be totally fixed. Now, start balancing your body. Do it very slowly. You need to observe your body well. Only the backbone should bend forward or backward, never the hip or thighs or legs.

If you are balanced, then close your eyes. You may also sit on a chair to do this balancing technique. Relax in this balanced posture for a few minutes.

We are going to do the next meditation sitting in this posture. Once your body learns the language of comfort, whenever you sit, automatically you will sit only in this posture. If you have observed me, you would have noticed that whenever I sit, and wherever I sit, my body will always be very straight. Only with specific instruction to it, I bend my back! With you, normally you will be bent; only by instruction you will sit up straight! So now, taste the comfort of sitting straight and balanced. If the body learns this you will see a total attitude change. The body's whole attitude will change and it will make itself completely comfortable. Now, we will do the meditation. This is a meditation that is actually working on the physical body, making your physical layer into energy.

MEDITATION TECHNIQUE 1

Stand with one and half foot space between your feet. Close your eyes and tie the eye band.

• 1. Inhale and exhale slowly and deeply.
• 2. Concentrate on your feet; forget all other body parts. Tense your feet. Visualize your body as a bean bag. Tense your feet as intensely as possible.
• 3. Now relax the feet completely (2 minutes).
• 4. Next, tense your calf muscles as intensely as possible… Relax.

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• 5. Now, tense your knees as much as possible to the point of pain… Relax.
• 6. Tense your thighs intensely. Do not allow even a single nerve to rest.... Relax.
• 7. Tense your hips... Relax.
• 8. Tense your navel region intensely… Relax.
• 9. Tense your arms intensely… Relax.
• 10. Tense your face intensely… Relax.
• 11. Tense the crown of your head intensely… Relax.
• 12. Finally, tense the whole body… Relax. Sit wherever you are.
• 13. Now, visualise and start inhaling and exhaling through the head. Visualize that the whole head is porous. Next, inhale and exhale through every pore of the face, ear, nose, eyes, mouth, neck, shoulders, hands and entire body.

MEDITATION TECHNIQUE 2

Actually, as of now, you are solid matter. But we will be making you totally porous to the energy of Nature. Mostly, all of us resist the energy of Nature. Understand: in the part of your body where you feel cold, where the cold air is touching you, if you don't resist and just allow the cold air to pass though you, you will never have a problem with Nature's energy around you. I walked in this very same dress when I lived in the Himalayas during my pre-enlightenment period. I walked in the Himalayan snow. Of course I never even wore sandals at that time. All the wandering ascetics live this way in the Himalayas, in the snow.

If you have this basic understanding, if you have this basic relationship with Nature, you will not fall sick due to cold and such things to do with Nature. At least that much you can manage. So this balancing will help you. And moreover, becoming energy will make you porous to Nature.

Meditation Technique:

Start humming as deeply as possible, and as loudly as possible. Think of yourself as a hollow vessel and start humming. Think of yourself as a hollow vessel; forget your body, forget your mind, just become the humming. Put your whole effort in the humming. Even if you have a slight tremble in the body, or cough, or burps, there is nothing wrong. Continue as deeply and intensely as possible; forget everything else; just become the humming.

Just put your whole effort into the humming; forget that you are an individual person. Drown yourself in the energy that is being created from the humming. Forget your body and mind in the humming sound. (21 minutes pass)

Stop!

Now, sit calmly and just witness all your thoughts; don't suppress any thought. Don't condemn any thought. Just see what is happening inside and outside your body. Whatever happens let it happen. Just be a witness to everything that is happening throughout your body. (A few minutes pass).

Relax. Slowly, you can open your eyes.

This powerful humming meditation is called The Mahāmantra. It helps you create a great current of energy. This energy circle will create 1000 volts of energy. Understand: if ten people put

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ten volts together, it becomes 100 volts. And if the same ten people touched that energy, just imagine what a shock they would have! In the case of energy, everybody in the circle gets the total energy. And when THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's presence is there, the 100 volts becomes 1000 volts because his presence is like a stepup transformer! So if you can create one volt when you do Mahāmantra alone, this circle will create 1000 volts for each of you.

MEDITATION TECHNIQUE 3 - DEATH MEDITATION

Sit down cross legged on the floor with your eyes closed.

Visualize that you have lost all your possessions, all your name and fame, all your wealth. See yourself as a nobody in society. Visualize that the people who respected you earlier no longer respect you. You have lost all money and have become a beggar begging on the streets. See clearly that you have become a nobody in society.

(10 minutes)

Visualize that you have lost your near and dear ones physically. Visualize that your most cherished relationships have broken to an extent they cannot be repaired.

(10 minutes)

Visualize that you have lost your body parts in an accident or through some disease. Your physical health has deteriorated to a great extent.

(10 minutes)

Bring in your fear of the unknown like the fear of ghosts, spirits and darkness. Live the fears to the maximum extent possible. (10 minutes)

Get ready for your death. Lie down on your back keeping your eyes closed. Your toes and feet are slowly dying…They are dead. Your calf muscles and knees are dead. Your thighs are now dead. Your hip is dead. Your upper body and your arms are dead. Your neck and face are dead.

The soul leaves your body through the sahasrāra chakra (on top of the head). You are dead.

Watch your dead body being surrounded by your relatives and friends. They are all grieving your death.

Watch your body being carried to the cremation ground by your family and relatives. Watch your body being prepared for the cremation.

Your body is now being burnt. It is burning and becoming one with Existence.

(A few minutes pass)

Now, enter back into your body and sit up. Open your eyes.