THE HUMAN BODY: The Planet’s Finest Machine

When it comes to a dimension beyond your present level of perception, the mind is a horrible guide because it says many things which make you believe things that do not exist, and it makes you miss things which are right there in front of you. This is the reason why yoga adopted a comprehensive way of approaching the spiritual process through the body, the energy, the breath, the emotion and, of course, the intelligence – but not depending upon the intellect, because intellect is always coming from whatever perspective it is in; that perspective looks like the absolute for the intellect. There is a whole science and technology as to how to evolve this body from being just a heap of food, just an accumulation of what we have taken from the earth, into something beyond flesh and blood, beyond the compulsions of our chemistry. The body is the most sensitive and capable instrument on this planet – there is no other instrument like this. If you know how to use it, it is the finest piece of machinery on this planet. It can tell you everything that is here and beyond. That is why the fundamental yoga starts with the body. The process of yoga is just towards realising and retrieving this machine for your use. Right now for most people, it is rusted and cobwebbed in such a way that they cannot use it the way they want to. It does its own things. You must keep this machine, this body, such that, it must be on for whatever it needs to do. If it has to stay for three days without food or sleep, it is just on. Then it is not a compulsive process, it has become a conscious process, it will just do what you want it to do. One simple release that this body needs is, if you can simply sit here without being identified with the physical process that is on right now, not identifying this either as a man or a woman, as this or that, if you make your body free from various complex identifications that you have created around it and allow it to reverberate the way it should and can, it can become the very center of the cosmos. If you reverberate with sufficient energy, you become the center of the cosmos because there is no one center for this cosmic manifestation. It is left free like a democracy. Anybody can become the king. That is the beauty of a democracy. You don’t have to have a pedigree, the opportunity to become the king is wide open to you. So the opportunity to become the very center of the existence is always wide open to you. In yoga, we call the spine the merudanda, which means the axis of the existence, because if you generate your energies sufficiently, you can sit here being the very axis of the existence. This science of getting there, this dimension of making this happen to yourself is what we are referring to as yoga. But the reason why it looks so far away for many people is simply because they have tied their boat to one shore but are working hard to get to the other shore. It is a very hard job that way. If you cut the rope, even the breeze may take you there. If you row hard, you will definitely get there very quickly. But if you row hard without cutting the rope, it is an endless, thankless job. This has been the main problem with people on the spiritual path. People don’t cut this rope but they want to get to the other shore. It is a simple understanding, a simple intelligence that if you want to go from this shore to that shore, if you want to make a journey from the physicality to a dimension beyond the physical, unless you cut this rope, you won’t get there. This is simple, common sense. So we are asking you to bend your body, hold your breath and do these things because slowly, it will cut the ropes of the physical and create a distance between you and the physical. You have to just keep a little distance from whatever enhances and reinforces the physicality in your life. You identify all those compulsive aspects of the physicality and stay away from them. In a small way, this is going beyond the limitations of the physical. Once there is a distance, rowing your boat away is very simple; just the current or the breeze may take it. Even if you sleep, it may still make it to the other shore. Named one of India’s 50 most influential people, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, a bestselling author & poet. Sadhguru has been conferred the “Padma Vibhushan” by the Government of India in 2017, the highest civilian award of the year, accorded for exceptional and distinguished service.

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Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic and visionary, and a prominent spiritual leader. An author, poet, and internationally-renowned speaker, Sadhguru’s wit and piercing logic provoke and widen our perception of life. isha.sadhguru.org