Chapter 12 - The Body Is A Temple
Day 61
This sutra is for advanced seekers. Who is an advanced seeker? This is for those who have already overcome laziness, who do not get angry or jealous and who feel a certain amount of contentment.
Since they are not yet fully content, the flower has not yet fully bloomed, but the bud is ready to blossom. This sutra is for this category of seekers.
Some people say, “I go to satsang, but something is missing. I am not content. There is some lack in my life. I sing bhajans and have organised many satsangs”.
“I've meditated, taught others meditation and had them sit and practice. Still, I am not satisfied”. This sutra is for people in this category.
Looking at all the happenings in the body with love and care is an observance. What has happened to us? We not only abuse others, but we abuse ourselves.
When children make noise the elders shout at them and the women swear. It is sheer chaos what happens in a house. In this situation, people see no other solution except to punish themselves.
So they either cry loudly or make others cry. We have been abusing ourselves in the name of righteousness. We trouble our bodies to a great extent.
Although a person is so lean that the wind could blow him over, he fasts for several days - Monday for Shiva, Thursday for Guru, Friday for Devi, Saturday for Hanuman, and Tuesday for Ganesha.
They may fast for three days in a week. Not only that, but they do not observe the fast in the right way. They do not eat rice, but they eat more than their capacity of everything except rice.
Others fast very severely, not taking even a single grain. In this way they punish their body. If you keep punishing your body like this or shocking your system, then how can you create light or brightness.
When you look at sadhus and saints, you might not find happiness, peace, brightness or innocence on their faces. Why? It is because they are torturing and punishing their bodies.
There are two types of people. The first type think that the body is everything and will spend their whole lives protecting the body. The second type completely neglects his body.
They punish and abuse it and even find some pleasure in it. This cannot be enlightenment. Both type of people have bodies that are hungry, thirsty and sleep-deprived.
We should provide for these requirements, right? We observe vrata, observances. What do we mean by vrata? Anything we do with love and affection is called vrata.
But anything done out of force, thinking, "Oh, I have to do it," is not a vrata. Whenever the mind is filled with joy, it is vrata. Suppose you are extremely happy.
That day you will not feel like taking food. People who are about to host a marriage ceremony for a loved one in their house cannot eat properly, but will be content to take care of the guests.
The elderly women of the house will go on feeding everybody without worrying about themselves. They will take only very little to eat, is it not?
Vrata is that which is undertaken when the mind is filled with joy and kindness. The activities of the body are to be treated with respect and kindness, that is vrata.
Do you understand? The Divine dwelling in the body is saying that he needs food, let us eat food with this feeling because the body is dear to us. The body is only a body.
It cannot be said to be "me" just because it is so near. At the same time, you cannot say the body is not "me" because it is separate.
Because this body is near, you can experience the happiness, pleasures and pains of the body more. As a person becomes more sensitive, he feels more pain when others have a problem.
Suppose you are travelling somewhere by bus, cycle or car and you see an accident. You feel as though it happened to you. If someone has broken his leg, you say, “Oh God”. or even if someone cuts his finger, you feel for him.
As a person becomes more sensitive, he will feel other’s pain and pleasure as his own. Likewise, one feels "Whatever is happening in the body does not belong to me, and because the happenings in the body are not mine, I have no right to punish it."
So, do not punish the body. Each word is spoken with love, like a prayer. "Tapa" means that which is born in the mind and makes the mind pleasant. "Ja" means to be born and "pa" means to care for.
That which is born in the mind, sustains our life and leads to an increase in spirituality is japa. If each and every word that we speak elevates us, then each word has become japa.
Do you understand? Let there not be unnecessary, negative thoughts in your mind. For this, do japa. When you do japa, then you rise higher, and consciousness flows through your body.
A word that when repeated over and over again raises consciousness in the mind and body is called japa. You may have seen that these days in colleges if someone loves someone, that person's name is written everywhere, all over the walls and also in stones in the park
