Day 37
Consider your mind as a light, as a flame. Your consciousness is a flame. Your mind is a flame. You may forget this. Your entire body is functioning because of the presence of the mind as a flame in you. Otherwise, you will be like an unlit candle. What is a flame? How does a flame work? A flame burns because of oxygen.
There is a combination of matter and oxygen and a flame comes into being. What is life? Life is also the same. It uses oxygen and lives on some matter. Just as a flame lives on the wax, the wick and oxygen, your life and the mind uses the body and the food in the body as wax. The air is like the oxygen and exhibits its activities in the body just as the flame exhibits its activity.
The consciousness exhibits life. Life and light are very similar. If you put a bottle over a burning candle, it will be extinguished in a few moments. Similarly, if you are shut in a room, without any windows, you can live only for a few hours because you will not get enough oxygen. It is very similar. If you do whatever you do to the candle to your body, too, there will be burn for longer period.
If you put more wax into the candle, it will burn for a longer period. Similarly, if you out food into your body, then it will live longer. If the wick is burnt out, no amount of wax will make the candle burn. The wick has its own limitation. Similarly, no amount of food will sustain the body after some years of life.
The body functions just like a wick. This body is holding on to the jyotishmati pragya. It’s a way to get rid of unhappiness and be happy. At the same time know that your mind is made up of light. It is not matter. Your mind is energy, you are energy.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji
PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS