The Sweet Experience of Asana
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January 12, 2011
One of the biggest crimes that happened in the Indian Vedantic tradition is the disrespect to asana. The Indian Vedantic tradition or the Indian religious traditions have somehow started disrespecting the necessity of keeping the body fit, alive and in the right posture. That is the reason you do all kinds of dance when you are asked to sit on the floor! Pain here, pain there, and the uncomfortable feeling you have, are because somehow you got the idea - it is in the Indian conscience itself - that you are not supposed to respect the body, as if it is a villain! Whether it is eating or sleeping or seeing or listening, for your own enjoyment and excitement, you continuously take the body to its extreme. I have seen these youngsters sitting and watching cricket or baseball on TV until 2 o'clock at night. Your eyes will be begging, please let me rest. No. You will force yourself, abusing your body.
Listen: your body is a victim, not a villain. Your body is your victim. Whether it is seeing or listening to loud music, just because it gives a kind of a kick or excitement, or the taste of extremely hot chilly food because it gives a kind of a kick - your body is your victim. Especially that Andhra Gongura chutney! The eyes will be pouring. This means that your tongue is a victim of your pleasure. You can't handle your craving for excitement, so you abuse your tongue.
In the same way, physical touch. In every level, your body is not the villain, it is a victim. But in the Indian conscience, in the Indian religious traditions and Vedanta, we somehow started neglecting, rejecting and disrespecting the body. That is why even the great Vedantis who study these ideas for years, never have
the experience. Because for experience, your body need to evolve to a certain posture, asana, where you experience the highest state of consciousness in your body. The very body you have needs to be aligned.
If I need to give an example, your body is like a mirror and this light is the cosmic light. Now that light is reflecting on the mirror by accident in some direction, in some angle. But you need to tune it, you need to align the mirror to such a clear posture where the cosmic light reflects itself straight, complete, 100%. Aligning the mirror to the right posture where it completely reflects itself without any distortion or deflection is what I call asana.
For each person, there will be some postures which, the moment you lock yourself in that posture, you will feel so comfortable and think, this is my very nature. You will be able to find out through trial and error or by the guru's prescription, which set of postures you need to do. It may be a sequence of twenty postures or twelve postures like the surya namaskar. Then increase the capacity to do them and be in those postures, continuously practicing and experiencing the sweet pain the whole day. I tell you, when the right posture is discovered, when you do it, you will feel the nectar oozing out of every joint. It will not be pain; it will be sweet pain. Nectar is available in every joint. The proper mudra and asana makes that nectar ooze out. I don't even want to use the word 'pain'. It is having that sweet experience in every joint through the practice of the set of postures, practicing those set of postures more and more, and increasing the capacity of your body which experiences the sweet nectar feeling in your body.
Spend a little time to find out the right sequence of postures for you, by the trial and error method or by the prescription of the guru. You will not only practice those postures, but will increase your ability by practicing more and more, again and again, so that the sweet experience remains in your system and the taste of the nectar from every joint happens in you continuously.
