Meditation ensures harmony between the mind and the body. A person who meditates takes all situations in his stride and is untouched by difficulties. The path between Manipura and Ajna charkas is considered crucial for the well-being of health. Meditation, which bridges the gap between devotee and God, takes the former from ignorance to bliss. Mind loses sloth and radiates positive vibration when it comes in contact with truth in meditation.
The human body is conceived in three parts - Sthula, Sukshma and Karana Shareera (Physical , Cozal, Astral)- and operates at five levels or layers (koshas). While the Anna Kosha can be taken care of by Asanas, Prana Kosha can be dealt with by Pranayama, Mano Kosha by meditation, Vijnana Kosha by contemplation and introspection and Ananda Kosha by concentrating on God. This way, all the five layers will be in a good state, bestowing robust health and mental peace on the Sadhaka.
Asana is not just a posture and meditation is not a mere mental process. All the organs in the body compliment each other and work in tandem for the effective functioning of the body. This means the mind controls all parts of the body and ensures that they work in harmony.
Asana is also a form of meditation and can be mastered by practising Yoga. Gaining control over the body using your mind and ensuring the organs function in tandem is the main aim of Asana. Asana is not only to burn down calories or beat obesity it is also for relaxing the body as well as the mind. When done in the prescribed manner, Asana relaxes your body and enhances your energy. It is a kind of determination; an oath a man makes to himself. Asana makes a man inward-looking and, in this way, also helps his spiritual progression. Some even say that Asana is a competition between the body, mind and the soul. There is no end to this process. Asana is necessary to ensure that the mind gains control over body and more importantly the senses and also to understand oneself.
Mind is the power centre of the body and it is from here that energy flows to make the body comprising diverse organs work like a common unit. Establishing harmony between and among the five senses, the five elements and the five layers of the body is the purpose of meditation. When you are hungry, you tend to eat food. This way, it can be argued that hunger justifies the intake of food. This is a form of worship. But eating food even when you are not hungry makes it a ritual.
Worship is always a result of an external stimulus and our response to it. But doing an act without any provocation or as a result of the cravings of the mind is a ritual. Acts of goodness that are performed in silence can be termed as worship while those performed in condescension are rituals.
Worship is always in consonance with reality as it takes many things into account while rituals only result in difficulties to those who perform them. Worship is a conscious act performed with full knowledge of its consequence while rituals are a result of accumulated Karma. By performing rituals, a man merely loses his power while by worshipping he gets positive energies health as well as relaxation. While worship leads to creation, rituals only culminate in destruction. Rituals smack of attachment and karma while worship is characterised by unflinching devotion to God.
Worship is also a matter of the mind and is conducted in silence.
There is an element of divine beauty and spiritual bliss in it while rituals are ugly and perfunctory by nature. But often, your mind influences you to indulge in rituals by furnishing the logic that “Do something; it is better than doing nothing”. But when you firmly resolve that you will settle for nothing less than worship, even your inaction amounts to worship.
The article has been taken from the book ‘Touch Stone’ by Gurumatha Amma