While we made history with our sun and moon missions, I recall a time when after miraculously waking up from a coma I did not know the sun or the moon. Even planet Earth was new to me. The celestial bodies are essentially energies. The good and the bad, the light and the dark exist in them as they exist in each one of us. Pink Floyd referred to the ‘dark side of the moon’ in one of their hit albums of the 1970s. Inside the dark and bright exists the unseeable void where you are promised to reach the state of nirvana.
I was to discover that it is not some dooblydoo in our ancient scriptures; there, indeed, exists a deeper dimension beyond the stars—one that has been the quest of our rishis, munis, yogis and the like. The transcendental does not have a form; it’s the turiya state or shunya, the no-sound state beyond the limited human mind. But who is to argue about that because it’s a no-mind state, where we exit the world as we know it by our limited perception?
Yogic science points to two fundamental forces that are responsible for our body functions: the sun and the moon. The former vitalises and is the ‘active’ energy in us, while the moon is the ‘passive’ energy of calming and relaxation. One may think that being opposite, the solar and lunar energies might be creating havoc in our system, but here is the catch. They both, the sun and the moon, or the ida and pingala nadis, have a meeting point. This central junction in your body, visualised as a straight, silver slim line, is the sushumna, your centre.
So what is stopping them from meeting in harmony, you may ask? Here come what yoga calls the kleshas, or the Buddhists call obstacles on your path of attaining liberation. Enlightenment is not a myth, and it is high time a country like our own started to celebrate a person becoming a Buddha. It is a generic term; Prince Gautam achieved the highest transcendence state to earn the title Buddha. But history shows that we are so bogged down by our materialistic limitations that we miss understanding the higher realm of existence. It is this harmony, even at our chakra level, that fulfils our individual mission of a stress-free life from material gains and transcendence to your highest dimension. That is hard, but not unachievable, all it requires is a steadfast mind and diligent practice.
Anu Aggarwal
Actor, speaker, yogi and author
Instagram: @anusualanu