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ENERGY
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GAIN ENERGY
APPRENTICE
LEVEL1
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THE
ENERGY BLOCKAGE REMOVAL
PROCESS
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THE
KARMA CLEARING
PROCESS
APPRENTICE
LEVEL3
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MASTERY
OF RELATIONSHIPS
TANTRA
APPRENTICE
LEVEL4
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2005 AND 2006
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SivanandaTHE PATH BEYOND SORROWChapter 7: Laws Of Health And Prosperity1.The Human Being as Viewed by the Indian Masters
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Indian thought evolves from within outward so that the first task and the most important thing is to know yourself, for you are the prime factor of all knowledge. There must first be a seer to see things, and there must first be a thinker to ponder over matters, to ponder over all things seen. There must first be a knower if any knowledge is to be at all. Therefore, the knowledge about the knower, the science of your own Self who forms the pivot of this universe, who is the basic factor in all knowledge, was placed first. Know Yourself—and then start knowing all else that is other than yourself. The great knowledge which the ancient seers of India arrived at about the truth of the individual was that he was no material being, that he was no being of this earth, and those parts of his personality which were material and partook of the nature of the material universe, viz., mutability, change, destruction and decay were but appendages or sheaths or coverings which enfolded and held in bondage, as it were, the true splendour of his essential Self and, as such, they were outside of him and not essential to him, and the essential being was the spiritual Consciousness within. Nearest to this spiritual Consciousness is the mind, and to the Indian Masters, the mind is as much matter as the physical body. They do not give a higher place to the mind than to the body in as far as the mind’s relationship to the soul is concerned. In relation to your true Self, mind is no better than a clod of earth or this flesh-and-bones body. Mind also is matter, but it is matter in a very fine state. It is subtle material. It is only the spiritual Consciousness that is truly of the Divine Nature, and compared to it, mind is matter, the body is grosser matter, and the external stuff is the grossest of all. The entire view of the human being, as held by the Indian masters, is that the conditions of the body depend upon the interplay between the innermost Self of man and the various sheaths covering it. If full and unhampered play of the soul-force is allowed through the mind, through the intellect, through the feelings, through sentimental thought, through the vital energy within, and through every cell and nerve fibre of the body, then the body would be in a perfect state of health. If this free play of the soul-force is blocked, is vitiated, then a condition of sickness arises in all the enfolding sheaths. How does this blockage come about? In two ways. If your consciousness becomes so clouded that you totally forget your eternal link with the spiritual source of your life, which is God, and you become totally engrossed, enmeshed and entangled in the desire-personality of the mind and the intellect, and in the passion-personality of the senses of the body, then your link, your channel, with the Supreme Being is “cut off” and you cannot have fullness of life and abundance of well-being, for all well-being, all abundance, stems from the Eternal Source of your life. It is from God that we get all well-being in all the different aspects of our nature, and in all the different levels of our nature, and if we cut ourselves off from this source, then, like unto a branch that has been cut off and hanging loose from the parent tree, we tend to wither. The very source of our life being cut off from us, our life tends to partake of illness, disease, weakness, imperfection, sorrow, suffering and misery. In the same way, if through the misuse of our body and its physical energy, of the inner vital power that is expressed through the form of subtle Prana within the physical body, and of our own thoughts and emotions, we make them so gross and totally unsuited to the expression of our essential Divine Nature, then these levels, being deprived of the benign and beneficial influence of our own soul-force, tend to become sick. Therefore, the whole of Ayurveda is built upon this theory, viz., that instrument which is pure and perfect, which is in a state of fineness and thus permits the true Divine Nature full and unhampered scope for expression through itself, tends to progress in health. And so, where this free play is vitiated by our misuse of the various forces at the different levels of our being, our entire being tends to get into a state of ill-health and suffering. The theory of Ayurveda also says that even the suffering is just a reminder to the individual to correct himself and once again regain a clean and fine state, a refined state; and if he learns the lesson of the disease and ill-health immediately and changes his habits and sets right the error in living, both physically and mentally, then that health which is the inherent state of the human body, which is the natural state of the human body, will prevail once again. You are now familiar with the four levels of your being. There is your true being, your true nature within, and YOU are seated at the centre of this body chariot—existence, consciousness, bliss, peace and purity, of the nature of perfection. Secondly, around YOU is the mind-matter, the mental sheath, where all intellectual activity, mental activity, emotional activity takes place. And still further outside, there is the vital sheath holding the energy that animates the body and makes it live. And you then have the external form which is made up of gross flesh, bones, muscles, tendons and the various organs which make up the physical body. In the three levels of the mind, the Prana and the body, one has to maintain a certain standard of purity and a certain standard of refinement. |
Next: Chapter 7: Laws Of Health And Prosperity, 2.How to Eat to Keep Fit
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Sri Swami Sivananda The Path Beyond Sorrow
Chapter 7
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