All World
Gayatri Pariwar

Rhythm of Life should be Harmonious

There is a rhythm in our life; and in this rhythm lies the beauty of life, its essential nature and character. A disturbance in this rhythm produces distortion in our lives too. For example, when the musical note acquires a pattern, melody is produced. But when this pattern gets disturbed melody turns into noise. Noise is distortion in sound pattern. So we also call it sound pollution. When the words are properly tuned, they form a song; otherwise they produce a shrill.

Human life has many layers or levels in which the activities of life take place. The nature of man is essentially biological, and in this biological nature there is a rhythm. For example, there is a rhythm in the way our heart beats. There is music in our heart which is reverberating in our pulse beats.

Thus, not only in the blood flow, but in all the biochemical processes in our body there is a rhythmic pattern. Whenever, this pattern gets disturbed, we fall ill. When our pulse (n³dº) becomes slow the heart begins to feel pressure. When the pulse beats rapidly, body runs fever. When the flow of blood becomes slow or fast the blood pressure correspondingly increases or decreases.

A special characteristic with human life is that behind the gross or visible level, there is a subtle level which is invisible or impalpable. This is the level of pr³na or the vital force. There is a rhythm, a melody in the flow of this vital force too. The notes of life are entwined with the note of pr³na. The experts of acupressure-acupuncture say that there are 108 points or nodes in body through which this vital force keeps flowing. When this flow becomes slower at any node, or ceases, it affects the other areas too. So these experts, first of all, try to identify those points where the flow of vital force is blocked, and put pressure on those points to re-start the flow.

There is one more subtle element dissolved in this pr³na. This element is our mana or mind, our imaginations, our thoughts and our emotions. This, too, keeps flowing inside our body, and a disturbance in this causes problems. One level is connected with another level - body with pr³na, pr³na with mind, and mind with body. If one level is hit, others are affected too. For example, if germs begin to multiply inside our body, the tuning of body gets disturbed.

This leads to decline in our vital force which, in turn, causes agitation in our mind or mana. We become restless, disturbed or sad. The whole rhythm of the body becomes topsy-turvy. If we set right the first, the other automatically becomes normalised; when the second is normalised, the third one is also cured. Similarly, when we start from the third and heal it, the second, and then the first spontaneously get healed. That is why there are many systems of healing developed over time. One is the system of medicine. In this, we take medicines through our mouth, which go to intestine, get dissolved in the blood stream and destroy the pathological micro-organisms like bacteriavirus proliferating in the body.

The body gets cured, the vital force becomes normal, and we begin to feel healthy again. If the vital force which flows in our body is robust, no external harmful element can enter our body; no virus or bacteria can infect it. Be this invasion bodily or gross, or be it subtle - it does not matter because the shield of pr³na is impregnable. Similar is the case with mana or mind. If the shield of mind is strong, there is no disturbance or agitation in emotions, no conflict in thoughts, and the thinking process continues smoothly.

When, for whatever reason, this rhythm of life gets disturbed, it can be normalised by dhy³na (meditation). Human life is like an earthen lamp (diy³). This diy³ is made of soil; oil or ghee is kept in this diy³, wick is put in this oil and lighted, and only then there is flame. Our body is like this diy³, and oil is the pr³na or vital force. The hot flame which rises upwards combines both the gross and the subtle elements. In our life, too, the gross element is entwined with the subtle, and the subtle with the subtlest. Dhy³na maintains a tuning between all these levels. Dhy³na makes us sensitive, perceptive and conscious.

If the body is healthy and mind is clean, the larger society, too, remains clean and healthy. Guru Gorakhnath says-“Hasib³, khelib³, dharib³ dhy³na” (meaning – laugh, play and meditate). Dhy³na is not something which requires us to do some big physical labour or exercise.

Dhy³na is, of course, an ascent to the peak, but it is not like mountaineering requiring physical exertion. When we begin to get joyful every moment and this joy becomes intensified, dhy³na automatically gets more and more developed.