Page 6 - An Introduction to Spirituality

and guidance. This will lead to purification of the heart and
stabilise the emotional being.

Lastly, we come to the physical level i.e. the body.
Body is matter. Take life out of it and it is inert. But even
something as gross as the body has to be awakened as
otherwise the spiritual life cannot become integral. This is
not an easy task. The body has the vibrations of matter,
plant and animal gathered over millions of years. The body
is a very difficult instrument to be awakened. But an effort
has to be made to prepare it and for that the body also
must pray. It sounds rather strange since the body cannot
think then how can it pray? If our physical actions are con-
secrated to God the body also begins to pray. We must
remember that the body, like the mind and the heart, is
an instrument of the soul. As far as asanas are concerned,
when you start them it should be with an attitude of offer-
ing to the Lord. That is why asanas are called yogasanas.
Yoga means union. Therefore, an asana which is done as
a consecration to God is yogasana. If consecration is not
there it is only an exercise and will have a limited effect.
What we must remember is that the body too has a role to
play in spiritual life. In some of the olden traditions of spir-
ituality the body was not given much importance. What
was important was to receive gyan through the mind and
bhakti through the heart. But in Sri Aurobindo 's yoga the
body has an equal importance as ultimately the destiny of
the body is to be transformed into a divine body.

In order to prepare the body for the ultimate transfor-
mation it is no doubt important to exercise. But it is equal-

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