Like a boat that allows us to float on the surface of the water, our body allows us to float on the waters of manifestation. The body is important. There is no body – there is no experience: through the body the process of cognition takes place, through the body we get a touch of the infinite, through the body there is realization. The body can be both the reason for our opportunities and the reason for their absence.
Our body is a big laboratory in which the processes of creation, development and destruction take place. Five types of life force circulate in our body: prana, apana, samana, udana and vyana. Not only our health depends on their balance, but also our spiritual development. In the laboratory of our body, there are 72,000 channels called nadis. Everything that happens to us happens in these channels: if the energy in some channels doesn't circulate well, then this may manifest itself in some problem of the physical body or psyche.
Of the 72 thousand nadis, the most important are three: ida, pingala and sushumna. Ida and pingala are the channel of the Moon and the Sun, respectively. Ida and pingala are like plus and minus in our body, like excitation and inhibition of the nervous system, like anabolic and catabolic processes, like flexors and extensors of muscles, etc. The work of all 72,000 channels depends on the balanced work of Ida and Pingala, and this is our health and balance.
Ida, pingala and sushumna begin in the region of the coccyx and go up along the spine, but only the central channel, sushumna, reaches the highest point – the Sahasrara chakra, which is located at the top of the head. Of these three, sushumna is the most important, because when sushumna is active, a person becomes divine. If the energy of apana can enter the sushumna, then we will go beyond the mind, we will go beyond dualities, beyond good and evil, pleasant and unpleasant, joy and sorrow. Sushumna will enable us to realize our meeting with ourselves. But this is possible when we have a body.
Yogis pay special attention to their body, but don't forget that we are not the body and we are not the mind. The practice of yoga can completely heal the body, can make it strong and beautiful, but there is one inconvenience – you need to practice. No one can do the exercise for you, and no one can appropriate the results of your efforts.
If you intend to make changes in your life, then don't even do it tomorrow – do it now. With an intention, you will attract everything you need: the right knowledge will come to you, the right people will meet you. It doesn't matter where it comes from, what you need can come from anywhere.
If there is a suitable intention, then you can even meet your Guru. A real Guru doesn't teach anyone – everyone learns by himself. Guru can only share his experience and tell about what he has realized. Guru can show us the practices, but he cannot perform them for us. The real benefit of Guru is not what he says or shows. The real benefit lies in the wonderful opportunity to find Guru within oneself. If the disciple is attentive, sensitive and receptive enough, one will see that there is no difference between Guru and himself. Disciple and Guru are one. This is the universal game of the Absolute, but nevertheless having realized it, we still continue this game. And while the music is playing, while the lights are on – the game continues – the game of the Universe on the screen of our consciousness.