Acharya Mahaprajna
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Our bodies have plexuses and glands. There are lotuses shaped organs also in the human body. According to Yoga, there are six plexuses, seven or eight glands, and lotuses like the Hrdaya Kamala, Nabhi Kamala etc. The technical terms used for them are rather confusing and we should avoid being caught in controversies regarding the terms like plexuses, glands, lotuses etc. These centres have complicated structures with thickly entangled and circuitous fibres and tissues. The vital flow docs not enter into them in a simple way. It has to take turns for passing through them and therefore they have been called Granthis or complex structures. Cakra means a circuitous channel. The terms Kama and lotus are symbolical terms. They mean organs, which are characterised by contraction and expansion. The knowledge centres symbolized by them are activated by concentrating the mind on them. This concentration expands them and the vital force can easily flow through them. If we do not pay attention to them, the will remain contracted and the vital flow has to take a circuitous route to flow.
In a nutshell, the human body possesses glands, plexuses, and lotus structures. The nomenclatures adopted in Yoga and physiology may differ from each other and may sometimes create confusion. A comparative study of the two, however, shows that there is no basic difference between the two systems.
The question as to what we are to concentrate upon can be answered with reference to the area of interest adopted by the practitioner. II his purpose is to attain pure knowledge; he should concentrate on the knowledge centres. As regards the meditation on Arham, the Acaryas have suggested concentration on the biggest knowledge centre.
The body centres may be divided into two classes: Knowledge centres and desire centres. The former are situated in the upper parts of the body and the latter in the lower parts. When the vital force or the mind flows in the downward direction, it activates the desire centres. When it flows upwards, it activates the knowledge centres. The activity of the former weakens the activity of the latter and vice versa. The point of Arhat meditation lies in the brain. If we meditate on Arhat it will naturally arouse the knowledge centre. It is a means of activating the knowledge centre. The Acaryas have said that, while meditating on Arhat, we should simultaneously meditate on the white colour. There is a substance of greyish colour in the frontal portion of the brain. Meditation on the white colour is helpful in activating the atoms present there. It strengthens the mind and all the tissues connected with knowledge are aroused and invested with consciousness.
Where are we to concentrate in the meditation on Namo Ayariyanam? The Acaryas are the repositories of the purity of conduct. The term Acara means purity. The centre of Acara in nears the throat. If we concentrate on that spot, it will develop the disposition for pure conduct. We will become disposed towards purity and develop the appropriate consciousness. We will have to concentrate on the yellow colour. This colour gives momentum to our disposition. The fluids of the body exercise a controlling power on the feelings of heat and cold. Dearth of fluids in the body makes it grow old and weak. It stops the growth of the body. The development of the body is proportional to the flow of the fluids. The fluid controls the body and its glands. The Namo Ayariyanam meditation is to be done along with a concentration of the mind on the yellow colour. This colour strengthens the disposition of sympathy and conduct based on it. It is also instrumental in the development of knowledge as well as of the purity of dispositions.
The centre for the Namo Siddhanam meditation is the Ajna Cakra in the forehead. Its colour is red. The Ajna Cakra activates the entire structure of the body. Its purpose is to control the body with the help of knowledge. The red colour is exciting and exacting. Meditation on this colour for a very long time is fraught with dangers. It is because of its red colour that blood circulates. The Ajna Cakra is, therefore, a very important point of meditation.
The centre for the Namo Uvajjhayanam meditation is the Manah Cakra. Some authorities have spoken of the heart as the centre of this meditation. It is now held, after a long controversy, that this view is not correct. The Upadhyaya is to be meditated on in the Manah Cakra, which is situated twelve fingers above the navel point. It is associated with the blue colour. If you are a habitual patient of excitement, confusion and anxiety, and if you find it difficult to cope with them, fix your eyes on the blue sky for twenty minutes or so, provided that the sky is clear and unclouded, and your mind will become calm and devoid of excitement. Colour therapy also uses the blue colour as a curative. When the patient's nerves have become excited and as a consequence he loses sleep, he is given blue coloured water to drink and is cured of the disease.
Namo Lo'e Savvasahunam means that the monk is the object of meditation. The centre for this meditation is the toe. It is associated with black colour.
Thus there are five centres in the body associated with five colours. Those who located these centres and the colours associated with them were very well conversant with the structure of the human body. They knew which centre was associated with what kind of energy and how to activate them and with what kind of meditation. The Jain Acaryas had their own conceptions regarding human physiology and knew how to activate various kinds of energy associated with different centres in the human body.
The Jain tradition of meditation speaks of concentrating the mind on a particular Pudgal or the tip of the nose. Why should we concentrate on the tip of the nose? Can't we concentrate on any other object? Why should we concentrate on the eyebrows? There is a purpose of concentrating on particular points of the body only. The purpose is to charge the tissues of the centres chosen with energy. These centres are not merely bodily centres. They also command a particular importance from the spiritual point of view. The physiological location of the centres is also helpful for the maintenance of health. Advancement of knowledge and the purification of the soul are spiritual matters. Some of these centres are connected with knowledge, while others are connected with the purification of the soul. The human body is not only an organization of flesh, bones, and marrow. It has to be studied from another point of view also, with which physiology is not concerned. Which items of the body are capable of producing feelings and knowledge is not the subject of physiological studies. It is only recently that scientists have begun to probe into the spiritual implications of the human body. Till recently they had not done so.
In this chapter we are primarily concerned with the gross human body, and therefore, I have not entered into a discussion of the subtle body and its functions. My purpose has been to describe a few centres in the body, which can be activated for releasing spiritual forces.
