SOOKSHM SHAREER-SUBTLE BODY: Subtle body lives in a different world, maybe in dr eamland.

Before events actually take place, it may unveil future events Your subtle body is inactive, if you have not experienced this truth of life. Subtle is a hig hly complex field of forces all made out of Praan. .. Praan is limited in amount, and Praan is spent more when our forces work hard. So we should conserve our P raan by stressing ourselves minimally . Desire has direct relation with Praan.A man his deep driving desire is.As his deep driving desire, so is his will.As his wi ll is, so is his deed. As his deed is, so is his destiny. Much has been written about subtle body in Patanjali Yog Darshan,Kathopnishad an d in other classics. Most people think that "I am my body, when my body dies, I die." This is not tru e, this is the greatest mistake. The body is an owner-built home, shaped by what we think, say and do. If we want to change it, we should change our way of thin king; but normally we behave with the outer appearance of a person and scarcely notice the person living inside the appearance. We are only houses; we don't kno w how to communicate. The surprising thing is that sensory pleasure is a mirage. It may be exciting to pursue it, but every time we taste it, we come out thirstier than ever before. This is the illusion, the Hindu mystics call it Maayaa.. We have water in our pa lace and we are wandering thirsty outside. We are happy to enjoy short pleasures or grieve in small sorrows, because we are not connected to our wisdom. We have forgotten about our palace. If we can restore our palace, we should be much hap pier." "Below the surface of the body consciousness, we begin to see that we are not li ving with one body, but two. The one is called "Sthool Shareer" in Sanskrit, usu ally translated as the "Gross Body". This is the physical organism which we are familiar with. But the Gross body has a kind of double, made of Praan (see Vaayu ) just as the physical body is made of matter. Its Sanskrit name is "Sookshm Sha reer" or the "Subtle Body"; and it roughly corresponds to what we call the mind, feelings, desires, intellect and will. Gross Body has no intellect and is usually unaware of the needs of the Subtle Bo dy. Subtle on the other hand, has a highly sensitive nature. Subtle body lives i n a different world, maybe in dreamland. In fact when we sleep, only Gross is as leep. Awareness is withdrawn from the Gross and senses are consolidated in Subtl e. Gross is highly physically oriented. If it cannot touch, hear, see or smell anyt hing, it simply does not exist. Consequently his attention is all on the outward appearance of things. He may not hear what you are saying, but if one of your b uttons is not matching, he will surely notice it. Thus his relationships with ot hers are based on how they look. When a person's attention is caught by attracti ve physical appearance, the superficial differences are magnified, such as, peop le over 60 years of age are excluded, people over 30 should not be trusted, thei r values and thinking processes are different. But as the body consciousness lessens, superficial differences like age, appeara nce, physical disability, all fade away. You do not identify people with their b odies any more than with their hair styles or their clothes, but the person livi ng inside the body. The people whose attention is all on appearances are characteristically insecure . Their moods are at the mercy of every little tiny change around them and their security can be shaken only by a misinterpreted word, or an unusual glance, or an unexpected turn of events, all of which they magnify and take personally. If they don't get an aisle seat in the movies, they will be grudging for it through out the whole show. Most of us belong to this category in some degree. Our Gross body is made of food we eat, and Subtle is a highly complex field of f orces all made out of Praan. Desires, compulsions, rigid likes and dislikes are all powerful forces. With a little detachment we can push them in the direction where we want to take them. These forces shape our lives even at the physical le vel, because the balance of forces is related to our health too. In the long ter m, unstable mind brings physical problems.

Praan is undifferentiated energy. Just as the Subtle body underlies the physical body, Praan underlies all the expressions of physical energy. Praan gives us li fe. The senses perceive only when Praan is present. Praan is not only for body, but it is energy for mind too. Force of a powerful desire can take us anywhere a gainst our will. The force behind desires is Praan. When we love, reason, worry, resolve, conflict, choose, exercise patience, we draw on Praan. So the implicat ion is highly practical that both body and mind draw on the very same power - Pr aan. When all the forces of the mind are in harmonious balance, we function at o ptimum health. The imbalance of these forces, for example, habitually trying to satisfy a particular kind of conditioned desire throws off the balance of Praan in the body too; and if this imbalance is prolonged, the part of the body begins to suffer. When we are awake, Praan circulates throughout the body and senses, but when we are asleep or maybe when we are dreaming, it is withdrawn from the body and sens es (Gross) into mind (Subtle). Although we do not hear, we do not smell, we do n ot see, still Praan is in circulation; only the senses are unplugged. Gross body is dead for the world, but the subtle body is sitting by light going over all h er old impressions, arranging and rearranging them to suit her hopes, desires an d fears. If you get up after an eight-hour sleep and you still feel that you are already tired as if you have been working all night, you are probably right; be cause your Subtle has been up and busy burning the mid-night Praan. In dreamless sleep even the mind is still. Thus in that state, Praan is also wit hdrawn from the subtle body into the very core of the personality. In physiologi cal terms, this is when the nervous system also rests and body repairs itself an d the mind is refreshed. In profound meditation, we enter this state wakefully a nd this process heals both body and mind. At the moment of conception, each of us comes into existence with a particular p acket of Praan to last until death. Thus this Praan is the balance of our previo us lives which is opened at the start of new life. We can draw on this balance a s we choose but when it is gone, the vitality of this body comes to an end. So to live is to spend Praan, here we have no choice, but we do have a choice as what to spend our Praan on. In fact, by some strange law, it is not the body th at consumes Praan most; it is the mind which consumes it most. Praan is limited in amount, and Praan is spent more when our forces work hard. So we should conse rve our Praan by stressing ourselves minimally. This may help in increasing our vitality too. There is no connection between vitality and age. You may not be ab le to do hard work at an old age, but you can certainly have clear mind, sound j udgment and a powerful will, if you have Praan. When Praan is dwindling, you bec ome insecure, defensive and open to all kinds of stresses. Praan brings fire to a person brightness, brilliance, vigor, health, sensitivity. When Praan is overd rawn, usually through indulging in self-centered desires, the latter part of lif e becomes sorrowful. At that time desires are still there, but the capacity to s atisfy them is gone. Who have played too much with their senses, their Praan is also gone too much. Desire has direct relation with Praan.A man is what his deep driving desire is.A s his deep driving desire, so is his will.As his will is, so is his deed. As his deed is, so is his destiny. Desire is a river of Praan, flowing along the channels made by Sanskaar. Who has many small desires, his Praan also flows in many different directions. There is not much power in them because they are very little. His vitality is distribute d. But who has only a few desires, his power is more than the person who has sev eral small desires. But imagine the one who has only one powerful desire - how p owerful he will be. Nothing can stop him doing something, rather whatever will come in his path he would remove it or destroy it. So get one good desire and be tter harness its power.