Sitting still

Dr. Parimal Devnath

12B/174: Valvan, Lonavla

Pune, 410403.

Human body is naturally agile.  It is always in movement.  It is due to its being alive.  Life force is in action.  Life force is a dynamic force.  Living body needs to have movements.  That is how it can conduct various activities and also can move from one place to another as the need be.

By use of certain methods, movements of the body can be increased.  This is done with specific objective, that is, to attain excellence in particular areas of performance.  These areas may be referred to as games and sports, fight in the battlefield and also dance as a form of performing art.  In such fields one is required to have calculated movements of the body and mostly speedily and sharply.  Precisely, it is well managed moves here which determine success or failure and, win or lose of the performer.  To ensure expected results in these areas, a lot of sustained training is necessitated and also the dexterity and agility have to be maintained throughout which is quite challenging.

It is expected that movements should be purposeful.  If movements do not have purpose, they are generally not considered to be good.  Useless movements or fidgety indicate that there is something wrong with the inner being.  A restless mental or emotional state can cause physical restlessness.    

However, there exists another side or quite opposite side to this bodily movement.  That is the state of bodily stability, state of cultured and studied stability of the body maintained for predetermined period of time.  There are fields of human performance which does not require fast moves of the body as mentioned in the last paragraphs.  Apart from these areas, almost all processes of learning and performance involve measured movements or no movements.

In fact, a very close observation reveals that human excellence in almost all fields (except dance, sports and war) of learning and performance depends on ‘how much’ motionless one sits and how long.  To preempt this idea with more clarity, it may be said that motionlessness does not mean dullness or inertia of the body.  We may like to make a clear distinction between ‘ acquired stillness’ from stillness experienced due to inertia (physical and mental dullness) or physical debility due to disease or old-age.  Here ‘sitting still’ is a condition highly conducive for outflow of ‘Pure Consciousness’ through development of ‘awareness’.

There lies a lot of difference between bodily inertia and a state of bodily motionlessness with unbridled attention and focus.  This finds good lot of explanation in the Gita which defines ‘niscalatva’ and the in the Upanisads.  The very word ‘upa-ni-sad’ stands for ‘sitting near’ to a Master.  And sitting near a Master needs attention, devotion, respect, surrender, one-pointedness, awareness and flow of consciousness.  Such a state expressed primarily through the body language does not mean a mechanical staticity.  ‘Niscalatva’ or/and ‘niscalabhava’ as indicated in the Gtita emphasizes on the inner flow of feeling of genuine quietude and this first finds a way through gross body.  Thus it may be stated that, refusal to move the body may allow certain positive and higher inner state of being.  Such well-developed pose can be highly conducive for ‘Pure Consciousness’ to get revealed.  In fact, we come across a great number of special human beings from the fields of scientific discoveries, literature, spirituality and the like who spent considerable time of life just staying still to become a medium of higher self to express its best.  The sages, saints and Rishis who had been mainly accomplished Yogis, used free-will to sit rather than move which is a normal or even impulsive state of the body.  All the Indian sciences like classical dance (Bharata Muni), medicine (Caraka etc.), architecture (shilpa-shastra), archery (dhanur-veda) etc. were developed by sages who arrested their bodily movements to sit with calm.  

The Upanishadic guideline is clear in suggesting a great path of self-evolution when it suggests sravana, manana and nididhyasana— sravana, to listen to the Master sermonizing on the unitary nature of creation and life; manana, to rethink on the lessons of the Master with a view to assimilate them to cultivate a finer attitude and nidishyasana, to seriously do contemplation on the same line with consistency and firm determination.  All these progressive steps need one  state of the body— sitting still.  We highly appreciate the sublime value concealed in the sutra of Patanjali which defines ‘asana’ which should be determined by sthirata (stillness) and sukhata (comfort or effortlessness).

Sitting still in this context can be called as  ‘spiritual sitting’.  By sitting still one refuse and cut down all other physical karmas, the only one karma remaining as sitting only on physical plane.  Whereas on mental plane, of mind, emotion and intellect one can find gradual phasing out of fluctuation and turbulences with emergence of inner peace and composure.  This is how karmas can be burnt.  Karmas are reduced to nil.

Such an interpretation of sitting motionless has been corroborated in the Yoga Upanishads which state that ‘asana is that very state wherein one experiences oneness with the Absolute’— svasvarupe samasannata. 

The Gita (6.13) underlines the practice of sitting still in these words, “One maintains the body, head and neck upright and still and remaining steady, one fixes the gaze at the tip of the nose and does not look around.”

(Sitting still is of great importance.  Yet it has  its own limitation.  Sitting still for long time can make the body jaded and stiff).