The Body

Human body responds uniquely to everything in the universe. It responds one way to the Sun and another way to the Moon. The clothes you wear, the furniture you sit in, the air you breathe, the water you drink, temperature and humidity of the space you live in, the distant sounds, the slightest shift in light, the distant stars, the rotating black-holes and so on. Everything in existence influences a human body.

When a saint in a deep forest achieves nirvana, whole humanity shifts in a subtle way. Many of us dream of meeting Mahavatar Babaji, but he is already blessing all of us. To receive Guru's grace, her physical presence is not necessary, his darshan is not necessary. Are you receptive enough? Are you aware enough? That's what matters.

This is also where the concept of Yugas gains importance.

The Yugas

In Satyug, everything was pure and potent. The inner truth shone gloriously from within every human. In Tretayug, some pollution started gaining power - the moral values of humanity fell just as the purity of natural elements fell. In Dwaparyug, human society became very much corrupted. Forests were burned, rivers were contaminated, women were disrespected, the weak were tortured, the undeserving ruled ruthlessly. In Kaliyug, dark times finally began. The time when everything was polluted - food, air, water, relationships, family dynamics, actions, thoughts, emotions, physical environment, inner environment (our minds). Hard poverty destroyed so many lives. Wars, violence, famines, diseases and what not. We saw it all. Even the place that was supposed to be safe haven, the homes, became the place that gave unbelievable traumas to its inhabitants.

So, a human body living in Satyug will function very differently from a human body surviving in Kaliyug.

Thankfully we survived it. We are in Dwaparyug right now, heading towards Tretayug. Dwapar had its own negatives and positives. Dwapar gave us a choice to fight back. Medicines, peace talks, scientific innovation, education helped humanity rise above threats on its survival while new kinds of threats pulled on it. Stress to run along the world, addictive habits, self sabotaging behaviours, mental diseases, onslaught of digital content, loneliness, broken families, natural calamities, and so on, plague us now. Our mental spaces are crowded by clutter - tell me how many ads were forced upon you since you woke up today. Tell me how much social media you felt compelled to scroll today.

As we move towards Treta, we are making a choice. Humanity is now contemplating, how much is it worth destroying others (people, creatures and nature) for the sake of temporary gains. So many of us are consciously choosing a slow life - a life that may not be rich materialistically, but is very much rich in emotions, meaning and grounded stability. Once again, we as humans are thinking of prioritising our truths instead of what is demanded or expected from us. Tell me about the vairagya (the dis-attachment) you have started to feel now, towards everything around you. This is the Light of Treta.

These Yugas tell us about our choices. In Kaliyug, we did not have a choice, things beyond our control happened to us. In Satyug, we have a choice of how much we want outside factors to influence us.

Yugas, like everything in Jyotish, are cyclical. And the cycle is like this: Sat -> Treta -> Dwapar -> Kali -> Dwapar -> Treta -> Sat -> Treta and the cycle continues. Although there are differences in opinion. Some scholars have suggested that Kaliyug will continue for lakhs of years and some say we are already in Dwapar. If we are in Dwapar, Bhagvad Gita is a really helpful text for us.

Coming back to the point

Body responds to everything, from things in close proximity to things in distant space. Gemstones utilise this. The whole idea behind wearing a gemstone is - you can alter the way your body feels by manipulating the stuff it comes in contact with. The resulting shifts in body lead to shifts in mind (as psychologists say, mind is what the brain does. And brain is part of the body).

When the mind shifts, your perception shifts as well. This is the most important thing. You may start seeing opportunities where you used to only see problems. The people who irritated you earlier may now seem a lot more loving. You may feel more energetic, more motivated. You may find the world to be a lot more peaceful and beautiful.

Indian spirituality has majorly focused on shifting human perception. Ancient rishis suggested many paths for this.

Alchemy is one such path.

And gemstones are part of alchemy - the rasavidya.

Do Gemstones really work? If yes, how do they change the wearer's life? What is the reasoning behind using gemstones? Do they have any effect at all? If no, why so many astrologers recommend them?

I have started a series of articles on gemstones, where I will post a number of articles discussing the various aspects of gemstones and the questions surrounding them. This is first article in the series.

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To be continued...

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