Body Prayer: Maha Bhanda

Our body is a vehicle of prayer.  The metaphysical properties and expressions of every part of it, from breath to heart to hand is a communication with the Divine about our intentions for life and our willingness to give ourselves over to our soul purpose.

The slower we breathe, the quieter we get, the better we are able to listen.  What we hear will be a reflection of the day's beginning and the desire to know by experience the beauty of the Nature that exists within us.

During today's meditation, I sat under a giant tree that I have watched leafless transition into the green of splendor and life.  A rejuvenation after winter's cold into the blossoming forth under the rays of sun.

So still was I that a squirrel, not realizing I was there, stood upon my knee.  Tree, grass, squirrel and I merged into one.  The moment consciousness came to me, however, he bounced away and all life gave way to the chorus of the cardinals.  Joy arose in me and my chin dropped forward, my tongue flicked the roof of my mouth and my whole body curled down into what I know by name is maha bandha.

As I allowed my body to express the wonder of this moment, I felt a realignment in my spirit and the spiritual implications of the posture unfolded for me to share.

It is widely known and understood that bowing forward is the greatest act of devotion.  Maha bandha is not just a posture of surrender, however, it is a conscious breath effort to contract deeply into our spinal column and compress the energy along the spine. 

It is like a rinse to all the organs and the energy that flushes when we release is like a golden shower that rises from the inside out.

Even more so, is the segment by segment internalization of our external quest.  As we bow the crown forward, we move from an expansion expression of our divinity towards contracting into towards our humanity and the divine nature that exists in our cellular structure.

The eyes close and the tongue touches the roof the mouth in jiva bandha, stimulating the pituitary and awakening the thrid eye.  With our spiritual eye open we drop the chin into jalandhara activating the visshuda chakra and expressing silently a desire to know truth. 

Contracting further, beginning to activate uddiyana,, we compress the diaphragm.  As the rib cage moves downward and the shoulders round forward, our heart is compressed and contracts into the 5th chamber, our high heart.  Pulling in at the diaphragm we are brought into our gut, our body-mind.

And, finally with a squeeze with contract muladhara bandha, the gate that holds the totality of our existence from lineage, to conception, gestation, birth, and through into the experiences of our life.

Maha bandha, then, is as willingness to offer the wholeness of our experience in gratitude for our lives, we return to our soul and realign ourselves with Divine Order as an embodied being filled with the wisdom of experience.  We learn how to compassionately view our life and take a moment to integrate our experiences as set forth by ancient records in order that we may find strength to trust the intuitive, gut impulses of our being as it guides us with our heart's intentions to be a light of truth in the world and accept our responsibility to be a part of realizing the dream of humanity on this planet. Life, even in trials, understood during moments of presence and extreme gratitude that whatever choices brought us to this infinite moment are perfect.

This is the royal responsibility of the indigos and crystal seeds in this time.  We are being asked to consecrate the fruits of our actions in order to be mobilized by our Mother Earth to the places inside ourselves that house the potential for the greatest amount of healing necessary on this planet at this time.  What are our inner resources and how do we give them over to the planet for use?

For that reason our prayers are greater when we remember, not only to pray for our own needs and those of our family, but that we begin to truly understand our interconnectedness and the need for us to pray for all humanity, Especially those who are being tried by mass consciousness that surrounds them and the Earth movements as she accommodates our unwillingness as humans to change.  If we will not, she must.

At this time I am praying for the Pacific Rim and the shifting of plates in the ocean.  Asking that we all take a moment today to give thought and feeling to the beings who are surrounded by destruction and who are affected by the unforeseen circumstances that at one time or another affect us all.  May we remember in our bliss the feeling of loss that has overcome each one of us.  Pausing for a moment to send love to those affected by circumstances.

That, though we be divine and eternal, we are sentient beings, highly feeling creatures of attachment at the heart level. 

And, as maha bandha releases the energy from the Kundalini, or Earth Mother, and makes its ascent towards the crown of eternity, bonding with Father Sky, may we allow the prayer seed for peace and compassion to release upon the web that overlays our planet and grow a consciousness of prayer in action and service. 

May we find ways to lend the powers we receive through practice to those who are not as free as we are to express soulfully due to circumstance or oppression.  May our freedom find its way, even if only in moving body prayer meditation and breath, to comfort and fly its way to those most in need.