The living being is made of the body and the soul. For that matter, all life and living order is made accordingly. Life subsists in the person if these two are held together; ceases when they part.
The body is made up of the five elements, the sky, the air, the fire, the water, and the earth. AMMA once pronounced “Sareeram Panchabhouthikam”. To elaborate, the body consists of the five elements in varied proportions in the different varieties of living forms as they come up and thrive on this earth in a countless variety.
It can be observed that when the living being dies, or the life ceases, although the body made up of the five elements remains becomes insipid. The body does not move, and the life pulse ceases. Apparently, it can be observed that life is not merely physical in any way. body. It is something much more intangible, difficult to view, observe or confirm its entity.
This truth AMMA expounds, rather exposes, in the very childhood when HER mother passes away. AMMA simply points out why everyone is crying even while the form, the body of the mother is yet there. Then AMMA clarifies that the mere body or the physical form is not the person, when there is no life force (chaithanya) within that pulsates and vibrates the form.
Viewed in one mode, this life force is characterized by the soul within the physical form which pulsates with life, making the form vibrant and throbbing throughout the lifetime. This soul is the connecting link with the overall Chaitanya, often differently termed the Paramathma, the Parabrahman, Brahman and so on.
Life breath is the connecting link of the limited self, the living soul within the form with that of the seamless universal soul, the boundless, timeless, eternal self the mega, macro ceaseless infinite. This infinite, aggregate, self, soul being termed the Brahman, Parabrahman or the Paramathma.
This aggregate is also the totality, the absolute, the ‘Sarvam’. AMMA is pronounced in this context, “Sarvam Sarvaniki Adharam”. “The Absolute rests upon the Absolute”. This is verily the “Poornam ”. Unchanging, limitless, boundless integrated whole of the ancients as pronounced in our Upanishads.
Such ‘Poornam’ is also the ‘Avyaktha’, not expressed while the ‘Vyaktha’ is the derivative of the same finding expression in the countless physical forms. The ‘Vyaktha’ despite its changing faces does not affect the ‘Poornam’, the timeless, eternal ‘Avyaktha’ in any way.
Another mode of looking at the same reality is the unmanifest and the manifest. To elaborate the invisible and the visible. The unseen Chaitanya, life force and the visible physical forms the changing multiplicity, that being the ever-passing duality of this world.
All living beings in physical forms imbibe traces of the living force, Chaitanya from the ‘Absolute’ in a miniscule form, that is subtle, not directly perceptible. This finds expression in the physical form and the limited self, contained within. This form is five sheathed in Panchamaya Kosa.
Life breath is the connecting link between the form and the formless. The form is physically seen, felt, and experienced even in individual, personal terms while the formless is the unseen pulsating life force within the living being. During the lifetime this is sustained by the life breath. When the life breath ceases, the life ceases, spelling the grand finale for the living being.
Breath is the vital link that connects life always for anyone and everyone, anywhere and everywhere. Breath consists of air, sourced from the ether which is ambient all over always. Yet air is the subtle element of the five elements. It is not physically seen though the breath can be felt by the being during the lifetime unceasingly.
Evidently from the foregoing even life force too is subtle which can never be seen but felt in the movements of the form that throbs with life. So also, it is the connecting link of the finite, the form with the infinite, the ‘Absolute’ the ‘Infinite’.
The connecting link of all this is the air that the person breathes, and the life breath that operates within during the given life span. In a way, this is not merely the connecting link but the very lever of life. This living link of the breath is at once subtle though can be felt by the gross form while living.
Precisely the reason for all modes of sadhanas, the varied spiritual pursuits harp upon harnessing the life breath in different ways and styles. Some yogic practices like ‘Pranayama’ and all prescribe retention of breath ‘Kumbhaka’ and so on. Some combine exhaling, inhaling, and withholding deep within. breath and such like modes.
AMMA held that such practice like the retention of breath unless well guided and tutored may not benefit the practitioner always. At times inept practices may adversely affect to be avoided in such cases. Further, of time, AMMA conveyed to me, “Even the practice of Yoga shall suit the self, the individual body”.
Instead of all such strains and risks, AMMA made this practice amazingly simple. That is to merely watch one’s breath. The whole process is made much easier for the practitioner. The individual can simply observe the process of his breathing. Just watch, observe the way one breathes, verily the inhaling and exhaling. In the beginning this vigil over breath can be facilitated by placing one’s finger before the nostrils. No need of retaining the breath within.
As the individual continues observing his breath, he progresses unawares, without any stress, strain, and risk. Further this mode is so simple that it can be pursued anywhere, anytime, while doing the routine chores too without much difficulty.
While doing so the individual relates to the overall ambience, the ether, the air, and thus the infinite. Gradually the person is linked to the vital source, which is but the Pranava, Parabrahman, Parmathman and the ‘Sarvam’, the ‘Absolute’.
In this facile, easy mode, if he moves ahead persistently, more consistently the person finds his moorings, the primal source and cause of all life, the existence, the singular ‘ONENESS’ that has become the ‘MANY’. He realizes “ALL IS THAT” “Antha Ade” as AMMA pronounced in HER terse, inimitable unfathomed profundity. Vigil over one’s breath is the key, the lever for such perception, the heightened internal awareness that emanates
As he progresses further in this singular pursuit, he becomes aware that there is nothing but ‘THAT’. He tends to feel, rather believe, experience that ‘ALL THAT EXISTS IS THAT’, as AMMA pronounced.
To sum up this presentation in AMMA’S words:
“ALL IS THAT. ALL THAT EXISTS IS THAT. THERE IS NOTHING BUT THAT” AMMA
To paraphrase the same in the vernacular Telugu in AMMA’S own inimitable words:
“ANTHA ADE, UNNADANTHA ADE. ADI KANIDI EDEE LEDU” AMMA