ब्रह्मण्याधाय कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा करोति य: | लिप्यते न स पापेन पद्मपत्रमिवाम्भसा || 10 || |
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“Like the lotus that remains untouched by water, the yogi who surrenders all actions to God without personal attachment, remains untouched by sin”
Commentary: The central nervous system, consisting of the brain and spinal cord can be represented in the form of a lotus at the top and the root at the coccygeal center. The lotus seed grows from dirt and muddy water in the pond. Once the stem shoots up above the water and the buds blossom, the flower’s beauty, elegance and stature is not affected anymore by the muddy waters beneath. The reason that you are able to be conscious, aware of yourself and the world around you is because of the flow of life forces. Life currents flow down from the brain into the spine into the coccygeal center and distribute from there to the trillion cells in the body making you aware of the world of matter. The brilliant light-particles filled with intelligence flowing in every cell’s nucleus are responsible for consciousness. The purpose of life is to then reverse the flow of life force from the coccygeal to the thousand petaled lotus of light in the brain. This is called true surrender where the devotee guides and offers his small river of life into the Ocean of life.
The meaning of retirement after sixty or seventy years of work also in a sense implies that one should do yoga in order to *retire* or withdraw life forces daily into the Source. It is naturally easier to spiritually retire the life forces inward after material retirement! The reason is that almost all the material desires of the body and mind would have been fulfilled by that time. Body and mind are not so passionately restless to perform external activities at that age and they are easier to train.
Sleep allows withdrawal but it is involuntary. After waking up, we commit the sin of identifying with the temporary body and its possessions through various actions. Like the lotus, one should learn and rise from the gross muddy soil of sensory attachments beyond the waters of samsara to glow in the thousand-petaled rays of the Sahasrāra in God.