Page 265 - The Path of Grace

APPENDIX I - KOSAS
we study it along with Pranamaya Kosa. The gross body gains more importance when it becomes the play ground fro the Prana and Manas that constitute the subtle body.
The First Commandment of the Master states that we should rise early in the morning before dawn and offer Puja with a body and mind that are pure. Getting up early in the morning from bed/sleep requires a certain amount of determination to attend to meditation on a priority basis. More than that it requires the firm determination to say ‘No’ to sloth and indolence the basic characteristics of matter. Such of the persons who are not able to say ‘No’ here are surely under the control of the layers of Annamaya. The body (sarira) has to be controlled and made to discharge its function of assisting the Prana in our existence. While it is the practice in other systems to discipline it even as beasts are controlled, in PAM we find that the influx of the Pranahuti, the original force/energy disciplining the body naturally. This we find in the steady posture that is gained in moments of deep absorption during meditation which fortunately is not rare.
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