“An idle mind is a devil’s workshop”, is not an old proverb anymore. It is seeking our serious attention today with the recent developments in the socio-political circles. And it is taking people unawares to a dangerously spiritual dimension altogether. The whole world celebrates “International Yoga Day” evry 21st of June and millions practice emptying their minds (read - idling) on this day while engaging their bodies actively in some kind of work-outs and exercises and postures in the name of therapy that is supposed to take them to a realm transcending (taking deeper / beyond) their minds. People are supposed to have found an inner peace and a control over their emotions than ever when they do this yoga. Some are reported to have permanently recovered from various ailments. But is this a fact or a fad?

Yoga is derived from the Tamil 'ogam' and has given rise to the word 'yoke' in English. (Yoke is the crossbar placed on the oxen and is attached to the plow used in a field by a farmer or to a cart for pulling load - burdensome to the animals indeed). Though 'ogam' means 'connect' or 'harmonize', it also means 'bind' (the soul and the body?). However, it also subtly means that the 'yogi' is bound to something / someone. It leads to bondage - slavery - to the evil spirits that are desperately looking for an abode. The evil spirits want to occupy the human body in order that they can manipulate the individual. The 'sitthars' of old are said to have 'connected' with the evil spirit realm to do exploits and bring people under their control (sitthu vizhaiyattu). They could see, hear, and do what normal humans could not!

Modern science has fooled us to believe that we are a conglomerate of chemicals that move around controlled by their complex actions and reactions! Positive and negative emotions and thoughts are brought down to a common denominator – chemical interactions. So, there are love chemicals (or enzymes) and there are sorrow chemicals and man’s actions are a result of the transformation of one or more chemicals from a certain form to a detrimental or desirable another. By so doing, scientists have taken away the spiritual dimension of man from the picture and have brought us down to the level of animals that feed and breed; God is non-existent to them. If this stand is offensive to the theists, here is an alternative proposed by the modern intellectuals – you are a god waiting to discover the God you could become.

God created us spirit, soul and body. The human spirit makes you God-conscious and you can never be satisfied unless you find the ultimate – God (who is a Spirit), the creator of everything visible and invisible. One is dead - life is absent - in his spirit when he is unable to connect with God, the source of all life. The human soul makes you self-conscious and is the real you – your will, your emotions and the seat of thought and perception. You are dead in your soul when you lose your faculty to will, to think and to express your emotions – love, joy, and peace or hatred, sorrow, and strife. The human body makes you people and environment conscious – you see, you hear, you taste, you smell and you feel. You are dead physically when you lose contact of your environment, fail to respond to stimuli, and cease to communicate with people.

God originally intended that we live and thrive within all these three entities – spirit, soul and body. Man, who was created in the image of God, lost the life in his spirit and marred himself to death by allowing his body and his soul to dominate his spirit and subdue it towards inactivity. Man failed to believe God who had intended man to willfully submit to Him and to live in harmony with His will. Man chose to disobey God and submit his will to Satan who is the enemy of God and the quintessence of all evil in the world. So, most of mankind is still insensitive to the voice of God and inert to His gentle demeanor over his soul.

Ever since this happened even at the very genesis of man, it is unfortunate that most of us have managed to live only physically to satisfy the physical appetites, eventually making our soul a bond-servant to the body. Such a person engages unceasingly and exclusively in activities that will gratify the basic instincts. (Is that why man identifies himself with an animal for his origin and existence!) A meager minority like the ascetics and spiritual gurus (a misnomer – it should have been soulish gurus) have succeeded in achieving the opposite – building a herculean soul that manages to bring one’s body under its control and rule its senses, will power, and emotions. Interestingly, today we see a large number of new-age gurus springing up everywhere that are really soulish gurus but deceive a great many gullible folks that they are spiritual – and teach their followers that they can become one like themselves!

A quickened (revived/ made live) spirit revives communication between man and God (Yes, the spirit lived, according to the Bible but lost this privilege when man chose to disobey God). When this relationship is rightly established, the soul can live as it was intended to – in unison with the will of God. The body automatically falls in line with the soul resulting in a proper alignment of these entities for a life that thrives. This, the Bible calls abundant life which also richly embeds in it the blessed hope of eternal life (unending – beyond time and space) with God. This God-intended order brings harmony in an individual; he can live in peace that rises from within - not affected by people, things, and circumstances around him.

But how does one receive this life? Jesus says, “I have come that they might have life and life in more abundance”. He also said, “I am the way, the truth and the life”. When we exercise our will to incline our soul to the voice of God we will believe that Jesus is the Son of God (read- the very visible image of God) who came to save our souls from eternal death (death unending – not an instantaneous incident). This eternal death would result because Jesus who is Life himself has not been received by the person and so the soul is bound to reach its destiny which is hell - a godless place created for the devil and the evil. Jesus Christ was born in this world and lived as a sinless human to deliver us from our sins. He bore the punishment of sin for all mankind by shedding his precious blood on the cross and giving up His life for our sake. He died but rose again the third day to live for evermore. All who come to Him and accept Him as Savior and Lord receive forgiveness of sin and eternal life. They are then instructed to fill their minds with the word of God and meditate on it night and day. Also believers of Christ are exhorted: "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things". (Simple repetition of a certain prayer(s), reading aloud a thousand (or three thousand?) praises, or speaking in meaningless 'tongues' are not meditation according to the Bible!)

Yoga requires the soul be passive and the body be disciplined to achieve inner (read - soul) peace and mind (read – soul) control. But, an idle mind is a devil’s workshop. The evil spirit finds this opportune time to attach itself with the human spirit, to occupy and indwell this emptied soul and to start manipulating its faculties. This might result in an immediate but temporary relief from the bodily ailments and mental tensions but will in due course subjugate both soul and body and manipulate one’s faculties towards a fattened soul. The body might be so subdued by the soul that it might, at times, result in physical death.

For instance, it is recorded history that kundalini yoga – an extreme type of this transcendental meditation – resulted in the death (4th July 1902) of a world-renowned Indian spiritual (?) guru and a prominent proponent of yoga of the 19th Century. A blood vessel in his brain ruptured (brahmarandhra) resulting in his untimely death (mahasamadhi according to his disciples). The spirits told him he would not live to forty! He told his favorite lady disciple the preceding Wednesday, "I am making ready for death" . Beware!

Christian Believers make themselves ready for LIFE!