Superb benefits for body-mind-soul through SandhyaVandanam Process

September 15, 2010 at 3:41 pm (Uncategorized)

I was amazed by the quality of the comments for the earlier post.

Allow me to take you through a guided tour of SV so that you can really appreciate my experience.

As I briefly mentioned in the first part of this series, SV is to be done thrice in a day. Once in the morning just before the sunrise called Pradha SV, one at noon called Madhyanikam and the last just after the sunset called Saayam.

SV begins with a practice called Achamanam which involves sitting in a kukutasana posture, taking 3 small sips of water by uttering the Lord’s names followed by touching by finger tips 12 different parts of the body each representing one divine name of the Lord.

There are atleast 3 benefits from Achamanam that i could relate to.

One is the posture (it is really painful if you are not used to) because it involves sitting but resting on only your toes (your bottom and the heels do not touch the ground).  Earlier, whenever I performed the Tharpanam for my ancestors, (it is also done in the same posture as above) I used to feel excruciating pain on my knees and found it extremely difficult to focus on the ritual because the knees were wobbling.  This was the case even when  I recited the mantras pretty fast.  A few days back on Amavasya day, I wanted to do the Tharpanam in an unhurried manner and although it took longer than usual, I did not feel any pain whatsoever.  I got this  resilience only from doing achamanam during SV because nothing else changed in my life.  It would also be relevant to point out that this posture, by applying pressure on the toes, helps in healthy functioning of Pituatary, thyroid and adrenal glands besides maintain the rhythm of the heart.  Try it if you want to experience it yourself.

The second one is something more subtle. Do remember that our body is like the earth in the sense that 75% of our body is water.  Water is an integral part of the human system doing everything from lubricating to flushing toxins but it is not internally generated.  On the contrary, water is lost via urine, faeces and sweat.  the only way to restore balance is by consumption of water which we mostly do not pay attention to.  Over a period of time, this leads to a situation where there is acute dehydration in the system resulting in many chronic ailments.  By doing SV, although we take only a few sips during every achamanam, we do it frequently and that makes the water intake regular. And we sip the water by repeating the holy names of the lord which makes it even more potent.  (This is not mumbo jumbo that i am talking.  It has been proven that water treated with love and prayer becomes pure and more energetic than otherwise).

The tips of the fingers are terminal points of bio-electricity, the flow of which is vital for our health. Each of the finger represents an element of nature and therefore this contact of the body with the finger tips help in the balance of basic elements and bio-electricity in our body.

Isn’t it amazing to see how the earliest  scientists behind this so-called ritual of SV have very beautifully fused  highly potent energy flow  into a seemingly simple activity called Achamanam.

In my next post, I will talk about the Pranayama in SV.