The life within you is always longing to be liberated. The life within you is always longing to be joyful. This is not an individual choice that you or I are making; this is not because of this some teaching that you are choosing to be joyful. This is the way it is.
Recent research into the human brain has yielded some incredible results. An Israeli scientist spent over eighteen years trying to find out about certain aspects of the brain, and he found there are millions of cannabis receptors in the human brain. Cannabis is another name for marijuana. Millions of cannabis receptors! Why are these receptors there in the human brain? The conclusion that a lot of people have come to is that because we have cannabis receptors, all of us must smoke marijuana. Anthropologists came up and said, “At some point in history, every human being was smoking.” That is not possible because in many parts of the world, there was no such weed, so they could not smoke. But then neurologists discovered that at different times of the day, if you closely observe the system and what happens with the brain chemistry, the body develops its own cannabis. The pineal gland can produce certain chemicals which will satisfy the cannabis receptors in the brain. If a person is in a certain state of blissfulness or ecstasy, he produces these chemicals, which the brain is constantly waiting for. Even your brain is waiting for you to be blissful – millions of cannabis receptors are sitting there and waiting, not for you to smoke or drink or do drugs, but for you to become blissful.
When they found this chemical which goes towards the cannabis receptors, there was no name for it. The scientist had the freedom to name this newly found chemical. He wanted to give it a name which would be truly relevant, so he searched all the scriptures on the planet but he could not find a suitable name. Then he came down to India and researched the Indian scriptures and to his amazement, he found that the Indian scriptures are the only scriptures which talk about blissfulness. No other religion on the planet talks about bliss. Religions talk about sin, religions talk about fear, religions talk about guilt, and religions talk about punishment. But no other religion talks about blissfulness. So he called this chemical, which moves towards the cannabis receptors, “Anandamide.”
So all you have to do is produce a little bit of Anandamide because there is a whole marijuana garden inside! If you cultivate it properly and keep it on, sitting here and being absolutely blissful is very natural. There is no side effect because it is your own body. There is no hangover, there is no shrinking of the brain. In fact, when you are joyful by your own nature, your intelligence and your body works at its best.
Isha Foundation New Zealand conducts Isha Inner Engineering and Hatha yoga Programmes. It also offers free Isha Kriya and Isha Upa yoga practices online for the general public regularly. For more information Pls contact: 0224637811 or Visit: www.ishayoga.nz