Nyasa – Turning the Body into Temple – Part 1

Corinthians 6:19

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own”.

I have intentionally started this post from a quote from the Holy Bible and not quoting from any Hindu scripture. I wanted to bring home the point that all the scriptures in the world are sprung from the same seed of Absolute Truth, That seed is Supreme Lord.

Sanatana Dharma also has a rich and diverse ritual that helps us in self-purification and connects with the Divine. One such wonderful ritual is the practice of Nyasa. If practiced with the right emotion and feeling, this simple ritual can bring profound self-transformation.

What is Nyasa?

The word Nyasa comprises the prefix NI meaning below or under and the word AAS which means “to throw or to project”. Nyasa is translated as ‘putting down or in, placing, fixing, inserting, applying, depositing, entrusting, delivering, mental appropriation, or assignment of various parts of the body to tutelary deities.”  A Tutelary (deity) is the guardian or patron or protector of a particular place, lineage, or person.

Nyasa can be understood as a ritual to consecrate the body to the divine.

The meaning of Nyasa is “to place, to set on or in, to use, to touch”, here means touching parts of the body with mantra mentally or with the hands.

Source

Significance of Nyasa:

There is various significance of this simple practice and I will share a few of them that I have come across and observed while practicing this practice on my own.

1. The foremost idea is to turn the entire body into a divine temple. By placing, specific parts of Mantras( that are the sound personifications of the chosen deity), we are identifying the microcosm (a specific part of the body) with the macrocosm( specific sound from of deity), so that we realign the priority for the microcosm. The more we identify with the divine energy, and the less we identify with ourselves, the faster will be the transformation on the spiritual path. This is the basis of Nyasa. 
2. The second idea is to invite the deity to manifest within. The seeker in the path of the mantra sadhana wants to consecrate the deity inside and worship the Supreme within me all the time now. So, he allocates a specific place to the divine in the body and says, ” Please come here, I invite you”. This does not mean that he is inviting any deity from outside somewhere. It means that he is invoking the deity so that the deity manifests and uses those parts as their instruments. 

###Let’s do Sadhana

To be Continued …

P.S: Wherever possible, I have also mentioned the articles from which I have taken definitions or particular information to give the writers due credit. I am not claiming any of this knowledge to be mine. This is just an effort to collate the information from various sources so that we all can have a better understanding of this simple and potent ritual.