Dr. Ashish Pradhan

January 8, 2021

“It is not the germs we need to worry about; it is our inner terrain.”

― Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)

2020 has been the year of SARS-CoV-2, the novel virus belonging to the family of coronaviruses and responsible for a global pandemic manifesting as a severe respiratory disorder known as COVID-19. As this blog is being written, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, there are more than 85 million COVID cases Globally, over 20 million in the US alone. 

Viruses are some of the most primitive known life forms on the planet, with the ongoing debate about their precise biological placement. Viruses are very interesting in that they can only survive inside a living cell. So they must have a living cell to survive and replicate. Hence they are often considered as ‘organisms at the edge of life’. Like all living organisms, they contain genes and can evolve through natural selection. But they differ in that they lack a cellular structure and cannot maintain a metabolic process or reproduce outside of a host. 

However, what’s most interesting to us is the prospect of the availability of tools within us that might indicate our pre-disposition to attacks such as viruses. And Sahaja meditation has a particularly unique and intricate inner subtle energy mechanism, pointing us in this direction.

Are viruses alive or dead? 

It remains, from a purist perspective, an unanswered question. Even though they definitely replicate and adapt to their environment, viruses are more like zombies than real living organisms. And in this regard, viruses are unique indeed.

Besides the very obvious clinically manifested effects of a viral infection (eg. Influenza to COVID-19 and many others), are there other aspects of viruses as entities that bear a closer examination?

The English word “virus” is based on a Latin word for “poisonous secretion” and has been in use since medieval times. It also bears a close phonetic resemblance to the Sanskrit word ‘visha’ or poison. The application of the term ‘virus’ was consequent to the discovery of microscopic entities and is of relatively recent origin, ie. In the last century. 

All of the preceding is of interest in the context of our inner subtle system. In particular, the ‘left side’ or the ‘left energy channel’, which represents the ‘passive’ aspect of our psyche, is affected by a viral infection. How do we know this? Through the practice of Sahaja Meditation, one develops awareness of our subtle system and its state, both spiritual and emotional/physical at any given point in time. This awareness manifests on our central nervous system via vibratory awareness, a perceptible sensation on the fingertips, or our chakras’ specific location. Individuals who have a viral infection manifest issues of the ‘left side’ as perceived by this increased vibratory awareness. 

But does all of this make biological sense? 

Perhaps yes, given that viruses are somewhat dead or semi-living biological entities and hence inherently non-active unless they infect a host. Their propensity to impact our passive beings at a subtle level provides a credible hypothesis as it provides a natural host-like terrain for their infective activity. 

The most interesting fact revolves around the fact that viruses that are harmful to plants are not harmful to animals but can be to humans. Also, viruses that are relatively harmless to animals can be devastating to humans, with the SARS-CoV-2 being the most recent example. The current thinking holds that a coronavirus inhabiting bats mutated through an intermediate host like pangolin and infected humans in Wuhan, China, last year. 

Given that the DNA molecule dictates the basic biology of life, why would be a life form such as a virus differentially impact other living cells comprising plants, animals, and humans? The phenomenon is, of course, not restricted to viral infections. Animal and human biologies are indeed vastly different, which is why most research is initiated in animal models but needs confirmation through ethically well-designed human experiments to prove a hypothesis. And yet, viral transmission through host species to infect humans remains an ongoing intensive research endeavor. 

Perhaps, therefore, through as yet unelucidated mechanisms, the intrinsic differences in consciousness levels between living species somehow provide a psycho-somatic terrain to allow virus-like entities to cause a differential impact across species with physical manifestations. The field of medicine recognizes this as disease states such as COVID-19 in humans. Such viral-induced diseases can be viewed as attacks targeted beyond the mere cellular or biological levels to the human psyche’s subtler domains. 

So, where does Sahaja meditation fit in this discussion? 

Sahaja Meditation helps its practitioners to develop self-awareness. This fact is critical to understand as a primary point of departure relative to most other meditation practices. Therefore, it can provide an insight into one’s individual ‘inner terrain’ at a subtle level. The regular practice of Sahaja can help identify and address matters which might predispose one to subtle system attacks such as those by viruses. 

To clarify, Sahaja Meditation does not confer immunity such as those provided by vaccines or the need for adhering to evidence-based healthcare guidelines such as masking or social distancing in the current COVID-19 context. Nor can Sahaja meditation directly identify the presence of any specific virus within us, such as COVID-19. But it provides hitherto unavailable tools to help maintain a vigil on its practitioner’s subtle system ‘inner terrain.’ 

Additionally, Sahaja meditation provides some powerful benefits in boosting our general immunity by reducing stress, which has been proven to compromise our immune system and diminish our ability to heal properly or recover from illness.