SOON (18) - Marma and kalaripayattu

This is a vibrating Universe and all parts of existence vibrates with energy of differing frequencies. With the various mind-numbing movement and constant buzz of electrons and vibration in our body, we are part of the celestial dance of the Shiva with various vibrational frequencies. While we have an immense range of frequencies operating within us at all times, there is a mean or average frequency of our mind-body complex that determines our evolutionary status. THE GOAL OF EVOLUTION IS TO INCREASE OUR MEAN FREQUENCY - my next few blogs will try to explain the same. So, to increase the frequency:

1. We need to open up all blockages for prana or energy to flow smoothly.

2. Modify our lifestyle, food, behaviour and thoughts.

3. Use technologies for unlocking our energies and cranking it up.

As mentioned in the earlier blogs, our pranamaya kosha or energy layer contains three components - nadis or channels, marmas or vital points and chakra or energy vortex. To remove blockages and increase frequency, we need to manipulate these three components. In the last blog, I have been writing about nadis and my experience with the same. Today, I shall recount my experience with the second component - marma or vital points of the body. Marmas connect to the nadis and chakras of the subtle body and mind. Thus marmas are important for healing subtle and physical body.

So, during the time that my body was on fire and I was looking at ways to control the increased energy, I was helped tremendously by an Ayurvedic Doctor, Dr Pankaj Naram, who is one of the foremost source of knowledge and healing in the world. While he is an extraordinary Ayurvedic doctor, his deep knowledge of marma and its application fascinated me. He was kind and gracious enough to teach me some of his deep knowledge of marma adi or marma healing, and I started assisting him as he did some amazing healing of patients who had physical, psychological and emotional problems. In one day, he would heal around 100 cases and all of them would be greatly relieved, some of the results could even be called miraculous. Some of the key problems that he treated were

a. Shoulder joint

b. Back pain

c. Immobilization

d. Treating old traumatic lesions

e. Balancing energy in the body

f. General physical & mental wellbeing

g. Balancing & activating Chakras and nadis

In particular, I remember three cases, which were out of the ordinary

1. I assisted him in treating a German patient who could not raise his right arm for the past three years. Using his knowledge of marma, Pankaj pressed some points, as he instructed me to press some others on his shoulder and in ten minutes, that man was not only able to raise his hands but even lift a cup of tea and drink off it. The man was weeping with happiness, his wife was weeping and so was I.

2. Pankaj taught me to press some points on the shoulder and alongside he also pressed a few points with me- he claimed that pressing those points together opened the channels which allowed the mind to get receptive and one could change the programming of the mind when these points were pressed. He was able to reprogram the subtle or sometimes causal body. Using this technology, Pankaj treated a young boy called Maharishi, who was mentally challenged. I was witness to the many positive changes in his mind and body and the impact of marma on him.

3. There was a mentally challenged teenage girl, who was very dark, ugly and who had many warts on her face and anyone who looked at her was repulsed by her looks. Me and Pankaj pressed her marma points and Pankaj used to whisper in her ears that she was very beautiful and better than any heroine and that boys loved to stare at her. Under our hands, we could see her transforming and she started smiling and slowly over a period of a few months, we could notice the change in her, as her mind, emotions and body flowered due to the change in her mental programming, as Pankaj would expertly open her psychology and emotional channels by marma pressure.

MARMA
The Vedic vision regards the entire universe as a macrocosm, with the human body or the microcosm as a replica. This means that the mapping of the energy fields in the human body reflects that of the universe as a whole. Through the right use of marmas our entire physical and mental energy can be consciously increased, decreased or redirected in a transformative manner. When manipulated, marmas can alter both the organic function and structural condition of the body.

A marma, is an anatomical area close to the skin where nerves, arteries, tendons, flesh, veins, bones and joints meet to form the location of life. If you try and pressure these points with your finger or thumb, you might get some pain. That is because at these marma sites - toxins, stress and negative emotions get lodged and are held sometimes for years. So, the intensity of pain defines the amount of toxins and problems in your mind and body. Marma adi or marma chikitsa is the science of manipulating marmas or vital points. The stimulation of marma points improves energy or prana flow by limiting stagnation in the body. The human body contains 107 marma points which, when struck or massaged, produce desired healing or injurious results. After a Marma Point Treatment the nervous system is calm and revitalized, an essential factor for maintaining mind-body balance.

MARMA AND MARTIAL ARTS

Marma points are also the most vulnerable points in the body and if they are pressed in a certain way or attacked, they could cause death or immobility. So, marma was the highest form of healing as well as warfare. The protective armors made for warriors, elephants and horses were specially designed to protect these vulnerable vital points. There are many reference to marma in the Mahabharata war.

While the 107 points of marma were used for healing, the 64 point marma system of Kalaripayattu, the martial art of Kerala, was developed with the specific purpose of injuring or killing an adversary in a personal combat. The symptoms of injuries on each marma have been described in detail in the Samhita granthas, including slow death and instant death.

This knowledge of marma was taken by the Buddhist wherever they lived and it was subsequently altered and developed in China as Acupressure (pressure on vital points - though some of them slightly different from the marma points) and Acupuncture (needling vital points). It also culminated in different kind of martial arts including karate and kung fu