Let’s talk about our body a little bit, about our physical needs.Do you know how your great great grandfather looked like!? Most probably no. But his nose is sitting on your face. Your body remembers. Your body even remembers the skin tone of your forefathers from hundreds of years ago. So what we call as body is an enormous amount of memory, isn’t it!?

What you carry in your brain as memory is miniscule, but what you carry in your body as memory is much larger. It consists of not only evolutionary memory, but there is also genetic memory, there is karmic memory. In fact there are many articulate and inarticulate levels of memory. We think that we know how to walk right now. However what we must understand is that it is only because our body has built up that memory. If our body forgets we won’t be able to walk. So that amounts to memory for every simple thing you do, you know what to eat, what not to eat and how to eat it. It may sound like I am joking, but if you don’t remember you may not know how to do all these things.

By now you must have understood that your body is a repository of memory and it’s picking up memories all the time. This body memory, traditionally in yogic practice culture, is known as ‘runanubandha‘ which means the physical memory that you build. You can either consciously build your physical memory or you can simply go wild and collect outrageous amounts of memory and go through a lot of physical confusion. But remember, whatever you do, there is an impact.

In some parts of the Indian subcontinent, if you try to give somebody salt, they won’t take it. They will rather say, “Keep it there only.” If you try to give them sesame seeds they say the same, “Please, keep it there only.” The reason is because they have recognized many of the substances which can easily carry your memory with them. And it will become mine if I take it. Thus i refuse to touch this substance since I don’t want to take in the memory that it is going to pass on.

This is the reason why generally in our culture, things like touching each other and shaking hands, are avoided. We touch our own two hands and do vanakkam/namaskaram, because we don’t want to go around picking up random memory. Because if I even as much as touch somebody’s memory, the body remembers. You can try this with four or five of your friends. You touch their hands. No need to even try to consciously remember it. Everyday just touch their hands and forget about it. Tomorrow if one of those persons comes and touches you, you instantly will know it’s his or her hand, isn’t it!? So, body remembers as well, it’s not just the mind. The physical body remembers and this is what is called ‘runanubandha‘. 

When there is a sexual interaction or there is any kind of intimacy which involves thoughts, emotions and body, the amount of memory that is left in your system is very huge. It is from this context, yogic scientists have said, “you must keep it as simple as possible“. There are other aspects where in certain tantric processes and in all that they involve, the practitioners prepare themselves for years to distance themselves from the body in such a way that the body doesn’t pick up memories  from anywhere. This can be only done in the form of a ‘sadhana‘, not in the form of sexual promiscuity. 

So the question is not of morality, the question is about what it is that you want to do with yourself in life. If you want to live in such a way that in your life, your inner intelligence should be the most dominant thing is your life and not your physical body, then you must keep the body’s memory as simple as possible. This is why simple types of food help to generate constructive ideas and boost creativity. Just before sitting for an examination, try to eat a very simple meal and see what difference it makes for your intelligence, how it functions, and how alert you are during the exam.

So what is it that you are trying to build yourself towards!? Do you want to build yourself to be a sexual supernova!? What is it that you want to do with your life, is something that you must decide. If you have decided that, it’s very, very important that you don’t unconsciously pick up enormous amounts of memory because this will lead to many difficulties later on, which you will see, then you need to act accordingly. For example, it’ll become very difficult to remain peaceful and joyful in your life after a point of time. No matter however many good things maybe happening to you, simply because there are confusing memories in the system, when something else of a similar nature comes, the body goes into a turmoil of confusion. It may not translate into your mind. Even then, physically it will keep happening. So it’s a choice that one has to make. It is all about living sensibly.

In case you would like to read about how to cleanse your body memory, in the next article, you could tell me in the comments.

Glossary:

1. Sadhana: disciplined and dedicated practice or learning or meditation
2. Runanubandha: Literally this word is a summation of two Sanskrit words together: Runa + Anubandha which can be translated to English roughly as Debt + Contract. Therefore, it is a binding contract of debt. This contract and debt has nothing to do with finance and money. But it is much more deeper than that. This is a certain kind of physical memory (a karmic debt) that you carry within you. Runanubandha cannot be equated with the genetic factors that are being transmitted from parent to child. It is a physical memory of where you came from—not necessarily in terms of the colour of your skin, the shape of your nose, how you are built, and so on.