Yogakshemam 21102020
Unlockdown. Open for foreigners on business trips. For business, conferences, work, study, research or medical reasons.
It is said that India has set aside about Rs. 500 billion. To vaccinate some 35 crore people. Probably from January/ February.
In the midst of Navaratri. Shasthi. Day of Saraswati.
Seeker takes time to understand and experience. A master remains openly honest, terribly blunt, virtuously open. Focus is only development of the seeker. First is to meditate. To achieve awareness, the awareness of our own thoughts, without trying to suppress, manipulate or control our thoughts. It includes observing happening within, around, without. Observing dispassionately. A living experience in and around. Here and now. Without the baggage of the past. Silencing the chatter. Streams of thoughts. Reflection. Gradually mind grows silent. Body stills. Then quietness takes over. This is meditation. An important step forward in Swadhyay for individual transformation. With focus. Focused attention.
We need the courage to do this. We need the will. Do we have them?
With courage, this requires sadhana, practice. Relentless pursuit and 10,000 hours of practice. For the way we conduct our body, heart, mind, energy and emotions. Towards our wellbeing. Towards liberation from the slavery and bondages. Doing things right with all nuances. Practice is more than doing repetitively. It includes grit. It includes effort. It includes pain during the process. It builds on current status and the innate potential. Therefore, practice has to be different for different people. Practice improves with feedback, and assessment. Therefore, we need co-practitioners, and master/guru with us to give feedback and give an initial nudge, initiation. It reduces number of trials and errors. Success may not be required at every step. Failures can also take us forward. Trying is critical.
Motivation to sadhana is facilitated if we are in a community of practitioners. This is coexistence. Shared vision, action. This is possible through exposure, demonstration, role models and gurus. It is also important that the ability to ‘seek’ needs to be continually honed.
Gurukulams, Gurus, Sahaadhyaayees have offered us the community of practice, sadhana for seeking, and prepared us for the same. They have demonstrated the possibilities. Now, it is our turn to realize and convert some of these possibilities into real.
We are in a flux of coexistence between order and chaos. The flux is not about where we were born or how we live. Coming out of the flux is still in coexistence with seeking curiosity. Reflection. Meditation. Swadhyay. Sadhana with observation. Acute observation. Perseverance and practice. Relentlessly, in step-by-step increments.
We are in the midst of multiple crises. Bigger than CoVID but not appreciated as such yet. At the core, we are life. With huge similarities, and some differentials. Some differences. Basics are simple. Simple needs and simple life. World may appear complex. Its complexities are on simple principles. Comprehending them, comprehending the shared humanity, only sadhana of coexistence can give us, all of us liberation.
Then let us get going, living in community of practitioners. Coexisting usefully. Truthfully. Lovingly. Learning. Seeking. Pursuing. Practicing. Together. Investing in one another. In relationships. In life. Celebrating. In N, with N.
This is sadhana for coexisting usefully locally. For 7L.
Join us in the world of yoga of practicing useful local coexistence – saadhanayoga for 7L.
G Muralidhar