Yoga post-colectomy
When we realize in very real terms that we could die, in the sense of being delivered another bad disease-related diagnosis at anytime, what is the remedy of the realization of mortality? The fact is that many people will not live until tomorrow or a few years from now, yet we all think we are invincible. As Sadhguru says, "Only when you are conscious about your mortality will you want to truly know the nature of this life." I have come to realize this is very true, thanks to my experience of living with F.A.P.
"If you know you are mortal, suddenly you will see that you have no time to do any nonsense which doesn't mean anything to you. You will do only what really matters to your life. You have no time to do any rubbish with anybody. You will have time to only to do the best things you want to do, what you truly care to do in your life, and nothing other than that; and that is what you should be doing because it's a very limited amount of time. I want you to know it's a very brief life, that is, if you're a joyful person. If you're miserable then of course it is a very long life." —Sadhguru
Lately, I have been thinking a lot about stilling the terrors and desires of the mind, and how to do that. Who doesn't want to stop the wheels from going round and round from time to time? This concept is the first of the sutras that Pantanjali writes:
Sanskrit: “Yoga is the stilling of the mind.”
The answer is tried and true by souls greater than I: Stilling the mind can happen thanks to mantra. I think of mantra as giving the mind special words that resonate in the mouth, ears, heart, room, and mind. And though it can feel like one is doing nothing at times that is kind of the point too. There is a certain type of silence we need to experience in order to breathe freely and settle in, and that silence can then give rise to the focused sound of mantra. My mantra is the maha-mantra.
मीराबाई (Mirabai)
"Transcendental is beyond the senses, beyond the intellect," as George Harrison says. "Everybody is so limited and so really useless when you think of it, about the limitations on yourself, and the whole thing is to change, try to make everything better and better; that's what the physical world is about is change, but the change that happens through meditation is a gradual sort of thing—but the more you realize with anything, with just growing old, the more you realize that it helps you in some way. With meditation you are able to understand that there is this unity lying beneath everything; there's something there within every atom that holds it all together and the actual fact that it really is one, but on the intellectual level to say, ‘We are one,’ then I mean, again, you missed the point. It's an experience. You have to really have that perception that it is one."
In Yoga: A Gem for Woman, Geeta S. Iyengar. lays out the methodical key concepts of bhakti yoga. Iyengar teaches a holistic perspective on Sadhana (Sanskrit for a methodical discipline to attain a desired knowledge or goal): "Sadhana has three stages, namely Sravana (listening), Manana (thinking), and Nididhyasana (putting into practice and experiencing). Patanjali explains these three aspects using a different terminology, namely Japa (repetition/mantra), Artha (understanding), and Bhavana (realisation). In the Yoga discipline, all three processes have to be followed for one's practice to bear fruit. For example, asana (yoga poses) have to be repeated again and again, day after day, year after year; this is Sravana or Japa. This repetition leads one to the mental process of thinking, where one penetrates deeper and deeper. This is called Manana (deep state of thinking without joy or grief), which gives meaning and understanding of the action that is being performed by the yoga practitioner. This repeated (Japa) and well-thought-over (Artha) action gives a new experience to the practitioner. It is a form of worship in which one offers every asana as a flower to God. The practitioner becomes one with the action and remains absorbed in it. This enlightened state of Self-realisation is Bhakti Marga."
While I may seem young to some, I can truly relate to what Iyengar is saying when she says the following (in an interview with LA Times)—her daily yoga practice has become a gift for old age: “Yoga is an inner journey that helps to keep oneself healthy, not just on a physical level, but it gives inner mental peace and maturity.”
While she sees yoga as a way of coping with daily living, she rejects popular trends to use yoga as a quick fix-solution for various ailments and aches. Instead, she says, “I feel there are so many things to learn from yoga that can help old age become pleasant.” She’s quick to add that she is “not talking in terms of Western ideas about beauty that demands one to remain and look young, even in old age.” Rather, she means she is prepared “to accept a mature mind that has experienced many things, and from that yogic experience I can find a better way.”
Here’s to world peace as we all age. Three cheers for getting old! Some people don't get that chance. Let us embrace all the time we have to inch our way towards Krishna-bhakti-rasa-bhavita, or whatever guiding light and truth we may have discovered.
My sweet son giving me so much love and strength (2019)
