MyLifeYoga

A recently released video titled “Who am I?” elicited the response: “I know who I am, so fine thank-you!” Yes of-course, most of us need no assistance in identifying ourselves with our ego-identity. So the question is: Why look further? What is wrong with identifying myself with my ego?

The problem associated with the ego is at two levels. One is at the level of the individual and the other is at the level of society. At the level of the individual, if we stop at the ego and go no further then our lives our deeply unfulfilling. Life is robbed of a deeper spirituality and drained of meaning and purpose. Inflating our ego and being a servant of our ego can only carry us so far. Once we make progress down the road dictated by the ego we find that we are quickly at a dead-end and there is a yearning for something deeper. The ego leads us down the path of being on an isolated island of our identity. We end up alone, loveless, disconnected, divided, bitter, and angry. Is this where we really want to be?

At the level of society we find that it is very difficult to build a sustainable society only on the basis of counterbalanced egos. Modern democratic societies are the pinnacle of human achievement in that they use a framework of laws so that the rights and privileges of one ego are balanced by the rights and privileges of another ego. But what are the responsibilities of the individual egos? Can we have a society where individuals have only rights but no obligations? If the answer to this question is negative then the question arises: how are we to compel individual egos to do something that is not in their direct self-interest?

In addition we have discovered that it is possible to build a society that is able to take care of our material needs by building a framework that uses the energy of competing egos driven by greed. This is the basis of a capitalist society. There is nothing wrong with this in itself as we find that capitalist framework is the most efficient way in fulfilling basic human needs. Without basic needs being fulfilled we are not even fully human and there is no question of talking about anything deeper. However having trained egos to behave in a greedy and consumptive manner, how do we now tell the ego to stop?

We now find that if we allow societies to stop evolving and get stuck at the level of the ego then this will imperil the very survival of humans as a species. This is because there is no end to the wants and needs of the ego. And with increasingly powerful technologies at the beck and call of the ego, we can quickly deplete and destroy the planet. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Earth has enough for our needs, but not for our wants.”

This is why the story of Svetaketu is important. It gives us the basis for going beyond the ego. Once this happens the “Golden Rule” emerges. This provides us with the framework for love and deeper spirituality in our lives. But how do we go from theory into practice? It is one thing to know about the Golden Rule and quite another to practice it in our daily life. This is where yoga comes into play. Yoga allows us to find ourselves beyond our ego-identity. It provides a spiritual upsurge within us that allows us to go beyond our selfish desires and needs. The practice of Golden Rule now becomes easy and uplifting while formerly it seemed artificial and imposed. We now see that the answer lies not in jettisoning democracy or capitalism or even reforming them The answer lies in adding another layer: The layer of yoga on top. If we were to add a layer of yoga on top of our democratic and capitalistic framework we could revitalize our society and move it towards a gentler, kinder, and sustainable future. Democracy + Capitalism + Yoga = Sustainable and Happy future!

With the worldwide spread of yoga there has been some understandable jostling amongst the different gurus and teachers with respect to lineages and yoga styles. This jostling inevitably leads to the question: What was Krishnamacharya’s style of yoga?

While the jostling is understandable this is not welcome for two reasons. One is that the very basis of yoga is to encourage movement away from the ego. Ancient sages and saints were reluctant to even identify themselves as authors of the texts that they wrote for this reason.

The other reason that this jostling for space within the yoga community is not welcome is that yoga has ways to go. Why fight amongst ourselves when there is so much to be done? An earlier post pointed out that upwards 98% of the world population is not doing yoga. With these kinds of numbers what sense it makes to fight over claims on the 2% of people that do practice yoga? That is like fighting over a small pool of water while the entire ocean lies unclaimed before you.

The question of Krishnamacharya’s style comes up because he is now viewed as the father of the modern yoga movement. Iyengar, Ashtanga, Viniyoga, Sai, and many other different yoga styles have been inspired by the teaching of Krishnamacharya. There are indeed many claimants to Krishnamacharya’s legacy. The question of Krishnamacharya’s style hence comes up when different yoga schools claim to be the closest to Krishnamacharya’s original teaching and style.

The purpose of this post is not to create controversy by taking a stand on what Krishnamacharya’s style was. The intention is in fact the opposite. The idea of this post is to show that the question of his style may be irrelevant. The reason this is so is that Krishnamacharya taught in no fixed style himself. He adopted his style based on his student’s need. To Pattabhi Jois who was young and strong he taught a vigorous form of yoga with challenging postures. To Indra Devi, who was sick when she arrived, he taught an extremely gentle form of yoga.

Srivatsa Ramaswami also attests to this. Krishnamacharya used to come to his home to teach a group class to his family. This was probably one of the rare group classes that he taught. He usually taught one-on-one and most of the yoga he showed his students was in the context of a yoga therapy rather than a yoga class. So what Srivatsa Ramaswami has to say about this class is fascinating: Continue reading →

Why has the story of a child called Svetaketu been preserved for more than 2500 years? One reason is that that this story provides hints to the answer of one of the most daunting philosophical question: Who am I? Here, for the first time is a quick video presentation that provides the story of Svetaketu and its relationship to our lives.

The story of Svetaketu is directly related to the Golden Rule. To understand what is the Golden Rule and how it impacts your life please read the following story: The Golden Rule and Svetaketu.

Rabbi Hillel was on his way home when he was confronted by an insolent gentile. “Explain to me the whole Torah, in the time I can stand on my one foot!”

Rabbi Hillel was surprised by being so challenged. However he recovered quickly. He looked at the gentile, and said in a soft voice, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow! This is the whole Torah! The rest is commentary.” He then patted the gentile on his shoulder and continued, “Now go and learn!”

Less than a few decades later Jesus would utter the same thing when he said, “In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.”

This maxim is now known as the “Golden rule.” If we dig deeper we find that the Golden rule is at the heart of every religion: http://www.unification.net/ws/theme015.htm.

Now the question arises: What is the basis of the Golden rule? How is it that this rule is at the heart of every major faith?

If we study the message in the story of Svetaketu we realize that this story and the story of Rabbi Hillel are just two sides of the same coin. The story of Svetaketu tells us that it makes no sense for the right hand to fight with the left hand, as they both are part of the same being. The Golden Rule tells us the same thing. While the story of Svetaketu is abstract and deals with deeper metaphysical concepts, the Golden Rule is down to earth. It takes the abstract and the mystical and translates it into an action program for our daily life.

Both the Golden Rule and the story of Svetaketu have the same message for us: It is great to do yoga on the mat, but it should eventually translate to a broader yoga off the mat. The yoga off the mat can take many forms: Helping distressed animals, working with outreach sections of our society, or those with special needs, or any other. It really does not matter what form our yoga off the mat takes, but if we do it sincerely and daily then it will lead to an inner transformation that will bring alive the message of Svetaketu’s story into our lives.