MyLifeYoga

Where the mind is without fear and the head held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

-Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. He was a poet, mystic, author, playwright, songwriter, artist, educator, freedom fighter, and an intellectual stalwart who shaped the destiny of an entire subcontinent.

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When is our life truly ours? Is it when we are living in fear or anxiety? Or is it when we are living with regrets or anger? Our life is truly ours when we are able to allow love and life to freely flow into our lives and see it as a miracle and blessing.

In this wonderful video, Amy Gill describes her journey through a grieving process. She says she turned the corner when she understood that “this gratitude thing” had become a part of her life. It was then she understood that the lyrics of the song “It is now that my life is mine” applied to her.

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On an island there lived three old hermits. They were so simple that the only prayer they used was: “We are three; Thou art Three – have mercy on us!” Great miracles were manifested during this naïve prayer.

The local bishop came to hear about the three hermits and their inadmissible prayer, and decided to visit them in order to teach them the canonical invocations. He arrived on the island told the hermits that their heavenly petition was undignified, and taught them many of the customary prayers. The bishop then left on a boat. He saw, following the ship, a radiant light. As it approached he discerned the three hermits, who were holding hands and running upon the waves in an effort to overtake the vessel.

“We have forgotten the prayers you taught us,” they cried as they reached the bishop, “and have hastened to ask you to repeat them.”

The awed bishop shook his head. “Dear ones,” he replied humbly, “continue to live with your old prayer!”

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Credit: This is based of the great novel “Three Hermits” by Leo Tolstoy. The above summary has been produced by his friend Nicholas Roerich and was recounted by Paramahamsa Yogananda in the “Autobiography of a Yogi“.