I had no strength this morning to wake up and make it to my 9:00am class. My inspiration was my roommate whom I had promised I would go with and of course my beloved teacher was leading it. Even though I was exhausted working until 12:00am the night before, I dragged myself out of bed, asking every ounce of me to have strength to make through my 9:00am Laughing Lotus class. I did. And not only did I go through that class, but by the time I was done with that class I was alive, awake and a whole new person with aliveness oozing out of me. I loved it. Its almost like I had a whole new pair of eyes and a whole new body and energy by the time I walked out of that class.
Yoga is transforming; every aspect of it. And it transforms in such a subtle way that you cannot see the obvious but you can feel the obvious. Its like waiting for the minute's hand on the clock to tick and watching it patiently make that move and when it does, you know it happened, cause you not only saw it but felt the subtle movement on that watch. Yoga is that subtle movement, that subtle shift of energy that transformation that happens every day, but for that you have to be patient and you have to show up for yourself :)
I was born and raised in India for half my life, the other half I have been in the U.S. I grew up with Yoga. We did asana's every Wednesday morning as a part of our school program. Yoga was never boring for me. I had a liking towards it since I was a child. My purpose of writing this blog is to share the beauty of life, according to what I see in it and share it with you, hoping you see it too. What does India and the U.S represent to me, according to my practice of Yoga. What do my lower and upper chakras, mean to me in this context.? And how does Indian culture and Spirituality intertwine with each other. and how does the whole concept of "going deeper to rise higher" completes all of us.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakra
Muladhara, Swadhishthana and Manipura - Lower chakras
Vishuddha, Ajna and Sahasrara- Higher chakras
Anahat (heart): where the meeting happens. I see it as the horizon. meeting of the Earth and the sky. meeting of the lower and the higher. Meeting of the Radha Krishna. Where love pours out of your heart for yourself and others; where the duality unites.
I see us humans as a tree. The deeper we ground ourselves in this physical realm the higher we rise above in the spiritual realm; just like a tree. Practice of Yoga physically grounds you and yet takes you higher at the same time. Our lower three chakras were given to us to keep us grounded and to keep us rooted in this world but the top three chakras were given to us, to rise above. The more we ground ourselves through our own discipline and practice of Yoga (according to me) the higher we rise in our world of spirituality.
For me Indian culture has been that rooting (bottom three chakras); and American culture where I learned about spirituality (top three chakras), has been that reaching higher and rising. I love Indian culture, but according to me, there are few things that need to be changed in our society; our narrow mindedness that does not allow us to move above and beyond, it holds us back from our own growth, its time for our own experiences to be looked with different eyes. Our culture is an enriched one, but sadly boxed in old way of thinking, and then there is Amercian culture, where I learned spirituality. Spirituality helped me step out of my old way of thinking and into the New Age way of life. Please understand, none of them are wrong, they are different and yet incomplete without the other. Too much of spirituality keeps you afloat; people cannot really rely upon you and what you have to say because you are always floating in that etheric realm (top three chakras). United states is still young (only 500 years old), still a child compared to India (over 10,000 years old), is blossoming, it too needs guidance and Indian culture steps in to teach Yoga and Ayurveda while American culture steps in to teach it spirituality and to think outside of the box, shedding old belief system. One needs another for balance. I can only speak from experience; I have lived in my higher three chakras but not really grounded in how I was feeling or experiencing, later recognizing that they both are incomplete without the other. Lower chakras without the higher are incomplete, eastern culture without the eyes of western, feels incomplete and grounding without rising is incomplete.
Beauty of all this is, our heart opens when we find the beautiful balance of grounding and rising. The meeting happens at the heart, at the Anahat chakra, and even though there is a duality between the lower and the higher, there is a beautiful milaap/ milan/ meeting that happens at the heart, at the horizon. Heart, color green, color of nature, color of trees that reside between the Earth and the sky, where Radha Krishna meet is where we meet....at the Heart.
Thank You for reading
With Love
Yoga is transforming; every aspect of it. And it transforms in such a subtle way that you cannot see the obvious but you can feel the obvious. Its like waiting for the minute's hand on the clock to tick and watching it patiently make that move and when it does, you know it happened, cause you not only saw it but felt the subtle movement on that watch. Yoga is that subtle movement, that subtle shift of energy that transformation that happens every day, but for that you have to be patient and you have to show up for yourself :)
I was born and raised in India for half my life, the other half I have been in the U.S. I grew up with Yoga. We did asana's every Wednesday morning as a part of our school program. Yoga was never boring for me. I had a liking towards it since I was a child. My purpose of writing this blog is to share the beauty of life, according to what I see in it and share it with you, hoping you see it too. What does India and the U.S represent to me, according to my practice of Yoga. What do my lower and upper chakras, mean to me in this context.? And how does Indian culture and Spirituality intertwine with each other. and how does the whole concept of "going deeper to rise higher" completes all of us.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakra
Muladhara, Swadhishthana and Manipura - Lower chakras
Vishuddha, Ajna and Sahasrara- Higher chakras
Anahat (heart): where the meeting happens. I see it as the horizon. meeting of the Earth and the sky. meeting of the lower and the higher. Meeting of the Radha Krishna. Where love pours out of your heart for yourself and others; where the duality unites.
I see us humans as a tree. The deeper we ground ourselves in this physical realm the higher we rise above in the spiritual realm; just like a tree. Practice of Yoga physically grounds you and yet takes you higher at the same time. Our lower three chakras were given to us to keep us grounded and to keep us rooted in this world but the top three chakras were given to us, to rise above. The more we ground ourselves through our own discipline and practice of Yoga (according to me) the higher we rise in our world of spirituality.
For me Indian culture has been that rooting (bottom three chakras); and American culture where I learned about spirituality (top three chakras), has been that reaching higher and rising. I love Indian culture, but according to me, there are few things that need to be changed in our society; our narrow mindedness that does not allow us to move above and beyond, it holds us back from our own growth, its time for our own experiences to be looked with different eyes. Our culture is an enriched one, but sadly boxed in old way of thinking, and then there is Amercian culture, where I learned spirituality. Spirituality helped me step out of my old way of thinking and into the New Age way of life. Please understand, none of them are wrong, they are different and yet incomplete without the other. Too much of spirituality keeps you afloat; people cannot really rely upon you and what you have to say because you are always floating in that etheric realm (top three chakras). United states is still young (only 500 years old), still a child compared to India (over 10,000 years old), is blossoming, it too needs guidance and Indian culture steps in to teach Yoga and Ayurveda while American culture steps in to teach it spirituality and to think outside of the box, shedding old belief system. One needs another for balance. I can only speak from experience; I have lived in my higher three chakras but not really grounded in how I was feeling or experiencing, later recognizing that they both are incomplete without the other. Lower chakras without the higher are incomplete, eastern culture without the eyes of western, feels incomplete and grounding without rising is incomplete.
Beauty of all this is, our heart opens when we find the beautiful balance of grounding and rising. The meeting happens at the heart, at the Anahat chakra, and even though there is a duality between the lower and the higher, there is a beautiful milaap/ milan/ meeting that happens at the heart, at the horizon. Heart, color green, color of nature, color of trees that reside between the Earth and the sky, where Radha Krishna meet is where we meet....at the Heart.
Thank You for reading
With Love
