The Alien and Its Mothership

"Come to think of it, we all are really just aliens whiling away on this Earth, waiting for our mother ship to take us back home, and that home for all of us is the same place."

Consider the fact that we are an Atma (individual soul) which is a part of the Brahman or Paramatma (eternal soul/ultimate reality/consciousness). We all are on this Earth going through life experiences only to realize our life purpose of spiritual growth and evolution and to understand that we are complete and perfect, and that we already know all that is there to know. We've just forgotten this, and being born on Earth is solely to understand this ultimate truth.

The day we do, we will be free from the limitations of birth and death and the bondages of this Earth, liberated, and ready to reunite with the Divine, where we always belonged.

You thought I wrote about this guy, didn't ya? Yeah I love him too!

Life Lessons

"Few" things I've learned to appreciate ... and accept while graying my hair out with age :) Happy weekend reading!

1. Human beings are not perfect. They are malleable and have a gray area no matter how infallible we perceive them to be. We have to learn to love and accept them for what they are despite their flaws.

2. That we have to let go even when we know someone needs us. People don't accept our help until they themselves realize they need it.

3. Letting go is really difficult! But we must keep trying.

4. Contentment is a relative term.

5. This is something I learned from a very dear friend: If I wake up every morning and find my limbs intact, if I can still see the world with my eyes, if I can still feel my heartbeat, then irrespective of how bad my situation is, I should be grateful. <3

6. Accept yourself for what you are. Only then will others begin to accept you.

7. Make sure you smile and laugh, a lot, every day, and even without reason. And laugh like no one's watching.

8. If people gossip about you, then take it as a compliment. They are the reason you're a celebrity. ;-)

9. It is important to have faith. It is more important to trust that faith. It'll help to implement #5.

10. Don't say "when I turn 55 and my kids grow up and when my mortgages are paid off..." kind of things to yourself. That day will never come and when it does, you'll already have one foot inside your grave. Having responsibilities doesn't mean we cannot enjoy our life or pursue happiness.

11. Operate from a position of strength and not of fear.

12. Always, ALWAYS, be honest with yourself. No one else will.

13. Nothing goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.

Go Hug Yourself!

"Learn to love others as much as we love ourselves, but first learn to love ourselves infinitely."

No matter how much others care for us, they are also human and lose their balance sometimes. So, sometimes they may say or do things which do not align with their normal behavior or concern toward us, or in other words, hurt us unknowingly (or knowingly, thinking that that's what we need for our betterment). We must draw some mental boundaries and not let ourselves get hurt, but at the same time, not end the connection with them, forgive them, give them more time than we think they need to realize what they did, and without saying anything to them because they themselves are going through their own hell. It is not always possible to cut off such people from our lives. Sometimes, they are too dear to let go and genuinely mean good. It's a tough call.

And then after we find our notions of trust and stability shattered through such experiences, we have to still *not* put up a guard and keep trusting because right at the moment we put up shields to protect ourselves, destiny showers beautiful things upon us which are so good that we find it hard to believe they're true.

Stop Thinking and Just Do It.

So I had this one student in yoga today whose upper body and core strength was in very early stages ... kind of like where I was when I first started. She was a regular yogi though, and someone who enjoyed her yoga practice too. When we came down to Malasana (yogic squat) and I offered the option to do Kakasana (crow), she got iffy and wondered if she could, as it had been a while she'd attempted it.

So, I offered her steps to get into it. She seemed afraid of the floor - imagine the fear of falling flat on your face and hurting your head or breaking your neck. (My experience in falling down from crow has taught me that all you get is a tiny boo boo on your nose or forehead.) I waited a couple of seconds watching the fear on her face and attempts to take one foot off the floor, place that foot on the floor, then lifting the other foot, and repeat the process. I said, "Don't worry, the floor won't hurt as much as you think it will. I've fallen many times, and believe me, it doesn't hurt that bad."

I was just trying to help the lovely young lady enjoy herself and laugh a little. She giggled and to my surprise suddenly took both her feet off - it must have been just for 1.5 seconds. But for those 1.5 seconds and for the remaining 20 minutes after that, her expression changed. She was surprised at herself and happy that she did something she thought she couldn't do.

It reminded me of the first time I was able to get into Kakasana.

Over two years of nearly daily practice and no success at getting both feet off the floor, forget staying up there and allowing my arms bear my weight. I can't recall what got to me, but during one Malasana, happily compressing my legs after a lot of Surya Namaskars, and thoughts miles away from arm balances, lost in my breath, something hit me. The thought of not being able to get my feet off the floor. Only because I was afraid I'd get hurt. Then I convinced myself that the worst that could happen is that I'd fall on my face and break my nose or get a neck sprain. I had gotten neck sprains just by sleeping all night, so I said this was not going to be any worse. I'll call 911 if something goes terribly wrong and made sure my phone was next to me, just in case. With that I got both feet off the floor.

It's another thing that I didn't have enough arm strength back then to stay longer and so I did fall (and thus discovered that my fears about breaking necks and noses were unfounded). But it was only when I stopped worrying about consequences and trusted that nothing bad would happen that I couldn't handle, I was able to do something that I couldn't in two years.

That student was my reminder - and for that moment she became my teacher.

That if we want to do something for the first time but are unsure of the consequences, it is okay to try and fail and then try again in a different way, rather than not to have tried at all.

That after a certain point, we should just do what we want to do.

Enjoy the process rather than overthink and waste too much time cooking up conclusions that may never happen. Maybe laugh at ourselves and the situation while we are going through them.

If nothing else, life might just become a lot more bearable and a little worth living that way.

Bhakti as Wise Love

Learned something fascinating at yoga class today.

"Bhakti is wise love."

No, I'm not talking about romantic love or parent-child love. This is something else.

People say love has no place for wisdom. That love is blind and stupid.

But what if we were to perceive love from a place of compassion and describe it as the act of say, forgiveness? Forgiving those we love but who hurt us either intentionally or unintentionally or because their circumstances left them with no other choice? Or even forgiving ourselves for not being perfect enough to forgive?

There is so much beauty in loving wisely, and in the wisdom of love. Very often, our mind and heart are disconnected, or worse, are at conflict with each other. In the same way, our inner and outer worlds are often not in sync, and we are forced to live a life where we are not true to ourselves. Rather, we force ourselves to live in Asatya - by lying to ourselves. And when we live in Asatya, we also commit Himsa - violence - toward ourselves and the world around us.

Conversely, when our thoughts and feelings are in sync and our inner and outer worlds are at peace with each other, we can be in a state of balance, and then experience and express wholeheartedly, whatever concept the term "wise love" means for us, forgiveness, or something else. We may or may not immediately succeed in expressing or experiencing this Bhakti, but we will succeed in trying. And trying is our Dharma - our lifelong duty, thus creating Bhakti Yoga as a means to continue walking on our path as Karma Yogis or "householders."

Here is a Yoga mudra - a yoga pose with our hands - whose wisdom we can invoke when we wish to bring our inner and outer worlds in sync: Dharmachakra mudra, or the gesture of turning the wheel.

Step 1: Face your left hand toward your heart with your fingers spread.

Step 2: Bring the thumb and index figure together on your right hand and touch the tip of the ring finger on your left hand.

The left hand here represents our heart and inner world, the right hand represents our material world, both hands together represent the wheels of life, and the middle finger connecting the two represents Dharma, as the middle finger represents Saturn, the dispenser of justice and the activator of transition. This mudra therefore may be interpreted as building of the connection between inner and outer worlds (or our heart and material desires) and using that to trigger positive change through truthfulness to ourselves. (This mudra has many other interpretations, but for the purpose of this reading, we'll stick with this one. Gertrud Hirschi in her book explains this mudra more eloquently and elaborately.)

So, strive for love. Love others and yourself from a place of kindness and positivity, and with good intent. The good intent right there is wisdom and wise love. Many times, the Bhakti will help us build bridges with others and often make our day-to-day life easier to live. Sometimes, we will have to decide that we can no longer hold positive intent towards certain circumstances or people - that's okay, and that means it is time once again to call upon the wisdom of our heart to lovingly forgive and let go, in the knowledge that the Universe will do what is right for us and the world, and that all the good we give will lovingly find its way back to us.

Inversions and Changing Perspectives

"'Vitarka badhane pratipaksha bhavanam': When troublesome thoughts (vitarka) afflict (badhane) you, cultivate (bhavanam) opposite thoughts (pratipaksha), i.e., change your perspective."

~Yoga Sutra 2.33-34

This is what Vasistha taught Rama to do: To shift his perspective away from suffering and limitation to the infinite bliss of the present moment.

And because scriptures won't help unless we apply them in our practical world, a practical yoga-based tip to do this would be: practice inversions. Backward bends and twists also help, to a certain extent, in facilitating a shift in perspective because of the change in what we can literally see while in a back bend or a twist. But nothing makes our mind and body go topsy turvy like an inversion.

An inversion is, essentially, any pose where the heart is positioned above or at least at the same level as the head. It doesn't matter whether it is an active inversion such as a Headstand, Handstand, Shoulder stand, Down Dog, or a passive one such as inverted action pose or simply legs against the wall. Our body experiences a change in gravitational pull; blood flow is reversed, the heart rate is reduced the heart has to do less work, and the lymphatic system too gets more active (which is needed to drain toxins and improve immunity). Relieving mild symptoms of anxiety and depression is another great benefit. Not to mention reliving our forgotten childhood and a new fun way to connect with kiddos and loved ones!

When the brain is sane, things start to look positive. That in turn, results in a change in perspective.

What's the harm in trying anyway? There's nothing to lose :)

(PC: Internet.)

Dreams and Purpose

If you want to know what you really want in life, think about everything you have and everything you want. Look at everything you already have with a sense of kindness and show love and gratitude for the happiness you got - and still have - by having those things in your life.

Then, look at everything you want.

Think what you need to do in order to get those things - do you need to put in more effort in some part of your life? Do you need to do something differently from what you have been doing now? 

What about the things you have, are any of those things getting in the way of pursuing the things you want, or will those people and things work as catalysts?

How about the fact that we have only one brain, two hands, 24 hours in a day, and the fact that time once gone will never come back? Will the things we want and we have help us move closer to fulfilling our dreams and make us happy and content? 

How strong are we to stand up after we fall down, how resilient we are, and how strong is our will to be able to return to the light after going towards the dark side of the tunnel of life? 

Are we capable of turning ourselves into a martyr for the sake of someone or something else? Does our strength lie in becoming a martyr or by not becoming one? Are we strong enough to give up on our individuality and blend in with the society around us, or are we endowed with the courage and persistence to swim against the tide? 

By doing the things we do every day, and by not doing anything different in our day-to-day lives, are we chasing our own dreams, or the dreams of someone else?

"The two most important days in a man's life are the day he is born, and the day he finds out why." ~Unknown