Dear Friends,
Namaste!
As promised, we shall now begin our deep-dive into the eight limbs and four major types of Yoga.
However, before we do that, it will be relevant to dwell on a few salient and practical aspects of ‘Sadhana’ so that we can start our daily practice without having to know a whole lot about Yoga in the first place!
We have seen how important it is for us to gel homogeneously with our environment. Between the ‘self’ as we perceive it and the ‘external’ world, there must be complete mutual acceptance and comfort. And one of the best ways in which this can be achieved is to consciously make friends with the world surrounding us.
We play multiple roles at any given point in time in our personal, social as well as professional lives. Each role has the associated set of responsibilities. Sometimes there arises a conflict among these responsibilities and we debate – with others and with ourselves – what the hierarchy among these roles should be. Which responsibility is greater than the other.
Whether the role of a mother who gives her own flesh and blood to her child is greater or the role of a spouse who shares everything. Whether a teacher who disseminates knowledge that helps us to live and laugh is superior or a soldier who lays down his own life for the safety and well-being of his country. The debate could go on eternally and we would be as far away from a satisfactory answer at the end as we were at the beginning!
This makes us wish - if only there was one role we could always play that would remove all discord and continuously evolve and enrich our (and others’) lives!!
Fortunately, such a role exists. It is the role of a friend! When we don this hat - hierarchies, conflicts, negative feelings cease to be. The world becomes a playground and life becomes a party!
But aren’t we already playing the role? We have so many friends. So what’s the difference? The difference is – we have to learn to be friends with everyone now! Some friends can be closer than others but no one would be an enemy. Even a person with the most lowly character!
A Zen master was very popular for his teachings. People would throng the temple every evening when he used to deliver his discourses. He had a very large following indeed.
His popularity grew so much that even a notorious criminal started attending his lectures every day without fail. The audience despised the delinquent and repelled him thoroughly. However, the master would welcome the criminal with an innocent smile and would treat him with same respect as he would treat others.
This led to the chagrin of his entire set of followers. So much so, that one day they threatened the master that all of them would desert him unless he stopped welcoming the felon.
The master thought for a moment and responded, “I will continue to receive the fellow with affection. If that means I will have only him for company, so be it.”
“But why?” cried the perplexed followers.
“Because,” said the master, “He needs me more than you do.”
The followers were so moved by the master’s selflessness that they continued with him. The criminal also underwent catharsis upon hearing this episode and went on to lead the rest of his life as a fine citizen.
Why should we develop friendship towards all? Because they are our fellow-beings. They have the same life and every right to enjoy it as we do. May be there is some divergence in views and actions. More often than not this is attributable to the circumstances, priorities, up-bringing and such reasons. However, where there is divergence, there also lies an opportunity to converge. So rather than widening the rift and making everyone’s life more difficult, it is prudent to bridge the gap. And this is achieved by extending a friendly, helping hand.
By being friendly, we need not be just goody-goody. A true friend will exude empathy – not sympathy. A true friend will even disagree – he would never be disagreeable! A true friend will be assertive – but not aggressive. A true friend will support – never spoon-feed.
‘Friend is a person who oozes care
Your value system who loves to share
You can count on whom to be always there
Whether or not the weather is fair’
It is amazing how our entire perspective of the world changes (and vice versa!) the moment we start converting all our relationships into friendships. Developing this attitude, making it habitual and natural, is at the very core of leading a great Yogic Lifestyle.
If you are friendly – nothing else matters! If you are not friendly – nothing else matters!!
Be friendly!!!
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