Look ma, no wall!

One of my wishes was to be able to do an unsupported Sirsasana by the end of the year. I didn’t have to wait that long, it happened. And then happened again. Simply because of trying out something a fellow student mentioned. I haven’t tried it in class yet. Maybe in the next one. Of course, looking at a picture made me cringe but I was elated for a while. Still am. The happiness of a child learning to write a complete word. Then, all she wants to do is repeat it until the novelty wears off. 

The academic year is almost at an end and it has been an interesting one. It began with a steep learning curve which slowed down to smaller, quieter steps forward. The knee injury was a good opportunity to pause and rearrange my life a bit. Of course, many old patterns came up alongwith it but overall, it has been a blessing in disguise. It has taught me to be more seeking in my practice rather than just waiting for my teachers to tell me. In the process, I realised it was more the mind I needed to fix than my body. The body heals itself, it is the mind that needs treatment through the body. Just like my teacher says…

In the meanwhile, I found pleasure in swimming while also discovering deep silences under water. The breath has started to become a friend as I let go and surrender to the flow. It is a different experience to be suspended in a medium which can either support or swallow you. As an element, it’s an interesting one to explore through its different aspects. Benign, malevolent, neutral. Three different states- ice, water and steam, all with different gunas. Water in the womb, water in our bodies and on our planet. Universally used by all that lives. Infact, the beginning of life itself. The purifier in all rituals from birth to death and beyond. There is much to learn from contemplating the building blocks of life. It is a theme common in the Upanishads as well. Our rishis of old had pretty much cracked the whole thing and expressed it so eloquently. Despite all the commercialism associated with the sacred art and science of yoga today, the pure truth endures, hidden in plain sight. Quite like the secrets of water under open skies. They invite you to dive deep and dissolve. After all, isn’t life really a preparation for dissolution? A bit like all asana being preparation for savasana…

Hari Om