Reflections
This shared space will hold our collective reflections as we continue on in our journey together in yoga and on this earth. You are invited to share your poetry, essays, photographs, vegan recipes and art and I will post them in this space weekly for all the yogis in this community to enjoy.
Tahr WALK
11/24/2023
This poem is inspired by the Tahr walk on the Munnar trip during the Kerala Yatra with Swami Ishwarananda and Swamiji’s quote during the walk, “The student stands, the teacher understands” and a lecture by Swami Shambhudevananda from Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers, who talks about going from the monkey mind to the monk mind.
Crisp mountain air
And the gentle breeze
As the leaves dance
Among the Coromandel ebony trees
Munnar
Where three rivers meet
And the hills touch the clouds
As the earth supports my feet
A symphony of greens
These plantations of tea
White, green and black
As far as the eye can see
Like a soul lost in samsara
The mountain goat leaps
His mind drowned in ignorance
As his intellect sleeps
A streaming waterfall
Neelakurinji, a violet hue
A path to Eternal life
Followed by just a few
With folded hands
The striving student stands
The teacher guides
The teacher understands
A monk in orange robes
Walks with me
He leads I follow
He sees and I try to see
I breathe, I search
I seek to find
The way from the monkey
To the monk mind
PC Krishnan Seshadri
8/16/2023
Labyrinths fascinate me. They are to me a representation of the life of a yogi. As I walk from the outer to the inner circles, I am diving deeper within, into a sacred space inside me, to find my true Self. The pebbles that form this labyrinth are the circumstances and the people that I meet along the way; the experiences that in some ways shape the experiencer. As I reach the center of the labyrinth, a powerful energy resonates within me as I stand in stillness, looking at the infinite blue ocean around me meet the infinite space within me. And just for a moment, I feel the oneness of the Universe.
As I wander out of the labyrinth from my meditations into samsara, the world around me, I hold the peace of that moment of stillness in my heart.
PC: Smita Kolhatkar
8/7/2023
In Piercy, Californina, among the towering Redwood forests flows a river. It is called the Eel river. A visionary monk from India, Swami Chinmayananda, re-named it as the Eel-Ganga river. This river like Mother Ganga, gushing with energy, flows around obstacles, undaunted, to its destination. So also, in-spite of challenges physical or mental, as yogis, we need to move forward with unwavering faith in ourselves and the goal. Each day, we find ourselves improving and one day even without our realizing it, there is a quantum leap. The important thing is consistent and sincere practice. And the rest follows; with the grace of the revered Gurus, who guide our inner journey. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you"
P.C: Krishnan Seshadri
8/3/2023
This poem talks about the need for a human birth for God Realization. It is inspired by a talk on Yoga Vasistha by Swami Shambhudevananda from Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers where I received my Yoga Teacher certification.
“When I walk in Heaven”
When I walk in Heaven
What will I see
A beautiful blue brook
Gurgling beside me
I will see the angels
flying all around
And music from heavenly veenas
Such a glorious sound
Every taste I want
Every touch and sight
Devas who protect me
With all their might
I will forget myself
And the human goal
As I lose myself
In pleasures untold
Until my punya karma
Completely runs out
And I am hurled down into bhu-loka
With an anguished shout
I could not know my real Self
In the absence of pain
Only in this karma-bhumi I can remember You
Only in this mortal birth I can gain
The desire to do sadhana
To learn and to grow
So I can focus inward, evolve
And feel my prana flow
Free myself from these shackles
Of pleasure and pain
Go beyond attraction and repulsion
Loss and gain
To reach the one Atman
The goal of life so bright
From the darkness of my ignorance
Into Consciousness, all Light
P.C: Krishnan Seshadri