Being born and raised in a country where Catholicism is the main religion, it is no surprise that that was the environment in which I grew in. It was by attending the traditional Sunday ceremony with my family that a sense of “faith” was cultivated within, as well as a connection to some source of divinity. However, at some moment in my adult life, questions and doubts led me to step aside from its own rituals and traditions. Curiously, over the past months, my 3,5yo child has been fiercely asking me to take her to church. Despite not knowing the root cause of her willingness, as a mother I could not ignore her call, so I committed to finding the most suitable ceremony for families and kids and attending it by myself first — to decide whether it would be appropriate for my child.
There I was taking an opened bittersweet seat, balancing between discomfort and a sense of familiarity. The spiritual scripture presented, though, conveyed a very well-known valuable teaching. It described a moment when Jesus and some of his apostles climb up a high mountain. Reaching up to its peak, they experience feelings of true happiness, unconditional love and joy. To soak into that blissful state of being, naturally they do want to remain there, at the mountain pinnacle, but to their disappointment Jesus requests something different. He is clear about what to do next: without loosing touch of that happiness, love and joy, they would have to climb down the mountain, taking all that goodness to others. Moreover, to remember that innate beauty within the ordinary of daily life and in moments of hardship.
Astonishingly, this was the exact same metaphor I had recently read in one of Pema Chödrön’s books in which she reflects upon the meaning of true spirituality and its potential misconception. The Tibetan Buddhist challenges the spiritual practitioner (sādhaka) on his perception about the journey towards enlightenment. One may be fully committed in his own spiritual practice – spending daily hours on it and even experiencing higher states of being -, but if that translates into being secluded and withdrawn from the world, no amount of effort matters. The effectiveness of our practice is measured by as many hands as we can hold onto, as we take that courageous journey of climbing down the mountain. This is the meaning of being truly spiritual.
There are many ways to talk about the problems of our world, but one way or another, all of them have to do with polarization. We have a tendency to create narratives that divide, carrying within concepts of “us” and “them”; “good” and bad”; “right” and “wrong”; “worthy” and unworthy”. And within this set up there is not much space for tolerance, inclusion, for “holding hands”. Some of these narratives are hugely magnified into collective ones against nations and/or certain political, racial, religious, ethnic groups all having the same ending: violence (hiṃsā). The teachings of Yoga assure us on the following matter: wether individually or collectively, dividedness with others can only exist if we are divided from our own being. Only when there is a sense of disconnection from our own wholeness, there is separateness. Remember we are given the definition of Yoga in chapter one of the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali (Samādhi-pāda): “yogaś citta-vṛtti- nirodhaḥ”, PYS I:2 / “When you stop identifying with your thoughts, fluctuations of the mind, then there is Yoga, identity with Self, which is Samadhi, happiness, bliss, and ecstasy (commentary by Sharon Gannon).
How can we heal the division in our world without working on the inherent division we are cultivating in our lives? how to address and heal this inner separateness? Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj has put it in a beautiful way: “The mind creates the abyss, the heart crosses it”. One must move from thoughts to feelings, from the mind to the heart, creating a larger internal space for loving, caring and connection.
Gopala, is the child form of Krishna – “go” means “cow” and “pala” means “protector”. He is the son of Devaki, friend of the cows. Krishna means the all attractive one, he is unconditional love and in the words of Sharon Gannon, “when we recite or sing the name of God as Gopal, our hearts open and we are led by a charming young boy into the realms of heavenly delight.”. The children of this world may effectively inspire us on reconnecting to our own wise hearts, as well as our spiritual practice.
Our world is asking us to wake up to collective belonging and luckily Yoga is a pathway that can help us transforming suffering, surpassing differences and crossing the abyss.
