Santosa, the Sanskrit word for contentment, means to enjoy your life. Enjoy by giving to others, by giving to your community, by giving to someone. These are the first notes I have from February 3rd Conference with Sharath. An auspicious start indeed.
The questions and answers meandered from the mundane to the holy at this Conference. The beginning and closing prayers were discussed. Both prayers Sharath insists have nothing to with religion, they are for well being, that is all. Religion is personal. Religion is comprised of rituals performed inside your own house or place of worship. Yoga is for self transformation, that is all.
A couple weeks ago the topic of practicing while traveling was brought up and it was revisited this Conference. Constant traveling is really not so good for yoga practitioners. There are several reasons for this, but the one most discussed on Sunday was that the traveling yogi ends up with too many teachers. There is a saying around these parts: “If you have two gurus, one student is dead. If you have two wives, one husband is dead. If you have two doctors, one patient is dead.” In our current world it is almost unthinkable that a student would have only one teacher. At the least, the student must have a primary guru. The primary guru is the teacher that gives the student his or her foundation in practice. Only one guru can give the fundamentals. Once the foundation is properly established then the student is ready to get knowledge from other sources ie. other teachers and books. The student’s sadhana, or practice, truly begins when he or she devotes herself or himself to a primary guru.
Distraction is everywhere. This will not change. It is how you react to distractions that matters. You can forget who you are when you get carried away by distractions. Sharath chuckled to himself when he brought up Mohini, the female avatar of Vishnu, a beautiful woman dressed all in white, an enchantress. “She came like a Mohini,” is a saying regional women use when their husbands have unexpected contact with a beautiful woman. Japa, the repetition of a holy name, is recommended for stability. Japa can easily be done for 15 to 30 minutes before bed. Any holy name with do, from any religion. On a personal note, I imagine a repeated serenity prayer would have the same effect.
I went to the temple of Jwalamukhi Tripursundari Devi, the younger sister of Goddess Chamundi, the presiding goddess of Mysore. It is a very sweet temple that serves the local population. I am amazed by the level of devotion amongst the people here. Ritual is very much alive and well in Mysore. I count myself lucky to have seen a grandmother (I assume) teaching her young grandchild how to go through the motions. At one point she picked the child up and laid her head at the priest’s feet.
After leaving the temple about 15 children gathered around me and my companions as we made our way down the hill. The children here a full of energy and extremely curious. I suppose this is true of children anywhere, but it seems especially true in South India, or maybe it is their complete lack of fear and shyness that I am picking up on. In any event, I found the best way to learn Kannada, the local language, is to talk and play with children. They are so excited to count on fingers and name the various parts of your face, ask your name and where you are from. When you ask their names they will all respond at once in a riotous chorus, this always puts a smile on my face.
Caution was thrown to the wind as we hitchhiked our way back to Gokulam in the back of a small (I mean very small) pickup truck. But the chance to have view the countryside while speeding down the road, roofless and wall-less was too good to pass up.
