A couple of weeks or so ago, Donna de Lory blessed AOMYOGA with her divine presence.We practiced asana and sang together.It was a small, almost intimate class led by David Newbery exploring the theme of “the song of your heart”. Donna is a petite woman and humble yogini whose mighty voice reaches right to your heart. After chanting sanskrit mantras the essence of the sounds remains inside you…their vibes enter your body cells. We started by chanting AHAM PREMA (I am divine) , SO HAM (I am that)….Then we had Donna sometimes practicing asana, sometimes singing while we were practicing, and mOMents we sang altogether … I am short of words to tell you how powerful and uplifting this experience was… There was magic in the air.Pure bhav!
I AM THAT was the main message of Sri Brahmananda Saraswati, founder of Ananda Ashram. http://www.anandaashram.org/peacefulCoexistence.pdf.
Yoga works and yet I (the fake “I”) am always aumazed that it works…
Well, you well know how much I love Ram Dass… he is a big inspiration. As weird as it might sound, I have often felt the presence of his guru, Sri Neem Baba Karoli(affectionately called Maharaji or babaji). The first time it happened I thought I was dreaming… but I was not. I did not do anything special but it happened, it still does sometimes…. I know the thing might feel too big to grab… . Anyways, I highly recommend Ram Dass’s books, articles and videos, they are invaluable resources. Though I’ve never met him in person and I’ve never been to the holy city of Vrindavan, through Ram Dass and his fellow gurubais‘ work (Krishna Das and Shyamdas, to name a few), seekers are blessed to experience Maharaji’s darshan (It’s good to know that it happens to other people). As Ram Dass would say: “this is Maharaji’s grace ….”
Anyways, more recently, Vrindavan and the “SO HAM” mantra/meditation were brought back again while watching Suzanne Bryant’s insightful documentary: Yoga Is. Of all the documentaries on yoga, this is probably the film that touched me the most as I could relate to Suzanne Bryant’s experience on a deep level. With his soothing voice, David Life reminded us that: ”(…)we all suffer from a case of mistaken identity, we do even have ID cards to proove who we are and that we were born.Yoga says this is a case of mistaken identity, who we really are is beyond any passeport ID, beyond any driver license, that we are in this temporary costumes and these containers in order to work out our karmas, and that work is inter connected work, it’s interconnected to the Earth and to all beings that we share this planet with” (David Life in Yoga Is).”Ultimately, we cannot do Yoga, Yoga is our true nature” added Sharon Gannon. Many other contemporary great teachers and yogi(ni)s are featured in Yoga Is. We hope to host a screening in Geneva soon…
It is of first and outmost importance to never lose sight of the big picture, to never confuse the practices and Yoga itself.
Namaste,
Jeanine
PS: check out these two links
1) a very well articulated piece by Ramesh Bjonnes published in Elephant Journal
2)Ram Dass last newsletter: http://ramdass.org/stretching-our-concept-of-humanity
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