Yoga is meant to help us become Better People not Superior People

Well the inevitable has happened. Yoga has been pulled into the mass consciousness at its lowest point of expression. It's the nature of entropy I guess that what goes up must complete its cycle and eventually go down, and there are always those who are waiting there at the end line with a crooked smile on their face and I guess that's their job. It is also expected that the year 2012 would be showing a clear divide between the two schools of thought: those who are spiritual and those who are not. It's already manifesting. I really didn't expect it to be so quick.

Proud to be Spiritual

If you're unsure which school of thought you are part of, see how you feel when you read the following pointers.

1. You put your heart and soul into something you love and then some ignoramus shows up and makes fun of one of the most healing and sacred practices you've ever encountered.

2. You spend hours and days and years making sense of the chaos in your life, only to hear someone say that you've got your head in the clouds because peace and love are the priorities in your life and not money or status.

3. You spend hours learning to breathe again just so you can live one day without anxiety.

4. You learn to speak again when you realize your words have damaged your relationships.

5. You get your eyes checked because someone told you they're rose-coloured and you want to make sure you're not crazy because you still see beauty in the world.

6. You decide to go into therapy because bitter sarcasm has made you too fragile mainly because you don't want to become bitter and sarcastic yourself.

7. You hang out with children and animals because you can trust them.

8. You show unconditional kindness as a last resort to connect with people.

9. You still believe in love no matter how much hate and hurt there is in the world.

10. When someone hurts another living thing your heart breaks.

Here are some of the spiritual words spiritual people tend to use, with layman words and not yogic or Sanskrit terms to keep it manageable.

Peace: closing your eyes and relaxing
Friendship: smiling sincerely
Love: not being afraid of getting hurt
Abundance: lending a hand because you can
Serenity: Having free time to spend on yourself
Joy: not having to worry about being in danger
Union: caring about your neighbour
Simplicity: being satisfied with what you have

All of these words are meant to help us become better people not superior people. If we don't put them into practice they will just be words and they will lose their innocence for they are innocent words at best. They bring out the goodness that is innate within us.

So if the world has caught onto the Yoga practice, the practice of peace and love and union and joy and serenity and abundance and friendship and simplicity, then it means the world wants to be a better place and that's good.

Yoga is not meant to be a popular practice. You don't need a big group or a great guru to learn it. You don't need to bend your body into pretzelasana nor do you need to pay a lot of money. You need to want to know yourself sincerely and not run away from your fears. You need to want to take care of your body and your mind, and of course all of this leads to the most important desire which is to want a better world for everyone as well. I hope it's what you want too.

Namastè.