Dear Friends,
It’s a familiar scene, in any season except summer, the inside of the pediatrician’s office, awaiting the results of the throat swab. Sitting opposite, I look up at this beautiful child perched atop the examination table. I’ve been in this scenario literally 100 times over the past 27 years. This time, beholding my youngest in all his mopheaded glory, I’m transported to that day when my husband and I stood over him 15 years ago in the hospital, drinking in the 3-day-old form of our child. His infant image seared in my brain, I dig it out of the memory bank to hold it up to his current face. What joy, what wonder it is to watch a baby grow into an adult! I steep myself in a tea of motherly pride, when, unbidden, the path of Yoga shifts my thoughts — instead of my baby to nurture and love throughout life’s stages, I see a fellow soul. A different perception seems to come out of nowhere, and I perceive him as belonging only to himself, a soul on the earth plane dealing with the onset of a fleeting illness-event in his body-vehicle. A hero on his own journey and I, an onlooker, a supporting role.
Does the path of realization rob us of the joys of our physical life? Does it make us too detached and ethereal that we no longer taste life’s sweetness? I would say it gives us a kind of double vision. We feel the emotions of, for instance, motherly tenderness, and these are good, for even God loves us this way. Yogananda taught us to approach God as Divine Mother, after all. But he shared the experience that God is also impersonal, a Light at the edge of creation, vibrating it all into being. So, too, can we behold our loved ones as our very own, but not totally, for they belong to the universe.
During this season, we focus on Christ as a sweet baby, knowing he is so much more than that. The path of Kriya Yoga is rooted in the human Christ and Krishna, with expansion into infinity as its trajectory. Those tender feelings that their child forms arouse in us eventually mature, with time and attention, into a powerful devotion that impels us toward self-realization.
Let’s gather and feel the joy in both our human companionship and bolster one another’s efforts of soul contact with our true essences. It’s not necessary to be an experienced meditator to give and receive the blessings of group meditation. If we don’t see you, have a blessed Christmas and holiday of rest and connection.
Where: Be Well Yoga Studio
1906 W. Koenig Lane
Austin, TX 78756
When: Sundays 10:00 – 11:15 a.m.
What: Energization, prayer, chanting, meditation, affirmations, healing prayers
Details: Park behind the house. Look for the driveway between Be Well Yoga and Bare Body Day Spa to park in back. It’s OK to park behind 1908 as well and walk through the gate. Take the outside staircase up to the deck to enter the yoga studio. Bathrooms can be accessed through the downstairs back door. Suggested love offering $10 for rent. Venmo: @Kim-Pradhan or cash, check, or Zelle works as well.
Afterwards: Optional brunch at Brentwood Social House, walking distance down Koenig Lane.
Joy is within us,
for Ananda Austin,
kimberly