Many
Decembers ago, when I was taking one of my first yoga classes (with my mom,
Babsee, and at her insistence), our teacher (Brij Chabbra) said something that
has resonated with me to this day. Since
they’re both now doing yoga in that Great Shala in the Sky, I hope they don’t
mind if I mess up the verbatim.
Before
and after every class, Brij had a habit of inviting us to “set an
intention.” He called it planting your “Sankulpa,”
or dream seed, and said that the greatest gift of yoga was that you got to
plant a seed every time you practiced.
He said that if you practiced, say, every day, you got to plant 365
dream seeds a year. It was like
celebrating New Year’s and Christmas and Rosh Hashanah every day. (Side
Note: I suppose, looking back, that this
helped inspire many years of three-a-day yoga sessions. I have the MRI’s to prove it).
We
know, empirically and intuitively, that the physical body’s dream resonates in
the heart of the head, and that, what the head believes, the body signs up for
(think “psychosomatics,” vs. “soma psychosis”).
Brij
put it a simpler way:
“Whatever you really, really,
really want with all your heart and soul, you will get. And whatever you really, really, really DO
NOT want with all your heart and soul, you will get. You are what you resonate, so resonate good
thoughts and actions always.”
As we
start to awaken from “Yule Tide,” and begin thinking and dreaming about the canvas
garden ahead, I would suggest leaving a small corner (or a big chunk) to
sketch, draw, visualize and mindfully vibrate your heart’s desire. Then, as you practice, or walk, or run, or
just sit, take time to sit and practice mind-full-ness: watching the breath, calming the soil, and
planting the seeds you want to grow.
As my
mom would have said, if nothing ever changed, we wouldn’t have corn.
With our deepest
wishes for a vibrant 2016,
Baba G
