Broaden Your Practice

Broaden your Practice   I was serving as Director of the Teachers Training and the Programs Departments at the Connecticut Ashram. I also had a wife, a new baby, a small house to maintain and grass to mow. I couldn’t seem to find the hours to do morning asanas (Yoga poses) and scheduled meditations through the day, like I had done for several years before. I complained to Gurudev: “I don’t have any time left to do my Yoga.”

“It’s all Yoga,” he said.

What could I say?  Yoga is yoking the finite to the infinite. Everything in life is a Yoga practice  that can assist us in uniting our limited consciousness to infinite consciousness.

Zen Master Zen Students  1980 I accompanied Sri Gurudev on a visit to the Providence, R.I. Zen Center of the late, ever ebullient Korean Zen master, Rev. Seung Sahn. In traditional robes of a Zen monks, his American disciples, heads and chins clean-shaven, listened attentively to Sri Gurudev’s talk. Afterwards they approached him and, curious about his long hair and beard, said: “You’re a monk, are you not?” Why don’t you cut your hair?

     He sliced the fingers of his right hand across the fingers of his left. “I could cut my fingers all the same length too,” he replied.

  There were no more questions.

There are many ways and styles of carriage one may take on as a stand for what one believes and does.

The Dali Lama came to the United States on a short visit and was scheduled to speak in Boston one evening. He and Sri Gurudev in their common interfaith services over the years had crossed paths often and become friends. Gurudev took a few of us along to Boston to meet him that evening.

     At that time, the Communist Chinese government was not pleased with the respect and admiration showered on the Dalai Lama around the globe, and there was always concern for his safety, even in America. I noticed that when the Dali Lama stepped back for a moment to change his top cloth or robe, seemingly out of nowhere a dozen tall, very strong Tibetan monks materialized and encircled him protectively. At the end of the evening Gurudev introduced us, and the Dali Lama gave us each a white scarf.

  Dalai Lama means “wish-fulfilling gem” and refers to the heart of compassion.

Later that night I dreamed of Tibetan Yogis rising up out of the ocean under a moonlit sky

Sri Gurudev

Don’t Search for Pain   1977 I was living in the Connecticut Ashram. Sri Gurudev encouraged us to study Sri Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, and commit to memory the sutras (threads, aphorisms) he said were most important for us to know. Among those was the first sutra in the second pada (portion): Accepting pain as an aid in purification; study of spiritual books (to know the Self); and surrender to the Supreme Being -- constitute Yoga in practice.

At an evening program I asked Gurudev to please elaborate about accepting pain as a Yoga practice. Was that something we should actively take on?

He smiled. “Don’t go looking for pain,” he said clearly. “Everyone gets their share. Not necessary to go searching for

Games of Life  In the northern Connecticut countryside we often played volleyball barefoot in a big grassy field behind the main Ashram building. Occasionally Gurudev joined us. Of course, we all wanted him to be on our team. Sometimes he did. We played to win and sometimes did. Sometimes we lost. Then he’d say, “It’s good to lose. Look over there on the other side; you see all happy faces. If you win, then all you see is unhappy faces.”

The games of life. Each has a series of successes and failures. Not so significant. Have fun in all conditions.

Looking Wise  In my late 30s I was living at the Connecticut Ashram and Gurudev saw some grey hairs in my beard. “Don’t worry, Prahaladan, he teased me. “Nobody listened to me until my beard turned white.”

Which wasn’t absolutely so.  People were listening to him well before his beard was white.