He Ma Durga

Since my post about Donna De Lory there seems to have been a lot of interest in the translation of her song titled “He Ma Durga”.  My best translation of the Sanskrit title of the song would be “Oh Mother Durga”.  In Hinduism, the Goddess Durga is considered to be the embodiment of creative feminine force.  She exists in a state of self-sufficiency and fierce compassion.  Durga is considered by Hindus to be an aspect of Kali, and the mother of Ganesh, Saraswati, Lakshmi and Kartikeya.  She is thus considered the fiercer, demon-fighting form of Lord Shiva’s wife, the Goddess Parvati.  She manifests fearlessness and patience, and never loses her sense of humour, even during battles of epic proportion.  She is normally pictured as having ten arms and within each hand she carries a different weapon.  She is also normally pictured riding a tiger or a lion.  On the CD cover of  The Lover & the Beloved Donna says, underneath the lyrics to “He Ma Durga”, that this mantra is “a call to the divine Mother, that we may embody her perfect example of unconditional love and compassion”.  That definitely gives us all something to work towards.

Sweet Santosha

In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras he gives us a list of guidelines for how we should treat ourselves, in order to explore our own self worth and to enable us to take care of the self.  These guidelines are called the niyamas and can be found in Yoga Sutra II:32.   Santosha is listed as one of Patanjali’s five niyamas and the English translation of Santosha is to feel gratitude or contentment with life.  This is not as easy as it sounds and is something that needs to be cultivated.  It’s very easy for us to concentrate so hard on the things that we feel we don’t have and desperately want, that we miss seeing all of the wonderful things that we do have.  Santosha reminds us to continually come back to a feeling of gratitude for what we do have in our life, to not dwell on what we feel is lacking, and to try and cultivate that sweet feeling of contentment.  Ahhh, sweet Santosha.  If you want a clear and concise translation of the Yoga Sutras, I would definitely recommend Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: With Great Respect and Love by Mukunda Stiles.  He somehow makes this classic easy to read and doesn’t interrupt the translation with continuous explanation – he allows it to be read like a beautiful poem.

Beautiful music

While looking for new music to play for some Yoga classes that I will soon be teaching, I came across the beautiful voice and music of Donna De Lory.  I just purchased one of her older albums called The Lover & the Beloved and I love every song.  The songs all revolve around a variety of mantras, including “Ganapati Om”, “Om Namah Shivaya” and “He Ma Durga”.  The CD actually gives some Sanskrit translation and incite into each of the mantras which is really interesting, and the beautifully chanted mantras are combined with her music to produce a very spiritual yet contemporary feeling album.  Donna used to be a backup singer for Madonna, which gives her some street-cred I guess!  She released a new album in March this year, called Sanctuary which seems to be getting great reviews, so I guess that will be my next purchase.

Every pose tells a story

Learning the Sanskrit name, and possibly the story behind an asana, can sometimes give us a stonger connection with a pose.  A good example is Virabhadrasana II (Warrior II) which is a pose that commonly appears in classes of all levels.   The story goes something like this.  Sati was the first consort of Lord Shiva and his second wife, Parvati, is the incarnation of Sati.  Sati grew up as a devoted follower of Lord Shiva and won his heart and eventually married him.  Her father disapproved of Shiva and as a result of their marriage cut Sati off from her family.  One day her father hosted a magnificent party and all the Gods were invited except for Shiva and Sati.  Sati desperately wanted to attend the party and see her family.  Shiva tried to dissuade her but she was determined to attend.  At the party a fight started with her father over all of the things that he disliked about Shiva.  Sati became so consumed with rage at her father that she used her Yogic powers to immolate herself and burned herself to death.  When Lord Shiva found out what had happened to his wife he became so angry and distressed that he began ripping out his dreadlocks.  Two of the dreadlocks that were thrown on the ground were transformed into the fierce warriors, Virabhadra and Bhadrakali.  As revenge for the death of his wife, Shiva released these creatures on the world to bring righteousness and justice.   So, the next time you’re standing in Virabhadrasana II, try to imagine that you are a warrior avenging the death of Sati and hopefully this will become one of your stongest poses.

The open hand of Aparigraha

We’ve already talked about Patanjali’s yamas, or rules of conduct, in a previous posting, but I want to expand on the concept of aparigraha (the fifth yama).  Aparigraha is defined as non-possessiveness, non-grasping, non-attachment and is sometimes referred to as having an “open hand”.  Aparigraha can be seen in the hoarding of possessions and even the obsessive collecting of friends, or an extreme attachment to a particular yoga teaching method.  As one of my teachers likes to say “if we are desperately holding onto all of our possessions with both hands, we won’t have one hand free to receive our blessings”, and hence the “open hand”.

Breath of Fire

Breath of Fire is a pranayama technique which involves quickly pulling air in and out of the lungs in a very rhythmic motion.  Most teachers suggest that you put your right hand on your belly and push your belly out on each of the quick exhales so that you can stay in the rhythm.  This pranayama is often used during Kundalini yoga classes and you can definitely feel the energy that is stirred up and moved around the body with this technique.  Breath of Fire is said to charge the nervous system and purify the blood.  If you want to try Breath of Fire, watch this YouTube video  which demonstrates the technique for beginners, intermediate and advanced students.

The importance of Pranayama

Prana means breath, respiration, life, vitality, wind or energy.  Ayama means length, expansion, stretching or restraint.  So, combining these together connotes the control or extension of breath or life.  The yogini or yogi must master both asana and pranayama, as both are as important as each other.  Practicing pranayama drives away the impurities of the body and the mind, and is said to specifically strengthen the respiratory system, soothe the nervous system and reduce cravings.  Oh, and they have some really cool names too – there’s skull-shining breath, breath of fire and victory breath, just to name a few.  We’ll talk about each of these another day.  The importance of pranayama is embodied in this quote from B.K.S. Iyengar’s book, Light on Yoga.  Iyengar says ”The yogi’s life is not measured by the number of his days but by the number of his breaths”.  Inhale, exhale…

Yama yama yama

In Chapter 2 of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali describes the eight limbs of Yoga.  The first of the eight limbs are the yamas or ethical disciplines that a yogini or yogi should follow.  The yamas are listed as ahimsa (non-violence), satya (telling the truth), asteya (non-stealing), brahmacharya (respecting the creative power of sex and not abusing it by sexually manipulating others) and aparigraha (greedlessness).

Has your Guru found you yet?

The Sanskrit word “Guru” is composed of the syllable “gu”, meaning darkness and “ru” meaning light.  So, this description is usually given to someone who is able to remove darkness and bring enlightenment.  In B.K.S. Iyengar’s book Light on Yoga: The Bible of Modern Yoga, which is still seen as the definitive guide to the philosophy and practice of Yoga (it was first published in 1965!), he says that “The obstacles, trials and tribulations in the path of Yoga can be removed to a large extent with the help of a Guru.”  A guru is a spiritual guide who leads the disciple along the path towards the Divine without egotism or need for fame or personal gain.  Iyengar says that the guru “inspires confidence, devotion, discipline, deep understanding and illumination through love”.  The other commonly held belief about gurus is that apparently you do not find your guru or seek them out, they will actually find you.  Has your Guru found you yet?

More about Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

Lokah Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu
It appears that this Sanskrit invocational mantra can also be written as “Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu”, where the second word is Samastah rather than Samastha. On page 19 of Sharon Gannon’s book Yoga and Vegetarianism there is a great translation of this phrase.  She translates each word in the phrase as follows:

Lokah: Location, realm, all universes existing now
Samastah: All beings sharing that same location
Sukhino: Centered in happiness and joy, free from suffering
Bhav: the divine mood or state of unified existence
antu: may it be so, it must be so
She also says that “Antu” used as an ending transforms this mantra into a powerful pledge.

Sharon Gannon is definitely one awesome yogini!