Embracing India: The Pandemic, Yoga & You

As the severe wave of COVID-19 infections and deaths has engulfed India in these last few weeks, past a point any of us could have ever imagined - and still rising, I have found myself at a loss of what to do or say. As a yoga teacher and practitioner, I owe a lot to this country, culture, and the yoga and philisophy teachings that have impacted my life and the lives of many others for so long. While I have just received my second dose of the vaccine and am days closer to more personal safety, it certainly does not feel as good as it would if I knew that more people in India and elsewhere had access to life saving medicine, oxygen and healthcare during this time. The notable cruelty is that India is one of the world’s largest producer of vaccines, including the ones for coronavirus - and yet, they don’t have enough of it for themselves.

I’ve grappled with what to say or not say, but after sitting with this crisis, it finally came back to some of the teachings I have learned from India and my training and practice to help me break it down into what I could do. It’s culminated in this post which has been helpful for me to write, and hopefully, will be helpful for you too.

This image was taken of me by photographer Shaun Roberts in 2013 for an artist profile series on Wondereur.

The Yamas & The Niyamas and Contemporary Living

A set of philosophies I return to again and again is called the Yamas & Niyamas. Largely regarded as the “Ten Commandments” of yoga’s ethical guidelines and part of any great yoga teacher training, I decided to try and look again at these ancient teachings and apply them to this contemporary crisis situation in a way that would help me to take action - and then share what I learned. You may notice, they’re similar in some ways to the Christian oriented Ten Commandments - I was raised in a Catholic household and noticed this right away! The highly popular and very digestible book, aptly called, The Yamas & Niyamas: Exploring Yoga’s Ethical Practice by Deborah Adele I definitely recommend if you want to dive deeper.

The Yamas and Niyamas originate from the very well known text 'The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali' written between 500 BC and AD400.

Photo by Aliis Sinisalu on Unsplash

The Yamas and Niyamas in basic definition are as follows:

Yamas
Ahimsa | Non Violence
Satya | Truthfulness
Asteya | Non Stealing
Bramacharya | Non Excess
Aparigraha | Non Possessiveness
Niyamas
Saucha | Purity
Santosha | Contentment
Tapas | Self-Discipline
Svadhyaya | Self-Study
Ishvara Pranidhana | Surrender

How can we adopt the principles of the Yamas & Niyamas to contemporary, Western living?

Image by Randy Rizo on Unsplash

Ahimsa or Non-Violence is most often associated (in my experience) with deciding not to eat animal products or to advocate for gun controls. While those things can have their place here too, how else can we think about non-violence and how can we apply it to the current crisis in India?

Two concepts also associated with non-violence are: developing compassion and finding our own courage. So let’s start with developing compassion. Compassion is defined as concern or sympathy for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. Courage is defined as the ability to do something that frightens you and finding strength in the face of pain or grief. What if we combined both into an action?

Can you find compassion for those who are suffering? Notice if you can’t. Does it feel too far away from your life and your experience? Or maybe you do feel overwhelming compassion, and even empathy. Maybe you are struggling to know what to do about your feelings. Our courage comes in when we can find our voice to talk about it and if possible, contribute funds or energy towards our position and the situation at hand. If you can’t find compassion, TRY. Ask yourself why that is and how you can cultivate it. If you are consumed with empathy, try applying compassion to your own state to recognize that you can only do so much from where you currently stand. If you want to give funds to help India’s crisis, you can do so here.

Photo by Matthew T Rader on Unsplash

From where you are standing or sitting right now, what is true?

Satya or Truthfulness

What is the truth of what you’re experiencing right now? There is power in acknowledging what you are going through, just as there is to notice someone else’s struggle. Get real with yourself about who you are in this moment. Can you take the time to notice and absorb what’s happening in your mind and your body, without an attachment to an outcome? This can be enough. This is the preview to Aparigraha or Non-Possessiveness too. Aparigraha is often associated with things, like wanting too many pairs of shoes or needing to know every detail of your partner’s whereabouts as a measure of the strength of your relationship. But not being attached to outcomes or resolutions of situations in the way you might envision them has a home here too. Start with asking yourself about what your truth is in regards to this crisis in India right now and whether you are attached to a particular outcome. You can contribute anonymously and financially to help bring international aid, as mentioned in the previous paragraph. Do you need to be recognized for it or just do it? You could also meditate or pray on it and give sincere energy and love from your very core. You could practice yoga asanas, read yoga texts or about Indian history, or recite healing mantras. What about reaching out to a local Indian organization in your community and volunteering time or resources right where you are? Here is another organization where you can contribute towards Education, Living and Public Health in India.

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Asteya or Non-Stealing and Bramacharya or Non-Excess was exampled in one way by pandemic rushes to buy toilet paper and
hand sanitizer.

Asteya, Non-Stealing and Bramacharya, Non-Excess

At face-value, these concepts are pretty clear. Don’t steal and don’t hoard. Where do you fit in on this paradigm? When we think about yoga and India, there has been a reckoning happening quite strongly for years now about how yoga has been appropriated by the West and how the majority of teachers and practitioners are not only non-Indian, but primarily White. Add to this that most people think yoga is just a workout and not a system of living, compounds the problem. To many, yoga has indeed been stolen from India, and turned into something else entirely here in the Western World.

If you are a yoga teacher, do you know your yogic teaching lineage? I was fortunate in my training to have our lead trainers teach us about who their teachers were, and before that and before that - leading all the way back to internationally well-known teachers and guru’s in India. I don’t say that to imply I’m somehow better, but more that this needs to happen more often, in every teacher training. We need to recognize that Yoga is a system of knowledge for living, and it’s important to acknowledge its full and complex history, including teaching lineage. The goal of yoga is not about how you look or how “good” you are at doing or teaching the poses. There are eight limbs of yoga and physical practice or asana is just one of them! Let us more openly and internally remember to recognize those who showed us the way and work towards course correcting the appropriation that has all too often alienated those of Indian descent from their own cultural identity. Let us truly educate ourselves and other practitioners about what it means to do so with authenticity and love for a life changing practice that is so much more than physical movements.

Bramacharya or Non-Excess

The picture above kind of says it all, doesn’t it? The pandemic in the United States in terms of consumer action, brought out some of our unattractive tendencies. Scarcity and fear mindset led to toilet paper and hand sanitizer being difficult to find for months at a time. Videos of customers fighting with one another over these household staples went viral.

Let us ask ourselves - how much do I really need?

Like anyone, I have a penchant for certain items when I go to the store. I’m a person in progress too, trying to do better. Also, I’m not saying don’t spend your hard earned dollars on something nice for yourself sometimes! Start by being more mindful. Shopping online unfortunately exacerbates the ease with which we can acquire things that bring us momentary joy, especially when we’ve felt stranded at home during a pandemic. I select what I need and what I can afford. If something great is on sale at the grocery store for example, and there is plenty available, sure, I’ll go ahead and buy a few. If I’m buying the last item available, I double check with myself if I really NEED it, or if scarcity mindset is telling me I better get it before someone else does and I’ll be afraid to be without. In a North American life filled mostly with abundance, we can all afford to take a step back and question what is needed and what is wanted? What is stocking up and what is hoarding? What emotional ties do we personally have to acquiring things, food and survival?

Work on yourself and if you have serious issues, those need addressing too. But also, consider those who truly don’t have enough from day-to-day, and consider donating food, supplies, funds or volunteer hours to your local food bank.

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Cremation fires in India are now burning 24/7 as a result of the effects of COVID-19.

Saucha or Purity

Images have dominated the news lately of the thousands of cremation fires taking place across India as a result of mass death associated with COVID-19. Traditionally in India, Hindus are cremated along the Ganges River as part of a month-long series of funeral rites intended to purify and prepare the soul to move out of the body and assist it in moving toward mukti or, spiritual liberation. The inundation of the pandemic has meant, sadly, that bodies are now burning 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to try and keep some form of family ritual and mourning available for those who are left in its wake.

In the West, while we are familiar with cremation, the dominant form of ritual surrounding death is through burial. What can we learn about ourselves by being open to doing things differently? It wasn’t so long ago that we were all horrified to see bodies in the United States being loaded into refrigerated trucks across the United States, but particularly in New York and across the South, and funeral homes could not keep up with demand. How soon we forget the torment of what mass casualty can do to so many. While we do not want to linger in a place of despair, we do need to come to terms with our common humanity and do our part.

Here, we can reflect once again upon Aparigraha or Non-Possessiveness. Our Western Culture puts the ultimate importance on the body, how we look, how thin or thick we are, how light or dark we are and how we age (or appear not to). Burial and the body are considered sacred, so the burning of a body by some might just not be misunderstood, but even frowned upon, seen as “foreign” or even a sacrilege. In this time of mass burning in India, where the literal smoke and ashes of thousands of souls are floating up into our atmosphere, how can we reflect on our own Saucha or Purity? Perhaps we could start by exploring our ingrained ideas about death and ritual. What do you believe? Why do you believe this?

In the book I mentioned previously by Deborah Adele, she puts forth the idea that Saucha can also involve Gathering All the Scattered Pieces of Ourselves. Where do the pieces of you lie and how can you purify and re-member the pieces of yourself back together? With a new perspective, you can approach the challenges of a sometimes chaotic world differently and more effectively.

Photo by Anukrati Omar on Unsplash

To be content with ourselves in a spinning, wonderful world full of every gadget, convenience and cosmetic to “make it all better” is a true test of our own self-worth.

Santosha or Contentment & Tapas or Self-Discipline

Western life, driven by capitalism, means that very often we are eagerly seeking the next and most exciting new thing. From literal, material possessions to relationships and social status. We are surrounded by the notion that relationships are transactional and that every action must be profitable, met with reciprocation somehow and “scratching each other’s back”. To be content with ones own life, just as it is, takes daily acceptance, practice and discipline. Doing things without the expectation of praise or a return of some kind is very difficult for us to swallow, it’s not how we were raised and it’s not how many around us live.

This is where Tapas/Self-Discipline can be practiced. America after all is supposed to be the land of plenty. Milk and honey, or so the saying goes. Take a look around you. For a great many of us, housing, food, clothes and conveniences are available at every turn. But what’s also true, is that the poverty rate in the United States is at its highest since the 1960s. In India, the pandemic has pushed a large number of the middle class into poverty as well. We share as countries, this huge shift. While India is still considered a rapidly developing country, and the U.S. a developed country, the pandemic impact on increasing the rate of poverty is just the same, having a massive affect on both of our populations. Another note, poverty does not “happen” more to Black or Brown people, however, people of color are disproportionately affected by it, similar to what we have seen happen with infection rates during the pandemic.

We can return again here to the Yamas of Bramacharya/Non-Excess and Aparigraha/Non-Possesiveness. How much do we really need and how much can we give back to help those who DO need it? Whether you are contributing funds or other efforts directly towards the Indian crisis, or towards causes right where you live, you can make a difference by offering friendship, assistance or funding to someone who needs it more than you do. We can loosely apply the concept of Karma here. What goes around comes around - but you may not see the results of your actions in your lifetime. Be ok with that! Philanthropy doesn’t have to be a massive undertaking or involve a lot of money, but know that Karma is still at work and that one person CAN make a difference in the life of another. Your great grandchild may feel the positive ripple affects of the actions you take today.

Where can you connect with others and provide support, while also being supported? Through cultivating friendship, both new and old and in Community Building. This helps to develop compassion and contributes towards Self-Study or Svadhyaya. Other people can provide insights to you that may be helpful, and you can do the same in return. It’s not transactional in this sense, it’s about community.

Photo by Mikhail Nilov from Pexels

Finally, Svadhyaya or Self-Study & Ishvara Pranidhana, Surrender

Self-Study and Surrender can be a big challenge for many. While light, fun things like exploring your horoscope tendencies, discovering your Dosha or Enneagram number are an entry point towards learning about yourself, true self-study involves much more than that. Ultimately, it means knowing yourself well enough that you can be a force of good for others. It requires studying, reading and sitting with yourself, and meditation is the key. Meditation however, can be done in many ways. It doesn’t have to be the sitting down cross-legged version with hands in the prayer position that often dominates media interpretations of both yoga and meditation. It can be a walk in nature, noticing the sights, sounds and sensations all around you. It can be journaling. It can be swimming or any physical activity, even dancing with abandon, or playing a musical instrument. It can be the practice of yoga itself, physically moving your body in a way that encourages muscle use and release - and acknowledging the accompanying emotions and feelings that come up for you.

Most of all, the practice of self-study asks you to surrender to what is. What is the truth for you? What happens when you breathe deeply, close your eyes and be still? For many of us, it is difficult to sit still. Western culture encourages us to do do do all of the time. We alone are never enough under this umbrella, so we do, buy and busywork to ensure that we don’t have to be alone with our thoughts. What that doesn’t leave time for is anything deeper. And it makes us afraid to be alone, afraid to be with ourselves, afraid to deal with the potentially challenging things that may come up for us. So start small. Commit to closing your eyes and taking ten deep breaths in and out. Go for a walk in nature alone, without music or other distractions. See what you notice. Sit on the earth and focus your gaze on something for as long as you can while keeping a hand on your heart and belly. Maybe you can begin a routine in the morning and/or at night that involves Abhyanga, the practice of massage, on the self. While traditionally, it involves the whole body, start with one area. The face, the feet (helps you to fall asleeep!) or your belly (helps with digestion too).

Learn to spend time with yourself, to love yourself, to surrender to the needs of your heart, mind and body. When you feel more whole and complete, then and only then, will you be more able to share yourself, your resources and your wisdom with others. If we all spent more time embracing our whole selves and less time criticizing (ourselves and others), we would more easily recognize how to be there for others rather than demean or dismiss that which seems too different from us.

The answers don’t feel so far away if we recognize the human connection that we all share. In these times, it is easy and tempting to focus only on the dividing lines, boxed in as we are by race, class, gender or political party lines, to name just a few. And to be sure, these boxes are important to talk about in their impacts, limitations and for rectifying injustice. I certainly don’t know all the answers and I for sure know that I don’t get it right every time. Maybe I’ve even messed up here in writing what I have. But I’m trying. I feel like this post could be a book and it could also have been a much shorter and digestible 10 point bullet list that gives you all the answers in a quick snapshot. But unfortunately, life just doesn’t work that way.

We are, all of us, having an ongoing lived experience. Indian teachers and philosophers have been showing us for thousands of years, the different ways we can each fulfill the promise of our higher selves. So it is up to each of us to consciously decide when, where and how we will live up to our own potential personally and also, how to show up in the world when we are needed.

What will you choose to do moving forward?

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