Radikal Freedom Yoga as realisation

With both my teacher and her teacher we practised Kirtan and Bhajans. It didn’t matter if the harmonies were a little interesting, it didn’t matter if we sang one devotional vibe for hours. What mattered was the pure undiluted heart essence of devotion.

Sometimes today, Kirtan seems to be about celebrities, about performance and about whether you can ‘sing’ or not. The intention of deep devotional Kirtan is to move beyond ego, to dissolve in devotion and reverence. The focus of performance is to be good at something, to be seen to be good at something and to develop a reputation. It’s about cultivating a shiny spiritual ego.

When the heart dissolves in devotion, the neurochemicals of bliss, the pathways of ecstasy are being reinforced. With repeated practice the profanity of the mundane is resolved into realisation of the sublimely miraculous nature of everyday life. As the mind and its view of separation are slowly challenged by ecstatic relatedness to all of life and to the source of life then the ego itself tremors in surrender to that which is so much larger and so much more beautiful.

Being overly concerned with how we appear, what we look like to others, whether we fit in or not and what we sound like, the heart cannot open and the ego cannot let go of its tenacious and fearful grip.

What to do about this business of yoga that insists on commercialising every single practice, this business that seems to insist on turning practices of ego demolition into practices of ego aggrandisement? I feel the solution is to not worry too much. We ‘out’ the business; point out its foolishness and get on with our own practice, development and realisation. The shallow nature of ego aggrandisement, like capitalism itself, is not sustainable. You cannot make Samsara[1] work by creating pseudo spiritual practices that do not resolve the illusion of separation. You cannot make Samsara work by putting glossy coats of spiritual looking varnish on top of the decaying timbers of selfishness.

Sooner or later the facsimiles of practices that have presented themselves through western commercial control will simply fade into obscurity. All that glitters is not gold; simply holding up the authentic jewel of Dharma is sufficient.

Devotion to life and the source of life, deep bio-philia will suffice. There is no running from impermanence. No one escapes alive. Either we authentically face our fabrications and delusions and find freedom, or we start to age, run scared and dissolve in terror in the face of emptiness.

Samsara is egoic living, it can never lead to sustainable happiness, equanimity or freedom.

If it matters what we look like; whether we are in the clique or not; whether we can hit that note or not; how others see us; or how we perform, then we have real problems.  We are trying to make Samsara work! Best wishes with that one, it only ends in tears.