Hello Disco Dialoguers - we’re back after taking the summer off. Over the past couple of months both of us have been continuing to study the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and putting our learnings into practice. In our last post we discussed Yoga Sutra 1 and 2 and today we dive into Yoga Sutra 3.
Mitali’s Dialogue
“Pull over!” I started to scream in my head. “Don't you see the signs - ‘Slower traffic use turnouts’?” The calmness I had started to experience five minutes ago on my solo drive to the beach was shattered. Moments before, I had turned off my phone and turned up the music in my car as I admired the sunlight streaming in through the redwood trees. Then I got stuck behind a cautious driver going twenty miles an hour around the bends. And I was annoyed.
Let me rewind a bit. It was the start of summer and things were getting chaotic in my household. The kids were out of school, schedules were erratic between different camps each week, summer jobs and impromptu get-togethers with friends. I was getting ready to leave on a four-week family vacation across multiple countries while also planning two family birthday celebrations and getting a work project off the ground.
In these busy times, it's easy for me to say that I have no time to do something for myself. But it is exactly in these times that I have learnt that I need to protect my alone time to keep my sanity. If I don't fill my bucket I have nothing to give to others who need me. So that day I prioritized carving out some solo time before we left on vacation. It was definitely not optimal. There were constant demands on my time from the family. But I know I have to practice maintaining my boundaries because my needs matter especially in the times when it is difficult to hold on to them.
There is a favorite beach that I like to go to alone whenever I find myself feeling overwhelmed by a hectic schedule. It's not convenient to get to but the hour-long drive along a winding narrow road amongst towering redwood trees immediately pulls me out of my head. As the road emerges out of the forest onto scenic Highway 1 with a view of the ocean, I find myself transported to a different place. On the beach, I tune into the sound of the crashing waves, and my mind immediately calms down. It is my special place - a place that allows me to relax, to get out of my head and forget my to-do list and instead experience joy in nature. Each time I drive away from that beach I feel thankful for the life I have, joyful about the beauty around me and filled with calmness to handle the craziness of life again.
So that afternoon, I was in a rush to get to my beach. I had even packed stuff to take a cold dip in the water before the light disappeared. I had a short window of time away from the family and I wanted to maximize it on the beach, not stuck behind a slow driver. The vrittis were strong - creating waves of emotions on my chitta lake.
Yoga Sutra 3: tadA drashTu swarUpeYvasthAnam
Translated as: Then you see yourself as what you truly are
“drashTa” ie the Seer - Think of ourselves as the ones watching the waves rise and fall in the chitta lake.
When your chitta lake is still, it will finally reflect the truth of who or what you really are.
And what is that? Look up at the beauty, the light, the wholeness that you are surrounded by - that is you. Tat tvam asi - thou art THAT.
Once we are freed from the citta vṛttis, which is the fluctuations of the mind, we then gain knowledge of our true nature: you are puruṣa, the soul, the observer, the seer.
[Notes from “The Yoga Sutras For Children” by Roopa Pai]
So this time I noticed the vrittis. And I started taking some deep breaths, forcing my shoulders to relax, to calm my mind. I reminded myself - “It's ok to drive slowly…enjoy the beauty of the drive.” Slowly I fell into a rhythm behind the car repeating - “I am not my anger. I have a choice to not react to this inconvenience. I am not the storm, I am its calm center.”
Eventually I made it to the beach that day and found the courage to take my first solo cold dip in the ocean. But it was the drive home that turned out to be the truly magical moment of the day. Just ten minutes from home, I suddenly spotted the moon rising in front of me on the freeway. The timing was perfect - a ginormous full moon hung on the horizon as I found myself in the right spot to see it rise in its glory. If I hadn't been slowed down by the car on the drive to the beach, I might not have been on the freeway at this time. And I smiled to myself. When I stop sweating the small stuff, I get to bask in the glory of the good stuff the Universe puts in front of me. Blissful, radiant and wise.
Kinnari’s Dialogue
"So you understand what is meant by Chitta. It is the mind-stuff, and Vrittis are the waves and ripples rising in it when external causes impinge on it. These Vrittis are our whole universe"
- Swami Vivekananda, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras
Sharing below something I wrote in my journal earlier this week about the ripples in my mind (chitta) -
“I have been observing the thoughts in my head since I woke up this morning. Doing what I'm training myself to do. To watch, to observe. Something felt off this morning, I didn't wake up in my normal happy state. I make it to an 8 am yoga class (for the first time this year) before work. Plenty of time to be in my body, to breathe, to make space in my head. It helps in getting my state of mind back into a more neutral space. After the class when I pull out my phone, I see texts from back home. An issue has popped up between my parents. I'm instantly drawn into feeling sorry for them and guilty for not being able to help from here. My brain goes to thinking about when I can travel back to India. Shall I take the toddler and go work from India for a few weeks and leave behind the first grader with her Dad? I immediately start looking for tickets to India upon getting to my desk. But soon work starts demanding my attention with incoming emails, pings and calendar notifications. Next come the thoughts about work… What am I doing? Why am I not making changes? I hold myself back from reaching out to Mitali or my close friends to complain. Just yesterday I made a decision to not spend any more energy talking about it - and to instead focus on action, no matter how small.
I am watching all these thoughts come and go and also finding myself getting caught up in the swirl, in the raw emotion of all of this. I tell myself it'll pass. Be calm and let it pass. I step away from my desk and find a quiet room and close my eyes for a few minutes.
There have been days where I've watched the swirl in my head from a little bit of distance. I've seen how the thoughts in my mind shift like a pendulum from the morning to evening or perhaps within the hour. If I don't get emotionally attached I am able to be amused by it all. Most of the time I am shocked at the extent of havoc created in my mind and body by these "vrittis", these thoughts. Where do they come from? How are they able to dictate how I feel? My mind is a circus!”
Yoga Sutra 3 talks about the ultimate aim of yoga - to quieten these vrittis in our mind, so we can see our true selves. You are not the body nor the mind. You are the Knower, the Seer.
"Normally we cannot see our true Self because there are so many ripples in our mind.
…If the mind has a lot of waves like the surface of a lake, you will be seeing a distorted reflection. If the water of the mental lake is muddy or colored, you see your Self as muddy or colored. To see the true reflection, see that the water is clean and calm without any ripples. When the mind ceases to create thought forms or when the citta is completely free from vrittis, it becomes as clear as a still lake and you see your true Self. "
- The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Sri Swami Satchindananda
Last weekend Mitali and I attended a meditation talk by B.K Shivani, a spiritual leader representing the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization. One of the first things she pointed out was the need to heal our minds. She talked about how meditating once a day wasn’t enough because our minds were so full. “Pain doesn’t just mean emotional hurt. It can also mean lots of clutter in our minds. Our face and body language are a reflection of our mind.” She asked us to think of our mind like it is our baby and give it love and care.
Here are some of the daily practices she suggested to help take care of our mind, in case you’d like to give one or more a try -
Every hour take a pause and check on your baby. If you find it is disturbed stop everything, take a few minutes and attend to it. If it’s going too fast (in a rush) make it slow down. The aim is for us to keep our mind stain free.
Consume less, don’t keep absorbing from the world. Only consume what is needed.
Kam bolo, dheere bolo, mitha bolo - Speak less, speak slowly and speak sweetly. Data is free, energy is not. It’s important to conserve your energy. Silence saves energy. Talking takes a lot of energy, talking badly about people takes up even more. Choose your words carefully.
Review your day at the end of the night. During the day the stain is on the bedsheet (on your mind), but if you go to sleep that goes into your subconscious. Remember to be clean and clear before going to sleep. Take two minutes and forgive everyone. Create good thoughts for tomorrow.