Guru Purnima - Aad Guray Nameh, Jugad Guray Nameh, Sat Guray Nameh, Siri Guru Dayvay Nameh

In the age of digitalisation, the word Guru is used frivolously and looses its meaning. It is used to address teachers, guides, coaches, subject matter experts, people with mastery over certain skill-set - anyone with a following is called a Guru in this day and age (Wikipedia and Google will attest to this); either we christian them with the title or they themselves declare that they are a Guru.
However, the ancient Vedic scriptures in India used the word Guru with a very specific connotation. Guru was someone who advanced the ‘shishya’ (disciple) spiritually!

Gu=darkness, Ru=dispeller of; Guru is that particular figure in one’s life that dispels the darkness, in other words, the entanglement of mind and unites the individual with the universal consciousness. It is very serious job with a very heavy ‘karmic’ implication.

We are all conditioned to shop around these days; we shop for yoga and spiritual Gurus like we shop for clothes and groceries. I do feel some people in our life bring us lessons, sometimes painful lessons that catapult us spiritually and in that instance, they become the Guru. When the Guru within awakens, one finds the Guru outside of themselves. However, in this shopaholic world, people project the Guru within onto yoga teachers, art teachers, life-coaches, priests, pastors and others. The ancient Indians were wise enough to realise this tendency of the human mind. Hence, Shiva! The ancient Indians projected the Guru within onto larger than life (or beyond life and death) beings like Shiva, Ganesha, Krishna amongst others.

On this day, Guru Purnima, Adi (=first) Yogi Shiva became the Adi Guru to Sapta(=7) Rishis after testing their patience for 74 years. Only after all 7 of the sages (not just 1 or 2 of them) were in a state of a consciousness to receive his teachings did he take them on as disciples. The sapta rishis did not give up in those 74 years and shop around for other Gurus and Shiva took them on as disciples only after years of waiting to see if all of them were ready. That’s the serious implication of being a Guru and a Disciple! It is a very serious spiritual job.

Not all of us will stumble upon a Guru in this lifetime. But for those who do - it is the highest blessing. Being in a Guru-shishiya relationship doesn’t mean that life will suddenly be all easy and glorious. In fact it is just the opposite.

My wish is that every soul that traverses this planet experience the light of the Guru.

Happy Guru Purnima!

#gurupurnima #shiva #adiyogi #adiguru #saptarishi#guru #disciple #spiritual #krishna

Chakras for Dummies

Chakras are major energy points in the human body and it is well known that we have 7 chakras (Figure 1): Root Chakra (1^st Chakra, Muladhara), Sacral Chakra (2^nd Chakra, Svadhisthana), Solar Plexus (3^rd Chakra, Manipura), Heart Chakra (4^th Chakra, Anahata), Throat Chakra (5^th Chakra, Vishuddha), Third Eye (6^th Chakra, Ajna) and Crown Chakra (7^th Chakra, Sahasrasa).

Figure 1: Seven Chakras: Locations and colors associated with them.

Chakras are often talked about in a metaphysical connotation or as extra-dimensional energy body. Most people have some kind of vague idea about chakras because of contemporary yoga movement and do not really understand what they are. But the 'metaphysical' chakras can very much be traced back to a physiologic phenomenon that can be explained in linear, logical and modern physics & biology terms.  

To understand chakras one needs to first understand how neurons and nerve cells function. Neurons are cells in the body that constantly carry information from one part of the body to the other. The information in the neurons is carried in the form an electric signal called ‘synapse’. So in lay man’s terms neurons communicate with each other and the rest of the body using electricity; electricity is merely electrons flowing from one point to another through a conducting tube. In this case, neurons act as the conducting tube that facilitates the flow of electricity.

From our grade school lessons in physics, we know that when electricity flows through a conducting tube, it creates a magnetic field around the conducting tube called ‘electromagnetic field’ (Figure 2). Extrapolating the same concept, when electrons flow through a neuron it creates an electromagnetic field around the neurons.

Figure 2: Electromagnetic field generated when electric current or electrons flow through a conducting material.

Nadis are neuronal network junctions in the body that receive and redirect electrons (information in synapses) from and to various parts of the body. There are 72,000 nadis in the body. The 72,000 nadis are classified as 3 main nerve types: Ida (Sympathetic Nervous System), Pingala (Parasympathetic Nervous System) and Sushumana (Central Nervous System). Anatomically, sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves branch out from the spinal cord. The networks from these 72,000 nadis (including ida, pingala and sushuman) in turn converge, cross and redistribute into 7 major nerve junctions that we call ‘chakras’. Therefore chakras are nerve plexuses where bundles of nerves come together to form a network and then redistribute (Figure 3). The nerve bundles crossing at the top of the spinal cord form the Throat chakra and the one at the bottom of the spinal cord form the Root chakra (Figures 1 and 3).

Figure 3. Chakras and Nerve Plexus: Red = Chakras, Right side blue = spinal cord ganglion (nerve cell bodies from which arise nerve endings), left blue = major nerve plexus (bundes/networks). Adapted from C.W.Leadbeater - The book "The Chakras", 1927.

These nerve bundles that carry electric information and form plexus at the 7 major junctions give rise to an electromagnetic field at the 7 junctions of significant magnitude that can be experienced during yoga. The extra-dimensional aspect of the 7 chakras is partly due to the electromagnetic energy field created by the electron-carrying-dense-network of nerves. It is also important to remember that the chakras run along the spine - center of the body. Therefore one’s ‘heart center’ is the center of the chest and not to the left of chest where the pumping heart is located. The pumping heart and the ‘heart center’ are not the same thing.

Note on the Heart Chakra: The heart chakra is unique because it converges energies coming from the bottom 3 chakras that govern survival on the planet (Root Chakra, Sacral Chakra and Solar Plexus) and top 3 chakras that govern spiritual and other worldly aspects of life (Throat Chakra, Third Eye and Crown Chakra). This makes the heart chakra very powerful. In yoga many mudras are held at the heart center; even Namaste (joining 2 palms to show reverence) is done at the heart center. In Indian classical performing arts like Bharatanatyam the heart chakra has been given special emphasis as many movements arise from the heart chakra (also known as heart center or hridaya sthanam) to have a powerful projection and communication through the movement.

Letting Go and Surrender is An Act of Courage

Every year on New Year's eve me and a close girlfriend of mine gather at Dockweiler Beach in Southern California to lite a bonfire and set intentions for the New Year and the new cycle. We call upon the elements, the earth (in this case beach sand), water (the ocean), fire (that's why the bonfire), air and our spirits to bear witness to our intentions. It is so pious that my left brain can also feel the intensity.

We have done this ceremony enough number of times that it has now become a tradition. But this year there was a different alchemy. Both me and my friend were setting intentions but were for the first time in years not attached to the results. In addition to the elements, we had the setting Sun and the rising moon at dusk to commemorate the event. As usual, we wrote down everything that doesn't serve our lives - read it aloud so that the other person could bear witness and then burnt the paper intending that everything that doesn't serve us just automatically drops. Then we wrote down what we want to invite into our lives - more than a person or thing this year we focused on the experiences and feelings we wanted to invite. It is only month 3 of the year and no one could prepare us for what was coming...

Over the years I had to let go of several aspects of my life - people and materialistic commodities. This year one of the major things I let go off was my car that I was so attached to for many reasons on many levels. It was really heartbreaking and hard for me to recuperate. I also took a good stock of people I engage with and realized that I no longer engage with many many many many people that I once knew. That's right - several times many! A significant number of people from my graduate school days and other areas of life automatically fell out over the years - but I have finally let them go in my heart as I realized that their roles in my life are over. Does it get lonely? Sometimes. Especially, when the weather is gloomy and all I want is a comfort of a friend, even if that friend is an acquaintance. But it feels LIGHTER to not have my time invested in people who didn't care in the first place. Today, I also let go a feminine-movement practice that I had cultivated for years, mainly because I didn't belong to that tribe anymore; having realized that I wasn't treated right by the ladies for years - all the while believing that I could change something that would improve the dynamic.
More importantly,
I have let go of old patterns, beliefs and systems.
I have let go of the belief that I need try and fit in even when I do not belong;
I have let go of the belief that I don't need more and better because it is a sign of being self-fish and greedy;
I have let go of the belief that I need to be somebody - a scientist, a researcher, an intellectual, a beautiful woman, someone with slim body, someone with fair skin, someone who is successful, someone for whom the society has predetermined an identity - I have become NOBODY;
I have let go of being satisfied and complacent with my stature in life;
I have let go of the pattern of trying to please everyone and get people to like me;
I have let go of childhood stories that don't serve me but play in my mind like a tape-recorder even if it is painful to let them go;
I have let go of the need for people to be on-board with my dreams - if I am alone in the pursuit of my dreams, goals and desires (most of which are spiritual) - so be it;
I have let go of my pattern to be openhearted especially with people who have not earned it - I have become perfectly comfortable of being an Ice Queen if the situation demands and wall off my heart;
I have let go of the need to stay strong always and portray a strong exterior;
I have let go of my pattern to always give - because I land up attracting a lot of unwanted blood sucking leaches who drain my energy. I have embraced not giving to those who really don't need;
I have let go of the need to be courageous all the time even if my insides are crippling with constant rejection, fear and anxiety;
I have let go of my fear of the unknown, fear of loneliness, fear of rejection, fear of being left behind, fear of not being accepted, fear of being lost, fear of not knowing, fear of not making it, fear of making it while others have not made it, fear of discomfort, fear of not being seen, fear of being seen, fear of misery, fear of what people think, fear of not deserving, fear of deserving, fear of my own power, fear of my own success, fear of stealing glory and being the limelight - I have let go of all fear because I have chosen to shine!

As I said it is only month 3 of the year. I am still shedding in spite of the discomfort and pain associated. I have left the comfort of the known and stepped into the unknown. Spirit Teachers and Spirit Friends have shown up since New Year's Day in different shapes and forms to hold my hand. The journey to the true beginning has just begun. It is like walking through fire and instead of letting the fire burn me, I am letting it fuel me, cool me and soothe me and be my COLD FIRE!

What is your journey of letting go and surrender?