Within the philosophy of yoga there are various completely different deities. At first, this appears to be a set of gods and goddesses which can be every separate from each other, however actually they’re all completely different features of the one power that’s the supply of every part in existence. Every of the gods and goddesses that color and spice the mythology of yogic philosophy are archetypes. These archetypes signify traits of who we’re, or who we are able to doubtlessly be. Each single deity is a mirrored image of a part of you, a manner of understanding the self extra fully.
Earlier than we go too deeply into the richly woven tapestries of yogic philosophy, let’s be clear about a number of issues. It is very important take any philosophy supplied to you within the context of what you already maintain true in your personal coronary heart. In yoga mythology course online class, I ensure folks know that I don’t ask you to imagine in one thing completely different. As a substitute, I give you methods to go deeper into your personal beliefs. We every search a non secular connection, and every tradition provides a myriad of how to attach with one thing greater. Discover what resonates with you, and take the jewels so as to add to your personal non secular treasure. Additionally, there are various colleges of yogic philosophy. I’m writing from a non-dual Tantric perspective, which principally provides the assumption that every one is one, and that this all encompassing acutely aware power is intrinsically good.
Shiva and Shakti are the last word divine couple. They’re the God and Goddess from which all else comes. Shiva represents the ability to know. He embodies supreme, unbounded energy of consciousness – the sunshine that shines with out every other supply. Shakti is his consort. She represents the ability of this consciousness. Shakti is the dynamic, inventive attribute. For instance, Shiva is water, and Shakti is motion: the defining facet that makes water an ocean, river, stream, or bead of dew on a leaf. Shiva and Shakti are all the time linked. Shiva is the limitless potential of the universe. Shakti takes that potential and artistically creates an infinite variety of expressions of divine expertise. She is unbounded variety arising from a singular energy.
To hook up with Shiva, be nonetheless. Think about your self meditating on the best mountain; pure, tall, highly effective, unrestricted and fully free in your physique, thoughts and soul. To hook up with Shakti, breathe. It’s mentioned that Shakti exhales into you when you find yourself born, and inhales you again into her while you transition out of the bodily physique. Shakti breathes you. She strikes by you and pulses in each cell of your physique. Shiva and Shakti are the air and the wind. They’re the sunshine and the flames of solar and fireplace. They’re the masculine and female forces that stability every part in existence. But they’re additionally past existence, current each within the manifest and the unmanifest worlds.
While you follow yoga there may be an energizing component and a connection to who you’re. That’s the magic of yoga. It is a pure excessive of the purest form. When training Anusara® yoga, you align your self with nature and the circulation of power that’s the inventive power in every part. The centered feeling, the ability you plug into is Shiva. The dance, the artwork, the expression of self that shines forth in every posture and transition is Shakti. Shiva’s energy flows the identical in every of us, however all of us dance in a different way with Shakti.
In a current coaching with Anusara yoga founder, John Pal, he began off one morning by asking us “What’s the that means of life? Why are we right here?” He then instructed us to jot down down the reply in a single or two sentences.
After having a little bit snort on the boldness of reducing straight to the purpose of the questions that gas the thought processes of philosophers in every single place, that is what I wrote down: “We’re right here to play, to thrill, to like… To expertise our personal divinity and develop our creation. To deeply join and know who we’re, and to shine brightly.” Let’s condense that much more: “We’re right here to attach deeply with spirit and to precise absolutely; to comprehend that every part is a spark of supply.”
We’re every a singular expression of supply. Now we have free will. Now we have inventive energy. On the identical time there’s something a lot greater that we’re part of that can be creating, and so it’s useful to think about our ideas, phrases, and actions as co-creations. The spark of supply inside is Shiva. By aligning with the present of Shakti, life flows gracefully. Like a ship on the ocean, open your sails to the winds of Shakti, and you’re given power and help in abundance.