as my days pass.... Svadhyaya

Does it ever feel
that the searching for something
never ends

Our souls are so complicated
experiencing so much
in so little

This song made 

a little bit of soul

a little bit of searching

that much sweeter...

So today it got me thinking...

Yoga teaches us Svadhyaya (self study)

"Yogis throughout the ages have practiced Svadhyaya by asking the simple question, “who am I.”

"It is also a way to investigate ourselves, sitting and looking into how and why we feel the way we do about circumstances, decisions, and our lives. 

For example, why do we view something as good or bad, right or wrong, black or white, and seeing how our life has molded our perception of things. 

Many of us never get to the point of self-study and fear plays a big part in this role of our life. 

We don’t want to look deep into what’s there for we’re afraid of what we may find or what we may have to change or give up. In reality, there is a vast space of love and communion with God that awaits us if we can peel through the layers of guilt, anger, pain, and fear.

Nepo says, “Since the beginning of time, the essential seed in us, our soul, has always been ready to love-wrestle the Divine for its gifts-for glimpses of wholeness, for moments of insight and inexplicable love, for seeds of transformation.” I love how Nepo describes this deep want and need for we all have it engrained within but many times we don’t see our Divinity due to our patterning, our habits, and our circumstances. Therefore, svadhyaya or self-study is a path of investigation into ourselves."

 

Sri Ramana Maharishi (an enlightened Indian sage whose teachings were said to flow from his direct experience of Consciousness) advised that self-inquiry is the fastest path to moksha (liberation from samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth or reincarnation and all of the suffering and limitation of worldly existence). 

Maharishi pointed his disciples in the direction of Self-realization via the simple question “who am I,” which is unveiled as we discover who we are not.  

I am not my body

I am not my family

I am not my history

I am not my profession

I am not my possessions

I am not my story

I am not my religion

Etc. etc… 

As layer after layer of falsity fall away, Truth is revealed. In this courageous unveiling of who we are not, we then discover the essence of who we are

Svadhyaya is purposefully preceded by Tapas (fiery discipline) as it takes an enormous amount of discipline to move beyond the material world that defines, binds and shrouds us in Maya (ignorance).  Prayers, mantras, japa, mediation, purposeful intent and other Bhakti (devotional) practices aid in striping the ego away and the unveiling of truth as we practice Svadhyaya. "

-Gaia Yoga