Transcending Our Surroundings Through Love
Transcending Our Surroundings Through LoveKrishna Kanta Dasi
Whether we live in urban or rural settings, it is natural for the world around us—and those with whom we share our world—to affect us. We would hardly be human if they didn’t! We are, after all, interdependent with our environments. Therefore, an inevitable part of our very existence is to absorb the impact of our surroundings. Sometimes, what we absorb on a daily basis can overwhelm us.The same thing happened to Arjuna—the protagonist in the Bhagavad Gita—when he found himself in the midst of political tension, leading to war: Arjuna became depressed by the discouraging atmosphere surrounding him. Krishna then invited Arjuna to carefully observe the ways in which he was reacting to his surroundings. It’s an invitation that this great yoga text extends to each of us: how do we react, or respond, to life around us? Do we enter into a dialogue with the world that nourishes our yoga practice, or starves it?According to yoga philosophy, everything we encounter in this world—from human behavior, to places and events—is characterized by one of three primordial energies, or gunas, which permeate the entire physical universe. Amazingly, these ancient observations resonate with modern discoveries by quantum physicists. They study the way cosmic energy vibrates from slower to faster frequencies, and how these vibrations affect our consciousness.Denser vibrations lead to a denser, or darker consciousness: what the Gita calls, tamas. Surrounding ourselves with places, people or things that vibrate primarily with lethargic, tamasic energy will leave us feeling discouraged and uninspired in yoga.Lighter vibrations lead to a more illuminated, or sattvic, consciousness. Sattvic surroundings and company have a delightfully uplifting effect on us that is most conducive to a rewarding yoga practice.Finally, the middle category is called rajas, and according to the Gita, it perpetuates a cyclical stagnation, which can feel very productive to us, but ultimately just takes us in circles, wasting our time.When Krishna describes one who is absorbed in yoga, he characterizes such a person as having “the nature of sattva” in chapter seventeen. Then, to further emphasize this to Arjuna, Krishna connects an “undisturbed practice of yoga” to one who is determined. This determination, Krishna tells us, is also “of the nature of sattva”. In our yoga practice, it manifests specifically as steadying our mind, our breath, and our senses.Our senses are the channels through which we take in the raw world around us. The mind is the filter through which we interpret every one of our sensorial experiences. And the breath is the reflector of how these experiences impact us on an emotional level. When we are determined to have all these three (the mind, the senses, and the breath) work together harmoniously to enhance our yoga practice, we are benefiting ourselves with the sattvic energy available to us in the world.In surrounding ourselves with places, people and things that all vibrate the quality of sattva, we nourish our yoga practice. Their uplifting influence is invaluable, especially in times of unrest and disillusionment. As we become more and more aware of the predominating energies in our lives—permeating the places we visit, the relationships we participate in, the food we ingest, the music we listen to, etc— we will feel more and more determined to frequent the energies that support us, and let go of the ones that don’t. Krishna calls this “the yoga of discernment”. It involves a kind of surrender.Anytime we let go of something that previously had a firm grip on us—whether it was a relationship, a rigid political stance, a destructive habit, etc—we are exercising surrender. Practicing the yoga of discernment requires surrendering old parts of ourselves, as we can become terribly attached—and even addicted—to the very things that destroy us. Instead of allowing ourselves to be swept up by surrounding rajasic and tamasic energies that will erode our yoga practice, in surrendering, we seek out the sattvic.As the Gita ends, we see Arjuna surrendering his anxiousness and despair about the rajasic political tension around him. His mind takes on a calm, sattvic quality instead. Then, drawing from the power of yoga, Arjuna is able to turn his depressing surroundings into fuel for his practice. He didn’t do this by becoming apathetic to his surroundings, or pretending that they did not affect him. Instead, Arjuna peacefully engaged with the chaos around him by turning to his best friend (and ours!), Krishna, who advised him to act out of love. This is Bhakti yoga: a consciousness even higher than sattva.When Arjuna asked Krishna in chapter 14 of the Gita, how to overcome, or “transcend” the negative impact of the unrest around him, Krishna’s response was: “with the yoga of offering love”. In short, when the world around us begins to feel overwhelming, practitioners of Bhakti yoga focus on cultivating more love. For even in moments of political unrest, we can—as Arjuna did—always find ways to nourish the love within us, the love between us, and the love all around us!
Urban Devi is absolutely delighted to introduce our new contributing author, Krishna Kanta Dasi.Krishna Kanta Dasi has been an active practitioner and student in the Bhakti Yoga tradition since 1986, later receiving Brahmin initiation in India. She has served as a contributing editor for Integral Yoga Magazine, and her writings have appeared in Back to Godhead, The Tattooed Buddha, The Interfaith Observer, Mantra, Yoga & Health, etc.Krishna Kanta is the founder of The Vaishnavi Voices Poetry Project (follow on Facebook) dedicated to honoring and inspiring the voices of women in the Bhakti tradition. She is editor of Bhakti Blossoms: A Collection of Contemporary Vaishnavi Poetry (Golden Dragonfly Press, 2017).