The time of God
I am back in Mysore to practice at the Sri K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute (KPJAYI). Experience is potent here. I wake up around 3am (Brahma muhurtham) to do my asana practice. The rest of my days are spent in chanting and philosophy classes and in my own solitary study of the Gita, the Yoga Sutras, and some Vedic aesthetics for good measure. I am encountering so much in these sources that is already deeply familiar. The essence of it lingers underneath the western philosophers I was so drawn to as an undergrad and graduate student – Hegel’s phenomenology and aesthetics, John Dewey’s art as experience, the Existentialists, among others. It seems to me it is all pointing to the same thing, and any earnest and sustained inquiry arrives at the same place eventually. I love deepening my knowledge of Sanskrit and Vedic chanting. The vibrations of sound ring in some deep, ancient place within me. It feels like homecoming. And it is absolutely beautiful. I can think of nothing more relevant or worthwhile to invest my time and energy in. All that is Good and True within me comes alive here. Amplified. Recognized. The food is pretty damn amazing, too.
The thing about practicing at Brahma muhurtham
the ‘time of god’ three hours before sunrise
is that by the time I am finished
I step outside to cool undisturbed air
stars still overhead in the pre-dawn twilight
distant chanting and prayers
ringing in surround sound through the neighborhood
only the occasional tuktuk or far off train or dog barking
hint at a city on the verge of waking.
And then, almost in one fell swoop
the darkness gives way
to the tangerine and violet rising of the sun
pushing back that impenetrable stillness
that only moments before rang out
from the center of my chest like church bells,
now an echo of a dream I dare to remember
as a deep sapphire sky fades to bluish white
ushering in the chaos and cacophony
of another crazy beautiful (extra)ordinary day
in the madhouse that is India,
the motherland that cracks the heart open
and pours in the light…
…
ॐ असतो मा सद्गमय ।
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ।
मृत्योर्माऽमृतं गमय ।
ॐ शान्ति: शान्ति: शान्ति: ॥