The Lotus Blossoms

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Image by Philippova from Adobe Stock

I’ve recently been listening to my devotional playlist again. These are songs that help me connect to a place bigger than myself—a divine field of love. You’ll find devotional music from all corners of the planet on here as my curious heart finds more expressions of love from different people.

The Lotus Flower

“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” - Rumi

I recently discovered that Ham-Del is a Persian term meaning “kindred spirit”—a soul you feel an indescribable familiar heart connection with (I first read this in Susan Cain’s newsletter.)

Such a beautiful word.

If you’re reading this then we are ham-dels and I welcome you with an open heart.

Over the years I craved a deeper connection with like-hearted souls because I felt lonely. Writing this and knowing you’re reading it (whoever you are), I immediately feel less alone in the world.

Today I feel the desire to share an aspect of my journey that I haven’t really talked about—yoga.

Growing up in a Hindu (Gujarati) family I had heard about yoga in passing and was involved in traditions like Garba (devotional offering to the Goddess Durga in the form of dances) and chanting the Gayatri Mantra daily (a prayer to the divine creator). Whilst I’m grateful for my parents for helping me embrace my culture, I was so busy being a regular kid I didn’t really take much interest in what it was all about.

However, in recent years I’ve noticed an internal blossoming taking place and my curiosity has grown toward understanding spirituality on a much deeper level.

I think of each of us as a lotus flower.

The lotus represents our full potential.

At the beginning of our life journey when we are born, its bud is closed.

Over time it may slowly open and your curiosity will be led to explore and experience certain things.

Who causes the bud to open?

I’m not exactly sure.

I feel our soul comes into this incarnation with wisdom from previous lives so it has an inclination toward certain things. It comes into this form to have a certain set of experiences for its evolution.

Maybe it knows when to open it.

Maybe it’s the divine grace of God.

Maybe both.

It’s not our task to understand the mysteries of life, but to fully embrace them.

The more the flowering of the lotus happens, the more we are able to access our potential. The more we access it and explore it, the further it opens—leading us deeper into ourselves.

Once I felt the bud opening it was up to me to continue to nurture its blossoming by having the courage to follow my intuitive nudges.

The nudges can come from anywhere.

A book you read, a conversation you have, a video you watch.

It may not be as direct as a singular experience that opens your lotus entirely (although it can like the story of Sri Ramana Maharshi), but for me it has been a subtle collection of curiosities that have led me to all the experiences I’ve had.

One of those nudges was to explore yoga.

In 2019 I “randomly” felt urged to start taking Kundalini yoga classes and to watch every documentary I could find about yoga. In that same year I was also inspired to start doing deeper emotional healing work and an Ayahuasca journey in Peru for the first time.

I could feel a deep connection with the divine being reawakened within me.

I see now that these weren’t new things to be discovered, but something ancient to be rediscovered. It was like a divine fragrance from a previous lover that I knew so well but couldn’t quite remember.

Once I got a brief waft of her scent, I was enthralled.

Unity Of Selves

“God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Yoga means union.

Union between the seen and the unseen.

Reconnecting, merging, and integrating all the versions of you.

The blossoming of your spirit can only go so far if there are parts of you still hidden away in the shadows. If there are parts of you that you don’t like and are trying to suppress then you will forever be running from yourself.

You cannot stand on yourself to raise yourself.

Meaning, you can’t reject parts of yourself and stamp them down hoping to suppress them and only embody the parts you like. The foundation on which you stand will not be stable if it is built on rejected parts of yourself.

To me the end goal of yoga is to feel the oneness and interconnectedness of all things. To deepen your connection with yourself and the world around you. Thus, you live life in a way that encourages that. Along the way, you may recognise the impermanence of life and develop a deeper reverence and faith in the divine.

Does that mean you have to live in a cave and give up the material world?

No.

It is about fully embracing the world and everything it has to offer and enjoying this human life but not being too attached to it.

What I mean is not allowing what comes and goes in your life to dictate how much peace you feel.

Let things come.

Let things go.

Yoga isn’t just about postures.

It is a way of life.

Patanjali wrote The Yoga Sutras which covers the eight limbs of yoga.

It is a scientific guide to living a spiritual life. I won’t go into detail with each limb because I am not an expert. I will briefly describe them as I understand them and if you’re interested in diving deeper I invite you to research further to see where it leads you.

The limbs are intentionally in a specific order designed to help you deal with your outer most reality first and then slowly work your way toward becoming more aware of your inner reality. And by doing so, you will see the beautiful relationship between the two.

1. Yama - Embodying social ethics (i.e. non-violence and truthfulness).

2. Niyama - Embodying personal ethics (i.e. self-care practises for your mind and body).

3. Asana - Postures to help prepare your body for seated meditation.

4. Pranayama - This means “breath control”. These are exercises to calm your nervous system and balance your internal energies.

5. Pratyahara - Disconnecting from your five senses so external distractions do not take your attention. A meditation called Neti Neti by Sri Ramana Maharshi has been very helpful for me in working towards this. I describe this here.

6. Dharana - Learning to focus so the mind can be still.

7. Dhyana - Maintaining that focus so you can merge with the present moment.

8. Samadhi - A higher state of consciousness where you experience the oneness of all things.

I found myself naturally embracing more of these limbs as my journey unfolded.

There are many paths you can take that will help you deepen your connection with yourself and with spirit, it doesn’t have to be yoga. But even within yoga, there are a variety of paths.

There is no right or wrong.

Let your intuition guide you toward what path feels good for you and let that evolve over time too.

One particular path I “stumbled” onto was Bhakti yoga—the path of devotion.

Or maybe it found me.

Either way, it devoured me.

And I let it.

Bhakti means devotion.

Listening to devotional music has been like a loving balm for my soul.

The music is essentially a love affair between the singer and the divine.

It reminds you of your essence.

I’ve been brought to tears many times listening to it—I become overwhelmed with emotion.

These days prayers, ceremonies, and rituals have become empty practises. They’ve become motions you go through to satisfy your ego that you are doing the “right thing” and making progress.

That is not devotion.

Devotion is born from the purity of your intention and the intensity of passion.

As I go deeper in my journey I have become humbled. I realise my intelligence is only a slither of the divine infinite intelligence that is animating all things and so whilst I honour the daily practical use of my intelligence, I cast it aside when engaging in devotion to open myself up to grace.

Devotion doesn’t have to be complicated.

Some of the chants I listen to like Om Namah Shivayah are simple repetitions that are easy to do and bring me peace. We complicate things too much these days. Listening to devotional chant music brings me back to the basics. As my spiritual mentor and soul brother Parker Sherry once said, “Simplicity is the best form of sophistication.”

The deeper you go on your spiritual journey the more you will be attuned to higher vibration. As that happens you will feel drawn to exploring certain practises that help you feel more connected.

A shedding of skin will happen many times over on the spiritual journey.

Death does not only occur when you lose your physical body.

Losing the physical body is a milestone in the journey of the soul, not the end.

The human body is a costume you wear for a brief while to experience this reality.