At this point in our story
from the Mahabharata, the Pandava brothers find themselves living out their 13th
year of exile, the year they have to live in disguise and not be
discovered. How perfect that we have
come to this point during the week of Halloween.
There are traditions in
every culture for dressing up, wearing costumes and disguising oneself. This is a metaphor for maya or illusion. Maya is the veil that descends that differentiates us from our source. So in
a sense our whole human existence is like wearing a costume. The truth is, it
is impossible for us to be cut off from our source, yet we can and often do
have the feeling of being separate. When
we dress up or disguise ourselves we have a direct experience of maya – we may not recognize the person
looking back out from the mirror, but it doesn’t change who you are underneath
the costume. It’s only
because we are embodied (i.e. wear the “human” costume) that we
are able to reflect back to our own divinity – it’s a complete paradox. Although
maya is the veil that separates us
from our connection to source, it also serves as the portal back to that same
one-ness.
Another way to think about
this is like wrapping up a gift. We’ve
all had the experience of being handed a gift in the plastic bag it was
purchased in – it’s still a gift and it’s nice to receive. But how much more fun is it to be given a
beautifully wrapped package with fancy paper and bows. The gift inside doesn’t change, but isn’t it
a nicer experience to joyfully tear off the wrapping? Our true nature, who we really are, is satchitananda (one-ness, or
being-consciousness-bliss) but we forget. Maya exists purely for the joy of rediscovering ourselves, like the
joy of unwrapping a beautiful gift.
Without darkness we can’t know light, without separation we can’t know
one-ness. This is what our yoga
practice does for us - pulls back the cosmic veil so we can see who/what we
really are at the core of our being. From
the outside looking in sometimes all we can see is the surface, the disguise,
yet we know that's not all we are.
Maya has
taught me one of the most important, life-altering, consciousness-shifting
lessons of my yoga practice: We are not
separate – there is an intelligence, an interconnected-ness, a one-ness that has
brought us all together, it is part of each of us and it is always there. It tells me even if I am lonely, I am not
alone. Neither are you.
Maya practices:
Off the mat:
Here is a beautiful practice
to invite into our relationships and interactions with people and with nature:
practice seeing beyond the “costume” of everyone you come into contact with to
the oneness beneath. Recognize their
divinity first.
On the mat:
Open to Grace: Recognize that
the human “costumes” around you contain the same source
Muscular Energy: Hug muscles
to bones, bones to marrow, marrow all the way to your Source giving you
strength
Organic Energy: Let the
light of who you really are shine through - through your clothing, through any
role or disguise you might have put on today
Offer a Namaste: “I honor the place in you in which the entire
Universe dwells, I honor the place in you which is of Love, of Integrity, of
Wisdom and of Peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place
in me, we are One.”
