yoga - beyond flags draped over skin

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yoga, the brahmcharya with the flowing pink garb quietly tells us, has no beginning, as it is life itself. me and my peers listen with ears plastered to his whispering lips, as we sit comfortably huddled in the living room where our philosophy class takes place. i drift for a second, past the brown of my face and his. 

everyday here, i get a reminder of how yoga is Harmony, is connecting with ancestors beyond borders and nation-states, beyond claims of heritage and complexions. for me, it's a good reminder, humbling to go beyond the land of my father and forefathers and ancestors – india - to move beyond planting a flag, staking a claim, beating my chest with a national/racial pride of something that is more than skin and anthems.

the brahmcharya notes the skeptical expressions of us, the westerners, when he mentions the Controller, the One our soul is in yoga with.

"but what evidence do you have?", one girl finally asks, giving rise to a slew of doubting questions and facts on the big bang and darwinian evolution.

the brahmcharya listens, places his hand over his closely cropped hair, pausing on the tail that begins on the back of the top of his head. 

“the big bang,” he begins, placing his words before us carefully, so not a single meaning can get lost in his karnataka accent, “was an explosion.” he looks at each of us for the word to detonate. 

“an explosion destroys.” he uses his combining delilcate hands to demonstrate. “if you have a bunch of uprooted trees, will it create a chair?” he gives us pause for consideration. 

“no,” he answers for us," there is a furniture-maker who makes the chair, who shapes it." the analogy leads to slight head nods, some hmms. but we aren't convinced.

who shaped you?” he asks. he notices the doubt on our faces. 

“when a rabbit is chased by a cat, at some point the rabbit stops and binds its little hands over its eyes. did the cat disappear?” brahmcharya lets his words sink. “just because you don't want to open your eyes doesn't mean the truth isn't there. the yoga you are studying is proof of this balance, this eternal harmony.”

as i listen to him, i drift again, four years back, on a mountain in ayyanthole with my teacher santosh, a soft-spoken doctor i studied ayurveda with. santosh said the same of ayurveda –" it has always been."

“how,” i asked, looking over to the surrounding hills of mango and coconut trees, “is that possible?”

“ayurveda is life, is balance,” he said. “no beginning, no end.”

i looked at the young couples on that mountain top, holding clandestine rendezvous', pointing at monsoon clouds rapidly coming together like the end of the world, and recalled the words of my chacha, decades ago.

my chacha sat indian style, in our queens, ny living room, pulled on his beard, looked through his glasses, pensive and ancient in his sun polished face and told my brothers and i the same as brahmcharya said of yoga and dr. santosh said of ayurveda. chacha told us that God, ALLAH, has no beginning or no end, was not begotten, nor was he begot.

i thought of einstein and energy and how mr. hammerstein, my fifth grade science teacher said the same of energy, quoting einstein, or newton, or one of the heavily referenced and credited european scientists. clearing his throat, and speaking through a nasally voice at our over-crowded class, mr. hammerstein said - energy is that which cannot be created nor destroyed.

the asanas of yoga allow us to let go of our attachment to the prison that encases us, to be beyond the countries and skin and features we were born into, that we did not choose.

when entangling myself in marichasana - right foot over left thigh, left knee up, right arm around left knee and hands grabbing behind back - i am counting seconds, praying the teacher-ji will say "exhale and release". but he doesn't and instead says breathe, "take a deep ujjai breath." ujjai breathing is the breadth of the ocean, i breathe and get a little deeper in this temple i occupy, grow a little further from it, as i drift deeper in the soul that brahmcharya is talking about. i reconnect with a past and future, with eras when the average life-span was 100,000, according to brahmcharya.

“this spiritual process,” the brahmcharya says pointing at the board of charts and vedic notes he has written for us to ponder, “is your purpose in life.”