The Sun-Eyed Ones

What would happen if an attempt was made to package an ocean in a box? Quite obviously the turbulent waters of the ocean would lash themselves against the walls of the container to break free. An onlooker may interpret this as a rebellion, and yet for the ocean it is a stark expression of its discontent; its bid to push away boundaries.

How many of us have not been the scornful adult, appalled by the so called ‘unacceptable’ behaviour of a brazen adolescent? Yet, could it be possible that what our minds call rebellion is simply the seed ocean of evolution in the adolescent breast, trying to break the package of convention and conditioning that hems it in?

19-year-old Sanaya writes:

We were born in a world of conditioning.

A world of boxes,

Of stereotypes

Judgement

Hierarchy

Games

Expectations

And labels.

 

These boxes make us see skin as soul.

These boxes try to push something very powerful into a very weak mould. 

These boxes take us far away from ourselves.

 

And yoga takes me home. 

Yoga is my anchor,

My  reminder that life is easier when I simplify. 

 

I am not defined by the standards set by society,

I am not the poison my mind tries to feed me.

 

I hold sunshine inside me,

Untouched by the outside, 

Untouched by labels, stereotypes and definitions.

 

I am, without the noise of the world,

I am, without my own thoughts.

I am, in silence.

I am.

Words such as these skirt the winds of change that are slowly but surely blowing over our planet!

It is a sultry summer afternoon as I sit with a small group of teenagers exploring concepts in a Yoga theory class in a school in South Mumbai. One young adolescent Simona, is clearly distracted. She raises her hand and pouts, “Miss I was in a very good mood in the morning. Then I thought of the Yoga class a couple of hours away and my whole mood dipped.”

“Uh-Okay,” I say and continue the class, trying to conceal my bruised ego. After class I ask Simona what was really bothering her. “Miss before I started attending yoga classes I had become comfortable with my sadness. Yoga threatens me with the possibility of change. This agitates me  and so I get restless during yoga classes.”

In course of time we study Rishi Patanjali’s sutra 1.2, which states that when thoughts cease, we naturally fall into union (or yoga) with an inner reality which exists beyond the mind.

Simona conceptualises this inner reality as Madonna Simona. She addresses a letter to the Madonna whenever she is upset, in her diary. Every time she does so, she receives perspectives on situations that alleviate her misery. Over a period of time she comes to accept that it is fine for her to be happy. Whereas earlier she used to hurl herself into wild parties with a vengeance to escape her misery, now she prefers to spend time with herself exploring this being she has coined as “Madonna Simona”. In her own words, “Earlier I enjoyed being called wild. Now I understand that being wild is not about leading an undisciplined life. It is about living with abandon!”

25-year-old Ashish’s statement, “I am never going to get married,” boldly challenges the conditioning that life is incomplete without marriage. Ashish has experimented with everything that holds a  promise of adventure. Having seen the futility of his experiments with drugs, he now invests his energy in the more fulfilling experiments he is making in the field of consciousness and self-discovery. 

The strange byways that led Ashish to this current experiment remind me of my little friend Nergish’s words when I expressed anxiety about the malaise of drug addiction that is claiming our youth.

“Chill Miss,” Nergish quips, “So what if we fall and get bruised? We will stand up, heal and walk again.”

Did I hear her echoing the vision of Sri Aurobindo simply by reading her own depths??!

If we fail in our immediate aim, it is because He has intended the failure; often our failure or ill-result is the right road to a truer issue than an immediate and complete success would have put in our reach. If we suffer, it is because something in us has to be prepared for a rarer possibility of delight. If we stumble, it is to learn in the end the secret of a more perfect walking.1

Coming back to Ashish, he further expounds on his stunning statement on marriage saying, “People get married because they are told they have to. If I have never chilled with any other woman but my wife, I will tend to attribute my unhappiness and happiness to her. But, if I have been with others and find these mind states recurring no matter who the partner of the moment is, I can know from experience that my happiness quotient is a function of my being, and has little to do with the girl I am with.”

Again a youth, who without having read too much of Sri Aurobindo, speaks his language...

Thou art thyself the author of thy pain.2

22-year-old Kamini pelts the edifice of conventional romantic love with her words: “I love my boyfriend Nitesh for the connect I have with him, for what he brings out in me. I have given him the freedom to experiment in physical relationships with other girls, so long as we continue to share the beautiful moments that we do.”

Right? Wrong? These are subjective and at one level irrelevant terms. What stands out is the new awareness of thought processes that refuse to conform to conditioned social norms.

18-year-old Vikram stumps me with his words, “These days I am talking less and listening more, because I see clearly that the impulse to talk stems from the ego and its need to propagate itself. Why give in to this need? When I talk I tend to unconsciously exaggerate or be inaccurate. Better to remain quiet and listen.”

I recollect Sri Aurobindo’s words,

The embodied guest within, made no response.

The call that wakes the leap of the human mind, 

Its chequered eager motion of pursuit,

Its fluttering-hued illusion of desire,

Visited her heart like a sweet alien note.3

The youth seems to be in touch with an inner Veda that is unwilling to conform to the dictates of the past. In their bid to really live, they are shunning the pretence of living that their education and society imposes on them. No doubt they are being racked by the agonies of a tyrannical past, which is fighting tooth and nail against the invasion of a powerful and non-conformist future. They are the privileged hero warriors of an age covered by a night sky defensibly dark, yet flushed with the promise of sunrise hues, yet unseen...

I saw them cross the twilight of an age,

The sun-eyed children of a marvellous dawn,

The great creators with wide brows of calm,

The massive barrier-breakers of the world.

And wrestlers with destiny in her lists of will,

The labourers in the quarries of the gods,

The messengers of the Incommunicable,

The architects of immortality.4

- Anahita Sanjana (India)

Keywords: Youth, Integral Yoga, De-conditioning, Social norms, Breaking free, Self-awareness, Failure, Inner Veda, Living free

1 Sri Aurobindo. ‘The Synthesis of Yoga’ – The Master of the Work.

2 Sri Aurobindo. ‘Savitri’ Book 6 Canto 2.

3 Sri Aurobindo. ‘Savitri’ Book 1 Canto 1.

4 Sri Aurobindo. ‘Savitri’ Book 3 Canto 4.