This month the mythical goddess ‘Saraswati’ has been an inspiration in my practice and teaching. ONE of the aspects of Saraswati is that she is the goddess of music and in one of her many arms she holds a lute.
I often listen to music in my self practice, but this week I am attempting to rather listen to an internal ‘music’ in my body – it’s much more subtle but by tuning into it your yoga experience heightens and can become so full it creates an internal soaring symphony from the inside out.
Our mind or consciousness is the musician and our body the instrument it plays. That way we find harmony between body and mind capturing that feeling of soaring freedom that listening to an exquisite piece of music can bring.
"In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches" 1 "Harmonia - to fit together, to join" 2 (Greek)
Harmony is the combining of two or more pitches to create a union and new fuller sound. A skilful musician has to learn to listen deeply to respond in accordance to fellow musicians and notes, finding that perfect pitch. Yoga is often interpreted as ‘union’ or ‘yoking’. A skilful yogi has to truly listen to his body to respond in his practice mindfully, finding that union of yoga.
How often do we block out the shrieking hamstrings just so we can ‘push through’ and impress our teacher or fellow students? (Who doesn’t give a damn really). By deeply listening to our body we learn to practice with integrity. Knowing how to respond, takes learning. And that is why we are always learning.
And after learning to listen then comes the discipline. So we develop skill as a yogi or musician – refining our practice and building knowledge until it can flow in perfect harmony.
Every string on Saraswati’s lute is perfectly pitched – finding that right balance between taut and slack so that it can vibrate with resonance in tune with all the other strings. So every fibre of being, every muscle, bone and organ has potential to find that perfect pitch & alignment – a balance of engagement (‘muscular energy’) and stretch (‘organic energy’) . So we fine-tune the body with integrity whilst experiencing and being aware of our inner harmony.
1 - William P. Malm Music Cultures of the Pacific, the Near East, & Asia. 2 -Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, "A Greek-English Lexicon"
Instead of going into complete hibernation and turning into grumbling bears this Winter, come out to play! Embrace the season by doing some fiery heart-melting, hip-opening, resolve-strengthening yoga, with Bridget and Sarah.
