Normally, teaching at 7:00 a.m. is not one of my favorite things to do. That changed last September when I walked onto the foredeck of a schooner sailing in the Caribbean. All the gateways of my senses were fed with spiritual beauty. I gazed at the sea mirroring the burnt orange sun rising on the horizon like Vishnu himself. It was one of the most interesting places I have been privileged to share the teachings of yoga. Student’s spines undulated to the invitation of a mesmerizing drumbeat in the background as we began our round of Sun Salutations. The drumbeat was soft and danced with us without taking us out of Atha, opening the door to the asana practice that followed. The sequence I planned to teach was divinely replaced with what was needed, as I too was transformed and moved out of my own way.
Being suspended on water changes a yoga class experience whether you are playing the role of teacher or the role of student. I am not the same self who walked onto Polynesia’s deck to teach last September. It is not without a certain excitement and trepidation that I am ready to be a student of Ma’s, wearing the guise of teacher once again this August, this time teaching on the sailing vessel, Manadaly in the Leeward Islands. The only thing certain about any of this is change. And just like a yoga asana, we can relax into it, or we can resist it by staying the same. Water will inevitably wear down our resistances. Water represents all possibilities of creation.
Life at sea, surrounded by water, is the perfect environment to give birth to a new self. Water surrounds the embryo, and is the mother of us all. The ocean protects and nurtures, pushing and pulling us so that we may merge into the sea of higher consciousness. If you are open to the purification of the salty ocean you will be cleansed and the remaining traces of mis-knowing can be washed away. If you resist you can linger too long in the second chakra (water element) and miss the divine Mother’s call, like a sailor who crashes into the rocks chasing sirens, losing lifetimes of precious cargo arduously accumulated. Water is a tricky element. It can drown you in your own habits, or it can lift you up and give you new life. As with anything, the intention behind an action will determine the outcome.
Living in Florida I have learned to have great respect for the balance of the elements—especially the water element. I like to teach asanas for chakra tuning and elemental balance in this particular backdrop of the primordial ocean’s womb. One of the most cleansing mantras for water is from the Vedas:
“Apo Yacami Bhesajam”
I invoke the water to purify me. RV.10.9.5
Water is a reminder to purify, to follow the sun of our own divine natures in the form of I-AM consciousness. Chanting to the water element is a way of clearing the lunar path in preparation for the brilliant sun energy we evoke with Sun Salutations. They are like day and night. The great poet Rumi said: “The way the night knows itself with the moon, be that with me.” That is how the element water knows itself with the divine fire of higher consciousness. And that is what I saw that first morning when I looked out at the sun rays dancing on the ocean.