One Chord - One Love

The Bauls of Bengal* are wild, gypsy-like lovers of God. They are committed to the realization of the Inner Beloved, to “remembering God”. They sing thousands of devotional songs, and dance and perform as ways of praise; they practice asana as a way to “remember God”. Their traditional garb is a patchwork garment, signifying their commitment to a singular reality - that reality being Love - made whole only by disparate pieces coming together in a unified, purposeful whole. They sing their songs to the accompaniment of an ektara* which is a one-string - one focus instrument. (the root "eka" means "one") 

I can think of no better image for my practice! To be committed to the singular reality of one light-one-love-one-heart made whole only by the disparate parts of myself coming together for the unified purpose of love. I do have quite a few disparate parts: spine, rib cage, personality constructs, preferences, aversions, to name a few.

That "one-light-one -love" is described by the Yoga Tradition as situated right at the middle of the "heaven-earth" axis of my upright posture and is called the sushumna, very much like the one-string of the Ektara. The sushumna is described as being "slender as a spider’s thread and brilliant as a million moons", a most powerful ektara; a unifying organizing chord of remembrance. It can – if I tune to it - magnetically, energetically and elastically draw the disparate parts together into a unified purpose: Love. Remembrance of the sacred Mystery, within and without.  

Yoga has been many things for me, but the Ektara of Love –  the song of the Heart - has been a steady chord. I have often forgotten to tune to it. But nevertheless, it sings inside me, ever-present, never-absent. It continues to inform and transform, to take me apart, to undo me and re-organize me again, slightly more attuned each time, each iteration, to the music of the one-stringed call of love.

And in case all this sound just sooo esoteric, it is and it is not. It is also very physical. My body is the instrument, the ektara if you will.

For example, right now as I am contemplating all of this, the singular chord of sushumna / organizing principle, if I tune my awareness to it, asks me to drop my ribs. I do so and feel such relief! I can breathe more freely. My diaphragm is dis-inhibited. In the next moment my ribs might jut forward, diaphragm inhibited, ease of breath and ease of being receding. But no effort, no remembrance is ever wasted. The call of the ektara continues. And each time I answer it I draw closer and more magnetically home.

Or this example: in response to the call of ektara – sushumna, I soften back from front body into back body. This brings my rib cage over my hips which in turn allows my three diaphragms (pelvic, breath and throat) to align with one another, which in turn activates my body-wide myofascial core, which in turn allows my chronically tight psoas to relax. And I am remembered – even if only for a few moments – to the felt sense Real-ness of being literally held up by the one light of love, slender as a spider threat, brilliant as a million moons. I am in that moment remembered and remembering.

Remembering is an activity. As the ektara / sushumna continue to call me into yoga / union, my activity gradually but inevitably transforms both on and off the mat. For example, back body awareness and psoas release will gradually but inevitably decrease my tendency to push through and work harder, out of a survival cramp of forward- moving, reactive, front body grip.

To close I will riff off of Charles Bukowski’s poem Blue Bird.

There's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out…..so I tune to the chord of sushumna-ektara….and the cage she is in (made of the disparate – dis-membered – desperate parts of me) begins to open and melt…. and then reform into a unified whole aligned with the love, the original tenderness and organic energy that the bluebird is.

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*My guru, Lee Lozowicki and our school or lineage, call ourselves Western Bauls as we have so much in common in terms of philosophy and practice with the Bauls of Bengal. A combo of tantra and bhakti paths.

* The ektara is also known as a gopi-chand. (Gopi is a cowherd – a devotee of Krishna; Chand is Moon; the Gopis danced in ecstatic devotion with Krishna under the light of the moon)