When the Mandala Yoga Ashrama in Wales was being established, in the early/mid 1980's, I was training in Kung Fu with a very interesting guy called Chris Baldwin. Chris's wife at the time, Anne, was a yoga teacher, and her teacher training tutor was Swami Paramatmananda Saraswati. Swami Paramatma was also Poornamurti's teacher training tutor, although I wasn't to meet Poorrnamurti for another 20 years.
Through Anne, Chris new Paramatma, and Paramatma was heavily involved in the ashrama at that time. So Chris organised a couple of visits to the ashrama. During my time with Chris, one of these visits came up.
Now, I'd been training very heavily at around this time. I was 18 or 19 years old, practiced yoga asanas daily, ran everywhere instead of taking public transport, was unemployed and spent every hour of the day training with my good friend Gilly (Paul Gilmore). In fact, We used to go round to Chris' house on a Friday night, and train with him all weekend at Kung Fu and meditation.
So, the ashrama visit was arranged, but a few days before we were due to go, I became ill with a very heavy chest and throat infection.
All of this was lost in my memory until a few weeks ago, when it all came back to me. Especially something Gilly said.
You see, whilst the Kung Fu group had been at the ashrama, so had Swami Niranjanananda!
At the time, he must have been about 24 years old, maybe less, and his visit there was very low key compared to his travels in more recent years. He had basically hung out with the kung fu crowd!
I can remember now everyone talking about how beautiful he was, and what an amazing person he was.
But most of all, I remember Gilly saying that Swamiji had suggested to him that he go back Swami Satyanandas ashram in India with him!
I think about the mess that I am now, compared to who I was then, and I wonder if Swamaji would have offered me the same opportunity. I can remember being amazed that Gilly had not taken up the offer, and saying that I'd go at the drop of a hat.
But I hadn't been there. So I have to assume that I wasn't meant to be there.
Amazing what can come back to you.
ReplyDeleteYou just reminded me of Chris Baldwin. He was on my first teacher training course for a short time. His many commitments led to him giving up early, but I would love to know what he's doing now.
Hi Jenny, great to hear from you!
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I lost contact with Chris about ten years ago., so I can't report on what he's up to now.
He did pop round to borrow some books from Poornamurti when he started your course, but I wasn't in, so didn't have chance to catch up with him even then.
To be fair, he does email me quite a lot with daft jokes (I'm sure you'll have witnessed some of those), but I guess I'm just on an email list he has, and I get so many emails, I never seem to get round to contacting him...maybe it's time I did...
Thanks for some very interesting thoughts, particularly regarding science and the notion of a universal theory of the physical world in relation to universal conciousness. The problem as I see it is that physical science is concerned with things which can be quantified and measured and the ways that they interact and are interrelated. Classical mechanics (Newtonian laws of motion) finds expression through linear analysis and differential equations which can predict events on our temporal/spatial scale with formidable accuracy. On the cosmic temporal/spatial (and very fast!) scale, general relativity is apropriate and on the micro/nano scale,quantum mechanics predicts the behaviour of matter and energy in terms of the probability of events occuring. In all cases, the science requires measurable and quantifiable phenomena in order to make predictions by which the theories and principles can be tested and verified and it is hard to see how this might be done with regard to universal conciousness. My background is in Physics and much as I love the subject, it has always irked me that it doesnt accommadate life and living systems. A universal theory of everything would be neat but there is no reason why such a thing should exist other than the human desire for an elegant complete unified explanation of the material world. In reality if they ever do come up with a single equation that explains everything, in order for it to work, approximations will have to be made and the outcomes will probably be in terms of probabilities so it would never be able to predict anything with complete accuracy.
ReplyDeleteI read Gaia (James Lovelock) recently which makes more sense to me in terms of the world being a living (concious?) entity. The conditions for life being maintained and sustained by the lifeforms inhabiting it in perpetual interrelated dynamic equilibria, the outcome generally being negative entropy,(creation of order, accumulation of energy) the antithesis of general physical science predictions. (although the total entropy of the universe is probably increasing) Would be interesting to discuss sometime.
Hari Om
Phil
Hari Om Phil,
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you!
I agree that there is an issue in trying to truly bring yoga into the realm of science. I don't believe it really can be done, for the reasons you state. Yoga is the ultimate subjective experience, and can't be objectivised in the way required for proper scientific investigation.
Personally (and I suspect you'd agree), I don't believes this invalidates yoga in any way. As you mention, Sciences lack of a serious attempt at tackling the question of the place of life (or consciousness) in the universe is disappointing, but ultimately, I think its an investigation that has to be carried out by each individual.
I've heard of Gaia theory, and Lovelock, but must confess I've never read the book. Something I must do at some point!
Feel fre to browse the rest of the blog (either from the 'Archive' drop down, or 'more posts' at the end of the front page!
Hope to see you soon when maybe we can discuss in more detail!
Namo Narayan!