Kundalini Yoga Yogi

AS A PRACTITIONER OF KUNDALINI YOGA, I BELIEVE IN SEVA, SELFLESS SERVICE

I believe in seva or selfless service.

Well, sure, who wouldn't. Selfless service is a way we scrub off karma that might negatively affect spiritual progress. It is a path where we balance our actions and traverse the space between the “now” and the “then” without making the path longer or more difficult.

So much for the technical part, what about my personal feelings about this ..., this seva?

How selfish is that? Which intention has more meaning for my spiritual advancement? Should I perform seva with the idea that this will end the endless cycle of reincarnation? Or is my intention to serve with no thought or reward or praise or even “good feelings” within myself because “I” have done this or that. I have heard Yogiji pray, “Oh God, bless me with service no knows of but me and thee.”

To be honest, the seva that I have been involved in on the crews, getting things prepared for winter or summer solstice has been the perfect reward for that seva.

In fact, it was hardly even work! It was a joy ... because of the people I worked with (99% saintly)... the work I did (100% good for everyone) ... the benefits to others like clean bathrooms, working showers, a pristine tantric shelter, well, that goes without saying, everyone benefits.

I remember when Yogiji walked by the bathroom at his cabin at Lake Winona (The old Winter Solstice site near DeLand, Florida) as another plumber and I were trying desperately to solve a “drainage” problem before he arrived. There was not a smile from him, nor word of praise, just a look that connected at my deepest place. There I was working on something so first chakra, and this saint looked at us and saw some saints. How many brownie points was that worth in the akashic records? That has happened a lot, with many people and in many circumstances. I can honestly say I have gotten more out of such seva than I have put into it. So is it really seva if I have benefited more from “my” seva than the people I was serving?

How do I get to the place where my service is actually selfless? How do I get the “self” out of the service. The solution for me was that I had to find a away to make this seva something of an effort. Selfless seva implies sacrifice. I had to make a sacrifice in order to serve. And so, the last few years when I was working on the Summer Solstice crew not only did I do the work but I also paid for the privilege of doing so. The full price of solstice tuition was really nothing compared to the idea that I was gaining much more from the work I did than I was given. I decided to throw the balance upon the universe to find equilibrium. In a small way, the money I paid in order to attend solstice where I would work did that.

The last year that I headed the Summer Solstice grounds crew, Yogiji came up to inspect the site. It was an honor to host him, to make sure he had a comfortable chair to sit in, that food was provided (which he directed his staff to eat) and to introduce him to the crew members who were there. He said only a few words to me that day but I felt more than rewarded. I felt as though my job was done not for my benefit or even for his but for the many people who arrived a few days later. They knew only a very few of the crew and for us, for me, that was fine.

In Love and Seva,

Karta Purkh S Khalsa

Bicycling Balance

A Question of Wind and Balance

by Karta Purkh, Kundalini Yoga Yogi
   I was able, last Sunday, Oct 5, to take a bicycle ride through northeastern Kansas. I was part of the Lawrence Bicycle Club's Octaginta Ride. It was my longest ride of the year, some 80 miles plus.
   It was windy day with gusts in the 20 to 30 mile an hour plus range. It was hard enough riding INTO the wind, especially on the uphills (one as long as two miles according to my computer) when I thought I might be slowed to less than 4 or 5 mph and risk being unable to keep the bike upright. That did not happen luckily. Strangely enough. when the wind was behind me I felt no extra push, just the heat of the sun, shining on my back. (Maybe the wind stopped blowing when it was at my back but I never think of Mother Nature as THAT way!)
   What was most remarkable, to me, was that when I was traveling across the wind and it was pushing me over there was this miraculous feeling that I COULD NOT actually be pushed over. I felt the wind, assuredly, blowing my beard to one side or another. And I felt my balance being tested as the bike leaned slightly to one side but the re-balancing, the coming to the upright position was automatic. It was as if it were not really in my control but happening beyond it. I would lean slightly over because of the wind and just as quickly (a millisecond?) lean back the right way.  And this would happen four, five or six times within the space of one or two pedal strokes.
   It was an amazing experience to be aware of a threat to my safety and not have any control over the outcome. After a while, I took the phenomenon for granted as a skill I had, but had no knowledge of perfecting. It was just automatic and beyond reflexive.
   This is where this article gets to be about Kundalini Yoga. I am sure that many cyclists are aware of the particular experience that occurred on my ride and many probably have a better idea than I do about the physical mechanics of it.
   The brain, I know, has a deep concern for "balance."  Our physical balance is basically taken for granted except in the case of serious health problems. So what about our mental and spritual balance? Do these happen as automatically and as quickly as they did for me on my bike? I hope so.
   I feel that I have been truly blessed to be practicing this wonderful science of Kundalini Yoga and one of its blessings is balance. There are many others ... some I am not aware of and some I take totally for granted and some I am grateful for on a daily basis.
   Kundalini Yoga is truly the Science of Awareness. The awareness is given to us on a moment by moment basis. Some of it we acknowledge with much gratitude and some of it sneaks upon us and does things for us that we have no idea where or how they came. This one small instance that I experienced last Sunday is one I would not trade even though I really feel I had no control over it whatsoever. I admit that others riding bikes with me that day (close to a thousand, I think!) had the same experience. Can I say then that we are all Yogis in one way or another? Some of us admit it openly, others have an inkling and wonder, and some have no idea at all ... but we're all in the same boat, or body ... and it's pretty amazing!..