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Yoga and the World

Margaret Kruszewska

How can we just sit in lotus position when there’s several wars raging right now in the world, our nation is on “high alert” again, we’re gobbling oil faster than we’ll ever be able to replenish it and women and children’s lives are still at greatest danger in their own homes?

In the past 6 years of my graduate studies in San Francisco I have met many amazing individuals who have inspired many others in a strategy that can only be described as Spiritual Activism. That means that you do not have to abandon such spiritual beliefs as seeing goodness around you in order to enter the often painful public arena where injustice, violence, hatred and abuse may also exist.�

If anything, we need these beliefs more than ever so that we don’t despair and surrender to huge political forces that often act without our consent as citizens and compassionate human beings.

Sitting in lotus position allows us to step away from the frenzy of media coverage that produces a kind of blind reaction filled with more anger and hatred. Then, when are ready to reenter our duties in life, we know that our decisions to be activists, artists, parents, teachers and lovers arise from our own peaceful, and hopeful, hearts.

2 Responses to “Yoga and the World”

  1. Nico says:

    Dear Saraswati,
    Thank you for this entry. The Dalai Lama says that “too much energy in your country is spent developing the mind instead of the heart”. For me, some of the fundamental questions of our existence are “how do we marry the intellectual with the spiritual? How do we use the spiritual to conduct the intellectual? How do we live our values? I guess it is all about the process, and finding meaningful ways to navigate this complex world…I think Yoga can certainly be one of these ways.

  2. Nico says:

    just want to add that what I mean is that I think Yoga can help us find the internal balance to then approach this world with the required mix of intellectual and sprititual…it’s not an end in itself but a bridge along the path.

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