Monday, Mar 01, 2010 This week’s Food for Thought – March 1, 2010

The Seer is nothing but the power of seeing which,

although pure, appears to see through the mind.

Even though the light is pure and never-changing, it appears to change because of the medium of nature.  The sun’s rays appear to bend when they pass through a section of water, although they do not actually bend.  A filament gives pure light but appears to be red because of the red glass that surrounds its.  Likewise, we are all the same light, but we don’t look alike, act alike or think alike because of the nature of our bodies and minds.  If the mind accumulates some ideas of law, we become lawyers; some knowledge of medicine, we become doctors.  If we have no ideas, we are called fools.  So, although the original substance is the same, we appear to be different.

Through Yogic thinking we can see the entire humanity as our own.  We can embrace all without any exceptions.  Even the worst sinner will be loved by us because we ourselves were once sinners.  Today’s sinner is tomorrow’s saint.  We will never criticize a sinner if we realize that we were once in the same boat.  Instead, we can give the so-called sinner a helping hand.  If a baby dirties its diaper, you take it out of the crib, clean it and put on a new diaper.  You don’t criticize it.  If you wish to criticize it you have no business being with that child.

So Yoga helps in every aspect of our lives, from the White House to the outhouse.  It’s not something to be experienced only after sixty years of practice, but something that can benefit everyone now.

—Sri Swami Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, Book II, Verse 20