Yoga Vitamins

Saturday morning I lazily indulged myself in a few chapters of a good book while enjoying my coffee. I pulled from the shelf one of my yoga books entitled "The Yogi's Roadmap". The author, Bhavani Maki, cleverly deciphers ancient Sanskrit text into modern day concepts. I opened the book to a page discussing the Sanskrit sutra 1:20 Shraddha virya smrti samadhi prajnya purvaka itaresam, simply said Faith, courage, memory, concentration, wisdom - strategies for life - consider them your yoga vitamins. Shraddha, holds great significance to me in my life; I loosely translate it to mean wholeheartedness. When there is complete willingness fused with willpower that causes one to invest fully and ardently throw ourself into the fire. When we slip into the vagaries of being casual, indecisive or noncommittal, we never put life as we know it, on the line to discover the realized life we have yet to discover. Perhaps we simply aren't willing to take the risk of falling down and feeling foolish. Perhaps we don't know how to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and regain true personal dignity. Shraddha is our willingness to dive in headfirst, trusting that we have nothing to lose, and everything to gain." When we commit wholeheartedly to our process, we take comfort in our practice. There is a new found sense of refuge in the living on the edge of what is impossible, and an inner freedom in knowing that we are relieved from living a mediocre existence.