Tag Archives: Bhakti

Baby’s Got Bhakti: Vegan Organic Gardening with Love

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Squirrel by Karl (turnbullsx3) on Flickr

Squirrel by Karl (turnbullsx3) on Flickr

Subtitle: Even Those Dang Squirrels are Divine

It’s been a summer of gardening at The VeganAsana house, for the first time in a long time, and the first time ever with more than a dozen or so plants. And it’s been quite a learning experience.

garden

First, there was the reading and planning. I drew plot designs and looked at seeds. I read about the different problems that could crop up in a garden and resigned myself that I would probably have one of them. But, I was ok with that.

I imagined all of the delicious, home grown, organic food that I would produce for my family, their eyes open wide with wonder at the dinner table (cue choir of angels). This was me in May.

Then in June, things were growing. GROWING in my garden! Wow!

You should have seen it. The plants were beautiful and green and strong.

The sunflowers were immense. The tomato plants were getting huge and the zucchini plants were flourishing.

We were eating pounds of green beans. And if the kids didn’t look at me in amazement when I produced plates of fresh green beans, at least they ate them.

And then July happened, and it all went to heck.

trellisThe squash and pumpkin plants that I planted by my home-built (with help from my pal, Erica – shout out!) trellis started looking a little dodgy. So did the zucchini. I thought they were being overwatered.

I slowed the watering down and waited on the rain to chill out. And then I noticed some odd sawdust looking stuff at the bottom of the stems. Wait a minute! I read about this! (DUM DUM DUUUUUMMMM!)

The dreaded squash borer! Yep, I had squash borer. Boy oh boy, did I have squash borer. Every single zucchini plant was infested. All the pumpkins were too. Almost all of the winter squash, as well. I was not happy. I was not happy at all.

I removed borers from my plants (I couldn’t kill them, because they are beings after all, so I just relocated them). I reburied stems. They died anyway. Four squash plants and two pumpkin plants survived. I thought horrible things about those borers at first, but then I gradually let it go and got back to the idea that they were just doing their thing, eating their food, raising their little slug-babies.

So, ok, whatever, no zucchini for me. And, also, maybe there would be no pumpkin. Right. And it wasn’t looking good for squash. Sure. I’ve got tomatoes!

tomatoesinjuneBut, there was a little hitch in that plan. The mighty mighty (Bosstones? No.) squirrel.

My house is squirrel central. We have had them nesting in our oven vent, living in our eaves, rustling around in our attic, and eating our bird food. It’s squirrel happy town. I just didn’t realize how much they loved tomatoes.

Squirrels adore tomatoes. They will take every single freaking tomato from 12 tomato plants. All. Of. Them.

I cannot even blame them. I love tomatoes too. I like them on sandwiches, alone, in salsa and pico de gallo, and fried up when they are green. I would eat tomato every day and so would the squirrels.

I don’t mind sharing, and at first I thought that maybe they would slow down and just eat their half and left me my half. And, anyway, I still had other stuff.

But then the remaining pumpkin (with little baby pumpkins on the vine, awww) got powdery mildew. And that spread to the squash that were still there. The peppers were too shaded by the tomatoes and stopped growing and I hadn’t thinned the carrots enough, so they were not producing much. And the squirrels were not confining themselves to half.

Bah. Humbug.

So, here we are in September. I have another batch of zucchini plants going and some fall plantings, but my hopes aren’t too high. I did have another meal of fried green tomatoes today (the hot sauce spray seems to be slowing the squirrels down a bit for the green ones, but they still get eaten too fast to ripen), and we’ll see if I get any more.

But, I’m working on my bhakti yoga. Bhakti is about a surrendering to the divine that could mean a God or Gods. Or, it could mean the universal being. But, in any case, it means something about seeing the divinity in self and others. And, I’m pretty sure that includes the borers, and the fungus (among us), and the mosquitoes, and even the squirrels.

So, while I am still going to practice some additional non-harming vegan-like methods of keeping some of my garden for my family next year, I’m not going to be angry at the squirrels for taking the tomatoes or the borers for eating the zucchini stems. Because, they are just doing their thing, and they, too, are divine.

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Oh My Little Elephant-Headed Baby God! The Power of Myth in Yoga

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Myth is an attempt to narrate a whole human experience, of which the purpose is too deep, going too deep in the blood and soul, for mental explanation or description.
~D.H. Lawrence

Last night in yoga teacher training, we spent some time on Bhakti, or the practice of yoga as divine worship.  In this process, we discussed a number of Hindu gods and the myths surrounding them.  Today’s post represents my reflection on my favorite of the stories we considered, the story of the origins of Ganesha.

Before I continue, a bit about the use here of the word “myth.”  Sometimes people understand myth to mean a false story.  However, a myth is simply an old story that is accepted as true in some fashion, and that helps us to explain the world through a particular perspective.  Every culture, including every religious culture, has myths.  The factual accuracy of the stories is less important than the shared belief in what the story represents.  And so, back to Ganesha…

As with most gods, there are multiple stories of how Ganesha came to be.  But, the one I was particularly compelled by is as follows:

Parvati was the consort of Shiva, the destroyer.  Shiva, while very much in love with Parvati, was not always the most attentive of husbands or most responsive to Parvati’s needs.  Parvati, being wildly passionately in love with Shiva wanted to be with him and to bear his child.  Shiva wasn’t so interested, and was more focused on his meditation practice, which required him to go off alone for long periods.  As he prepared to leave again, Parvati wept and begged him to stay with her.  Refusing, Shiva gave Parvati a piece of cloth from his clothing and told her to hold it as a reminder of him and their love.  Crying over the cloth and holding it to her heart, Parvati’s tear fell upon the fabric.  From that union of Shiva and Parvati, Ganesha was born.  Of course, Parvati was thrilled.  One day, Parvati goes to take her bath and posts Ganesha at the door to preserve her privacy.  Shiva coincidentally returned at that moment and, seeing Ganesha guarding the door (but not knowing who he is) demanded to be permitted in.  Ganesha, a good son, refuses him entry, as his mother had instructed.  In a fury, Shiva strikes off Ganesha’s head.  When Parvati learns what Shiva has done, she is (reasonably) furious.  She commands Shiva to go away until  he can fix the situation.  Apparently unable to locate Ganesha’s head, Shiva acquires the head of an elephant and uses it to bring Ganesha back to life.  Parvati is appeased and they continue on, a happy family of three with their little elephant-headed boy.

So, you may be asking yourself, why did this story particularly strike me.  First, it’s just amusing and the notion of an elephant-headed baby is pretty cute.  Second, I love the idea of overcoming obstacles that is present throughout the story of Ganesha (and he is seen as the remover of obstacles).  Shiva encounters a pretty big obstacle to motherhood when Shiva again leaves, but her desire to be a mother and love for Shiva is enough to overcome that barrier.  Ganesha encounters a rather large obstacle in losing his head, which is then repaired.  Shiva encounters the obstacle of Ganesha barring him from Parvati and then the challenge of figuring out how to “fix” the situation, and he meets that challenge.  This message is a great one for a yoga class.

We all have obstacles to our practice, whether a meditative practice or an asana practice or a devotional practice.  In asana, some barriers are physical and some are mental/emotional.  But, all barriers can be overcome.  The challenge is to figure out how.

Physical barriers might be overcome with the use of props. This morning in class, I watched this in action as my instructor, Erik, assisted a student in creating a prop to support her wrists during L shaped handstand.  The prop made the pose accessible for her.  Another route to overcoming physical barriers might be to alter the pose, fitting it to the body and the body’s needs.  This requires us to consider what it is we are trying to accomplish with the pose (physically and energetically) and altering it such that it reaches those goals but without creating bodily problems. In the same class, during the inversion, some students took the option of Viparita Karani (legs up the wall), which is a wonderful inversion and, if done with arms overhead, can also open the shoulders in a similar way to L shaped handstand.

Emotional/mental barriers can be harder to identify, but can be even more powerful than the physical.  I’ve posted before about fear and its impact on the practice of yoga.  Fear can certainly be a major obstacle.  Fear during inversions is very common.  The reasons for the fear sometimes have to be teased out and addressed, perhaps through logic and perhaps through experience by utilizing props or other supports.  Other emotional obstacles, such as ego, attachment and aversion, etc. are also a part of the practice, and overcoming them is a part of our growth and self-realization.

For these reasons, the story of Ganesha’s origin appeals to me.  After all, if Parvati can go from a childless lonely spouse to a happy mother of a little elephant-headed god then I can surely work through my balance issues and help my students through whatever is standing in the way of their practices.  Perhaps this story can help me do that.