Is Yoga Spiritual? It is important first of all to define what is meant by spirituality …
Today we all abuse the word spirituality a little bit by linking it to the concept of well-being, of feeling good (which is a good start anyway!). But perhaps the meaning is deeper, it means finding a connection with our true deep nature which is bright and peaceful. A mystical state that is not easy to reach, which requires constant work and above all coherence of life.
Why a harmonious lifestyle is it sometimes so difficult to adopt? Because we are not yet fully awakened to our spiritual nature. How can we live in harmony if we are not connected to our higher purpose in life? Ayurvedic and yogic practices bring us peace, not highs. They support us but they don’t burn us. However, to reach this place, we must go through the fire of awakening our consciousness. This process must be honest and it is not always pleasant. With honesty towards ourselves in the beginning, we feel discomfort and pain and we tend to walk away. We abandon these practices which, even if difficult, lead to harmony and light because the light hurts our eyes. So how do we do to create harmony in our lives? How do we become successful travelers on our journey? There are many avenues to emancipation, but none are greater than our personal direct experience of God, which is reached through meditation and prayer. In the silence of conscience there is the light of God, the infinite, which fills and supports and can allow us to create change in us and then outside of us. The more we know our divine nature, our spirit, the more we are authorized to act in harmony. A first step is for many the approach to the practice of meditation. And it deepens when we are able to meditate on every action of our life, when our life itself becomes a meditation, bringing out our true nature. We are then ready to join the pure consciousness. We become one with God.
How sad to see that fashionable secularism, instead of opening up to all religions, imposes a “non-religion” and a total veto. Sometimes even those who hold Yoga classes in the community are asked, in the name of secularism, not to evoke the notion of spirit or God during the lessons. But whad do we fear?
I love to use the word soul to describe the journeys I propose, but once I was told “no, the word soul must not be used, people are afraid”. But I insist and when I propose a yoga retreat in India or simply in the mountains or by the sea in Europe, an Ayurvedic stay, a wellness holiday, I always hope that it is my soul and God that my travelers go to meet.
“I have often found myself with a goodbye to make, a suitcase to prepare, a radical change to deal with and a new dimension to find. Managing changes in work, life and prospects have led me to my most authentic metamorphosis: to make a profession of the travel experience.