Day 4 and our spiritual adventure continues.
The group started their day with yoga asana practice at sunrise on the steps right along the Ganges River, followed by meditation and chanting. We have been working on developing unwavering focus in our meditation practice by visualizing and feeling ourselves having completed our life purpose.
“I will be what I will to be. I will do what I will to do.” This has been one of our group’s mantras and it was what my Guru taught me.
Participants were given homework… they were to walk to the burning ghats (crematory grounds) along the river, observe the area and reflect upon the transient nature of life and the physical body. Millions of people flock to the holy city of Varanasi with the intention to die there. As such, death is seen simply as a part of the cycle of life. I asked participants to confront the finite nature of life and to consider death as the greatest impetus for committing to unwavering focus to reach one’s purpose in this life.
We ended our day with an exercise whereby participants identified their greatest fears holding them back from attaining their life purpose. I then asked participants to fully feel the fear present within them and to transfer this fear into a diya- a floating candle held within a leaf. We then took a boat into the middle of the Ganges, lit the flames and released the diyas into the river with the intention of letting go of whatever is holding us back. We followed this beautiful ritual with an offering of gratitude to Ganga Mata (Mother Ganges) by then ceremoniously releasing flowers into the river.
