How do we Practice When the World is Burning

Inspiration from a master who sat through much worse

How do we practice while the world is burning?
How can we “enter the heart” while war crimes are being committed?
What will happen to my spiritual life if WWIII breaks out?
Where is God?
Where is Grace?

Is it even okay to practice and do something for ourselves so self-invested and (seemingly) bourgeois? I know the answer is yes, it’s not only okay, it’s kind of crucial. Not just for our own sanity and preservation, but so that we can be strong enough to stand for something else.

My guru’s guru’s guru, pictured above, known as Bhagawan Nityananda, was born sometime around the turn of the century and left his body in 1961. This picture was probably from the early 50s.

He was a deeply intuitive being, many consider him to be all-knowing. He’s considered one of the purest embodiments of the guru principle of Divine Grace.
He was there, in India, teaching Mahāyoga during world events we can barely imagine:

The brutal final decades of the British occupation of India
Hitler’s rise to power and the Nazi Holocaust
WWII
The nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan by the U.S.
India’s partition after independence and the horrific violence that took place
The 1948 Nakba when Isreal was formed
The assassination of Gandhi.
The Korean War
The beginning of the Vietnam War
Stalin
Hitler
Mao

So many things I’m leaving out. And still he taught:

Everything is One
God is within us
Our bondage is within us, the purpose of human life is to get free.

He taught, and embodied yoga. People who knew him described being in his presence was like being in the presence of the Source itself. Infinite love. Infinite presence. Infinite ānanda (that’s what his name means.)

So that’s what I am taking refuge in today.

Atrocities in this world are not new.

Genocides are not new.

The feeling of living in a “basically insane“ world is something that yogis have had to contend with forever.

Let’s contend friends.
Let’s abide friends.
Let’s stay rooted in love - no matter what.
Let’s stay defiantly wise.

Let’s stay close to our hearts. One of his famous quotes is:

The heart is the hub of all sacred places. Go there and roam.

Let me be clear: this is NOT to say, find your bliss and turn off the news. It’s not to say stick your head in the sand of inner peace and ignore the horrors around you.

Hear your calling.

Follow it with gusto.

And make sure you have the support you need. My support comes (in part) from the example and energetic presence of a being like Nityananda.

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Here’s a course that can be a support for you:

It’s a nicely produced 7 video course that you can do at your own pace (even binge it if you want) that helps you get anchored and well supported during this insane moment of history we’re all living through.