Swedish Bhairavi Says: “Later Is a Different Place..”

Practices have their own particular life.

A certain mantra is being opened. A certain way of listening is being developed. A certain rhythm has begun to form. And the constellation in which you are meeting all of this is also particular to this moment: your circumstances, your questions, your obligations, your aspirations, the people around you, the season, the environment, the particular place in life from which you are entering this journey.

One may think that one can come back to this later. That one can skim it now. That one can practice more deeply when life becomes quieter.

Sometimes that is possible.

But one should know that later is a different place.

How you are meeting the realm of mantra and the Matrikas is how the whole of you is meeting it. You do not arrive as some separate, perfected practitioner. You arrive with your distractions, obligations, desires, doubts, aspirations, thoughts, emotions, sudden circumstances, relationships, environment.. all of it.

This is what you come with.

And this particular constellation will change. Later, the focus may have shifted. The journey may have moved into another phase. Life may be asking something entirely different from you. Even if you return to the same mantra years from now, you will be meeting it from another place.

I am reminded of this when I look back at certain practice periods of my own. It is very easy to become clever in retrospect. Why did I not do this? Why did I not make more use of that? If I had only done that one simple thing, it could have made such a difference!

From where we are standing now, the beneficial action can seem so obvious, as if there should have been no real difficulty in doing it. But retrospective judgment does not bring us back there.

And quite often, when we look carefully, that previous time was as good a time as any other to make the effort. Sometimes the opportunities were even greater than they are now.. They were simply difficult to see while we were standing inside that life. For some reason, the now seems to be the most difficult time. As if right now is a uniquely difficult time.

We get occupied with what is happening. We wait for better conditions. We assume there will be more time, more chances, or that we need to become a little more comfortable rather than making a stronger stroke upstream.

This is why, when something is being opened to you, there is value in entering it while it is alive and vibrant. Ride it while you are on the ride. Soak up what you can now. Give it enough time and attention to make an imprint.

You yourself will know when something has begun to enter more deeply. When it is no longer something that you merely heard about or practiced a few times, but something that has started to find a place within you.

And this does not mean talking or thinking about it constantly. Real immersion that makes an imprint can happen in various ways: through joys, sorrows, practice experiences of all kinds. You practice, you listen, you repeat, you stay with the sound, you allow some silence after it, you return again.

There are things that become known through this kind of closeness, through proximity.

The mouth gets to know the sound, the ears ..the awareness begins to recognise its movements. Something that initially felt unfamiliar slowly starts becoming part of the inner landscape.

The yoga part is a little like love.. Love does not happen simply because we command it to happen. Yet we can create the circumstances in which intimacy becomes possible. We meet. We spend time together. We listen. We discover.

Something that once belonged completely outside of our life begins to enter it. At first perhaps there is only a small space for the other. Then, little by little, their presence begins appearing everywhere. A toothbrush in the bathroom. Some clothes in the cupboard. Something the two of you chose together. Eventually, the question of what is “mine” and what is “yours” may begin to change.

Practice can also have this quality.

Every time you sit with the mantra, there is another meeting. Another moment of acquaintance, of getting to know. Sometimes it is beautiful. Sometimes awkward. Sometimes something opens easily. Sometimes resistance appears. Sometimes you discover that what you thought you understood, you did not understand at all.

And you continue meeting and you allow the relationship to develop. This is very different from waiting until you become the perfect practitioner before allowing yourself to enter deeply. That perfect set of circumstances may never arrive.

And sacred sound is not an ordinary visitor that enters your life only to add more confusing clutter. We approach mantra precisely because it carries an auspicious and refining quality. We make room for it so that its presence can begin to affect the space in which it is living.

So meet it from the place you are in right now.

Of course we can imagine a thousand ways in which everything could have been more ideal, but here we are.
This is the meeting that is actually happening. So make the effort that is yours to make. Make some space…some room, and then allow for something auspicious to grow there.

The yoga itself cannot be forced. But we can make room for what is available now, while it is here.

Later is a different place.

With love,

Swedish Bhairavi