A ‘Greater Energy’

I have always believed in a force greater than myself: as a child, I often visited Sunday school and was taught about a Christian God; as a teenager, I believed in Mother Nature and through my twenties and thirties, I envisaged this force as a ‘Greater Energy’. However, the etched historical violence, corruption, and social superiority of certain religions left me veering away from religion entirely; uncomfortable with the word ‘God’ itself and specifically avoiding literature that contained the word.

A Shift in Perception

When reading the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, I began to reflect on sutra 1:27; ‘The word expressive of Iśvara is the mystic sound OM. [OM is God’s name as well as form.]’ and I had a personal and spiritual revelation.

I had always appreciated the word OM as the ‘Universal Sound’, representing the Greater Energy that I have always believed in. However, I had not linked this universal sound to a ‘God’ of any kind. When I read ‘OM is God’s name as well as form’ and the commentary from Sri Swami Satchidananda, it began a shift in my perception of the word God. I began to understand that over all these years I had been troubled with the difficulties and negative connotations of organised religion and it was this that had affected my perception of the word God. This revelation revealed that not only did the word God no longer sit uncomfortably with me, but I also recognised that I believed in God, and I always had.

The Name in Which we Call our God

I spoke with a Catholic friend, whose faith is strong, and we discussed how her God was the same as mine; that the name in which we called our God did not matter. Following the ethics and principles [in yoga this is called the yamas and niyamas] we believe in are fundamental in both of our lives, and the greatest thing of importance is to nurture the concept of Love. I knew that God was perceived by different people in different ways, yet I now understand that this is the same Greater Energy I had felt and believed in since my teenage years. From this understanding, some of the deep-rooted bias, that I did not know I carried, fell away. I feel that I can now, as a teacher, welcome my students and their beliefs truly without judgement. Whether my students believe in a god or not, I accept that beliefs can be fixed or fluid and that whatever one brings to the mat will be welcome and valid in my class.

Chanting

Chanting is a regular part of my practice and I often chant the word OM when closing my classes too. It is the universal sound. It represents the entire universe and the entire universe came from it. It represents the union of body, mind and spirit. Now that I have accepted the word God into my life, I am filled even more so with love to chant OM, knowing that I am welcoming the Greater Energy, or God, to my mat, to my classes and to my life.