Across the Universe

Some people use God as a medium to feel at one with the universe, but I don’t need him. I have Bikram Yoga.

While I may not believe there is an omnipotent God that created everything in the universe, I don’t let that get in the way of feeling connected to the universe. After all, we are all connected to each other and everything around us. I don’t mean that in a mystical kind of way. I mean we are literally and physically connected to everything around us. We are made up of matter and energy that affects the matter and energy around us. There is a chain reaction to every breath we take or movement we make that reverberates around the universe, albeit on a very small and usually immeasurable scale. When I say immeasurable, I mean to say we (some more than others) do not have the understanding or the technology to measure this connection. But I digress; this is not a post on chemistry or string theory.

At feel most connected to the universe when I am in my Birkam studio. From the immeasurable stimulus such as public-induced motivation to well know physics such as gravity and temperature, I really feel it!

There is something about moving threw the asanas (poses) in unison with the people around you that is “tangible” to me. While I am not touching or even looking at anyone else, I feel them. Call it motivation, encouragement or inspiration, but do NOT call it a competition unless you want a very polite scolding from any seasoned yogi, working the method in public yields a stimulus I don’t find in my living room. I don’t know how to measure or test this relationship, but the presence of others affects my behavior. I feel connected to everyone in the room. From this, I can’t help but query my connection to the people walking by the studio to the people shopping on the other side of town to the tourist in Times Square to Kevin Bacon to the soldiers in Iraq and so on and so on. Certainly proximity to ones neighbor has something to do with how influential ones presence is to another, but we are all connected however vague it may be.

Life as we know it is due to a perfect marriage of physics and chemistry. The laws of physics gave us a suitable environment to host life and chemistry took it from there. As I struggle to hold form in trikanasana (triangle pose), I am fully aware that I am battling the same gravitational forces that formed my planet. Gravity is one of the many “laws” that are essential to life. What if we didn’t have gravity? If it took no effort to hold this asana for 60 LONG seconds, water would not flow. What then?

Speaking of water flowing, the streams of sweat running off of my body are product of millions and millions of years of evolution. My fore fathers who didn’t have sweat glands died a long time ago and didn’t pass along their obsolete genes to me. There is no way I could do Bikram yoga without the perfect process of natural selection. Sweating reminds me of this process and the sacrifices my non-sweating ancestors made for my existence.

Speaking of sweat, I can smell the chemical reaction taking place between my 190 pound body with the tiniest particles of bacterial that live in and on it. It wasn’t that long ago that we had no idea bacteria existed. We had no way of measuring bacteria and other germs for an overwhelming majority, to put it lightly, of human existence. So I can understand why the cause of plagues was commonly assigned to some pissed off God.

Speaking of people creating the concept of devine intervention to explain what they can not understand… oh never mind.

This reality is not new to me, but it is sometimes forgotten as I try to make my next deadline at work or while I am changing my kid’s diapers. Before yoga, these thoughts popped up her and there, but I never spent much time connecting them. My practice provides a sanctuary for me to feel at one with the universe. It wasn’t to long ago that I couldn’t uses words like “sanctuary” or phrases like “one with the universe” without feeling a little silly. I now look forward to moving on. Thank you Bikram.