Justice is here. Let us help people heal, face the facts of colonial history, the dispossession and despair that has occurred to us and by us. Even with unprecedented multiculturalism, wealth, travel, and education, we still see groups and individuals perpetuating harm and re-committing the harm that was once done to them.
It must be turned around, and who better to usher the change than a yoga teacher. One precisely placed suggestion makes a world of difference. Individuals do the work themselves – they are already working hard – we just turn it upwards, toward nonduality.
“Ignorance expands by means of ignorance and yields greater ignorance. When it turns and seeks wisdom, it feeds on wisdom and grows into wisdom in the end.”
Yoga Vasiṣṭha VI.1:8
Activism is here. A cultural leader, a true warrior for civilisation, realises the chain of suffering and breaks the cycle. Such a person is brave enough to forgive past cruelty, generous enough to surrender prizes and property, so that magic can occur.
“Only he who is not complacent with his own virtue can be considered a human being.
Yoga Vasiṣṭha IV.32
He who is filled with the milk of human kindness surely resides in the absolute.”
These epithets are intended to be used now. Every day we can pause, reflect, and resist the impulse for dualistic behaviour. When the famous citta vritti nirodha is attained in a practical sense, we have infinite potential for growth, unity, and accord.
Things may seem slow, and even though there remain examples of corruption and misdeed, our civilisation is yet developing, as one whole entity, in real-time, in a manner unseen before. Kali yuga represents increasing population and we can recognise this without fear. We can work in this space without complacency. Many more yogis exist in the world right now, not in caves but in the towns and cities.
Even if the quality of education in yoga is less robust than it was in the time of the Indus Valley Civilisation, the sheer quantity of sincere adherents, enjoying the play of lila, helping each other write their stories, can lift the planet into satya yuga.
Maybe the shift has already commenced, perhaps it is just around the corner.
Maybe it starts today.
“Another world is not only possible – she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing”
Arundhati Roy