Om Gam Ganapataye Namah.
The quiet beauty of this yogini's practice makes me think of the art of yoga, which expresses an intimate organic choreography, yet this yogini also possesses an air of such inner silence, I can only presume her devotion is complete.
Our modern yoga is filled with words. Instruction after instruction, pose after pose: "Now do this, now do that! Okay, now just be!"
I used to listen to darshan lectures by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I still call him that instead of Osho. The tapes had the sounds of birds chirping, and occasionally an Indian train whistled by in the distance. But Bhagwan's voice was a study in silence. The way he trailed each word, was as if it disappeared into a whisper.
There are words which lead to silence, such as Aum.
It is said Aum has four sounds: A, U, and M - and then the silence that draws you inward.
What is yoga without silence?
The Yoga Sutra allows only the sound of the breath after asana: pranayama. After that, in the silence, you practice.
When the breath alone is transformed in the mind and experienced as pure prana, we hear the real Aum, which rings the hour for us to disappear, floating away into samadhi.
Aum shanti, shanti, shanti....
