Silent Warriors

We worked on Warrior 2 today --and our theme was on giving-- I read an except from the Prophet. At the end of centering, I asked the boys what they were thinking. One boy who has been in the facility a while stated--when you give of yourself and expect nothing in return you are truly giving--if you give because you want something all the time you're not giving you're taking----pretty profound! I am a student of these kids for sure--they come from some of the worst family situations and yet inside them is a beautiful seed of intrinsic goodness--which we all have and uncultivated sits dormant waiting for a glimmer of light to shine down and wake it up. Anusara Yoga is the glimmer of light and I'm blessed to be part of the lineage!

As I drove home, in the afterglow of a great yoga class--I thought of the boy with the wisdom and knew he was speaking from experience--all kids want is to be loved, given time and attention.

These kids are experts at being taken from whether it is their parents, their friends, the system, every piece of them is challenged to give and soon they are an empty well. All of them inherently want to be givers--but their perception of giving is broken because whether it was their father who beat them--they had to give into their father's rage; their mom who was too drunk to take care of their little brothers and sisters they had to give of themselves as caretakers of everyone; in school no one paid attention to how they were trying to be the mom, dad, big brother and breadwinner---the school just wondered why they were so angry and unfocused. To have one of these angels grasp the goodness of giving for the truth of giving from your heart filled the whole room, and the other boys sat in silence and absorbed the words. We sat there for a while breathing, taking in the words they filled the room like a sweet mist.

Our Anusara Yoga class fills them up--it gives them hope and that for that hour we are all one--happy, laughing, stretching, sweating, struggling, creature of the universe, no one in that room is asking them to give what should never be taken away from them--their sense of self and as they leave the mat, they take the teachings with them. Their eyes change after yoga, and I'm blessed to be witness to such beauty.

The Administrator came in and stated to me after class that our Yoga class is helping them in the classroom--that the teachers have seen a transformation on how they pay attention, how they walk around a little straighter, the teacher said she couldn't describe it but they are taller--:) I smiled inside at this comment because I've seen that same thing happen after our class the kids feel good about what they have accomplished and they are proud of themselves for participating.

Gurumayi states, "When God smiles, the force of all forces the sahasrara, throbs. The effect of the sounds showers nectar. The light of all lights infuses the field of the body which responds with exultation. The light spreads all around, penetrates deep withing, uproots darkness, and quickens the inner light. The seeds of good actions, the seeds of bad actions are burnt in this light.

I was blessed to be witness to this today--may we move forward to burn the seeds of bad actions and help our angels see the seeds of good. These silent warriors that fight battles many of us could never know--fight quietly as they pursue the acts of giving and goodness--may we be a light that shines on them, spreads around and pentrates to uproot the darkness that has covered them.