Shavasana

I am fascinated by the synchronicities here in Auroville. The mental, intellectual, spiritual, physical, and emotional spaces that intertwine here often do so over several days, seemingly effortlessly, intuitively, easily.

I was exhausted. A friend had left his body, as they say here. The community had provided support for over a month, many had grown together. The death ceremony Karumadhi was held in a small circle, a certain kind of puja on the 16th day, when the soul leaves this world.

For several weeks, my teacher and I have been studying the Prashna Upanishad. The topics of rebirth and deep sleep are the passages that are particularly profound. As we do every Saturday, we met, but this time not on his terrace; instead, we drove to a temple ruin to continue our conversations there.

After that, I slept more deeply than I had in years, and I actually always sleep very well... Emerging from the night, I went into a deep meditation on deep sleep, which has nothing to do with sleep phases, but is a state of being that lies similar to deep sleep before our consciousness, from which consciousness emerges and into which it re-immerses.

After that, I fell back into a deep sleep. All day, actually, only to then go to the temple around the corner in Irumbai. We are working on a project about the temple. A small case study of a 1000-year-old Chola temple, which is very beautiful and active, but actually nothing special in Tamil Nadu, yet it is precisely that when you pay attention to the details, as is the case with most things. There was a big festival, the gods in the form of bronze statues were carried around the temple, they greeted the other gods in the form of stone statues. And then they danced together. As if from another world, an intermediary realm, they came alive.

I slept again — all night. The next day, I went to a yoga class with a new teacher. I learned that the asanas are actually just preparation for Shavasana. I was curious because Shavasana had always been a mystery to me. Of course, it made sense that there should be a relaxation phase at the end of a yoga class. But what was I supposed to focus on? Where was my mind supposed to go, and what was my body supposed to become ‚aware‘ of in relaxation? Andres works the whole hour with breathing exercises, concentration, body awareness, and energy exercises towards it. And finally, in Shavasana, we consciously followed the nerve pathways, directing our attention to the connections.

And I had to think of the 72,000 nerves in the Upanishads, and of the wrapping of the water jug with the thread during Karumadhi, because the thread symbolizes the 72,000 nerves of the body. And so Karumadhi, Shavasana, Prashna and the many stages of sleep and levels of meditation merged into one picture within a few days.