A Garland of Gratitude

Thank you for your innumerable sages and saints.

Thank you for Paramahamsa Ramakrishna, Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi and Sri Anandamayi Ma.

Thank you for teaching us that Truth is One, but the sages call it by various names.

Thank you for teaching us that all is Brahman, and indeed that Brahman alone is.

Thank you for the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Yoga Sutras and all the majestic scriptures of Sanatana Dharma.

Thank you for the rishis of the forest academies, who revealed the great truths of Vedanta.

Thank you for Karma, Bhakti, Raja and Jnana Yoga, the four great paths taught by Lord Krishna.

Thank you for your lineages, the Parampara who have preserved and handed down the teachings through a timeless chain of transmission from Guru to disciple.

Thank you for your holy mountains, rivers and shrines.

Thank you for revealing their counterparts in the human body and that the spine is a holy mountain, and asanas a pilgrimage around it.

Thank you for teaching us that we are not this body, mind or ego, but the Immortal Self.

Thank you for teaching us how to breathe, and that the breath is holy and the vehicle of Prana.

Thank you to Lord Shiva who revealed the secrets of Yoga to his consort, Parvati.

Thank you for the Tantric Sciences to awaken Kundalini and expand our consciousness.

Thank you for the yogis who explored and described the human structure, its 3 bodies, 5 koshas, 4 levels of consciousness and the chakra system.

Thank you for Hatha Yoga, the holistic science of physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing, and means of union with the Supreme Reality.

Thank you for the seers who heard the music of the spheres and downloaded the sacred mantras.

Thank you for revealing the Pranava OM and that the ‘Big Bang’ is really the ‘Big Word’.

Thank you for the divine language of Sanskrit and its 50 letters tuned to the petals of the chakras.

Thank you for always worshipping the earth as a Goddess to be propitiated by ritual offerings.

Thank you for protecting cows.

Thank you for the sublime beauty of your arts guided by spiritual principles and the Devi Saraswati.

Thank you for restoring our sense of wonder.

Thank you for endowing our world with meaning, auspiciousness, truth and beauty.

On International Day of Yoga, may I offer this garland of gratitude to the people of India for the priceless gift of Yoga to Humanity.

May we always honour and respect it; and preserve it in unsullied form for uplifting the future generations.

Hari Om tat Sat.

Michael

(Dedicated to Swami Nishchalananda Saraswati, of Mandala Yoga Ashram;and Dr. Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani, Gitananda Yoga).