One afternoon at Kripalu, a young woman yoga teacher who had been paying attention, said:
"I feel like I am on my own side."
She said this with a sense astonished delightedness.
She explained later that what she was getting from our teaching was the sense that meditation is *being on your own side*, commander of your own forces, with all the energies of Prana and Pranashakti as your allies, as your team, as being on your side, having your back and your feet, both propelling you and surrounding you with blessings.
She was standing as she said this, for we often stand when we are expressing our relationship to The Radiance Sutras.
*Svatantra: *Independence, self-will, freedom, one’s own system or school, one’s own army, free, uncontrolled, full grown.
*Tantra: *A loom. Metaphorically, a framework or network of interconnected threads. A system. From the root *tan: *to extend, spread, be diffused (as light) over, shine, extend towards, reach to, to stretch (a cord).
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Geek alert, a note
Historically, yoga and meditation have been presented as the opposite of svatantra. "Give up your selfhood. Grovel before me." This is a path for certain people, the joy of submission. There is such beauty in it. But it is unskillful and harmful to present yoga and meditation as having anything to do with submission and bowing down.
Both bowing down and standing tall are beautiful postures or asanas. In the modern West, the whole trend of what our ancestors died for and lived for was the chance to explore what it is like to taste freedom, to have the freedom to stand tall and be an individual.
So both submission, which is subordinating ourselves to a greater good, and standing free, are valuable.
When we love someone, we joyously submit ourselves to taking care of their needs - this is one of the greatest joys in the whole world. Ask any parent or dog person or horse person. This submission is totally different because we have chosen it from a position of freedom. We willingly take on this journey of relationship.
There is an interplay between the two asanas, that of taking care of other people's needs, and then recovering your sense of self.
