Honey Jar
For the past few months, Raghu Ananthanarayanan Ajay Viswanath and I at Ritambhara have been facilitating an intense "modern" exploration of Patanjali Yoga Sutras with a group of passionate French Yoga students and teachers, and the last class happened a few days ago!
It was quite an emotional day for me as each of us presented how we applied this learning to our lives! Much as I had expected, I broke down while talking about how this learning has helped me navigate the waters of entrepreneurship.
You can check out
the presentation here if you can follow the churning meme evocations to mirror the churning inside.
Four years into this game, I totally get it when someone once said that entrepreneurship is a game where you slowly start to relish the taste of your blood, having been knocked on your face several times.
Learning Yoga and practicing Yoga in everyday life through the lens of Patanjali Yoga Sutras has helped me stay the course and remain sane in my home with my wife and kid while I breathe the air of uncertainty day in, and day out in the work I do.
Much like all the incredible things that happened in my life, including agriculture, I accidentally fell into this jar of honey and soon realized that this mind of mine which flits like a bee becomes still, every time I tasted the wisdom of this learning.
I started to crave so badly for this honey jar that I searched for it in everything I did.
At first, my life partner discovered the taste of this honey and became a Yoga therapist. Soon enough, I found a group of seekers who were equally craving for this honey jar like me. It felt further like a blessing. I wasn't the only crank in this world who had such weird obsessions.
Thank goodness.
As time passed by, I became more ambitious. Why can't I design a career around this honey jar? This ridiculous idea couldn't have been possible had I not met my mentor Raghu Ananthanarayanan.
For the longest period of my life, I chased gurus who promised enlightenment and somewhere secretly craved asceticism in my life.
When I first met him in 2013 he said something that startled me. In Indian thought, the central idea of heroism is linked with that of the householder.
Can a householder discover heroism in what he or she does for a living? Maybe, it is a genetic defect in me. I've realized that my internal barometer for meaningness is much much higher than anyone else and I had to design a career that made me feel satiated.
Now that four years have passed since discovering this game, I realize that I have a lot to thank my stars for letting me play this game. I have a long way to go. Hopefully, I will make this game work.