by Osman Yoncaova
Prāṇa – the force of life
In August, the annual European Yoga Congress took place for the 51st time in Zinal. A place where prāṇa – this year’s guiding theme – is within reach. Just as the torrents flow out of countless nooks and crannies from the rocky slopes and merge into a powerful river in the valley, so yoga-minded people come together from the alleyways and paths in the village for early morning practice, while the mountain is still shrouded in a delicate haze and the peaks begin to shimmer apricot-coloured in the first rays of the day. Gradually, light comes into the darkness. Various teachers impart their experience and knowledge in these gatherings, and here and there fresh insights may light up the room. Breathe in, breathe out. Come together, expand. Vibrant energy everywhere. At breakfast, the participants go their separate ways again and stream back together to the next practice. With a choice of more than 20 offerings per day, a kaleidoscope of different yoga perspectives is created.
The sun is now higher in the deep blue sky. A group is sitting on a terrace with their teacher. In an open-eyed meditation, they draw from the abundance of nature, from the power of the mountains, the elders in nature. The honorary lecturers Swāmī Maitreyī and Siddharta Krishna alternate mornings and afternoons, each with a well-attended event in the large hall. From the viewpoint of their respective traditions, they explain the intricacies of the concepts of prāṇa and substantiate them with a practice.
The accompanying programme in the evening offers the opportunity for informal meetings, exchange and discussion. At the concert with kīrtans on Wednesday evening, the omnipresent feeling of openness, beauty and togetherness during these days condenses into a haptic experience in dancing. The participants hold hands and sway together in a circle. Happy.
The next evening, definitions and concepts about prāṇa will be discussed in a panel discussion. Questions are asked, answers sought. But rational explanatory models have only a limited ability to shed light on understanding. The answer that brings the abstract down to the practical level is given by Siddhartha Krishna: he puts his palms together in an act, brings them to his heart, humbly bows his head to his hands, demonstrating the necessary bringing together of karma, bhakti and jñāna. On another occasion, Swāmī Maitreyī makes a similar statement. She emphasises the relevance of bringing together serving, loving and giving in order to live yoga in practical life.
François Lorin, the former vice-president of the EUY, enriches the panel discussion with the wisdom of the elders. He reminds us of the difference between intellect and intelligence: intellectually accumulated knowledge is not enough to grasp the truth. Happiness and freedom cannot be acquired through something outside ourselves. In addition to exercises on the yoga mat, we need a practice that includes the actions and encounters of everyday life with their beautiful and ugly parts. The real work begins when we have left behind us the benign, favourable circumstances of this congress – which some participants described as a festival – and return to the plain land of our day-to-day activities. François Lorin uses a beautiful image to illustrate this: the honeybee goes into a flower to collect nectar. But it does not stay in the calyx. It flies out. It seeks freedom from attachment and the vast and open space with the vibrating fullness of the life force, prāṇa.
