Seeing Stars: Shiva Sutra 3.42
When we look up into the night sky, scientific analysis has shown us that we can see about 2,000 stars with the naked eye. Funny, I don’t ever remember seeing 2,000 stars— I just remember seeing this star or that constellation, or maybe saying, “that’s a lot of stars”, but not 2,000. How many stars do you see? Well, that depends on how detached you are when looking at them.
3.42: Bhūta-kañcukī tadā vimukto bhūyaḥ pati-samaḥ paraḥ //
For the yogi, the five elements are only coverings. At the very moment, [of this realization] they are absolutely liberated, supreme and just like Śiva.”
The world around us is just as sparkly as the world above us, but in both cases its hard to see the vastness of it all at once. In fact, to really experience the vastness of our reality, we have to detach from it, or as we teach we have to ‘surrender’ it— then we get a glimpse at the spaciousness that surrounds and fills us.
Try it now for a moment, instead of just seeing these words, see these words and the screen around the words, the room around the screen, and the you breathing around all of it. If you can feel this dichotomy for even just a moment, you can realize your true nature.
As you can see and feel, Detachment doesn’t mean we push away, it means we encompass. When we detach from something, we see it clearer, we interact with it more deeply. In this way, this Sutra shows us that when we detach from the body, we actually experience it more fully.
For example, if you were on a hike and all you could see was the obstacle in front of you, you would get discouraged. Or at work, if you can’t feel the big picture of your efforts they can seem menial. But if you detach and zoom out a bit, you see you are almost home, or almost done with your project. We see this all the time on our yoga mat, where we train to detach and surrender while we work directly with our bodies.
If you are attached to feeling a stretch in your hamstrings during a forward fold, for example, studies show you are bound for a tight low back and hamstring tendonitis— but if you detach from that desire for a hamstring stretch, not only do you avoid the injury and postural imbalance, but you re-pattern the neurological and physiological pathways through your entire back line, creating a team of musculature that will serve you every time you bend over to pick up a sock, battery, or toddler.
So Detachment brings us closer to the thing we wish to know. Detaching from the body is a way that we can get to know Shiva better— Shiva is the body, and so much more. So as you interact with your body, focus on your body and focus on Shiva. See and hear the information on the screen, and feel your heart and your breath.
Don’t worry, its not meant to be an overwhelming task, which is why the Sutra concludes by telling us that if we can have this experience for even a blink of an eye, we’ve got it, forever— so don’t think of it as a chore, think of it as an opportunity. You only need to feel it for a moment, and then you’ve got it.
Pocket Sutra
A Print at home palm sized journal to use alongside class.