In the amazingly inspired Grace CD featuring Kundalini Yogini and chanteusse Snatam, she starts the CD with the Kundalini Yoga invocation Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo and elaborates on its meaning by saying “ Divine teacher, the breath, I bow to you again and again.” Then she continues “And I am coming home.” When you take in a deep breath you are definitely furthering your journey into your inner self and your inner “home,” which is uniquely yours. This cannot be explained, only experienced.

For quite some years while I was young I continually created patterns where I rejected the concept of home. Looking back, until I came to a certain level with my inner self, the one we seek a relationship with in Yoga, I could not be comfortable with a physical home. Our relationship between this inner home of the self and the external home have a real relationship. This, like any relationship, can be complicated. There can be discomfort, acceptance, rejection, love and loss, like in any relationship. In the current economic climate it seems important to reach out to those who have lost their physical homes. What void has the greed tried to fill, that has only resulted in loss for others? I saw a real estate agent and doctor who were on the verge of losing their home. This is not just reserved for those who have no jobs and make little money. It is an imbalance of living beyond our needs. Why do we feel this need to do this?

As our external structures have begun to crumble people of all walks of life continue to pick up yoga as a practice. People are seeking out the plentiful options to study through teacher trainings, paying between $2000 and $9000 for the opportunity to learn more about what yoga is and how it can help them to have fruitful, balanced and healthy lives, which boils down to the relationship with that other home Snatam sings about, the inner home of our physical body, the mind and the spirit. In yoga the body is the temple.

In this temple, beyond the physical structure of the bones, muscles, nerves, internal organs and glands, we seek to learn more about, resides the soul and our unique iNdentity. With yoga practice we learn what heals and what harms in the choices we make in thoughts, words and actions.

My teacher Yogi Bhajan called this era we are in the Age of Aquarius (remember the Dawning Of from the Musical Hair in the late 60’s?). It is generally agreed in astrological circles that this transformative time is one wrought with challenges including painful experiences and information overload in this technological age.

It is our internal home that yoga takes us to. Here we discover our hopes, fears, joys, grief, all aspects of our human being, the unsteady breath and the restless mind. For as long as we breathe this mystery called life pulsates within us, gifting us each present moment to decide what to do with our “home.”

If we are blessed to have a roof over our head we take on the responsibility for the energy flow within that home whether we are aware of it or not. People who know Feng Shui are very aware of the importance of energy flow in our homes, others are not conscious of it at all. I remember reading that Maya Angelou asks guest to leave if she believes they are bringing negative energy into her home. Do we do the same? With our own “inner guests,” the negative ones being the demons that lurk in the crevices of our consciousness, do we question them and ask them to leave? With yoga practice, which requires that we become conscious and aware, we can uncover and question the negative influences inside ourselves and around us. In Kundalini Yoga we utilize the chakra system, the concept of energy centers along the spine, to define where our blocks and breakthroughs happen, how the energy is traveling in our inner “home.”

A happy home has the smells of delicious healthy food cooking, is clean and welcomingly comfortable, with things pleasing to the sight and peaceful to the ears. We can ask the same of our body and mind, let the breath cleanse and clear the way for radiance and healthy thoughts and a healthy relationship with our body, be aware of what we allow in and out of the “holes” (entrances) to our body, as Yogi Bhajan amusingly put it (but a good concept, no?) so we can be whole.

As I have gradually grown to know myself better I have learned the pleasures of home, the groundedness in having one, the joy in keeping it clean and pleasant to be in, sharing it with others and being 100% present in it. A home is a sacred place, as is all life and the ultimate home, mother earth. Increasingly we see the yoga movement also supporting this right to live and let live, to preserve our mother earth and serve each other to grow in this awareness.

In another Kundalini Yoga CD recently released by Guru Ganehsa, the second song has become one of my new favorites. The words go:

“When I call on the Light within I go Home.”

May our inner light shine through our yoga practice out into the world much as the light inside our homes lights the way for others.

*The CDs mentioned can be purchased from Spirit Voyage online or on i-Tunes. We have had guests come to Sewall House who practice other forms of Yoga than Kundalini (as do we) yet knew and listened to Snatam and Guru Ganesha. They tour worldwide and their message is one of creating World Peace.