Every Step Yoga

See, our purpose was to create deep learning that continuously aligns individuals with dharma. All life was meant to be Yoga. Everything was designed to establish, maintain, sustain and deepen that yogic union for every single person in the society. They realized it was different strokes for different folks. Think of it a collective mind management system. A chaotic and troubled society can neither generate Artha nor preserve dharma.

So, imagine a typical day in ancient times. There are morning rituals that are designed to evoke memories of Spiritual yogic union or create visions of the same. The early morning snana was critically important. But two baths were required. One for the body in the local river and the other a bath for the mind in the river called samadhi. Sandhyavandane, Yoga, Pranayama, Dhyana etc.

Cooking was a yagna and the kitchen a yagna shaala. The cooking had to begin with a simple puja in the kitchen, a lighting of the lamp next to the freshly potted water container.

When you step out and go to a temple, again a whole series of experiences are designed to keep you in that state and also give you higher level experiences from the maha dwara to the garbha gudi. It was a simulated ritual entrance into the Chakric womb tunnel. Let every step raise your consciousness they said. Vibrations, Vibrations. It was all about raising the vibrations and keeping them high.

If you happen to watch a classical dance performance again these experiences are recreated there and mostly in temples. It was not a performance that entertained (only) people but a process where a dancer entered samadhi in movement and communed with the divine. And it was as if the others watched the dancer enter samadhi through a small window and themselves reflexively went into samadhi in spiritual imitation.

And if you went to watch a play, again the same dharmic ideas are reinforced through a combination of methods and traditions taking the audience through a series of emotions and insights finally resulting in deep impressions with embedded lessons.

If you walk around town the architecture is designed to again reinforce these ideas. The geometry, the turns and the bends, with temples big and small situated at key places. You can still see this in Bali. Every house by default has a full temple and there are hundreds of community temples.

Folk dances, with their pulsating rhythms, communal gatherings, and joyous exclamations, served as yet another medium to refresh and rejuvenate. Through cyclical movements, synchronized claps, songs, and laughter, villagers released stale energy and welcomed renewal. These rituals, like the harvest itself, were symbolic of life’s eternal cycles—of sowing and reaping, of letting go and embracing anew.

It was not as if there was no entertainment or light moments. It was there but it was simple, genuine and beneficial.

When harvest time came, communities gathered with song, dance, and rituals, transforming what could have been a mundane chore into a celebration of life and abundance. The tools they used, the movements they made, and the chants they sang were aligned with cosmic rhythms. The collective energy of the community, through synchronized actions and harmonious vibrations, created a space where work became worship. The cyclical nature of the harvest mirrored the cycle of life itself, reinforcing the eternal truths of dharma and the interconnectedness of all beings.

So, the whole life and lifestyle was designed to teach the higher truths using multiple formats. The basic idea is “You become the object of your meditation.” And meditation here was not just the one hour you spend meditating in your puja room. – it’s what your attention is consumed by all day long. There is no outside and the Sagara being churned also is not outside. It is all happening in your own consciousness. Even the Durga Saptashati – Devi mahatmya is not seen as an event but something that is happening inside us all the time. The devas are within us the asuras are within us and the Devi is within us. It’s a process of invocation of the divine energies.

Long before the invention of walking meditation and waking meditation, we had developed a way of life where life itself was one long meditation. Some effects of this ancient Indian way of life still persist. That is why we are able manage a country of 1.5 billion people with a relatively small and poorly armed police force!

Contrast this with the modern world that we inhabit today. We have made sure you encounter a screen of some sort at every step of the way – every room, every street corner, in your bag, in your pocket, on your wrist, around your neck, in your hand, on your forehead and soon to enter your brain itself! A modern, mechanistic, robotic being staring blankly at a screen with tired, dry, moisture less eyes, head bent, drooping shoulders, slouching back and fingers fervently swiping left and right. A being that only knows how to emote through emojis, communicate through chat and shake hands virtually, whose identity is his social media handle!

It is time to break this spell, walk, talk and laugh like the human beings that we are and re-learn how to live like the children of Brahmanda!