The new year marks another time around the spiral, through the seasons, along the vinyasa of time. It is at the same time just another day, as it is an important threshold to cross as we humbly begin again. The new year is an opportunity to realign with what is important to us. It is an opportunity to affirm that we are on the right path, without the need to change anything about ourselves. It is an invitation to remember our wholeness and that we are divine exactly as we are.
It is the ego self that wants us to be different – to eat a certain way or to use our time a certain way, do less of this or more of that. This time of year can feel rampant with self judgement. So as we begin again and cross this threshold our invitation to you is to begin again on your path of remembering your yoga, your union – that your spirit self is one with your body and breath, and that we are all one with one another.
When we begin to look outside of ourselves, the new year becomes a chance to reaffirm our devotion to something greater than us and begin anew on a path of service. To support us in our practice of Bhakti, of devotion, we invite in the guidance of Lord Hanuman, King of the monkeys to show us the way to live in complete and humble service to the path of the heart in the new year. Hanuman was half monkey and half human, so he often forgot that he was divine. He lived in complete and utter devotion to his friend King Rama, who is an incarnation of Vishnu. When Rama’s wife Sita was being held captive, Hanuman took a leap of faith across the ocean to save her and helped build a bridge so Rama’s army could get to her. When Rama’s brother was injured on the battle field, Hanuman flew to the mountains to retrieve healing herbs. When he wasn’t sure which herb to pick, he carried the whole mountain back. When asked what he loved, Hanuman ripped open his chest to reveal his heart, on which was a picture of Sita and Ram. The stories of Hanuman teach us that service and devotion give us insurmountable power and fill our hearts. They also remind us that it is part of being human to forget we are divine, but that we can find our way back to remembrance through service.
So as we cross the threshold into a new cycle, I invite you to affirm what you are devoted to. If you ripped open your chest, what would you see inside filling your heart? What gives you strength? What do you live in service to? Distill your devotion into a single word. From here you have created your unique mantra: “May I live in humble service to ________________.”