Greetings Reader,

The ancient meditation cave of the legendary sage Vasiṣṭha, for whom the yoga pose vasiṣṭhāsana — Side Plank — is named, would be hidden deep in the hilly forest that surrounds the upper course of the Ganges River were it not for all the signs that tell you how to get there.

About 14 winding miles up the Badrinath Highway from Rishikesh, Vasiṣṭha’s Cave is a popular place of pilgrimage. I had the good fortune to visit it on one of my trips to India.

It’s dark. Really dark. Once you step beyond the reach of the sun’s light, it can take a full minute or two before your eyes adjust enough to see the faint outline of people sitting along the walls of the cave.

I slowly and carefully made my way to the back of the cave, where a small oil lamp on a stone altar cast a dim light, and found a place to sit.

It was very quiet. Not just quiet; mystical quiet. The kind of quiet that invites total absorption in an object of meditation.

Being there invokes the classical image of a yogi as a solitary renunciate meditating for years on end at the mouth of a cave. Or, as in Vasiṣṭha’s case, deep inside a cave.

I don’t think many people can realistically aspire to that kind of practice, though. Nor do I think it’s really the highest aspiration for a yogi in search of transcendence.

Shutting out the world long enough to spend some meaningful time turning inward is an important part of a yoga practice. But if our practice ends there, we’re likely to feel a sense of division between our practice and our “real” lives.

It shouldn’t feel that way. And it doesn’t have to.

We can take our practice off our mats and meditation cushions and into our lives by sharing our experiences on the path of yoga with like-minded pilgrims. Saṅgha, community, is an important source of support for developing spiritual relationships and being of service to others.

One of my teachers thinks that the perfection of yoga can’t really be achieved any other way:

One way I’ve tried to make my practice a communal one — and provide an opportunity for others to do the same — is by hosting a free monthly online Community Conversation.

This month marks the four-year anniversary of Community Conversation. Over that time, we’ve talked about a wide range of topics: the problem of suffering, the question of free will, social action and self-care, yoga and cultural appropriation, karma, consciousness, and conceptions of identity, to name just a few.

But beyond the value of exploring how yoga wisdom addresses timeless questions about the human condition or illuminates various aspects of our lived experience in the here and now, the real value of this free monthly online gathering is the community itself.

The experience of being in community — hearing from one another, listening to one another, speaking to one another, holding space for one another — is another way of experiencing "union," the meaning of yoga.

Coming together to explore the ways in which yoga wisdom can help us make sense of the world and respond to the world in the best way possible is also one of the most powerful ways to practice svādhyāya, guided study of yoga wisdom..

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna doesn’t tell Arjuna to turn his back on the world and go off to a cave to meditate; he shows Arjuna how to practice yoga in the midst of a battlefield, the most chaotic and unsafe environment you can imagine.

Community Conversation follows the model of the Gita’s dialogue. It’s a way for us to create a safe space in an unsafe world, share what's on our minds, and help one another find the calm center in the midst of chaos.

It’s a forum where you’ll hear new viewpoints, find out about new resources, learn how other people are navigating the same kind of complexities that you may be working through, and gain faith in our collective ability to remain fully human in a culture that increasingly isolates us into impersonal silos.

If you haven’t registered for our free monthly live online conversations — which are always recorded so you can watch them after the fact if need be — I hope you’ll consider doing so. Your participation would be most welcome.

If you’re already a participant in Community Conversation, thank you so much for being there, even if you’re just watching the recordings.

And if you know someone who’s looking for a community gathering like Community Conversation, please share this email with them. Here’s the link to the registration page: https://hari-kirtana.com/join-community-conversations/​

Wishing you all good fortune,

- Hari-k

P.S: Most yoga teachers learn a great deal about the physical body—but much less about the subtle body. If you've ever wondered why the same practice can leave you feeling energized one day and deeply calm the next, my upcoming workshop, Yoga's Inner Dynamics: Koshas and Chakras in Yoga Practice, explores the inner layers of experience that help explain what's happening beneath the surface. Learn more here.