LIVES

I read through quite a few of the LIVES articles from the NY Times, but I am choosing to write about one titled "No One Told Me Learning Yoga Would Involve Snakes" by Jake Halpern (although another, called "How My Sister Cured My Writer's Block by Helen Sheehy, I found quite beautiful).  In this article, Halpern describes how his family moved to India and how he decided to learn yoga with a man named Suresh.  He also was forced to face his greatest fear:  snakes.

I liked this article because yoga is a big part of my life and the things that Suresh told Halpern are things that I incorporate into my life.  "'Yoga is not some circus routine you do with your body,' he told me. 'It is about aligning the mind, body, breath, intellect, and soul.' It was also, he said, about dying."  For me, yoga has always been about aligning the various aspects that make up me:  body, mind, and soul.

I found Halpern's narrative of India enlightening and fascinating.  I have always wanted to visit and I really enjoyed reading his perspective.  The infused modernity of the situation when a snake-catcher also named Suresh was catching a python at a chicken coop was particularly interesting:  "I spun around briefly and saw — true to the spirit of modern India — that nearly every man, woman and teenager in the village was filming the event on a cellphone, capturing the improbable image of the python, the snake tamer and the terrified white man."  I liked this part because it displays an interesting juxtaposition: a snake tamer and the crowd with their cellphones.  The snake tamer is something we think of being culturally related to India, and the cellphones are modern.  Somewhere in here lies an interesting view on new technology and cultural heritage, and how they are fusing together in our contemporary world.

The most interesting part of Halpern's tale is the ending, where he confronts his fear of snakes:

"Suresh was trying to get the python into a burlap sack, but it was resisting. The snake whipped its head around as if to face me. I focused on my breathing — in and out, in and out — just as I’d practiced in yoga class. For a brief moment — I kid you not — the image of Suresh and the python morphed into the specter of the god Bhairava, with the serpent coiled around his neck.

And then it was over. The python was in the bag; the villagers were clapping. I felt calm.

Very calm."

I found this direct confrontation and the image of Bhairava, the Hindu God/Physical Embodiment of Fright, truly intriguing.  The calmness that overwhelms him afterward is equally fascinating.  It seems like Halpern truly did confront his fear, all while having an interesting spiritual experience, too.  I suppose I liked this article because I'm in love with yoga, I'm fascinated by the divine, and I really want to visit India.