By Satguru Swami Nirmalananda

Since the pandemic is happening to everyone, you really can’t whine effectively though you might want to.  Still, your mind may have come up with this familiar question, “Why?”  It’s really a complaint, but still a question worth asking. 

The short answer is that it’s karma.  It’s the easy answer as well, since everything that happens to you is karma.  Technically it’s all karmic repercussions, called “karmaphal,” meaning the fruits of your karma.  What you put out comes back, simple and straightforward.  Technically, when you put it out, it’s called “karma,” a Sanskrit that means action. 

Whatever you do brings results.  Everyone appreciates this when they work hard at something and achieve their goal.  It’s the law of karma that makes this possible.

You also create karma when you’re feeling cranky or being selfish.  You put out negativity and you get an equal dose of it back.  When you hurt someone, even if you think hurtful thoughts, you’re planting the seeds of your own pain in the future.  Those seeds are stored in your spine, which is why Svaroopa^® yoga poses are all about decompressing your spine.  It helps you clear your karma.

With the pandemic, we’re talking about world karma.  Obviously, it’s time for the world to slow down, even to burrow in and reevaluate priorities.  At this point, if everything could go back to normal sometime, would you go back to doing what you were doing before?  At the pace you were doing it?  Or has the pandemic changed you?

That’s why I continue to say, “Do more yoga.”  A freeform translation of Patanjali’s sutra 1.22, this reminder will help you burrow inward, exploring deeper into your own Divine Essence.  It’s not about hiding from the world, but about discovering who you really are.  The purpose of yoga is to make you more authentic and real, whether you’re staying at home or are out in the world.  Could this be the whole point of the pandemic?