Creating the Ambiance for Yoga and Life

If you have attended any Yoga or meditation class, you would have noticed that they will almost always tell you to switch off your mobiles, switch off your mind from the outside world and dedicate the next few hours of the session completely to the class. There might some mild music, a pleasant smell etc. and the teacher will ask you to spend a few minutes to settle down. This is creating the ambiance. And this, I discovered, is an incredibly important part of being initiated into any form of Yoga or meditation.

Why ambiance becomes important is, because most of us are not receptive yet. We have heaps of shit around us, that makes it very difficult for any subtle thing to be grasped by us. Like, let’s say, one fine early morning, you are walking in Lalbagh. The sun is just at the horizon sweeping the landscape with golden light, birds are chirping and tweeting their morning songs, a light cool Bangalore breeze blows across, and flowers lined in your path give out a distinct beautiful fragrance. Now, all this is there, but you have come to Lalbagh with a stuffed nose and your mind is occupied with all the heaviness that you gathered at your workplace over the last week. Then, where will you see the sunlight? Where will you hear the birds, where will you feel the cool breeze and how will you smell the fragrance of the flowers?

It will not happen. How will you get it, when you are blocked up from all ends? You are not receptive yet.

But if you have the right ambiance set, within you, then you can take in what the world has to offer. If you switch off your phone and mind to the outside world, then there is some chance that you might grasp what Yoga has to offer. Otherwise, it will simply be lost. It might be the most precious thing offered to you, but still it will be lost, because you are not open to it yet. With one eye on the Yoga teacher and one eye on the phone, you will neither do Yoga properly nor will you attend to your phone properly. Both aspects get compromised. Neither here nor there; always distracted and always on some middle path.

One cannot get far with anything if there is no focus. If one keeps switching his/her attention from one thing to another constantly, all those things will be a garbled mess. No wonder modern minds are so messed up, because they keep shifting from one thing to another, from one distraction to another at rapid speed. Not just Yoga, but any task in life demands our absolute attention. If we do not pay this attention, then the task is half done, Yoga is half done, life is half done. Never well done. And for this focus to yield, ambiance is necessary. Even at work, having an ambiance set for work, makes your work happen much faster isn’t it? If there are a million other things happening at work, which are not work, then how will work happen the way you want? How will your life happen the way you want? It will always happen in bits and pieces and never your way. Because your never directed the course of your life in a focused direction.

It is important that whatever you do, you take a few minutes initially to set the ambiance. Then you become more receptive, more effective and more attentive. In every Yoga class I’ve attended, there is always a significant amount of time spent in setting the right ambiance. And that has made a tremendous difference in my Yoga and other aspects of life as well. The importance of ambiance cannot be understated. It is a subtle thing, and it can get missed easily or underestimated for its importance. But the subtle things are the ones that make a tremendous telling impact.

If, before walking into Lalbagh, you had cleared out your nose and your mind, of garbage, then how can you miss the sunrise, or the birds, or the breeze, or the flowers? You would have got it then. Just one whiff of the fragrance of the flower, you would have got it. Do you need to inhale multiple times to get the fragrance? If the ambiance is right, just one whiff, and you’ll get it and you’ll never forget it. If the ambiance is set right, then you become open and receptive. In that openness, one moment is created and if that moment meets the fragrance, then you got it.

There are thousands of books/ Youtube videos/ content on how to do Yoga or even teach Yoga. Still, you haven’t you got it, have you? Books, videos etc cannot create an ambiance, they cannot create focus. Hence no one becomes yogis even after watching hundreds of those videos or books. They struggle to implement/practice what is mentioned in those videos or books, because they haven’t got it. They were never receptive enough to grasp the true effort and energy behind those who speak in those videos or books. The videos or books can only serve as an inspiration to begin the journey, while you have to undertake the journey on your own.

So, if you’re thinking of buying a book or watch videos to do Yoga, don’t!(It can be dangerous to do so too!)

Just join a class instead. The ambiance will be set for you externally, that will be ensured by the teacher. You just have to ensure, that you set the ambiance internally (and of course switch off your mobiles and other distractions!). That way, one will go far. Far ahead than what one imagined.