With Jackie Parker
Let There Be Light
Learning and integrating Ayurveda into your life is like learning to dance with Nature. There are rhythms and light patterns to each day and each season. Our individual lives are a dance that we must learn to balance if we want to remain vibrant and alive and express our full potential.
All of the seasons of nature are miraculous, but spring is my favorite. It is rain, new blooms, new leaves, new grass, new flowers, new life and new growth.
I’ve spent the better part of the winter looking at and releasing beliefs and ideas that no longer serve me. I spent a lot of time journaling, being in solitude, and asking myself some important questions. But as the sun climbs higher in the sky, I feel like I’m seeing everything more clearly again. Finally!
And lately I’ve been chanting again. Any time of day is good for chanting, but I find it especially enlivening in the morning after tamas has had its way with me. Between 6 and 10 am is the Kapha time of day and chanting or singing helps me to move the stagnant Kapha out and move the energizing prana in!
The qualities of Kapha are heavy, sticky and dull. Think mud! You’ll know you have a Kapha imbalance if you feel dull, lethargic or depressed. Did you ever notice that when you sing you automatically feel lighter and happier? I’m married to a man that loves to SING! He sings in the morning, he sings in the shower, he sings at evening, he sings in his office, he sings in the garden, he sings in the car and he’s happy almost always.
The mantra is used in Ayurveda as a vibratory vehicle to stimulate healing. The vedas and bible maintain that everything comes into being through speech. In the New Testament, the Gospel of John starts “in the beginning was The Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God…”
One of my favorite mantras is the Gayatri Mantra. The Gayatri is considered the essence of all mantras. Like most vedic mantras, it’s chanted in Sanskrit, but it’s easy to learn with a little focus and the help of a CD (or YouTube!) The Gayatri mantra is simply a meditation or salutation to the sun or spiritual light and it’s specifically for the purpose awakening and enlightening the the mind and intellect and spiritual perception.
It is said that the practice of this mantra enabled the sages to receive revelation of all the other mantras, because it calms mental noise, washes off karmic impurities, purifies the ego, sharpens the intellect, and illuminates the inner being with light that flows directly for Source. This mantra connects us to the teacher within and helps us receive inner guidance and inner inspiration.
The chant goes…
OM BHUR BHUVAHA SWAHA
TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM
BHARGO DEVASYA DHIMAHI
DHIYO YONAHA PRACHODAYAT
In my opinion one of the most beautiful renditions is by Deva Premal and Miten. There are several clips on YouTube but this one is my favorite!
Click here to listen.
It means…
“Om. Let us meditate upon the light of that adorable Sun (underlying Intelligence). May it awaken our spiritual perception and understanding on all the planes, physical, vital, mental and beyond.”
Jackie Parker is a practicing Clinical Ayurvedic and Pancha Karma Specialist who graduated from the California College of Ayurveda, and the American Institute of Vedic Studies. Jackie assists clients in setting up daily routines and seasonal routines that can bring about the desired balance to release stress and ward off disease. She offers detoxification programs known as pancha karma (five detoxification therapies), as well as nutritional and lifestyle guidance, and recommendations of Ayurvedic natural herbs.
