07/06/2026
There are many ways to talk about the problems of our world, but one way or another, all of them have to do with polarization. We have a tendency to create narratives that divide, carrying within concepts of “us” and “them”; “good” and bad”; “right” and “wrong”; “worthy” and unworthy”. And within this set up there is not much space for tolerance, inclusion, for “holding hands”. Some of these narratives are hugely magnified into collective ones against nations and/or certain political, racial, religious, ethnic groups all having the same ending: violence (hiṃsā). The teachings of Yoga assure us on the following matter: wether individually or collectively, dividedness with others can only exist if we are divided from our own being. Only when there is a sense of disconnection from our own wholeness, there is separateness. Remember we are given the definition of Yoga in chapter one of the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali (Samādhi-pāda): “yogaś citta-vṛtti- nirodhaḥ”, PYS I:2 / “When you stop identifying with your thoughts, fluctuations of the mind, then there is Yoga, identity with Self, which is Samadhi, happiness, bliss, and ecstasy (commentary by Sharon Gannon).
How can we heal the division in our world without working on the inherent division we are cultivating in our lives? how to address and heal this inner separateness? Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj has put it in a beautiful way: “The mind creates the abyss, the heart crosses it”. One must move from thoughts to feelings, from the mind to the heart, creating a larger internal space for loving, caring and connection.
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