Jonathan, Portugal
Hello, fellow travellers on this yogic path! I have been moved reading your sincere and heartfelt posts on this blog.
My name is Jonathan, I am born to Allan and Maureen, brother to Debbie, husband to Stacey and father to Yasmin and Elijah.
Underpinning all these relationships is the connection established some 20 years ago with Ācārya and the Yogic lineage of which he forms a part. For this, I am forever grateful to Mary and her husband Brant who have guided me onto this path.
Engaging with the Bhagavad-gītā through Ācārya’s teachings in the last years has been an immeasurable highlight for me. I carry the words of Kṛṣṇa with me wherever I go and try to bring them into whatever I do. When reflecting on the last 12 months, I think of this deepening connection to the teachings of the Gita.
Whilst I have had many challenges to deal with in my work during this period and have had to bear extended periods of strain related to it, I do increasingly feel them to be like waves creating ups and downs in this ocean of life – transient, inevitable and experienced as result of my previous actions. Overall, I feel less and less disturbed by them and appreciate the opportunity to measure myself against them. Ācārya encourages us to become skilled sailors, competently handling the turbulence of the sea without being thrown off course.
Sometimes I feel a deep sense of remorse about how human beings are inflicting huge violence and destruction to all and everything around us (including ourselves), however, this tends to make me more determined to apply my thoughts, words and actions to this yogic path.
Kṛṣṇa guides Arjuna in Chapter 2:38,
“Treat alike pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat and be ready for battle; so being you will not incur any sin.”
May it become so for us!