A Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures

We've all heard the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words." It's true that art plays an important role in our society, and the contrast of colors and shading can sometimes speak a lot louder than a description that could look different in everyone's head. At times, it does seem that the art of writing is inferior to the graphic colors and messages art portrays. I admit, I've wondered if words are a "second best" to the kind of emotions art can evoke, and if I was simply wasting my time trying to get messages across through words.

But then, yesterday, I went to a yoga class. And I don't know what it is about bending and stretching and saying words that I don't understand that causes so many revelations, but cause them it does. We began our practice by working through a chant that, at first glance, sounded absolutely foreign to me. Then I realize that the end of each line was "om namah shivaya"--which means, "I bow to my inner self." This was the phrase we lived by at Shoshoni. Before every dish cleanup, during every meditation, throughout our chores, this chant brought tranquility and inner peace. And just as that phrase was foreign to me when I first entered the ashram, it was a comforting vibration of words when I left to return home.

You know how you learn a song in school--one that is obscure and seems to stay inside your school's walls--then you hear it again on the radio? At first, it's a shock how something so personal to you could be open for the rest of the world to hear, but at the same time, it brings back memories; it brings back that feeling you had when you first grew to love that set of words. 

It's difficult to describe the feeling a set of syllables and vibrations on your tongue can take you back to a place where joy emanated from your skin--maybe it's just that humans are more easily reminded of things than we think. We think something is purely stuck in the past, until we hear something that reminds us of that time, or see an image that we assumed only corresponded with that experience. The thing about "om namah shivaya," is that it wasn't saved for only one emotion--we said it when we were troubled, when we were anxious, when we were joyful, when we were full of love, when we were scared. It's like a warm blanket, or a bubbling plate of macaroni and cheese. It serves as the perfect tool for any emotion. For a while, I tucked that mantra away, saving it for one place, but I now realize words don't only have a special meaning in the place where they were introduced. I may spend my day to day life being less focused on my spirituality, but the connotations of "om namah shivaya" are just as powerful. If I'm feeling overwhelmed, or just need to acknowledge the inner self, those words will always be there--even when Shoshoni is thousands of miles away.

Beating on a Shoshoni drum :)