So the weather has gotten cold, sub-freezing for multiple days. I don’t mind one bit, as I am out-of-balance pitta most days…I burn.
So History…I’ve been reading a very enthusiastic work about Yoga, and there’s a lot of history in it…so called. I find a lot of it fascinating, inspiring, but my scholarship is out and I don’t think some of the revisionism in there could be defended. The Vedic history in particular seems frayed and wishful; taking on the gospel that there was a violent invasion that draped an Indo-European Aryan culture from the West over a native people in and around the Sarasvati valley (river long gone, the Indus is closest, misrepresentations everywhere (see below))…I wont go into that, suffice to say there's some archaeological evidence that can't be waved off. Me...a skeptic? Let’s just say you’ll need more than the overuse of “of course” and "it’s obvious that...” to convince me of anything. Cohen’s History in Three Keys…should be required reading at the Jr High level.
The actual written work of the Vedic hymns (that’s what they were) is powerful stuff. The basics are that there are seers (not class-specific), and they sing what they see. They’re not a chronicling device (just), though they chronicle, they’re not art (for art’s sake), though they're artistic, they’re highly spiritual, which means cultural currents can be navigated through them…strange that we don’t get educated about these sorts of things considering the geopolitical and world economic conditions shaping up…we better know this stuff cold if we want to be strategically advantaged when the shit hits the fan in South and East Asia…again. Anyway, it’s arguable that there is a contiguous culture in that geo that is older than any other (yes, even you Egypt), I figure they have some nuggets.
The most provocative inquiries for me are the Western European corollaries that drive folks to some brilliant and/or unsupportable conclusions; seers singing? Bardic. Integral shamanistic practice driven to self-defending/preserving abstraction by dogmatic religious structures? Church. Even the elements like the Great Cow…? Audhumla. It makes you wonder if there is a Gypsy form of yoga hiding in the wagon train somewhere; they did reflect from the Indus by most linguistic accounts. Secret Romany stuff I suppose…do you know?
