Lullabies and mantra

He asked me for a lullaby at bedtime, the cars and trucks quilt tucked up tight around his chin.

“What do you want me to sing? The Gayatri mantra?”

“No…what about Saraswati?” Bodhi asked.

“Okay.”

I begin to sing and chant with the Goddess of music, literature, speech, technology, and education. I love Saraswati’s mantra, too. I often chant it before recording a class or a podcast, or pray to call upon her gifts of clarity in speech, thought, and the written word.

“Oh wait, Mama. What about that one by Ram Das?”

“You mean Krishna Das? Which one?”

“The one about love, mama (side note: they’re all about love). With Rupam? You know?”

“To Durga? Yes, I know it.”

I begin to sing…Rūpaṃ dehi jayaṃ dehi yaśo dehi dviṣo jahi…

It hits me. The songs my five year old son knows as lullabies are mantras. The most beautiful calls to the Mother, to the Father, to the divinity within and around us.

Chills fill my body.

This particular mantra is a call to Ma Durga and her various forms. It’s a call to truly understand unconditional love, to express it, to live it, to be it. It’s a call to relieve darkness, difficulties, and to remind us of our courage, clarity, and compassion. Bodhi knows the lyrics, too. What could be more beautiful than this bedtime prayer?

Dear ones, this is how the yoga is really meant to be. This complete union of heart, mind, and body, so that our rich inner lives spill into the lives of those we hold most dear…our children, our partners, our parents, and so on.

It’s impossible for me to impart the wisdoms of yoga in a piecemeal fashion - just the postures or just the breathwork. Meditation isn’t even meditation without the wisdom teachings behind it. Did you know that? Pop culture spirituality is just not where I’m at or will ever entertain again.

But, I’ll share mantra, music, meditation, movement all in union (i.e. yoga). I’m willing to sit with those willing to cultivate a rich inner life that is then felt by their children - in the womb and outside of it - their partners, and even their colleagues.

You don’t have to chant mantra to your children at bedtime, but how do you think our children will respond to our greater capacities for breath, for patience, for acceptance, for true unconditional love?

What do you think will happen in our lives when we do the work of self-study, practice, and sit with other women equally devoted to redefining success, womanhood, and motherhood in ways that feel like joy?

And, it needn’t take years. Changes can begin to take root in a week or two. Significant changes in a month or so. Changes for life in continued practice for a year. And, the rest is up to you.

I am eternally grateful for the teachers who have showed up in my life to impart these practices to me. And, I am honored to share them with those who want to walk down this path together, specifically in the roles as mother, mother-to-be, woman, partner, and lover. You can read more about Afterglow here.

Jai Ma.
With love,
Leanne