10/07/2025
Happy Guru Purnima 🕉️🧘🏽
‘Parampara’ (‘an uninterrupted row or series’) or lineage in yoga: the historical succession of knowledge, passed from teacher to teacher. With the foundation of lineage, a disciple of yoga gains insight, not only from his or her teacher but from all the teachers that came before. This way there is unity between a student of yoga and the historical origin of the practice.
‘Your practices and your teacher do the job of an agriculturist. The guru is not really bringing you anything new: instead, he or she is simply removing the obstacles so the flow of consciousness will be continuous and the water can reach its source. Water is already running in the canal. The cultivator simply goes looking for some obstacles and takes them out. Once the cultivator removes them, he or she doesn’t need to tell the water it can flow. It is like the sun outside: it is always there, ready to come into your house. The obstacles are the closed door and windows. If you simply open them, the light shines in.’ (Patanjali Yoga Sutras, Swami Satchidananda, p. 199)
