"Otherwise, at other times, [the seer] is absorbed in PoliSci"

As I sat at my desk, almost frantically finishing a Political Science report, all I wanted to do was yoga. The uncontrollable urge to break into a Tree Pose doesn’t strike me often, but in this particular moment, I was all but powerless to resist. I completed the bare minimum required to finish the assignment and broke out my yoga mat.

            I began my Mountain Pose, the first in my practice sequence, and suddenly realized that I had made a mistake in speeding through my other classwork. My brief foray into the world of yoga has shown me the light! My mistake wasn’t in being excited for yoga, that excitement should be cherished. The mistake was in the careless and rushed manner with which I wrote the report.

            Standing on the mat with my quads squeezing up and toes stretched out, I realized that the themes of mindfulness, patience, and serenity belonged in my everyday life as well as my yoga practice. Instead of rushing through the work I had to do, I should have stilled my mind and body the same way I try to do while performing my poses. Patanjali may have diagnosed my issue as the result of overpowering rajas, and it was also Patanjali’s teaching that helped to cure me.

            After a long and particularly difficult practice, I sat back down to complete the report, this time with Sattvic energy and a better understanding of the nature of the gunas.