Jiva On A Journey

Once a week my friend Lisa and I go on a hiking journey. Our feet probably only travel a few miles, but we cover a lot of ground. “Philosophizing,” is what she says we do. We ask each other questions, often rooted in yogic topics, but just as often the question may be, “where do we dream of going next,” or “I’m curious to try…” I’m beginning to think that for us, wandering through the woods without a specific direction, and wondering out loud about life’s unanswerable questions have become inextricably linked.

Last week, with so much personal and collective loss in the world, we talked about the essence of our being, our soul for lack of a better word, and its connection to that which cannot be named, but many refer to as God. Remembering my yoga philosophy, I suggested that anything that can change (take a moment to ponder that) isn’t divine. People and possessions don’t last. Legacy doesn’t really last. Even stars burn out. So, what is unchanging?

Sanskrit addresses this with one tiny word, jiva. According to Yogapedia, jiva is "an immortal living substance" or "an individual soul." The Bhagavad Gita, describes jiva as unchanging, eternal, infinite and indestructible. Jiva is not an element of prakriti, or the material world, but is of a high spiritual nature.

So other wonderers have given this some thought, and for quite a long time. After thousands of years of contemplation, I believe we have to embrace the mystery. What if our spirit, or jiva, is consciousness experiencing itself, yet the individual ego is ignorant of its true nature. What if we start to notice ourselves as pure consciousness during meditation, contemplation, stillness, walks in the woods, movement on the mat… you get the idea. What if it is essential for our essence to be on this embodied journey of choice-making, illusion, change and dissolution? What if we are meant to have every experience we can -- not just the ones that are validating or comfortable -- in order to come back to our true nature.

The Bhagavad Gita also suggests that yoga is a journey of the self to the self through the self. Does this imply that all life is practice and that we should have as many different journeys as we can in order to know the Self, rather than the identified sense of “I?”

I’m curious to know your thoughts. What is your relationship to the concept of jiva? And where are you on your spiritual journey? What are you curious to discover? We’ll add it to our list of topics to contemplate on the trail, where we get lost and found over and over again -- as in life.