A Teacher’s Prayer

If you are reading this newsletter, you are certain to know more than one teacher of yoga and perhaps you are a teacher of yoga too. The life and livelihood of a yoga teacher are always precarious, subject to the winds of change. Schools and methods can move into or out of favor quickly. But right now, in these times, things may seem to be especially unsettling

Sacred texts can be a source of comfort when they help to remind us that there’s really nothing new happening here. The Taittirīya Upaniṣad, an early Upanishad found in the Yajur Veda, contains a set of verses commonly know as “A Teacher’s Prayer”. Below are two excerpts.

शिररं मे िवचष णम् ।
िज ा मे मधुम मा ।
कण$%य' भ)*र *व-.वम् ।
23ण: कोशोऽ*स 8धया *पहीत: ।
-.त> 8 गोपाया ।।

śarīraṁ me vicarṣaṇam
jihvā me madhumattamā
karṇābhyāṁ bhūri viśruvam
brahmaṇaḥ kośo’si medhayā pihītaḥ
śrutaṁ me gopāyā

May my body be vigorous.
Let my tongue say the sweetest things.
May my ears hear many subtle teachings.
You are brahman’s sheath, covered in wisdom.
Guard for me what I have learned! (from I.4.1)

यथाप: Aवता यिCत ।
यथा मासा अहजFरम् ।
एव> म' 23चा*रण: ।
धातरायCत. सवFत: Iवाहा ।
A*तJशोऽ*स Aमाभा*ह AमापKIव ।।

yathāpaḥ pravatā yanti
yathā māsā aharjaram
evaṁ māṁ brahmacāriṇaḥ
dhātarāyantu sarvataḥ svāhā
prativeśo’si pramābhāhi pramāpadyasva

Just as water flows downhill,
Even as the days pass by into months,
So, O Sustainer, may students arrive
Coming to me from all sides!
You are close by. Shine forth. Approach me. (from 1.4.3)

Although today we cannot “sit (ṣad)- down (ni)- near (upa)” one another in the traditional sense of the word “upanishad”, we can continue to keep our teachers, our communities, and the texts themselves close by in our hearts and in our minds.

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Marcia Solomon taught at our studio for many years and now teaches Sanskrit.

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