Romeo! Oh Romeo!

I was having lunch with a student and friend the other day, who was telling me of her friends in Connecticut that adopted a pig sometime back.  They had adopted what they thought was a miniature pig. The pig, though miniature when they got him, now weighs close to 100 lbs.

She was telling me of how Romeo the pig lives in the house with her friends, a poodle, and a German Shepherd.  Romeo even has his own room inside the house, right at the entrance.   Anytime someone enters the house they stop to say hello to Romeo and offer him a snack.  Romeo gets to run around the house and play in the lawn.  In the summer they have to put sunscreen on him when he plays outside because he is very pale and gets burnt easily.

Then my friend says to me, “Romeo doesn’t know he is a pig.  He just freely plays with the German Shepherd, rolls on his back to get a belly rub, squeals in a way that almost sounds like a bark.  Romeo just doesn’t know he is a pig.”

That fascinated me.  Romeo doesn’t know he is a pig!  And what it means to know oneself as something or someone.  In his case, Romeo not knowing himself to be a pig, frees him to play with dogs with whom he otherwise might not; behave in ways that otherwise he would not.

Very often in our case, knowing ourselves as someone, as such & such, rather than freeing us – often prevents us from acting with freedom. We may know ourselves as a corporate executive, doctor or lawyer, male or female, uptown girl or Brooklynite, Caucasian, South Asian, etc.  And knowing ourselves one way prevents us from perhaps acting in any other way, that might be out of character for us.

The practices of Yoga try to pull us out of character and any limited notions we may have of ourselves. The self knowledge that comes with the practices of Yoga & Meditation, is the type that hopes to free us; to put us at ease in any shape or form, with all living beings of all shapes & forms.

Ref. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras:
Chapter 2, Sutra 5

The practices of Yoga try to help us overcome mistaking the non-Self as the Self.

Chapter 2, Sutra 20

“The Seer [Self] is nothing but the power of seeing which, although pure, appears to see through the mind.” Translation by Sri Swami Satchidananda