1
Aug
2025
The Many Shades of Devotion
In the yogic path, we often associate devotion with sweetness; offering flowers, singing mantras, lighting candles. But true devotion is forged in longing. Longing is love stretched out across time. It is the ache that refuses to settle for surface answers. It is the pull of the soul toward something it remembers but has not yet fully touched.
This longing, this burning yearning, is not a problem. It is a sign of awakening.
Many of us come to yoga not because life is perfect, but because it hurts. We come to the mat with broken hearts, old questions, unseen grief. And often, we feel that unless we are calm or wise, we cannot be truly devotional.
Longing is already devotion.
When you show up to practice with no guarantees, that is devotion.
When you breathe through uncertainty and stay anyway, that is devotion.
When your practice becomes the place where you cry, or break, or ask life’s hardest questions – that is holy.
It is not the polish of your practice that sanctifies it. It is the depth of your yearning.
As students, let your questions live inside you. Don’t rush to fix them. Let them ripen you. Ask not only “What can I master?” but “What do I truly seek?”
As teachers, honor the longing in your students. Know that behind every posture, there is a heart that is yearning not just to stretch, but to understand. Teach not just to instruct, but to witness, to serve that fire.
We are not here to douse that fire. We are here to tend it.
Remember, you can practice with me anytime on Omstars! If this article resonated with you, explore more through my Dharma Talks — available exclusively on Omstars, where tradition and transformation meet. Tune into the full conversation on the Yoga Inspiration Podcast now streaming on all platforms.
