Let Your Life Be A Sermon Too
It’s a sign of the times when attending a funeral makes me feel better.
Yesterday, I watched the simulcast of Representative John Lewis’ rousing send off to appease my spirit.
Bush and Clinton gave heartfelt eulogies. Obama was as eloquent as ever. Nancy Pelosi’s speech made me cry.
Dr. Bernice King and James Lawson’s words inspired me to write this post, as did John Lewis’ own magnificently timed editorial in the New York Times.
Lewis was, to the end, committed to Satyagraha, a term coined by Gandhi in 1906, 40 years before the end of colonial rule in India.
Satya means truth in Sanskrit. It is the second mentioned Yama, or ethical precept, in the “Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.” According to this philosophy, truth is grown on the field of Ahimsa, or no harm. Agraha means to hold onto firmly. It is a cognate of the word grasp.
So Satyagraha is a commitment or intention to hold onto truth and pursue it non-violently through life.
In many ways it is the “longing,” as Obama stated, “to do what’s right.”
A student of history, John Lewis, like Gandhi, knew that change can take years, decades…centuries. The goal of truth must always be in your thoughts, words and actions as you march towards peace and freedom.
In Satyagraha, truth becomes an intention or Sankalpah, the impulse around which the mind organizes itself.
Many times I start a yoga practice with an intention. It is clear that John Lewis led his life with one. The Sankalpah of Satyagraha.
Satyagraha is “Black Lives Matter” painted in bright yellow on city streets and walls of moms protecting the right of peaceful protest. It’s Keisha Lance Bottoms not backing down when Brian Kemp threatens her with lawsuits.
As I look back on my week, some of the best moments were Satyagraha…writing 50 postcards to voters in Iowa asking them to fill out Absentee Ballot Forms so that they can vote safely from home, donating to Jaime Harrison’s South Carolina Senate Campaign to help rid our country of Lindsey Graham and speaking with my dearest friend, on her front porch, about how we’ve benefited from white privilege and grappling with what to do about it.
The Reverend Raphael Warnock of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist church began the program for Lewis by saying that Lewis started off as a young preacher practicing on chickens in the barn.
Warnock added “instead of preaching sermons, he became one.”
Commit to rising to that challenge.
Let your life be a sermon too.