One of my favorite experiences in India was a visit to Vasistha’s cave.
Vasistha is one of the seven great sages of antiquity in the Vedic yoga tradition. His cave is located up along the banks of the Ganges River a short distance from Rishikesh.
Whether or not Vasistha ever actually sat in that cave is beside the point.
Vasistha’s cave is super dark. Taking just a few steps in and then stopping so that your eyes can adjust is good idea. I definitely would have tripped over some of the people who were sitting along the cave walls in front of me if I hadn’t waited a moment for their inky silhouettes to appear.
It’s also super quiet; By the time you reach the back of the cave, which isn’t really all that far from the entrance, the outside world has effectively ceased to exist.
If you want to get away from it all, Vasistha’s cave is the place to be.
It has the vibe of a place where people have been meditating in silence since time immemorial. It’s an environment that’s as conducive for calming down and turning inward as anywhere I’ve ever been.
I sat down right at the end of the cave, which was illuminated by a single small candle set on a shelf of rock upon which a Shiva lingam, a small framed portrait of Vasistha, and offerings of flowers were set.
The flame of the candle was as still as everything else in the cave, flickering only in response to a person’s movements as the entered or left the cave.
Sitting there, in the shadowy silence and stillness, I was reminded of a verse from the Bhagavad Gita that describes samadhi, total absorption in perfect meditation:
Once I settled into my stone seat, I found it easy to be still. My mind got the message and, in short order, it sat still with me.
I felt like I could stay there forever.
And I wouldn’t mind being there right now.
The world has not ceased to exist, effectively or otherwise, nor is it offering much to write home about. Uncertainty, instability, purposeful chaos, and heartbreaking violence remain the order of the day, with no letup in sight.
The ongoing train wreck of world affairs can be hypnotic: you just can’t look away. The relentlessness of the 24-second news cycle fuels a sense of ever-impending disaster that seduces us into thinking we have to stay tuned in.
It’s not true. We can look away. We can sit in silence and stillness for a few minutes. The world can wait while we tend to our inner lives.
It will still be there when we get back.
Taking just a few moments to sit in stillness, however uncomfortable those moments may feel at first, will decrease your anxiety levels and increase your emotional resilience, improve your concentration, clear out mental cobwebs, and increase your creativity.
Dropping into your own inner sanctuary is a way to develop a healthy detachment from external stimuli, cultivate a feeling of inner calm, and hear the voice of wisdom emanating from the deepest center of your heart.
So take some time to sit and breathe, to just be in your body, to stare into space, to gaze at a candle, to chant a mantra, to offer prayers, to be quiet, to listen softly, to be still.
All that work you have to do? It can wait. All the things you have to worry about. They can wait. All the threats, lies, and dreadful injustices? They can wait.
The world can wait.
And when you come back to the world, you’ll be in a better position to respond instead of react, control your own mind instead of letting others control it, and keep your balance in a topsy-turvy world.
Self-care is a form of resistance. The world needs you to be the best version of yourself and you need to put the world on hold from time to time in order to bring that best version of yourself out into the world.
So find yourself a nice, dark, quiet cave and, for just a few moments, be still.
Wishing you all good fortune,
– Hari-k