Keep walking. Don’t look behind 👀 (yoga philosophy from Bollywood Music 🎵)

When I was little, I was terribly shy and embarrassingly sensitive 🫣. Most often when life was overwhleming I would retreat into my room and daydream of playing cricket at Lord's with the crowd noise ringing in my ears. I didn't really fit in, and like most young boys, I hid that under brash bravado (what do you mean I still do that now? 😏). But one of my happiest memories as a child when I was not much older that Zaccy was Friday nights, when my dad would get back from Tooting with the latest Bollywood movie, or a classic if nothing new was out. Ah, the good ol' 80's 😃. I don't remember the exact year, but I recall watching Nastik, starring none other than Amitabh Bachchan. A kind of Marlon Brandon of Indian cinema, except way bigger, way better, and adored in a way that would completely baffle the British brain 🤯.

When our hero is first introduced, he is dancing in the streets and singing a song. When I first saw him, I thought, Ah, so this is Daddy's fashion icon? Those legendary sideburns, a green shirt, and trousers paired with a beige waistcoat. Don't hate the player.

(As I found the link on Youtube, I watched the song back and it gave me goosebumps and a tear I wont lie 🥺. Watching my dad's fashion icon dance on a train is something else. It's fascinating and still is to this day how Indian cinema weaves heavy existential philosophy right into a street-dancing sequence. SO so many memories 😃).

Bachchan's character sang something that carved a permanent groove into my mind, arriving precisely when I was a young boy drowning in my own head 🫥. The song itself roughly translates to: Tomorrow, what happened today will be in the past (become yesterday) / Walk ahead and don't look behind / Don't look behind you / Don't torment yourself in the memories of the past / My brother, just keep walking foward.

Of course, my rough translation loses so much of the poetry. Bollywood dialogue is inherently romanticised and lyrical, something I remember cringing at when I first introduced Laura to these movies and we had to suffer through the subtitles together. Literal translation always strips away the raw soul of what’s being said.

"Trust not the the version of you who fades from sight,

Await the dawn, the coming of you that comes from the light"

But as the song continued, it pushed the truth even further, reminding us that if you stop to sit down and feel sorry for yourself, you become a stone on your own path, heavy enough to weigh yourself down and block everyone else from passing. Your sorrow can disrupt others, too. We can stand in protest or sit in defeat, but it matters not; life keeps moving with or without your involvement. As an older brother carrying an unspoken weight, I needed to hear that as I had a responsibility to my brothers not to lose heart 💔. I had to step up and I did (in my heart) the best that I could.

And that’s the overall message of this email. In yogic and mystical thought, nothing in life is ever wasted. The only trouble with sadness, hopelessness and misery is that we want to get rid of them. The resistance to them is the real barrier. We have to live with them. We can’t escape them, and yet we exhaust so much of ourselves fighting the very things that are trying to shape us into who we are. We are what we are because of them. And what are we, exactly? (we are the sum of what we have survived and experienced).

When we look back across the distance of our own life, the ghosts of who we used to be are the proof that we’re far braver and stronger than we think. No matter how heavy the road has felt, we’ve kept walking it. As I will keep walking, looking back with a smirk. And as you will too.

Namaskar

Zahir

IN-PERSON TRAINING 👇🏽

→ 200h YOGA TEACHER TRAINING

→ ADVANCED 300H TT

🧠 ONLINE LEARNING 👇🏽

Free Courses

💡 Advanced TT,

🧠 Anatomy Blueprint,

😤 Science of Breathing

🧘🏽‍♀️ Teaching & Structuring

☯️ YIN Yoga