Anubhuta Vishaya Asampramosa Smriti Memory is the retention of what has been experienced.
And in this sutra Patanjali spoke about Smriti,
Memory.
Memory is not only something we think about.
Memory can live in the body.
Memory can shape emotion.
Memory can color the present.
It can become an identity.
And it can also become wisdom.
This poem is inspired by Yoga Sutra 1.
11 and this poem is titled,
The Memory That Remains.
The past does not always stay behind.
It rises softly through the day.
A tone,
A silence or the glance can call an old world back to stay.
A memory may wear today and colour what the heart can see.
The present stands before my eyes,
Yet something older speaks through me.
A word becomes a former wound.
A pause becomes a door once closed.
The body feels what once was felt before the mind has even known.
But memory is not the self.
Nor must the past become my name.
What happened may have shaped the path.
But I am not only what came.
A wound remembered,
Ask for cared,
Nor judgment,
Shame,
Or forceful flight.
The heart can hold what once was pain and meet it now with softer light.
So when an old reaction wakes,
Let me not rush to fear or blame.
Let me ask with tenderness,
What memory is speaking through this frame?
Is this happening here and now or is the past beginning to rise?
What truth is present in this breath?
What would awareness choose as wise?
For memory can also heal.
Remembering strength,
Remembering grace,
The love that held the steps once taken,
The quiet courage I can trace.
The mind remembers what has been.
Some memories bind and some release.
But all can rest in awareness and slowly turn toward peace.
Anubhuta Vishaya Asampra Moosa What has been lived is not erased.
Smriti,
Memory remains,
A subtle imprint held in space.
Yet deeper still,
Awareness waits,
Not trapped by all the past has known.
I remember with compassion.
And return to what is here,
My home.
Namaste.
