Revolutionary Love and the Heart of Yoga

This week, I heard Valarie Kaur speak at Augsburg. She spoke truth. Like so many before her, she called us to the path of revolutionary love. Her stories and messages have been resonating in me ever since.

Yoga

Augsburg advertised her appearance as a “keynote address,” but to me, it felt more like a yoga class — just without the mats. Qais Essar’s rubab, a lute-like instrument, wove through her words, sometimes carrying the message on its own. The music, the stories, the stillness between them all felt like what in yoga we call practice.

Kaur’s message of revolutionary love aligns with the heart of yoga. Yoga means union. Not just union of body and breath, not just of mind and movement, but of each other, of the world.

Deep practice challenges the ego, asking us to embrace a unity that can feel uncomfortable. Kaur captured this when she said:

“You are a part of me I do not yet know.”

This is the yoga of union.

Satya

Kaur also offered ideas that recalled the yogic concept of satya, radical truth. Satya asks us to see clearly, even when it’s painful.

She reminded us of an uncomfortable truth: the world we knew is over. Old norms are crumbling. The ground beneath us is shifting.

But revolutionary love is not about despair. It is about possibility. Kaur invites us to see this moment not as the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb.

We have a choice. Will we see this moment as an ending? Or as the painful, messy beginning of something new?

This perspective mirrors how I teach yoga. Every posture is a new beginning. Discomfort on the mat is not a sign of failure. Rather, it is a sign of transformation.

Life can be an experiment in revolutionary love. To see this moment as a beginning does not mean we are lost. It means we are pioneers.

Ahimsa

Truth is one step. Action is another.

The path of yoga is the path of ahimsa, non-harming. This Sanskrit term refers not just to the absence of harm, but the presence of love. Not just resisting the world we don’t want, but creating the world we do.

This aligns with Kaur’s path of revolutionary love.

Love is the way through. It is not passive. It is not weak. It is not sentimental. It is the most powerful thing we can do.

She invited us to imagine a world where dignity and justice are not the exception, but the norm. She offered joy, and joy itself is resistance. To love with joy, to dream bigger than the nightmare, is how we move forward.

Buddha taught of unending compassion. A love that does not retreat when things get hard. A love we choose, again and again.

Skill in Action

Yoga is not just theory, it is practice. It teaches us how to move through the world with love and integrity. Yoga is skill in action.

How will you practice love today?

Maybe it’s a deep breath before reacting. Maybe it’s choosing compassion over judgment. Maybe it’s reaching out to someone you’ve been afraid to know.

Perhaps it’s standing in solidarity at a protest, choosing to Side with Love. Or, like Swami Kripalu, you might walk through the world as a “pilgrim of love,” seeing every step, every breath, every encounter as an opportunity to embody compassion.

The path forward is one of love. Will you walk it?