Cairo Murillo is one of the reasons why this podcast, The Seekers, is.
It’s easy to underestimate Cairo if you consider him superficially, and some do. He is a surfer. He is Brazilian. He has long curly locks and tattooed arms. A senior ashtanga and Hatha Yoga practitioner and teacher, Cairo is super fit, and always traveling somewhere exotic. He has friends from different parts of the world and stories from here and there. You would be mistaken to think that everything about him is worldly. There is an otherworldliness to Cairo that is enlightening.
One of the things that struck me about him when we first met during regular class at the Sharath Jois Yoga Shala in Mysuru last year (2023) is his tolerance for BS is very low. He sees through the clinger-ons, the flatterers and the superficial with a keen eye. I have learned it is partly a Brazilian trait, but it is also Cairo’s nature to call it like it is. And he manages to do it with a genial honesty that keeps friendships tight and the fake distant. A dedicated father and a disciple of Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Cairo is a lesson in recognizing the disciple and the discipline beneath the veneer of beauty, gender, race, nationality, ethnicity, language. As Swami Dayananda says in a clip included in this episode, “there is no border to compassion”.
A taste for reality is a trait of the Seeker.
An eye that is on a quest for the Truth often has very little patience for untruths. When we become buddha-like maybe we will learn to smile and look past unrealities that litter the path. But for those still seeking, authenticity is rare and precious and so perhaps we brush past the fake, which is abundant, in a great hurry to grasp at what is true. You sense it by vibe, by experience, by observation and by patience. Rawness in people, experiences, honesty, the energy of truth-seeking and truth-telling, grab you in passing and awaken you into conversations where you pick at and learn from each other’s journeys. Whenever I talk to Cairo, I sense this great rush to reach, to be real, to know and to follow the knowledge wherever it may lead that I find wholly inspiring.
“One of the hardest lessons Swami Dayananda ever taught me is to go back to the world, and live, live your life as a sanyasi”.
So many of us have suffering in our lives. So few have genuine empathy and compassion for the other. So many veer into commercialization of their personal brand, so few uphold the authenticity of who they are in everything worldly and material that they do.
Moksha may be about gaining freedom, but while we are still here, the real question is: How do we live? How do we balance? What are we drawn to and what are we directed towards with these vicissitudes?
Cairo to me symbolizes the Seeker always in the flow and surfing the currents.
Do listen to his journey. I’ve left his pauses in, because his thinking is so relevant and connected to the development of insight in the listener. My dog interrupts with a couple of growls a couple of times, so pls try to overlook that. Also please forgive me for terrible camera work and really really poor editing. He deserved so much better, but maybe just as well that y’all listen to what he has to teach us rather than distractedly look at him! May he inspire you all as much as he has been inspired and continues to inspire so many of us.
Thank you for listening/watching!
If you’ve been following Patanjali’s Yogasutras on the podcast/newsletter, you’ll find the latest couple of episodes up here:
Do remember to check back for those episodes daily as I no longer send out daily email notifications for those.
You can sign up to participate in The Seekers by sending us an email with some details of your seeking journey on our website here:
Watch this episode of The Seekers on YouTube below
Tara Das is an author, poet, and mind-body-spirit therapist.
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