Isvara Pranidhana

“…the gradual shift within from the external self to the True Self, loosening the hold of my ego and coming to identify with the billion lights within and all around – with what is larger than I… brings me a deep, uncanny relief.”

~ Sue Monk Kidd

I could approach this post the same way I usually do, with full yoga scholar hat on.  If I did that, I would tell you the ways in which the phrase is translated, the take of modern scholars on the meaning in current social contexts, and the way that plays out in our physical and energetic anatomy on the mat.

However, this niyama is personal. It’s as personal as it gets. So personal that it’s universal. When I see the phrase “devotion to the Lord” and consider the diversity of our yoga circles: different religious paths, different spiritual experiences, different lifestyles, etc, etc, my ego worries about pleasing all of those differences with a one-size fits all definition.

Instead, I’m going to go the deeply personal route and describe Isvara Pranidhana from my own experience. I use the yamas and niyamas as an ethical framework for approaching my work in the world (yamas) and my internal work (niyamas). And, even through that good work, my ego perseveres. There is a sense within of trying to control the output following on all this very intentional input. But, in the end, I give it all up. I give it up to my Teacher, to the Earth, to the Universe. I give it up to the All-That-Is which includes me but is certainly not limited to me. And one thing I know is true from years of practicing and teaching yoga, letting go is about the hardest job we can ever do.

So, practice this this month. Let go. Surrender. Trust in Grace. And see if you can glimpse the billion lights within and all around.

Svadhyaya - self-study

Svadhyaya takes the power of tapas and directs and integrates it. We begin to dive deeper, moving past the stilled surface created by our work with the yamas. According to Iyengar, it is reading one’s own book of life, at the same time as writing and revising it.

Svadhyaya is not narcissistic. As we know, this eight limbed path moves towards Samadhi – a realization of our oneness with all that is. Therefore, svadhyaya, although the study of the self, is not limited to the study of the individual personality. It begins there and moves deeper and deeper as we release, through tapas, the masks of separateness.

In asana, we practice svadhyaya as we cultivate an internal gaze – seeing our body from the inside and letting go of external ideas of how our body should look or feel.

As you move through your asana practice, pause after each pose. Actively cultivate the internal gaze of self-reflection. What do you notice? In what way has the pose shifted your energy, your muscles, your bones, your breath? Move thoughtfully through your practice this way, and notice how this perspective begins to follow you off of the mat as well.

Tapas - right effort

Tapas is variously translated as right effort, sustained practice, and heat. Tapas is the heat that burns away impurities as well as that which kindles the sparks of divinity. The heat of tapas is generated by our non-habituated and enthusiastic commitment.

Tapas, therefore, is not a concept only limited to our yoga mats or even to some sort of obtuse philosophical side road. Tapas is the commitment we show towards our mates, towards our children, towards our work in the world, towards ourselves. Cultivating tapas really begins at the source of these commitments. Discipline which becomes competitive or habituated is not tapas. Commitment is chosen out of enthusiasm and connection. We connect to our partners, our work, our children, ourselves in joy and out of that connection, our commitment grows.

Tapas is an important step along the path of the yamas and the niyamas as it is the hinge between the internal and external practice – it is a conscious turning inward toward growth.

In asana, tapas is naturally created as we step onto our mats. Asana burns away toxins and releases impurities. To continue this, we need only make a commitment to stepping onto our mats regularly and enthusiastically connecting our body and our breath.

Santosha - contentment

Yoga Sutra 11.42:

samtosat-anuttamah sukha-labhah

“contentment brings supreme happiness.”

Santosha is a feeling of deep contentment. Although it is not a permanent state, it is also not fleeting, such as the joy one feels at an external event. The state of santosha is an essential ingredient in many of the yamas. For example, the way to stem greed (aparigraha) is to cultivate deep contentment.

And so, as with the other yamas and niyamas, santosha is a cultivated state. It is as natural and available to us as air, we need only open up and allow it. Greeding, hatred, lying, etc all mask santosha. If we can accept that it is our true nature to be content, we can release these masks.

How does contentment come into your work on the mat? In asana, we cultivate this balance between challenging ourselves and non-attachment to outcome. That balance point is santosha. When you are struggling in a pose, moving back and diving into your breath can bring you back to santosha.

Saucha - purity

Saucha, as with all of the yamas and niyamas, strives for cleanliness in thought, word, and deed. We may think exclusively of external cleansing, yet even our notions about being clean can be examined.

Cleansing the body:

Externally: Dinacharya, an ayurvedic guide for daily purification.

Internally: Asana and pranayama, healthy (sattvic) food and herbs

Cleansing the mind:

We have begun the work of cleansing the mind through our practice of the yamas, particularly when we focus our intentions on our thoughts: cultivating non-harming, truthful, pure and nongrasping thoughts.

All work with saucha exists in a cycle, for cleanliness is a transient state. For this reason, we return to our mat on a regular basis, we can read inspirational works, journal, engage in reflective communities, among other things.

Asana practices, particularly heating poses such as utkatasana (chair pose), chaturanga dandasana (four limbed staff pose), and pranayama such as kapalabati (skull shining breath) and nadi shodana (alternate nostril breathing), burn our toxins and impurities. Internal cleanliness radiates beauty and joy. Impurity brings rigidity in the body, mind and energy field. By contrast, internal cleanliness and clarity allows us to come into both physical and energetic balance.

Turning

“As we begin to shift our sense of what our lives are about, we’ll notice that our focus starts to change. Instead of always pre-occupying ourselves with trying to get what we think we want or need, we’ll start to quiet, we’ll start to listen. We’ll wait for that inner prompting. We’ll try to hear, rather than decide, what it is we should do next. And as we listen, we’ll hear our dharma more and more clearly, and so we’ll begin turning more and more of our acts to that place of deeper wisdom. As that happens, all our fascination with our roles and our plans and our desires and our melodramas will begin to fall away. More and more, we will open ourselves to just being the instruments of the dharma. And then we’ll discover that we’ve lost our lives – and found them. “  - Ram Dass

As we transition from working with the yamas (restraints) into the niyamas (observances), we let go of assuming the role of school marm to an untamed mind. We are starting to get a sense of what’s external, including our bodies. We’re getting that it’s not really wise or efficacious to boss our bodies or others around (ahimsa), to be fake (satya), to take what’s not ours, including a deep forward bend when our low back is sore, (asteya), to direct energy towards our most magnificent self as well as the MMS of others (brahmacharya) and to get in our bodies and in our closets that more, more, more of anything doesn’t serve (aprigraha).

We now observe within – we look inward to our natural state – a state of purity, contentment, austerity, self-understanding and surrender.

Oh, no. It’s really there. Trust me.

But, in order to make that transition, we have to take a 180 of sorts. Instead of the arduous discipline of excavating our deepest held violences, falsities, thefts, lust, and greed, we are now just allowing the cleansing wind (prana) to blow all excess away as we watch and listen and begin to open our internal eyes to just how magnificent we truly are. To our innocence, joy, dedication, beauty and absolute and unshakeable support. We won’t decide to be any of these things. We’ll just accept that we are.

In preparation, try this:

Begin by finding a comfortable seated position, closing the eyes lightly, loosening the shoulders down away from the ears, and settling in to focus on the breath.

Deepen your interaction with the breath by drawing the inhale fully into the whole torso – to the front, the sides, the back and all the way down to the tailbone. Let the exhale release its way up the spine. Feel the crown of the head draw up and the spine lengthen. Continue this way as each breath lengthens the spine, creating space between the vertebra. It’s as if you are growing taller with each breath.

Now, begin to open up to the full capacity of the breath, the fullness of life energy (prana) circulating through you. Take a full inhale. Pause and take in an extra sip of breath. Now release the breath, letting go completely. At the end, pause, and, using the strength of your navel chakra, pump the last bit of stale breath out of the body. Repeat this process, and, as you inhale, imagine bringing in everything that’s available to you – breath, and also support, ease, joy: more than you could have imagined. As you exhale, visualize releasing all that doesn’t serve your body, heart and soul: discomfort, toxins, self-limiting beliefs. Actually feel these things leaving your mind, your heart, your body – releasing down into the earth.  Repeat this cycle 10-15 times.

Release the breath work and move back into a steady, easy inhale and smooth exhale. Notice the change in the quality of your breath and your energy (prana). Use this technique whenever you are holding on too tightly or feel blind to your blessings. Know that you have enough, you do enough. You are enough.

xoxoxom

Namaste,

Amy

Aparigraha - non-greeding

When we are greedy, we rob ourselves of contentment. More subtle than asteya (non-stealing), greed is an internal seed which disrupts our ability to accept the flow of goodness in our lives. According to Iyengar, “one should not hoard or collect things one does not require immediately…collection or hoarding of things implies a lack of faith in God and in [one]self to provide for [one’s] future.” The anitidote, Iyengar claims, lies in trust that “everything [one] really needs will come… by itself at the proper time.”

“Whatever you stockpile – be it diamonds, big houses, fame, money, proficiency at advanced yoga poses, or less flashy things, you will inevitably encounter two certainties. First, all will be lost. Second, these things, in and of themselves, will never satisfy your cravings, which are expressions of your feelings of fear and emptiness.” (Lasater, p. 107).

Try these affirmations:

There is enough

You are already whole.

In asana, trust that you have enough – enough energy, enough support, enough breath. In pranayama, work with breath retention. Within the space of retention, consider the pause. Rest in the space of greedlessness: neither grasping for inhale or exhale.