Getting Yoga Ready (10) - Ishwara Pranidana

It has taken me the longest to write about this last Niyama which is also the final and ultimate step of the yama niyama series. For everything else -right from satya to svadyaya, it takes a little bit of will, a little mindfulness, some intellectual discrimination and a lot of persistence. However, for Ishwara Pranidana, all it takes is complete surrender of the self, which means completely letting go of one's ego.

Ego:

In vedantic terms, ego is the identification of the Self with the body, mind and intellect, whereby we become this small and often petty "individual", whereas our true nature is that of infinite existence conscious bliss. In other words, anything that we say after "I am" is an expression of the ego.

This ego is the glue that binds the self or the soul to this body, mind and intelligence (BMI). Because of this, comes the feeling of me and mine. because of this non apprehension of our true nature comes all the related pain and pleasure of the body, joys and sorrows of the mind and likes and dislikes of the intellect. 

It is because of this ego that we want things to go "our" way and we struggle every moment of our existence to arrange our lives as we want it and feel miserable anyways because it is futile to control the external situations.

When and why do we surrender?

Surrender is done in the state of utter defeat. When things are no longer under our control, when all our efforts have failed miserably, when there is no way out of the current situation, when all escape plans have failed, we throw in the towel and surrender. Well, atleast that's what is done in wars. In our day to day lives, we come to a state of acceptance when we come to realize that things are beyond our control. 

Taking it a little further, once the we get tired of running behind pleasures and running away from the pain, exhausted after panting behind sense gratification, there comes a stage when we have existential crisis. Why am I here? What am I doing? Why am I doing all these mindless activities? What is the purpose of this life? When there arises a burning urge to know the answer for these questions, we take the first step towards surrender.

The Ultimate Surrender

Within every one of us, resides a higher self -call it the conscious or the brain or the intellect -the small voice that knows what is right and wrong for that particular situation. The voice that prompts us to do certain things and prevents us from doing certain things. It is this voice that tells us not to eat junk, to be kind to the person who is venting his anger at us, to help the stranger, to exercise, to be disciplined and all other things like that. Heeding to this voice is tough, because it is HARD to live our life by what this voice says. And it doesn't stop there. We suffer internally and sometimes externally too, when we fail to pay heed to this voice. It taunts us with a vengeance and prances about saying "I told you so", when we come slinking back, with our tail tucked between our legs.

However, the more we start heeding to this voice, the more power it gains. Following the yamas and niyamas are a way of bringing the mind to heed to our own inner voice. Once we are firmly established in the yamas and niyamas, our personality integrates. Our thoughts, words and actions come together. There is no conflict between the mind and intellect. We now come to be established in Yoga.

The inner equipment thus coming to a poise, is now ready to contemplate on the Truth. With this clarity of intellect and purity of mind, silence prevails within. In this silence, it dawns upon us that there is nothing left for us to do, but to surrender to the great power that propels this universe. The small and petty individual will now gets ready to be an instrument of the Supreme Will. With the ego slowly dissolving into the silence, all the wants and needs and likes and dislikes also goes away and what remains is just pure existence conscious bliss. 

To reach there, to experience this state that is beyond the mind and intellect, we need to surrender -completely and with conviction -not as a helpless victim of circumstances but as a person of calm and clear mind, integrated personality and intellectually convinced of the Supreme. 

To what do we surrender? And how?

It takes but a moment, to realize that there is nothing else but the Lord in anything and everything. There is nothing else but Him. Everything is but His manifestation. Call Him Lord / God/ Master / Nature / Supreme Power or whatever.

I surrender to this Lord, who makes the seed burst out of the soil. Who makes the leaves spring out of the stem, the bud open out into the flower, the bees that come just at the right time to pollinate the flower, the flower that dies to become fruit and the fruit that falls to grow back again from the seed within.

I surrender to this Lord, who enlivens this body. While I may eat, it is He who digest the food. While I may breathe, it is He who oxygenates my blood. While I may sleep, it is He who keeps the heart pumping. While I may stand, it is He who is my spine. While I may work, it is He who powers my limbs.

I surrender to this Lord, who gives sorrow to know what joy is. Who is darkness, to show us the light. Who is fear, so that we know His love. Who is cruel and also kind. Who is violence and also peace. Who is the doubt and also the answer. Who is death, so that we know immortality. Who is many, so that we know He is one and all that there is.

I surrender to this Lord, whose is the creation, the created, the creator and the one who sees this creation. I surrender to that Lord, who is hunger, food, the act of eating and the one who eats. I surrender to that Lord who is the aggressor, the aggressed and the act of aggressing. I surrender to that Lord, for He alone is the subject and the object.

I surrender to that lord, for He is the one who is surrendering and He is also the one who is protecting. There is nothing else but Him, no one else save Him. He is the absolute and he is the relative. He is the one and He is the many. He is beginning, middle and end. The cause and effect. He is the only doer. He is the supreme will. 

When there is nothing save Him, when He is right here in my bosom, when I am but Him, where is the place for fear? Where is the question of pride? Where is the room for doubts? Where is the thought of anxiety. 

With this surrender, the ego finally dissolves and the Self shines. He is all love, all knowledge, all consciousness and all truth. He alone is and That Thou Art.

Om...peace...peace...peace.