“I would rather live my life as if there is a God, and die to find out there isn’t, Than to live my life as if there isn’t, and die to find out there is.”
~ Albert Camus
This morning’s sunrise came as quite a surprise! I thought it was going to be too cloudy, but there came the big red orb out from behind the haze. The sunrise seems to tell my tale quite nicely, for I too was once in a haze …..
Today, we are asked to contemplate on the 10th and final jewel of yoga: The observance of Isvara Pranidhana, or celebration of the divine. This Niyama asks that we “lay all of our actions at the feet of God.” This principle falls very closely at hand to the 7th limb of yoga, or Dhyana, which is meditation on the divine. It is a state that is necessary to reach the final limb of yoga, Samadhi, or union with the divine.
I read Debra Adele’s chapter on Isvara Pranidhana, but it didn’t completely strike home. That’s because Isvara Pranidhana is personal. Her relationship with God is not my relationship with God. And I think this to be the case for every Yogi. You are asked to seek.
My parents aren’t real religious folks. I’m not even sure they are spiritual. And as much as I write about spirituality here, conversations with them that tend towards the topic of God, usually get dead-ended pretty quickly.
When I was growing up, I asked to attend church with my next door neighbors. But I think the strictness (ie. lack of fun and celebration of the divine) got in the way. At some point, I stopped enjoying it. I think it was when we got too old for the youth minister, and had to endure the hour adult sermon.
Going into college, if you were to ask me my thoughts on God, I might have told you I was atheist, which wikipedia defines as the rejection of belief in the existence of deities or a a single deity-godhead. Or, I think on occasion, I’ve said I was agnostic, which wiki says is the belief that – the existence or non-existence of any deity, as well as other religious and metaphysical claims—are unknown or unknowable. According to the philosopher William L. Rowe, in the popular sense, an agnostic is someone who neither believes nor disbelieves in the existence of a deity or deities, whereas a theist believes and an atheist disbelieves.
Like many modern day people, the first time I would come to ever really contemplate *God* would be when my brother died in a car accident all those years ago. Many who lose a child or sibling will walk away asking how *God* could do such a thing, to be so cruel. Yet, I couldn’t help but marvel as the years went on, that my brother’s death had been fortold to me by a Tarot card reader. It didn’t answer the why for me, but it did ask me to question the existence of some greater plan that is accessible by those who seek.
As Napoleon Hill would say, we only seem to “pray” when the going gets tough. But to again quote Yogi Bhajan:
“If you don’t see God in all, you don’t see God at all”
I had another encounter with fore-told death when a good friend would pass away back in 2009. Not soon after, I would, by the grace of God, happen to read “Autobiography of a Yogi”. Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda’s life exemplies everything about Isvara Pranidhana. His profound search and belief in the divine is awe-inspring. I finished that book, and was left with no doubt that there is a divine force greater than ourselves.
The study of yoga will force you to begin questioning the divine nature of being. There is no way around it. As you begin the path inward, through Tapas (self-discipline) and Svadyaya (self-study), you will find yourself wondering about your purpose in this world, and your relationship with the divine. As you begin to quiet your monkey mind, and surrender your worries on the mat, you’ll be amazed at the powerful joy that will flood in. The power and love evoked of two simple letters – OM – brings tears to my eyes every time.
Yoga does not ask that we hold any sort of religious belief. Yoga simply asks that we open our minds first, then our hearts, to the divine. It asks that we seek our truth.
To quote Debra Adele: “Surrender invites us to be active participants in our life, totally present and fluid with each moment, while appreciating the magnitude and mystery of what we are participating in.”
Samadhi comes through intellectual questioning, seeking. Samadhi comes from gaining understanding. Samadhi comes from belief. “Ultimately this guideline invites us to surrender our egos, open our hearts and accept the higher purpose of our being.”
If you have the courage to totally “lay all of your actions at the feet of God”, your life will become miraculous. “As we discern where our path lies and then surrender to that awareness, we will begin to taste freedom and joy in a way we never dreamed possible.”
Let the mat become a church of sorts. Contemplate. Fill your heart with joy, and watch God flow in.
I feel *him* every single morning I sit, practicing Isvara Pranidhana, reflecting on the sunrise.
Namaste.
