- Deepak Chopra, MD.
What is our purpose in life? Is it to amass material wealth at the expense of others? Is it to exhaust ourselves in the endless pursuit of selfish pleasure? Or is it, perhaps, to awaken spiritually to realize our inner potential for unconditional love and joy? If you say ‘yes’ to answer number three than you are opening the possibility of creating a new reality. We are talking about a world in which poverty, hunger, war, violence, crime and much of our physical and psychological suffering, cease to exist. It is a world that we can and are bringing into being through the power of sankalpa, or deep intention.
Sankalpa comes from Sanskrit and means vow, resolution or intention based upon our connection with the highest truth. It is not wishful or magical thinking; nor is it baseless “affirmations.” Instead it comes from a deeper part of ourselves connected with desire, will, purpose and meaning. Swami Satyananda has said, “Anything in life can fail you, except for your sankalpa.” It is that powerful! In Yoga Nidra practice we develop a personal sankalpa which is seeded in the subconscious mind and nurtured through multiple repetitions over time and practice.
Your personal sankalpa is a short positive formula that you must develop carefully for yourself. It should be based on your own natural inclinations, your svadharma. One of my teachers put it this way: “If you are naturally inclined to be an artist, you won’t have much success with a sankalpa that says ‘I will be a rich and successful lawyer.” You should be careful if you tend to be overly perfectionistic. Perhaps an intention to be more accepting and compassionate towards your self is best. “You have already written your sankalpa – love to you.” States Swami Niranjan, “Extend that you into every being, so everyone becomes ‘you’. That is the ideal sankalpa.”
In yoga therapy sankalpa can be used to alleviate negative habits, facilitate healing and overcome inner and outer obstacles in life. Our biggest problem is often the storehouse of negative, self-limiting and defeating beliefs that we have in our subconscious. These have to be brought to the surface through mindful introspection and released. This can be done through the practice of inner self-observation as discussed in our last post http://mindful-yoga.blogspot.com/2011/12/experiencing-inner-silence.html. This can be done alongside the practice of sankalpa where we are training the subconscious in a positive direction.
Ultimately, the sankalpa that you develop should be in harmony with the cosmic will, Dharma, Tao or the Will of God (or whatever trm you prefer.) We must be able to connect with a “higher power” beyond our self-centered ego perspectives in order for it to have true power. The first step then is to open oneself in the silence of meditation and ask for your deeper life’s purpose to be revealed to you. Be quiet and receptive. You may get an answer then and there, or it might come later through a meaningful coincidence. When we attune to our intuition this way we open ourselves to Divine guidance.
One’s sankalpa acts like a bridge between the conscious and subconscious minds. Used within the practice of Yoga Nidra, as developed by Swami Satyananda Saraswati, it opens a new dimension of the personality, new insights and new potentials. “If we have a sankalpa which maintains the motivation and drive,” states Swami Niranjan, “then lethargy will not set in. But the sankalpa has to develop the willpower. Just a positive affirmation will not do anything. We all think we should become this or become that. We need to get rid of a particular habit, nature or obsession. We can understand that rationally, but we cannot apply it due to lack of motivation. Sankalpa fills this vacuum in our life.”
Let your sankalpa be connected with love on the deepest most unconditional level. Love is what Is.
Join me on Saturday, January 7, 2012 for a workshop in developing your sankalpa. It will be held at Plexus Pilates, 6940 Indiana Ave Riverside, CA at 3:00 PM. It will last approx. one hour. Cost is $10.00. Please call (909) 373-6060 to reserve space.
Reference:
http://www.yogamag.net/archives/2005/ajan05/lovesank.shtml
