The Importance of Faith and Surrender

When we begin to practice ishwara pranidhana and feel that we are like children held in the protective and loving hand of God, or lying in the lap of the Universal Mother, we can begin to let go, flow with the natural order of things, and put our trust in the care of the divine will which knows what we need better than we do ourselves. With this surrender we will no longer feel the need to struggle and strain to amass wealth we do not actually need, because we will have the faith that Ishwara will provide. Then, like the leaves of the tree in autumn, our old patterns of thinking and behaving, which depend on our insecurities, doubts and fears for their expression, will begin to fall away, allowing new positive shoots of hope and acceptance to emerge and bloom into beautiful flowers of love and compassion for our fellow travellers, and for the environment. – Swami Vibhooti Saraswati

The path of spiritual transformation cannot be purely intellectual.  Reasoning is important to a point, but to open to our true self-nature requires going beyond.  We have to be willing and able to go out our minds.  We have to accept that there is a higher power operating in and through this universe and us.  We might call it Higher Mind or Universal Intelligence.  Reason cannot tell us where we come from or why we are here.  Despite all of our scientific knowledge life is still a huge mystery.  It is a wonderful gift and blessing which we tend to take for granted.

The Yoga path is about accepting, appreciating and utilizing this gift to its maximum potential.  There is more to life than indulging our senses, worrying about finances, struggling to get ahead or even raising families.  There is a possibility inherent within us of unfolding our spiritual potential, rising above this world like lotus flowers above a muddy pond.  As Wayne Dyer says, “We are not our bodies, our possessions or our careers.  Who we are is Divine Love and that is infinite.”  The details of our lives are important.  They form a basis from which we can grow but we can’t regard them as ends in themselves.  They are temporary manifestations of an infinite and eternal creative process. 

Samadhi is the essence of Yoga.  It is a state of higher awareness in which all aspects of our beings are both completely integrated and transcended.  In Samadhi our ordinary consciousness is transformed into Unity consciousness, inner silent knowing beyond thought.  According to the Yoga Sutras it has its own developmental stages which are cultivated through consistent practice, abhyasa, and nonattachment, vairagya.  Through this process we go from identification with the mind and body to bliss and pure I-am-ness.  Eventually even the awareness of “I am” is transcended. 

In order to enter into these higher states Patanjali tells us that we need to develop a firm intention through faith, determination, commitment and intelligence.  “To one with keen intent it (Samadhi) comes quickly.  The time necessary to develop success depends on whether practice is mild, medium or intense.”  The less we allow ourselves to be distracted with extraneous concerns and the more willing we are to engage in practice the sooner we can enter into Oneness.  This can be daunting for those of us caught up in our worldly responsibilities, with our habituated to attending to other concerns.  Fortunately there is something else we can rely on to help out.  As Patanjali states, “Success can also be attained through surrender to the Supreme Consciousness, “Ishwara-pranidhana.” 

     Actually firm intent and surrender are not exclusive but mutual aspects of practice.  Without commitment there can be no progress and without surrender there is a danger of intellectualizing the whole process.  Our egos can step in and hijack our spiritual practice so that it simply becomes an exercise in “spiritual materialism.”  Surrender means recognizing that there is a greater power inside of us which flows through everything.  It is God’s presence in everything and everywhere.  We ourselves are contained within this infinite loving awareness.  It is always here nurturing us, guiding us and protecting us if we are willing to pay attention.  According to the Yoga tradition this presence is designated by and attuned to through the mantra “Om.”  (You can learn more about this mantra is a earlier post http://mindful-yoga.blogspot.com/2011/06/attuning-to-infinite.html)