What do you give your pranadana or surrender to?
Perhaps think about that as we go forward in this episode.
What do you give your unwielding attention to?
What are you controlled by?
What are you addicted to?
Ishvara pranadana is the practice of fully surrendering the self to God,
Life force,
To the divine,
To the infinitely intelligent consciousness of the universe,
To source energy,
To whatever chosen word or groupings of words you use to describe the most infinite good,
And then to know that this eternal good lives within you.
It is what you are.
In this episode,
We explore the fifth nyama,
Ishvara pranadana.
We arrive here after the journey through each of the other four nyamas.
Sausha,
Purity.
Santosha,
Contentment.
Tapas,
Or self-discipline.
And Svadhyaya,
Self-study.
Because to know the self through self-study and self-discovery is to know that you are not simply your mind and body.
You are the infinite.
All of the practices of the nyamas lead us here,
Into the knowledge that we surrender and trust in our infinite nature because we are the God source.
We are pureness and love.
We simply need to choose this,
And to choose to live as this.
What do you think of when you hear the word surrender?
Surrender means the surrender of the I,
Or ego,
And the freedom to no longer be governed by the existence of the ego.
Ego is the Latin word for I.
It denotes self-importance,
And when used in the exaggerated sense,
Ego is almost the same thing as conceit.
So some questions for you to ponder.
How does your ego show up?
Can you look at the moments of your day and notice this?
And what does living in your ego look like in your life?
Because in recognizing the moments in which you are held hostage to your ego,
You can then hold the power to choose to release or shed this pattern.
In surrendering the ego to the wondrous nature of what you are,
As the infinite spark of the God source,
In humility,
The idea is to merge with the pureness of the divine.
So this doesn't mean that you have to give up your life and devote yourself only to a deity.
It can mean giving up parts of how you have been living,
And instead to lean into and trust the Godness and goodness that you are,
And the inner wisdom that you hold for right guidance.
In Patanjali's Yoga Sutras,
Surrender means committing one's life and way of living to God,
To the divine,
Or a spiritual focus.
From Sanskrit,
Ishvara means Lord or Supreme God,
And pranadana translates as total surrender or devote.
Surrender is the result of non-attachment,
Of selflessness,
Which is the absence of ego,
And total dedication to self-awareness from moment to moment,
With total trust and acceptance of the present.
Here might be a beautiful moment to talk a little bit about what the notion of God is.
Next,
I share both direct quotes and some concepts taken from the Yoga book,
And author Stephen Sturgess.
It's one of my favorite books on the teachings of the Yoga Sutras,
And there's such a wealth of information and wisdom here that I could not resist but share some of it with you.
You,
The individual soul,
Are not the mind,
Body,
Or senses.
You,
The soul or self,
Are pure consciousness,
Externally existing.
The self is beyond the characteristics of the mind,
Body,
And senses.
It is the self or soul consciousness that activates and gives life to the mind,
The body,
And the senses.
The mind is a very subtle form of matter,
Which appears to be intelligent,
But is actually unintelligent.
The only source of intelligence in the body is the soul that is self-illumined.
The mind and senses do not shine by their own light.
By themselves,
They are lifeless.
The mind and senses receive their life and activity from the soul consciousness.
The soul is always the subject and never the object.
Knowledge,
Which is the true self,
Is veiled by an assumption of the I or ego as an independent entity.
But when the light of knowledge shines,
The ego is seen to be non-existent.
Darkness is an absence of light.
We can keep darkness away in a room by switching on a light,
But the moment we lose our self-awareness and forget the divine that we exist as,
The ego,
With all its desires and attachments,
Keeps us in a prison of ignorance.
When the ego is surrendered,
The mind becomes still.
And in the silent mind,
God,
The divine source,
Reveals itself.
It is the ego that creates division and restlessness in the mind.
And of course,
This is why we encourage the practice of meditation and the ability to focus mind on something alive within us,
Such as our breath,
Our heartbeat,
The present moment,
Sounds we hear,
All of which to anchor us in now.
There is a very simple but beautiful example to illustrate this fact.
When the sun is shining,
It is one and unbroken.
And so let's assume you have a bowl of water and you are looking at the reflection of the sun in the water.
It is beautifully still,
Round,
And radiant.
And then suddenly,
The wind blows and the surface of the water is agitated.
You then see that the sun has been broken.
Even in what is one and indivisible,
The agitated mind seems to create a division.
As long as the subject-object division exists,
The agitation of the mind will continue.
When you begin to be aware of the subject and the object together,
Then the restlessness comes to an end.
And with it,
All our temptations,
Personal desires,
Attachments,
And selfish motives.
So who or what is God?
To truly understand what God is,
We need to transcend the mind.
Mind is matter,
Subject to change.
It is limited and conditioned by thought.
The limited material mind cannot understand God,
Who is unlimited,
Infinite,
And more subtle than mind.
We cannot know and experience God with the mind,
Merely by intellectualizing or reading books about it.
We have to transcend the mind,
The ego,
The intellect,
And let go of all of the concepts we hold of what God or the divine is.
In the beginning of our search for God,
Thinking and reading about God may help us to open ourselves consciously to inner awareness.
But first,
We must honestly and willingly admit that all our knowledge about God has come through the opinions,
The concepts,
And the thoughts of the limited,
Finite human mind.
The mind cannot know that which is beyond the mind.
We have to transcend the mind by quieting it,
By stilling our thoughts.
Again,
Another practice of meditation,
Of mindfulness,
Of quiet silence.
In that stillness,
Where the constant chattering of the mind ceases,
We remain in the conscious awareness of the self,
And we are able to listen attentively.
Some of you may have had this experience,
In fact,
Where you are being present,
You are simply existing.
Maybe you are in self-contemplation,
Or you are in nature,
Just simply being,
Appreciating,
Holding presence.
And maybe in some of those quiet moments,
You actually feel a connection that you have with your inner being,
Your God-ness.
And you can feel this connection,
And it is,
In fact,
An active conversation.
You can be quiet in the mind and take in the wisdom of your inner being.
You can have a conversation with your inner self.
And this is how we practice listening and engaging with our intuitive wisdom.
It is this inner stillness that God reveals itself as inner joy,
Inner peace,
Inner love and wisdom.
Knowing God comes from inner soul realization.
We,
The individual soul,
Are made in the image and likeness of God.
And so when we are consciously aware of this presence of the divine within us,
And as we commune or communicate with this divine energy,
We experience the manifestations and qualities which are Source,
God,
The Divine.
These qualities are divine love,
Divine joy,
Wisdom,
Inner light,
And inner peace.
And I might add another one to this list,
Which is bliss,
Pure bliss.
In deep meditation,
In inner communication with our inner divine,
One is able to experience God as the cosmic sound vibration of Aum.
We are all seeking pure love,
Inner peace,
And ever new joy.
But when we forget,
When we hold ignorance,
When we are not consciously aware of our true nature as the ever existing,
Ever conscious,
Blissful soul within,
We unsuccessfully strive to find peace,
Love,
And joy in what is external to us,
And through the limited mind,
Body,
And senses.
And of course this is this whole sense of striving or yearning for something that can never quite fill us,
Because what we need and truly desire is already within us.
And that's why when I work with clients and we begin a spiritual sojourn,
It's so important and I teach how to go inward for answers and truth,
And also inner peace and wisdom and happiness.
Everything we need is already within us.
One of the takeaways from this episode is that God is not separate and apart from us.
God is not a cruel and vengeful God giving out punishments and diseases to those that have sinned and blessings only to those who are good.
In fact,
God or the divine neither wills nor sends disease as punishment.
God is a loving and healing God.
The whole purpose of the divine is to bring all things to wholeness,
To remind us of our wholeness.
The divine plan is one of renewal,
Restoration,
And perfection.
And you've often heard me say,
You are perfect as you are.
And even as you continue to seek and evolve,
To become more,
To become the better version,
The best version of yourself,
You are still whole.
God did not create us to be diseased.
We were made to be perfect in mind,
Body,
And spirit,
And to be full of love,
Joy,
Peace,
Wisdom,
And health.
There is no warrant in the scriptures for believing that disease is part of God's plan any more than sin is.
God did not create it,
Nor does God or the divine purposefully inflict it upon us.
And perhaps another important takeaway from the episode,
The fact that God made all things good,
And God or the divine is within each and every one of us.
Whether you call this God,
The divine,
Love,
Pure,
Positive energy,
All of this is truth.
And all that is good is from God and in God.
And a few words on truth.
Truth is always positive and creative.
It is the light that is hidden by the ignorance of the ego and selfishness in our hearts.
It is our negative thoughts such as fear,
Anxiety,
Worry,
Anger,
Hatred,
Resentment,
And jealousy that deny the truth that God loves us and that God is part of the life in us,
Working in us for our good.
In a recent live session,
We had this conversation on Ishvara Pranadana and how to surrender to our infinite consciousness.
And I shared the question with everyone that I want to also offer you here.
Define your highest self.
So if you think of surrender to a oneness,
An infinite consciousness,
As the surrender of devotion to living as your highest self,
Your godliness,
Then what are the qualities,
The ways of being,
The wisdom that is your highest self?
When you define highest self,
You begin to see a template,
An example,
A way of being that you can align with by choice.
And that's the beauty of this practice,
To know all of what makes your highest self,
Your infinite,
Your eternal,
Is then to have a means of being this by choice.
That would be another huge takeaway from this episode.
It is the understanding of this truth that there is only good and light.
And we may at times choose differently because each one of us chooses with free will.
We can choose darkness instead of light.
And we do.
But there doesn't have to be a darkness that we choose or a suffering.
We can continue to choose light.
We can continue to choose love and kindness and truth and all of what you define your highest self to be.
Ishvara pranadana is the spiritual act of surrendering the self fully to the divine and trusting the wisdom of the divine to guide the life and actions of the self in order to live in the world in a most beautiful and perfect way.
And remember,
You can choose in the very next moment the light again,
Even when you do find yourself in darkness.
In yoga philosophy,
One does not have to choose a personal deity of focus in order to practice surrender.
Rather,
An idea or spiritual wisdom that gives one inspiration.
In this way,
We choose our spiritualness.
It's always good.
It's always the highest ideal we can imagine.
I think this is a beautiful way to begin to cultivate the moments of your life and how you choose to live.
Of deep and conscious surrender,
Of trust in the universe and your inner good,
Your inner wisdom that lives within you,
And your life to be exactly what you need and more.
So again,
I ask the question,
What will you now give your pranadana or surrender to?
Could you surrender more to the infinite divine?
Could you surrender to living as your spiritual or highest self?
Could you actively choose this?
And if you did,
What would follow?
Think of surrender as receiving life as it shows up before you.
It is the surrender of grace into the love of the divine that you hold with your heart.
That you exist as.
You surrender to the highest source of love and light that lives within you.
And you remember that this is not a passive ideal.
Rather,
An opportunity to live a thoughtful,
Compassionate,
Beautiful life.
You must choose this path with your free will.
The path of grace and love,
Kindness and goodness,
Enables a fully reverent life.
For all of the places of love and conviction that you hold,
Let it always be this ideal.
To live as divine consciousness in all of the waking moments of your life.
And it may be helpful to use a mantra to remind you of this.
Some of my favorite mantras are this.
I surrender to love.
I choose love.
I am love.
Surrender is to find yourself,
Your true self.
And to honor the places in your life where you need to remember that your home,
Your sanctuary,
Travels with you.
The moment that you surrender to everything that is of and for your highest good.
And let me share one beautiful practice here that is your dedication.
That is a way to dedicate to the divine.
A practice that reminds you of your infinite grace and wisdom is to connect with your heart before making a decision.
This ensures that you make the best choices for your growth and for your life.
And I always appreciate hearing from you.
So as you practice this dedication,
Please share with me what it's meant to you and how it's changed the focus of what you decide and live.
Ishvara pranadana encourages us to set ourself free.
To engage with the ephemeral,
The transient.
Because each moment is just that,
Brief,
Sudden,
Fleeting,
Yet rich in its offering to us.
When you practice and live the teachings of Ishvara pranadana,
You live the sacred in each moment.
You look to it.
You surrender what you think it should be.
And instead,
You relish in what you find.
This is how each passing moment can be witnessed in the beautiful nature of eternity.
Of what is,
And also what is possible.
Remember that the supposition of Ishvara pranadana is that there is a divine force at work in our lives.
Ultimately,
This guideline or ancient teaching invites us to surrender our ego.
To open our heart and accept the higher purpose of our being.
As the ego puts down the fight.
The need to no longer need to compare or compete with others.
And instead,
To focus on being the best.
The god-like representation of who we are.
And then to observe how we are supported and nourished in these amazing ways along our journey.
I wish for you a beautiful practice of true surrender.
Thank you so much for joining me here.
Sending you great love for your journey ahead.
This is Dorothy Sonnori Juno.
Namaste.
Thank you so much for joining me in this episode of the Wisdom Podcast.
To hear more,
Please check out the other episodes here.
As well as my guided meditations,
Including my signature prose meditations and I AM Mantras.
And as well,
The meditations to guide you into a deep and restorative sleep.
Please also visit me on social media and say hello.
And a special thank you to Insight Timer for this beautiful space to share all of my love.
Allow yourself to go within,
To access your inner wisdom.
And to live this.
Awaken your authentic power.
Live your truth and be love.
Namaste.
