Īśvara Praṇidhāna is surrendering oneself to God (the supreme cosmic energy/soul). If I tie it into my upbringing, saying the “Our Father” on repeat as Catholics are taught to do… this ties into the “thy kingdom come thy will be done” portion of that prayer. In essence what this observance asks is for us to accept life as it is, with the understanding that God is the “ruler of the kingdom” and God’s will is perfect. It is understanding that I belong to universal energy, you belong to universal energy, all life is not our own, but gifted by the universal energy. If that energy decides to remove itself from your body, down you crumble into a heap of decomposing rubbish. Like a light bulb removed from it’s power source it fails to be useful or serve it’s purpose. In yoga the inner light of our soul is called puruṣa. Surrender is accepting the intelligent design of nature and all that is.
“I am thine; all is thine; Thy will be done.”
-Sri Swami Satchidananda
Every time I crack open an anatomy and physiology book and start reading about all the parts I am made of and processes that are happening within me, I am amazed. I’m amazed because I have no control over much of what goes on and yet everything knows it’s function, knows how to do it, and collaborates so well with all of the other parts to keep the machine that I inhabit running smoothly. I’m amazed because every part is so important to the whole. I’m amazed because it’s in effect a microcosm of the macrocosm and the design can be seen in society as a whole. I’m surprised that doctors are not running for politics. Given they understand what it takes for the community within a healthy body to operate so brilliantly, one would think that they could write policy that mirrors this design and get this national body running as such.
Surrender is the admittance that you are not in control of so much of your life. You cannot control the way others act. You cannot control the weather. You cannot control your fortune, at least not completely. You, alone, cannot control the environment. You cannot control nature. Most have a hard time controlling their own mind. Hell, I can’t even control the way my hair wants to go sometimes… these curls have a mind of their own.
The AA serenity prayer is an exercise in the practice of surrender:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will;
that I may be reasonable happy and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen.
– ‘Serenity Prayer’ By Reinhold Niebuhr
Jesus’ crucifixion was an exercise in surrender. Mother Theresa’s life of service was in observance of surrender. Many great individuals lived lives of surrender and sacrifice to something larger than themselves, a higher ideal. Though sacrifice is another topic for another day…. Nothing great comes without it.
Surrender can come in the form of giving up bad habits life, overeating, drinking alcohol, toxic relationships, toxic behaviors, etc. It often is referenced as “letting go” of all that does not serve you and this is certainly one form of surrender and it does elevate you because it is a slight recognition of what is true… that we are part of the divine so when we treat ourselves badly or allow others to treat us badly we are sinning against our own divine nature and that of another, which is really all that sin is. Sin means to miss the mark… an old archery term meaning you missed the point or the target. When we sin, we forget the universal energy that flows throughout all life and we treat certain aspects of life in a less than desirable manner.
“All morality is founded upon this concept; namely, that what increases the life force is good, and what diminishes it is bad. There are acts that must not be committed, because they diminish it, create disorder and destroy the social order as much as the human order.”
– Alassane Ndaw
Often surrender comes in the form of not snapping back when someone snaps at you. It is taking the high road, not the “eye for an eye” approach. It’s accepting that that person is who they are and you have the ability only to choose who you are. It is accepting everyone for who they are, meeting them where they are, and assisting them if you can knowing that the energy that lives in you is the same energy that lives within them. Because our own lives are sacred, theirs are too. It is recognizing the shared oneness among us rather than the things we use as excuses to divide us.
Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that we cannot do anything unless we are gifted the energy of the divine to do it. We cannot think, eat, run, learn, drink, dance, etc. unless God wills it… unless the energy that runs through our being remains intact. As soon as the energy moves on, we are nothing. The idea of yoga is to be free from the individual egoic identity that believes it is the reason for everything and transcend it so that one’s identity rests in the larger universal energy rather than the small individual structure that we generally call “I” on a regular basis. Jesus often was quoted as saying, “I and my Father are one.” When we identify as the universal energy, we are no longer divided… there is no separate “I” and “them,” there is only the energy that runs through all living form, which gives it life. There is no “mine” and “yours.” There is no reason for disturbance since there is no “you” to offend or “I” to take offense. When we find this place… through surrendering our own ideas about what should be, what could be, what I deserve, what you deserve, etc…. we have entered “the Kingdom of Heaven” as Jesus spoke of, where all there is is peace and love for everything that surrounds us because once again we can recognize it as our Self.