Ishvara Pranidhana: Surrender To God

This fall, I've been a part of a yoga teacher training program at the Blue Turtle yoga studio here in Charleston. During the program, we've studied the classic yoga text The Yoga Sutras of Patajali. I'm not in agreement with everything Patanjali says, but the Yoga Sutras are undeniably a huge part of what has become modern-day yogic practice and philosophy. In the Sutras, Patanjali outlines 5 Yamas & 5 Niyamas, which are observances concerning how you treat others and oneself. They include non-violence, non-stealing, self-study, contentment, and other ethical and spiritual practices.

As a part of the teacher program, we had to choice one yama or niyama, reflect on how it influences or impacts our lives, and then write an essay on our reflections. I chose the 5th Niyama, Ishvara Pranidhana, which is translated as "surrender to God" (I'll get to what I mean by the word "God" in just a moment...). This is the essay I wrote, which I thought would be interesting for my readers on this blog. Hope you enjoy.

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My choice of Ishvara Pranidhana really began several months ago. It didn’t start as any formal practice or any adherence to Patjali’s eight limbs. It simply began as a period of my life when I’ve been doing a lot of letting go: letting go of out-dated ideas about who I thought I was, letting go of worry about how I may appear in the eyes of others, and letting go of a lot of mental habits that weren’t very healthy for me any longer. In place of all the anxiety and self-doubt I felt about all these things, there began to emerge a peaceful calm within me that I had only experienced before in very fleeting moments.

When it came time to pick a yama or niyama to file all this letting go under, I was a little stumped. I thought Aparigraha (Non-clinging) might be appropriate, or maybe Santosa (Contentment). Then it just clicked for me that “surrender to God” was the best way to express what has been happening in my life.

I guess that it’s important for me to explain first what I mean by “God”. Though I was raised in the Christian church (the Southern Baptist Church, to be exact), I no longer believe in God as an elderly white man with long beard who lives in the clouds. My vision of the Divine is much more flavored by Taoist, Buddhist, and Yogic worldviews. I try to see God in the laws of nature, in the still silence of meditation, in the brightness of people’s eyes. To me, God isn’t the big scary law-giver or even the protective father figure, but is a force that is within and throughout all the beings in the Universe. The Universe itself – Life itself – is God. As a spiritual mentor of mine likes to say, “surrender to God” simply means “surrender to what IS.”

So, if my practice recently has been to surrender to God, what had I been surrendering myself to before? It was a collection of memories and self-spun stories that I carried around in my mind all day long, the monologues I silently performed while brushing my teeth or while stuck in traffic, all the worries I had about where I was, where I was going, what I’m doing with my life. It with the thin layer of projections, judgments, fears, and fantasy that I placed on top of everything and everyone, keeping me from seeing things and people as they really are. It is what Hindus and Buddhists refer to as maya, the great illusion.

All this sounds a little philosophical, but as I’ve tried to put this surrender into practice, I’ve felt myself so much more at peace with myself and with others. Instead of spending my morning shower time worrying about what I have to do at work today, I try to focus in on the leafy green trees I see through the bathroom window and the sound of the water rushing down. In yoga class, I try not to compare myself to the students around me, but instead try to really feel what it is like to move in and out of poses, to listen to the music of my breath coming in and out. These may sound like simple things to surrender to, but I’ve been finding that God can be found in all sorts of simple things: like sunsets, the purring of a cat curled up in your lap, the smell of wild flowers, the moments we share with the people we really love.

As I’m learning to enjoy these simple pleasures, I find that I’m enjoying my life so much more than when I was desperately trying to “figure out” my life - trying to nail it down, pin it down, sum it up. God, Tao, Reality, What Is – whatever you call it – is a constant state of flux and can never be given a final definition. Since we are a part of God/Tao/Reality/What Is, we too can never be given a final definition. When I surrender to these simple joys, I get the feeling of flowing with the current of Life’s river, getting carried away by the flow of the Tao. When we’re in that flow, when we stop trying to swim upstream, it gives us the amazing freedom to live each moment of our lives without the constant intrusion of the past or the future. Instead we can live in the present moment, the moment where God lives.

This practice is obviously a work-in-progress. I’m still figuring how to live in the present moment while still making appropriate plans for the future. I still obviously get stressed, get frustrated, get worried, get depressed, get lonely, and all of that. But just as with seated meditation, when you learn to come back to the breath after getting caught up in a train of thought, I think I’m learning to come back to Reality, back to God, whenever I get caught up in a story or an illusion. Ultimately, that’s the practice: to keep coming back, no matter how many times we get distracted by maya, to the truth of What Is and the truth of who we really are.

~ Matthew Foley