Beginning Sankalpa: How to Get Started

[Guest guest]

Namaste all: as we begin a new year and new sankalpas from Maa and

Swami, let us review the process by which be begin our sankalpa. As we

begin any worship or sankalpa, we remember our goal, ONENESS, and then

we structure the steps to obtain that goal. In our tradition, all of

life is a meditation. If we live all life with that awareness, then we

will be sadhus: truly efficient beings, God's instruments on this

Earth, radiating goodness and purify, every action uplifting all life.

This following is an excerpt from Maa and Swami's text: TATTVA JNANA,

available from Devi Mandir website.

Reflect how we can structure our lives, our every breath, our inward

and outward sadhana, to achieve our goal.

 

" YOGA defines the purpose of life as the perfection of union between

Purusa and Prakrti, and establishes 8 steps in the process of that

attainment.

There are 8 steps in the path of Yoga

 

1. Yama: means to take control. Define the goal and define the path

2. Niyama means make a discipline. Budget our time and budget our energy

3. Asana means to make the body sit still. Every movement of the body

is a reflection of the movement of the mind.

There are 4 postures conducive for meditation:

Padmasana is the full lotus

Swastikasana or Siddhasana means interlocking your feet with the heel

in the anus

Virasana is sitting on your hamstrings or sitting back on your heels

Badrasana is the diamond pose

 

4. Pranayama means control of the breath

 

There are 5 kinds of breath

Prana is inhalation

Apana is exhalation

Udana is bringing the breath up

Sama is holding it absolutely still and equalized

Vyana is an involuntary expulsion

 

There are 3 phases to each breath:

Puraka is inhalation

Kumbhaka is retention

Recaka is expulstion

 

The classical Pranayama ratio is 1:4:2

 

5. Pratyahara means to bring the senses inside to a point of focus

6. Dharana means contemplation. In contemplation there are three:

a subject

an object

and a relationship

 

7. Dyana means meditation. In meditation there are only 2:

a subject

an object

The relationship is so intense that it is intuitively understood.

There is no name by which to call it.

8. Samadhi means the perfection of union

 

THERE IS ONLY ONE

 

 

Jai Maa jai Swami

 

vishweshwar