Ishvara Pranidhana

In English these words of the 5th and last niyama Ishvara Pranidhana mean to surrender up to God.

We are familiar with this niyama when we remember the Biblical exhortation: Thy will not mine be done and Be still and know that I am God.

We begin with the faith in something larger than ourselves. When we are mired in depression or in an overwhelming situation, it brings hope and comfort to believe there is something outside of the world that has everything taken care and believing that God is orchestrating events for our highest and best good. Just thinking those thoughts brings courage to get through the most difficult day.

Even those who don’t believe in a personal God can look to the forces of nature and the Universal principles keeping the cosmos in existence as something bigger and more powerful than the human. Something else is controlling all of this mortal existence. That “something larger” is ishvara.

Then we add the faith that God knows more than we do since we look around at the miracles of the cosmos, nature and the human body and societies and can only wonder how it is all done.

Pranidhana is the surrender, devotion, attention to that God or Divine Source. It is a shift in the mind to look at the bigger picture, the eternal outcomes of a life time of events. One stitch in a sweater does not give the full beauty, depth and perspective as seeing the whole completed sweater. Seeking to control all the events and outcomes of our day can be exhausting and overwhelming. Practicing ishvara pranidhana brings more relaxation and enjoyment to our mind and thus lets us be open to inspiration and creativity. That creativity might be just the thing to solve the overwhelming problem.

Take a breath. Give up the grip of control. Be still and know that I am God. This is ishvara pranidhana