By Swami Satrupananda

We teach this saying to our children to help them be resilient to hurtful words. 

Sticks and stones may break my bones
but words shall never hurt me.

The reality is that words hurt.  They don’t only hurt children, they hurt everyone.  Words are powerful.  Unfortunately, they are sometimes used to be hurtful. As children we are taught to say nice words to others.  

But what do you say to yourself?  Too few of the thoughts you think are positive, encouraging and uplifting.  Instead, you worry about the future, remember hurtful memories or complain about the present.  Perhaps you compare yourself to others or wish for things you don’t have.  Your mind harasses with you with all these thoughts. 

This was my main takeaway from my first meditation retreat.  I had graduated from the university.  I was taking a semester off before starting graduate school.  Travelling in Southeast Asia, I decided to take a 10-day meditation retreat.  I was in a peaceful, tropical monastery, being fed delicious vegetarian meals and receiving ancient teachings.  It seemed like it was great.  

But during my meditations, I was in hell.  My mind harassed me relentlessly.  It reminded me of my most hurtful memories and biggest fears for the future.  While I was horrified by what my mind was doing, I was grateful to be aware of it. 

Even though your mind can harass you, your mind is not being bad.  It is doing exactly what it is designed to do.  Your mind is designed to distract you from the truth of your own existence.  Your existence is the One Divine Existence that has always existed and will always exist.  The One Divine Existence is the basis of existence for everyone and everything.  

In some way, you can give your mind a bit of credit.  It has the enormous job of blocking you from the Truth of your Existence.  You are Existence Itself.  How powerful is your mind and your thoughts that it can block you from Existence Itself?

Yet while your mind is doing a formidable job, you are not enjoying its harassment.  As a human being, you have the incredible ability to actively choose what you think.  You can even choose to know your own Self which is beyond your mind.  You can experience and live in the knowingness and beingness of your own Divine Existence.  Yoga is the methodology that gets you there.

To manage your harassing mind, yoga highly recommends mantra repetition: 

Mananaat traayate iti mantra.h

Mantra is that which protects and uplifts one who contemplates it.

Yes, you need protection from your mind.  Mantra is a Sanskrit phrase that names your own Divine Existence.  Repeating your Divine Name, again and again, will protect you from the thoughts you normally think.  It is a huge upgrade to what you normally repeat. 

From repeating your Divine Name, you get more than protection.  Researchers have shown that positive thinking can reduce your chance of a heart attack, lower your blood pressure and lengthen your life span.  Positive thinking also gives you more creativity, greater problem-solving skills and clearer thinking.  

Mantra repetition gives you all these benefits and more.  You are not merely thinking positively.  You are calling your own Divine Name.  What happens when you call someone’s name?  They respond.  When you repeat your own Divine Name, your own Divine Existence shows up. 

Sanskrit is a mystical language that specializes in names for your own Divine Existence.  There are millions of Sanskrit mantras that you can repeat.  The most powerful mantra is one from a Meditation Master who knows their own Divine Existence.  They repeated the mantra to come to know their own Divine Existence.  

When they share the mantra with you, they put their blessings into it.  This is called a chaitanya mantra, an enlivened mantra.  The mantra is enlivened with the Master’s own knowing of the One Divine Existence.  Swami Nirmalananda is such a Meditation Master. She gives you an enlivened mantra.

The mantra only protects and uplifts you if you repeat it.  So your job is to repeat mantra, all the time.  With our mantra, you use it for meditation and also throughout your day.  You can repeat the mantra when you get out of bed in the morning.  Repeat the mantra while you brush your teeth and bathe.  Repeat mantra while you eat and drink.  Repeat mantra while you drive.  Repeat mantra when chatting with your friend.  Repeat mantra while you work.

You have proven that you can think while doing all of these things.  Now your task is to repeat your own Divine Name, the mantra, instead.  While this is a simple task, it is not necessarily easy.  But it is worth the effort to remember to repeat your own Divine Name, the mantra the Guru gives you.  The mantra protects you and uplifts you to the knowing of your own Divine Existence.

By Swami Satrupananda

Do more.  Try harder.  I was given this advice as the key to success in life.  If you want to get a promotion at work, take on more responsibility.  If you want to improve your golf game, practice more.  If you are struggling with establishing a new lifestyle habit, try harder.  This is the notion that by doing more you’ll be more.  

However, yoga approaches it differently and says that surrender is essential.  

Surrender can be a scary word.  We associate surrender with waving the white flag, an admission of defeat.  Surrender can also be reluctantly accepting the current undesirable circumstances.  This is not what the yogis meant by surrender.  Throughout history, yogis have been people who were not satisfied with their personal status quo.  They wanted something different from life.  They applied themselves to a greater goal, even though it went against the cultural norms.  

So what is yogic surrender?

To understand yogic surrender, let’s compare the underlying principles between modern success and yogic attainment.  In the West, we are taught that by doing more you’ll be more.  

In contrast, yoga is based on the principle that you are already great, whole and complete.  You are not merely great, you are Greatness itself.  Any word you use to describe the whole of your being is limited. You are that Divine Essence which is beyond words.  The ancient yogis called it “That”.

The problem is, your Greatness is hidden inside, just behind your mind.  Since you don’t know your own Greatness, you feel lost, small, unworthy and alone.  You look for a replacement.  You construct identities around the work you do, the relationships you are in and the places you live.  Your mind works hard at creating and maintaining these identities. 

This is where yogic surrender comes in.  You are already Greatness; you are That. To discover That, you surrender your constructed identities.  You give up the notion that you are merely what you do, who you know and where you live.  You embrace that you are That.  You see and be your own That-ness, and you see it in everyone and everything.  Baba Muktananda described it:

Surrender means to become one with That, to merge with That.

You let go of your idea of being small and step into your Greatness.  You surrender to your Greatness.  It’s a great promise but not necessarily easy.  Letting go of your constructed identities can be difficult.  They are so familiar.  And they are so painful.

A few years ago, I had a busy mind at the beginning of a meditation period.  My mind was comparing me to others, and I was ending up on the bottom.  I was feeling small.  My constructed identity of being someone valuable and worthy was being threatened.  My mind wanted to do more and try harder to patch up my shaky constructed identity.

But I couldn’t find a solution that made me feel like it would work.  I was scared.  If I gave up this constructed identity, who would I be?  I didn’t know.  Yet I did know the instructions that my Guru gave me for meditation.  I followed them and repeated mantra.  As I continued to repeat mantra, a shift happened inside.  I settled deeper into my That-ness.  Then I could see that I was holding onto the constructed identity.  The act of comparing myself was what was keeping me small.  So I surrendered the comparison.  I surrendered my smallness, and I got my Greatness.

We can learn about surrendering from a way to catch a monkey.  In India, they take a jar with a wide base and a narrow opening.  The opening would be just wide enough for monkey to slide its hand into the jar.  The jar was then tied with a rope to something solid.  A shiny coin or piece of food was placed in the jar.  A monkey would pass by the jar and become interested in the treat inside.  It slipped its hand into the jar and grabbed the lucky prize.  Now, however, the fist, grabbing the treat, was too big to go through the jar’s narrow opening.  The monkey was trapped.  The monkey had a simple way of getting free.  Just let go of the little treat.  

But the monkey holds on tight and starts screaming.  They gave up their freedom for a little treat.  

The same is true for us.  We are the ones holding onto our limited constructed identities.  And the price we pay is our freedom.  We give up our Greatness.

So how do you develop your ability to surrender? Swami Muktananda tells us:

Meditate more and surrender will come.

Swami Muktananda, From the Finite to the Infinite, page 322

Every time you meditate, you experience your own Greatness.  The more you experience and know your own Greatness, the easier it is to surrender to your Greatness.  Then you abide in your Greatness all the time.

So meditate more, not to be more, but to surrender to your Greatness.  It can be a tricky balance to play.  I recommend meeting and studying with one who has fully surrendered and lives from the knowing of their Greatness within.  They know the yogic path to surrender and want to share it with you.  Come meet Satguru Nirmalananda.  She will help you surrender to your Greatness.