Sunday, April 3, 2011

Ishvara Pranidhana: Why yoga is not a religion, but is more than that

I have learnt a lot at Kino's workshop this past weekend. For me, one of the highlights of the workshop was her Yoga Sutra lecture on Saturday afternoon. She covered a lot of ground during this lecture, and rather than give a blow-by-blow account of every single thing that she said, I'll just focus here on the concept of Ishvara Pranidhana, which she discussed at some length during her lecture. 

Ishvara Pranidhana is commonly translated as "Surrender to God", and is one of the five niyamas or spiritual observances of yoga, the other four being Saucha (cleanliness), Santosha (contentment), Tapas (Perseverance), and Svadhyaya (Study of One's Self).

Although it is commonly translated as "Surrender to God", one does not need to worship a particular god or deity in order to practice Ishvara Pranidhana. What one needs to do, however, is to surrender or devote oneself to something bigger than oneself. This something can be the Christian God, Allah, Krishna, or something non-personified such as a particular conception of Divinity or the Universe. In fact, Kino observes, one might not even have a name for this something, and that's totally fine. What is important is that one make a conscious decision at some point to devote one's actions to something that is bigger than oneself. According to Kino, Ishvara Pranidhana is so central to self-realization that Guruji once said (I'm paraphrasing), "There can be no yoga without surrender to Divinity."

This really resonates with my experience of the yoga practice. As a Buddhist, I really feel that over the years, my yoga practice has helped me to become a more effective person and, by extension, a more effective Buddhist (for more details, see this post). For me, the practice has given me an invaluable set of tools with which to understand and grasp the core of my spirituality more clearly. I cannot speak for other faiths, but I suspect that the practice also has this same potential for practitioners of other religions.

But the concept of Ishvara Pranidhana also seems to present a paradox. One of the first things that many beginners to yoga are told is that "yoga is not a religion." But if yoga is not a religion, what business does it have telling us to surrender or devote ourselves to something bigger than ourselves? Indeed, as a participant at Kino's lecture pointed out, many people who are drawn to yoga are people who are disenchanted with organized religion, who see in yoga a non-threatening, non-intrusive way of engaging their spirituality. For these individuals, Ishvara Pranidhana and the need to devote or surrender oneself to something bigger brings up many of the same emotional and psychological baggage that led them away from organized religion in the first place.

Kino made an interesting observation with regard to this phenomenon. She observes that while many people have no problem with the word "spirituality", the words "divine" or "divinity" seem to be highly charged with many of the issues that organized religion brings up for so many people in western society. Perhaps what is needed, she continues, is a new, value-neutral word to describe that thing that is greater than oneself. At any rate, yoga philosophy is uncompromising in its view that no real spiritual progress can be made without some kind of devotion or surrender to some entity that is greater than oneself: Without such surrender or devotion, one's practice can easily degenerate into an endless ego-boosting exercise.

In the end, I think it is true that yoga is not a religion, if by religion one means a system of beliefs that tells a concrete story about how the universe came to be, and which accordingly prescribes the exact powers that one is to devote oneself to. However, there is a sense in which yoga is more than a religion. In philosophical terms, one might see yoga as a meta-religion. It does not tell us exactly how the universe came to be, or prescribe what exactly we are to believe in. However, it does affirm the value of such belief, and gives us a blueprint with which we can embark on the path of such belief more fruitfully and productively.    
   

8 comments:

  1. Interesting your thoughts on the lecture...

    I also dislike organized religion, and yoga is a refuge.

    I think of Ishwaraha as the energy that correlates and coordinates everything in the unvierse, and I surrender to that, I try to interfeer as little as possible, with the goal of full surrendering as total non-resistance...

    This concept is also in chapter II of the yoga sutras, by which time Patanjali realized he had written all of chapter one and oops! it was WAY TOO ADVANCED!

    So he wrote chapter two, for folks like me

    In it he starts by saying that if chapter one is too heavy, then we can a) practice (tapas) 2) study and 3) surrender

    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very interesting, Claudia. I'm not a Yoga Sutra scholar, but I wonder if he fully intended chapter one to be the way it is: Maybe he intended chapter one to give us a glimpse of what is possible with the practice. And then in chapter two, we buckle down and get down to the real work of yoga, so to speak.

    In a way, chapter one is kind of like a yoga demonstration, to inspire you with what is possible, so that you will be motivated to put in the work.

    I don't if anybody out there shares this view. It's just something that occurred to me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, in the last paragraph of my previous comment, I meant to say, "I don't know if anybody out there shares this view." :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. You know Nobel through out my teacher training I had issues with the concept of Ishvara Pranidhana. Also while reading the Gita and Sutras and reading the word "God." My husband and I are also Buddhist and the concept of a God was confusing to me as I was going through training. Which was also around the time we were studying under a Theravada Monk.

    I asked some questions to Bhante in regards to this and his answer was similar to Kino's:
    "This something can be the Christian God, Allah, Krishna, or something non-personified such as a particular conception of Divinity or the Universe. In fact, Kino observes, one might not even have a name for this something, and that's totally fine. What is important is that one make a conscious decision at some point to devote one's actions to something that is bigger than oneself."

    Which makes me feel a bit better on the subject. Now that two people I truly look up to in regards to spiritual practice seemlingly agree on surrender. Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks, Flo. Yes, Ishvara Pranidhana is really a very embracing and cool concept :-) I'm glad you feel better on the subject.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think the concept of surrendering to a higher power is to accept reality, because, well, the universe is bigger than us. It's still possible to do the best we can at pursuing our dreams, but when things don't go our way, just accept the fact that we cannot be in full control of our lives at all times.

    I think this advice is helpful for type A people who try to succeed in every aspect of their lives. For those who are obsessed with praying that they neglect finding a role for themselves in society and taking care of their family etc should maybe get another piece of advice (ie. take control of their lives) rather than Ishvara Pranidhana?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Interesting insights, Yyogini. Yes, I think you are right that the concept of surrendering to a higher power may be a good path to follow for type A people.

    As for "those who are obsessed with praying that they neglect finding a role for themselves in society and taking care of their family etc", I think Ishvara Pranidhana still applies. As I understand it, Ishvara P. does not mean neglecting your responsibilities in the world or escaping from them; rather, I think the idea is to really do your best to fulfill your role and responsibilities in the world, but not become attached to the outcomes associated with these roles and responsibilities (hence the idea of surrender).

    ReplyDelete