2.5 Ishvara Pranidhana and Free Will

Is it surprising that the last on the “to do” list of the yoga Niyamas is devotion to God?  In fact all of the previous Yamas and Niyamas have led to this particular lesson.  Ishvara has a huge range of definitions ranging from “lover, owner of the best, ruler of choices,” or simply “God.”  Pranidhana is all of the ways that we pay attention to, desire, meditate, or pray for that God.

Who is this “God” anyway?

Depends on who you ask.

You may notice that the Yoga Sutras are part of the late Samkhya tradition which is fundamentally dualistic and even atheistic, rendering this God as something outside of yourself, perhaps even a special person (purusha) or a first teacher free of karma (paramaguru).  

A quick note about these three early teachings of the Indian religious systems, or rather, of the semi-nomadic peoples in the Indo-European region comprising of the Indus and Ganges River-Valleys.  The different schools of early religious thought were extremely complex and over time they intermingled in interesting ways.  

Even though the Samkhya philosophy was atheistic it was combined with early Yoga in the Yoga Sutras.  In later Tantra, especially the non-dual schools, the principles of the dynamic quality of nature (prakrti) and the passive witness (Purusha) were meant to join in self-realization, whereas in the Samkhya tradition these two basic units of reality could not know one another and the only goal of the adept was complete withdrawal of consciousness from matter.

In the Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, Paramahansa Yoganananda is quoted as defining the early philosophical systems as such:

Samkhya asks the the questions on “why” we should engage in self-realization; Yoga gives us the tools on “how” to self-realize; Vedanta gives us a description of the landscape of “what” it is to be self-realized and urges us to directly experience that reality for ourselves.

So the interpretation of what exactly is Ishvara Pranidhana is still ripe for debate and discussion depending on your perspective, your heritage, and your personal beliefs on what the path of your Yoga may follow.

Whatever it is that we are giving our devotion to, I believe that the devotion itself is the key to understanding this gorgeous Niyama.  Why cultivate reverence?  Why practice devotion?  What is the deep gift of faith, no matter what the subject is of that faith?  

Let’s look at the problem of free will and see how this question reveals the possibility of faith, how that faith can reveal the depth of the heart, and why reverence allows humans to alchemize life in the most profoundly spiritual way.

What is Free Will?

“The human body is the same as the cosmic body.

The human mind is the same as the cosmic mind.

The microcosm is the same as the macrocosm.

In one atom exists the entire universe.”

Upanishads/ Vedanta (The Essential Mystics, Poets, Saints & Sages)

***

“Free will does not exist, since all things are subject to cause and effect. Yet there is something behind the will that is free.”

Swami Vivekananda, Vedanta (The Essential Mystics, Poets, Saints & Sages)

Here lies a perennial question: what is free will?  Is my will free? What choices do I have when everything in life’s flow has led to this exact moment? What in the world do I do with that?  Yes, ok, I quoted a Vedantan- someone who is fundamentally non-dualist.  But since this is the approach of Yoga that I love, I’ll stick with it. Let’s see where we go.

Maybe the do-ing part is actually the problem with this last question. Often when we think we have to do something with our choices it’s the exact opposite that life asks of us: how do we listen more deeply to our hearts, stop doing all-together and just listen? 

I’m such a do-er- I mean, I really really love to DO, to pull up my feet and jump. Take a problem and fix it. Tinker in the toolbox of projects and creation. But freedom lies in listening.

This is a worthy lesson: learn to listen.

The problem of free will is a hot topic in religious studies. You can understand that individual will, planning, and intention at a certain level rubs against the notion of a God or universal power that is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. If everything is God’s plan then where is there room for my plan? Who am I?

If you believe you are a person with a life (“my life”) then this problem of free will is worth considering. It’s one of the best path’s up the mountain to self-realization. Why? Because when you start to ask about free will you begin to question all of the events of your own life. Things either happen randomly, by chance, or they happen in purpose. You begin to question the path, or dharma, of your own life: if there is a flow here then surely there is an undercurrent guiding that flow.

We must consider: do my actions tumble out of this great concert of the universe that has been unfolding for all of eternity leading to the Now, and if so, then can those actions even be considered as mine or should they be seen more accurately as God’s great butterfly effect?

Random or coordinated is the junction in the road that leads to diverging forks. The two attitudes on these roads are vastly different. When we believe life is full of random happenstance and chaos are we not a little cynical, depressive, and hopeless? Of course we are. There is no reason, there is no purpose, there is no redemption, no faith. There is no orientation to the heart at our deep center- it’s just aimless wandering that does not seem to lead to anywhere.

For a long time I had a visceral repulsion to talk of the heart. It felt like getting all of your spiritual nutrition from the candy shop.

That’s definitely true for some teachers. Many of us are drawn into the spiritual bypass. The process of this bypass is easy to see once you know what to look for (see my post called “Spiritual Bypassing Excavated”). But there’s a deeper problem with re-orienting to the heart that has nothing to do with spiritual bypassing, rainbows, and butterflies. It’s the terrifying reality that the path to the heart requires a re-subjugation to past traumas in order to reorient them into that dharmic anchor.

Trauma is both personal- related to this life, and it’s larger- cultural, ancestral, and soul or astral level. It is said that we carry trauma in our genetic imprint for seven to fourteen generations. That’s a big giant pile of complicated crap. And that’s only what we are carrying in our cellular body. If you have deeper wounds from this lifetime then your task feels even more challenging.

Make no mistake: the path of the heart is hard. It is ass-kicking, relentless, brutal, and throws you on a roller coaster of alternating despair and peace so clear and cool and complete that the turn of that coaster is extra spicy when it comes back around to despair. It has taken me more than a decade to see the ebbs and flows on that roller coaster and begin to tune into its underlying purpose.

Purpose:

Purpose is something that I think is misunderstood in many spiritual circles. To be clear, there is only one life purpose: to break through the ego and live through, as, and with the heart. The heart is the calling of the deep self. The heart is the cave that holds peace. The heart is always the reorientation, the path, and the goal.

In the small moments I can just stop and listen. For some this is natural but for others (this one here) that’s a tough nut to crack.  Or not crack. I’m going to listen to that tough nut today instead. After all, every seed contains a wild sprawling life that wants to be seen.

My very analytical daughter will often say “there’s no such thing as perfect.” To this statement we’ve added, in our household, “and also everything is perfect.” We do love some paradox around here. If this ability to hold paradox is the thing I teach my children then I am satisfied.

We listen as we act. We hold the impossibility of perfection alongside the wonder of life as whole, complete, and perfect already. We find our boundaries in mind, heart, and physical space even as we dissolve those boundaries.

In usual fashion: if the mind represents free will (action, desire, and that which propels) then the heart is that “something behind the will that is free.” Let’s listen more closely to that so that we can slowly anchor into the heart.

As for a more complex conversation on faith, I have two separate posts describing this from the view of Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga, and Bhakti Yoga, the three forms of yoga that are sometimes described most accurately in The Bhagavad Gita (this is, of course, contested). The faith process is actually the core of the self-realization process in many ways. In fact, Ishvara Pranidhana is often said to be the only of the Yamas and Niyamas that matters: if this one is followed well and truly then the rest will assimilate and need no further attention.

“Once my body became Yours,

Who else could I serve?

Once my mind became Yours,

Who else could I appeal to?

After my perception became Yours,

Who else could I know?

Because of You, I have forgotten You.”

Akka Mahadevi, Vedanta (The Essential Mystics, Poets, Saints & Sages)

***

“All that appears different in the world is a matter of degree, not kind.  The secret is, all things are One.”

Swami Vivekananda, Vedanta (The Essential Mystics, Poets, Saints & Sages)

***

“No longer does Jaibai wish to stay on the wheels of samsara, but how will I burn off my remaining Karma? I leave it to You to provide me grist for the mill.  Grind me up. Pound me into powder.”

Janabai, Vedanta (The Essential Mystics, Poets, Saints & Sages)