Ishvara Pranidhana: God Who?
The “G” Word
GOD.
And whoosh, in comes a tidal wave of emotions and beliefs, a hurricane of love and anger, a tornado of devotion and destruction.
That’s one hell of a storm. What if we stood directly in the epicenter, just for a moment, every, single, day. A place of perfect calm, like you were standing in a bubble and the walls were composed of ease, trust, and safety. You are anchored firmly with an undeniable knowing. It is here in this eye, the first Eye, because you can see beyond perceptions and hear beyond words, and, I, like the Roman Numeral One, because you are the One, here in this place where religions do not exist, beliefs are washed away with the debris, and influence is swept back out to sea where all is alchemized into One, the One, you are, from.
It is here, that we are free, to be. To be whatever. Here, you are liberated from thinking, from time, from agenda, from having to be or do anything at all. Here, there is no dinner to get on the table, no job to perform, and no mortgage to pay. Here, you understand without having to define, explain, or negotiate. Here, all of those constructs crumble, and you are free.
Here, you awaken to the fact that you are here. Right where you are. It feels like enough, like you are enough, wrapped and held tenderly in this moment of infinite enoughness. Here, we don’t have to audition GOD because he is stripped from the fear she has been dressed in. Here, the D or dogma dissolves. And the O, the opinions, evaporate. You are left only, with the naked G. Grace. The everlasting gift of Grace. Grace, because you are the miracle of you. Grace, because you are in this body and breathing this breath, right now. Grace, so that we can be so brave and trust that something divine is orchestrating uncertainty with a love beyond all borders, borders of land, borders of brain, and borders of belief. A love so giant that it swallows up uncertainty and digests it, to organically feed the good and well being of life itself.
Grace because grace knows itself and it is forever and ever coming home to itself, to the One, who is you.
I have dressed God up like a barbie doll for many years. I have tried her/him/it out on many auditions and here’s what I know for sure: God is not the mirror. God is not society’s approval. God is not technology or infinite information. God is not another human. God is not a man in the sky with a white beard shaking his finger at me. God is not a number. God is not a bank account, and, God is not the Corona Virus. God is not separate from me. God is not above me or below me.
God is of me, within me, around me, for me. God is Source, my Source, Creation, Creativity, Spirit, and Goose bumps that feel like truth bumps. God is my goodness and all goodness is God. I can’t define God, I can feel God. And when I can’t feel God, I can look up at the sky, I can look into another human’s eyes, I can feel the air on my skin and the sun on my face. I can understand that I don’t understand, and understand, THAT, is God.
Maybe God is the wag of your dog’s tail, the smell of your mom’s home cooking, the feel of your feet in the sand. Maybe God is the sound of the bird’s chirping outside your window. Maybe God just needs a chance to be felt by you, rather than be judged by you. Maybe God doesn’t give a hoot what you call him, her, or it, and wants only the opportunity to be invited into the experience of your life. Maybe that means you call God, Flipper, or Jose, or Minnie Mouse and bust beyond the superficial layer of God’s name. I know that I sure as hell am a lot more than my name. If my name changed from Andrea to Susan, would you love me less? Would I not be me?
It takes way more energy to reject than to receive. The choice is yours, every moment, the choice is yours. All I know is that when I choose to receive in more moments of my day than I choose to reject, I feel better. And that, that is enough.
Choose to, at the very least, contemplate with the freedom to explore outside of what you have previously believed. Only you can cross the border, only you can discover the border doesn’t even really exist unless you make it so, with impermeable boundaries created by some other something, religion, culture, or your individual history. Give yourself the gift of being a pioneer and dis covering your truth, for you.
***Y’all are just so freakin awesome and I sincerely appreciate your consideration of my contemplation, subject to change by the time you read this! These are some of my musings that have been drawn forth in my study of Ishvara Pranidhana, or the fifth Niyama. Isvara can be translated as: Supreme Being, God, Ultimate Reality, or True Self. Pranidhana can be translated as: fixing, devotion, or surrender. The Niyamas are the second limb of the eight limb path of yoga. The Niyamas in short, are pathways in which to cultivate a profound relationship with the Self. I encourage you to write or record your thoughts as this has been a necessity in having just a minute bit of clarity in subject matter that can be overwhelming and worthy of lifetimes of consideration.
What a profound time to dive into this study. Maybe that is the calling? Either way, it is a calling to my heart to become more bold in my love. So, I may not know you, but I love you. We are on the same team and I love you beyond liking, I love you beyond who you voted for in the presidential election, I love you because you are human.
Andrea Dawn
