I find that people often misunderstand the yoga principle of santosha (contentment), believing that it means giving up their will to change. I get students who say, “I don’t want to be content, because if I am content then I won’t get anywhere in my job. I need to want something. I've got to be on the cutting edge in my profession”. They don’t understand that santosha is not inertness. Rather, santosha means being content right now, even as you are changing your life.
If you are a yoga teacher, you may find that many people actually fear contentment. They worry that it will make them lethargic and lazy – that life might prove boring. Without it they see themselves as exerting and energetic. However, I’ve noticed that contentment never makes anyone idle. It is a sattvic virtue that propels you towards peace. It gives you strength of mind and checks unnecessary and selfish exertions. It calms your mind and opens your inner eye of intuition. If you are a contented person, you seem to be more able to work energetically and peacefully, with a one-pointed mind. All the dissipated rays of your mind are collected and available for use.
I'm planning to be in London for the entire month of September.
with best wishes Swami Saradananda
Santosha is this month's subject on the Yama-Niyama e-course.
Mystical diagrams, stylized geometric projections of the world
Mandala: circular symbolic representations of both universal and personal forces; they do not always represent a deity.Instead, they are symbolic compositions of energy patterns that are more powerful than pictures.
Mandalas are tools that draw energy from outer world and direct it to the inner. According to Carl Jung,they represent the unconscious self.
Tibetan Buddhist monks create mandala sand paintings in times of stress, danger and conflict. The positive energy of the creation, coupled with the meditations of the monk-artists and the participating public, produce a very special environment that is conducive to healing and protection.
Yantra: uses geometric shapes to represent cosmic and personal connections. Every yantra is a mandala, though not all mandalas are yantras.
The literal meaning of the word ‘yantra’ is ‘instrument’ or ‘machine’. In actual practice a yantra is a symbolic representation of aspects of divine energy. It is an interlocking matrix of geometric figures that form patterns of great elegance and beauty. Although usually drawn in two dimensions, a yantra represents a multi-dimensional object or being.
A yantra is a meditation tool for serious spiritual seekers. Intense meditation on it causes the fully formed image to manifest in your mind's eye with an intensity that is remarkable for its imprinting ability.
Most yantras are connected to the Goddess, the most famous one being the Sri Chakra, an abstract representation of the Divine Mother as the Cosmos. There are also yantras for Ganesha and other male deities. There are also yantras that are used for more mundane purposes: to enhance your quality of life, to attract prosperity, to attact love; to heal and relieve health problems, to protect you from negative forces.
Yantras are seen as essential to a god or goddess as a body is to a living human being. Constructed using sacred geometry, yatras are a most powerful 'centring' devices for harnessing the divine energies. The design always focuses your attention onto the centre of the yantra where the bindu (dot) is supposed to constitute the spiritual body of the goddess or god
Yantras focus your desires and aspirations. They help you to transform your negative mental patterns into more positive mental habits. Yantras may be used to bring about healing and maintain a state of positive health and abundance. Because they are active energy systems, yantras are powerful in deflecting negative energies and maintaining internal harmony. All yantras are best understood as enhancing potential that already exists. They cannot force something to happen that is against natural karma, but they can aid and assist in bringing about desirable outcomes. For example, you cannot force somebody to love you, you cannot force good luck and prosperity, but yantras can be used to speed up the process if the potential exists. They also help you to remove obstacles that may exist.
It is important to handle a yantra with the utmost respect and consideration. Careless treatment reduces its power.
