Sankalpa from the Heart
A few days ago I performed the practice of Yoga Nidra which is a yoga practice for deep relaxation. In this practice one takes a sankalpa at the beginning of the practice. I have always been confused about what my sankalpa should be at that moment. I was following the audio and when I heard the word sankalpa I had the desire to understand what this is. Following that, the next day I heard Sri Gurudev in his Bhagavat Katha talk about sankalpa. I took it as a sign to find out more and then share.
Yogapedia Explains Sankalpa
Sankalpa is a Sanskrit term in yogic philosophy that refers to a heartfelt desire, a solemn vow, an intention, or a resolve to do something. It is similar to the English concept of a resolution, except that it comes from even deeper within and tends to be an affirmation.
This term comes from the Sanskrit roots san, meaning "a connection with the highest truth," and kalpa, meaning "vow." Thus, it translates to denote an affirming resolve to do something or achieve something spiritual. Unlike a goal, which is a personal need to accomplish something, the concept of sankalpa turns inward to connect with the heart's highest intention. A goal can be thought of as an individual's will, while the sankalpa is the universal will. A sankalpa is a positive declaration or affirmation, such as “peace is my true nature,” rather than the ego-driven “I want peace in my life.”
The sankalpa is most resonant during yoga nidra, a state of very deep relaxation. It is believed that when the mind is relaxed, the sankalpa can be written on the subconscious. It may also be repeated in the morning, before meditation, or at the beginning of any yoga asana practice.
During seated meditation, sankalpa mudra (a hand gesture) connects the right and left sides of the brain so the mind, spirit and body can work cooperatively to bring change. In this mudra, the left hand rests palm up on the right thigh, and the right hand covers the left with the palm facing down. The practitioner's personal sankalpa is then repeated. Source
For those of us who are practicing Bhakti yoga, what does it mean to have a sankalpa? At the beginning of this path we normally come to hear the Hare Krishna Mahamantra and we take a vow to chant a particular number of rounds on our japa beads (chanting beads). As we progress we add more spiritual activities to our daily schedule or refined some we already had. Until we have complete resolve to practice our devotion, we cannot really make progress. The mind has another component to it. It’s called Vikalpa. This is defined as follows.
Yogapedia Explains Vikalpa
Vikalpa is a Sanskrit term referring to one of the five types of thoughts, or activities and motions, within the mind. These are called vritti in Sanskrit and the great sage, Patanjali, references them in his definition of yoga: yoga citta vritti nirodha ("yoga is the silencing of the disturbances of the mind"). Vikalpa is imagination, fantasy or illusion. It can mean thinking of situations from the past and imagining different results, daydreaming, thinking of things that do not exist or imagining future situations and events. It is an idea that does not exist in reality.Classical yoga and the original yogic texts suggest letting all vrittis, including the vikalpa, go. Yogis are advised not to fall for fantasies and the trappings of one's imagination. Instead, one should try to dissolve these ideas, recognizing their emptiness through yoga and meditation.
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Sri Gurudev mentions that we should make a sankalpa and practice serving Sri Sri Radha and Krishna mentally. In this age of Kaliyuga we are given the benefit of mentally serving Them and the Lord accepts that service. So making a sankalpa is very good for spiritual gain and spiritual service. He mentions that we need to fix our mind firmly and not let vikalpa take over and be in any disillusionment.
Energy flows where attention goes, many of us have heard this before. From my own realizations I find that if I feed my mind material things daily then my mind is in vikalpa, always disillusioned. So to have a firm sankalpa we must also control what we feed our mind in our daily activities, else vikalpa in the mind will take over very easily. Day to day we must be vigilant to stay on track. A sattvic lifestyle of staying in the mode of goodness will help.
The mind needs engagement too. Don’t let your mind do its “mindless activities'“ and divert you from your real purpose. Controlling the thoughts is abhyasa, which means practice. We can have a good sankalpa which truly comes from the heart by practicing control over what we feed our senses. And we can control vikalpa by watching our mind and thoughts on a daily basis and staying grounded in all situations, not living in a fantasy world else vikalpa can really be a disturbance in our spiritual life.
Hearing about Lord Krishna and His pastimes we can first create a sankalpa to serve the Lord in some capacity and from there on practice vikalpa which is “imagination” that you are there in those pastimes serving the Lord alongside with Gurudev. At least we will not be in the constant disillusionment that we are happy here in the material world as that is the worse kind of vikalpa.