Svadhyaya - Self Awareness
Life is passing us by in a flash. We are having this so called human experience without experiencing humanness. We are known as homo sapiens which literally means the ‘wise man’. While wandering through many births and deaths we finally arrived at the stage of being human, having the power to contemplate and greater cognitive function than that of any other species. But our actions speak louder and it’s clear humanness is missing. We are missing the basic skill of self awareness i.e. contemplating on the self. Study of the self is of great necessity and may be the whole purpose of a human birth. It will allow us to escape this cycle of birth and death where we again and again fall down into the 8,400,000 species of life.
The Yoga Sutras describe self awareness as the fourth niyama, called Svadhyaya. Sva means self and dhyaya means to contemplate. Being homo sapiens one major distinction is our thought process. We are the wise man. What if we think and contemplate that we are a spirit soul, a part and parcel of the supreme soul, and we are not our thoughts? Doing so allows us to understand the nature of the mind. By being the observer of the mind we can master our thoughts and not let the monkey mind be in the driver seat. We can connect better with our inner self and feel the connection with God. Once we are better connected to the divine, we become calm and peaceful within ourselves. We develop a greater degree of compassion and humanness with other living entities. (Source)
The entire process of knowing oneself has great benefits as throughout life we tend to make the same mistakes again and again. We walk through life just like zombies, not realizing that the same mistakes keep us from reaching our material and spiritual goals. Our daily lives are full of choices we make, minute to minute. If we are more aware and mindful then we can make better choices and not cause so much suffering to ourselves and possibly many others. Self awareness is being aware of our feelings within and how they connect to the outside world. Loving oneself and causing no harm to oneself and others is part of this awareness, as well as taking full responsibility of one’s actions.
I came across this poem and started thinking about how many times have I fallen in the hole in my sidewalk? Repeatedly I make the same mistakes which keep me from reaching my goals. I hope you will read this poem again and again and see how it applies to your life. It’s an autobiography in five chapters. The fifth chapter is liberation, as in we stop making the same mistakes again and again by the method of self awareness and choose another street, another path to liberation.
THERE’S A HOLE IN MY SIDEWALK
Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
by Portia Nelson
Chapter 1
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost …. I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
Chapter 2
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend that I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in this same place.
But, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
Chapter 3
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in … it’s a habit … but, my eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
Chapter 4
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
Chapter 5
I walk down another street.
Ultimately, we need to have a daily practice of grounding ourselves and connecting with the divine energy. When we quiet the mind and just observe, followed by a mantra meditation we can connect to that divine energy of Sri Krishna. The easy mantra meditation given for this age of Kali is the chanting of the Hare Krishna Mahamantra. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave us this mantra which removes the dirt from the mirror of our consciousness so we may get clarity and connect with the Supreme Lord.
Please chant
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,
Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare