The mechanics of sankalpa

We have heard of this beautiful word - sankalpa. It has been used and misused many a time. In this sutra (a succint, crisp exposition on some subject) guruji talks about the mechanics of how sankalpa works and how we can make it stronger. This was in a talk given at Aurangabad to the delegates of NIPM - National Institute of Personnel Management - on March 3rd, 2009.

Sankalpa mein shakti hai. Hamesha negative sochoge to wahi hoga. Kuch kaam karna ho to apne bhitar ek sankalpa zabardast uthna chahiye. Aur woh pranayam aur dhyan se hi hoga.

In sankalpa there is power. If you think negative all the time, then thats what is going to happen. If you want to achieve something, then you have to have a strong intention that comes up within you. And that will happen through pranayam and meditation.

The word sankalpa itself means - good intention. And for the power of the intention to be stronger you need to make the mind stronger. And the way to do this is to take the mind deep in meditation. And when many minds get together to meditate, it becomes so much more powerful. One would say ‘easier said than done’ and so the ancients devised another way. This is puja.

Etymologically puja comes from - purnat jayate iti puja - that which is born out of fullness is puja. In the process of puja, the sadhak starts with pranayam. The mind is brought to the present moment by taking the awareness from the vastness of time and space to here and now. Symbolically, the sadhak surrenders his sankalpa to a higher power. This is usually done by taking some flowers and rice in the hand and dropping it using water. Here the water symbolises love, flowers symbolise the fullness and rice shows continuity or ‘unbroken-ness’.

Lets take an example. Suppose you want to go to the theatre to watch a movie. You need two things to get into the theatre - one, a ticket to the movie and two, the willingness to surrender your ticket at the door. Having a movie ticket is like having a sankalpa. Giving up the ticket at the door is the process of surrender. To have a strong sankalpa you need a strong mind. To surrender you need an even stronger mind. Thus for the whole process to work, you really need to be established in meditation.

There is a saying -

Rishinam yatachittanam vacham arthanudhavate.

When a saint expresses - the meaning runs behind the words.

When a saint says something events work out to make it true.

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