“Our personal world resides in a much, much bigger reality,
a Higher Reality.”
--Ishan Tigunait, CEO of Himalayan Institute
At the Farmer’s Market this past weekend, I was talking with someone about the
events of our world today. We were regretting that more and more people don’t
seem to realize that it is really the Spirit, the Source of Life, that is in charge of
creating the world, yet we have a lot to do with what is happening in our world
today. We are co-creators of the reality which we experience daily. We felt sad
that people weren’t experiencing the brilliance, joy, and freedom within
themselves. We knew that they could experience that joy outside of themselves if
they knew that they were precious loving beings. We knew that they could know
their innate joy by learning to tap into it through specific yoga practices. One of
those practices is the daily chanting of the Sri Sukta.
As Ishan quotes from Pandit Rajmani’s book, Sri Sukta: Tantra of Inner
Prosperity,
“Poverty and decrepitude indicate that we are disconnected from nature’s
abundance. Internal and external poverty, feelings of emptiness and
loneliness, and lack of self-worth are not part of nature’s design—they are
our own creation. Demolishing our self-created misery, reclaiming the joy
of abundance inherent in every aspect of life, and inviting that joy to fill our
inner and outer worlds is the message of Sri Sukta.”
Sri Sukta is a mantra meditation practice that introduces us to our deepest self.
In this practice we begin cultivating a relationship with our inner self which is
known as “Jatavedas”. This relationship gives us information not only about
ourselves but also about the relationships we have with people and nature. After
experiencing the joy inside, we begin to experience that joy in our outside
world—with the people, life, and nature in the world around us. We begin to know
more clearly our hopes, dreams, concerns, hesitations, and destiny.
We also begin to understand the nature of poverty and prosperity. From the Sri
Sukta worldview, poverty is understood as deficiencies in our ability to access,
recognize, and assimilate the abundance in life. We lack a deeper understanding
of poverty, an awareness of the all-pervasive presence of a higher reality (God)
that is always wanting our abundance and fulfillment, and a deep relationship
with the wisdom and divinity within ourselves. The Sri Sukta, in 15 verses, sings
about the abundant resources available to us, with the knowledge that they are all
gifts of the Creating Reality (God) of the Universe, are to be sought and shared,
not possessed for our individual use and gain. Sri Sukta’s “prayers in chant”
asks us to shrink our desire for more and more of the world’s resources, but
rather to distribute those resources widely.
The Seer (teacher) of those verses longs for us to break free of the poverty
of our body’s inability to express its healing potential and our mind’s inability to
be at peace. The Seer, which is experienced within us during the chanting,
connects us with the power to say “I will work hard and strive hard to fulfill
myself and my dreams and give all the proceeds back to the Source and Creator
of Life, the Divine Mother, and her creation.” The Teacher within wants us to give
up all we have, yet constantly develop ourselves and our talents so they can be
given to all.
Sri Sukta is more concerned about us experiencing nature’s abundance than the
scarcity that we might perceive in our lives. We can always experience enough in
our lives because the Creative power of Divine will provide enough for us when
we don’t cling to our possessions, but share them.
The fear of not having enough, to which we cling to in our lives, makes the
practice of Sri Sukta very powerful and challenging. I invite you all to learn about
it, as our external world is in need of this spiritual learning and transformation.
I bow to the divinity in you.
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