When Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, aka Mahatma Gandhi, was asked if he could sum up the secret of his life in three words, he quoted from the Isha Upanishad, ‘Tena tyaktena bhunjithah’ - ‘Renounce and enjoy!’. If asked to do this in two words he may well have said, ‘let go’.
This simple mantra stated by Gandhi sums up ‘santosha’, the inner expression of contentment or acceptance, the second of the Niyamas.
Like all the other Yamas and Niyamas developing and embodying santosha on its own will be beneficial but there is a powerful interplay with the others. In the case of santosha, much like loving kindness or ‘maitri’, when we are able to accept without preference and be content with the experiences we face, we will be able to enjoy these for what they are and do so with a state of equanimity.
As human beings we have a tendency to allow our minds to race forward to events that we’re looking forward to, or are worried about, or back, reliving past memories, often wishing things had gone differently. Less frequently do we spend time considering how the present moment may indeed offer everything we need.
Grasping at our preferences restricts our ability to be open and unbiased, the more preferences we have the more likely we are to complain, the more we complain the greater our sense of dissatisfaction with our experience of life. Some of our habitual patterns are inherited, passed down from ancestors and society. For example - we may wake on a rainy, windy and cold day and describe the weather as horrendous, terrible or bad. Neither rain, nor wind, nor cold are bad or whatever negative word we use to describe them - it’s our preferences that create this viewpoint.
Santosha offers us an opportunity to see and experience life differently, rather than constantly being tripped up by obstacles we may begin to embrace opportunities. Opportunities that allow us to let go and to stop trying to control everything around us. When we are able to continuously let go, truly renounce, we will begin to embody santosha and the contentment, steadiness and ease it offers.
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