For a few months now, Sister Gyanamata’s prayer has been my mantra, “Lord, change no circumstance in my life, change me.” If you take a moment to consider the prayer and another moment to apply it to the area of your life that you desperately want to change, it feels like a tall order. To truly, with all your heart, declare that nothing needs to be changed…seriously?!
I am a problem solver. I love observing something, mulling over that something until I’ve identified its strengths and weaknesses and then opening up my heart to find solutions. It’s honestly one of my greatest strengths and challenges. The challenge is that not all problems are meant to be solved and especially not by me. You could spend a zillion lifetimes trying to fix all the problems of the world and what would you accomplish? Very little because the world exists to teach us to love and the only person who can learn that lesson is you. Hence Yogananda’s term for religion in our dawning age of awareness, “Self-realization.”
With my natural problem solving tendencies in constant motion, I find moments to repeat Sister’s prayer nearly every hour. Surrendering and seeking the deeper path of Self-realization even in the daily grind of problem solving is opening me to Superconscious solutions.
As I sat in meditation this morning, contemplating all the things in my life that I desperately want to change, the mantra returned for the hundredth time to remind me of the One Truth. Everything in this Universe comes from God, is part of God and returns to God. If it is happening in my life, it is supposed to teach me to love. From the heartbreak of loved ones in pain, to the exhaustion from sleep deprivation, to the never-ending ‘money pit’ of home-ownership – I recognize through the prayer that it is I that must change, not these things. With that thought, my heart opened to feel the flow of Divine energy up my spine.
Sister Gyanamata’s prayer is worth trying. It’s showing me through direct experience in meditation that surrender to the flow of the Divine is the most expansive, heart-opening and uplifting choice we can make. And we make that choice everyday. So, I try to say her prayer everyday.
May you find inspiration in surrender.
Namaste!