Karma Sankalpa: The Secret Sauce!

Eating Your Karma Sankalpa: The Secret Sauce of Santosha

Everybody knows that a great sauce can make any food taste better, it’s critical to helping us consume “the roughage” (just imagine a salad without dressing). Well, according to the yogic tradition, we have a special sauce right inside our heart that we can pour on our reality to help us consume our Karma joyfully. That sauce is Santosha, the Sanskrit word for Contentment.

Patanjali tells us in Yoga Sutra 2.42, “The practice of contentment brings unsurpassed delight,” which means that contentment is something that can be glazed over any situation to make it taste more delightful. It isn’t just a metaphor or a self help tip— it’s actually the science of yoga. Because according to the yogic tradition our true nature is Chit-Ananda, Consciousness and Bliss. This means that when you strip away everything you think you are, everything you think you need, what’s left is Consciousness and Bliss. — so if you are not feeling conscious and blissful, then it’s safe to assume that are caught in illusion. It’s really a simple formula. One remedy, or tool, that we can use in such a situation is the practice of contentment, Santosha, because with this simple practice you are brining your focus to your true nature, and away from illusion. It’s not a parlor trick, it’s quite real.

So pour a little contentment on your reality right now!

Just loosen up the lid to the heart with a slight smile. Sometimes that lid is on really really tight, so the slight smile is pretty tough, but it’s essential. And you don’t have to turn it very far, just loosen the lid to the heart with a slight smile, and keep it lose. With a simple and relaxed breathflow to the heart, try to smell the aroma of contentment permeating your awareness. Keep loosening the lid to the heart with your slight smile, and letting the practice of contentment permeate your awareness. It’s such a simple practice, and it’s power is in it’s repetition over time. Let it continue to sweeten the roughage of your Karma, and watch as you are able to consume your reality with more ease.