Teaching Yoga Nidra Practice

About Sankalpa

Translations for the Sanskrit word, sankalpa, include:

• resolve
• intention
• vow
• commitment
• aim
• promise

An integral part of the practice of yoga nidra is the silent recitation of a sankalpa.

Why Include a Sankalpa?

Yogic sleep is known to be a state that is not only deeply relaxing and renewing but also a place of receptivity and creative power. Thus, a sankalpa is the way in which the practitioner directs his or herself toward wholeness and a desired state of being.

INTELLIGENTLY PLACE A PARTICULAR RESOLVE

Yoga nidra is a semiconscious state of mind, a place where we have many sorts of dreams and visions. If we lie in a state of yoga nidra without any directions, we will find that all sorts of vague images come. In that place where all these forces are pulling and pushing us in different directions in life, we can intelligently place a particular resolve which can give meaning to our life. – Swami Nityabodhananda Saraswati

IN YOGA NIDRA, SANKALPA GATHERS VAST FORCES

Anything in life can fail you, but not the sankalpa made during yoga nidra… Sankalpa is a determination to become something or to do something in your life. Everyone has many desires and ambitions, however, most of them get lost, exhausted or destroyed, just as when you scatter seeds in different places, some may grow but most will not. Sankalpa is a seed which you create and then sow in the bed of your [clear] mind… Once the seed of sankalpa is planted deep in the subconscious, it gathers the vast forces of the mind in order to bring about its fruition… The purpose of sankalpa is not to fulfill desires, but to create strength in the structure of the mind. Sankalpa can create a direction for your whole life if you use it wisely. – Swami Satyananda Saraswati

See Also

• Intentions, Sankalpa, Resolutions – includes a clear comparison of these concepts in theory and in practice