Samtosha = Contentment

This week's bhavana (intention) is Samtosha, contentment. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali says "By contentment, supreme joy is gained". Swami Satchidananda's translation goes on to say "Contentment means just to be as we are without going to outside things for our happiness. Means neither to like nor dislike."

Contentment means accepting what is without judgements, without disappointments. Simply accepting. It's so incredibly difficult for someone like me, who is always expecting things to be "the way they are suppose to be". Whenever there is an expectation there is almost always disappointment. I've learned that in order to truly experience Samtosha you need to trust. Trust in the Divine. Without trust in the Divine, Samtosha is impossible.

I set this intention as my bhavana for my yoga class today. I was expecting several people for class. The weather was awful this morning and as I was driving to class a tree had fallen and blocked my way into the studio. I had to detour and eventually made my way there. Perhaps it was the weather, perhaps it was daylight savings time change but only one person showed up for class. We chatted a while and then decided to go and get a some chai. After trying a couple of different places without success, I think, Ganesha (the Lord of obstacles) is having fun with me today! So I invite her to my house. We had some chai, chatted and discovered that we had some connections that we didn't realize before. So the point of this story is that rather than feeling disappointment that I didn't have the students I was expecting I remembered my bhavana, Contentment and I trusted in the grace of the Divine. The result was I enjoyed the company of a wonderful new friend! In other words, "supreme joy was gained".