Hello everyone,
Since the beginning of my spiritual journey, I focused on so many Ishtas during DM, principally from the Hindu. It’s so that I change my Ishta on a regular basis, depending on which energy I want to infuse throughout my body.
Do you think it could scatter the energy and I’m going out of the AYP, and that I should focus on one Ishta only? Or is it ok to do so ?
Many thanks for your answers 
Bless
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Hi Niels_Jacob,
Your ishta should not be the object in AYP deep meditation. The mantra is what we gently favor. If our ishta shows up during meditation, we regard it to be like any other thought or sensation. When we notice we are off the mantra, we easily go back to it at whatever level it is in the mind.
Regarding changing ishta (our chosen idea), it is normal for our ishta to change as we advance on the path, with purification, opening and deepening experience. Our ishta is the source of inspiration to practice, the object of our bhakti (spiritual desire and devotion), but not to be used as object in AYP deep meditation. If you have several ishtas (like traditional deities), that is good if they inspire you to practice.
This is from Lesson 94:
If the heavenly hosts (or our ishta) come and fill our inner vision during our meditation, and we realize we are off the mantra, what do we do? You guessed it. We easily go back to the mantra. If we are true to the simple procedures of our practices, we can revel with the heavenly hosts whenever we want - while we are having a sandwich, in the shower, taking a walk, or anywhere … except in our practices. If we are seeing them in practices and realize we are off the mantra, or off during spinal breathing … then we do best to ease back to the particular practice we are doing.
The guru is in you.
PS: I put your question to an AI drawing on the full content of AYP Plus, and here is what came back:
Q: In deep meditation should I be focusing on my ishta? And what if my ishta keeps changing?
A: In deep meditation, the focus should be on the mantra, not on your ishta. The mantra is used as a vehicle for the attention to go inward toward stillness.
• The mantra should be favored gently, without force or strain, whenever you realize that your attention has drifted away from it.
• When you notice your attention is off the mantra, it is a signal to come back to the mantra, no matter what else may or may not be going on.
• Thoughts, sensations, emotions, visions, and energy experiences are normal during meditation, and should not be a distraction from the practice of favoring the mantra.
• The mantra may become very refined and fuzzy, or may disappear altogether. This is normal. When you notice you have been off somewhere, you should go back to the mantra at whatever level it is at, even if very faint or fuzzy.
• The mantra is a flexible vehicle for your attention.
• Deep meditation is not about managing or making distinctions about anything.
• It is also not about blocking out thoughts or concentrating on the mantra.
• The goal is not to stay on the mantra, but to easily favor it when you realize you are off it.
Regarding your ishta, it is not meant to be a fixed concept. Your ishta can be a simple question such as “Who am I?” or a complex concept such as a guru. It can be a physical icon or a non-physical idea in your heart. It should be something that inspires you to engage in spiritual practices.
• The ishta can evolve and change over time as your understanding of truth deepens.
• As your inner silence expands, your relationship with your ishta will expand too, and be constantly nudged from within.
• It is good to allow flexibility to see your ishta as ever-expanding.
• Favoring your ishta, rather than rigid concentration, will facilitate its expansion.
• Bhakti (spiritual desire) is the fuel of spiritual progress, and it is okay to have a strong desire for spiritual growth.
• If your desire is intense, you may want to self-pace to avoid excessive energy flow in the nervous system.
• If you find your ishta changing, that is also normal.
It is the cultivation of inner silence that brings freedom. In summary, while your ishta is important in your spiritual path, it is not the focus of deep meditation. The focus should be on the simple procedure of favoring the mantra whenever you realize your attention is off it.
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PPS: And this from the AYP Plus AI on having multiple ishtas.
Q: Can I have multiple ishtas at the same time?
A: While the sources do not directly address whether it is possible to have multiple ishtas at the same time, they do provide information about the nature of ishta and its role in spiritual practice that can help answer this question. Here’s a breakdown of what the sources say about ishta:
• Ishta is a chosen ideal. It is that which each person chooses to inspire active engagement on the spiritual path. It is a personal choice, not something that is imposed by an outside authority.
• Ishta can take many forms. It can be a concept, a question, a deity, a guru, nature, or anything that inspires spiritual practice.
• Ishta is meant to inspire spiritual practice. It is that which motivates the individual to pursue spiritual practices.
• Ishta evolves over time. As the practitioner progresses on their spiritual path, their ishta may change and expand. It may start as a simple question or icon and grow to encompass the whole of humanity or the universe.
• Bhakti is a key component. Bhakti involves harnessing emotions towards an ideal, which moves energy through the nervous system, purifying and opening it.
• The ishta is a tool for the path of yoga. The ishta helps to direct emotional energy toward a higher purpose.
• The journey is the ishta. The path of yoga is about release and letting go, where the doing we do in yoga is an undoing. Eventually, the ishta and the journey become one.
• The goal of bhakti is an outpouring of divine love. Devotion to one’s chosen ideal brings the vast cosmic forces into alignment.
Based on the idea that ishta is a personal and evolving ideal, and the practice of yoga is about refinement and focus of intention, it may be that having multiple ishtas would dilute the power and focus of the practice, as the sources emphasize focusing on one teaching at a time. However, the sources do not explicitly say you can only have one ishta. The most important thing is that the ishta inspires you to engage in spiritual practice. The sources suggest that a consistent and focused approach to practice is essential for steady progress. If having multiple ishtas were to cause you to lose focus or slow your progress, that would be counterproductive. It may be that having a primary ishta as a focus, while also incorporating other ideals into the expansion of that primary ideal over time, would be a more productive approach.
Therefore, while the sources don’t forbid having multiple ishtas simultaneously, they strongly suggest that a singular, evolving ishta that inspires consistent practice is the most effective approach. If you were to pursue multiple ishtas, it would be important to remain aware of whether that approach is promoting or hindering your spiritual progress.
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PPPS: You might also find this lesson helpful, discussing the development of ishta (our chosen ideal) and the technique of bhakti:
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Last year I happened to find an image of Shiva that mesmerized me, and this is what I conjure in my solar center whenever there is an inner call in DM for radiance, devotion, becoming love in action, acutely felt. Then comes awareness and a return to the endless loop of the mantra.
Having an Ishta is an act and action of love, how can this not improve a practice?
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Hi Dogboy,
It is a wonderful experience of radiant Shiva in your solar center during deep meditation. It is an experience enabled by your long time practice of deep meditation and related techniques, but not the practice itself. Good you have the habit of going back to the mantra when you notice you have become absorbed in that divine experience, or anything else occurring during deep meditation.
From time to time over the years practitioners have come and asked, “I am having this wonderful experience during deep meditation, including a sense of deep peace and blissful radiance. If I just go with that, favor that, won’t it improve the results of my meditation?” The answer is, No, it won’t, because experiences are not the cause of purification and opening in the subtle neurobiology, leading to divine experience. The practice of deep meditation is. Experiences are an effect of correct practice, not a cause of future deep experiences.
If we are having such experiences, we know what to do, just as you do – go back to the mantra at whatever level we experience it. Over time the divine experiences will become a part of our daily life outside structured practice, where we can enjoy and revel in them to our heart’s content. Besides the rising ecstatic bliss during the day, the bhakti we have for our ishta during daily activity can inspire us to continue on the path of practices. Radiant joy will reinforce our commitment to continue with the means that created the radiant joy, and will continue to expand it into an outpouring of divine love and unity.
As you know, practice is practice, and as soon as we are adding to it while we are doing it, the effectiveness of it will become less. The key is in the simplicity of the procedure of practice, no matter what experiences may be coming up.
Paradoxically, divine experiences can motive us to practice, but experiences are not the practice itself.
The guru is in you.
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Dearest Yogani
Thank you so much for the reminder of simplicity in the AYP approach, and going astray from the scaffolding, but because human, and distracted by pleasure, this is where devotion and ishta have blossomed, in poetry, deep inside. I am in awe how subtle, simple, gentle attention in a quiet conductive subtle body has movement. AYP has provided me pleasure, love, joy, gratitude on the daily. Yoga-Life. So simple. We all end up knowing liberation in the end, some may get a sneak peek and a smile on their face.
Thank you Yogani for your wisdom and input during this pivotal time, for the forum and otherwise.
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