Hindu Vedic Philosophy (Sanatana Dharma, Morals, Rituals and Articles)

Affirmations
Affirmations are one of the simplest and most powerful things we can do to change the quality of our lives, and to create the things we want.
Affirmations are the force of creation.
“Every thought has a counterpart in a word or sound; the word and the thought are inseparable. The external part of a thing is what we may call the thought. The same thought may be expressed by different words or sounds. Though the sounds vary, yet the relation between the sound and the thoughts is a natural one”.
(Swami Nikhilananda  Sri Ramakrishna Math:)
The power of affirmations can be stated very simply: Affirmations are the force of creation. For AUM being the sound symbol of Parmatman (Supreme Reality), it is considered to be the first vibration as sound emanating at the beginning of creation.

To affirm means to make firm. There is very little mystery about how and why affirmations work, once the principle is understood. An affirmation is simply a spoken declaration, in the present tense, which creates a desired reality.
Affirm what you know to be true in your heart, and you will create that reality. Affirm that you are free, and strong, and attractive, and prosperous, and loving – and you will find, often in a remarkably short time, that your outer world will begin to change as a reflection of your changing inner consciousness.
To understand how an affirmation has the power to create something, we must first understand how creation works. A great many different mythologies, mystical traditions, scientific studies, and religions have investigated the mysteries of creation. Many of these have come up with similar findings.
How is it possible for another person to know what idea or thought I have in my mind? Is it possible for me to make that idea come out of my mind and make it enter the mind of another person? To do that, I will have to summon the help of Mother Saraswati (Vak Devi) the goddess of speech (also known as the goddess of learning), or use the written word to communicate. This power or shakti when combined with the static thought, makes it possible for the thought or idea to travel.
This is a miraculous power or shakti. If I am speaking to an audience of fifty people, this power becomes manifold or multiplies and with my each thought enters the minds of all fifty people. If my talk is broadcast via satellite and if there are a million listeners, this shakti becomes a million fold. Its capacity is unlimited.
This combination of the product of human consciousness (thought) with Shakti makes manifestation of things possible. The clothes we wear, the chair on which we seat, the books we read, the computers we use; all these were first conceived as ideas in the human mind. The chairman of a big corporation conceives of an idea that a fifty-story sky-scraper building should be built. He conveys this idea, using his power (shakti) of speech, to the board of directors who approve it.
The idea is then conveyed with the aid of Mother Saraswati (speech or written words) to the financiers, to the architect, to the contractors, to the labourers on site. The result is the manifestation of a fifty-story building. The thought became a thing. Thoughts are things. Examine everything that surrounds one in the house.
Everything before being made existed as thought or idea before becoming a stove, table, clock, calendar, screwdriver, soap powder.
This is at the human level of microcosm.
At the cosmic level of macrocosm, the combination of Shiva and Shakti (Spirit and Matter) makes possible the manifestation of the universe. The dynamic shakti functions on the static Shiva. The substratum is Shiva and the vibrant manifestation is shakti. Like the screen (the substratum) and the projected image upon the screen (in a movie theatre).
Shiva and shakti are inseparable aspects of the one Reality, like the whiteness in milk; like the brilliance in diamond and like the word and its meaning. Just as heat is inherent in fire, the power inherent in God (Shiva) is maya (shakti). The manifest universe is the display of shakti or maya.
Man is constituted of both Shiva and Shakti. The persisting personality in him is Shiva and the perishing form is shakti. The being in him is Shiva and the becoming in him is shakti. The awareness or consciousness is Shiva and the physique is shakti. The sentient Shiva manifests Himself through the insentient matter viewed as shakti. The insentient physique enshrines and nurtures the sentient in man. In other words, Mother Nature nurtures what is sentient in man. Shakti rears the Shiva in man. Therefore, worshipful attitude towards Shakti is incumbent upon man evolving in Shivahood.
Theology abounds in terms such as Uma-Maheshwar, Lakshmi-Narayana, Radha-Krishna, Sita-Ram, Shiva-Shakti, Purusha-Prakriti, Ardhanarishwar, spirit and matter. These are all indicative of the fact that existence is a mixture of the sentient and the insentient.
(The following explanation is by Marc Allen)
I feel that the Kabbala- so-called ‘esoteric’ Judaism – expresses it very clearly and simply. Those who have studied other traditions will see many similarities.
To study the Kabbala is to study the ‘Tree of Life’. All things are contained within the Tree of Life. The creation of the Tree of Life reflects the mysteries of all creation. And the study of the Tree of Life explains the mysteries of ourselves, for we are a microcosm, mirroring the vast macrocosm: ‘As above, so below’.
The Tree of Life begins with emptiness, within the vast, shining void of space. Then it begins as a very subtle ‘spiritual impulse’ – the impulse to create. Then this very subtle spiritual impulse becomes something more tangible: a thought, a clearer, more definite impulse to create something. Once the impulse has become a thought, it gains momentum and becomes a feeling, an emotional impulse. This feeling, supported by a sustained thought, soon becomes manifested in physical form, as an object we can experience with our senses.
The way in which the Tree of Life is formed reflects the way in which everything in our lives is created. Everything has gone through this cycle: it is first a spiritual impulse, then a thought, then a feeling, then it becomes a physical manifestation. Everything we have created in our lives was first a thought, and then a feeling. Anything we consistently hold in our minds to be true or real will become true or real in our physical universe.
This explains why affirmations are so powerful – and why they are not so mysterious. Affirmations are our very thoughts themselves, supported by our emotions. We are saying affirmations all the time – whether consciously or unconsciously. The universe always says ‘yes’ to our affirmations, always supports them, because we are the universe, we are the Tree of Life, and we are creating our own reality, through our thoughts and feelings and spiritual impulses.”
Through our words and the thoughts behind them, we are continually giving our bodies operating instructions. By being observant, we can become aware of this process.
As we have seen, everything, before it is created on the physical plane, is at first a spiritual impulse, then a thought, then a feeling. Before we can build a house, there must be a blueprint for it, a design, an idea. Words are creative ideas spoken, made manifest into the world.
Vedanta (Hinduism) explains this process as VASANAS
VASANAS are subtle impressions which the individual soul will carry with when the soul separates itself from the physical body upon the death of a person. To understand this term VASANA, first think of ice, which is gross. It is solid and it can be touched or felt and can be cut into different shapes. Water is subtler than ice. Water cannot be cut into shape, although it will assume the shape of its container. Water is liquid and not solid like ice. Steam is subtler than water. We cannot hold steam in our hand as we can hold water. Steam is visible for a while and then it becomes invisible. Humidity in the air is subtler than steam. The presence of humidity in the air cannot be seen .The vasanas are like the humidity in the air, subtlest of all. The vasanas undergo transformation at the level of the intellect into thoughts. The thoughts in turn undergo transformation at the level of the mind into desires; and the desires undergo transformation at the level of the physical body into actions.
How to Do Affirmations
Every thought and every word – positive or negative – is an affirmation, and is creating the reality of the affirmation. The simplest way to do affirmation consciously is just to say them to yourself, either out loud or silently, whenever you feel like it. Especially say them to counteract any negative thoughts or words you find yourself thinking or saying. This is not a tool for repression – allow yourself to have any thoughts and feelings you have – don’t reject them – and yet, give yourself the time and energy to affirm a more desirable reality after you have experienced and explored your so-called ‘negative’ feelings.
For example, if you find yourself thinking, ‘This job is making me sick,’ look at what you are thinking, and see if that’s something you really want to create for yourself. If it isn’t, affirm to yourself, out loud or silently, and with emotion, ‘I am strong and healthy, when I do my work,’ or ‘I am eternally strong, healthy, and young,’ or something which feels good to you. Say it repeatedly, if necessary, and say it with emotion, until it feels like it has sunk in. By just becoming more aware of what you are saying and what you are thinking, you will find that you have plenty of material to deal with. Notice the things that aren’t working in your life, and find affirmations to correct the situations.
Of course, your feelings about your job may be a very valid reason for you to find another, healthier job. But if you choose for the present to remain in the same situation, create the most positive thoughts you can about it.
Make the affirmations in the present tense – even if it seems unrealistic. Don’t affirm, ‘I am going to create abundance in my life,’ because the results will always be waiting to happen in the future. Instead, suspend your current beliefs for a moment, and affirm, ‘I now have abundance in my life!’ – and you’ll soon find that it is true. How soon your abundance will come depends on how strongly your affirmation is repeated, and whether or not you are affirming the opposite on deeper levels of your consciousness (your subconscious negative beliefs).
Many people are unconscious of this – and they are so often saying things like, ‘This is really making me sick,’ or ‘This job is killing me,’ or ‘He is a pain in the neck,’ or ‘This is driving me crazy,’ or ‘I can’t do it.’ These words are affirmations, just like any other words. No wonder these people are getting sick, dying too young at jobs they hate, getting headaches, going crazy, and failing in life.
Look at your life – clearly and honestly. You will see what you have been affirming to yourself. Most of us have created a lot of things that we would prefer to do without. It is time to affirm, to create something better for yourself.
We have been giving ourselves affirmations all our lives. And others have been giving us affirmations all our lives. The only problem has been that we have not been consciously aware of the process and power of affirmations, and so we have affirmed a lot of things, which we could do better without.
Anything you say or think to yourself is an affirmation. Anything anyone else says to you is an affirmation, if you accept it. Our subconscious minds accept it all – whether for better or worse. Many of us grew up in environments, which may not have been totally supportive. Most of us had parents, families, friends, and other peers who may have given us a lot of terrible affirmations, which were destructive to out self-image. Children often tell each other that they are stupid or ugly or unable to do something. Brothers or sisters often say unflattering things to each other. These are unfortunate, negative affirmations.
Most people are still carrying with them, in their basic core beliefs, the non-supportive things, which their parents, teachers, friends, and families told them when they were so young that they didn’t have the awareness to question or ignore. And these affirmations have an especially powerful effect when there is a strong emotion behind them- those moments when Mommy is deeply upset, and yells: “You never do anything for me!” give the child a deep affirmation of his or her own selfishness and worthlessness.
It’s no wonder that people have affirmed themselves into neurosis, poverty, selfishness, unattractiveness, sickness, weak and limited self-images, etc. Fortunately, affirmations are so powerful that a few minutes of conscious, deep, positive ones repeated daily for a few weeks could do years of unconscious, deep, negative ones. This is especially true because the positive affirmations have the greatest power in the universe behind them: the power of truth. Because the truth is that you are a free being. You are not limited or restricted. And your life is worthwhile. And you are good person –not a bad one. And you are really loving – even though that love may be buried under years of unexpressed anger and guilt and frustration.
Therefore, we emphasize again:
Affirm what you know to be true in your heart, and you will create that reality. Affirm that you are free, and strong, and attractive, and prosperous, and loving – and you will find, often in a remarkably short time, that your outer world will begin to change as a reflection of your changing inner consciousness.
Another powerful way to do affirmations is in the relaxed state of mind and body, which is often called ‘meditation’. By all means, find some time to meditate – even just five minutes in the morning will bring results within a week or two. The following exercise is relaxing, energizing, and healthful, as well as being the most powerful way to deeply absorb affirmations. It is the most effective way to create anything you wish.
Just sit or lie comfortably. Take a few deep cleansing breaths – even take a few minutes to breathe deeply, if you get into it. Deep breathing is one of the best possible things we can do for our minds, bodies, and spirits.
Close your eyes, take a deep breath and affirm, silently to yourself as you exhale, ‘My body is now relaxing’. Take another breath and affirm, as you exhale, ‘My mind is now relaxing.’ Take one last deep breath and affirm, as you exhale, ‘I am now letting everything go.’
Then choose any affirmation – any instruction you want to give your body and mind, anything you wish to create. See it happening here and now as you say your affirmations. If excitement and enthusiasm arises to support the affirmation, all the better – the stronger the feeling, the sooner the reality you wish to create manifests.
Say each one repeatedly, until it feels good to you. Try these, and see how they feel
‘I am deeply relaxed…..
‘I am strong and healthy….
‘I am open, I am free….’
Feel yourself being relaxed. See yourself strong and healthy. Feel yourself open and free. Choose any other affirmations you wish to work on, and repeat them, many times, until you feel sure that your subconscious has unquestionably gotten the message. Picture yourself as having completely fulfilled the affirmation.
Enjoy yourself – don’t work too hard at this. Have fun with your creative imagination. Take a final, deep breath at the end of your meditative affirmations, and affirm:
‘This, or something better, is now manifesting, for the highest good of all! So be it! So it is!’
Now return to your waking day, fully relaxed and refreshed, able to effortlessly accomplish whatever you want.
The more energy you put into your affirmations, the sooner you will experience results. Imagine yourself easily and effortlessly becoming what you are affirming. Don’t worry if you can’t ‘visualize’ it in your mind’s eye – just feel it, imagine it. By doing so, you are creating that reality in your thoughts, and in your emotions. Soon a vast, deep reservoir of power in you- the power of your subconscious mind, your connection with the infinite – will bring about in physical reality what you are affirming.
The measure of an affirmation’s success is whether or not it soon manifests in your world. You should be able to manifest almost anything you are affirming within 21 days. There are some exceptions to this, if the project is vast or complicated, or the goal is distant. But the results should become clearly evident to you in a short time. You should be able to feel the change. If the results aren’t happening, it is only because you are affirming something else on deeper, perhaps less conscious levels which is creating something contradictory to what you are affirming consciously.
If you are repeating to yourself for example:
‘My connection with infinite intelligence is yielding me a vast personal fortune.’
Every day, with emotion, and after three weeks you are still broke, then you have to find out what else you have been telling yourself that is creating a contradictory reality. Writing affirmations and their responses is the best way to do this.
Take a notebook. On one page, write: ‘Affirmations’ across the top. On the next page, write ‘Thank you!’ across the top. Then begin writing your affirmation on the page headed ‘Affirmations.’ Put your attention to it; pour your feeling into it. You want to be self-sufficient, or beautiful, or whatever – and the truth of the matter is that you deserve it, so you might as well create it for yourself.
Keep on writing the same affirmation, and keep putting your full attention on it. Soon you will probably notice some kind of inner resistance popping up – some words you are telling yourself (affirming to yourself) on deep levels. Whatever they are, write them down on your ‘Thank you’ page. On this page, you are encourages to voice all your reactions to your affirmations.
Say you are writing, for example, ‘My connection with infinite intelligence….’ And you find yourself thinking, ‘What connection? I am a blundering idiot!’ Immediately turn to your ‘Thank you’ page and write those words. It is called your ‘Thank you’ page because, as you write those words, you want to mentally thank yourself for sharing them with you (this may sound artificial or strange, perhaps, but it works). Then go back to writing affirmation. ‘…is yielding me a vast personal fortune.’ Then you may find yourself thinking, ‘A vast personal fortune? I could never handle it’ – so write that down too on your ‘Thank you’ page. Then go back and write your affirmation again. And so on.
After writing your affirmation 10 or 20 times, you may have 10 or 20 or 30 comments on your ‘Thank you’ page. Look at them carefully – these are the things you are affirming to yourself on deeper levels, which are creating your present reality. Sometimes it is enough just to look at them and see how foolish they are, and how they are not really true for you. Sometimes these negative affirmations dissolve as soon as you look at them. At other times, you may have to create new affirmations for yourself that are especially designed to counteract what you have been telling yourself. In the example above, where you found that you were thinking you could never handle a vast personal fortune, you may want to affirm something like, ‘I am capable of handling a vast personal fortune easily and skilfully’ – or, if that is too confronting, lower your gradient for yourself and affirm, ‘I am capable of skilfully handling my financing.’
Do this daily, if necessary. Breakdown your resistance with more affirmations. That is all that is necessary to do. When you finally get to the core of your resistance – to the ‘biggie’ which you are holding onto, the one terrible thing about yourself that you haven’t dared to admit even to yourself – when you finally find yourself writing it out on your ‘Thank you’ sheet, you will feel something releasing in you. Then find the affirmation, which deals with it directly, and release it for all time from your consciousness. You’ll find yourself feeling wonderful (literally – wonder full). Now you are coming into your own power. Now you are not limiting yourself any more. You are free to be who you want, and to create the life you want. It is your birthright.
Following are some sample affirmations, ones that I have worked with personally. Let these serve as examples for you to create your own.
I am an open channel for exquisite, endlessly abundant creativity, in many many forms.
Work and play with one, two, or three at a time – as many as you feel you can handle – until you achieve results.
I must point out a common error many people make when they begin doing affirmations; it is the error of assuming the affirmations themselves will do all the work, and that there is nothing else that needs to be done.
In many cases, it is true that nothing else other than the affirmation needs to be done to accomplish what is intended. In these cases, all that is necessary is for us to suggest the affirmation to our subconscious, and the forces are set in motion, which automatically create what we desire. This is the power of our human energy – our conscious and subconscious states of mind. When you see this happen – as I have many times – it is an exciting and fulfilling experience.
But there are many types of affirmations, which need to be supported by and completed through a very mechanical series of actions in the world. Affirmations for abundance, or creative expression or finding the perfect job, for example, need to be done along with very logical steps in the world. These steps are simple to discover – you either know them already, or they may take some research.
In creating abundance, for example, you have to find the service or product, you can offer the world, which you will be paid abundantly for. Then you have to list the steps necessary to make that service or product available: you may need to make a brochure, make samples, do an ad, etc.
I have known people who have affirmed abundance, and then found an unexpected cheque in the mail, or inherited money they hadn’t known about. But most people who are successful affirming abundance find that they have to do the necessary groundwork to offer their talents and abilities to the world.
Keep doing your affirmation, and it will become clear to you what you need to do.
The other necessary element for you to create your own personal freedom in whatever ways you wish is patience and persistence. The world wasn’t created in a day. Occasionally you will find an affirmation, which manifests almost as soon as you say it. But most created things take some time to manifest. Give a seed a week or so to sprout. Then give the plant a few weeks or even months to develop. Give an affirmation at least three weeks to create some results. In the case of an affirmation as broad as ‘My connection with infinite intelligence is now easily yielding me a vast personal fortune,’ it may take years to fully manifest. But you should be able to feel changes and see results within three weeks after affirming it every day. In this example, you will find yourself discovering creative ways to make money. You won’t be nearly so broke, and you will be feeling a lot more abundant – even if your bank account hasn’t changed much in three weeks. It will grow, if you have patience and are persistent.
One affirmation which worked for me almost instantly was ‘I am organized.’ For years I had been telling myself, just a few times in a single session, ‘I am organized,’ I felt the truth of that statement fill my being. I got up from my chair and immediately started listing all the things I was planning to do, hoping to do, and dreaming of doing. Then I organized it all, putting it into a list with the first priorities at the top. In one moment, I ceased looking at myself as a limited, unorganised person, and saw myself as being very capable of clear organization. It was simple. Within a few weeks, I had created a filing system for both personal and business affairs, I had cleaned up my desk and personal work area, and had gotten into a daily habit of listing everything I intended to do, numbering it in priorities, and handling it.
If you are ready for it, some of your affirmations may manifest that quickly for you. But usually, it will take longer. But keep it up, every day (or at least three or four times a week). If one particular affirmation seems to lose its energy for you, if it feels lifeless, if you are not connecting with it, find another way to say it that feels good and strong to you.
If you find no noticeable results in three weeks, try writing your affirmations and your resistances. Discover which of these resistances are blocking you from creating your good. Then find affirmations, which are the opposite.
It is a startling thing for many people to realize that we create what we want. We may not be creating what we think we want, but in fact we are creating that which we want on some deep, perhaps subconscious levels. If you are broke, it is because you want to be, or because you feel you deserve to be, or because you feel you can’t handle money. Find some affirmations, which change your thinking about these things. If you are alone, it’s because you want to be. There is no other excuse. If you really feel you don’t want to be alone, and are ready for an ideal relationship, affirm it to yourself, and you will create it for yourself. All it takes is a strong, focused affirmation with feeling behind it, and patience, and persistence.
Affirmations work only for the good – that is, the highest good of all concerned. If anyone wishes to use these tools for their own ‘good’ at the expense of another, they will create problems for themselves. This is because they are neglecting the law of Karma. Briefly stated, the law of Karma says that the Universe is set up so that whatever you do comes back to you. Think loving thoughts and you live in a loving world. Think hateful thoughts and you live in a hate-filled world. Try to injure someone else, and you will be injured.
This is why there is never any reason to fear misuse of these powerful tools – or to fear black magic or witches (in the negative sense of the word) or even the effects of chemicals or atomic energy – because any people who try to harm others, through affirmations or ignorance, or any other means, only end up hurting themselves. The law of Karma is infallible. If you have even the slightest feeling that what you are affirming may not be the best thing for you, or for someone else, finish your affirming with these words, ‘This, or something better, is now manifesting for the highest good of all concerned.’
Then just sit back and relax and enjoy the fruits of your creation. Let it come to you, easily and effortlessly, without struggling, striving, or suffering.
Easily and Effortlessly
I will close this chapter with mention of a particularly powerful affirmation for people in the world today:
“--------comes to me, easily and effortlessly.”
Fill in the blank with whatever you desire.
Often, one of the largest stumbling blocks in the way of attaining or accomplishing something, especially your most cherished dreams and goals, is that we are trying too hard.
Life does not have to be a struggle. Look at the trees and plants and birds and other animals. Are they struggling for survival? “Consider the lilies of the field….”
Simply affirm to yourself:
‘Freedom comes to me, easily and effortlessly.’
‘Love….
‘Money….
‘Abundance….
‘Happiness….
And also specific things, such as:
‘My perfect artistic expression comes to me, easily and effortlessly.’
‘My book….
‘My creative expression….
Even very specific projects and commitments can be finished and fulfilled, easily and effortlessly, with this affirmation.
When you ask the Universe for something, you will receive it – unless you are denying it on deeper levels of your being. Let it all come to you, easily and effortlessly. You deserve it. You deserve to have it all. And now you are holding in your own hands the tools to create whatever you want; whatever your heart desires.
Positive affirmations have the greatest Power
in the universe behind them: the power of truth.