I picked up my copy of Deepak Chopra’s The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire off my bookshelf this morning. I knew there was a section in this book on mantras and sutras. Chopra lists 7 principles of what he terms synchrodestiny, which is the way our soul connects to the physical world and directs our destiny in this life.
Each principle has a sutra, a Sanskrit phrase to be used during meditation. These sutras are repeated to aid in meditation. They are to be pondered during waking hours, and the meaning of each one will guide and direct our thoughts and actions.
One of the most interesting aspects of this section is where Chopra asks “Why should we use a Sanskrit phrase when we don’t understand its meaning?” The answer he gives is that we use a well-traveled path to get where we want to go in the physical world. You could take an unknown path to get somewhere, and eventually find your way to your destination, but it’s going to take longer. Using a Sutra, which as been the path to synchrodestiny (or enlightenment) for thousands of years, you will find it the shortest path to your destination.
I want to connect this “path” idea to one that comes from my favorite scientist in the world, Rupert Sheldrake. Sheldrake’s theories of how the world works are based on “grooves” or fields in our consciousness, and in humanity’s collective consciousness. Each time a ritual is repeated, the groove gets a little deeper. Sheldrake calls the fields “morphic fields” and shows how they work in normal day-to-day life, as well as how they affect the an animal’s development, human behavior, and many other examples.
I see the use of well-known thousand year old sutras as an example of Sheldrake’s morphic fields. In short, they work because they have worked in the past, and have been used by millions of spiritual travelers over thousands of years. The groove is deep, the path is clear; the result is waiting for you.