Sadhana means achievement of the chosen aim and also the
effort being put in for the realization of that aim. In
general sadhana means the effort put in for one’s
evolution into a better person than what he is at the
current moment. Perfect clarity of purpose is essential
and the same shall be fixed in one’s mind before he
embarks upon the right path for the speedy and
successful realization of the objective set by the
individual himself for himself. He should have wise
counsel from those who have already attained the chosen
objective and be fully prepared to meet the demands made
by the proper methods for the actualization of the
desired aim. He should persevere untiringly with
unswerving determination displaying fortitude and
forbearance while meeting obstacles, setbacks, contrary
opinions, discouragement and even ridicule from friends
and relations as he moves along the path of progress
towards the attainment of the chosen ideal. Different
goals require different methods and ways in which the
aspirant has to equip himself for meeting challenges on
the way. We may cite as instances, the different goals
such as running the 9 minute mile, scaling the tallest
peaks in the world, solving the riddle of the God
particle and so on.
When we take up the case of the aspirant on the natural
path, similar arguments apply. At the stage of
introduction to the PAM practice, the aspirant is made
familiar with the different items of practice covering
the precise methods to be followed along with the
purpose behind each one of them. The aspirant becomes an
abhyasi when he does the practices regularly and
diligently. We have to note here that a shift in
attitude is required for the abhyasi to turn into
a sadhaka. It would mean in effect that he has
started the yatra or journey towards the goal.
Attitude
is defined in the dictionary as, ‘a way of regarding
things, disposition or reaction to a person, event or
thing’. It may also be noted that attitude also
refers to the body posture.
If the attitude that we are like soldiers in a parade
awaiting the order of the commandant being alert with
attention towards him has developed in us, the body will
assume the alert straight posture as required in the
first commandment. I would also use this context to
define attribute which is, ‘a quality ascribed to
person or thing, a characteristic quality, regularly
associated with that person or thing’. An attitude gets
set once a particular attribute characteristic of that
attitude is developed in the person.
The relevance of the above statement is in recognizing
the fact that till the abhyasi becomes clear
about the aim or purpose behind the efforts he is
putting in and that purpose gets fixed in his mind, he
does not become a sadhaka in relation to that
purpose. In our case the abhyasi has to become
deeply aware of the goal of life and also get convinced
in his heart that that goal is the most desirable and
noblest of all purposes in his life. That should be the
only thing he regards to be supreme in relation to all
other subordinate goals however legitimate they may be
for leading a normal life of a householder.
The goal in the natural path has been stated in
practical terms as realizing the potential of becoming
Real Man, bringing forth the Man behind man. The Real
Man is in turn defined as the person who is fully
established in the natural observance of the Ten
commandments of the Master whose real import has been
realized in the core of his heart. He has to turn into
an aspirant who has taken up the Master Himself as the
real goal of human life, as the very embodiment and
expression of the commandments in every aspect of
living. He must feel absolutely convinced in his heart
that such a life, the spiritual way of living, is the
only life worth living. Commandments 2 and 3 should be
deeply understood and must be implemented by him in full
measure. Now begins the life of a sadhaka proper.
The abhyasi needs to introspect deeply within and
be brave enough to face the deficiencies, shortcomings
in him. Master has stated that the recognition of the
shortcomings along with the desire to overcome the same
signals the dawn of viveka in a person. The
evaluation of the progress made towards the final goal
has to be continuous.
Stated in simple terms it is the transition from the
animal level of existence to the human level and further
onwards to the divine level. As all of us are well aware
of the details concerning the above terms through our
literature, I will not dwell upon them here except to
reinforce certain aspects of the divine level attaining
which should form the real objective of a true aspirant.
It has been well pointed out by our guide in his talk,
‘Way of living’ (Liberal exposition of PAM) that we have
been giving too much importance to the intellect, dry
logic and the so called rationality at the expense of
feeling. Independence has been trumpeted so much that
the fact of our interdependent and mutually
interconnected existence has been brushed aside almost
to the point of extinction. God- given faculties such as
love, empathy, feeling of mutual concern have long been
neglected. Instead of being in tune with nature (4th
commandment), man has decided to conquer nature, exploit
it to the progressive environmental degradation and
perilous deterioration in bio-diversity. The natural
path is designed by the Master to restore us back to the
fundamentals of being in tune with nature. The
sadhaka is one who recognizes this fact, realizes
that he like everything in existence is an expression of
the divine and that his foremost duty lies in
endeavoring to express the divine in full as shown by
our Master. As put by rev. Lalaji sahib, we have so far
been hiding the divine and expressing our little selves.
Transformation lies in reversing the above, hiding
ourselves and exposing the divine in our lives. The more
fully we do this nearer we get to the Goal and vice
versa. Our Master has been a resplendent expression of
the divine in full measure. As He put it, ‘many people
come to see me but rarely any one ‘sees’ me.’ It needs
the pure heart’s eyes to experience the radiating
divinity from such a personality as the Master.
What are the chief attributes of a person in whom the
divine is expressing itself? We know them to be
sacrifice, sharing and service. The oft-cited example
for sacrifice is the Sun who is burning himself out
every second so that we all may live and our planet is
hospitable for the stupendous variety of life therein.
We call such a person a mahatma who puts aside his self-
interest for the welfare of his fellow beings unmindful
of the difficulties and discomfort he may have to
undergo in the process.
The other aspect in nature which is divine is the
samavarthi attribute; everyone gets his due share
there being no discrimination. There is no friend or
foe. The 9th commandment addresses this
aspect quite well. While on the subject, the Master
states, ‘we get power from our thought. It happens only
when we create perfect harmony between things of our
making and those of the divine.’ Obviously this happens
to perfection when we achieve complete oneness with God,
the goal set before ourselves in the 3rd
commandment. Our guide has said in his talk referred to
earlier that we do not become one with Master, it is
rather, the divinity which becomes one with us as we
keep on improving in purity, shedding all the coverings
accumulated through our unbalanced way of living. To
succeed in the effort we should yield totally and
unconditionally to the Master our link to the Source
with a yearning heart praying ‘thou art the only God and
power to bring us up to that stage’ of complete oneness.
It is the divine which is the means here helping us to
achieve that stage. Giving the example of how a
different view is taken when one is presented with an
item made of clay as compared with the mass of clay from
which it is made, the Master emphasizes the need for
proper making/ moulding of oneself. He says
significantly that God takes a different view of the
soul when it approaches Him after such a proper
making. We are exhorted to mould ourselves in such a
way that it rouses feeling of love and piety in others.
God is one who loves all and the soul that has attained
complete oneness with Him becomes, just as our rev.
Master has been, such a one who loves all and becomes a
role model for the rest to follow. Thus it is not
sufficient that the abhyasi tries to develop
piety and love of God in him but he should grow in
consciousness to achieve the level stated above. Master
asks us to copy Nature’s example wherein every object
receives its due share according to its capacity and
worth by moulding our dealings accordingly with due
regard to proper needs and fair rights of every one
bringing them in close conformity with those of Nature.
The abhyasi becomes a sadhaka when the
above meaning of the goal is deeply understood in the
core of his heart and he becomes fully convinced that
this indeed is the very object of his existence and thus
the efforts he makes to achieve that purpose become
sadhana.
Now we come to the most important attitude of all in
sadhana, which if not adopted and not maintained
with uniform intensity throughout, will result in
failure to achieve the chosen goal. That is firm
determination as expressed in the 3rd
commandment, ‘rest not till the ideal is achieved.’
Master explains this through the analogy of the boat;
treating the human form as a boat and the space it is
plying in as the ocean of spirituality, it is but
essential to put up the helm in order to be able to ply
through the vast ocean successfully. In the spiritual
field the helm is our strong determination which helps
us to steer to the destination. There may certainly be
countless whirls at places but the strength of our will
and confidence- confidence in self that we have the
capacity and worth for achieving the final success, in
Master and the method- helps us in overcoming all of
them and proceed on straight to the destination.
Elsewhere the Master defines the type of determination
we need to have in saying that we should gird up our
loins to sacrifice our pleasures and to shake off our
idleness. Our guide has pointed out in this context that
the meaning of orbiting straight, the expression used by
Master asking us to make our movement direct, our
thought is to be centered only on Him; thinking of His
attributes, we will be moving out of the direct path and
in a circular orbit to be ever away from the Centre. The
movement would have to be like that of a point orbiting
another point. This is achieved through constant
remembrance, remembrance being our nature. Ultimately
the remembering entity goes out of the picture leaving
only the remembrance behind.
I would like to invite the attention of the aspirants
here to an article in Bodhayanthi Parasparam V1 (p.91)
by our guide of the same title as the topic of our
discussion in which a detailed discussion is presented
on the subject. I intend to give only a brief outline of
the salient points made therein with the recommendation
that the article is to be studied in depth and its
import to be assimilated by the aspirants for effecting
significant improvements in their sadhana.
1.
Learn to remain quiet within firm in the will to go
through the process. A simple and sincere call and
aspiration from the heart is the most essential thing.
Sincerity is what is needed. (Refer also to ‘Sincerity’
article in BP V8).
2.
Turn the attention inward to heed the call from the
inner Presence of the Lord. We have to realize that what
we are seeking in realizing our true nature is
aparoksha jnana- non-sensory/direct intuitional
perception as opposed to the sensory or pratyaksha
jnana. Our meditational process demands that we go
beyond sensory knowledge- meditation on divine light
without luminosity.
3.
Non-sensory language is one of feeling as implied in
saying we feel the warmth of friendship. Fraternity is a
non-sensory construct. We gradually come to realize the
only true and everlasting friend, sakha, God,
that indwelling divinity in us, talking to us as
conscience, the voice of God guiding us to Himself.
4.
Distinguish between desire and aspiration. Desire
relates to lower levels of consciousness of the body and
vital parts usually whereas aspiration refers to the
higher values for which we want to live. Both pertain to
the realm of the mind only, the former to the lower and
the latter to the higher. When we seek the Ultimate, it
is not desire but aspiration. Aspiration should be the
feeling of one’s soul need and a quiet settled will to
turn towards the divine seeking the divine. Though it is
difficult to get rid of desires entirely, it is possible
through diligent practice and availing Master’s support
(pranahuti) regularly. Satsangh with
sadhakas and most importantly with one’s spiritual
guide is paramount being an indispensable help in this
direction.
5.
We would have noted by now that the proper attitudes
discussed are not possible by mere intellectual
awareness about them. But they can evolve and stabilize
in us only through the progress (Yatra) made on
the path across the various knots. The trainer’s help in
promoting the same via pranahuti is quite
essential in realizing the objective in the shortest
possible time. The attributes get set in us by diligent
practice along with Master’s support as we gain the
realizations termed vijnanas by our guide
pertaining to the different knots beginning from 1, 1a.
As the sadhaka progresses through them and also
owns up the relevant states of consciousness, the
corresponding attitudes get displayed in a consistent
manner. I enumerate some significant attitudes below.
a.
Viveka-
remaining calm quietly seeking Him ultimately, waiting
for Him. Detachment is to be practical without
indifference or apathy (due attachment). These
conditions relate to knots 1 and 1a. This leads to a
life within in a constant aspiration for the divine
looking at life, its vagaries, with a smile and
remaining peaceful whatever the outer circumstances are.
This is equanimity of mind. In this context it may be
noted that moderation is to be cultivated in all the 5
planes of existence. Balancing is the principle, a
dynamic balance between opposing forces.
b.
We should learn to yield to the method and the Master.
Ekagravritti- thinking and doing only one thing
is the watchword. As Master puts it, one Master, one
method and one goal. Sincerity is mandatory.
c.
Divinity is the means and divinity is the end as the
prayer states. It is better to regard it not only as
prayer, a mere wish though earnestly stated but as an
attitude which is to be developed and maintained.
d.
Love implies selfless service, obedience and sacrifice.
As conscious remembrance of Master is not possible all
the time, a method is to be developed for making it
subconscious. Trust and faith in Master enables this
process.
e.
Surrender which is the indispensable step for the
successful completion of the journey is not possible
without learning the principles of love, devotion, faith
and obedience-A very detailed discussion is available in
the article already referred to. Some of the salient
points are listed here.
-realize that
interdependence is the truth of existence and not
independence. Interconnectedness is another fact which
is to be realized and owned.
-eliminate the
thought/belief that we alone are the doer of any action
-not sharing the
results of any effort with others and enjoying it
exclusively by oneself is a detriment to surrender.
-distinguishing
between God and Master intellectually.
-enjoying the divine
attributes as one’s own, such as tolerance, helping
others. This, if unchecked, leads to gurudom.
Realizing that Master
is doer, knower, enjoyer is the key to graduating
towards total surrender. This is possible only if we
move on to knot 4 initially and much later in knot 9
with the help of Master’s support. Meditation on A and B
helps greatly in this.
f.
We know that we are moving towards the balanced
condition which we had in the beginning and which we
have lost in the descent into manifestation. Our guide
lists 4 ways for achieving this and refers to the
instructions of the Master-
.. Live working and
doing everything according to dharma, acting as if it is
an order from Master
.. Live and act as if He
himself is doing the same
The best way to handle the situation to realize and have
faith in the fact that He is the doer, knower, enjoyer
and owner of everything there is including ourselves and
our attributes, knowledge and spiritual attainments. The
best attitude would be to hold that God Himself is
advancing in us in His own way to His perfection and
that is the meaning of life. Master or God Himself is
expressing through us displaying our capacities and
utilizing them in the service of His own cause,
spiritual betterment of all. This will lead us to a
balanced existence, which itself is the goal stated in a
more meaningful and practical manner.
The aspirants would do well to study carefully and
assimilate the import of the last portion of the
referred article of our guide titled ‘some important
points for effective sadhana’; a brief summary of
the same is given below.
Basically these deal with various mental states which we
need to recognize and come to terms with for
satisfactory progress on the path. The generally
unsettled state of the mind with the crowding and mad
rush of thoughts is the kshipta state as
encountered in the beginning of sadhana. The goal
is to arrive at the settled state, samadhan.
In general the struggle with the tumultuous thoughts
leaves the person in a state of torpidity – mooda,
misunderstood usually as calmness or settledness. The
abhyasi should attempt at least the vikshipta
state- the domain of thoughts having some relation to
the main object of meditation, such as thoughts of
spiritual way of life, Master’s attributes, memories of
meeting the Master in case of the earlier abhyasis
etc,. This enables him gradually to get into the
ekagra or the one pointed/ centered vritti on
the object of meditation. This paves the way for the
absorbency or settledness-samadhan. The tough call now,
having attained the above state, is to wait patiently
for Master without expecting any reward. If the latter
were to happen, we would return to the kshipta
state.
Lastly, the books ‘Three truths and three million
doubts’, a treasure-house of practical spiritual wisdom
should be a constant companion of the aspirants.
Assimilation of the wisdom contained therein would
enable all aspirants to develop proper attitudes in
every aspect of living not only the spiritual. I pray to
the divine Master that He blesses all for the
development of proper attitudes for effective sadhana
and move on to the final state of evolution with speedy
steps.
