The Easy Sadhana

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The Easy Sadhana

By Sri Swami Chidananda

 

http://www.sivanandadlshq.org/discourse/feb2003.htm

 

Worshipful homage to the supreme, universal Spirit Divine, the at

once all-pervading and all-transcending Cosmic Being. It is the one

reality behind and beyond all religions, the Brahman of the

Upanishads as well as the personal God taking many forms to meet the

requirements, tastes and temperaments of devotees. To that Reality,

the Supreme Reality of all religions, all faiths, all creeds, we

offer worshipful homage!

 

Loving adorations to revered and beloved Holy Master Gurudev Sri

Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj who proclaimed the essential underlying

oneness of all religions in spite of their apparent surface

differences. May the message of this prophet of the unity of all

religions be a factor to bring peace and harmony and oneness in

today's divided world of warring factions—where religions,

instead of becoming the source of peace, harmony, goodwill,

friendship, oneness, have themselves been made the basis of violent

wars, destruction and killing.

 

Referring to this ethically-polluted age, the great Maharashtrian

saint Tukaram, who was a contemporary of Shivaji, the great

Maharashtrian prince and warrior, and his Guru, the great tapasvi,

virakta, jnani and bhakta, Samartha Ramdas, has something significant

and hopeful to say: "Never fear. Our ancients have proclaimed that

this iron age, Kali Yuga, is an age full of contrary conditions and

adverse factors that makes it almost impossible to lead a good life,

a spiritual life, a life of goodness, dharma and sadhana. But at the

same time they have said, "In this great ocean of adverse factors and

conditions, there is one wonderful redeeming feature, and that is the

chanting of the Divine Name of God. Done with devotion it brings

about a severance of all ties binding the individual soul to samsara

and confers upon it liberation."

 

Addressing a king, an ancient sage had this to say: "Kalau dosha

nidhau rajan asti eka mahan gunah, kirtanat eva kesavasya mukta sango

bhavet puman." Puman means the human individual, man. "Chanting the

Divine Name of God, he becomes freed from his connection to this

mundane, all-deluding samsaric world."

 

Fully believing this truth, Tukaram followed this path as his main

sadhana. Praising the Lord, chanting His Name, glorifying Him, he

attained the indescribable bliss of communion with God. And having

established the truth of this great ancient saying by his own living

experience, in his own personal life, Tukaram called upon his

contemporary human brethren and said, "Listen, O ye brothers of mine!

Why do you not avail of this easy sadhana?"

 

Gurudev used to say, "Chanting the Name of God, repeating His Name,

is an easy, simple path to attain liberation." These are his

words. "It is an easy, simple path to attain liberation."

 

Tukaram said, "This is an easy sadhana, O my brothers—Nama

sankirtan, chanting of the Divine Name, singing of the Divine Name.

It will burn up the accumulated sins of all your previous births—

Jalatila pape janmantacha. Na kari sayas jaye vanantara—You

don't have to exert yourself, take great troubles or renounce

hearth and home and family to perform this sadhana. Where you are, in

your own place, at your own home, you can practise this. You can live

where you are, do what you are doing and practise this sadhana. God

will come to you in your own home and give darshan to you. You

don't have to go somewhere. He will come to you."

 

Thus Tukaram sings: "Nama sankirtana sadhana pai sope." In Marathi,

sope means easy. It is a sadhana that is very easy. "Sukhayeto ghara

narayana—Narayana will come to your own home, happily, and give

you darshan." And once you get darshan of God you are liberated.

 

"Therefore, O man, avail of this easy path. Have faith in God's

Name. Chant the Lord's Name. Sing the Lord's Name. Don't

shy away from spiritual life saying, `It is very difficult.'

God has made it easy, specially for this age. The penance,

austerities, denials and mortification that one had to do in previous

ages, yugas, are no more binding or demanded of the seeker in this

age. The Name overcomes everything, it is so powerful."

 

Thus too the Bavarian mystic, Jakob Bohme, said about the

indescribable power of the Lord's Divine Name: "If you have

sinned in your olden days—before taking to the spiritual life and

dedicating yourself to chanting of the Lord's Name and these sins

drive you to hell, then the power of the Lord's Name will enter

into hell and break hell to pieces in order to liberate you." Such is

the power of the Divine Name!