Sadhna - Some Thoughts

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The surest sign of a perfect and right Sadhna (Meditation) is that

after sadhna, one must feel energised, blissful and peacful. If this

is not attained, it indicates some serious fault in one's sadhna.

Also some people do sadhna with enthusiam and soon they leave it

in between or switch over to another one. Why this happens, and what

precautions should be taken before starting our sadhna. Let us

discuss this. The basic difference between a man and an animal is

that an animal is driven by instincts and body needs whereas man is

driven mainly by his Manas (Mind) and partly by body needs. Mind is

sythesised of Rajoguna, the quality of action of Mother Nature, hence

it has "Activity" as its main quality. Our mind needs action and when

exposed to any new idea, it concentrates on it with full

devotion but as is its nature of Rajoguna, it can not remain on

anything for long and gets bored ealsily...When a new sadhaka starts

his sadhna, he is in full spirits. His mind is ready to start action

immediately without waiting to analyse the path and its obstacles. A

new sadhaka starts the path of meditation with zeal and having in

mind the stories of Vivekananada, Yogananda, Ramana Maharishis and

likes. His mind is ready to jump to sadhna keepin siddhis or

enlightement as his goal. But a new sadhaka forgets that mind can not

be tamed so easily. ..A sadhaka then exerts pressure on Mind, which

concentrates on the path happily but gets bored soon and starts

brooding over other thoughts. At this stage some sadhaka leave the

sadhna while others force the mind to concentrate. This forcing of

mind is very dangerious exercise. Mind reacts to this force and

starts bringing a flood of othere thoughts and completely destroys

the sadhana. Sadhaka feels himself fallen from the path and becomes

dejected and sad

 

So those who wish to start on the sadhna path, must first understand

the Mind. Mind loves new ideas and the moment it gets next new idea,

be it good or bad it gets bored from the earlier one. Mind loves

nothing. It only loves new thoughts, and new actions. It may leave

the older good and may go for a new bad idea. What mind does daily,

it loses interest in it. An idol of Krishna may bring tears to our

eyes, but it has no effect on the priest who worships it daily in a

mechanical way. The sweets which bring water to our mouth have no

effect on the sweet-vendor. Mind has to be tamed slowly. Give minimum

acceptable time for sadhna. Keep a fix routine. The place and

time for sadhna should be fixed and slowly Mind will know that it has

to calm down at that moment. Increase the time of sadhna very slowly.

Maths says if 10 man can complete the work in 2 days 20 men will

finish it in one day. But this Maths is not known to Mind. We can not

say that if we meditate for more hours a day, Mukti will be faster.

It is possible that if we meditate for 5 hours, mind might have

calmed only for 5 minutes, and these five minutes would be real

Sadhna.

 

...Mind should not be allured by new and great ideas in the beginning.

No thoughts on Siddhis and Enlightenment or Moksha be used to tempt

the mind. Change of environment may help in the beginning but it is

not an advisable idea. My personal experience is that we should do

sadhna in the present environment to which mind is well

accustomed ...Next important thing is that a sadhaka should keep in

mind that whatever is to be done, has to be done by him. Having high

hopes that our Guru will give us Mukti or God will take us to the

enlightenment may prove fatal to sadhna. Some sadhka take example of

Vivekananda and think they will be given everything by guru as

Paramhansa Ramakrishana gave to Vivekananada. These type of sadhaka

keep changing gurus in the hope of getting a miraculous guru. We

should remember that a real guru or Mahapurusha does not shower his

blessings on a particular person. Even personal service by a disciple

may not attract his guru to do Shakti Paat on him. The real Gurus do

not do Kripa on a particular person. They are neither happy with one

nor are angry with the other. They treat all as their own selves. ..

We have to attain a certain level of purity of mind and concentration

before a Guru gives us further guidance. Gurus do not help lazy,

duffers and impure persons. ..A real guru sees through his disciples

and gets a glimpse of their sadhna, their intensity of desire for God

and the purity of their mind. The one who is worth will get Shakti

Paat from guru. If there is an obstacle of old karma hindering such

disciple's progress guru will remove it by his powers and he shines

with wisdom like Vivekananada or Yogananda. A Guru does not make

reflectors. They remove the dirt from the surface of the reflector

and it starts shining and spreading light all around. So instead of

waiting for a guru to come and rescue us, we should start with our

sadhna , make ourselves pure and pious and increase our love for God.

It is a well known fact that if we are pure, hardworking and the

desire for truth has taken deep roots into our heart, a Guru is bound

to be attracted to us and remove our remaining obstacles. Shri Tota

Puri had travelled from Himalayas to Bengal to remove last obstacle

of paramhansa and made him established in Nirvikalapa Samadhi. It was

the greatness of Paramahansa which attracted Tota puri, his last

guru. ...

 

The other important point is to avoid laziness. A dacoit may become a

saint but a lazy will never be (example of Saint Valmiki who was a

dacoit earlier). Laziness is Tamoguna and action is Rajoguna.

Tamoguna can not be transformed into Sat directly. It has to pass

through Raj first. So let the Tam not over power us in forms of

laziness.We should always make an equilibrium in every thing. shri

Krishna has said in Gita -Yoga is not for those who eat too much or

those who remain hungry neither for those who sleep too much or those

who do not sleep well 6/16).we should make an equilibrium in every

thing. We should not speak too much, we should not work too hard, we

should not love too dearly but also we should not hate , or be lazy.

There should be a balance in our day to day jobs...And the most

important point to remember is that Sadhna is our whole life, our

whole day, our whole being We can not be pure for the moments of

Sadhna, and become an impure one for the rest of the time. Moral life

is very essential for Sadhna. ..We have to be good human being first,

before becoming good Sadhaka, or bhakta. Every work should be treated

as a Yajana done for the supreme.

 

Needy should be helped as Narayana, not as wretched poors. Feeling of

kindness, or donation is sometimes a nourishment for ego. All good

works should be done as act of duty not as a favour to an

individual...If our daily life is not pious, disciplined and sattvic,

we can not progress on the path of Sadhna. Because whatever we do the

whole day, whatever we think during the day, has a direct effect on

our sadhna.