Sai message for the day

[Guest guest]

Many spiritual paths are mentioned by diverse traditions and

religions. How far can these paths lead to experiencing divinity? To

what extent are their spiritual exercises to be adopted? From the

description of some of these, success in one lifetime appears

impossible. On the other hand, worry that no spiritual practice is

undertaken plagues us. Is there no way out for us? Kindly grant us

peace.

 

Listening to your accounts of sadhana, it appears you do not know

what sadhana is. The practices you call `spiritual' are undertaken by

the mind. They give you only temporary happiness and satisfaction. On

the other hand, they cannot be dismissed as altogether useless.

Sadhanas must help you in spending your time in a pious way. What,

then, is sadhana? " Sa " means salokyam, dwelling in heaven with the

vision of God; therefore sadhana gives us the dhana, treasure, of

salokyam. Every act of the mind is dualistic, artificial, and

transient. Suppose you are on a journey. Suppose also that there is a

thief by your side. How can you feel secure? The person beside you is

a thief, isn't he? In the same way, all practices involving the mind

can never give you unbroken bliss, the experience of Brahman. What

you achieve in sadhana is the removal of the veil blocking the vision

of the Self, the veil of anatmatabhava. With the removal of this

veil, the experience of the atma, the real, stands revealed. This is

not something that has to come from somewhere, nor is it something

that can be lost.

 

The next question is how long sadhana needs to be practiced. Consider

a wound. When healing starts, a scar appears covering the wound, and

this drops off by itself. Suppose you peel it off by force. The wound

grows bigger. In the same way, once you have the experience of the

Self, the question of sadhana does not arise.

 

Another example. When you cook food, you adjust the flame. When you

ask how long the flame is to be turned on, it is only till the food

is cooked. Sadhana too is necessary only till one acquires jnana,

supreme wisdom.