What is sadhana?
You might have heard about sadhana as something more than just meditation or yoga practice.
Well in India,
It's broadly defined as a disciplined and dedicated practice.
When you're on this path,
A spiritual path,
The sadhana is a kind of road to walk,
Although you're not really going anywhere.
You're simply directing the life in a way which reveals the divinity that is already there waiting for you.
The sadhak,
Which is the one who practices sadhana,
Experiences everything as close to you,
Because you're close to God,
To your source.
In sadhana,
Life and all of creation becomes a kind of laboratory for observation.
Really,
The purpose is to understand who is the one observing,
Who is the one practicing,
Who is the one on the path.
Is it you as a man or a woman with a name you picked up and took as true?
As a teacher or a nurse or a yoga teacher or an engineer?
Is that who's practicing sadhana?
Or is it actually you as that ever-present sense of I exist,
I am,
No matter the age,
Location or association that gets picked up?
Who is the one who always knows I am?
No matter when you're two years old or 82 years old,
That sense in you that says I am never changes.
So sadhana is getting us closer to the truth of I am.
It's the practice each and every day of checking where your awareness is focused.
If you believe the practice to only be the physical,
Mental and emotional person with your identifications,
Qualifications and future-driven motives,
You will be the donkey with the carrot on the end of his nose,
Continually chasing a sense of satisfaction which is derived from the external changing state.
So if we're looking for a sense of contentedness in a world that is constantly in flux,
We will never find that satisfaction.
But when we can tap in and tune in to that ever-present sense of I am,
Which is always there,
Always changing,
Whether you're in the waking state,
Dream state,
Deep sleep state,
Breathing or not,
That sense of I am is that ever-present sense of life,
The essence of life.
So in sadhana,
We daily practice whatever means necessary,
Whatever means suit your system,
Whatever means resonates with you,
Whatever teachings resonate with you that bring you closer to the truth of who you are.
This is what sadhana is.
The best way,
The perfect way to practice sadhana is to know you're perfect no matter how you practice.
If you don't practice,
You won't get it,
Which means when you practice,
It's all perfect.
Try any means possible.
And remember,
You won't understand it with the body and the mind.
You'll only get more ideas and bondage if you treat sadhana as something to do with the ego and the intellect.
The point of sadhana is to get beyond any intellectual point and allow the mind,
The ego,
The intellect,
The whole mechanism to be absorbed into that truth of the self.
It's not something you check off your list and finish.
It carries on like the river that continually flows into the ocean of the self.
When we think of yoga as it's known in the West,
We can say that the asana,
The meditation,
The satsang,
The study,
All these practices are guideposts on the road of sadhana.
But when your heart is truly in it,
You're never going to get it wrong.
It doesn't matter if you practice three minutes or you read three pages or you do three asanas or you do five pranayamas.
It doesn't matter as long as you practice something.
And remember,
Whatever we practice,
We become.
So practice knowing yourself as divine,
As ever connected,
As never separate,
As great,
As vast,
As ancient,
As that universal consciousness.
So if you practice daily remembering that,
Then your whole incarnation,
Your whole life gets illuminated from that power,
From that love of oneness,
Of knowing who you are,
Not as an individual I,
Not as a man or a woman with a name and a form and a qualification.
The sadhana is to let those qualifications become absorbed.
And as the sadhana matures,
The sadhak realizes there is nowhere to go.
There is no road.
There is no path.
There is no sadhak or one practicing.
There is only that all-permeating God,
Ever-present truth,
Existence and bliss.
That is yoga.
That is sadhana.
That is your reality.
