What Is Sādhana?

Harshada Wagner here.

I wanted to talk about a very important.

Sanskrit word that is a principle.

In spiritual life.

The word is sadhana.

Sadhana.

The word sadhana is sometimes used to mean simply spiritual practice.

As in we do our sadhana in the morning before we go to work.

But in the tradition that I come from,

And in many of the traditions of yoga,

The word sadhana is more than just Practice.

Sadhana is the whole spiritual journey that starts when we begin in earnest.

For many of us,

This is an initiation.

But whenever we begin in earnest on the spiritual path,

When we discover the spiritual path and really have the calling,

To walk the spiritual path.

In a serious way.

And then our sadhana begins.

And you could say the sadhana completely.

At the end of our life.

Sometimes there is an expression.

That is used that says that someone has completed their sadhana,

Meaning their practice,

Their spiritual journey has culminated in the state of enlightenment,

The state of God realization.

So in that case.

You'll see stories,

You'll read accounts of people who finished their sadhana.

In that way.

I'm talking about this because I think it's really important to note.

The spiritual growth and spiritual progress is something that takes time.

It's not a sprint.

It's not a marathon either.

You know.

Marathons are very difficult and even grueling.

And even though they are not just a quick sprint.

They're also this one-time event that people train for and then put everything into.

Sadhana isn't like that.

In sadhana,

What we're doing is we are having a relationship with that sacred power that I like to call grace.

And by its very definition,

Grace is very graceful.

And sadhana takes time.

Sadhana is something that is happening while we're living our life.

While we're moving to different seasons.

While we're living our life,

While we're going through different seasons,

We have some practices that we do.

That help us.

We study different things.

The practice of swadhyaya or sacred study is an important aspect of sadhana.

Hopefully,

We have a sangha.

A spiritual community that we work with that includes teachers.

Teachers are very important on the path of sadhana.

I like to say that I am a sadhana teacher.

I say that because in my path,

My teachers have played a crucial role.

In my spiritual learning,

My spiritual development,

My transformation,

My healing.

Sadhana is something that can become a priority in our life.

When that's the case,

Then the person is known as a sadhaka.

A sadhaka,

Is someone who has made that spiritual work,

That spiritual path,

Their priority.

And that's not for everyone.

Anyone who's entered into the spiritual path in earnest.

Has a sadhana.

It's a beautiful journey because it goes from being relatively closed to relatively open.

Depending on how far we go,

How deep we go.

It goes from being relatively bound to being relatively free.

However deep we choose to take it.

It goes from being relatively lost to being relatively guided.

It goes from on the level of devotion and bhakti yoga.

From feeling very separate from the divine,

Very separate from grace,

However we relate to that.

To very close.

Like we're never alone because that power is always there and always accessible.

But none of these transformations happen overnight.

They happen over seasons,

Over years,

Over decades in many cases.

I've been practicing sadhana for almost 40 years now at this point.

It's a beautiful thing and it's an element that we add into our life that makes all of the other elements better.

It makes the hard times easier and it makes the good times even brighter.

That's it for now.

We want to keep this short.

We could say so many things about Sadhana,

But when you hear that word,

That's what it means.

May your sadhana bear the greatest,

Deepest,

Most healing transformational fruit.

For you.

Bye for now.