tvameva maataa cha pitaa tvameva tvameva bandhushcha sakhaa tvameva

tvameva vidyaa draviNaM tvameva  tvameva sarvaM mama devadeva

Thou art my mother, father, kinsman, teacher, wisdom and wealth
Thou art everything in this world to me, My Lord!
(Guru Stotram.14)

Sadhana and Life

According to Sanskrit dictionary word “sadhana” means “method or action for attaining spiritual. In other words, Sadhana is “spiritual practice”, which removes vanity and anxiety, practice takes form of our emotions and aspirations (bhavana) and gets going for attaining Realization. It can be realization of self as Brahman (jnyana-yoga) or personal meeting with Beloved Deity (bhakti-yoga).

So, for doing sadhana we need to use all our organs of perceiving (jnannedriya) and motion (karmendriya), our feelings and emotions (bhavana).

One can tell that for successful sadhana we need to leave life in society and to become hermit. Other can tell that we need to detach from all our actions and desires. Thirds can say that we should spend all time in rituals and meditations.

But! How is it possible for modern person to go out to mountains and spend hours in meditation? Where is the right way to do this?

yatkaroShi yadashnAsi yajjuhoShi dadAsi yat.h l

yattapasyasi kaunteya tatkuruShva madarpaNam.h ll

shubhAshubhaphalairevaM mokShyase karmabandhanaiH l

sa.nnyAsayogayuktAtmA vimukto mAmupaiShyasi ll

Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you give, whatever you practice as austerity, O Arjuna, do it as an offering unto Me!

Thus shall you be freed from the bonds of actions yielding good and evil fruits; with the mind steadfast in the Yoga of renunciation, and liberated, you shall come unto Me.

Bhagawat Gita 9.27-28

Everybody of us can accept these words as addressed to us.

I’ll tell only my humble opinion. I can not do sadhana for 24 hours. But I can try to make all my actions to be sadhana.

It isn’t easy but we need to try. Doing our daily duties, caring about closed people we do our debt, and this is already following to lows of Bhagavan. We must accept role which the Creator gave to us. Endowing every our action with sacrificed and service to God in living beings, we continue our Puja, which we do in front of home altar. Treating about somebody, doing something for good, we support world and equilibrium. Ii is cooperation and the life with Bhagawan, isn’t it?

maatR^idevo bhava pitR^idevo bhava l

aachaaryadevo bhava atithidevo bhava ll

Worship your mother and father as God. Worship your teacher as God and receive your guest as God Himself

Taittiriya Upanishad. 11/2

If our help and service to closed people is service to Parabrahman in living beings, so why would not turn all of this in Path, which will lead us to Ishvara.

I’m trying to accept that all my actions, as and fulfilling duties, should be offering to the God… I would say more, that it should be realized that I’m not a doer of my actions and not fulfill my desires…

But fulfilling of my duties, I don’t do it as any punishment or slave’s doom, but I fulfill will and wish of Bhagavan, because this Universe was created and it exists according to wish of Absolutely Being  - “May I’ll be many”. And understanding all what I’m doing is just part of these lows, actions and wishes, which Bhagavan displays in this World.

No need to be afraid of any failures, because everybody of us has learned to walk some times ago… So offering to Bhagavan every our step, every breath, every action, we easily can turn all our life into Sadhana.

Often people think that Spiritualism is meditation for one or two hours at day or reading several rounds of japa and recitation of prayers… But in my opinion, Spiritualism can not be separated from life. Searching of Ishvara it isn’t searching for couple of hours it is searching till time when we directly will meet Divinity.  

Sadhana and searching of Divine are not a refuse from life, not escaping from reality but it is realization that everything what happens, it happens according His lows and power. To understand and to accept that all what happens is Lila, it is what we need. If we will entrust our destiny to Divine Power, then we will be able to refuse of egoism…

When we will realize that even our body, our mind and even ego, they all are He, only then we will be able to refuse of everything, because then we will be a part in World’s Lila … Because, all actions of this World are actions of Divine Power.

In one of shlokas of Shri Adi Shankaracharya of “Shri Soundarya Lahari” we can find such words, which will inspire us and will become our motto:

japo jalpaH shilpaM sakalamapi mudraaviracanaa

gatiH praadakShiNyakramaNamashanaadyaahutividhiH  l

praNaamassaMveshassukhamakhilamaatmaarpaNadR^ishaa

saparyaaparyaayastava bhavatu yanme vilasitam.h  ll

“Let my every word be a prayer to Thee, Every movement of my hands a ritual gesture to Thee, Every step I take a circumambulation of Thy image, Every morsel I eat a rite of sacrifice to Thee, Every time I lay down a prostration at Thy feet; Every act of personal pleasure and all else that I do, Let it all be a form of worshiping Thee."

Shri Soundarya Lahari. 27

Doing sadhana as everyday routine, offering all our actions to Ishvara, caring about every living being, we will be able to see Ishvara in everybody… So we will realize that Ishvara is always with us… We are always with Him… Need only trust to Him and dedicate ourselves to Him absolutely.

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