‘Sadhana’ – my understanding of the word

 

‘Sadhana’ – my understanding of the word

The Hindi word ‘sadhana’ according to the Hindi dictionary means – becoming established, completion, fulfilment of an objective. When we translate Swamiji’s messages we interpret it as ‘spiritual practice’. This spiritual practice could be anything because there are many paths to reach one’s spiritual goal. These paths include dance, playing musical instruments, singing and meditation. In fact, any kind of intensive practice – it could be ballet, dancing on the ice rink, classical singing practice, etc. – all these require devotion of time, a faith in one’s abilities and a confidence that one can do it. We have all heard great classical singers and musicians – their songs and music generate a kind of energy which makes one close one’s eyes and get lost in the ecstasy of that music. We notice that all these performers give years of their life to practice their art before they appear and perform in public – another thing, they always thank teacher, their ‘Guru’ before their performances.

A sadhak is one who performs ‘sadhana’ – without the kind of dedication, faith, commitment, feeling of surrender to the Guru and to the knowledge one is seeking to imbibe it is simply not possible to progress. For one to progress, one has to empty one’s self of all preconceived notions one may have built by reading books, listening to music etc. Without emptying one’s self one is not yet ready to imbibe the required knowledge which is flowing all the time in the universe. The moment one becomes empty, a channel, the knowledge starts flowing continuously, the energy is received and can be felt.

When I started meditating, I had no concept of energy, but within 5 – 6 months I could feel the flow of energy, the flow of consciousness as it washed through within me. It is a feeling which is very difficult to describe as the energy flows between the hypodermis/dermis and the epidermis as it starts from the crown of the head and flows right down till the toes in continuous waves.  

One’s sadhana has to be focused on the objective, specially while meditating – if our objective is liberation or moksha then we have to sit down and begin to empty ourselves. The sooner one embarks on the path, the more the time to reach one’s goal. Liberation is not attained on dying – liberation is that state of mind which lives in the present moment, it is a state of void where everything is and nothing exists.