| |
 |
| |
| Thus awakens the awakened one |
by Swami Krishnananda
The Divine Life Society - Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India |
|
|
|
|
|
| 4. SUBTLE SECRETS
OF SADHANA |
|
- “Do the best and leave the rest” is the
key motto in Karma Yoga. The ‘doing of the best’, of course, does not mean
being foolhardy or going headlong without thought on consequences, but the
harnessing of one’s full resources to the execution of a noble ideal which
is calculated to aid one in the attainment of God- realisation. To ‘leave
the rest’ is to resign the results of the work to God, for, when even the
best that one can do falls short of the effort needed to achieve a desired
result, the mind is likely to get upset, which is not the spirit of Karma Yoga.
- The more we try to depend on God, the
more He seems to test us with the pleasures of sense and the delights of
the ego. Finally, the last kick He gives is, indeed, unbearable. Those who
bear it are themselves gods.
- Every moment of life should be regarded
as the last moment, as there is no knowing when this moment will come.
When it is said that the last thought of a person should be God’s thought,
we are impliedly admonished to remember God every day and every moment.
- The energy that leaks through the senses
by way of excitation and pleasure-seeking diminishes the psychic force
that is necessary for meditation. Hence before any attempt at successful
meditation this energy-leakage has to be blocked, and the direction of the
flow of this energy turned inward.
- We should not try to be more strict on
others than we are on ourselves. Our task is not so much to change the
world as to change ourselves.
- The prarabdha karma is like an
extortioner who will not let loose the victim until the last vestige of
dues is cleared out. It cannot be exhausted without being worked out
through experience, and the role of spiritual sadhana in relation
to prarabdha is not one of negating or counteracting it, but of
bringing about a transformation in the vision that evaluates and judges
experience, pleasurable or miserable.
- Mostly, the mind is where the eyes are.
Look not at anything which may stimulate desire, or rouse egoistic
ambition. The eyes have to be carefully guarded.
- The importance of sadhana in
spiritual life is great enough to compel the attention of anyone wishing
to be freed from botherations. The vexations of life are due to
entanglement in externalised forms, while freedom at once manifests itself
when the universal nature of these forms is beheld. Sadhana is
nothing but an attempt to withdraw from the particulars and sink into the
Universal.
- Doubts on the path of sadhana indicate that the spirit of sadhana has not been properly grasped.
When there is enough conviction about the correctness of the method
adopted, sadhana quickly bears fruit.
- The highest fulfilment is the result of
the highest renunciation. The less you want, the more you get. He who
wants nothing from the world finds the world falling at his feet. Even the
gods are afraid of him who wants nothing for himself.
- Space, time and gravitation divide and
pull the body by isolating it from other bodies. With this division and
pull of the body, consciousness also appears to be affected due to its
association with the body through the mind, Prana and the nervous system.
The overcoming of this distracting effect of space, time and gravitation
in one’s consciousness is yoga.
- The establishment of oneself in a state
of consciousness which stabilises one’s being in a non- externalised
Universal Pure Subjectivity of Selfhood is the final panacea for the
sorrow of mortal existence. This is the great meditation in which every
soul has to engage itself throughout its career in life. This is the final
duty inseparable from man’s aspiration, nay, the only duty in life.
- There are three grades of Self: The real,
secondary and false. The real is the Atman which is universal; the
secondary is the person or thing which one likes or dislikes; the false is
the aggregate of the five sheaths. Meditation disentangles the real from
the secondary and the false.
- Buddha and Sankaracharya represent two
sides in the picture of life. The purely phenomenal approach of Buddha
implies the so-called solid content of the appearance called the world,
and the spiritual doctrine of Sankara fills this emptiness with Soul, and
completes the picture.
- It may be that we try to remember God
when we are comfortably placed. But the test as to whether He has really
entered our hearts is whether we remember Him in sickness, suffering,
opposition and times of temptation.
- The pain generally felt at death is due
to the nature of the intensity of the desires with which one continued to
live in the physical body. The more is the love for the Universal Being
entertained in life, the less would be the pain and agony of departing
from the body.
- Who is a fool? He who thinks that the
world has any regard for him and is really in need of him.
- He it is that, as an old man, totters
with a stick, thus deceiving the human eye, for He is all things.
- Ishvara , jiva and jagat are not three entities standing apart like father, son and their house.
They are three presentations of reality or view-points of the Absolute
from the level of the jiva.
- sadhana is
a sort of constant remembering a thing against heavy odds, and pulling up
oneself from sinking into deep mires. To retain the thought of God in a
world of colours and sounds that dazzle the eyes and din the ears is hard
enough. This is sadhana, a feat of will and understanding.
- Avoid contact with such things as are
likely to stimulate sense desire or excite the ego. This is necessary until
strength is gained to withstand the forces of the world.
- The test of spiritual advancement is a
gradual attainment of freedom from doubts of all kinds and a conviction of
having reached a settled understanding in regard to one’s true aim of
life. It is this conviction that brings inner strength and power to face
all opposition.
- The strength to bear suffering comes not
merely from a determination of the will, but the discovery that a vast
treasure is awaiting one who practises such endurance. Students lose sleep
and comfort, a lover undergoes untold pains, and an employee tolerates the
unpleasantness of work, not because of a mere determination of will but
due to the sure promise of an enjoyment which is known to exceed the pains
which pave its way. So it is with spiritual sadhana.
- Spiritual sadhana is ultimately an
effort to cease from all effort. This is the highest effort, because no
one normally can be without exerting oneself in some direction. All
activity is a process of moving away from the Centre. The activity to
cease from such activity is sadhana.
- No saint has been able to maintain the
spiritual balance throughout his life. There have been occasional
reversals though these might not have left any impression on their minds
any more than the mark left by a stick drawn on water. But the mark is
there when it appears. Such is the difficulty of leading the spiritual
life. The case of immature seekers is much more precarious, indeed.
- Just as when we touch a live wire the
electric force infuses itself into our body, when we deeply meditate on
God the power of the whole universe seeks entry into our personality.
- The sadhana that one does should
speak through the actions and the words which manifest themselves through
one’s personality. The personality is the vehicle of the aspiration that
wells up within. And the face is the index of the mind.
- The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are two
great epics of the forces of lust and greed, respectively. The passion of
Ravana and the greed of Duryodhana caused the wars of the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata. These are the twin forces of the devil which can be faced
only with Divine Help.
|
|
|
|
|
|
