- Bound by Selfishness
- Bound by Ego and Vanity
- Bound by Egoistic Desires
- Bound by Fear
- Bound by Attachment to Body and Mind
- Bound by Attachment to Names and Forms
- How to commune with the God Consciousness?
Sadhana is the spiritual practices one undertake to discover the God Consciousness within.
1. Orientation:
The first step in sadhana is an orientation of life to make God or the deeper self as primary and worldly life as secondary. Primary and secondary are not related to the amount of time spent, but on the interest or passion of the person. For example, a person may spend 40 hours a week on his job but only 5 hours playing cricket during the weekend. Those 5 hours of cricket is his primary interest and even during his job hours he thinks about cricket. Thus primary interest is where the heart is. Sadhana starts when the heart is on God or the deeper self, and the aspirant tries to find more about it. The next step is to gain the basic understanding of the goal of spiritual life.
2. Basic Understanding:
To advance in spiritual life in the correct direction, some basic understanding of the nature of the goal is required. The goal of sadhana is for our smaller individual consciousness to get the grace of the bigger (infinite) consciousness of God. We feel that we are smaller consciousness due to our ego and its tendencies towards ego-based desires. But our smaller individual consciousness is actually floating (or part of) the bigger (infinite) consciousness of God. Structurally there is no disconnect between the two. Right now our individual consciousness like a wave is floating over the ocean of the bigger consciousness of God. But the individual consciousness does not become aware of the God consciousness until it gives up its worldly attachments (which does not mean daily works) and God reveals His bigger consciousness out of grace. Since this understanding is the premise of spiritual life, the next step is to feel this understanding.
3. Feeling the yearning:
Sitting in a solitary place we need to feel the deeper urge of the heart. We can feel a faint bliss within the deeper part of the heart (deeper self). The bliss is as if there but hidden behind some boundary. We cannot locate any concrete boundary, but as if there is a virtual boundary behind which there is a deeper self full of bliss. Within the boundary is our smaller individual consciousness often filled with fear, sorrows and agitations. Once this yearning in the deeper self is felt, the next step is to introspect on the yearning.
4. Introspection on the yearning:
We have felt a yearning deep inside our heart which is blissful. How to access it? Is it within the control of the smaller individual consciousness? No, it is not. Can the individual consciousness do any activity as a result of which the deeper self will get opened? It does not seem so. The result of any activity will act upon the smaller consciousness as impressions of mind (unless performed as worship). It may even cover up the faint yearning. Introspecting in this way will reveal to us that the bigger consciousness of God is not within our control. We cannot command it. It cannot be reached as a result of any activity. Once this truth is clearly perceived, the next step is to revisit the commitment of spiritual life.
5. Revisiting the commitment:
We have seen that though we faintly feel the yearning for the bigger God consciousness within, the bigger consciousness is not directly accessible to us. There is no activity that we can do to access it. In other words in spiritual life there is no well-defined effort-and-result combination. Things are not in our hands, but it is God Who controls us. God can only reveal His nature to us if He wishes and finds us suitable or ready for it. Realising this will make us humble and set our expectations right. From the worldly point of view, there is no need to seek the bigger God consciousness. Life can go on without that. Hence spiritual life starts only when there is dispassion for the world or sufficiently strong yearning for the deeper self. The aspirant then decides to commit to the unknown territory of spiritual life, whatever may be the outcome and at whatever pace. This commitment is for the love of God rather than fulfilling the egoistic sense of achievement. Once this commitment is made the aspirant enters the next phase of spiritual life where he tries to build a relationship with God. He also reads about the lives and teachings of saints to find out about the spiritual practices to undertake. No activity can directly lead us to the deeper self. Spiritual practices are like devotional attitudes towards God which awakens the grace within if God wills so.
6. Yearning for God, the essence of sadhana:
Yearning for God is the essence of sadhana. This is because if there is no yearning for God, there is likely some desire behind the sadhana. Then the result of the sadhana will go towards fulfilment of the desire and not awakening of God Consciousness.
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