Atmeeyam : ( 22/10/2012. )

INTRODUCTION-1 Sadhana is spiritual movement consciously systematized. Sadhana is the purpose for which we have come to this place. Abhyasa and Sadhana are synonymous terms. The object of Sadhana is to release life from the limitations with which it is bound. Sadhana is a lifelong process. Every day, every hour, every minute, is an onward march. Obstacles are innumerable in this great voyage. But, so long as you hold God as thy guide, there is nothing to worry about. You are sure to reach the other shore. Some people have curiosity for the spiritual line. They have no real thirsting for liberation. They think that they will get certain powers or Siddhis (psychic powers) if they do some Yogic practices. When they do not attain the powers, they lose patience and give up the practices, abandon the spiritual path, and pooh-pooh the Yogis and Yoga. Swami Sivananda To be continued    ....

Concluding Message: The Stages of Ascent to Moksham 8: The Stages of Ascent to Moksham: Part-10. It is then said to be salvation where even this little appendage of the body born through past karma drops completely, and the pure existence, the soul as it is, merges into the Universal Soul. This is called moksha, for which sadhana is practised. We do not live in this world for any other purpose. The consciousness of the aim of existence is a primary modification of any kind of spiritual aspiration. Routine activity, doing the same thing every day, chanting the same mantra without knowing its implications, and actually in practical life getting immersed in the oblivion of one’s relationship with this universal force, is not sadhana. There must be an actual awakening to this great fact of one’s vital relationship to the all-pervading power, the immersion of oneself with it, the communion of oneself with it, the self-identification of oneself with it, being it, and having...

Concluding Message: The Stages of Ascent to Moksham 8: The Stages of Ascent to Moksham: Part-9. When such a state of universal recognition of a pervading force is attained, the only one thing that remains for a person—who is really not a person but is a centre of force—is to identify one’s own localised point of existence with this universal force so that what exists is not a sadhaka with a universal power, because this sadhaka has gone into the very bosom of the sea of power. It is cosmic prana, cosmic mind, cosmic intellect, cosmic consciousness—whatever we may call it. This state of immersion of one’s own being into the pervading presence of universal force is true liberation. In that condition, whether we exist in this body or do not exist in this body, it makes no difference. While we exist in the physical body even with this realisation, we may be called a jivanmukta purusha in the language of the scriptures. The mind is not concentrated on the body; it ...

Concluding Message: The Stages of Ascent to Moksham 8: The Stages of Ascent to Moksham: Part-8. Then comes the higher state, called padarthabhavana. We do not recognise that the world is really material. It is no more an object. All the things in the world appear as a congealed form of universal power. It is as if the ocean of universal force gets concentrated into little knots here and there in space and time, to which we give an appellation of objects, persons, things, etc. There are no persons, no things, no objects, ultimately. They are concentrated pressure-points of universal force. We will never see anything material afterwards. It is all one inundating force permeating all things, looking like objects, persons and things. This is padarthabhavana. Swami Krishnananda To be continued  ....

Concluding Message: The Stages of Ascent to Moksham 8: The Stages of Ascent to Moksham: Part-7. This is the stage of asamsakti, non-attachment. It is not the non-attachment that has been inflicted by deliberate austerity, but a spontaneous event that is taking place on account of the knowledge arising spontaneously in the sadhaka—asamsa. We have to take several births, normally speaking, to attain this state of asamsakti, or sattvapatti. Total detachment is unknown to mankind. We always cling to something, either in the mind or socially, physically, materially. Total satisfaction in one’s own self, free from having any desire to contact outside oneself, is something unimaginable for the common man. But such a state is reached by the intense practice of self-investigation—asamsakti, as it is called. Swami Krishnananda To be continued  ....

Concluding Message: The Stages of Ascent to Moksham 8: The Stages of Ascent to Moksham: Part-6. According to the Yoga Vasishtha, these are the first three stages of actual sadhana, spiritual practice. By continuing this practice for a long, long time throughout one’s life, the sattva, or the purity in one’s person, flashes forth, and the sun of knowledge begins to dazzle through this mirror-like clean mind that has been attenuated through the absence of desires. This is a pure sattvic transparent condition of the mind, free from any kind of distraction or lethargy, i.e., rajas and tamas. This in itself is a great achievement that we have flashes of insight in our sadhana. This state is called sattvapatti. Because of the bliss that we enjoy by the experience of this light of the Self emanating from within one’s own self through the mind that is so transparent, we do not feel a desire for anything that is outside, and we feel that we are sufficient in ourselve...

Concluding Message: The Stages of Ascent to Moksham 8: The Stages of Ascent to Moksham: Part-5. The next stage of sadhana is an effort to find out what is good. It is not enough if we merely want the good; we must know where the good lies, and strive for it. This is self-analysis. Satsanga, study, attending discourses of mahatmas, worship, japa sadhana, are all helpful in investigating into the nature of the problem and then deciphering the nature of the ultimate truth. These first two stages, subheccha and vicharana, are mostly the preliminary stages of spiritual practice, and yet they are difficult enough for a person who is not acquainted with this way of thinking, just as a person who does not know cycling cannot sit on a bicycle even for a moment until he learns it. By such kind of continuous, assiduous investigation into one’s own bondage and what is good for oneself, the mind which is fattened by being fed through sensory life becomes thinner and thinne...