Spiritual Sadhana: Make it Your Top Priority

Practicing spiritual sadhana is just as important as exercising every day. But we all know how much people struggle to stick to their exercise regimens. A sudden bout of inspiration to become fit and healthy is followed by a few days of excited visits to the gym and then both the energy and inspiration plummet. People experience the same with spiritual sadhana, they practice it for a few days and then start finding excuses about how difficult it is for them to find the time. Lack of time is undoubtedly the biggest excuse quoted by everyone.

Office hours, household chores, social commitments, etc. are so high on priority on our daily to-do lists that it's almost impossible to squeeze in even a few minutes for sadhana. Most of us in such a scenario would simply leave the matter to God's grace, "We will do sadhana when God will grace us". But the fact of the matter is that we don't need God's grace here. He has already graced us with a human form and an opportunity to associate with a Guru and do satsang. All that is left to be done now is that we grace ourselves with some time to do sadhana.

God has given us 24 hours, now we need to utilize a portion of those 24 hours for the elevation of our own soul. For the sake of the body, we run around 24 hrs. a day. This body has no value when the soul departs, it is worthy of being devoured by jackals and vultures. 

                                                                                 

For the sake of that body we have 24 hours but for the elevation of our own soul, we find it difficult to take out time. So the truth is that any person who says that he/she doesn't have time to do sadhana is judging wrongly. It is not that we don't have time; we have simply not made spiritual sadhana a priority in our lives. When we will decide that spirituality is a top priority in life, we will automatically take out time.

Let us look at how we spend our time through a popular management tool called the Action Priority Matrix (or Time Management Matrix). This tool uses 4 quadrants to determine the tasks you need to do and then deciding what should be made a priority.

Time Management Matrix

According to the tool, there are some issues in our life that are both urgent and important like an unplanned business meeting (See quadrant 1). Then there are some things that need not be done urgently but they are important. Some common examples are exercising, reading books, and spiritual sadhana (See quadrant 2). Then there are activities that are urgent but not really important like a phone call or somebody dropping by, etc. (See quadrant 3). Finally, there are activities that are neither important nor urgent, they are simple time wasters and should be immediately eliminated. Examples are net surfing, watching T.V, gossiping, etc. (See quadrant 4).

This tool can be used to organize your priorities on an everyday basis. Make a list of all the things you do in a day and on the basis of priority put them in their respective quadrants. Now calculate the total time you are spending in each of the quadrants. You will realize that you may be spending maximum part of your day in quadrant 1, 3 or 4. This means you are foregoing things that will ultimately matter to you, things that are important but don't seem urgent. You are so busy dealing with urgent or unimportant issues that you have no time for spiritual sadhana.

Stephen Covey in his book 'First Things First' popularized this concept of 'Time Management Matrix' and emphasized that if people want to lead fulfilling lives in the long-term, they must invest more time in quadrant 2. People must look at ways to expand quadrant 2, so that they can achieve their long-term goals and do things that really matter. And what is our long-term goal?

Our goal is to purify our mind and attain the goal of God-realization. And we will attain that goal by making spiritual sadhana a top priority in our lives. We may feel spending some time exclusively with God is not urgent, but remember, it is certainly the most important. Irrespective of the other urgent issues in life which will come and go, take out at least 1 hour every day for spiritual sadhana. Without wasting any more time, firmly resolve that in the year 2018 you will make spiritual sadhana your top priority.

The Importance of Daily Spiritual Sadhana

Most people today realize the importance of taking out some time every day for physical workout. Even out of most hectic schedules, people manage to allocate some time every day for yoga, walks, or the gym. People today have become aware of the need for exercising the body. Given our sedentary lifestyles, if we don't set aside some time for physical workout, we will have to pay a heavy price in the form of diseases like obesity, diabetes, etc.

That is all about maintaining our physical health, but what about our mental and spiritual health? All day long, we spend time in the worldly environment where the world pulls us in love and hatred, hankering, lamentation, tension, anxiety, and stress. We seldom realize that the worldly environment gradually takes a toll on us and impacts our wellbeing. We must do something to keep our mind in good health. This is akin to the physical workout we do to maintain our body.

Therefore, you must do something on a daily basis to shut the world out, so that you have just one focus and that is to purify the mind. Now, how will the mind be purified? After all, to purify the mind, we must fix it on an object of meditation that is pure. But the material realm is dominated by the three modes of nature - sattva, rajas and tamas (goodness, passion and ignorance) and is hence impure. Therefore, if the object of meditation is from the material realm, it cannot purify the mind.

We will have to go beyond the material realm, in the divine realm of God - His Names, Forms, Virtues, Abodes, Pastimes, and Saints. If we fix our mind anywhere in this area, it will become pure. This is what Shree Krishna instructed Arjun in the Bhagavad Gita:

"I am divine. If you fix your mind on me, it will rise above the three modes of Maya."

If you take out time every day to fill your mind with thoughts of devotion, surrender, and love to God, it can be called your personal practice of spiritual sadhana. Just like by exercising for 1 hr in a day you reap the benefits of good health all through the day, similarly by practicing spiritual sadhana for some time in a day, you will reap the benefits of a spiritual consciousness throughout the day.

Shree Krishna also says in the Bhagavad Gita that we must do sadhana in isolation. Understand this through an example. If you take milk and put it in water, milk and water become one. But if you wish the milk to remain separate from water, you can convert it into yogurt and then churn it to extract butter. Once milk becomes butter it can challenge the water, "I will sit on your head and float, you cannot mix into me, as I am no longer milk." Similarly, separate from the world - away from television, people, etc., you can convert your mind into butter and then challenge the water, "you cannot do anything to me."

While doing spiritual sadhana, the position or asan does not really matter, however it is advised to keep your back erect so that you don't feel lazy. Sit in any comfortable position and take your mind away from the world and attach it to God. The focus will come with practice, but what is important is that we make this sadhana a part of our daily routine. We all appreciate the importance of doing daily spiritual sadhana, but the biggest challenge lies in putting it into practice.

Can we in the year 2018 resolve firmly to dedicate some time every day for spiritual sadhana?

SURRENDER MEANS TO DO NOTHING

What is Surrender? Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj  explains - We have to surrender to God. Sharanagati or Surrender means to do nothing. But since eternity we are used to doing everything so to come the state of doing nothing, we have to do a lot - and the name of this is Sadhana.We have to ultimately reach a stage where God does everything and surrender completely to Him.The mind has to be forcibly removed from the wrong place. You have to remove it from the place it is attached and this will not happen unless you attach it to God.

SURRENDER TO A GOD REALIZED SAINT

We should first faithfully surrender to a Guru (a God-realized Saint whom we have chosen to be our Spiritual Master). We should wholeheartedly follow His every instruction and teaching. This is the true beginning of Sadhana or spiritual practice. By surrendering ourselves to a Guru, we begin our spiritual journey.

In the material world, we gain knowledge by trusting the words of people with a higher intellect. Let us suppose that a person without any knowledge of law visits an advocate. The advocate teaches him how to tackle questions in a court to escape penalties. If the person does exactly as told by his advocate, he might win the case. We see that by having faith in the advocate's words, the person overcomes his challenges.

Similarly, when we are sick, we completely trust a doctor for our treatment without having any knowledge of medicine. We follow his instructions with full faith to get well. If we take medicine according to our wish, then it could be harmful to us. Even at school, we follow the words of people with a higher intellect (teachers), and complete our education.

We have to apply the same principle in the spiritual realm also. First, we have to search for a true Saint. Till we find a true Saint (God-realized Saint) we have to keep searching for Him. Once we find and accept such a Guru, we must stop searching and visiting other Saints. We have to surrender our mind to that Guru and do exactly as He instructs, without any questions or arguments. This is true or complete surrender - surrender of the mind.