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Sadhana Marma

18 suggestions for spiritual development or Sadhana

1. Japa (chanting of a mantra, a holy formula) vocally or mentally, with a vital consciousness of the chanting. Concentration on the Heart and continuous living remembrance of the essence of the japa at the same time.

2. Dedication, every moment at the feet of the Lord, of both your good and evil actions. Physical, vocal & mental.

3. Spirit of a detached witness & awareness (spiritual wakefulness). Don’t muse or brood over anything and thus form any chain of thoughts.

4. Observe as much vocal and mental silence as possible. Train yourself to that habit. Go on cultivating surrender to the Lord aligned with vibrant, burning, awareness.

5. Insistence, assertiveness of any kind except that of performing one’s Sadhana should be given up. Develop humility, Cherish the aim of becoming a total nonentity.

6. Pray to God with an intense, loving and plaintive feeling centred in the heart which should be surcharged with devotion. Narrate to Him continuously all your joys and sorrows, and thus unburden yourself. Form an extremely intimate contact with Him by such narration. Don’t revolve anything in the mind. Keep it free from thought.

7. Look upon all activities that fall to your lot as God’s gifts. Do them with all your love and without the least grudging. Every incident that happens in your life is for nothing else than your own good, your own welfare. Every action that you perform must have behind it (the sole purpose of self elevation) no other object than that of self elevation. There is no incident or event that has not behind it God’s secret but benign purpose.

8. Be introspective, introvert. Concentrate on the SELF. Live only in your own world. Don’t let yourself be intentionally involved in anything extraneous. Mind your own business. In short.

9. Take service of others as service of God. The recipient of service confers an obligation upon the server by giving him the happy chance of doing a benevolent action. When God pervades everything – animate and inanimate – there is nothing that you can rightly claim as your own. “Your” and “Mine” are myths. You give only that which God has given you.

10. Our one and only purpose in life should be fervidly kept before our mind’s eye during each and every action (material or immaterial) that we do. You should train your self the habit of constant living awareness whenever you read or write in fact do anything whatsoever.  

11. Search for the source of all the waves and ripples that arise in your mind. Dissect them - these thoughts, attitudes, tendencies etc.- instead of getting caught up (entangled) in them. Observe them with unruffled serenity and detachment.

12. Whenever you come across any impressive creation of God a thing of beauty, art, purity etc., pray to God to let the essence of that object permeate your being.

13. Even the energy, the heat, created by your impulses, feelings, passions, outbursts (healthy or unhealthy) must not be allowed to flow away wastefully. Use the steam to give you an impetus in you Sadhana. Turn it in the right channel by fervid prayer, chanting etc. as soon as possible. Cultivate the spirit of aloof-ness, detachment, even during such moments.

14. Pray for the descent in you of divine, vibrant, life whenever you take any food or drink. And when you void excrete, pray to God to throw out with them your deformities, weaknesses etc.

15. Give up attention to the material, the concrete and cultivate subtle perception. Purify your impulses, urges etc, and develop (attachment to God) the healthy elements in you.

16. God is omnipresent. He permeates everything-living beings and material objects. Culture the spirit of seeing and treating everything as you would your own self.

17. See the bright side of everything and everybody. Don’t judge others. Don’t rush to give your view on anything. Don’t enter into an argument or a discussion. Don’t wish to have your inner and outer life. Cultivate deep love. Remember that you have to transform and elevate your temperament. Go beyond (in your behaviour) actions that you usually do under the pressure of your nature. Give up all fondness for getting the reward, the fruit, of your actions. Deeply impress upon your mind the idea that the source of all the injustices, all the sorrows that you meet with in life, lies within you yourself. Go on intensifying your love and devotion for your Guru. Create the truune of aspiration for the divine, rejection of the undivine and dedication to God. Always spread cheerfulness. Bring down in your life the twins of self-effort and God’s grace. Form the habit of remembering God in the beginning middle and end of all your actions. Make your mind free from ripples. Be on the watch to eradicate likes and dislikes. Bring down into your everyday life the spiritual experience that you may have gained. Never run away from anything that comes your way. Welcome as a gift divine everything that falls to your lot. Never indulge in comparisons. Favourable and unfavourable situations are only the delusions of the mind. Everything is favourable for a life of spiritual pursuit. Be now fired with only one desire-that of becoming God’s instrument.

18. Action as such, is not important. Practise an intense awareness that what matters in action is a live,  constant consciousness of the purpose of life.

                                                              -SRI MOTA