Raja Yoga Email ClassSTUDENT: “I have been contemplating the nature of sadhana as a means of dissolving past karma rather than a means of achieving self-realization.  In the book, The Avadhut, you mention that goal-oriented and process-oriented sadhana are less than ideal.  I had thought that sadhana is a means of quieting the mind in order to achieve a single focus, and ultimately to merge with the Divine.  Much to contemplate.  I suppose there are questions embedded in these comments.”
 
BABAJI: Sadhana has that benefit of quieting the mind, and making it sure of itself in the struggle for perfection.  Along the spiritual way it is also effective in removing poisons, destroying karmas, and availing the soul of other inner wonders of that ilk, depending on what form of sadhana one is engaging in.  It is all meant to lead to one-pointedness, however, which in the yogic way is necessary for real meditation and samadhi.  In other words, sadhana is an all-round panacea for what ails us here in relativity.  Through it, relativity itself will transform into nothing other than Reality.  Short of natural enlightenment — and precious few of us can claim that — sadhana is the cutting edge practice, the definitive shaping tool, beating methods such as conventional religion, secular education, and various types of therapies hands down for true transformation of mind and character.
                When I make the point regarding goal-oriented sadhana in the book, The Avadhut and His Twenty-Four Teachers in Nature, it is to be taken at face value.  That is, sadhana that is engaged in willingly, via traditional means, accompanied by aid from the revealed scriptures, and well-informed by the spiritual preceptor, will never be goal-oriented; such dangers will simply not be present.  In other words, follow the Eight-fold Path of right orientation, right perspective, right livelihood, etc., for the best results.  Then, karmas will be neutralized almost as a matter of course, and samskaras removed without necessarily laboring or being acutely aware of them.  As my teacher used to tell us, “If we all knew who we really are, there would be little use for sadhana.”  Well, in a better world, perhaps.  In the meantime, goals or not, there is one supreme way of successfully working through these unseen obstacles which are the causes for all the impediments that manifest in our lives daily.  Other methods are, as we have seen over and over again, either worthless, or helpful for the short-term duration only.  And as I have said above, we need to develop the long view to gain any higher view of what is happening to us against our own higher will.

For more information please follow this link: The Avadhut and His Twenty-Four Teachers in Nature

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