Sadhana

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone. Thank you Janpa, Tim, and Judy for your recent

introductions. Many friends have joined this Satsangha now. Nice to have

your company. It is often asked, What is the true meaning of Sadhana or

spiritual practice and what is the goal? There are probably so many answers

to this in different religions and traditions. In my view, holding on to the

awareness that the Ocean of compassion sits in One's Own Heart and is One's

Own Self as Pure Awareness of Being is Sadhana. In practical terms anything

that allows the mind to be quiet and content and peaceful in awareness is

Sadhana. The Advaita Vedanta perspective (explained through the analogy of

snake and the rope) is that when the Self is Realized, the false cognition

that the world is different from the Self simply vanishes. There is only God

or Self, however one conceptualizes That. Therefore there is no attainment

outside of one's God who sits in the Center of Being and is Being as One's

Own True Self.

>From S.S. Cohen writing about Ramana Maharshi:

 

Rationality was the very essence of his arguments, while the ultimate answer

to all the questions was always the same, namely, "Find out who you are." He

first met every questioner on his own ground, and then slowly steered him

round to the source of all problems - the Self - the realisation of which he

held to be the universal panacea. When the audience shrank, he at times

became humorously autobiographical about his early school and home life or

about his many experiences on the hill with sadhus, devotees, etc. As time

passed and the Master's state of mind and ideas took firm root in me, I

ceased to ask questions, or to intercept him in his walks outside the Ashram

grounds, as I used to do in the first six months. The final conclusion to

which I came in the end of these six months I reported one day to Bhagavan.

He showed his gracious approval by a gesture of finality with his hand and

said: "So much lies in your power, the rest must be left entirely to the

Guru, who is the ocean of grace and mercy seated in the heart as the

seeker's own Self."