One day, one of old friends, who was well aware about my inclination towards sadhana and sort of Spiritual progress, asked me how to begin Sadhana?

“Well, ” I said ” You can start reading biographies of Saints.” At that time also I knew that it was not complete answer but somehow a person at the beginning can get some glimpses of this evasive path. If he was still persistent I would have needed to go little deeper about how to begin on this path.

Actually, It is well known fact that every person is unique and every person carries different set of Karmas and their Samskaras and so every person needs to study thoroughly before taking up any path. And so instead of taking refute only in single path, seeker should apply the way how his samskaras and his karma is taking the shape, at least in the begining.

Broadly there are four categories of people who approach to Ishwara, The Lord supreme ( Now this one question is different whether you believe it or not , but for time being, let us assume that there is one ). The 4 types of people approaching God are Aarta, Jigyasu, Bhakta, and Jnyani.

Aarta means pained, distressed or afflicted. When human heavily burdened by his own Karma, find himself helpless. And in such times approaches to Almighty in expectation of getting some help. His breathtaking Load of Karma can get detached  for some time at least partially or fully. And you can find many testimonies of People of How God or Guru helped them in their state of distress. Also, You might have come across those stories also where no such help came to hand. People in distress were left in their dire situation as they are.

Jigyasu are happy with their life how it’s going. They have their own ways of handling their distress, loosen their Karmic burden on their own or maybe they don’t have toiling Karma Samskaras or if they have, it’s not the time ripen enough to get the fruits of those evil deeds. Mostly they don’t want anything from God but they wonder how this World is? What this God is? What is the life ? How it is made up of ?  And so many … One more peculiarity of Jigyasu is that they don’t believe anybody. And want to experience on their own and want to get convinced with their own Experience. If they Start believing then they will get easy entry into the League of Bhaktas. To find out such answers they approach to God. Jigyasu literally means desire to know.

It’s very easy to know Bhakta if you know what Vibhakta is. Vibhakta literally means departed, separated. Bhakta essentially means to experience the intimacy with God, always. Presence of God becomes reality for Bhakta once he set his mindset to do so. And this is very personal affair how a bhakta reach this exalted state of feeling always near to God. This is just one step before reaching Advaita, feeling oneness with God on broader terms.

Jnyani is the supreme state of awareness wherein you exactly know How the world is made up of? You know all the essential secrets of Being one with God. You understand atman is only one ,that which is in you the same is in me. He understands this very truth not only philosophically not only intellectually but with one’s own direct experience. Rather such direct experiences impart real knowledge to him. After receiving such experience words remains insufficient and sedimentary and what he explains remain to be understood without real experience. He approaches to God because he knows there is nothing except God.

Now before taking a startup on the path of Sadhana, you need to evaluate yourself properly where you fit in. Because, there are different sadhanas for different types of people.

On broader terms if you think of popular ways or known traditions, Daivat Shastra and Mantra shastra are suitable to aartas. Yoga and Tantra for Jigyasu. Mantra Shastra and bhakti yoga for Bhaktas. And Yoga, Vedanta, Jnyana yoga for Jnanis are suitable.

Ref: BhagwadGita Chapter 7.