Introduction to Different Paths of Sadhana

Introduction to Different Paths of Sadhana

As we have seen that there are two major paths for spiritual Sadhana to achieve Moksha or deliverance. They are Karma & Samkhya. These are divided or branched out into many streams. In the  following passages, we are going to be familiar with such  different paths of Sadhana.

There are four main sub categories next to the above mentioned major paths. They are as follows

1. Jnyana 2. Bhakti 3. Yoga & Tantra 4. Karma.

Overall Idea of Spiritual Experience

Before dwelling deeper into these concepts, we would like to recall the process of spiritual experience.  With the help of Sadhana, we in general stress some of our inner content. That might be physical, mental or psychological. With persistence on the path, the devotee will start getting some feedback from those areas via  external senses,  internal  senses or mind.  As you walk on your path further ,you will start getting experience related to mind, intellect and your awareness. This is the process of spiritual experience, told in short. The devotee follows one or more paths as per his old Sanskaras or his likings.

Also we are familiar that there are four types of people who approach God. and they are as follows 1.Aarta 2. Jigyasu 3. Bhakt and 4. Jnyani.

Now we will consider the first path, that is Jnyana.

Jnyana Yoga

As we have discussed earlier, in the beginning jnyana is a karmayog.  The main instrument you utilize in this yoga is your buddhi or intellect. You apply your intellect to different revelations as postulated by your Guru or saints or scriptural truths like Mahavakyas. So what you do essentially is vicharasadhana or Sadhana of thoughts. During this process, all old Sanskars get replaced with these thoughts gradually and spiritual experience is the outcome of these thoughts and in this way experience is gained via Vicharasadhana. This experience further imparts knowledge on devotee. Devotees who can easily follow this path are jnyanayogis. But jigyasu and bhaktas, over the period of time, upgrade themselves into Jnyanayoga after getting consequent experience in their paths.

Karma Yoga

Karma is divided into sakam Karma and nishkaam Karma. Out of this, nishkam Karma is only called as karmayoga. Literal meaning of sakam is ‘with desires’ and that of nishkaam is ‘without desires’. There are three ways that Karma is being done via 5 karmendriyas. Karma means action.  And three ways of Karma are 1. action via Limbs mainly performed by body 2. action via mind. Thought itself is called Karma. 3. action via speech. If you perform action without any desire then automatically the doer of the action gets neglected, annhilited, that's ego inside of your mind gets depleted gradually and this process itself will cause laya or dissolution of your false idea of ego.& via this experience, knowledge is imparted on Karmayogi.

Bhakti Yoga

Bhakti is yoga of remembrance. By different techniques, the vicinity of God is always experienced. That method or technique may be a Mantra or Naamjapa given by Guru or any temple or Murthy -Vigrah - Statue of some deity or any natural environment or any thought. Literally it could be anything that makes devotee feel the presence of God. Here direct laya is observed, also called as Manolaya. Because in this case, you are almost devoted to your God without any condition through your deeds, your thoughts and action. In Karmayoga, yogi strive to do the karma desirelessly. In bhakti yoga, yogi does it for benefitting the presence of God. On vanishing self identification with the sense of doing any activity, gradually Karmayogi may transform himself into Bhakta. Only Bhakti alone is capable of delivering moksha but the devotees following the path of Karma & jnana And devotees belonging the category of Aarta and Jnani find this practice supportive.

Yoga & Tantra

Yoga &Tantra utilize different aspects of nature controlling or affecting the nature of an individual.  So naturally there are many substreams to yoga and tantra- for example Rajyog, Ashtanga Yoga, Mantra yoga, Kundalini yoga, Kriya yoga - all belong to this category .Tantra literally means technique so this method employees different techniques sequentially and sadhak get to know gradual transformation due to this series of techniques. Here also by pressing some of the elements of your individuality like body, mind,  or any psychological trait - bhava, experience is gained and through this experience Manolaya happens and thus presents the nature of reality to the devotee.  For a rational mind it exhibits perfect cause and effect principle so far jigyasu and jnani devotee this path is very much practical.

About the ways available to get deliverance Maharshi Patanjali says

जन्मौषधिमन्त्रतपः समाधिजाः सिद्धयः।।

ie by birth, or way of Medicines, Mantra, Tapa, or Samadhi leads to accomplishment (of moksha).

These ways considered by Maharshi Patanjali come under Yoga Tantra.

There might be other ways which I have not mentioned in this essay, but those ways will also come under the above categories. I hope this clears many of the doubts a beginner faces to understand different paths available for Moksha and to synthesize them.

Spiritual Experience without believing GOD

Spiritual Experience without believing GOD

In spiritual or religious realm belief plays very crucial role. It has its own pros and cons of believing or nonbelieving the existence of God. But there is a way of Godless Enlightenment where devotee can have spiritual experience without believing God.

Belief offers soothing, composed psychological environment to Sadhaka. He can achieve interiorization faster if his mental or psychological faculties called as Bhava are immersed in Belief. But Belief may not be rational, may not be practical at all. Or sometimes it does not consider wellbeing of surrounding community. So, it offers some sort of alien craze to sadhaka on which he/she tries to ride to reach the Experience. This is one of the ways to achieve deliverance.

But the question is if any path exists to reach the experience which does not depend on belief system at all? And fortunately, the answer is great YES.

Yoga, I believe, is the only path where belief does not intermingle with your method of experiments and experiences thereon. If you want to mix yoga with some tantra or some belief system then its different story. But its very much true that you can have a system where you can experiment with your body and mind. And you will be landed in commonly forbidden area of awareness and there you can find evidences about the existence of God keeping whole of your belief system aside. The experiences of Yoga only will tell you the truth. We call these experiences as Yogaj Anubhava, which literally means Experiences derived from the practice of Yoga. No assumptions are required. Only some of the things which are part of your yoga routine is required to be followed steadfastly until you get deliverance.

So really what is the need of belief system if you want to bypass it and still reach the essence of Truth? You might ask this question next moment. The answer is your qualification or compatibility with the path of Yoga. This path is somewhat dry, avoiding all the cobwebs of feeling and emotions. Approach of scientist, performing sadhana like an experiment and observe your mind, awareness, your inner being for its effects are essential qualities to tread this path. Overwhelming hope for future is absent here, you do not predict what will happen next. Though you know the experiences of your seniors on this path, when those things happen to you, same alien awareness will envelope your being until you assimilate it fully over the time. If you have this temperament then you can easily tread this path of yoga. And reach the enlightenment without depending on any belief system.

You can call this path of yoga utilizing your breath as object for your concentration, ie you do your sadhana karma with your breath. Slowly over the period of time, your mind will get along with your breath. As with more practice, your breath will slow down making your mind calm & tranquil. This creates the opportunity for Laya or Manolaya. For some devotees merely interiorization leads to this Laya. Sublimating mind in its own stuff. Path of mantra or devotion to any deity also leads to Manolaya which will annihilate your sense of existence and will awaken you in the realm of omni conscious, ever joyful, deathless awareness.

For the sake of introduction, I have jotted down the whole process in few lines. Many experiences can occur along the path indicating your status on this journey. This journey can continue for months, or for some years or for some lifetimes.

Some people call this as Godless path of Enlightenment. Maybe Buddha who did not answer the question whether God exists for his whole lifetime, wanted to indicate towards this path. So really you have answer now and you are capable to take your own decision about implementing belief or treading beyond.

2 Major Paths of Sadhana

2 Major Paths of Sadhana

There are only two paths of Spiritual progress. That's what Bhagwad geeta says in its 3rd Adhyaya. And those are Karma and Samkhya ie Jnyana. Everybody is qualified for path of Karma because whoever has Karmendriyas that is 5 organs of karma, he will be able to follow the path of Karma.

But its not the same for Jnyana. You need to qualify the threshold level of Logic, open mindedness to pursue on this path. Though you have inclination or interest in this path, still you have to do karma. One more tricky thing about this paths is that if you are layman doing his karma religiously with his fullest efficiency with whatever skill he possess, he will get entry into Jnyana.

So Karma Sadhanas are being done with five organs of Karma. But Jnyana Yoga is being done with only one organ ie.mind.

But if you are follower of opinion that on broader terms Karma is being done on three levels , by Kaya-Vacha-Manasa i.e by body, by speech & by mind, Then Jnyana as a Karma to be done by mind and intellect becomes part of Karma Yoga only. So you have only one path for spiritual progress and that is Karma.

In this perspective, three things namely Karma, Jnyana as sadhana or Jyana Yoga, and Jnyana as a object should be distinguished and to be understood by sadhaka very clearly, in the beginning itself.

Followers of Jnyana yoga doing their sadhana with mahavakyas , Upanishadas or NirvanTrayi assume whatever written in those books is required to be made by heart, that is what ultimate crux of reality is. Seldom they end in lipstick vedanta and start assuming this is what sadhana and its fulfilment is.

Ashtang yoga as told by Patanjali, mantra yoga, Bhakti yoga, tantra yoga even Kriya yoga and many different types of Yogas are all Karma Yogas. They are all called as Anvopaya ie very little means of Karmic effort.  Jnyana yoga also starts with karma, A karma of Vichara or Vichara Sadhana.

After initial substantial efforts in Karma, the sadhaka receives some spiritual experience. This experience imparts some knowledge, veil above his identity is removed for a instance, But that glance is so addictive that the sadhaka wants to reach that state again and again. This experience is the function of the tradition a Sadhaka follows or type of Yoga he does. Then actually he decides which is his real path.

In Karma yoga such experiences help sadhaka to annihilate karma samskaras but in Jnyana yoga habit of Logic and rational mind is used to change inclinations of mind and thereby slowly as you progress on the path age-old karma samskaras loosen their grip.

So spiritual experience is not the essential requirement of Jnyana yoga so you are now clear as why it is said that a Guru is must for all Karmic Paths. You need an experience to impart the knowledge or   reveal some aspect of reality. So you need proven path of methods and procedures, that’s what Guru donates. In some traditions Guru directly imparts Spiritual Experience called as Shaktipaat. But Jnyana Yoga is not adhered with such requirement of experience. Rather in some traditions of Jnyana Yoga such experiences are treated as mayic or materialistic. So Jnyana yoga or any yoga treated with the methods of Jnyana Yoga doe not need a Guru.

For some sadhakas , they get experience in one path still the attraction for other does not vanishes. They have such Karmic patterns and Samskaras. They need to follow different paths as their Karmic bandhanas unfolds, as their samskaras spring up from their inner being.

So you find there are many paths for your spiritual unfoldment, and also you can find people talking about taking different paths in single lifetime.

4 Types of People Approaching God

4 Types of People Approaching God

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.

 

Translate »