87 posts tagged with "sadhana"

I am at a point where I am primarily going to focus on my Sadhana as it is without adding anything additional. I think the Bihar School of Yoga and Ramakrishna add appropriate amount of Tantric practices that I don't think I need to seek out a separate Tantric practice. Vedanta covers the rest so adding an additional study is going to be a bit all over the place.

I just don't particularly trust most of the Tantra people in the West. It seems it is a path that can be ideal but also fraught with challenges as it requires a guru but there is no clear way of going about it. So I am going to give it up to Bhagavan if He things I need to go down that path. I will explore it and make it a part of my process but I won't seek after it.

Lastly, I have been trying to figure out between the Vedanta Society and Chinamaya Mission in terms of Vedanta lineage. The Vedanta Society is a product of its time where it tries to bridge the West and East when India was weeker. Chinamaya is a larger organization and is more traditionally Hindu. However, I believe that Chinamaya Mission even though it culturally fits my needs may not be for me in terms of spiritual practices.

I am thus returning to the Ramakrishna path. While there may be some who will dislike this ideology and want to completely reject other paths outside of Hinduism, I do like that there is a bridge between the different views. There is a sense of universalism. While I do think the cultural practices I will end up taking will be traditional Hindu in many senses, it will be good to have this path as the foundation. Whether Ramakrishna or Vivekananda were avatars or revealed beings is moot. I think living in the West, the work they are doing to slowly bring people to the Hindu mindset has been nothing but brilliant.

I am going to focus on solidifying my focus on this path.

After careful consideration I have decided to remove Bhaja Govindam from my svadhyaya and focus my energies on Hanuman Chalisa, Yoga Sutras, and Bhagavad Gita. While Bhaja Govindam was a text for the destination in an Advaitic sense it is also pure Advaita which I am already covering as part of the Bhagavad Gita.

The devotion and discrimination are part of the Hanuman Chalisa. Also as I have three core devotional times everyday. I am finding it difficult to incorporate Bhaja Govindam into this schedule. The other three texts already take up a considerable amount of time.

So for now I am removing it from my svadhyaya and am going to focus on those listed above for the foreseeable future.

As someone raised in the West, I have always thought of Bhakti with a negative association. Advaita Vedanta appeals to my Western, Englightenment-infused philosophical bent. But without Bhakti the practice of Vedanta and Yoga is dry and intellectual. There is not aim to the practice and the energy becomes diffused.

Without Bhakti to a Istadevata, Vedanta becomes difficult as it is hard to understand the ultimate realty without form. Raja Yoga becomes difficult because there is no centering to the focus. Karma Yoga becomes difficult because there is no one to offer the fruits of the actions. With devotion to and Ista, there is a form that we are offering out actions to. It is a form that we can meditate on and bring our focus back to.

parabrahman

My mission is to build a society that is built on Vedantic ideals.

The West is suffering from a crisis of identity and purpose because it tied itself to materialism and consumerism. India is also going down this path, it will get wealthy, but we should not forget that India has a rich spiritual and philosophical tradition that combines the material and spiritual. My goal is to build a society that is built on these Vedantic ideals that combines the material and spiritual, a combination of the strengths of the West and the East.

Prayer & Mantras

Pratyahara is Japa Yoga which is the repetition of a mantra. I also think that memorizing verses is a part of the pratyahara. The goal is to constantly focus on a mantra which is repeated with devotion and with the Ista in the mind's eye. When we repeat a mantra repeatedly the mind is focused on the mantra and starts repeating it on its own. When we stop it the clarity is the start of dharana.

Yoga exist with the goal of liberation from samsara. The game is to achieve: moksha. And it is a game as the acharya's describe it a lila, Bhagavan's play.

The setup of the game we are trying to acheive is easier to understand using soccer as a metaphor.

1. Goal. The goal we are attempting to achieve is Bhagavan. So we must love the pursuit of the Goal. If we are lackluster or are not motivated the Goal seems distant and uninteresting, but if we deeply love the pursuit then the Goal becomes what we want. A deep devotion must be built up for the love of the Goal which is Bhagavan. Others have made their love the pursuit of lust, or money, or power but these are all distractions.
2. Player. Discipline, meditation and jnana are practices for the player, the body and mind, to get better at playing the game. Bhagavan, in Christianity this would be the devil, is playing offense as well. There are obstacles thrown at you tempting you to go after the distractions instead of focusing on the Goal. Disciple calms the player training it to move in the right direction. Meditation stills the mind to see that the player is not real it is the Ball that is. Jnana gives the knowledge of how to play the game better.
3. Ball. Is your atman. The whole point is you are not the player you are the ball. The player doesn’t go into the goal, the ball does. The point of the player is get the ball into the goal.

To put it simply devotion is a means to love the goal so much that you dedicate yourself to it by training and disciplining your body and mind with meditation, training your intellect with Jnana to discern what is the goal and what is not the goal. And you set yourself into a position where you can get your atman into the goal. This while playing defense against the slings and arrows that life throws at you. This is the game of yoga.

My path for the foreseeable future is Raja Yoga. It is the path that I most attune to. However, I do see there being Tantra introduced as a major facet of my belief. It is the base layer is Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Raja Yoga with Raja Yoga being the core of that practice. The Tantra will be on top of this as a practice for puja and devotion to a devata. The Raja Yoga path does not state or incorporate these so infusing it with Tantric practices as the Bihar Yoga school does seems to be ideal.

Last on this pyramid is Vedanta. So to reiterate the pyramid looks like the following:

• Raja Yoga as the base path with Karma and Bhakti incorporated into the Astanga
• Tantra spread over the Raja Yoga
• Vedanta being the final goal.

The question is what is being added by adding Tantra. While Raja Yoga is to still the mind the up to dharana after that we need the help of devas to transcend the mind and that is where Tantra comes in. Lastly, past the Tantra is to realize the oneness.

So Tantra is a bridge between the Raja Yoga and the Vedanta. It incorporates the Ista to help on the journey.

There are endless companies that one can start. The amount of opportunities are actually endless. But I realize that while I love being a businessman I am actually a pretty simple person who likes simple things. I like to think about God, read books, enjoy good food, and figure out ways to help others. I realize making money is at the bottom of my priorities.

So I am limiting my ambitions to a few things that I can spend minimal time on and get done quickly so I can focus on the things I really want to spend time on such as God and books. To do this I am going to focus on just four things and dive deep.

So what is my primary focus?

The primary focus of my day will be three things:

• 2.5 hours of focused uninterrupted work per day at a desk
• 45 minutes of mediation per day
• 25 pages of reading

That practice when continued for a long time without break and with devotion becomes firm in foundation.

स तु दीर्घकाल नैरन्तर्य सत्कारासेवितो दृढभूमिः ॥ 14 ॥

sa tu dīrghakāla nairantarya satkārāsēvitō dṛḍhabhūmiḥ ॥ Y.S. 14 ॥

Somehow or another I find that I like to complicate things. It makes my day exceedingly complicated and I feel like I am not progressing. I want to constantly add things instead of getting into depth on the things I am already studying and doing. This is making my sadhana a lot harder than it needs to be as I am striving for novelty instead of the depth required for spirituality.

I am now adding tantra as a path as if it will change my outlook on things. The true path is one that needs to be done with few things done day after day with slight improvement. This is done over years and years.

What I am looking for now is not additional teachings but to grow in my path. The goal is to continuously improve on my yoga and make the practice stronger, incorporate Vedanta, and continuously improve myself.

This is the true goal I have. It means I am at a point where I don't need to do more I need to be stopped from doing more.

So my next set of progress is the following:

1. Small Improvements. I am not longer going to add a ton of new things to my sadhana. If anything I am going to remove things. It does not mean I am not going to study other paths, but I am going to strengthen and make my current path much more solid.
2. Simplified KPIs. I am an engineer and KPIs are important to me. So I will focus on a few simple KPIs to improve my sadhana.
3. Incremental. Study to improve Yoga and from that improve Vedanta. Focus on a few teachers.

How this will be improved:

• Study will be done based on Guru. So focus on one guru at a time for each path including Yoga and Vedanta. I will not focus on the limbs but start from each lineage. This way I can focus my energies on getting into the depth of each lineage instead of moving around. I will dive deep into a lineage and learn as much as possible before moving to the next topic.
• Puja. Setup the puja required for the process of meditation.

I actually wrote this before but trying to streamline it here:

After experimenting with Jnana in terms of Vedanta study I find that I am not a pure Jnana. Jnana is a difficult path because it is so subtle, I find myself much more of a Raja Yogi as it fits a more body and mind world view. I also find myself in terms of Karma where I like helping others and teaching. Lastly, Bhakti is making my Raja purer. All this is to say that I am finding what Sri Ramakrishna says to be true that Bhakti + Raja to be a simpler path than Jnana.

While I do think there is reason to understand the state of reality through Vedanta, Vedanta is very much a intellectual exercise to understanding reality. You continuously chip away until you realize reality. However, I find that this exercise tends to be a bit dry.

So I will spend a majority of my time not in Jnana study but in Raja Yoga. My study will focus primarily on Raja Yoga. With Raja Yoga I want to become a better Karma and Bhakti Yogi. From there I will eventually go towards Jnana. This does not mean I will not continue my daily study of Bhagavad Gita verses but I will not be diving in full force. My main focus will remain on meditation.

I am finding the Kashmiri Shaivism philosophy much stronger than the Advaita Vedanta view of reality. In Advaita the world is an illusion and the only truth is Brahman. While this is a useful view for someone who is a

The essence is then the world is not illusory but it is a manifestation. The world view then is not to deny the world but use the positive and negative aspects of the world and transform them into something better. That the things seen as negative are also a manifestation of Brahman. It is a much stronger way to lead the world I think as opposed to the world denial of Advaita.

Now the complexity of this is that the Tantra tradition is not a common tradition. Sri Ramakrishna did practice it so it is not unusual. But I do not know how to progress on this.

So I am going to progress with my existing path:

• Yoga: Bihar School of Yoga
• Vedanta: Swami Dayananda Saraswati
• Tantra: ?

So I will need to figure out a lineage and if this path is even the right one for me. To accomplish this I will be taking a slow pace to learn and incorporating a little at a time. Meanwhile I will continue on in my existing practice.

I need to get deeper into Yoga and Vedanta and will eventually get to the Tantra when the time is right. Doing too many things at once seems like it may be crazy.

With the Sadhana in place around Raja Yoga I am now at a stage trying to figure out how to orient my life and the gist of this is three things that are absolutely critical to me on a daily basis:

• Meditate two times a day
• Read book for 30 minutes
• Hatha for 30 minutes

Regardless of what else I do these are the goals everyday that I hope to achieve. It is just a single goal as the focus is on meditation and the reading and Hatha are there for improving the meditation.