We have seen what enlightenment is. It is when life is thoroughly flowing from you, inside out. That’s the state of Enlightenment. When life flows thoroughly through you, you will know each and every aspect of life. That’s what Awakening or enlightenment means.
You will be lightened from inside because life is flowing inside-out through you. This keeps you in a state of knowing, no matter whether you are awake or asleep biologically. It will keep you in a state of knowing of every aspect of life, which we refer to as enlightenment.
Sadhana simply means instrument. What instrument does to you is, it enhances you to a different state of experience or it enhances you to access something.
(Spiritual) Sadhana changes something in the process (within) which gives you a certain result. In spirituality, what sadhana does to you is it prepares your physical body, your mental body, your energy body in such a way that it can later accommodate the flow of life.
There are different types of sadhana. On a physical level, there are aasanas, hatha yoga; On a mental level, japa, tapa, mantra, tantra; On energy level there is Kriya yoga, pranayama etc.
When you do sadhana, it changes something inside your body in such a way that it will lead you to a state of stability and balance. It won’t limit you to stagnation.
Generally what happens to people is if they become stable, they will go into depression. If they become dynamic, they will go crazy. But sadhana creates a proper balance inside you which can lead you to a state of balance. It won’t leave you in either states. You can balance different states of your body and mind. You can manage that easily.
The role of sadhana is that, once you have a stable, strong and versatile enough body and mind, it (your body) won’t compel you to do something. If you want to do something, you can do with your body-mind. If you don’t want to do something, you don’t do, simply.
But neither body, mind, or energy will compel you to do something. That is the goal of sadhana for your body and mind; to make your body and mind or energies like that. Once that state is achieved, you are not getting inclined compulsively to anything, you will be just straightforward and spontaneous.
If you remain there, there is another momentum going on in nature. Once you come into that state and remain there for some time, the nature of momentum will start acting through you.
It is like you are in the middle of the ocean. Imagine it as you are deep inside the ocean but you are like a submarine. You have your own things you can do. You are deciding your directions, your functions, everything, but it is happening compulsively.
Now, the motion or the dynamics of the ocean may crush you or it may flow you to a different place, accordingly. Until you know how to be in every moment perceiving the surroundings of dynamics of ocean around you, what you can do in order to remain stable enough is to allow the ocean to decide your state of being.
Now, here it is just the ocean of energy flowing in the universe and you are deciding your own state of being from the experience of your own mind, from the information of your own mind. It may align sometimes with the whole dynamics of energy and it may not align as well. Accordingly, if that aligns or not, you go through different experiences inside you and it may affect the situation around you as well.
So, sadhana is just making your body and mind to come to a state where there is no compulsion arising in you, except there are certain basic needs of body and mind. You can easily cater to it but there are no other things in your experience making you incline. That’s when this momentum of nature or the ocean of energy will take over you. Only when the ocean of energy takes over you, there is possibility for you to know the dynamics of energy. You can know how this whole mechanism of life functions.
This state of being is called devotion. And the human being who is in this state is called a devotee. A total state of surrender to the source of existence.
The role of sadhana and practices are only until you reach a stage where you have a stable body, stable mind, it is remaining in balanced state. Then what you have to do is just wait. As this whole dynamics of the ocean of energy has its own equations in the universe. If you have achieved that stage, just stay there because that stage will be pleasant, definetely. It may not be the ultimate pleasant but you can spend significant amount of time, whatever is needed.
Once you become stable enough, it may take some time for the whole Universal energy to take over you. Once it takes over, the flow of life in thorough and full-fledged manner will start to flow through you. Until that time, you have to maintain that state of balance in your body and mind.
Then we can’t do anything. Only thing we can do is to just wait. Only when you can just wait in a state of balance and still manner, this dynamic energy can do something. And this energy knows everything about you. It is the core part of the universe. It’s a core part of all creation. It has all the intelligence from the base of the creation to its all variety. It knows where to flow, how to flow, how much to flow.
It’s not that sadhana will get you to enlightenment. Sadhana will only make you robust enough and yet versatile enough. So that once the universal energy starts to take over, you remain stable enough to hold on to it.
In just one sentence, sadhana is just for catering our aspiration to come to that ultimate state of experience. Through various means, we are just trying and adjusting ourselves to that. And this is just for you to have an idea about what the path is, what’s the importance of sadhana is and this is necessary as well. Because sadhana itself is not a goal. And if we know the importance of it, we do each and everything appropriately. Only when we cater to each and everything appropriately, the best thing can happen and also takes the least time to happen.
Right now, whatever is happening, whatever you are doing, just keep in mind to remain in the balanced state of being and accordingly allow the things to happen. This will make the process easier and faster.