Work Exceeding Miracles

“Sadhana is the difference between having a religion and having a faith”. His Holiness Bir Krishna Goswami.

Sadhana (ˈsɑːdʌnə) (from the Sanskrit root sadh, meaning “accomplish”) is a Sanskrit word (साधना) meaning “means of realization”, and can be used to refer to any spiritual practice, but is generally used to refer to a formalized or regulated spiritual practices.

I cannot remember a time when I was not a spiritual person. Spirituality has always been a fundamental part of my essential nature. I somehow showed up with it.

However, during most of my life, that spirituality was limited to very vague, mostly formless, intuitive notions. Powerful notions to be sure, but not very practicable nor productive.

The transformation of those vague, formless notions to rich, clear realizations has come mostly in the last several years. My fundamental beliefs have not changed but there is now a clarity I could not have imagined before.

My sadhana has made much of the difference.

I receive spiritual knowledge and enlightenment from my Spiritual Master, shastras (scriptures) and teachers too many to name, but it is my sadhana that transforms that knowledge into realization. It is the difference between the understanding that water exists underground and the actual digging of a well.

Spirituality has to be cultivated and anyone on a spiritual path (and that’s all of us, whether we realize it or not) stands to benefit immeasurably from sadhana.

It can be any practice that helps link you to the divine. It can be reading scripture, meditating, listening, singing, or what-have-you. Anything that resonates with you can be a good starting point. Even if it starts as five minutes a day, or one minute a day, if you approach it with enthusiasm, determination and patience it will begin to take root.

Take a vow. Do it every day, rain or shine. Be absolutely resolute no matter what. Flat tire, dog bite, headache, broken bone, whatever. Doing it on days when you don’t feel like it can be especially productive.

Once your sadhana has taken hold, it will become like a filter for your consciousness, steadily going about the business of keeping the muck and trash from getting a chance to build up. It will help empower you to negotiate this material world without becoming too entangled in it.

It can do this because it is not material activity. It is spiritual activity. And spiritual activity transcends the mundane.

Proof of this transcendent nature is the fact that it does not get tired or worn over time. As an example of this from my personal experience, many in my faith (myself included) take a formal vow to chant the maha mantra (“Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”) a minimum of 1,728 times a day (16 rounds of 108). I know devotees who have been honoring this vow for 30 and 40 years and after all those years there is a freshness and vibrancy to their chanting to which I can only aspire.

There is an old saying in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, “If you take one step towards Krishna (God), he takes ten steps toward you”. Sadhana helps us take those steps.