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Dedicate Your time to sadhana

A satsang discourse on the foundational practices of spiritual life.

"If you would like to be successful in your sādhanā, then you have to devote yourself."

"Brahma Satya, Jagat Mithyā. The day when you will realize this, then your Vairāgya will be Tīvra Vairāgya."

Swami Avatarpuri explains the four pillars of sādhanā: viveka (discrimination), vairāgya (dispassion), ṣaṭ-sampatti (the six treasures), and mumukṣutva (longing for liberation). He elaborates on these principles through scriptural references, teachings from Holy Guruji, and analogies, such as the lotus remaining unstained by dirty water. The talk integrates discussions on the mind's nature, the chakras, and the essential unity of karma, bhakti, rāja, and jñāna yoga.

Filming location: Jadan, India.

DVD 416

Sādhanā. We spoke yesterday about Pūrṇimā, the full moon. As Patañjali said, the practitioner or aspirant should have devotion to their sādhanā. If you would like to be successful in your sādhanā, then you have to devote yourself. If you are a student, you have to devote your time to study. If you are a farmer, you have to devote your time to cultivate your farm and look after it. If you would like to be a successful householder, a happy, successful family life, then you have to devote your time to the family. When we go with our imagination, what would we like to achieve or realize? Then you have to make a mental plan. Mentally, first you have to visualize how and what. Then ask yourself, is this what you would like to have? Or something else comes in your mind, and you change this plan, and you start a new plan. This is what mostly happens; we call it, "I change my mind." It means you were not strong enough, you were not sure, and you did not have a relation to yourself. You are only at the level of your thinking, what we call the mind. Yes, the mind was planning, designing the project, but the dharma of the mind is saṅkalpa and vikalpa. The mind changes with every movement. That's why it is said the principle of the mind is the moon. Mānas kā devatā kaun hai? Candraṃā. So the principle of the mind is the moon. And the moon is changing, constantly changing, from the dark moon to the full moon. Similarly, every day our feelings and our thoughts are changing. But if you are clear enough that, in any case, you would like to achieve this, then again and again you have to bring your mind back and remind yourself of your aim. Doesn't matter what happens, your feelings are always going there. Your attention is always going there. And for this, Holy Gurujī wrote a beautiful bhajan. In Gurujī's bhajan, he said: "Ākhiyāṁ Satguru Charaṇome Lagī, Ākhiyāṁ Satguru Dīpadāyalu Ke Charaṇ Kamal, Śrī Dīpadāyalu Ke Charaṇ Kamal, Merī Kishmat Jagī. Merī kishmat jagī ākhiyāṁ sath guru charaṇ, Jabse charaṇ kamal ko dekhā jabse." So, your ākhiyāṁ means my eyes, eyesight, your look, your visions. That should be constantly directed, concentrated on the lotus feet of the Gurudev. The physical eyes and the inner eyes. You are sitting with your eyes closed, but you see the lotus feet. We have to open the inner eyes. And there, Gurujī said again, a very nice bhajan. Then it is said: The eyes of the heart open, the eyes of the heart open, the eyes of the heart open. "Jodale nita nema kayan, Jodale nita nama kayan. Śrī Dīpa Nirañjanā Sabhā Dukhāva Prabhu, Dīpa Nirañjanā Sabhā Dukhāva. Hṛde kamal kī āṅkhe khul jāve." Kamala, lotus, the lotus is known as the king of the flowers and a name of God, Rāma. The name of God Krishna, the name of the gods, is called Kamala Nayan. Kamala Nayan, the eyes and eyeballs, the beautiful eyes of the Lord, are like a blossom of the lotus, kamal. The lotus, which grows in the water which is not so clean, always remains on the surface. The saṃsāra is that water which is not so clean. Everything is in the saṃsāra, but you as a yogī should be above this all, parpañc, all this dirty business of the world. And if someone throws dirty water on the lotus, no drop will remain on the petal. It will slide down. So if someone tries to throw dirt on you, happy or angry or jealous or in any way, it doesn't matter, let them, because it will flow away. Gurujī always used to say, if someone is angry or jealous toward the sun, and takes a handful of dust and says, "I don't like you, sun," and throws the dust, this dust will not reach the sun, it will fall on your own head. So when you try to criticize or tell bad things to anyone, that will come back to you. Every action will have a reaction, tan, man, bachan, or dhan. Through body, through mind, through words, and through your social position. Any kind of action you will take, it will have a reaction on yourself. And where there is a reaction, there will be again action. So action, reaction, action, reaction. Now we don't know if we are in this world as a reaction or an action. Where is that? And therefore, it is said in bhajan that God has given bandhan to all the jīvas. God put them in the prison. They are all bound by the karmas. But the Satguru came and he liberated them. It's a beautiful bhajan from Mahāprabhujī and also from Holy Gurujī. Hṛdaya Kamala. Likewise, in the body, there are many chakras. 72,000 nāḍīs. And nāḍīs cannot be translated into any other language. Because the nerve is not a nāḍī. But these are the 72,000 channels through which the cosmic energy, or the prāṇa, is streaming through the body, collecting, and not only in the human body, but in all other living entities. And, of course, they have all different systems in their body and the different nāḍīs. But in the human body, it is, say, 72,000 births or 1,000 nāḍīs. All these nāḍīs are guided or directed by three main nāḍīs: Iḍā, Piṅgalā, and Suṣumṇā. Iḍā, Piṅgalā, and Suṣumṇā, they begin from the Ājñā Chakra, and from time to time, they come together. There becomes a chakra. And those chakras where immense energy is dormant or produced—what does it mean, energy dormant? We don't see, we can't touch, there is nothing. Example of a generator. The generator is there. You can touch it, you can feel it. There is no current, no electricity, nothing. But if this generator begins to move, then it will create energy. Similarly, the chakras, which are located along the spine and connected with these three nāḍīs—iḍā, piṅgalā, and suṣumṇā—have immense capacities to give energy. The generator is burned out. Some generator is burned out, cannot give any more energy, so some chakras are very weak or dormant. You can't bring them again into function. Mūla kamala, we call these chakras as a kamala. Kamala means the lotus. And so, hṛde kamala, mūla kamala, nābhi kamala, hṛde kamala, kaṇṭha kamala, hṛde kamala kī āṅkh khulū jāve. In the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, it is said that the heart, in the heart there is a small space like a cave. And in that cave is a very beautiful blue light. And that is the seat of the Ātmā, and that is the divine eye. We have to open that divine eye. That is the Hṛde Kamala, the heart lotus. Anjan means ointment, kajal anjan means ointment paste. What kind of anjan? What kind of ointment should we put? The ointment is the name of God. That your mantra every day, you have to put this ointment, not only one, two, three days and then you forget, and then again you do, then it will not open. So when the inner visions are awakened, the hṛde kamal kī āṅkh, then the ājñā chakras open, then your draṣṭi, your inner vision, is constantly, you see the lotus feet of the guru. "Ākhiyāṁ Satguru charaṇome lagī, ākhiyāṁ deep dayālu ke charaṇ kamal mishrī, merī kishmat jagī, merī kishmat jagī, ākhiyāṁ Satguru. Ākīyān Satguru Jabse Taraṇ Kamal Ko Dekhā, Jabse Charaṇ Kamal Ko, Tabse Bhaiyā Vīrāgī, Tabse Bhaiyā Vīrāgī. Ākīyān Satguru Deep Nārāyaṇ Bhagavān Kī." My fortune awoke when I first gazed on the lotus feet of Mahāprabhujī. It awakens your luck, your fortune. Then you become a fortunate one; otherwise, not. Since when I saw, since that time when I first saw the lotus feet, then I became a... So there are three, and a fourth one you can say. There are different meanings of rāga, rāga-dveṣa. This also happens. What means the rāga-dveṣa? Principal Sam. What will you say to rāga in English? What will you say to rāga in English? Dveṣa means duality. Complex. And the rāga means a jealousy. Both: rāga-dveṣa. Another rāga means the melody. This will happen: morning rāga, evening rāga, midnight rāga. The third meaning of the rāga: attachment, longing, stuck in it. One would like to have more and more, like greed, and then comes the vairāgya. Vairāgya means above everything. Rājayoga has got four principles, and these are viveka, vairāgya, ṣaṭsampatti, and mumukṣutva. Very good. Udhar se āvāj ā rahe haiṁ, idhar se nahīṁ ā rahe haiṁ. Gurujī said very nicely in his bhajan, those who have an interest to be successful in the yoga sādhanā, a spiritual path, then, should have the bhajan book of our beloved Gurujī, holy Gurujī, Hindu Dharm Samrāṭ, Swāmī Madhavānandjī, is called Madhavānanda Ānanda Prakāś, the light of the bliss, or Śrīdīp Purī Anubhā Prakāś, the light of the Mahāprabhujī's experiences, or Śrīdīp Padvireṇī, or the devotional song of Mahāprabhujī. And so Gurujī's bhajans can lead us and guide us on the yoga path. And what is very good is there's a question and answer, and both are inside. O beloved of God, O devotees of God, O bhaktas of Gurudev, do four kinds of practices, four sādhanās, if you wish to get mokṣa. If you do these four sādhanās, you will realize mokṣa. "Nyaara Nyaara Satya, Nyaara Nyaara Sadhan Chaara Kar Hari Pyaara, Sadhan Chaara Kar Hari Pyaara. Jina se hove moksha tumhara, jina se moksha tumhara, sadhana chara." Pehlā sādhanā viveka vichāru. First sādhanā, first practice, develop your vivekā. Viveka is the cream of the intellect. For what? Satya asatya kar nyāra nyāra. Divide the reality and non-reality, which in Vedānta is said, "Brahma Satya, Jagat Mithyā." The day when you will realize "Brahma Satya, Jagat Mithyā," then your Vairāgya will be Tīvra Vairāgya. Many say this Jagat, this Saṃsāra, is also not unreality; we are existing, we are here. Is this thus not a reality? Yes and no. Every second, your reality is changing. Your thoughts are changing, your feelings are changing, your emotions are changing. Tomorrow, you are one day older. The day after tomorrow, two days older. Next year, you will be one year more older, changing constantly. What is changing is not a reality, and what is not changing is the reality. Therefore Brahma Satya, Brahma doesn't change. The Ātmā is eternal, unborn, immortal, everlasting, eternal beauty, truth, the light, the love, the only one, one in all and all in one. Brahma Satya, Jagat Mithyā. When you realize this, that this saṃsāra, the relations of the parivāras and families and all, is only related with the greed. They love your money, not your skin. They love your property, not yourself. All that you do has a purpose, but one day it will finish. "Bandi muṭṭī āyā thā, khullī muṭṭī jāegā." Came with a closed fist, and with open fist you will go. Nothing will go with us. "Chara charika khela, jag mein do din ka hai mela. Koi chala gaya, koi chala jayega. Koi gathri band, khada akela." Then you have vairāgya. Now there are two kinds of vairāgya. One is called śmaśāna vairāgya, and one is called yoga vairāgya. Śmaśāna vairāgya means the vairāgya at the time of the funeral. When you accompany or go to someone's funeral, and you bury someone or cremate someone, you are thinking, "Oh my God, what is the sense of life? What is there in this world?" Those who come and go, the cremation of Vairāgya. Those who are killed don't go. They are sitting and saying, "Oh my God, this is the last thing I want to do. I don't want to do anything else." But that is temporary. You come home and you forget everything again. You begin the same mistakes again. Tīvra-vairāgya, that remains constantly unchangeable. Now, I open my eyes and I see this saṃsāra. There's only disappointment. There's no appointment. And therefore, you would like to go away, out of it. Because you know, Brahma satya, jagat mithyā. Therefore, Ādiguru Bhagavān Śaṅkarācārya said, "Vairāgya." From this world till the Brahman, all kinds of bhoga are senseless and tasteless. Whatever you do, it has an end. The joy which you are searching for, in that joy, there is less joy than the suffering of that joy. Vairāgya. Otherwise, you will not be successful. Now, you get vairāgya, but you don't get proper guidance. You are lost, neither here nor there. Many, many people become sādhus or leave their home and go away because of vairāgya. But they didn't find the master, so they abused the chilam. Chilam pītā rehte bābā. Bas, kyā kare? Vairāgya ho gayā. Ghar chhoḍ ke chaleṅge. Ab saccā Gurū nahī̃ milā. Ab kyā kare? Idhar udhar bhatakte hai. Isle jab tak Sacha Guru nahī milā. Tab tak āpke ye sādhanā pūrī nahīṁ hogī. Gaṅgā jal to vahī banegā jo Gaṅgā meṁ jāyegā, aur isīliye hamāre pās paramparā, Guru Gadī, Guru paramparā honī cāhiye. "Jīna Se Hove Mokṣa Tumhārā..." The third technique, the third sādhanā, sat-sampatti. Sampati means wealth. There are six kinds of wealth which are within you. Realize this, keep this, that will create the endless happiness, ānanda apara, that kind of happiness which will have no end. Six treasures, ṣaṭ-sampatti, kaun sī? "Karayupa rāma-samādhāna-vīchārā, karayupa rāma-samādhāna-vīchārā. Sādhana karo, hari pārā sādhana cārā: kṣam, dam." Kṣam means to withdraw thyself, your senses, your vṛttis from the external world, then control that. Don't let it go out again. It is said in the Bhagavad Gītā, God Kṛṣṇa, the yogī should be like a turtle, that animal which can take the limbs out at any time, or can withdraw himself back again at any time. So the yogī should have that ability: anytime you can become extrovert, and anytime you can become introvert. Means, let's meditate. You close your eyes and off you go. Let's work. You open your eyes and you go and work. That's it. Your indriyas, your consciousness, your cetanās, your intellect should follow you. Not that you follow that. Sometimes you are very happy and active, and sometimes you are in depression. Depression means deep rest. Don't take deep rest. That is not best. You can rest, but not depressed. That's it. So vṛttis, control senses, should be in your hands. Guru Nānak Jī said, "The name of the Gurudev is the boat." A ferry: those who will sit in will go in; they will reach the mainland, they will come to the other shore. If you will remain seated with the confidence the Gurudev is a captain, that will definitely... Bring you to the other shore, to the other land. Śraddhā, if you have śraddhā, everything is on the right way. You have little doubt in your śraddhā, then there is a lemon in the milk, finished. As soon as the lemon comes into the milk, what disappears? Butter. Therefore, some wise man said. Therefore, when the milk is spoiled by lemon, there is no more fat; you can't win any more butter, Sarada. Holy Gurujī said, Oh, merciful Lord, Mahāprabhujī, please listen to my prayer. My faith, my belief, my confidence, and my devotion should never decrease. Day by day, my love should increase, that's it. Like someone is addicted to the drug, every day it is increasing, not decreasing. But the intoxication of the name of God should increase. The one who did the intoxication of the name of God, he then crossed. That is why some great man has said, "Now we have become great in the recipe of Lord Rāma." We have started to eat all the recipes of the world. I am now very high while drinking the divine nectar of God's name, Rāmaras. Rāmras, Chāmras, and Āmras. These are three kinds of juices. Chamras, physical love. Amras, fruit juice. In the Rāmāyaṇa, the bhakti, the devotion, God's name. Śraddhā. "Nitya nitya prema mera adhika baḍijo." Samādham śraddhā or titikṣā. If you have no titikṣā, you will not come through. Titikṣā means to endure, to endure the hard times. Thirst, hunger, cold, hot, and the different situations of life. Never be offended. Never be angry. It means never get disbalanced in your concentration, in your mind. Titikṣā. Be above everything. Endure. If you have no titikṣā, you can't climb to the peak of the mountain. You need the willpower. Without willpower and motivation, these are the two strong pillars of the titikṣā. "Sādhana-cārā karo hari uparāṁ, uparati, nivrati." Prāvṛtti and uparati. Prāvṛtti means attached to the world. Nivṛtti means you are free from this, and uparati means above that, uparati. So prāvṛtti, nivṛtti, and uparati. Now you are all in pravṛtti: "I have to do this, I have to do this..." We are still not finished. And nivṛtti means you are now in tension, no more tension. When you tell somebody, "Are you ready?" he says, "Yes." So, to fulfill your dharma, fulfill your duty, fulfill your obligations, and then you are in nivṛtti. That's why the four ashrams: Brahmacharya ashram, Gṛhastha ashram. In Gṛhastha āśrama you are in pravṛtti, and when you come to the Vānaprastha āśrama you are in nivṛtti. And when you come to the Sannyāsa āśrama, then you are in uparati. Samādhi, śraddhā, vīrya, smṛti, samādhi, prajñā, uparama, samādhāna, vicāra. And then you give the answer to all your problems and others. You know, "vāṁ satyaṁ, jagat mithyā," samādhan. Then comes the fourth principle. The fourth sādhanā, mumukṣutva, is longing for mokṣa, for liberation. In which way, O merciful Lord, when will I be free from this world? Which world? Caurāsī Kā Cakra. Coming and going, coming and going. Shrī Madānand Jī says, "Śraddhān Chara, Śraddhān Chara, do Śraddhān Chara." From whom you will get Moksha, from whom you will get Moksha. Śraddhān Chara. Therefore, it is said, Holy Gurujī, Śrī Pūjya Bhagavān Dīp Nārāyaṇa, the Mahāprabhujī, Bhagavān Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Mahāprabhujī, has given this sādhanā, these instructions, which one? Śrī Svāmī Madhavānandajī kahi sādhanā chara. These are the four principles of the Rājayoga, Jñāna-Yoga, sorry. These are the four principles of the Jñāna-Yoga. Karma-Yoga, Bhakti-Yoga, Rāja-Yoga, and Jñāna-Yoga. Now, you cannot say that you are only a Bhakti-Yogī. You cannot say you are only a Karma Yogī. You cannot say you are only a Rāj-Yogī or you are only a Gyān-Yogī. All four parts of yoga are connected to each other. Yoga kāraṁ sukhoṣalam. Without karma yoga, you cannot fulfill and realize real yoga. Many people escape from the karma, from the sādhanā, from doing the niṣkāma karma sevā. If you are escaping, you are not able to do any kind of work, then you are on the first level only. Still, you didn't touch the bhakti yoga. Bhakti is not so easy. Lucky are they who can realize the bhakti in the heart. Many, many are suffering because they have... No devotion in the heart. Kabīr Dājī said, "Oh Lord, oh Lord, please give me the dān," means donation. It means the blessing of bhakti, and there... There are three kinds of bhaktas. Madhyam, kaniṣṭha, and uttam. Madhyam, dull. A very dull person. A tamas guṇa. You give the work to do, say yes, and go out of the door in the other direction. You say, "Please go and do there," say yes, and go to the other side. While you stand there and say, "Do this work, okay? Do it like this," there is a medium, middle, uttam. An uttam disciple, an uttam child, doesn't wait even till your master or your parents will tell you to do something. It all comes a little. Feelings in your ear that my master wishes to do this, you go, run, you do it, or your parents. That's an uttam disciple, that will get these blessings. There was the day when the god Rāma finished his school and came back to Ayodhyā. King Dasaratha felt himself now to go to the nivṛtti and to give all responsibility of the kingdom to his elder son, the god Rāma. But through the Kaikeyī, the stepmother of Rāma, Kaikeyī, and her servant, what was her name? Mantra. Mantra was jealous of Rama all the time. And within a few hours, she blackmailed Kaikeyī in such a way that Kaikeyī was insisting that Rāma would not become king the next morning, but her son, Bharata, would become king. And Bharat was not at that time at home. Bharat was with his grandparents, meaning Kekai's parents. And you know the whole Rāma, and what was the big theater. But still, God, Rāma did not know. And Daśaratha told that no one should tell him. But somehow he felt, and he heard, and he went, and he fulfilled the wish of his stepmother, and he helped that the promise of his father would be fulfilled. That's called an uttam śiṣya or uttam child. So karma yoga—oh, it's not so easy: who have good karma gets karma yoga; who has bad karma escapes from karma yoga, doing duty. That's it. Work is worship. Oh, my Lord. Karma yogī said, "God, I have no time to make prayer." I am working now. God said, "But you must worship." He said, "Yes, Lord, my work is my worship." That's it. Work is worship. Yoga karmasu kauśalam. Yoga sādhanā will be successful through karma, and therefore it is said, "Yoga agni karma dagdani." Through the fire of the yoga agni, you can destroy or burn the seeds of your karma. And that fire is doing the karma, the duty, the work. Therefore, we have to be loyal to ourselves to do our sādhanā and know the target, what we want. And then, don't change. There is no change. Once you said yes, it is a yes. You go forward. It doesn't matter what will be. It is not who it is. Not you, that who will be successful. It is His blessing that through that will be the successful tomorrow. I will tell you, but the ego of Hanumānjī came. Hanumānjī was thinking, "I was the one who helped Rāma to build the bridge, Rāma Setu, and I was the one who found Sītā. I was the one who brought the mountain to save Lakṣmaṇa's life." I was the one who brought Garuḍa to save the life of Rāma and all this. Then God Rāma came to know this, and Rāma saw the ego, how to clean the ego out. Therefore, work, work. Be thankful that you get some karma yoga. If the Gurudev gives you some duty, you should be so happy that now his attention came to you. Otherwise, he will ignore you. If he remembers you and gives you the work, it means you are good luck that he is thinking of you. Gurujī said, "The fire piece of the fire: if the grass falls on the fire, the grass will burn, and if the fire will fall on the grass..." The grass will burn. So if Gurudev thinks of you, it doesn't matter in which way, if he's angry or not, but still that fire is on you, and your karma will burn. Or if you think of the Gurudev, what will happen? Your karma will burn. The grass falls on the fire, or fire falls on the grass; both ways the process is the same. And therefore, it is said the mantra, the name of the Gurudev, which Gurudev gave you in your heart. Since that time when I took this mantra name, I put it in my heart. My sins are destroyed. How? Like fire falls on the grass.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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