Basanth 2006 Talks - Practical Aspects of Sadhana by Sri. Prasad Shintre

My Dear Revered Sir, Dear Brothers & Sisters, My humble pranams to you .

On this auspicious occasion of Basant Celebrations, we are being showered by Master’s grace. On this occasion I would like to share in my humble views on practical aspects which I have observed, experienced while following the system of natural path. Over a period of last 3 years of my sadhana, I have gone through various experiences, I also had lapses in practices, however I have got help of other abhyasis & trainers time to time. I also got more & more clarity of the system after getting continuous advise from Revered Sir Sri KC Narayana Garu.

Every one of us has decided to follow the System of Natural Path after understanding its importance in our life & with a craving to reach final destination i.e. to become a real man. Some of us, if not all, may have observed that there are few things in our worldly life which are impacting our efforts to follow the system regularly. These things pulls us towards common mans world. Now with the help of the system & by the grace of the Master we have to become a real man. The beauty of our system is that the practices prescribed in the system are same throughout lifetime. There is no change in any practice as you go along. Even the methods are same, the experiences are so dynamic that our understanding of the system & ongoing experiences, brings forth new dimesions of our own self.

Meditation

After attending the training programme, I think we should understand clearly the very importance of continuous support of the Master required to follow the system. There could be initial difficulties of getting up early & taking bath or sitting in one pose for one hour. However with every session of Pranahuti, your determination to follow the system increases. Then with some efforts you easily overcome this difficulty. Initially you may feel that even if you are trying to follow the meditation practice regularly, you may not be getting experiences everyday. You also may feel that whether you are following everything correctly or not. When we start practicing system, the transformation begins. Sometimes we observe it directly, sometimes it does happen internally & we may not see it as direct experience.

To get more understanding we, in our spare time, should read Master’s books & listen to Master’s messages. In addition to reading books & listening to Masters’ messages we should be contemplating enough & discuss our difficulties with other Abhyasis, Trainers. Our system is based on principle of Bodhayanti Parasparam. This way it helps us to share our experiences, problems with others. It’s a give & take process. We get to understand many things with clarity by discussing it with other abhyasis. Another important aspect of our sadhana is development of proper attitudes. We have to develop attitude of co-operation, interdependence, gratitude & many more to really understand the importance of the system. The system of Natural of Path is very simple to follow provided we follow it without any preconceived notions. Our problem is we have preconceived notions, imaginations from our previous experiences i.e. basically our frame of reference to look at the system. In fact we do not have to compare the practices with any other system which we know or do not know of. It’s the system which teaches to look at our life holistically and not just talk about petty goals. Based on the guidance of trainer & Revered Sir, I started contemplating over & over again. It also required me to start contemplation on the Masters messages which we read everyday in the diary.

As many of you may have faced, initially there will be rush of thoughts related to personal life, work life, states of consciousness experienced during meditation. Even after ignoring thoughts sometimes it bothers us a lot. But this is not abnormal. It happens. It will happen. In fact it is good that those thoughts are ready to go away. With our own practice we should ignore them to empty ourselves. The more you empty yourself the more you will attract Master grace. Also we should accept everything as it is during meditation. If we expect something as a result then its not the correct thing. Master knows what is better for us. We do not have to worry about it. Development of yielding and waiting attitude helps let Master do His work.

Another aspect of doing meditation properly is sitting in one and the same pose. This helps in withdrawing our attention from senses & let us do the real meditation.

We also observe various conditions during our meditation which makes us more happy. For example, absorption condition pleases us since it takes our worries away from us for that duration. One may expect that he/she should get the condition of absorption more often. This is not correct. We should not expect any particular condition but follow the method as prescribed by Master. As I mentioned earlier Master knows what is best for us & give that to us without asking for it. Our duty is just to accept it as it is and be thankful for it.

Goal clarity

When we start following system, some of us were not sure about the goal. It is obvious since we are entangled in our problems so much that we first look for relief from those problems. With some regularity in practice we start getting experience & start understanding things beyond our earlier understanding. So it is a continuous process through which we get more & more goal clarity provided we observe & follow it ourselves with open eyes & mind. Also Masters grace continuously helps us not to stop at intermediate goal & go on and on till we reach our final destination.

The practices in the system of Natural path help us in achieving goal. Now let’s look at practices in brief in addition to morning meditation

Point B meditation

This is an active meditation of maintaining thought at Point B as advised thinking that all the grossness, darkness is going out towards front & from behind glow of Atman is coming to view. Point B meditation helps us in purifying our mind to make it more receptive to divine grace & also helps us in regulating our mind & grow out of our self.

Cleaning

We have with our own intentions created impressions & now with cleaning with our own will we will get rid of it. Maintaining thought of cleaning for 30-40 minutes requires good amount of efforts & practice. However as we start seeing results of cleaning like freshness, lightness, our belief increases & helps us in doing cleaning more assiduously. Important aspect of cleaning is it is to be done as advised by your trainer. Your own will & confidence is required to drive out the impressions which you have formed intentionally in the past.

9 PM Prayer

9 PM prayer is a Universal prayer & helps develop fraternity within & around. This is the only spiritual practice of the system which needs to be done at sharp 9 pm everyday for 15 minutes. There may be some practical difficulty in doing prayer at 9pm sharp. But with our constant craving to do it & maintaining thought of the prayer at 9 pm shows us ways & means to find spare time to do it assiduously.

Point A meditation

Point A meditation develops fraternity & moderate our behaviors, intentions and desires with enormously faster speed. Also point A & B meditation as we know are the most unique discoveries of our Revered Master which enables us in stabilizing in higher planes of consciousness. We get to elevated condition through regular sessions of Pranahuti & its our duty to do Point A & Point B meditation to stay at that level.

Satsang & individual sittings –

Pranahuti is another uniqueness of system which is must for every serious seeker to get elevated to higher levels of consciousness by cleaning ourselves & makes us enable to follow the system easily. We get various experiences of freshness, lightness, jerks, absorption during satsangs & sittings. This is nothing but the reflection of cleaning being done by the effect of pranahuti. By attending satsangs we also understand many aspects namely

Individual sittings helps us understand that another co-traveller who has traveled further i.e. trainer is eagerly waiting for us to help. This is classic example of selfless service on trainers’ part which he/she is doing as fraternal duty. During individual sittings we must share all the experiences of sadhana with trainer so that he can guide us properly.

During Meditation, Satsangs & Sittings it is very important to yield to the Master. It is also important to be in the mode of waiting with alert condition so that whatever experience or rather imperience we get, we will be fully aware of it. Unless

Ten Commandments – As we know these are the principles of way of living in a natural way which enables us to follow natural path. Even if the words look simple to follow, it takes enormous courage & consistent efforts on our part to follow it by understanding the real meaning of letters. . When we start following commandments we actually take small steps every time to reach our goal. These commandments are not to be followed in chronological order but needs to be followed in parallel & implemented in our routine life. Meditation on Point A & B assiduously helps us in following commandments with little efforts on our part.

These commandments asks us to develop discipline, commitment, love, devotion, forbearance, gratitude. Also it mould ourselves to make us eligible to receive His grace more & more. It takes us near to Master with everyday practice, reviewing the compliance of it & correcting ourselves time to time.

When we start following system we learn that we have to detach ourselves from this world. The question is how do we do that? Think that Master is everywhere & is doing everything. This gives us the idea that we are also expressing Master. Then we consciously relate every activity , every thought of ours to Master. This is one way of attaching ourselves to Master i.e. due attachment. This helps us in performing all our worldly duties as trustee & not get attached to it. Development of this quality is very much required for grihastha to have balance between spiritual & worldly life.

Bed Time prayer –

As we are free from all engagements before going to bed, it is our duty to take a stock of our mistakes & with heart full of repentance present it to the Master in most humble way and then beg forgiveness in a supplicant mood resolving not to allow repetition of the same. Here later part is most important as we are committing ourselves something & we should be true to ourselves first in that regard. Though Master is kind enough to shower His grace all the time irrespective of our enormous number of mistakes, it becomes our duty to not to repeat it again. Then repeat the prayer with heart full of love and devotion a few times till we get absorbed in its meaning.

Diary writing –

Diary is essential part of our sadhana. It is a reflection of our thoughts, feeling & general condition. We must write diary everyday & then share the summary of it with the trainer to get the guidance which every trainer is kind enough to provide it as fraternal duty. I have observed that if I write some problems in sadhana in the diary, then Master takes care of it by guiding me in various ways in the right direction to come out of it. Another important reason to write diary is it is difficult to remember all the experiences. Experiences written in diary provides us insight on how the transformation in us happened over a period of time. This also may inspire few others based on the progress you have done.

Summary

Sadhana does not mean just doing meditation. Sadhana should reflect from everything what we do. We can call ourselves Sadhaka only when we understand the system & put in required efforts to follow it from end to end.

Our goal is to become real man from normal man. With our regular practice and continuous pranahuti we start marching towards it. Most of us are facing some or other difficulty & challenges while doing sadhana. We need to understand our own difficulty by sharing it with other Abhyasis, trainer & contemplate on the advise taken from them. Our Revered Sir always guides us to overcome our difficulties. We need to contemplate over & over again to understand the real meaning of his words. Though Masters grace is there always, without your efforts it is not going to provide solution to our problem. It is the most important and inevitable aid to march on the path easily. Once the system is decided, a true seeker do not worry about his progress & follows the system truthfully having complete faith in the Master. I sincerely pray that all abhyasis follow the system assiduously & reach the goal of human life.

Namaste!