Swami Shivapadananda on two sadhana secrets

SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 442

Yoga retreat camp discussion continued:

Here we do not see what you appear to be, but rather that you are a manifestation of the supreme sadhana [spiritual practice] – which God has put on our path – to individually practise and manifest that purity.
You are the sadhana. So serving you means serving God; and serving God means serving you. I want you to understand this very well.

At all times try to keep your mind soaked in the honey of your Deity's love. You must keep your mind so high that even if you find something wrong with others, the mind will not say to you, 'This is wrong.'

Do this otherwise you will find that the tiger of gossip, the lion of hatred, the scorpion of backbiting, will always be present. Rather than sending these feelings to kill others, let them kill themselves – starve them out, by not indulging in them.

As you know the Bhagavad Gita prescribes through Arjuna, the great sadhaka, two principle methods for spiritual growth: abhyasa and vairagya – practise and detachment. You must try to practise your sadhana and at the same time detach yourself from anything that is limiting, from anything that ties your spiritual life to the changeable things of this world.

For spiritual upliftment, the two methods that are prescribed by our Rishis are: service and renunciation. When you serve somebody, renounce the fruit of this action straight away – give it to God. Or renounce the 'I' and serve others as if you are serving God. In the Bhagavad Gita abhyasa and vairagya mean service of God and renunciation.