When Sadhana Becomes Successful
Question: After years of doing sadhana (spiritual disciplines) I still feel I might not be getting anywhere. What to do?
Sadhguru: It doesn’t matter how many years of sadhana you do, you will not get anywhere. Not that you might not, you will not, because the idea of doing sadhana is not to go somewhere. The idea of doing sadhana is to come to a state where you can simply be here—to understand and know that what is here is everywhere, what is not here is nowhere. Getting beyond the need to go somewhere, that is sadhana, because in fact, there is nowhere to go. There is only here, and there is only now. The rest is all in your head. Sadhana is to bring you to a state where at least for some period of time in the day, just sitting is good enough. There is nowhere to go.
Sadhana is a device. It is a method to bring you to a certain level of maturity where the need to go somewhere is gone. That is why people who are steeped in sadhana are not moving anywhere. If you travel around the world, you will still not know whether the world is round or flat, forget about knowing the intricacies of life. But if you are truly here, everything that is worth knowing is right here, because you cannot perceive anything on the outside. It doesn’t matter if you sit here or in the Himalayas or in Africa. Essentially, you can only experience what happens within you.
You can sit here, look at someone, and experience love. You can close your eyes, just think about someone, and experience love, isn’t it? You can either stimulate it from outside or simulate it from inside, both are possible. You look at the moon, you look at the earth, you close your eyes, you open your eyes— still what is happening within you is all that is happening to you—nothing more, nothing less.
Sadhana is to bring yourself to that level of maturity to simply see, it does not matter what you do, it does not matter whether you climb a peak or sit in the valley, it does not matter if you are successful or not in the world, it does not matter if you are wellknown or not, it does not matter if you are eating whatever you dream of or not, it is just the way you experience it.
That is the beauty of life. There is really nowhere to go. You can sit here and be blissful, ecstatic; you can sit here and be miserable. You have a whole range of choice. Life has not put any bondage upon you. Bondage is all your making. Nothing needs to happen, and yet you can go through life in a most wondrous way because of what you do within yourself. Or you can go all over the place and do all kinds of things, and still go through life in an utterly miserable way. Both are your making.
When the need to go stops, your sadhana is successful. Wherever you are, you are just fine. Once you are at ease, you don’t have to do anything. Just a little bit of waiting, that’s all. Only if you are in love, you can wait. If you are irritated, agitated, frustrated or angry, you cannot wait because you are unpleasant. Depending upon the type of karmic substance you carry and the kind of active and dynamic help that you get from outside, the period of waiting may alter. When your insides are pleasant, waiting for a few years is not a big deal. You just wait.
| Named one of India’s 50 most influential people, Sadhguru speaks before millions annually around the globe, including to prominent leadership forums such as the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, TED, and the World Peace Congress. From groundbreaking yoga programs to projects for rural communities and the environment, Sadhguru’s Isha Foundation (www.IshaFoundation.org) serves as a thriving model for human empowerment, which is reflected in the Foundation’s special consultative status with the UN. |
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