Obtaining the Guru’s grace is utmost important while doing sadhana. Real spiritual progress of a disciple (shishya) takes place only due to the Grace of Guru; hence, it is said “Gurukrupa hi kevalam shishya Parama mangalam”, meaning it is only due to the grace of Guru that a disciple’s ultimate welfare happens. A Guru teaches a disciple through various means and moulds him. Gurukrupayog is that in which an individual proceeds upon the path of reaching God with the help of Guru’s grace.
There are two parts of sadhana according to Gurukrupayog. One is vyashti sadhana and the other is samashti sadhana. Vyashti sadhana means the sadhana done for the spiritual progress of the individual and samashti sadhana means efforts undertaken for the spiritual progress of the society! According to the present era (Kaalmahima), the importance of vyashti sadhana is 30% whereas that of samashti sadhana is 70%. It is on the foundation of the vyashti sadhana that samashti sadhana can be performed, hence vyasthi sadhana is equally important. Both are complementary to each other. We will try to understand the various steps of vyashti sadhana.
The various steps of vyashti sadhana are chanting, company of truth, service unto the truth, sacrifice for truth, unconditional love for others, personality defect removal, ego removal, and efforts for awakening devotion and spiritual emotion!
1. Satseva
Offering satseva is an important step in the path of spiritual practice. What exactly is satseva? Sat means Ishwar or Parabrahma (God)! Satseva means service unto God. Since it is impossible to serve God in the present times, it is said that one should serve saints. Saints are the manifest form of God. Doing things according to the expectations of God or saints is satseva. The expectation of God or saints is to spread spirituality or Dharma! Spreading spirituality or sadhana is the best form of satseva. One can win Guru or saint’s heart by doing satseva, and through this, the grace of Guru gets activated. Satseva is 100% important from the point of view of spiritual progress. Satseva also helps reduce one’s ego.
Swami Vivekananda has stated that ‘Offering the knowledge of dharma (Dharmadaan) is superior to offering food (Annadaan), offering one’s life (Pranadaan), or offering one’s knowledge (Vidyadaan)’. Hence, we should also offer some of our time daily for satseva. If anyone wants to do satseva in your available time as your capabilities, then you can fill your details at www.Sanatan.org/sampark
2. Sacrifice
The next step of vyashti sadhana is sacrifice for truth! For progressing spiritually, one should sacrifice one’s body, mind, and wealth. Sacrificing one’s body means wearing out one’s body for the purpose of attaining God. Chanting and always trying to remember God is like offering one’s mind. For example, if there are two options in front of us, one to watch a favourite movie and the other to help with the preparation of satsang and if we give more importance to the preparation of the satsang, then sacrifice of mind happens because here we are giving up a pleasurable activity of the mind for God. Sacrificing wealth means offering one’s wealth for service (Satkarya). It is mentioned in scriptures that one should donate one-sixth of one’s wealth for work related to dharma, but while donating it is important to consider if the donation is going to the deserving (Satpatre daanam) or not.
For attaining God, one has to sacrifice one’s body, mind, and wealth in stages. You might have seen the trapeze act in a circus where the performer on one trapeze swings very high and lets go off the bar which she is holding and is caught gently by another performer on a different trapeze. Unless the first performer on the high trapeze does not let go of the bar, she cannot be caught by the other performer who is hanging upside down on another trapeze by his knees. Similarly, unless the seeker sacrifices everything, God does not support him. Sacrifice (Tyag) does not mean letting go off objects, rather it means letting go of the attachment towards those objects. In the beginning, Guru makes his shishya sacrifice everything that belongs to him and then afterwards, when his desire for objects is no longer there, He gives him everything in abundance. This means that Guru does not allow his disciple to get caught in material comforts.
3. Awakening spiritual emotion
It is said among us that ‘God resides where there is spiritual emotion’ or ‘God is hungry for spiritual emotion’. When there is development of affinity towards God in our inner mind, we say that we have spiritual emotion towards God. The earlier spiritual emotion is awakened in us and the longer it is retained in us, the faster we can reach near God. Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa could always have the vision (darshan) of Maa Kali due to his intense spiritual emotion. Lord Shri Krushna protected Meerabai at every step due to her spiritual emotion. Every human being has a part of the Divine in him. We can also remember God all the time by increasing our efforts of awakening spiritual emotion towards God. If we put in consistent efforts for increasing our spiritual emotion, we can certainly achieve it.
4. Love towards others (Unconditional love)
The next stage in vyashti sadhana is that of unconditional love or Priti! Love in everyday life is conditional. If we help a relative and he does not acknowledge it, then what happens to our state of mind? The next time he needs help, we will think ten times before helping him. This is called loving with expectation. In spirituality, it is important to attain the level of unconditional love or priti. God provides us air for breathing and sunlight for free, but how many times do we thank him or express our gratitude for that? Many a times, we are not even aware of this grace of God. Even then, has God stopped providing us these things? Whether anyone expresses gratitude or not, is aware or not, God keeps on providing these things. This is called unconditional love! While doing sadhana, one starts developing expansiveness and unconditional love due to increase in satvik vibrations. One starts seeing the form of God in every object. One starts developing the feeling of ‘Vasudhaiva kutumbakam’ meaning the entire universe is my home.
5. Personality defect removal and Ego removal
The next 2 important steps in vyashti sadhana are personality defect removal and ego removal! We all have personality defects and ego in us. Some people get angry quickly, some get irritated over small things, some people cannot accept things that happen against their wishes, some have the habit of lying, some feel like they should always be given respect or praised by others. All of us have personality defects and ego in varying proportions. It is important to eliminate these personality defects and ego when we are on the path of spiritual practice. If that is not done, our sadhana is wasted in nullifying the effects of our mistakes due to these defects.
Satsang 20 : C1 and C2 type of auto-suggestion techniques
Satsang 19 : B2 auto-suggestion technique
Satsang 18 : B1 autosuggestion method
Satsang 17 : Review of ‘A-1’, ‘A-2’ and ‘A-3’ autosuggestion methods
Satsang 16 : ‘A-3’ autosuggestion technique
Satsang 15 : Precautions to be taken while framing autosuggestions