| Samadhana One pointedness of the mind. Mumukshutvam A very strong and burning desire to get rid of all pain and free oneself from all limitations. Vedantic Sadhana (Spiritual Practices) Vedantic Sadhana is like studying for Ph.D. We cannot do Ph.D. without the preliminary studies. Similarly vedantic sadhana cannot be practiced by beginners. They will simply not be able to do it. A certain degree of mental preparation and some evolution is needed to be able to do the practices. After strengthening the body and mind through Hatha yoga, stabilizing and balancing the emotions through Bhakti yoga, freeing the mind of anger, jealousy, greed etc. through Karma yoga, calming and purification through Raja yoga meditation, one can then take to this form of Sadhana. Vedantic sadhana is a very strong medicinal dose to counter the ill effects of ignorance and false attachments. It tells us to drop all ideas of duties or responsibilities towards family, society or nation and free the mind of all such obligations. To drop all notions of even good, social, philanthropic work. All life is a play acting or dream phenomenon and even good work binds us to this dream world. We can never be fully happy or satisfied as long as our consciousness dwells on this lower material plane. Life here or hereafter in the higher astral planes is equally impermanent and unsatisfying. Only the bliss of the Soul will give us full satisfaction. So the whole effort in this path is to concentrate the mind on the Self, to dwell upon the Self and to realize the Self. Nothing else is of any importance. Vedantic Sadhana proceeds in three stages Shravana In this beginning stage we listen again and again to the words of the Guru about the nature of the Self. We study the scriptures that give us idea about the nature of the Self. We resort to satsanga with holy saints. We constantly feed the mind with ideas about the Self so that the mind understands the importance of Self-realization. Manana This is the stage of intense atma vichar. Having realized the importance of Self-realization the mind is made to constantly dwell upon the nature of the Self and the instructions of the Guru. Nidhidhyasana In this final stage the mind one pointedly meditates on the Self. The actual technique is to concentrate the mind on the characteristic qualities of the Self: - I am existence, consciousness, and bliss
- I am immortal and infinite
- I am eternal and ever pure
- I am perfect and ever free
- I am witness and non-doer
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