The anxiety within oneself involved in the process of searching truth begins to settle when real Sadhana begins. Sadhana means an endeavour persistently undertaken especially to search truth. It is one pointed movement towards the desired goal. Desire when driven inwards becomes sadhana and when projected outwards, it is ambition. Ambition is the achievement of material gains. Sadhana is the attainment of spiritual milestones.
One could argue that since sadhana is also about gaining how is it different from ambition? If a spiritualist is cynical about ambition, how can he justify sadhana which is nothing but being ambitious for spiritual gains? There is some amount of truth in this and one should admit that many seekers pursue spiritual journey with the motive of ‘winning’ over spiritual powers. Such seekers misapply the acquisitive mindset of ambition to the realm of spirituality. However the true understanding of sadhana is not being ambitious. Sadhana is not merely the desire to achieve spiritual heights. It is rather the desire to understand the spiritual milestones, attain them and yet be able to move beyond and discover the truth.
This is why detachment to every milestone is a requisite. The mindset of ‘winning’ over has to transform to knowing, understanding and being. A decisive difference between ambition and sadhana is that while ambition is ego boosting, sadhana is ego melting, self-humbling.
Ambition gives us a sense of egoistic fulfilment. As a result the feeling of ‘Me’ and ‘My’ is nourished and the ego inflates. There is a sense of control over things, people and situations. The ‘I’ becomes the focus. Contrary to this sadhana melts one’s ego. This is because access to larger knowledge and higher realities makes one realize that our usual perception of the world reality is inadequate, perhaps faulty. Along with other delusions the delusion of ‘doership’ is shaken and a seeker humbles herself. This alone allows her to understand what lies further on her journey to truth.
A true sadhaka is never egoistic. For instance, one can observe for oneself two individuals who undertake the sadhana of learning the art of singing. The first may be a good singer but full of pride of achievements and accomplishments. S/he exhibits condescension for people who are less talented. The other too is a good singer but makes no claims and rather encourages the amateur to learn and develop their skill. Obviously the latter is a genuine sadhaka while the former is an ambitious achiever. This is true also for seekers of truth or god. A sadhaka who takes pride in spiritual accomplishments will certainly not reach the pinnacle.
S/he will make and an abode halfway only to miss the transcendental. In sadhana, a seeker’s disposition must gradually change from aggression to patience and from obstinacy to perseverance. The feeling of possessing must be replaced with the feeling of being bestowed. The maxim is not ‘I will win over life.’ The maxim is ‘I am life and life is me.’ In a conversation, a learner asked me, “Ultimately the ambitious man as well as the sadhaka is going to die so why make a fuss about undertaking sadhana?” My response is that death is precisely the reason why one should take up sadhana. It is true that the ambitious man (as most of us are) as well as the seeker die but probably the quality of their death differs.
An ambitious man with thoughts of clinging finds it more difficult to part from things/people and succumbs to death. Whereas a seeker having found more wisdom and being less attached, passes away more gracefully. Death is an important event and a sadhaka feels it necessary to prepare for it in advance. In other words, the difference between an ambitious man and a seeker is that an ambitious man dies and a sadhaka embraces death.
Nilesh P Megnani is a professor of philosophy who teaches not just the academics of his subject but the purpose of it to his students. He writes whenever he feel inspired and believes life is workable hypothesis and love, the elusive potion that might transform humanity Connect with on neelvijayalaxmi@gmail.com
Only you…. only you can explain spirituality in palpable terms and render such a precise condensation of the idea of spiritual development. Your writing reflects experiential knowledge. Thank you for this post.
Thank you, Vidhi for expressing this trust.