Sachchidananda Parabrahman (Dr) Athavale’s guidance to seekers during a satsang

1. Importance of samashti sadhana

Between vyashti sadhana (Individual spiritual practice) and samashti sadhana (Spiritual practice for the spread of Spirituality in society), the latter is more important. Vyashti sadhana means making efforts for individual spiritual progress, while samashti sadhana means to bring others along in sadhana.

In the earlier times, Sages used to meditate for 500 to 1000 years. They would meditate because they wanted to progress spiritually, see God and merge with Him. They did not think of society’s spiritual progress.

On the contrary, in samashti sadhana, there is a yearning that no matter what happens to me, I will make efforts to teach sadhana to more and more people and ensure that they progress spiritually.

2. Residing in an Ashram leads to dissolution of the seekers’ mind, intellect and subconscious mind, leading to progress

A fundamental rule in sadhana is that nothing should be decided with one’s own mind. When one begins to follow this rule, it leads to dissolution of the mind, intellect and subcons-cious mind, and later, the seeker merges with the Universal mind. Then, God Himself tells the seeker what is right or wrong, and makes him perform the right action. The thumb rule is not to decide anything on your own; instead, do everything after asking others. In the Ashram, everyone obeys the responsible seeker. Obeying wholeheartedly is a means to dissolve the mind. When we stay alone at home, dissolution of the mind doesn’t take place, because, we do everything as per our own mind.

At home, we decide when to wake up in the morning, what to eat, and so on. Therefore, staying alone at home does not help. Staying in the Ashram is like being in a school. We learn there, and when we learn everything, we teach others as well.

B. While selecting a spouse, enquire if he/she is interested in sadhana too !

In society, before deciding on the marriage of a prospective bride and groom, it is necessary to enquire a great deal about their family background, educational qualification, details of their employment, financial status, family members, etc.

In addition to the abovementioned information, seekers wanting to marry should also find out if their prospective spouse is interested in sadhana (Spiritual practice); because, if after marriage they find that the spouse is not interested in sadhana and does not like them giving time for sadhana, the spouse’s sadhana will get seriously affected. If there is opposition, the seeker’s sadhana can get interrupted. When someone does not like sadhana at all, it is difficult to change the person.

The very purpose of human birth is God-realisation; however, this requires performing sadhana at every stage of life. Therefore, a conducive environment and a supportive partner ensures unhindered continuation of the seeker’s sadhana and he begins to move towards God-realisation.

Birth, death and marriage of an individual are all governed by prarabdha (Destiny), and these things happen strictly according to prarabdha.

Seekers should use their kriyaman-karma (Wilful actions) to ensure unhindered continuation of their sadhana, and hence, focus on selecting a partner who is also performing sadhana or who is supportive of their sadhana, and thus, make their human birth meaningful !

– Sachchidananda Parabrahman (Dr) Athavale

Birth, death & marriage of an individual are all governed by destiny, and these things happen strictly according to destiny !