Topical Musings

Our Sadhana

What is the Sadhana that Swami Vivekananda prescribed for us? Contrary to popular belief, he did not prescribe anything new, of his own. He merely amplified the exact method that Sri Ramakrishna had prescribed.

Swami Saradananda has written a wonderful book, Sri Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga, translated into English as Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play. It is an authentic biography of Sri Ramakrishna. It has a very interesting work. It is just as when a young wife advances in pregnancy. She is given less and less work to do; and when the child is born, she gives up household work altogether and is busied exclusively with the infant. But an ordinary person must try to do his duties with detachment, depending on the Lord, like the maidservant who does everything for her master, knowing in her heart that her home is elsewhere. This is known as karma yoga. As far as possible one should take the name of the

passage in this regard. While delineating the divine revelations of Sri Ramakrishna after his six long months of Advaita Siddhi, Swami Saradananda writes about one such revelation showing that ordinary people will progress through Karma Yoga. This is indeed a momentous revelation and Swami Saradananda explains it as follows:

‘The Master indicated the limits of Karma when he said, “The action of a sattvic person drops off automatically. He cannot work even if he tries to; the Lord does not allow him to Lord and meditate on Him while discharging one’s everyday duties in an unattached way.”’ 1

Now, let us compare this with what Sister Nivedita has to say on the same topic. While explaining the sadhana that Swami Vivekananda delineated for all of us, she writes 2 :

‘Let us be true to our work. Our task is our swadharma. “Better for each man is his swadharma, however faulty his performance, than the task of another, though he could do it easily.” That thing which faces me and frightens

me, that very thing that seems the one most difficult, if it is my swadharma, is the path.

‘It is a grand gospel – this doctrine of fearlessness, of courage, of self-conquest. Arise, thou Great Divinity that liest hidden within us! In Thy name, all things are possible to us! Making victory and defeat the same, plunge we into battle!

‘But how are we to fight? Most of us, by work. The world’s work is the great sadhana, wherein we accumulate character, by which, when the time comes, we can rise even into the Nirvikalpa Samadhi itself. Character is selfrestraint. Self-restraint is self-direction. Self-direction is concentration. Concentration when perfect is Samadhi. From perfect work to perfect Mukti. This is the swing of the soul. Let us then be perfect in work!’

So, everyday work that we do, as a function of being a member of this world, is our Sadhana. 3 Note that it is not necessarily the work of our liking; it is not even a particular kind of work. It is the work that falls to our lot, consequent to our station and position in life. It is the work we ‘ought’ to do at any particular point of time in our life. That work is technically called Karma. It needs to be done in a particular way, so that it gets converted into Yoga.

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References 1) Sri Ramakrishna & His Divine Play. Swami

Saradananda. 2003. Vedanta Society of St. Louis, p.361 2) The Complete Works of Sister Nivedita. Vol-3:

Religion & Dharma, Ch-XXVI: Work 3) Some readers may object to the view presented here.

They may point out, like Gwilym Beckerlegge has done, that this view is a superimposition by Swami Vivekananda and Saradananda on Sri Ramakrishna, and that Sri Ramakrishna actually preferred Naradiya Bhakti alone for the common man. In fact, Beckerlegge, a research scholar has published two famous books through Oxford University Press called ‘The Ramakrishna Mission: The Making of a Modern Hindu Movement(2000) andSwami Vivekananda’s Legacy of Service: A Study of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission(2006)’ wherein he presents this argument. The upcoming issues of Topical Musings in The Vedanta Kesari will clarify this topic.

Religion is a Necessity

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manifestation of that Real Existence. Birth and death, life and decay, degeneration and regeneration – are all manifestations of that Oneness. So, knowledge, however it manifests itself, either as ignorance or as learning, is but the manifestation of that same Chit, the essence of knowledge; the difference is only in degree, and not in kind. The difference in knowledge between the lowest worm that crawls under our feet and the highest genius that the world may produce is only one of degree, and not of kind. The Vedanta-thinker boldly says that the enjoyments in this life, even the most degraded joys, are but manifestations of that One Divine Bliss, the Essence of the Soul. This idea seems to be the most prominent in Vedanta, and, as I have said, it appears to me that every religion holds it. I have yet to know the religion which does not. It is the one universal idea working through all religions.’ 5

References

1) The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda: Vol-1:

Soul, God and Religion 2) Ibid. Vol-2: The Ideal of A Universal Religion 3) Ibid.Vol-3: Lectures from Colombo to Almora:

Vedanta in Its Application to Indian Life 4) Ibid. Vol-2: The Necessity Of Religion 5) Ibid. Vol-2: The Freedom Of The Soul