The word sādhana is an important one for yoga practitioners and spiritual seekers. The root of this Sanskrit word is sādh which means to ‘bring about’. Sādhana is a means to accomplish something; it is to discipline oneself, to work towards something in particular. A sādhaka is a practitioner, one who performs sādhana.Sādhana can have many forms. For example, you might decide that in order to purify your speech, you will stop gossiping about others, spend a period of time in silence and only speak the truth.
Sometimes we feel we need to ‘light a fire under our butts’ and so we make a commitment for a period of time. You might sign up for a yoga ‘sādhana’ which runs for several days in a row. The extra effort that we make during that specific time period can have many lasting positive effects, including bodily encoding/imprinting, and the inspiration of practicing with a group can give us a boost. Coming to the end of that period of extra effort feels good, feels like an accomplishment.
In a larger sense, one’s sādhana can be decades of spiritual practice that evolves into an overall mood and mode of living. We can be continually ‘in the soup’ of practice: which again, can have different forms and content. For example, you might include meditation practice, eating a vegetarian diet, doing a morning ritual or mantra everyday. It might also include having right livelihood (a decent way of making a living that doesn’t harm others) and right sexuality (using sexual energy wisely, without causing harm). Sādhana is not static. It will naturally involve experimenting, refining, and deepening. Sometimes the activities change, or we may find we continue to practice the same thing for decades. You can refer to your sādhana as your period of spiritual work. Whether you are a bhakti yogini, a jñāna yogini, a karma yogini—if we are yoga practitioners, we practice something. We usually have an aim of some kind, whether we express it outwardly or not—it may be to connect with the Divine, know the nature of mind, to serve others or such intentions.
My own sādhana has changed shape and content over the years. Yogāsana practice has been very consistent, but there were years I felt very drawn to meditation and silent retreat practice. I spent many years close by my guru’s side, participating in farming projects, writing projects, pujas and ritual, and service of all kinds…doing what was needed. Sādhana almost always demands some kind of sacrifice. If I was doing a 2 week retreat alone in the kuti, I had to sacrifice that time with my family and give all communication devices and eat a very simple diet. Sacrifices can be things like waking up extra early in the morning to practice, or fasting, or sitting in meditation for extended periods of time. These kinds of personal disciplines can stretch you. It can be uncomfortable. Sādhana is demanding. You have to give up something order to accomplish something in your practice. Abhyāsa (persevering effort) and Vairāgya (detachment/renunciation) are the 2 pillars of yoga. If greater peace of mind is your aim, you have to persistently give up your anger, frustration, impatience and self-importance.
Sādhana is the yoga of action. You can give yourself a pat on the back when you are finished, but sādhanahas no worldly rewards. Sādhana, is especially helpful for purifying one’s ego. Ego builds identities constantly, becoming attached to certain things and avoiding others. There can be a pitfall even in yoga sādhana, that we become too attached to our accomplishments. When we finally achieve a certain āsana for example, we may find egotism arising; or when our abilities in yogāsana begin to fade because of illness or the aging process, we may find that attachment to doing things a certain way may have harmful effects. In sādhana, we come face to face with our suffering and are challenged to go beyond that suffering.
The kleśas are called the afflictions or the causes of suffering. They are: avidyā (spiritual ignorance), asmitā (egoism), rāga (attachment), dveṣa (aversion), abhiniveśāḥ (clinging to life).
अविद्यास्मितारागद्वेषाभिनिवेशाः क्लेशाः ॥ २.३ ॥
avidyāsmitārāgadveṣābhiniveśāḥ kleśāḥ || 2.3 ||
Even taking on a 5 day sādhana, we may find ourselves getting stirred up. “Oh man, I have to get up at 7am on my day off!” or “I have to put off breakfast because I need to practice on an empty stomach”. Resistance to practice is often present, and motivation only gets us so far. Even when motivation wanes, commitment and consistency will move us towards our goals. Setting up a routine really works, because after some time, you will just find yourself drawn to those habits. Discipline doesn’t mean rigidity, however. You have to be able to respond to circumstances as they are. You can change the program when needed. Part of sādhana is saying ‘no’ to instant gratification so that you say ‘yes’ to your long-term goals. Saying ‘no’ may seem very simple, but it also starts to wear down our attachments and helps us to overcome aversion. Again, with the example of wanting to press the snooze button and sleep in, if we say “no, I won’t sleep in today”, we are becoming a little less attached to that pleasure (rāga), and facing our dislike (dveṣa) of getting up early. These kinds of actions in the long term begin to shift our mindset towards flexibility—we can get up early or sleep in, and it no longer disturbs us.
