"Express" Sadhana?

[c.smith]

Hari Om!

Am looking for ideas on how to shorten my sadhana while on the road for work. When home, my routine takes up quite a bit of time and while working I can't commit to the schedule that I've set for myself. Time just doesn't allow. As it is, I sleep 6 hours a night, rising a 4AM and don't feel that I could do with much less rest. I know that I'm going to have to omit some of the things that are important to me spiritually, but I hate to prioritize. How can one say what is more important along the path?

I'm not looking for a shortcut to enlightenment, just something workable and realistic for myself.

So, may I humbly request suggestions? Additionally, what do you consider to be the most important part of your sadhana - perhaps the part that you "couldn't live without"?

Om Namah Sivaya

[Onkara]

Namasté C.Smith :)
May I answer with a question? What is the purpose or core for your sadhana?

I ask as I wonder whether the answer would help to focus on what rewards you most within your sadhana and perhaps that can become your focus when your routine changes. Maybe your goal is specifically moksha or simple devotion through ritual, but also what clicks and makes you feel the sadhana added value each time?

[satay]

namaste,
Even in sadhana we can follow the KISS principle...Keep It Simple Sadhu. :)

[Ramakrishna]

Namaste Clayton,

I would just take the one thing that you feel is the most integral part of your sadhana and concentrate on that mainly. Whether it's puja, japa, meditation, or whatever, just primarily focus on that. You say it's tough to prioritize, and it really is. For me personally, I would go with japa and meditation and focus on those, but this is something that really is all up to you as you know what is best and has been working the best for you.

Jai Sri Ram

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namasté c.smith


Hari Om!
Am looking for ideas on how to shorten my sadhana while on the road for work.

So, may I humbly request suggestions? Additionally, what do you consider to be the most important part of your sadhana - perhaps the part that you "couldn't live without"?

I understand your point and have been in this situation. I thought about the answer to this conundrum in a slightly different manner. Lets see if it is of any value to you.


I did not shorten my sādhana but lengthened it. How can that be? I took the intent that every thing I did was an extension of my sādhana - a practice.

What is one thing I did? Breath and breathing. In and of-itself breathing is a upāya¹. If we pay no attention to it , it is just breath, the same found in paśu¹. I used my work hours to be a practice of the best right action I could select. My hours of attention, detail, as the application of awareness. Application of fairness, kindness, etc.

Action during one's day stabilise pure consciousness within the nervous system - so why not use it as a technique ? These are the words of kṛṣṇa-ji - chapter 3, 8th śloka, niyataṁ kuru karma tvaṁ¹ - do your allotted/prescribed duty. Hence my intent was to make best use of this duty for my sādhana.


Then I did not feel any pinch - as if I was shortening something that is so dear to me (sādhana) . I still do this today - practice of breath and the best choice of actions ( and a few more things, we can leave for another post).


praṇām

upāya - technique; that by which one reaches one's aim
paśu - any tethered animal , singly or collectively 'a herd' ; a domestic animal
More on breath as a technique within this HDF string of conversations: http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2323
niyataṁkuru karma tvaṁ
niyataṁ - fixed , established , settled , sure , regular , invariable , positive ; disciplined , self-governed
kuru - here it is being used as doer; this would is very robust and can take us all the way the ancestor of both pāṇḍu and dhṛtarāṣṭra, not to mention the battlefield kurukṣetra.
karma - is karman which is act , action , performance, business
tvaṁ - your, thy

[Adhvagat]

namaste,
Even in sadhana we can follow the KISS principle...Keep It Simple Sadhu. :)

:laugh:

[Harinama]

Hahaha...

This thread is funny because I have no sadhana as of yet.

:Roll:

I used to be a good little Gaudiya Vaishnava, chanting sixteen rounds a day of the Hare Krishna Mahamantra, avoiding gambling, eating meat, fish and eggs, onions and garlic, and offering water to my gurudeva and Gaura-Nitai (Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, as Sri Gauranga, and his associate, Nityananda Prabhu), reciting my gurudeva's pranamas, and singing at least one bhajana.

And then I had a period of doubts since January and starting eating eggs, and drinking coffee... :( And about a second-hand leather jacket which I feel bad about.

But I'm hoping to buy pleather (because those jacket styles just look so awesome on me :cool1:), give up eating eggs, and coffee is something that I drink too much of. Starting today, I am going back to my japa with the Yuga-mantra prescribed by Sri Nimbarkacharya.

As the others have said, it entirely depends on the focus and goal of your sadhana. As a Vaishnava, in Kali-yuga, the Age of Quarrel and Hypocrisy, chanting the names of God is the highest form of devotion to God, and so japa does have some precedence.

For other Hindus, some sort of yoga or tapasya is their sadhana.