DAILY LIFE: A TEST OF INNER SADHANA

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

41. DAILY LIFE: A TEST OF INNER SADHANA
Gurudev has blessed us with a facility which provides the scope and possibility for all the
four yogas. He has given us a field for the exercise of body, mind, intellect, and the spirit. This is a
place of total unfoldment for your entire being from the least to the supreme. It is a centre of
evolution from the human state to the state of transcendental illumination and blessedness. It is a
bridge from humanity to Divinity.
For those who can perceive and utilise it as such, this valuable gift of Holy Master—this
ashram—can be to them a ladder to enlightenment, total divine perfection, liberation and eternal
blessedness. For this is what it is if it is always approached, not from an imperfect human angle, but
from an awakened spiritual angle and an enlightened divine angle.
It is this way for the simple reason that Gurudev worked to create this ashram for this
specific purpose. He gave utterance to the fact that he had provided here a total field and scope for
our evolution. If we will approach it as such, shedding all inhibitions, clearing ourselves of
preconceived notions and overcoming our intense preoccupation with our own human
centre—which is a centre of opinions, conceptions, built-in reactions, prejudices and bias—then
everywhere we turn we will see that this entire ashram is a rare gem, a rare gift for total evolution
and perfection.

Even the seeming negative factors—which in our lesser human-nature-based and biased
perception appear to be so many obstacles, problems and impeding factors hampering our
progress—will suddenly be seen as valuable occasions and opportunities for us. They are to be
made use of. They are chances given to test ourselves. They are neither to be suffered, nor borne,
nor endured, but they are to be understood and made use of for our benefit, our highest good.
This ashram duplicates life as a whole. In whichever environment and situation we have
been placed by the will of the Divine, the factors present in it are necessary for us as we are at this
given time and place to enable us to work towards our perfection. For, each one of us has many
things to be overcome, renounced and discarded; and a particular situation and circumstance is
given to us as an opportunity for liberating ourselves from that which is holding us back from
progressing towards our divine destiny.
If we thus perceive and understand life with a true spiritual vision, then our entire reaction to
things that come to us day by day will be a creative reaction, a keen, analytical reaction: “What has
this in it for me? God has given it with a definite plan and purpose. In what way can I gain from this
situation, benefit myself and surge ahead? It does not come without meaning.” Thus, each situation,
each set of circumstances each day, comes because that is the need for that day.
Our outer life and our inner spiritual life of japa, meditation, introspection, contemplation,
reflection and concentration have a close, indispensable connection. They are necessary for each
other. Our inner spiritual disciplines require to be tested for their authenticity, their genuineness,
their effectiveness; and the scope and possibility for this is provided each waking day from dawn till
dusk.
Daily life is an opportunity provided for us to exercise the spirituality gained during our
inner studies, reflection, japa and meditation. It is the testing ground, so that each day our progress
is really ours. We have made it our own by having tested it, proven it and possessed it. Until it has
been tested and proven, it is not our own, it does not become part of us.
Every spiritual step forward becomes assimilated into your nature when it is thus exercised.
That which is exercised actively becomes firmly grounded, permanently and truly your own. Thus
there is an indispensable connection between your daily sadhana and your daily life.
It is in the context of daily life that you are able to actively exercise and test your spiritual
progress. It is in the context of your daily sadhana that day by day the quality of your daily life is
enhanced and enriched—it becomes further elevated to progressively ever higher dimensions of
culture, refinement and a transformed spiritual nature. Ultimately, of course, this process—the
daily enrichment of your outer life by the daily ascent of your spiritual inwardness—culminates in a
total divinisation of your being and doing, your actions and reactions.
May we thus see this unified nature of our inner and outer life and not see them as two
separated, mutually exclusive and opposed aspects. They are not two. They are one integrated and
unified process of spiritual evolution.


One who perceives this becomes a totally balanced individual. He becomes truly possessed
of the knowledge of the art and science of living life as one unified process of evolving day by day
spiritually. And for us, the relevance of this spiritual fact is a necessary part of the understanding of
this ashram life which we are leading, and all the factors that go to make up both the inner and outer
life.
May the grace of the Divine and the blessings of Master enable us to see ourselves as what
we are and to see our life and our environment for what it is. Thus, may this dual knowledge become
a means of your steady spiritual progress and evolution into ultimate illumination and liberation!
The Reality is eternal and infinite. He is always and also everywhere always. Therefore, all
places are sacred. Being one and non-dual, there cannot be anything besides Him. So things that we
think are different from Him, and therefore take our minds away from Him, are only so because of
the lack of discrimination and right vision with which we see them.
There is nothing wrong with the things that we see, but there is everything wrong with the
way in which we see them. Things cannot be changed. They are here to stay. And luckily, things
need not be changed because there is nothing wrong with them as they are.
We have to change. Our vision has to change to one infilled by a certain mental-emotional
attitude of mind and heart where we look at all things with a spiritual vision, with an awakened
divine awareness based upon the knowledge of realities.
All things exist. He is there in them as Existence. All things are conscious, and though
manifestation of this consciousness may be in varying degrees, He exists in them as pure
Consciousness. All things have within them the inherent ability to bestow bliss. He dwells within
them as this bliss-bestowing factor.
Therefore, behind and beyond the grossly perceived names and forms there is
satchidananda, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, pervading the entire universe. Satchidananda
alone is eternal, unchanging, imperishable; therefore, satchidananda alone is the Reality. Names
and forms cannot be the Reality because they are perishable and transitory.
So, how can unreality hide Reality? It is absurd. Ponder this. Then you will know in which
way you should behold all things. There will be no obstacles, because we have changed. The world
may be the same but we have changed. We will behold God here and now, the FACT and not the
fiction. In the midst of the many we will see the One.