Types of Devotion (Sadhana)
Summer Showers 1973 - Indian Culture and Spirituality
Topic - Excerpt from Divine Discourse
24
Meditation Is Different From Concentration
There are three types of sadhanas.
- The first type is a sadhana which the monkeys practise and is called the Markata sadhana.
- The second is called Vihanga sadhana and is typical of sadhana practised by birds.
- The third is called the Pipeelika sadhana or the sadhana practised by the ants.
So far as the monkey is concerned, it goes to a tree, plucks a fruit but does not eat it then and there. It then jumps from one branch to another. In this process it loses this fruit altogether! This is a kind of sadhana where we want quick results. We want to see God quickly and in this process we go on changing the objective of our sadhana every day and change from place to place like a monkey.
The second kind of sadhana can be compared with the behaviour of a bird. A bird swoops down on a fruit and hits it so sharply that the fruit drops on the ground. In the process. the bird loses its objective.
The third type of sadhana is typical of what an ant does and is called pipeelika sadhana. As is well known, an ant breaks up all items it wants to eat, into very small bits, carries each bit slowly and steadily and brings them to its own location. It is always successful in acquiring its food.
Even in sadhana, we have to be slow and steady, and that will enable you to attain your objective. Just as these ants cut their food into small pieces, bring them back home and eat them at leisure and fearlessly, so also we must not swerve from our path, we must keep the object in our mind and we should not let our vision flutter.
Thus, for our spiritual progress we should maintain discipline and keep the mind under control. We should do everything in the name of God.