Guide to Sadhaks by Sri Swami Sivananda

Divine Life Society Publication

1. Reduce your wants to the utmost minimum.
2. Adapt yourself to circumstances.
3. Never be attached to anything or anybody.
4. Share what you have with others.
5. Be ever ready to serve. Lose no opportunity. Serve with Atma bhava.
6. Entertain akarta (non-doer) and sakshi bhava (feeling that you are a witness).
7. Speak measured and sweet words.
8. Have a burning thirst for God-realization.
9. Renounce all your belongings and surrender yourself unto God.
10. Spiritual path is a sharp-edged razor path. A guru is absolutely necessary.
11. Have great patience and perseverance.
12. Never leave the abhyasa (practice) even for a day.
13. The guru will only guide you. You should yourself tread the path.
14. Life is short. Time of death is uncertain. Apply yourself seriously to yoga sadhana.
15. Maintain daily spiritual diary and record correctly your progress and failures. Stick to resolves.
16. Do not complain that there is no time for sadhana. Reduce sleep and tall talk. Stick to Brahma-muhurta.
17. Let the thought of God (Reality) keep away the thought of the world.
18. Forget the feeling that you are so and so—a male or a female—by vigorous Brahma chintana (constant thinking of Brahman).
19. Never postpone a thing for tomorrow if it is possible for you to do it today.
20. Do not boast or make a show of your abilities. Be simple and humble.
21. Be cheerful always. Give up worries.
22. Be indifferent to things that do not concern you.
23. Fly away from company and discussion.
24. Be alone for a few hours daily.
25. Give up greediness, jealousy and hoarding.
26. Control your emotions by discrimination and vairagya.
27. Maintain equilibrium of mind always.
28. Think twice before you speak and thrice before you act.
29. Give up back-biting, criticizing and fault-finding. Beware of reactions.
30. Find out your own faults and weaknesses. See only good in others. Praise the virtues of others.
31. Forgive and forget the harm done by others. Do good to those who hate you.
32. Shun lust, anger, egoism, moha (infatuation) and lobha (greed), like a venomous cobra.
33. Be prepared to suffer any amount of pain.
34. Have a set of maxims always with you to induce vairagva (dispassion).
35. Treat sensual enjoyment as poison, vomited food, vishta or urine. They cannot give you satisfaction.
36. Preserve your virya (seminal energy) carefully. Sleep always separately.
37. Revere ladies as Mother Divine. Root out the sex idea. Prostrate before all.
38. See God in every face, in everything.
39. Take to sankirtan, satsanga and prayer when the mind is overpowered by lower instincts.
40. Face obstacles coolly and boldly.
41. Care not for criticism when you are in the right path. Yield not to flattery.
42. Respect rogues and scoundrels. Serve them.
43. Admit your faults plainly.
44. Take care of your health. Do not neglect daily asanas and exercises.
45. Be active and nimble always.
46. Develop your heart by giving. Be extraordinarily charitable. Give more than one’s expectations.
47. Desires multiply misery. Develop contentment.
48. Control the senses one by one.
49. Develop Brahmakara vritti by repeated thinking.
50. Have a check over all your thoughts. Keep them pure and sublime.
51. Do not lose temper when anybody insults, taunts or rebukes you. It is a mere play of words and a variety of sounds.
52. Rest your mind in God and live in truth.
53. Be up and doing in the path of perfection.
54. Have a definite aim in your life and proceed cautiously. 

(March 30,2013) Course of Sadhana by Swami Sivananda

Course of Sadhana by Swami Sivananda

From Divine Life Society Publication “Yoga in Daily Life” by Swami Sivananda

1. BRAHMA MUHURTA - Get up at 4 a.m. Answer calls of nature. Clean your teeth and wash your mouth. Take bath where possible. Arrange to sit for Dhyana as quickly as possible, for Brahma Muhurta is extremely favourable for meditation on God.

2. ASANA - Practise to sit in one Asana only, preferably Padmasana or any convenient pose in which you will be able to sit for long hours without physical strain. Sit erect with body, head and neck in a straight line. Sit for at least one hour from 5 to 6 a.m. at a stretch without any physical movement.

3. PRAYER - Offer mental prostrations to Acharyas, your own Guru and Ishta Devata. Pray that all beings be happy, peaceful and blissful. Recite a few prayer Slokas that will produce sublime thoughts. Pray for knowledge and devotion only.

4. JAPA - Do Japa of Ishta Mantra mentally from 5 to 10 Malas (of 108 beads) daily.

5. DHYANA - Before going to actual meditation, practise simple Pranayama for two minutes. Feel the indwelling presence of the Lord and his form in you. Think of the attributes of the Lord, such as purity, love, perfection, all-pervading intelligence, bliss-absolute, omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience of Him in and around you. Meditate now on the form of Ishta Devata. When the mind runs away from the object of meditation, repeat Ishta Mantra. This will steady the mind. Have another sitting for meditation at night. Do not neglect meditation as it is most important. Regularity in the practice of meditation is divinising of oneself for God-realisation.

6. SVADHYAYA - Read one chapter or ten verses of the Bhagavad Gita with meaning and any holy text which will increase your psychic and spiritual culture, daily.

7. PHYSICAL EXERCISE - Practise Asanas, Surya Namaskara or any useful exercise for physical movement of the body in any form best suited to you.

8. FOOD - Take light simple food. Have a balanced diet. Fast on Ekadasi days or take milk and fruits or root only. Offer to God every food you take.

9. SEVA - Do some selfless service for one hour daily or for one or more hours on Sundays and holidays.

10. ENERGY - Practise abstinence from speech and also be free from worldly thoughts for two hours daily and four to eight hours on Sundays and holidays. Observe celibacy according to your age and circumstances. Restrict the indulgence to once a month. Decrease it gradually to once a year. Finally take a vow of abstinence for whole life.

11. SLEEP - Go to bed early or not later than 10 p.m. A rest for more than six hours is not necessary.

12. SPIRITUAL DIARY - Maintain a regular diary from the day you begin Sadhana. Stick to your daily routine at any cost, never say tomorrow, for that tomorrow never comes. In your practice of Sadhana in seclusion, the spiritual diary maintained, takes the place of an absentee Guru, for, it reminds you to be regular in your daily habits and spiritual practices.

Continue to read:

Yoga in Daily life by Swami Sivananda

Gayathri Japa by Swami Sivananda

Guide to Sadhakas by Swami Sivananda