The Part of Technique in Spiritual Life

Hari Om,

Radiant Immortal Atman! Beloved sadhaks and seekers! The name of Swami Vivekananda is known to all of you. He was a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and had the distinction of being one of the earliest of the monks of India to take the great message of Vedanta and the universalism of Vedanta to the Western countries. His Guru had many disciples, many of them young men, some of whom were very highly educated and qualified, a few of them unlettered. But they all became accredited spiritual leaders after the passing away of Sri Ramakrishna.

The second most important disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, whom even Swami Vivekananda treated with great deference and reverence, was one Swami Brahmananda. He was the first president of the Sri Ramakrishna Mutt and Mission when it was founded near the end of the last century. Swami Brahmananda was a very serious person, always dignified, not given to easy change of moods. He was patient, understanding, and a kind teacher. Disciples who took initiation from him sometimes used to go to him a year or two later and complain that they could find no progress in their sadhana, bemoan the fact that they had had no “experience”—they had not seen any light, their kundalini had not risen, they had not had any vision of Gods or Goddesses, there was no higher consciousness. He used to listen to them patiently, and after they had fully stated their problem, he would tell them: “Yes, yes, I understand your difficulty. I understand your eagerness to have experience. Yes, it will come. Continue your japa. Repeat your ishta mantra regularly without fail every day for another year. Please come back to me after the end of the year·”
 

He used to reassure them, tell them to continue their japa, be very regular, gradually increase the time, and practise for another year. After a year the same people would return and repeat the same story. He repeated his patient hearing also. He heard them patiently as before, repeated his same instructions and asked them to come back again after a year. Sometimes this was repeated a third time also, and then after the fourth year or the fifth year when they came, they no longer had a complaint. They had found an answer. The agitation had gone. They gradually began to feel peace and inner joy.
 

Later on he used to say: “Sadhaks are very impatient. Before they hardly start their spiritual life and sadhana, already they want to have experience; they want to have experience as the very beginning of their spiritual sadhana, not as the later part. And they think that such experience only, constitutes the sign that they are progressing. So what could I do, what could I tell them? I could only tell them to carry on with their sadhana, continue their japa, be very regular in it.” Therefore, he used to tell them: “My dear son, you should not be too impatient. You must have sufficient abhyasa (practice) before you start looking for results and before you want or wish to complain.You want to have a tree within days of planting a seed. You want to have fruit before the tree has become a real tree.”

Source : Swami Chidananda's Ponder These Truths (Early Morning Meditation Talks)

Om Namoh Bhagavathe Sivanandaya !

Om Namoh Bhagavathe Chidanandaya !