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Reflections on Sadhana Panchakam

by Stephanie Robinson

The blessing of studying Adi Guru Sri Shankaracharya’s Tattva Bodha and Sadhana Panchakam through the inspiring and generous teachings of Rabindra Sahu was a perfect way to close quite a unique year. Thank you for welcoming me in the AHYMSIN Family and for allowing me to benefit from the teachings.

Tattva Bodha reminded me of how much a renewed focus on and a further development of Uparama and Titiksha would immediately help me on my journey. I also started to reflect on the nature of my sadhana, expanding the distinction between the nature of the knowledge developed under the rule of the ego and Self-knowledge. I started wondering: what are the actual proportions of true surrender and of my want to control in my practice? What is the role of my fears and desires in my prayers, especially during these unsettling times? I realized that my sadhana had been more ego-defined than I thought, and that it was urgent to revisit it in the light of Vedanta.

Sadhana Panchakam happened to be the following study. Just as was anticipated, the five verses have been providing answers to many of my questions regarding sādhana and giving me new things to think about as well. While infusing, the verses also revived and connected dots with some previous spiritual studies.  I feel the promise of some new insights and joyful energy.

The two texts and the teachings are all so rich, there is no doubt they will resonate and keep on delivering their light to me for a long time Thank you all so much for allowing me to share where the study of Sadhana Panchakam has taken me so far.

I would like to start with mentioning four specific words from the teachings that have already been working as triggers helping me rethink, reset my practice and attitude in life: duty (as done in detachment from its outcome), sincerity (over seriousness), cheerfulness and fearlessness.

Sadhana Panchakam has made me realize that, somehow and in the end, all my questions about rituals, prayers and silence revolve around the place and nature of speech in sadhana.

Would it be correct to say that sadhana, as approached by Adi Guru Sri Shankaracharya in these five verses, is the spiritual healing of the mind through the fire of speech?

• The specific language of the Vedas ignites the transformative fire of our mind, a daily study sustains this fire and allows it to become the fire of an internal Yajna. Through daily studies, we re-orient our mind, and as Rabindra said: we detach it momentarily from the external world.
• As we approach our Teachers, the proclamation of the rule of the ego is interrupted, and the utterance of the sacred Mantra AUM purifies our speech and the field of our mind.
• The transformation starts when our mind surrenders to the wisdom of the Vedas, when our own thoughts get free from ego and body identification to express our aspiration to be who we truly are. When the language of the Vedas becomes the root of our thoughts.
• We turn the corner of our spiritual healing in actually and sustainably living in command of our various hungers and greeds, behaving sattvically in the expression of ‘the dignity of the Divine’ which is our Truth.
• Then, in the unfragmented, purified, energized and silent mind we can experience its ‘sthira sukham asanam’, a mirroring stillness ultimately allowing ‘I’ to be released from Maya in order to return to its silent and vibrating Divine Truth.

I feel that, in the dynamics of sadhana as it is taught to us by Adi Guru Sri Shankaracharya:  the study of the scriptures could relate us to Sat; learning from the Guru, uttering the sacred Mantra AUM and letting it transform/reset our mind and life could relate us to Chit; and silence could relate us to Ananda. It seems to me that, just like with Yoga, there is a transformation and an alchemy going on. And until we reach Self-realization, we have to develop and work the three aspects at all times.

The practical approach of sadhana appears to be doubled with a teaching on silence; silence as being the dimension where our Truth blossoms and expresses through clarity, love and joy in our life.

• The first verse teaches us how to make space for silence in our busy ordinary lives.
• The second verse teaches us how to make space for silence in our mind in order to (properly) receive the teachings from the Guru and the blessings related to the utterance of AUM (silence has two transformative dimensions here).
• The third verse teaches us how to integrate the spiritually energized silence into our thoughts, which are the roots of our actions.
• The fourth verse teaches us how to make this silence grow as the foundation of our way of life in the world, Shantih.
• The fifth verse takes us from Shantih and guides us to embrace this silence in complete detachment from our individuality, merging ‘I’ with its Divine Truth and Source.  Then, probably and in the freedom from Maya, silence isn’t even ‘silence’ anymore and another type of sadhana -that is not practice/ tapas- unfolds?

Speech and silence: what are usually considered to be the two sides of a coin actually appear to be one to me: the systole and the diastole that make the beating movement of our heart. However, this movement can only be harmonious if we refine our speech through the fire of the Vedas and if we let the silence blossom into our life. Then, could we say that it is the harmonious beat of speech and silence that allows us to embrace our svadharma?

From there, maybe speech is meant to disappear- just like all the mantras end into silence. Of the beating of the heart only the diastole would remain: the infinite and uninterrupted and all-pervading joy of the Divine. Our true home and smile in life.

This is my attempt to relate to the text, from where I am standing in my life right now and through the lens of my very limited understanding. If the above isn’t off-beat, I would love the light shining from the verses to guide my own sadhana to become less standardized, more a garden for the silence to bloom rather than a spiritual highway.  My aspiration is to refine my speech through the fire of the Divine Word, and to try to read, infuse, grow the silence, to make it my guide, a springing source for my true knowledge and my true wealth to manifest, my altar, the space where I can hear the Divine sing.  

After so many years the direction seems clear!
Now the question is: how do I become a skilled gardener for my sadhana, especially as I am not advanced and steady enough not to lapse?

I pray for the light of the Masters’ teachings to guide me on the journey.

With warm regards and best wishes,

Editor's Note:

There are various translations of Sadhana Panchakam online. This translation comes from Shankaracharya.org and is a translation by Swami Chinmayananda.

1.
Study the Vedas daily.
Perform diligently the duties (karmas) ordained by them.
Dedicate all those actions (karmas) as worship unto the Lord.
Renounce all desires in the mind.
Wash away the hoards of sins in the bosom.
Recognise that the pleasures of sense-objects (samsar) are riddled with pain.
Seek the Self with consistent endeavour.
Escape from the bondage of home'.

2.
Seek companionship with Men of Wisdom.
Be established in firm devotion to the Lord.
Cultivate the virtues such as Shanti etc.,
Eschew all desire-ridden actions.
Take shelter at a Perfect Master (Sat-Guru).
Everyday serve His Lotus feet.
Worship "Om" the Immutable.
Listen in depth, the Upanishadic declarations.

3.
Reflect ever upon the meaning of the Upanishadic commandments, and take refuge in the Truth of Brahman.
Avoid perverse arguments but follow the discriminative rationale of the Sruti (Upanishads).
Always be absorbed in the attitude (bhav) - "I am Brahman".
Renounce pride.
Give up the delusory misconception - "I am the body".
Give up totally the tendency to argue with wise men.

4.
In hunger diseases get treated.
Daily take the medicine of Bhiksha-food.
Beg no delicious food.
Live contentedly upon whatever comes to your lot as ordained by Him.
Endure all the pairs of opposites: heat and cold, and the like.
Avoid wasteful talks.
Be indifferent.
Save yourself from the meshes of other peoples' kindness.

5.
In solitude live joyously.
Quieten your mind in the Supreme Lord.
Realise and see the All-pervading Self every where.
Recognise that the finite Universe is a projection of the Self.
Conquer the effects of the deeds done in earlier lives by the present right action.
Through wisdom become detached from future actions (Agami).
Experience and exhaust "Prarabdha" the fruits of past actions.

Thereafter, live absorbed in the bhav - "I am Brahman"!