Why We Do Early Morning Sadhana
Why do We Get Up for Morning Sadhana?
A key teaching of Kundalini Yoga is Early Morning Sadhana. Starting the day resetting our selves with yoga and meditation. What follows are some wonderful words sharing the whys and hows of Sadhana.
In many other Spiritual traditions it is also considered the ideal time to work on our selves. It is the time the night time creatures are asleep and the daytime activities have not yet begun. We don’t have to act on worldly anythings.
In the Vedic tradition it is known as Brahma Muhurta, in Sanskrit translating to “time of Brahma,” “sacred time,” “time of divinity,” or “the creator’s time.” It is the earliest part of the morning, just before sunrise, 3:30 - 5:30 am, when our prana or life force energy is considered to be strongest.
In the Kundalini Yogic lifestyle we call it the Amrit Vela - the Nectar Time.
Wisdom, Commitment, Consistency
Why do we get up for morning sadhana? Because we have to face the whole day, and we cannot face the day without a constant level of energy. People love you for three things only:
Wisdom is the intuitive nature that allows you to give the right answer by listening within the question that is asked. For every question there is an answer in it.
Commitment is the ability for your whole self to sustain its status in projected reality of action. Then people can trust you. Otherwise, it is like building a cozy
bungalow on the top of a volcano. If you act like an earthquake or volcano, who will build upon you?
Consistency is steadiness through time. Sadhana gives us sensitivity to know, to
feel, and to touch. It gives us intuition to touch reality. The methods are three-fold: jappa, tappa, sanjam. Jappa is repetition. Tappa is the heat of central impulsation. Sanjam is merger through simran—meditation on a very slow, conscious breath.
In your consciousness, you must find a time to ask yourself three questions:
“How much am I a part of the I which made me what I am?”
“During my working day, during my existence, during my awareness, how much of the time have I been aware that I am part of the greatness that I am?”
“What can I do to extend myself to the greater I AM of which I am a part?”
In finding the answers to these questions, you will find your way from the realm of finite ego to the realm of higher consciousness, and you will have the experience of total relaxation into mental happiness and contentment.
Group Sadhana
All for One, and One for All
Your body is the temple of God, and your soul is the Divine Guru within. So, you get up in the morning, meditate, chant the mantras, do the exercises, call on your spirit, regulate the breath, and you get together in group consciousness. In that way you help each other. Group consciousness in morning sadhana is to help each other. If I am trying to sleep, another is not sleeping. If, in this whole group, one person opens up to God just once, we will all be blessed in his openness. That is what matters. If one has walked into sadhana with heart and soul in a prayerful mind, we will all benefit. That is the power of the group sadhana.
But, we still have something of the past in us. We bring up worries about who should lead. “Oh, that leader has brought a very good sadhana! That one has freaked out the sadhana.” The truth is that nobody freaked out the sadhana, and nobody made it beautiful. It is the will of God which prevails through the soul. When you are a servant, and act as a channel, it prevails through you.
If, in morning sadhana, one cannot curtail the barriers and get to Oneness, I don’t think there is any other time it can happen. All for one, and one for all. That is the principle.
Individual Sadhana
If you must do sadhana by yourself, then while you are chanting, imagine a million others all around you. Hear them all chanting, with you in the middle, not moving at all. Feel that you do not chant physically, and yet are leading the chant and letting the chant lead you. As you imagine this, continue chanting.
©The Teachings of Yogi Bhajan, Aquarian Teacher KRI Teacher Training Level 1 Textbook
More Quotes on Sadhana
"When a person gets up in the morning and does the sadhana, you know what accompanies that person? All the angels, all saints and sages come to listen. Their souls fly to those places to listen where God is chanted." 10/4/77
"Getting up in the morning to do your sadhana does not mean you will become God. No, getting up in the morning, you will become you!" 6/27/93
“The greatest reward of doing sadhana is that the person becomes incapable of being defeated. Sadhana is a self-victory, and it is a victory over time and space. Getting up is a victory over time, and doing it is a victory over space. That is what sadhana is. And when you do a sadhana in the sangat, you enrich yourself in multiple ways.
“First, the isolation which can hit anybody and make them go totally crazy is defeated. Secondly, when all of you meditate on God, the total effect of your sadhana becomes multiplied by the number of people participating.
“Sadhana is not a matter of advantages and disadvantages. It is simply a means through which you can defeat all your miseries, misfortunes, and handicaps. It is a very personal thing which does not relate to anybody except yourself.
“You are supposed to go through self-evaluation every day. That is what sadhana is. On one side is God, the superiority of you; on one side is you; and on one side is the devil or the inferiority of you. Between the three you have to assess yourself.
“A sadhu is a being who has disciplined himself. Sadhana is the technique to discipline yourself. It is a scientific way to live.” KRI International Teacher Training Manual Level 1
“One part of sadhana should stay constant long enough for you to master, or at least experience, the changes evoked by a single technique. Each kriya and mantra has its individual effects, although they all elevate you toward a cosmic consciousness. Learn to value the pricelessness of one kriya, and all others will be understood in a clearer light.” – from The Aquarian Teacher, Level One Instructor, page 150.
"We get up early in the morning, we rise, we do our sadhana so that we can match up with the day, with absolute reality. Face the reality with reality. Don't face the reality with the laziness and slowness. You will never be successful. You are your own enemy…" 1/7/90
"Your electromagnetic radiance should be continuous and should be creatively high. That's why there is discipline. That's why we do sadhana. That is what dharma is. … Do sadhana for yourself. If you cannot get up in the morning at 3 o'clock, if you don't take your cold shower, if you don't massage your body, if you don't do all those things, you pay during the day. Everything is in balance. If you don't sharpen the knife, what do you think you can cut with it? If you don't sharpen your mind, if you do not shine your soul, what are you going to do during the day?" July 31, 1984
"… on some days, I am dead tired. I feel I can't do my sadhana. Then what do I do? I go to the bathroom, I take cold water, and I wash my face again and again, and again and again, until I understand that I am fully awake. When I am doing my sadhana, sleep sometimes wants to overtake me; I get tired. Sometimes I get home late and I have to get up very early. Then I do pranayam and I apply some yogic locks. I do a lot of things that I have learned and I go through it as gracefully as a humble human being should.” 8/23/78
"It seems that on a daily basis, when you do sadhana, nothing happens. But you don’t do it out of greed. You do it to conquer your laziness, your ego, your stupidity, with your essence of commitment. That’s all sadhana is. We don’t do it to get anything." - Aquarian Teacher p. 145
"Sadhana, Aradhana, Prabhupati. Those who do sadhana and do it—they put their whole self into it. Wholehearted sadhana is called aradhana. Prabhupati is you become the master of the Almighty God which created you." 1/7/90
"There are a lot of things we need: One of these needs is that for the mind to work for you for the whole day, it must be fresh and clear; it must be made livable. That is why it is a requirement to rise early in the morning when nobody can disturb you, when you can be yourself."