Hari Aum.
A happy new year to everyone. This first month of the new year tends to be a month of new resolutions. It is a good time to pause and look at our spiritual practice (sadhana) and to renew our commitment to spiritual life.
In the world of medicine (and in other fields too I'm sure), people talk about setting 'SMART' goals. Every year, every single doctor in this country including me has an appraisal with another senior doctor who has been trained for this purpose.
During the appraisal, aside from other things, the doctor has to present evidence of what learning they have done in the past year to keep their medical knowledge up-to-date. Then the doctor has to state what goals they intend to achieve in the next year. And these goals are supposed to be 'SMART' goals. SMART is an acronym as follows:
S for Specific
M for Measurable
A for Achievable
R for Realistic
T for Timebound
'Specific' means one states precisely what one is going to do rather than have a vague goal (e.g. "I will do japa per day" is specific. I will do some sadhana daily is not specific).
'Measurable' means quantifying what is going to do. (e.g. I will do 5 malas of japa per day is a goal that can be measured.)
'Achievable' is exactly that-- something than can actually be achieved. For example, saying that I will chant the Ashtakshara mantra for purification of mind and realisation is achievable. Why? Because this mantra is a moksha mantra and many have attained liberation through it in the past (Saying that I will chant a mantra of the planet Rahu for liberation is nonsense and unachievable as it is not a moksha mantra!)
'Realistic' means exactly that too-- something that is doable for one. What is realisitic for one may not be realistic for another. What is realistic now may not be realistic later. E.g. I will do 11 malas of japa a day is realistic for me currently.
'Timebound'-- this states the time period that one is giving oneself to complete the spiritual goal. E.g. If one says, I want to do a purascharana, then one can say I will allow 1 month, or 6 months or 1 year or 2 years or more to complete this (depending on the length of the mantra and how much one can do daily).
If the goal is not SMART, it's not allowed for medical appraisals. The doctor him/herself decides what goal to achieve in what time period and commits to this during the appraisal. The following year, the appraiser checks to see if these goals have been met (and if not, the reason why).
In spiritual life too, we need to be very practical about our goals. The final great spiritual goal of self-realisation requires many tiny steps in that direction. Each step is one goal.
Each goal in spiritual life (as in medical life), in my view, should be SMART. We cannot say when God will give us darshan/His vision, when we will attain Self-realisation. But we can say that we will commit to do a specific amount of sadhana in a specific period of time. This much we can do and we need to do in order to progress in spiritual life.
It is also no use to set impossible, stressful goals that we will not be able to achieve. The sadhana goals we choose must be realistic and achievable. We need to be able to measure how much we have done (for example, one puja per day, or a certain number of malas of japa per day). It is useful to keep a record of our sadhana (a record to measure what we have done). At a glance, we will then be able to see how the past months have been with regard to our consistency in spiritual practice.
This particularly applies to extended mantra practices such as a purascharana which require great consistency. It can be overwhelming to contemplate the sheer amount of japa that needs to be done to complete a purascharana. If we pick a realistic time frame, however, it is extremely doable.
There is no point in saying one will either do six hours japa daily to complete a purascharana or not bother with it at all. It is far better to say one will do one hour every single day until it gets done. This one hour a day may not seem much per day, but it has a good cumulative effect and, at the end of a period of time, one will finally have completed the practice.
Let us then make SMART spiritual resolves for the coming year. And we will have to be our own 'appraisers' in our spiritual life (whether or not one has a guru, one needs to be able to analyse one's own sadhana-- my own Guru, Sivananda, advised this). This time next year, we will need to look back at 2020 and see if we made realistic goals that we were able to keep.
May God and Guru inspire us to make sensible, realistic goals for spiritual sadhana that we will be able to keep and thus benefit ourselves and all beings.
Hari Aum Tat Sat
P.S. My spiritual goals for 2020 are as follows:
1. Complete purascharana four next month
2. Start purascharana five in the coming couple of months (not yet decided an exact date but will do so soon)
3. Improve my diet (been eating too many sweets lately, have decided to cut back, especially on chocolate. No chocolate for me until Easter/April 12 this year).
4. Sleep better, at least 6 hours a night (my sleep was knocked for six by the arrival of my daughter six months ago. Now that my daughter is sleeping a bit better, I need to improve upon this and not jump out of bed too early as I have developed a tendency to do. Good concentration on the mantra requires decent sleep-- at least 6 hours)
5. Exercise and improve fitness-- while I have shed almost all of the pregnancy weight gain, I would like to exercise more to improve my fitness. The plan is to exercise for at least 30 minutes a minimum of four times a week. This includes home-workouts and outdoor walks.
(I see sleep, food and exercise as the triple foundation of good health and intend to focus on these in the coming year. A healthy body is a vital instrument for sadhana.)
6. Continue Sanskrit studies and read at least three slokas of the Gita in the original Sanskrit text every day
7. Read at least one page of the Bhagavatam daily
8. Remember God as often as possible and dedicate all 'worldly' actions as worship to Him (including taking care of the family, work-life as a doctor, housework, eating, sleeping and all other activities of the body and mind).
A happy new year to everyone. This first month of the new year tends to be a month of new resolutions. It is a good time to pause and look at our spiritual practice (sadhana) and to renew our commitment to spiritual life.
In the world of medicine (and in other fields too I'm sure), people talk about setting 'SMART' goals. Every year, every single doctor in this country including me has an appraisal with another senior doctor who has been trained for this purpose.
During the appraisal, aside from other things, the doctor has to present evidence of what learning they have done in the past year to keep their medical knowledge up-to-date. Then the doctor has to state what goals they intend to achieve in the next year. And these goals are supposed to be 'SMART' goals. SMART is an acronym as follows:
S for Specific
M for Measurable
A for Achievable
R for Realistic
T for Timebound
'Specific' means one states precisely what one is going to do rather than have a vague goal (e.g. "I will do japa per day" is specific. I will do some sadhana daily is not specific).
'Measurable' means quantifying what is going to do. (e.g. I will do 5 malas of japa per day is a goal that can be measured.)
'Achievable' is exactly that-- something than can actually be achieved. For example, saying that I will chant the Ashtakshara mantra for purification of mind and realisation is achievable. Why? Because this mantra is a moksha mantra and many have attained liberation through it in the past (Saying that I will chant a mantra of the planet Rahu for liberation is nonsense and unachievable as it is not a moksha mantra!)
'Realistic' means exactly that too-- something that is doable for one. What is realisitic for one may not be realistic for another. What is realistic now may not be realistic later. E.g. I will do 11 malas of japa a day is realistic for me currently.
'Timebound'-- this states the time period that one is giving oneself to complete the spiritual goal. E.g. If one says, I want to do a purascharana, then one can say I will allow 1 month, or 6 months or 1 year or 2 years or more to complete this (depending on the length of the mantra and how much one can do daily).
If the goal is not SMART, it's not allowed for medical appraisals. The doctor him/herself decides what goal to achieve in what time period and commits to this during the appraisal. The following year, the appraiser checks to see if these goals have been met (and if not, the reason why).
In spiritual life too, we need to be very practical about our goals. The final great spiritual goal of self-realisation requires many tiny steps in that direction. Each step is one goal.
Each goal in spiritual life (as in medical life), in my view, should be SMART. We cannot say when God will give us darshan/His vision, when we will attain Self-realisation. But we can say that we will commit to do a specific amount of sadhana in a specific period of time. This much we can do and we need to do in order to progress in spiritual life.
It is also no use to set impossible, stressful goals that we will not be able to achieve. The sadhana goals we choose must be realistic and achievable. We need to be able to measure how much we have done (for example, one puja per day, or a certain number of malas of japa per day). It is useful to keep a record of our sadhana (a record to measure what we have done). At a glance, we will then be able to see how the past months have been with regard to our consistency in spiritual practice.
This particularly applies to extended mantra practices such as a purascharana which require great consistency. It can be overwhelming to contemplate the sheer amount of japa that needs to be done to complete a purascharana. If we pick a realistic time frame, however, it is extremely doable.
There is no point in saying one will either do six hours japa daily to complete a purascharana or not bother with it at all. It is far better to say one will do one hour every single day until it gets done. This one hour a day may not seem much per day, but it has a good cumulative effect and, at the end of a period of time, one will finally have completed the practice.
Let us then make SMART spiritual resolves for the coming year. And we will have to be our own 'appraisers' in our spiritual life (whether or not one has a guru, one needs to be able to analyse one's own sadhana-- my own Guru, Sivananda, advised this). This time next year, we will need to look back at 2020 and see if we made realistic goals that we were able to keep.
May God and Guru inspire us to make sensible, realistic goals for spiritual sadhana that we will be able to keep and thus benefit ourselves and all beings.
Hari Aum Tat Sat
P.S. My spiritual goals for 2020 are as follows:
1. Complete purascharana four next month
2. Start purascharana five in the coming couple of months (not yet decided an exact date but will do so soon)
3. Improve my diet (been eating too many sweets lately, have decided to cut back, especially on chocolate. No chocolate for me until Easter/April 12 this year).
4. Sleep better, at least 6 hours a night (my sleep was knocked for six by the arrival of my daughter six months ago. Now that my daughter is sleeping a bit better, I need to improve upon this and not jump out of bed too early as I have developed a tendency to do. Good concentration on the mantra requires decent sleep-- at least 6 hours)
5. Exercise and improve fitness-- while I have shed almost all of the pregnancy weight gain, I would like to exercise more to improve my fitness. The plan is to exercise for at least 30 minutes a minimum of four times a week. This includes home-workouts and outdoor walks.
(I see sleep, food and exercise as the triple foundation of good health and intend to focus on these in the coming year. A healthy body is a vital instrument for sadhana.)
6. Continue Sanskrit studies and read at least three slokas of the Gita in the original Sanskrit text every day
7. Read at least one page of the Bhagavatam daily
8. Remember God as often as possible and dedicate all 'worldly' actions as worship to Him (including taking care of the family, work-life as a doctor, housework, eating, sleeping and all other activities of the body and mind).
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