Most sadhakas (aspirants, seekers) are looking for powerful experiences as validation in sadhana, as assurance that their sadhana is bearing fruit. While powerful experiences can be gratifying, they also inflate the ego. They lodge themselves in the sadhaka’s memory becoming a dead burden, blocking further growth.
Moreover, it is a question of ‘States’ versus ‘Stages’ as Ken Wilbur beautifully distinguishes. One may experience higher ‘States’ but remain at an overall lower ‘Stage’ of development. On the other hand, one may gently turn over a new leaf without any dramatic ‘spiritual’ experiences. To cross over to a higher ‘Stage’ is success in sadhana. The Guru at Shaktiyogashrama too would always urge disciples to forget spiritual happenings and focus on the sadhana to transform one’s life. Self-evolution is a non-competitive process, a journey in which you are the yardstick and you have to only better the records you set yesterday.Sadhana can be really said to have borne fruit when it transforms your day to day life and makes pure, small acts of living.
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