Here’s a question I received on my student group recently – I’m curious about if astrology can be used to recommend certain types of sadhana to people. What would be a framework for that?

Also about consistency in sadhana. Whether a single path should be followed or a combination of things depending on one’s nature and situation. What does commitment to a sadhana entail?

Sadhana can be of many types -even atheists are often on a spiritual pathway, following karma yoga (when they are sincere in believing work is worship and doing their best to grow as a person, they are on the spiritual pathway even though they may say I don’t believe in God). At the same time the most ‘devout’ sadhak might be completely off-track because he has relinquished all responsibility and thinks the sadhana is enough and that his own personal effort on a day to day basis is not needed.

So if you want to know whether raja yoga, bhakti yoga, karma yoga or jnana yoga is the best path for you, astrology can help, but if you need astrology for this kind of guidance, then maybe you are not really ready for a spiritual pathway because it would indicate a very poor knowledge of oneself. It should be obvious by this age which one you are most drawn to, based on your temperament. Most of us use a combination, but one might be predominant.

What you are probably referring to as sadhana is probably a raja yoga or a bhakti yoga practice. This, yes an astrologer can help you especially if it is a Bhakti yoga practice, because you would have a pre-disposition towards certain deities and will progress faster if you are turning to them for help. But there again, if you are ready for a serious practice, you will already be praying to them because you’ll just feel drawn.

Consistency is highly essential. Regardless of whether you are following a single path or a combination, you would still need a strong daily consistent practice. Doing one thing today and something else tomorrow is not going to take you anywhere, doing new things all the time, again pretty useless. Pick one thing and stick with it. It is possible that you might find new tools that you might use for a short while and then discard, but you’ll need to have a level of awareness to be able to tell the difference between distraction and enhancement. That would need brutal honesty with the self, something I see as a very critical element of one’s spiritual practice, without which one is going to really get mis-led.

Yesterday my yoga teacher compared Dhritarashtra with the blind mind, and Gandhari, the intellect, blinds itself in service to a stupidly blind mind. This is how most of us live. The pathway involves opening our eyes and what we start to see is not pretty at all, it is frequently depressing for most of us and many times the truth is just going to make you realise what a horrible person you can sometimes be. So willing to be honest with yourself regardless of the consequences is the most important element along with a strong daily practice, in my opinion. The rest will fall into place.

You can be drawn to something on account of your nature but need a balancing counterpoint you aren’t drawn to. What to do about this?

Yeah that’s where I find a guru to be the most valuable. It’s not just a counter-point, it is also little things we forget. In my experience a guru/ teacher is needed more than anything else to simply remind you of the basics over and over again. I remember for the first 2 years every time I reached out to Jacqueline (my spiritual teacher), she would say the same thing. ‘Don’t mistake the weather for the sky of your being’, ‘everything that comes and goes is not who you are’. That’s it. I felt so ashamed after 6-7 times, that you value this woman so much and yet you cannot even remember the ONE thing she teaches. But I’d still forget. My students forget too, ultimately I’m saying the same thing to people over and over again.

The second thing that a teacher can do is to correct you when needed. There will be times when you go off-track and a good tight slap (metaphorically speaking) in those circumstances is a significant boon. This is what I loved about her the most – that she’d very easily very non-judgmentally and yet very firmly point out my nonsense.

So I think it is not so much on account of the sadhana – because we can always find a way to work around things and make them more ‘pleasant’, but a teacher who’s there to kick you back on to the track when you’re going astray. If you keep your eyes on the goal (brutal honesty) then sooner or later you’ll find your way back. If you’re more dedicated to defending your demons, then sooner or later, even with the best teachers, you will find your way back to blindness.