Sadhana (spiritual practice of sacrifice), means to offer to God whatever he has bestowed on us. The Almighty has bestowed us with a body, mind, wealth, intellect and ability. When we offer these unto His feet, we receive His grace and we start making spiritual progress. Hence, to make progress on the path of Sadhana, offering a fraction of all he has given us is important and when we offer everything that we have unto the God’s feet, our spiritual journey becomes complete.
The beginning of the spiritual journey can be made by sacrificing the mind by doing chanting. When we do chanting, giving up all thoughts of worldly objects, it is known as sacrifice of the mind. When we use our body as a medium to doDharma Prasaar, or serve a saint, or offer physical labour at the Ashram of a saint or for in his mission, it is known as sacrifice of the body and when we offer our wealth for the mission of a Saint or Dharma it is known as sacrifice of wealth. If by God’s grace, one is blessed with a sharp intellect, then learning the science pertaining to Dharma and propagating it in the society is called sacrifice of the intellect. Similarly, if a person possesses any special talent and offers it for the cause of God’s work, that too is a kind of sacrifice.
If we look at it, the sacrifice of money is easy, meaning that one just takes out the money and gives it. But offering entire wealth is the most difficult; because since our childhood we are we are given the impression that during a crisis, only money comes to our rescue, hence we have a special attachment to money and only after attaining 60% spiritual level, are we able to regularly sacrifice a small fraction of our money without any expectation. Hence, In the beginning, efforts should be made towards chanting with the mind, performing Seva with the body, and offering our abilities toward the work of God.
Proper viewpoint about sacrificing money
Every householder must offer one-tenth (Dashansh) of their income every month towards God’s work. By doing this we can easily protect ourselves from financial losses caused by ancestors and negative energies. Along with this it also brings about a reduction in the intensity of diseases and sorrow occurring in the house due to intensity of Prarabdh(destiny). Saints are the manifest forms of God. Thus, offering money for the work of saints reduces our Sanchit(accumulated destiny), meaning, that part of Paap (sins) and Punya(merits) that we must endure in our subsequent births, gets destroyed and we become eligible for divine grace. As it is written in Skanda Purana, offering money for God’s work makes the money pure.
Driven by emotions, when we donate towards an orphanage, or to a poor person, or to make a school or hospital,we get Punya (merits) and we must to take another birth to undergo it. A seeker must try to see that neither new sins, nor new merits are created, for according to the science of spirituality, sins are considered Paapatmak Paap (sinful sins) and merits are considered Punyaatmak Paap (virtuous sins). Therefore, both are like a chain, one of iron, the other of gold. Hence, one should understand the simple science behind the sacrifice of money.
Steps in sacrifice
One who does not have the spirit of sacrifice, must make an effort to donate towards the poor, orphans and beggars. One who is making such a sacrifice, must proceed to the next level and should offer money to the saints unconditionally. Saints do not need our wealth, AshtaMahasiddhis(eight supernatural powers) thrive in their abode. Thus, they accept the money we offer to gratify us. Money should be offered to Saints with the Bhav(spiritual emotion) that – “Tera tujhko arpan, kya laagemera” (I am offering you what is yours, nothing is mine). Keeping this Bhav (spiritual emotion) in mind, one must sacrifice as much money as is possible to saints (one’s Guru) every month and when this sacrifice gets increased from 10% to 55%, along with the sacrifice of mind and body, only then does a high-level saint accept us as a disciple. – Tanuja Thakur
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