Sādhana (; ;) is an ego-transcending spiritual practice.[1] It includes a variety of disciplines from any culture like Hindu,[2] Buddhist,[3] Jain[4] and Sikh traditions that are followed in order to achieve various spiritual or ritual objectives.
Sadhana is done for attaining detachment from worldly things, which can be a goal of a Sadhu. Karma yoga, Bhakti yoga and Jñāna yoga can also be described as Sadhana, in that constant efforts to achieve maximum level of perfection in all streams in day-to-day life can be described as Sadhana.[5]
Sādhana can also refer to a tantric liturgy or liturgical manual, that is, the instructions to carry out a certain practice.
The historian N. Bhattacharyya provides a working definition of the benefits of sādhana as follows:
B. K. S. Iyengar (1993: p. 22), in his English translation of and commentary to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, defines sādhana in relation to abhyāsa and kriyā:
The term sādhana means "methodical discipline to attain desired knowledge or goal". Sadhana is also done for attaining detachment from worldly things which can be a goal, a person undertaking such a practice is known in Sanskrit as a sādhu (female sādhvi), sādhaka (female sādhakā) or yogi (Tibetan pawo; feminine yogini or dakini, Tibetan khandroma). The goal of sādhana is to attain some level of spiritual realization,[6] which can be either enlightenment, pure love of God (prema), liberation (moksha) from the cycle of birth and death (saṃsāra), or a particular goal such as the blessings of a deity as in the Bhakti traditions.
Sādhana can involve meditation, chanting of mantra sometimes with the help of prayer beads, puja to a deity, yajña, and in very rare cases mortification of the flesh or tantric practices such as performing one's particular sādhana within a cremation ground.
Traditionally in some Hindu and Buddhist traditions in order to embark on a specific path of sādhana, a guru may be required to give the necessary instructions. This approach is typified by some Tantric traditions, in which initiation by a guru is sometimes identified as a specific stage of sādhana.[7] On the other hand, individual renunciates may develop their own spiritual practice without participating in organized groups.[8]
The tantric rituals are called "sādhana". Some of the well known sādhana-s are:
In Vajrayāna Buddhism and the Nalanda tradition, there are fifteen major tantric sādhanas:
Not within this list but a central sādhana in Vajrayana is that of Vajrasattva.
All of these are available in Tibetan form, many are available in Chinese and some are still extant in ancient Sanskrit manuscripts.[9]
Kværne (1975: p. 164) in his extended discussion of sahajā, treats the relationship of sādhana to mandala thus: