Service and Sadhana

 

Service and Sadhana – These are terms that denote a couple of aspects of what is actually done by one to get ahead on the Spiritual Path.

 

Service is another word for a job. Like kitchen service is cooking in the kitchen.

 

You get what you pay for. In order to benefit from the relationship with The Guru there must be some exchange. It’s a universal law. Breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. You paint someone’s house. They pay you money. You take that money and buy food. Your output of energy brings in food. Service to The Guru is spending energy and receiving spiritual food, so to speak.

 

Sadhana, another word for the work that must be done to remove the barriers to receiving His Transmission and what is being transmitted. The world presents us with sadhana in a way. If you do a crime and get caught you go to prison. Doing your time in prison, being rehabilitated to say “I know how to act lawfully” and doing so is Sadhana. Looking closely at this analogy reveals a picture of what life on Earth is really about.

 

Enlightenment doesn’t happen only in the mind. It’s a whole body, with emotions, feelings, bodily states, psychic states, thing. You have to use the whole enchilada of you to get ahead on the path.

 

Sadhana and Service are the work you need to do as a dance with The Guru. “Wax on Wax off”, and not knowing why until you get why. The Guru knows things about you that you don’t know. The Guru undermines what is holding one down.  Here’s a story.

 

Adi Da functioned as Guru. Fundamentally He simply Transmitted His State. The State we are talking about is called Enlightenment, The Immortal State of Bliss. He did this formally in sittings with his followers, known as devotees under vow. He did this informally at parties, going to the movies, and such. He was always transmitting, everyone is transmitting something or other. He wrote and had a staff that assisted Him in this endeavor. He did art and had a staff for that. He had a family, cooks, domestics, gardeners, and some men to watch out for whatever may go wrong, this was Security. I served in Security for 7 years. We watched out for his family, the ashram, and the parishioners, we planned the operations to go from here to there, and we drove family and muck mucks. We were around 24/7.

 

Fiji - 2006. My service was to do some escorting of family to an island called Taveuni. Joseph, head of security tells me that Bhagavan had asked Him who was going to do the escort service. Joseph responded “Bill Worden”. Bhagavan tells Joseph to tell me that the taxi drivers on Taveuni have the tendency to drive too fast.

 

My experience of serving the Supreme Avadhoot often left me… perplexed? Trying to find the right words to describe the state of mind that I was often in during my years of serving Adi Da’s Sphere is a bit difficult. The Guru constantly puts one into a state of the Koan, standing in the state of the paradox of our existence, a Zen Masters’ ultimate constant questioning that stops the thinking mind and pretty much just stops a person in their tracks. So, taxi drivers in Taveuni driving too fast and I’m supposed to what exactly?

 

We get put ashore and climb in a taxi, a mini-bus. The first part of the drive is dirt roads through the jungle with a lot of bumps. Right away the driver is driving too fast but it’s a country road where you can’t drive at a high rate of speed. This is where I start to feel anxiety. Here’s the issue – I hate being told what to do and I hate telling others what to do. I was well-schooled in the chain of command. Everybody has a ‘hat’, it is their function. Having someone cross the line of controlling what another is trying to control (as it is their job) only makes matters worse. So I started feeling the heat. I didn’t want to say anything so I was psychically trying to get him to slow down. This worked for a bit and then he’d be speeding again. Sound a little nuts? Ya think? Of course it was! I was in the core of my insanity about control. This goes on and on till we’re on the pavement. This is where this dude is turning into Barney Oldfield- 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Finally it was obvious that my ‘psychic’ control just wasn’t working. I just had to do something. I calmly said “You can slow down. We’re in no hurry.” He did. It was no problem. Yet, I had lived as if it was. Over the years Bhagavan showed me that my whole existence is similar to this. Patterned to live as if everything was a huge problem with programmed ‘solutions’ to avoid dire consequences. Yet, in Truth, in Love – there really is no problem.

 

How did He know that this would be such an issue for me? I can point my finger at dozens if not thousands of people that have no problem at all ordering others about. The musical group Tears for Fear has a great song called “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”. I know I would -- if I had mommies’ permission. And He knew that – He knew everything about me and what to do about it – He knew how to free me.

 

I fall to my knees and place my head at the feet of the Supreme Liberator, Parama Sapta Na Adi Da Samraj over and over. For he has taken me beyond so many “problems” of mortal existence, even the “problem” of death - a dance that I’ve learned a bit about – knowing that one day I will take to the floor of… dancing with the stars.

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