Last Updated on January 10, 2025 by Swami Satyananda Saraswati
There are so many beautiful ancient Vedic texts and Stotrams, but there is one text that is so extraordinarily simple and straightforward that it is highly effective for all spiritual aspirants in today’s modern, busy age.
It is the Sadhana Pancakam, written by Shankar Acharaya in 700 AD. The five short verses offer forty straightforward guidelines, or dharmic actions, designed to free us from bondage and cause our divinity to blossom.
The list below is an English Translation of the Sanskrit text, which can be found on pages 5-9 in the Shiva Puja and Advanced Yajna.
Let your Divinity blossom – print the list, review it daily, and track your progress!
Click Here for Printable PDF of The Sadhana Pancakam Checklist
Sadhana Pancakam Checklist
Verse 1:
Always study words of wisdom
With all of your capacity act in accordance and perform the discipline of these words of wisdom
Follow the systems of worship they enumerate, make the worship of the Supreme Lord
Don’t allow your consciousness to contemplate adverse desires
Wipe all the dross of sin from your mind
Search for the faults in the pleasures of the world
Search your own soul for true knowledge
Very quickly try to denounce the attachments to your home
Verse 2:
Maintain the association of true people
Take refuge with devotion in the Supreme Divinity
With all your capacity try to befriend the universe
Very quickly renounce the fruits of your labors
Whenever possible seek out the company of the true and knowledgeable people
Serve the sandals of their lotus feet
Ask from them even one letter of the knowledge of Brahman
Listen to the great words of wisdom from the Vedas
Verse 3:
Always contemplate the great words of wisdom
Take refuge in the great words of wisdom
Stay far away from the bondages of the soul
Search for the real inner meanings of the texts of wisdom
Always maintain this attitude: I am one with God
Renounce the many thoughts of the mind
Leave the egotism of your body
Don’t debate idle philosophies with intellectuals
Verse 4:
Take the cure for the illness of uncontrolled desire
Serve your doctor (Guru) as a beggar would serve a Lord
Don’t seek the associations of pleasure-seekers or self-centered individuals
Remain contented with whatever you receive in a divine union (that which God has consented to give)
Remain the same while undergoing all the pair of opposites
Don’t give expression to worthless speech
Carry yourself as a great renunciate
Don’t look to get grace from others
Don’t seek to obtain something from others
Verse 5:
Sit down in a quiet, conducive and comfortable environment, and contemplate the Supreme Divinity
Look into yourself with the fullness of consciousness
See the bondage of the gross world to the soul
Reduce your necessity for action in the world
Don’t allow your thoughts to be bound by karma, with the strength of wisdom free your mind from bondage
Experience the fruits of your prarabda karma (actions performed in the past),
With an attitude of one mind, go to the realms of Union with the Highest Divinity and remain there