A Project Plan Template

Posted the following as an answer to the question “How to prepare a project plan for spiritual enlightenment?“. thought of sharing it as a post as well.

A sample plan template is as follows 🙂

Project plan: self realization

goal: Attain God, merge into the divine or realize your purest soul

Action items:

1. Pic at least one spiritual ideal and have unwavering commitment toward it. Regardless of the cost or how much dire the situation is, do not break your ideal.

2. Practice non-discrimination. What you want to realize, start practicing it right this moment. If it’s formless, why not reflect on illusory nature of this world? If want to meet God, why not attempt to see (in your mind eye – imagination) him/her in everyone you meet? In short, you put conscious effort to stop discriminating things based on the gross interpretation by the mind. (Watch Essence of Lalita Sahasranamam all parts starting from part-1)

3. Self-discipline. Bhagavan says in Srimad Bhagavat Gita, “With practice and detachment, this mind can be concord.” read this story 

4. Practice kindness. Perform some selfless acts regularly. The entire struggle is rising above one’s selfish ego, selfless acts help us do just that. (Read The Book of Kindness)

Risks and their mitigation:

1. Ego. poses the greatest risk. Your spiritual progress likely to first boosts your ego. You’d start feeling you’re someone special or something and you deserve good things in life. It’s a trap which you must not let take over you.

2. Mistaking an experience or a siddhi as your final attainment. Make sure you’ve read enough about your goal from people who had similar attainment. So you do not mistake some experience as your final destination. A simple rule of thumb: if you have even a tiny doubt left, you haven’t likely attained it yet.

3. Indulging in excessive preaching at the cost of your daily discipline/practices. As you progress spiritually, you start having insights and dawning of wisdom which you feel like sharing with people. Being it coming from the source, it’s natural that others also find your words touching and helpful. You get their attention, love and gratitude. This is all good and fine as long as you do not forget that you didn’t set preaching as your final goal :). Listen to Durga Saptashati — The Esoteric Meaning – a very important discourse on the various stages every sadhak goes through during the journey. Be wary of Chanda-Munda!

The most important mitigation strategy is surrendering to a realized Guru. Just be clear and sincere about your goal in your heart and actions, follow the action items, follow your Guru’s words to the best of your abilities, rest he shall take care.

Sriman Narayan