The quality of the self by which things are constantly practiced, remembered and recognized is known as Bhavana Siddhi in Hindu teachings. According to this attribute, not the things of God but the God of things is the focal point of life.
When devotion becomes the song of the dedication of life,
bhakti matures into bhavana. This is what bhavana siddhi is. The technique of
bhavana siddhi is given. The natural light that removes darkness is
reconsidered in the light of holy grace dispelling ignorance. The divine light
illumines illusions and ripens desires into fruits of love.
Bhavana siddhi means actualization of attitude or mental
concepts that take concrete forms. The fruits of perfection in yamas (abstinences)
and niyamas (observances) as described in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra are examples of
bhavana siddhi. For instance, when a yogi attains perfection in the bhavana (attitude)
of ahimsa (non-violence), all creatures near to him also forget enmity. Having
attained perfect bhavana of truthfulness, never expressing a lie either by speech,
act or thought, one achieves a siddhi so that whatever he speaks come true (Yoga Sutra 2/35-6). By the bhavana of friendliness, compassion, delight and neglect of
personal happiness or pain, the pious and the sinner respectively, one’s chitta
(mind) becomes serene and hence, worthy of attaining peace (Yoga Sutra 1/33).
Our physical body is a part of the prakriti (primordial
nature). Prakriti is a string of three strands of qualities – sattva, rajas and
tamas.
Attraction to things of prakriti makes for attachment; consequently,
desires account for the whole of creation macrocosmically and for the acts of
individual will microcosmically.
With the bhavana of discrimination, detachment and dispersion,
one’s physical, mental and moral acts pave the way for union with the divine.
Bhava Samadhi is a jnana (mental act). Bhavana Siddhi is a
karma (physical at). In both, contents color the consciousness. ‘Yet these
contents are in no way the product of sense data. They arise from the notion of
I, the experience atma bhavana (I am)’.