Making everything we do through the day an offering to the divine, to the ultimate source of all, is sometimes said to be a sadhana. But what does it mean to make everything into an offering? How does one do so?

A book can be written in response to this question. But, in this age of few words and sound bites, I’ll answer in a few paragraphs.

As long as we have a self-identification to a body-mind complex, the cosmos is divided into 2 parts - I and others. We do things to others (our “actions”). Others do things to us (our “experiences”).

Every action has a recipient. Consider that recipient as a limited manifestation of Lord and the action as an offering to THAT manifestation of Lord. Every experience has an originator. Consider that as a limited manifestation of Lord and the experience as a blessing of THAT manifestation of Lord.

This posting I am typing is an offering to Lord manifesting as various curious seekers who read this on various forums. Any responses like “wow, that’s so insightful” or “that’s just some silly and dumb theory” are blessings coming from those manifestations of Lord.

Suppose I have pneumonia and feeling very weak. That experience is a blessing coming from bacteria in my lungs that are limited manifestations of Lord. Suppose I take some medicine that kills those bacteria. My action of taking medicine and hurting those bacteria is an offering to Lord manifesting as those bacteria.

Various beings clinging to life and other things they deeply desire engage in a play of actions and reactions based on the forces of momentum and opportunity! Lord manifests as ALL being. No action is dirty or forbidden. But each action gives rise to a corresponding reaction.

While playing this game, it is natural to think “I must get so and so thing”, “I must avoid so and so thing”, “so and so beings are so nice to me”, “so and so beings are so mean to me” etc.

Yet, it is possible to see the Lord of the Doer and Experiencer of all actions and reactions through various manifestations and think of Lord throughout. Then, it is possible to “engage in” a seemingly aggressive act with a calm mind or a seemingly dirty act with a clean mind. Then it is possible to experience even death (i.e. release of one manifestation of Lord that one currently identifies as I) with no panic.

THAT is what we mean by converting everything into sadhana. Lord exists as all. Lords makes up desires in all and creates a play of actions and reactions.

Though “I” and “others” are all Self, we clearly associate more with what we consider as “I”. To reduce association with “I” and expand it to “others”, we can cultivate the approach of seeing every action and experience as Lord’s. Then pride, guilt and fear (of even death!) slowly disappear.