Bhajana has two compartments. On is the inner and the other is the outer. The inner aspect involves our mind, chitta and life forces being aligned properly for the Bhajana to happen. The second is the outer aspect which involves our place of Bhajana, surroundings and people around us. These two aspects decide the quality of Bhajana that will happen through us. In Bhajana too there are two levels of maturity; one is the initial stage where the sadhaka is new to the nuances of Bhajana and then the advanced stage where finer aspects of Bhajana start affecting the course of Bhajana.
Let us consider the inner aspects of mind, chitta and life forces. When the sadhaka is not used to a lot of Bhajana, there are many ways in which the mind revolts. The mind easily splits itself into many fragments and destroys concentration. The fragmented mind takes one’s attention to the past, future, to insignificant events and so on with surprisingly high clarity which otherwise would never surface. Especially when one tries to focus on japa or mantra sadhana, these mind forces start affecting. The life energies take one’s concentration to body-aches and other bodily discomforts. Overall although one would have spend almost two hours in so-called sadhana , one cannot even claim that one has performed even 2 minutes 
of proper sadhana with intensity. One has to first develop inwardness to be able to get a grip of the inner faculties of mind and chitta so that one may develop intensity in the Bhajana process. When one practices enough on riveting the mind on the mantra for a prolonged period whether eating, drinking, walking or while performing activities at times other than sadhana time, one will slowly get a grip on the waywardness of the mind. Hence taming the mind is practically a 24X7 process. One cannot simply sit during the prescribed sadhana process and try to get a hold of the drunken mind. Another simultaneous obstacle that needs to be tackled is the external aspect of the surrounding and people. One should select a time during the course of the day where no phone calls or people are left to disturb one in sadhana. As one takes a liking for Bhajana activities, one will slowly develop distaste for the regular disturbances outside which only disturb one with one’s own consent. Getting tremendously attached with the sadhana process is the surest way to get over external disturbances. One needs to steadily increase sadhana time with lot of vigil.
The aspects described above are applicable when one is relatively new to the Bhajana process. However once the sadhaka becomes extremely adept and is easily able to overcome the internal and external disturbances , disturbances of a new kind make their entry into the life of the sadhaka. As the sadhaka becomes hooked with the Bhajana process to such an extent that he is ready to forsake anything for Bhajana, the forces of nature start acting in such a subtle way as to create a disturbance in the mind of the sadhaka. One is tested by the Lord for greed and other forces of Maya. There may be a sudden invitation for the Sadhaka to become an owner of untold wealth or property or may be given a gullible position as the head of an institution or maybe given the role of a leader where one may be charted to have thousands of followers. Position and Possession will follow such a sadhaka and these things will hit the sadhaka untold when the sadhaka maybe in ekanta Bhajana. The sadhaka may be vulnerable to such situations and maybe caught on the wrong foot by Maya Devi. Once a sadhaka falls prey to these incursions, all the sadhana wealth collected by the sadhaka over years of dedicated practice will stand encashed for a jiffy whose net value in the spiritual parlance is zilch. These are in fact greater obstacles in sadhana than the disturbances of mind, body and surrounding. Unless one is awfully vigilant one can easily fall trapped to such an arrangement by Yogamaya Devi.
Charan Pahari 