The Akhand Sadhna dial

Akhand Sadhna is one unbroken chain of hours kept by the sangat around the world, never split by region. The dial shows where the chain stands right now and lets you take your place in it.

Where to find it

• On a computer or tablet: in the header, between the main menu and search.
• On a phone: the raised round button in the centre of the bottom bar.

It is on every page, for guests too. One tap opens it. On a phone it rises from the bottom of the screen. On a computer it opens beside the dial. Press Escape to close it, and you return to where you were.

What the dial looks like

The dial is a small gold medallion. Its ring is made of sixty rays, one for each minute of the hour, and a jewel sits at its centre. Even when nobody is sitting, the jewel breathes slowly and a soft ring of light drifts out from the dial now and then. That is only an invitation: tap it to see where the chain stands. With reduced motion switched on in your device, nothing on the dial moves.

What the dial tells you

The dial and the panel it opens show one of these.

• Open hour. Nobody holds this hour yet and you are not in sadhna. The panel says the chain stays unbroken when you sit, and lists the hours that follow, marked held or open.
• Held. Someone holds this hour or is sitting in it. If you hold the hour yourself, the panel says your hour has begun.
• In sadhna. You have a sitting open. The ring of the dial lights one small ray for every minute you sit, counter-clockwise from the top, and the ray for the minute you are in glows and grows until it is complete. As the hour comes to its end the ring becomes whole and the jewel at the centre glows more deeply. If you hold a two-hour slot, the ring covers both hours. The panel has the timer and a control for the audio that plays during your hour. You can turn the audio off.
• Signed out. You are a guest. The panel invites you to sign in to hold an hour. Anyone can still see the dial itself.

If the dial looks dimmed, the live hours are not available at the moment. The panel says so in plain words and shows no numbers.

Start sadhna

1. Open the dial.
2. Choose Start sadhna.

Your timer starts for the current hour. If someone else is already sitting in this hour you will see Join the sitting instead, and if you hold the hour yourself, Begin your hour. You can leave the page. The timer keeps time, and the countdown bar stays at the top of the page you are on.

If you need to stop early, choose End early. You are asked to confirm, and the minutes you have sat are logged.

What happens at 00:00

When the countdown reaches 00:00, a soft chime sounds, the audio fades out and your hour is complete.

• If you watched the timer finish, your hour is logged for you, in that tab. You do not need to do anything.
• If you opened the page after the hour ended, or you have the page open in a second tab, a Log my hour button stays on the screen. Choose it to log the hour.

Nothing is logged for an hour you did not sit.

Who can see what

The dial shows counts, such as how many hours are held and how many people are in sadhna now. A guest sees counts only, never names. A number is shown only when at least three people are behind it. If fewer than three are, the dial does not show it, so that nobody can tell who is practising.

A calm practice

The dial has no streaks, no scores, no badges and no ranking. Your progress toward a milestone is one quiet line on your practice page, nothing more.

The dial keeps time. It is not a meditation lesson, and it does not replace what you were given at initiation. Brahm Gyan is received from a perfect Master (Satguru), and each seeker verifies it for themselves.

If something looks different

• “Could not open the sitting.” Try again. If your device is offline, the sitting is kept and sent when you are back online.
• You see Sign in instead of Start sadhna. You are signed out. Sign in, then start.
• Log my hour is still there after you sat. You opened the page after the hour ended, or another tab claimed it first. Choose the button once.
• The audio does not play. Choose the audio control on the timer. Some phones need a tap before they will play sound.

Related guides

• How the menu works