Reducing the Problem-Solution space gaps!

Siddhayogi Shriman Adinarayanan often says that when the solution space lies too far from the problem space, life becomes complicated, fragile, and dependent. He shared an example that appears simple on the outside—health. When we fall ill because of our habits, diet, stress or restlessness, the problem is completely inside us; it is born in our daily rhythms. Even Ayurveda says "Ragaadi Rogaan (Our desires and other diseases)". But the solution space we run to is far away—a big hospital, a specialist, a battery of tests. This distance between the place where the problem is generated and the place where the solution is sought creates a strange helplessness. Life becomes something we outsource to someone else. Health becomes a service we purchase, not a harmony we cultivate.

But something shifts the moment we begin insourcing our health. When we sleep on time, breathe consciously, eat simply, sit in silence, and align with nature’s rhythm, the solution space starts moving closer and closer to the problem space. When the origin of the problem and the origin of the solution are the same, change becomes natural. It is no longer an external correction; it is an inner return. The burden of effort drops dramatically. Healing becomes a part of one’s being rather than an intervention from outside.

This principle applies just as deeply to agriculture. When farming relies on faraway chemical factories, complex supply chains, and external experts, the farmer becomes a manager of inputs rather than a co-creator with the soil. But when seeds, compost, water, and care come from the land itself, when the farmer touches the soil and listens to its needs, the problem and the solution meet in the same field. That is why natural agriculture feels not only sustainable but sacred. It is not merely a technique; it is a relationship restored.

Shrimanji was pointing to something more profound than health or agriculture. He was pointing to life itself. The more distance we create between our problems and their solutions, the more entangled and exhausted we become. The modern world trains us to outsource—our emotions to entertainment, our peace to vacations, our food to industry, our wisdom to algorithms. Every time we outsource, we increase the distance between who we are and what we need. We increase the distance between the problem space and solution space. No wonder the inner system feels stretched and fragmented.

A simple life in an ashram is not about deprivation or escape; it is about reducing this unnecessary distance. Here, the problem and the solution meet in the same space—the space of oneself. When restlessness arises, you don’t go somewhere else to fix it; you sit, breathe, observe, chant. When loneliness arises, you don’t distract it away; you look at it with the eyes of sadhana. When confusion appears, you don’t drown it in noise; you walk to the cowshed, speak to the Acharya, or simply let the wind teach you steadiness. Life becomes immediate. Solutions are no longer outsourced—they grow from the soil of your own awareness.

When a young person asks how to shift to simple living, the answer is not a set of instructions. The ashram life teaches you that sustainability is not about managing resources—it is about managing distance. When the outer life simplifies, the inner life clarifies. When the inner life clarifies, the outer life becomes a field of graceful action.

To choose a simple life is to choose a life where problems and solutions arise within the same sacred space—your own being. And when that distance dissolves, what remains is a sense of sovereignty, self-trust, and profound joy. In that state, even the smallest act becomes soulful, and even the greatest difficulty becomes meaningful. That is when sadhana begins to flower.