Spiritual Growth Articles

We generally remain locked within the framework of our past training and experience. We create walls around ourselves that circumscribe what we believe we can accomplish, what we can do, what is ‘real’ and what is possible. As long as we remain primarily fixated on the past, we limit our opportunity for growth and development in the future. We deny possibilities based on never having experienced them previously.

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Western civilisation has a distinct bias in favor of what we may call a materialistic viewpoint. Money, possessions, status and power based on monetary power, a drive to own ever newer possessions, and the need to try to increase our enjoyment and satisfaction of life through these factors leads those born into Western civilisation to consider that having a good job, amassing wealth and buying things constitutes the basis of enjoyment.

At some point in life, the individual becomes aware that the former methods of reacting to circumstances and events are not only counter-productive, but actually harmful to their own health and well-being and the successful resolution of the situation. Struggling and striving, fighting and reacting, instinctive behaviour and apathy and inertia, all past responses, wind up leaving the situation unresolved, the individual exhausted or worn out or in a state of despair or depression.

We do not usually recognise or appreciate how much influence our environment, our surroundings, the society we live in, the customs and life-ways of that social system impact what we think about, how we focus our attention and what we do with our lives. The Mother puts this also into the process of evolution that takes place, not just within a species, but in entire civilisations which go through cycles of development, changes in focus, and progress as various different aspects of life and consciousness are taken up in the evolutionary process.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asks how one can identify a realised soul. His question indicates there should be some outward sign that can be observed. Sri Krishna, however, demurs and indicates it is not by any specific outward action or formation that such a soul can be recognised. Everything depends on the inner standpoint, or as the Mother calls it, the inner ‘attitude’.

We live in the world without fully appreciating or understanding it. This is not something new that we are experiencing, but a statement of what we may call the ‘human condition’. The Rishis of the Rig Veda faced these same issues. In the Hymn of Creation, Mandala X, Sukta 129, Verses 6 and 7 (as translated by Nolini Kanta Gupta) they expressed their yearning for knowledge and their frustration with the seemingly impenetrable nature of the manifestation of which we are part, when they say: “Who knows in truth, Who would tell us here below, From where was it born, Whence this Surging Creation?

We normally judge things based on our own individual egoistic standpoint, basically, how a particular event or circumstance affects us in the moment. We build up expectations and plans, and suddenly, something gets in the way and destroys or diverts those plans. We naturally become disappointed, potentially even angry about what happened. With the benefit of hindsight, however, we may frequently find that what took place at that time actually was an enormous act of Grace that helped us move into a direction that we otherwise would not have seen, or would have actively avoided.

The mind, with its need to correlate facts, gather evidence and develop proofs, finds it difficult, if not impossible, to credit ideas that seem to fall outside the logical reason based on the mind’s limited understanding of the oneness of the universal creation. The mind sets up certain ‘rules’ and holds doggedly to them until such time as more ‘facts’ come to conveniently overtu the past rules. Witness the idea that the sun revolves around the earth, which only in recent centuries was overtu ed by a new understanding of the operations of the solar system.

We can observe, in our own lives and in the lives of various individuals we see on the ‘world stage’, the difference between those who are driven primarily by the impulses of the exte al vital nature and the ego-personality, and those who have made contact with the inner being and has developed a new standpoint that is based on the harmony of the divine, or spiritual, consciousness. Those who are fixated on the exte al vital nature may exhibit various forces of the animal nature, may be filled with desire, lust, greed, and a power-hungry demand that can turn into bullying and intimidation.

When we rely on our surface impressions, which are very much based on and influenced by our background, family, society and the values inculcated into us by those relationships, we only are able to truly understand a fraction of what is actually occurring, and generally this is conditioned by our desires, wishes and preconceived ideas based on our ego-consciousness. It is thus, necessarily, not truly possible to get a real sense of the larger perspective that encompasses our growth, and the developmental trend that is working itself out within us and in our environs.

Our experience in the world is one of dualities, hot and cold, wet and dry, happy and sad, love and hate, darkness and light, etc. We recognise that we cannot have the one without the other. The Chinese symbol of In/Yang illustrates the intertwined nature of these dualities and that even in the greatest light there is a spot of darkness and vice versa.

We tend to be reactive by nature. Something occurs and we immediately capture the vibration and respond to it. Thus we have outbursts of anger when we are frustrated or feel insecure, or when something gets in the way of some idea, intention or movement we want to undertake. An example of this type of instantaneous reactivity is the phenomenon of ‘road rage’. Perhaps someone is driving too slowly, or cuts in front. There is a reaction of anger and in some cases, this manifests as a confrontation and a beating, a fight or even an attempted murder.

We think and plan and harbor expectations as if we are the sole arbiter of what happens in our lives. We then judge the results from the standpoint of our ideal expectations and express either dismay or disappointment that what we hoped for has not come to pass. What we frequently fail to take into account is the interactive and complex nature of the world within which we live and act. There is a play of forces that adjusts, modifies and reacts to the energy we express, and in many cases, we find that those forces defect our intention into another direction entirely.

We tend to evaluate events or circumstances based on their relation to our personal identification with the exte al ego-personality, and our prevalent idea about ourselves at that point in time. In retrospect, we frequently find that those things which we considered to be ‘bad’ were actually the starting point of an entirely new development which turned out to be far better than what we anticipated at the time of the ‘bad’ event that interfered with our preconceived notions. For example, there was the case of a college student who excelled at his studies and had career goals in his mind.

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It is only in still waters that we can see our reflection. Swami Vivekananda in his lectures on Raja Yoga, describes the mind-stuff (chitta), and how impressions, desires, observations and thoughts all disturb the stillness of the mind-stuff. He also describes methods of bringing it to a status of stillness, in which the individual can step away from the call of the vital desire nature or the mental processes, and thus, be receptive to higher forces and levels of interfacing with the universal reality.

The most direct way to align oneself with the Divine Will is to treat the soul, the psychic being, as the standpoint from which the being takes its stance. This is not a mental analysis, a desire of the vital or a physical need or impulsion; rather it takes the form of an aspiration, a prayer, a consecration which recognises the Divine as the focus, driver and director of all one’s actions.

While a reaction may seem to be taking place instantaneously, it is always conditioned by prior acts or events, the chain of cause and effect, dependent origination or the law of karma, however one wants to term it. By adopting the standpoint of the witness consciousness, observing the exte al nature of the body-life-mind complex, one creates a space of distance that allows one to not be so absorbed in the motion that one cannot see the links and the antecedents.

The vital nature generally craves praise and becomes upset with criticism. This habit has been increased by the rise of social media with the ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ that appear on various posts, videos and blogs. People work hard to increase their ‘likes’ and ‘followers’ and make that almost an end in itself to justify their activities, ideas, actions and reactions to themselves through this exte al form of validation.

Those individuals who take up the practice of yoga for the purpose of transformation of the nature and the development of wider and higher states of consciousness inevitably find that the influence of the physical and vital basis upon which human life is based represents one of the greatest, if not actually the greatest, obstacles to their spiritual development. The idea of changing human nature, overcoming the embedded habits, the atavistic tendencies, the ingrained responses bred into human existence for many millennia is one that most people consider to be essentially impossible.

In recent years there has been a lot of focus on what is called the ‘law of attraction’. It has been mainly used to act as some kind of a ‘wish-fulfilling action’ that one undertakes by focusing on specific affirmations or visualizing results which then are ‘attracted’ to your focus and create the result you are seeking. This is, however, a very limited application of a much more general action of the universal consciousness of oneness.

One of the core principles of spiritual growth is the development of ‘equality’ in the sense of accepting whatever comes into one’s life with equanimity. This does not mean that the proper standpoint excludes action against injustice or oppression; rather, that one recognises that sometimes the forces that come in the form of obstruction, harmful intentions or interference are there to galvanize one into action and progress.

There is a tendency among human beings to react with extremes. Something is either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. ‘black’ or ‘white’, ‘positive’ or ‘negative’. This occurs due to the linear nature of the mental consciousness aided by a vital nature that wants to assert itself by being ‘right’.

It is difficult for an individual to see his own shortcomings or faults. Many times we see them reflected in others and we exte alise them to such a degree that we take exception to the other person, not recognising that we are seeing our own faults displayed in front of us. If we have a confrontation with someone they may point out these faults, but we are generally less receptive to hearing it when it comes from a perceived opponent or enemy.

A lesson in control of impulses was described by Homer in The Odyssey. The protagonist, Odysseus is on his ship trying to return home after the Trojan War. He approaches an area that was home to the Sirens, whose alluring voices would lure sailors to their death as the ships crashed among the rocks. He wanted to experience the call of the Sirens without succumbing to their force. He had his crew stuff their ears with wax, and then had himself tied firmly to the mast so that he could not do anything to steer the ship towards them.

When we travel on a major highway, we do not doubt or question that the destination at the end of that road is where we will eventually end up. We may need to face various difficulties along the way. There may be stops for food or fuel, there may be automobile breakdowns and needed repairs, there may be storms and temporary halts or diversions. But if we remain focused on the objective, and continue to stay on the highway, we will one day reach the end.r

Modern civilization puts a premium on the mental process. We educate our children with a focus on the mind. We want them to learn verbal skills, reading skills, logical skills and measure them on their abilities in these areas with various forms of standardized tests by which we then classify them based on their capabilities in this regard. We under-value different forms of intelligence that may be based on the capacities of the physical body, the vital nature or the emotional being. Empathy and insight are less valued than mental, linear logic.

The question of how to achieve the status of inner equality to all outward circumstances is one that occupies the attention of spiritual seekers everywhere. In his book Bases of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo devotes the first chapter to the questions of achieving calm, peace and equality, as these are foundational for spiritual development. Some individuals try to establish a philosophical approach based in the mind. They become analytical about situations and work to defuse vital reactions that arise through applying a deeper insight to the situation.

All life, our entire existence, whether we are actively involved in a conscious spiritual discipline, or living a ‘normal’ life in the world following the demands of our needs, desires, relationships and ambitions, etc. is a field of growth, experience and develop. We respond to opportunities, pressures, and difficulties and as we do so, some part of our being gathers that experience and grows through the process.

We have previously explored the attitudes of the exte al, outer being in relation to these various issues. This is the opportunity to compare that view with the attitude of the inner being. At a certain point in an individual’s journey the development takes him beyond his initial fixation with the things that the exte al life can offer.

The vital nature in particular has a strong hold over the mentality. It uses this hold to find ways for the mind to justify various things that the vital desires. In many cases this occurs through a process of deflection and in others through a process of development of excuses and justifications.

The physical body has an ingrained response, for most people, to vibrations that precipitate illnesses. The vector carrying that vibration (whether one calls it ‘germs’, ‘bacteria’, ‘virus’, or ‘suggestion’) strikes the protective vital envelope, or aura, surrounding the body. If it finds an opening, or if it can create an opening, it enters into the physical body and begins the process of activation of its characteristic vibration, leading to the appearance of symptoms.

Food for Thought: President Trump recently was speculating about how he can eventually earn his way into heaven. He speculated that achieving peace in Ukraine and winning the Nobel Peace Prize might help him get his wish.r

One reason we do not have a sense of our purpose or role in the world, generally, is that we do not examine deeply our inner predilections or the trajectory of our lives. We interpret our lives based on exte al criteria and motives without appreciating that there is another driving force behind that helps to create the circumstances, opportunities and directions we wind up taking in our lives. In some cases, we interpret ‘negative’ events as interfering with our lives, when in fact, they may be the prod that moves us into a more certain direction to grow into our life’s work.

The drive in the human individual to find out who he is, what he is here for, and how he can grow and become what he is intended to be in the creation sets him apart from the animal. Even in the midst of an almost complete immersion in the exte al life and its lures, somewhere deep inside, the person knows that this is not all, that this is not enough, and eventually, this brings about a sense of dissatisfaction or discontentedness which pushes him beyond the limits set by the body, life-force and mind.

When we rely on our surface impressions, which are very much based on and influenced by our background, family, society and the values inculcated into us by those relationships, we only are able to truly understand a fraction of what is actually occurring, and generally this is conditioned by our desires, wishes and preconceived ideas based on our ego-consciousness. It is thus, necessarily, not truly possible to get a real sense of the larger perspective that encompasses our growth, and the developmental trend that is working itself out within us and in our environs.

The mental framework frequently wants to find an “either/or” option rather than looking at the nuance needed to resolve multiple views of pending questions. Thus, when we are asked to consider achieving a poise of equality in the face of provocation of any sort, positive or negative, we will tend to shift toward a poise of indifference and thereby give up the initiative to action. It is difficult for us to conceive of maintaining such a standpoint and at the same time engaging in the action needed to fight for a principle or to achieve the evolutionary goal before us.

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Trust is frequently built on the basis of experience. We gain trust by confirmation of a particular development or response from our interactions. Trust is thus primarily based in the mental process. Through a process that develops credibility, an individual gains trust in the action and outcome. We view and analyze what takes place, and with repeated similar results, a measure of trust is built up. Sometimes trust is gained through measures taken to provide support or protection as a “fail safe” mechanism.

We often do not recognise that there are different parts of our being that may be at different stages in terms of the spiritual focus, the dedication, the faith and the commitment. Thus, when our mind gets distracted or conce ed, or when our vital nature goes off in another direction, we may tend to feel like we are failing in the spiritual practice and we entertain considerations of giving up.

When an individual takes up the spiritual path, he normally starts by desiring peace, knowledge, power or some kind of solace or comfort. But what if he actually is faced with an unending series of obstacles, challenges, threats, and various forms of physical, vital or mental suffering? In such a case, does he maintain his complete faith in the Divine, or does he begin to doubt the Divine, the Truth, the Path, the Teaching or his own abilities to follow it?r

Dannion Brinkley told the story in his book Saved By the Light. He was a mercenary, a hired killer. He was struck by lightning. He was pronounced clinically dead. He returned to life. He knew, at that moment, that he was ‘sent back’ to accomplish a task, a mission. He left behind his prior life and founded an organization called Compassion in Action (C.I.A.) to train people on how to work with those who were terminally ill and in hospice.

In today’s modern societies, people expect instant results. They want things to be fast and easy. They respond to ads claiming they can lose weight easily in a few days’ time. They want deliveries from stores to be ove ight, if not ‘same day’. They would prefer to receive their enlightenment from a pill in many cases! We hear people who indicate that they tried meditation or hatha yoga but got nothing out of it. When pressed, they will admit to trying it for a few brief sessions on and off.

When we see things from the viewpoint of our ego-personality, with our limited life-span, and our insecurities based on the limitations of our knowledge and power we frequently experience bouts of anxiety or at least uncertainty about the reality of what we are doing, about the truth of the spiritual path, and about our ability to face all the obstacles and overcome them to obtain the objective we have set before ourselves.

Cultured and educated people often believe that they could not stoop to certain actions or be guilty of certain motives in their actions, or simply react to circumstances in a way other than that of their predominant mental view of themselves. They may look down on those who appear to them to be weak, sinful or who give in to impulses that are hateful, greedy, lustful or otherwise exhibit one of the ‘sins’ that humanity generally recognises as unacceptable behavior.

We frequently hear people complaining about how they are locked into and trapped in the lives they are leading. They feel like there is nothing they can do and nothing can change it. This was exemplified in a motion picture called ‘Groundhog Day’ which told the story of an individual who continually repeated the events of life on the same day. Each day he woke up and it was once again the prior day that he had just finished before he fell asleep.

There is a long history of debate about what we believe and how we know what we know. Science and religion have historically taken opposite positions in this debate. Science takes the view that the mind must be able to ascertain objective facts, and draw conclusions based on them. This includes potentially developing hypotheses and testing them, discarding or modifying those that do not bear themselves out in the test. Science is therefore most comfortable with phenomena that are observable, or at least measurable, as to their existence, their result and their uses.

When we are feeling weak or limited, we become unhappy, we react with frustration and are discontented with our lot. We feel in many cases oppressed by circumstances. We can become depressed if things are not going the way we expect or want them to go. We can become angry with ourselves, with others, with circumstances, with a general lack of what we desire to see or achieve.

The spiritual seeker often finds that he can see weaknesses and faults in others. If he fails to recognise that his reaction may be due to harboring those faults and weaknesses within himself, he can take an attitude of hostility toward the other person who is exhibiting those things. He may try to control in someone else what he does not control within himself. He may give way to anger and a self-righteous attitude that can lead to much negativity.