Spiritual Growth Articles

Traditionally spiritual paths have developed guidelines and practices that are applied to everyone as set practices. Thus, some people wind up learning particular forms of meditation or concentration, devotion, or dedicated work, or they practice specific forms of hatha yoga, pranayama or other specialized approaches to gaining mastery over the various aspects of their being, the body, the life energy, the mind while developing the soul entity, the psychic being, and coming into contact with the higher planes of existence beyond the mind.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asked Sri Krishna to place him between the two armies ready to engage in a civil war, with massive numbers of troops on each side, so that he could view the scene before the actual fighting started. At that moment he was struck by the magnitude of what was about to take place and indicated that he would not participate, that it was morally unsupportable, and it would be better if he were killed than if he would engage in killing respected elders, teachers, and relatives.

All consciousness, all energy, all material substance is essential one, although it takes different forms in the exte al surface consciousness. Vibrational patterns move across the universal creation and forms respond to them if they are able to vibrate within the range of the vibrations. Human beings can respond to vibrations within a particular limited range, which means the colors we see, the sounds we hear, are not the entire spectrum of color or sound.

For most people, the concept of ‘sincerity’ is connected with how they relate to other people, in an open, natural and honest way, without duplicity or hypocrisy. The idea that sincerity can relate to oneself and one’s inner life is something that spiritual aspirants grapple with. Sincerity is an essential quality for the spiritual seeker as it implies that the thoughts, emotions, vital responses and physical reactions align with the deepest aspiration. Without sincerity, the aspiration is basically thwarted, diverted or obstructed in the exte al being.

It is interesting that people are willing to believe the ‘secret’ of the law of attraction, spend time, energy and money trying to learn it, for the purpose of manifesting wealth, enjoyment and the powers available in the world, but they do not tend to apply the principle behind this ‘law of attraction’ to the focus, and actions, that take place in their inner lives.

It is a characteristic trait of the human ego-personality that we easily see faults and issues in others and in exte al circumstances, that we fail to see within ourselves. But how do we recognise something outside if we have no way to relate to it, if we do not produce the vibrational pattern within ourselves and interpret it?

The mental consciousness believes, first of all, that the particular viewpoint held by an individual is ‘correct’ and that other viewpoints are ‘wrong’. The vital nature wants to assert itself and gain dominance. The limited and linear framework of the normal human consciousness ensures that there will be disagreement, dispute and eventually a state of gridlock where opposing ideas contend with each other and no one is willing or able to ‘compromise’ because they hold their own view to be the correct one. We see this dynamic everywhere.

Whenever we try to understand something, we are met with various types of inherent biases that skew the determinations we make. Not only are our senses, our perceptions and our thoughts subject to various forms of filtering, but they are also skewed by our past experience, the fact that our minds “fill in” missing data based on what we expect to see, and we interpret everything through the filter of our memories, our emotional framework and our contextual relationship to what is being perceived.

During the 1980’s there were a number of scams carried out by US mail. An individual would receive a letter purporting to come from some high official in another country who had access to a large amount of money and needed a ‘partner’ to help take the funds out of the country and invest them in the USA under the control of the partner. The individual who received the mail laughed about how absurd the whole idea was, but an employee at the company was taken with the idea and was conce ed that it was just being thrown in the trash bin.

The ancient texts, such as the Upanishads or the Dhammapada, focus on distinguishing the true and ete al, from the transitory and illusory existence upon which most people spend their time and attention. Thus, the term ‘vigilance’ means something entirely different than what a person, awake in the exte al world, would take it to mean.

Many people believe that there is some kind of inexorable law of reward and punishment being doled out by God or some other all-powerful, all-observant being. In the West children are taught this lesson through the myth of Santa Claus, when they are encouraged to be “good” because Santa Claus is always watching and will only deliver desired gifts or rewards to good children.

If we reflect on the course of human life, it is easy to determine that we fixate upon different things at different stages of life. As a child, our desires tend to be centered around physical and vital satisfactions. We may desire a specific food, or a specific toy, or a specific form of entertainment. As we grow into later stages, the form our desires take will tend to change, and we may be interested in various types of games, competitive sports, intellectual pursuits of various sorts, etc.

Most people are skeptical about the concept of conscious universal forces. Even if they profess a belief in God, angels, demons, and other unseen powerful beings, they tend to reject the idea when it comes down to actual influence in their own actions, reactions and responses. There is an inherent belief in the freedom and independence of their decision-process. People do not like to admit that forces outside themselves, particularly conscious forces, are controlling in any way how they think, feel and respond.

In the context of yogic psychology, peace is not the absence of disturbance, just as in the exte al world, peace is not the absence of war. We generally define peace as a negative attribute. As the seeker gains depth of experience, however, it becomes clear that peace is ultimately a very positive attribute. The seeker can palpably experience peace as it reaches various parts of his being. Peace in the mind can be experienced as a serene, tranquil receptivity, like a lake without any ripples in it, readfy to accept the divine wisdom and power that illuminates the mind.

In its essence, yoga is a form of applied psychology. The practitioner of yoga is attempting to redirect the focus, the responses and the reactions of the being, in many cases having to overcome deeply rooted and embedded instincts, habits, and trained responses, as well as the forces of desire, physical sensations, cravings and mental predilections. The development takes place by a refocusing the being on the higher principles or forces and then by a systematic rejection of the uprising of lower forces which try to distract, distort, or dilute the action of the higher force.

The quality of Rajas, when it predominates in the action of the individual seeking spiritual growth, can have quite disruptive effects. A certain amount of focus and energy is required for any spiritual endeavour, to be sure, but there is a fine line between too little energy and too much. Rajas is the Guna that prods the vital nature and can raise up desire as a motive force. Desire in the sadhak can take the form of an attempt to attain spiritual experiences or realisations, with an emphasis on doing it quickly and successfully, from the standpoint of the ego-personality.

Taking the right attitude when feelings of failure or depression arise in the course of the spiritual practice is essential to navigate through these moods with the least disruption. Sri Aurobindo implies that the standpoint should be in the separate witness consciousness, which he distinguishes from the exte al being. The exte al being is subject to the changes brought about by the 3 Gunas and thus, will, from time to time, see an uprising of vital disturbance or feelings of weakness, failure, incompetence, etc.

As long as we set our standpoint in the exte al surface consciousness, we do not have the leverage nor the tools to easily remove an embedded reaction. We tend to take steps to suppress rather than expunge the unwanted energy. This may take the form of an ascetic denial, or an avoidance of interaction with anything that might trigger the reaction, such as escape to the cave, the monastery, the forest or the desert. Or it may take more severe forms such as physical self-torture or extreme forms of fasting, etc.

When it comes to the question of control, rejection and mastery over the vital nature and its desires, there is considerable confusion. For the most part this confusion is caused by a lack of clear definition between the different modes of observation, response and action that the seeker can adopt in relation to this concern.

When we reflect upon what we really know about our existence, our lives, our purpose, the forces at work in the world and in us, the influences to which we are being subjected constantly, and the way we respond to these influences without conscious awareness, it becomes clear that we act out of a primary status of ignorance.

People espousing their philosophy of how to act in the world are often confronted by a disconnect between their statements and their own actions. They frequently tell children, for instance, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ If we assume that the person is not simply motivated by pure self-interest and using his words to capture the support of others, essentially a form of hypocrisy, we sometimes find that the person himself treats his mental adoption of a certain idea, principle or attitude as the reality, without reflecting that his outer actions do not correspond with this inner idea.

As noted, to be conscious is a broadly applicable term, not just to one’s own body-life-mind complex but to all factors in the universal creation, the flow of time, the development of circumstances, the relations between the individual and the society, world, environment and universal forces. A seeker, however, generally wants to start with the basics, becoming conscious of his own nexus of awareness and learning how to achieve control and mastery within that limited scope.

One of the qualities that Swami Vivekananda emphasized as ‘fearlessness’. We may wonder why courage and fearlessness are such important elements in living our lives, if we live a relatively ‘safe’ exte al life and don’t engage in extremely risky behaviour. We may also wonder why they are important elements for the spiritual seeker.

When a spring is compressed, it builds up a tremendous power of potential energy, which gets released when the force that is compressing the spring is released. This is essentially how the vital force of desire operates when we try to suppress a drive through will power or other forms of restraint. The resultant “explosion” of the force when it gets a chance to express itself sometimes goes far beyond what the normal drive would do if simply allowed to operate in the ‘normal’ course. It is no wonder that attempts to control the vital through mental will power eventually prove to not work.

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For those individuals called to take up the integral yoga, there is a unique opportunity and a unique set of conce s that arise. Those paths of yoga which aim at liberation have their own difficulties. It is not simple to escape the lures of the exte al life, or even to undertake one-pointed concentration to the exclusion of anything else. Yet there are methods, and there are defined results, and at the end, with sufficient determination and practice, the seeker in the traditional paths of yoga can reach his objective.

When we look at existence from the point of view of our material consciousness, we tend to treat material things as ‘inanimate objects’ without consciousness. We attribute to plants, and then to animals, increasing levels of conscious awareness and with the advent of the mental consciousness, we acknowledge that there is consciousness. Rene Descartes famously declared, ‘I think, therefore I am.’ Yet this view of things is considered to be the opposite of the actual state of affairs.

Sankhya philosophy, also referenced in the Bhagavad Gita and certain Upanishads with respect to its understanding of the respective roles of the Purusha, the witness consciousness and Prakriti, the active nature, provides a guiding light for those seeking liberation from bondage to the exte al world. One need only find a way to separate oneself from identification with the active nature and position one’s awareness in the Purusha, a shift of standpoint from the ego-consciousness to the divine consciousness, in order to achieve liberation.

Wind is a metaphor for the vital force. The vital being is moved by desire. When we covet or desire something, we are tossed about as by a great gust of wind. This is the normal state for most people, and they just get tossed about from one focus to another trying to achieve what is held before them as an object of desire. The other great motive force in the vital being is fear. Fear is the sense that one may lose what one has, whether, life, well-being and health, family, wealth, status, or any other thing which is the object of desire.

Those who identify with their mental being tend to believe that if they think in a certain way, that they have succeeded in embodying that. They will take the thought for the accomplishment without necessarily recognising that their physical actions, their vital energies and even aspects of their thought mind continue with things their minds have rejected.

The standpoint of the witness consciousness, separated from the exte al being, is not something that is acquired through thinking or the exercise of will-power based in the mind. Many people have developed approaches or systems to not react to outer circumstances, such as stoicism, various forms of training disciplines, or attempts at acclimating oneself to particular forces and thereby increasing one’s capacity to resist their influence.

Scientists tell us that human beings diverged from chimpanzees somewhere between 4 and 8 million years ago. Somewhere around 2 million years ago, the line of development that led to human beings appeared and our current formation, Homo sapiens came on the scenes around 300,000 years ago. Each stage led to expression of new physical, vital and mental traits that coalesced around the current status of what we understand to be human capabilities today.

When seekers take up the spiritual path, they try to follow the guideline to reject desire. They will frequently say “I don’t desire anything”. In many cases, however, this is an obfuscation by the vital nature manipulating the mind to accept something which is not entirely accurate. Let’s break this down:

A young person, around 20 years of age, reported an experience he had while visiting a beer hall in Munich, Germany with some friends and acquaintances. As could be expected, there was a lot of noise, clinking of glasses, singing, laughing, story-telling among his friends, as well as generally in the pub. He suddenly felt totally isolated, ‘alone in the crowd’, as he phrased it. He felt out of place, like he could not understand what he was doing there. It brought him to a state of disorientation about what his entire life was about.

The Purusha, the witness consciousness, resides in each of us. Why then do we have to seek for liberation? If we examine our psychological standpoint, we can see that we tend to identify with, to become, the exte al ego-personality that we have assumed. It is as if we put on a suit of clothes, a costume, and in so doing we become what that suit of clothes or costume represents, and we forget, for the time being, the person inside the costume.

We speak of ‘spirituality’ and we have a conception in our minds about what it actually is. We vaguely sense that it encompasses a devotion and focus on something other than our daily exte al life and relationships. Many people state that they are ‘spiritual, not religious’. We sometimes conceive of it as a deep devotional sense in our being. Others may conceive of it as the ability to put aside all worldly conce s and cares and focus one-pointed attention on the Infinite, by whatever name, and in whatever form, we may conceive of the Infinite.

It has been more than 5000 years now since the Lord Krishna’s existence. Yet, even today people worship him with utter reverence and take his name with so much of adoration in their heart. Why? He had sixteen thousand queens and He lived a royal and luxurious worldly life. Yet, He is worshipped as God. Lord Krishna is worthy of worship and that is why He is respected. One should not respect anyone who is not worthy of worship. Lord Krishna should be worshipped with respectf

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Particularly in the West, historically, but more and more a world-wide phenomenon in the modern era, there is a strong bias toward the idea that one needs to be a “self-made man”, implying that it is through individual strength and accomplishment that one can accomplish anything. This bias is something of an illusion, even in the exte al world and its results, as much of the success we see in the world may be the result of family or school connections, or just being in the right place at the right time.

In his novel Martin Chuzzlewit, Charles Dickens exposes us to a character who is perpetually cheerful, Mark Tapley. We meet him in a comfortable situation working at an inn, with a warm relationship with the proprietor of the inn, with whom he is in love (and who is in love with him). He recognises that this cheerful attitude may be conditioned by his favourable circumstances and posits that he will only know the steadfastness and character of himself and his cheerful responses to life if he can maintain that attitude in difficult circumstances.

People believe generally that taking up the spiritual life involves a form of escapism from the daily obstacles, difficulties and pressures of living an active life in society. Some people in fact take up the spiritual path as an escape, but that is neither the primary motivation nor does it represent the majority of spiritual seekers.

The ancient sages of India, as we see in some of the texts that have come down to us through the course of time, understood the balance between the internal and the exte al, between individual liberation and a balanced activity in the world. They recognised the individual role as part of the divine manifestation and embraced it. The Isha Upanishad makes this clear in its short compass. The Taittiriya Upanishad goes to great lengths to ensure that the seeker does not abandon the material world.

Many religious and spiritual traditions focus on the idea of ‘liberation’ from bondage to the illusion of the exte al world and its enticements and attractions. In some cases, this takes the form of a vow of austerity and a focus on achieving redemption and access to heaven after one dies. In other cases, it involves the one-pointed focus on liberation with the abandonment of the active life in the world, a reduction of one’s needs down to a bare minimum, and in some cases, using a begging bowl to obtain food and accepting whatever, if anything, comes to one.

As we grow and experience life, there may come a time when we become disillusioned. We may feel like there is no meaning or significance to what we do. We feel like we are running in a hamster wheel, or on a treadmill, always striving to earn money to survive and maybe have a bit of enjoyment. We experience empty enjoyments and superficial relationships. We wind up asking ‘why’. This can be a real turning point for an individual who is ready for taking up the spiritual life. A feeling of throwing it all away and escaping rises up. We call these feelings many things.

Athletes undergo extensive training routines, logging many thousands of hours with, in many cases, tough physical conditioning and practice, in order to achieve their goals for physical development and to be able to participate in a competitive sporting event. Many who are not athletes undertake training routines to modify their physical strength or endurance. Actors in many cases have to take serious programs to prepare for a particularly demanding role that requires physical toning, strengthening or conditioining of their bodies.

Some years ago, there was a movie coming out of Hollywood that was based on the premise that someone was ‘cursed’ with having to tell the truth at all times. The premise was developed as a comedy with the idea that rather than using flattering terms or avoiding any harsh statements, the individual would blurt out whatever thought or feeling occurred to him inwardly. The person involved was an atto ey who had to defend clients in Court and thus, the comedic plot was thickened even further.

We are all subject to the action of the three Gunas or qualties of Nature. They are always shifting. As they shift, our outlook, mood, physical responsiveness, vital energy and mental framework all undergo corresponding changes. None of the three Gunas remains constantly in the forefront, so there will be times when we are ruled by Sattwa, and other times by Rajas or Tamas.

In his epic poem, Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, Sri Aurobindo writes: “He who would save himself lives bare and calm; He who would save the race must share its pain: Renunciation of the world, avoidance of interacting with the objects, actions, events and needs of the exte al life, is frequently a chosen route for those who seek personal salvation. For those who wish to participate in the development of the divine manifestation, the idea of total immersion in the exte al life, is not a solution either.

The flame of aspiration is the force that keeps the sadhak moving forward in his spiritual practice, regardless of the forces that threaten or oppose that progress, whether from outside or which rise up internally. Everyone goes through changes of mood and energy as the three Gunas fluctuate. Even in the darkest of periods when Tamas takes hold of the being, there is that flame, hidden deep within the secret heart, that is oriented towards the Divine. If all else seems to fail, it is that flame which needs to be kept lit and be the anchor of the sadhak’s efforts.