Why Spirituality?

Why Spirituality?

This is an important question that one should ask himself before want to pursue the path of Spirituality. The path of spirituality is different from path of rituals that are followed as spirituality now. So it is necessary for us to be clear as to why we want to pursue in the path of Spirituality

The nature of the human mind is that it always wants something or the other; because of this we undergo a series of emotions which is a never ending cycle of happiness and suffering. When a person realizes this truth and wants to transcend beyond this then his true spiritual journey begins.

Most of us are stuck at the level of Material happiness and reluctantly accept the suffering which comes along with it. We assume that all the happiness in the world can be acquired through money or material happiness is the primary source of happiness. We feel that outside objects around us is the source of happiness and try to accumulate more of it, but once you acquire what you want, there is an urge to acquire more and more. This becomes a never ending process and hence we fall in the trap of suffering.

The above point is important to understand as this realization is the stepping stone to spiritual progress. Only when we understand that outside objects is not the source of your happiness but rather is a tool to secure the body and its life for future contingencies. You will come to a profound understanding that happiness is not outside. Happiness is derived from within. The moment we understand money, objects and everything around us does not affect the way we feel about our self. We start the process of transcending this apparent material world.

Then at this crucial part of our life we try to find the answer for how we can experience true happiness and how to get over this cycle of suffering. At this stage we try to understand why am I suffering? This enquiry leads to the understanding mentioned above that attachment to material objects are the cause for suffering. Then next there is a void in our life as throughout our life we were behind money and objects and now we have now left the same. Then our mind works over time to go against the will and makes us to run behind objects again, but with will power we bring a control over our attachments. At this stage we give up objects and start having control over desires, and then we question ourselves what is the purpose of our life? Because throughout our life we were behind objects assuming that it’s the source of our happiness now that idea itself has crashed in our mind.

This is the stage where true transformation starts happening with the help of a Guru, were we start understanding the nature of our existence (because we have let go of objects and external world so only option left now is to turn inward and understand the nature of our existence). Once the renunciation of the material world beings (metaphorically as we still exist on earth only mental transformation happens) the questions like what is this life? What is the nature of the life? What is the purpose of the life? And most importantly who am I? Are the questions, that arise in the mind of the seeker. This is where he steps into spiritual path and he starts letting go of his attachment towards material world and starts understanding life by learning from a Guru, studying scripture and performing sadhana.

The spiritual seeks now learns the reason for his unhappiness and realizes that mind and ego are the source of all suffering, mind and ego gives rise to desire which is the cause of all the suffering. Then with meditation and learning from the teachings of the scriptures the apparent problems that he is facing would be of no consequence for him as he would just see all problems as the ones created by the mind, and he is not the mind or the ego but the observers of the both. At this stage he starts differentiating between himself and what is not he; through enquiry he will understand that he is not the body, prana, mind, false knowledge that he is the body and mind or the bliss arising from material object. He realizes that these are the objects of the experience and he is the observer of these. At this stage he finds true and everlasting happiness. Further he will realize that this observer which is the source of all objects is not restricted to himself but pervades everywhere as consciousness. This the ultimate stage where he realizes all is one and merges with the supreme consciousness. Getting away from the suffering permanently transcending Maya.

Note realization is not something which he creates or something that one searches for, this truth already exists but he realizes it now. At this stage realization happens and the apparent world becomes a maya for that being