How to become Spiritually Awakened

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Why Do We Not Make Progress?

 

As in our worldly affairs so also in the world of the Spirit there

must be systematic practice. We all must be able to prepare

ourselves, so that we may be in the proper mood to follow the

spiritual path. Many of you might know this story: Sri Ramakrishna

had a great disciple, Saint Durgacharan Nag - Naga Mahashaya as he

used to be called. His father was very much attached to him, and

again the old man used to do a lot of `Japa'. Once when he was told,

`Your father is a great devotee', Naga Mahashaya replied, `What can

he achieve? He is so much attached to me. An anchored boat does not

move'.

 

There is a story behind this saying. Some drunkards, one moonlit

night, took it into their heads to go on a boat ride. They went to

the Ghat, hired a boat, sat at the oars and started rowing. They

rowed and rowed and rowed, the whole night. Early in the morning,

when the effect of the drink was gone, to their surprise they found

they had not moved an inch. `What is the matter? What is the matter!'

they asked. They had forgotten to raise the anchor.

 

I hear constant complaints from people, `We are doing our spiritual

practice, but we do not make any progress'. The reply is here. At the

time of your spiritual practice, are you able, at least to some

extent, to free your mind from worldly matters and give your purified

mind to God? That is the point. We need training in all paths. Some

of you might have read Swami Vivekananda's Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga,

Bhakti Yoga and Raja Yoga. Whatever path one may follow, one needs

discipline, proper training of the mind and creation of the proper

mood. If the mind is trained and the mood is created, one can carry

on one's spiritual practice with great success. Our trouble is: in

worldly matters we may follow some method, but in spiritual affairs

we are like children. I have seen grown-up people and big officials

talking like children. So an inner personality is to be built up.

Many of us are persons but have no personality. We are individuals,

but have no individuality. Through moral practice, through fulfilment

of duties, through regular worship, a spiritualised personality is to

be built up. It is then that our spiritual practice becomes fruitful.

Our prayers and meditation will prove to be a source of great

blessing. I repeat, in all the paths, in all of the Yogas,

disciplines are necessary. If I follow Karma Yoga, my mind must be

comparatively calm. I must try to be detached from the things of the

world and from the fruits of my Karma. I must try to dedicate the

work to God. If I follow Bhakti Yoga, I must have a great yearning

for God. It is a spiritual hunger that cannot be appeased by anything

in the world. Through prayer, through Japa, through meditation and

ultimately through Divine contact, the spiritual seeker appeases this

spiritual hunger and finds Peace and Bliss in Divine realisation.

Many want to follow Jnana Yoga, but the mind is to be trained so that

it can follow the path of extreme self-analysis - `I am not the body;

I am not the mind; I am not the ego nor the senses; I am the spirit.'

Our teachers of Jnana Yoga say: one must have perfect dispassion for

enjoyment, dislike for any future life and power to discriminate

between the real and the unreal. One must have mental discipline. One

must have infinite faith (Sraddha) in the Supreme Spirit. One must be

able to practise concentration.

 

- Swami Yatiswarananda

 

To be continued...