many people resort to spirituality. they spend considerable time in reading spiritual books, visiting ashrams or gurus. among them, those who walk extra mile become part of a spiritual movement and start practicing yoga, meditation, mantra chanting or some other form of spirituality.
but despite that not everyone is able to go deep in spirituality. most of them remain on surface, that is they are not able to bring substantial transformation in their life. or they are not happy with the progress they have made in their spiritual journey.
7 reasons people don’t grow in spirituality:
1. fear of losing oneself – if you have sincerely tried walking on the spiritual path. then i am sure you must have got few glimpses of divine or having mystical experiences. you know in those mystical moments that if you continue the path then there is no coming back. if you take the jump then you won’t be the same person again. at this critical moment when the jump from mind to no-mind or from ego to egolessness can happen, mind comes in between.
because if you take the jump to egolessness or to divinity then mind will lose its control over you. you will lose your personality or self image which you have cultivated over years. most people are scared of letting go of their ego. so they hold themselves back and find one or other other excuse. mind is very clever in finding excuses.
2. spirituality is not their top priority
most people want to have spirituality as one aspect of their life. they don’t want to change their lifestyle but wants to add one more dimension to it that is spirituality. i am sorry but spirituality needs your totality. even 99% commitment won’t do. yes you will make some gradual growth by including spirituality in your life but it won’t bring real transformation in you. in stock market there is a rule “don’t put your all eggs in one basket”. if you follow this rule then you will not make big losses in stock market. at the same time you won’t make big gains also. same is true for life. if you want to bring real transformation in your life then risk your 100% in spirituality. don’t invest your time and energy in pursuing too many things. be focused on one thing that is spirituality.
3. wanting spiritual results too soon
one thing which is important to understand is the nature of mind. mind is always greedy. whether you live in materialistic world or try to move towards spirituality. mind greedy nature remains the same. so when you practice spiritual sadhana then mind wants immediate results. mind will calculate subtly whether is it worth the trouble. are you gaining anything from this spiritual practice and so on. spirituality is all about knowing your inner-self (your true nature). so you don’t gain or lose anything in spirituality. you find what is always there with you that is your soul. spirituality is discovering your true nature. but if you fell prey to questions of mind then it can deviate you from path and you will miss the search.
4. giving up too soon
spiritual search needs infinite patience and persistence. you should never give up. because you don’t know how close you are. secondly, don’t expect any results. have infinite patience and don’t be in a hurry to achieve things in spirituality. the best attitude is to enjoy the spiritual journey. don’t be in a hurry to reach to other shore but again that does not mean that you become complacent or postpone your growth. its a tricky thing to explain. in short, you have to create balance in your search.
5. insincerity and spiritual hurdles
there are many pitfalls in spiritual journey. sometimes you might end up meeting a fake guru or you might practice wrong technique which is not meant for you or your bad karmas from previous birth is creating obstruction in your growth. but one thing which can counter all these hurdles is sincerity. because if you are sincere then you will learn in the presence of a fake guru also. on the other hand, if you are not sincere then there is possibility that you might miss learning in the presence of real guru also. so always be sincere in your search. have patience and persistence.
6. philosophy and zero practice
its very easy to philosophize about things. many people read spiritual books and become too knowledgeable. but they don’t have first hand experience about the subject. philosophy is of no use in inner search. reading spiritual books only help if you walk on the path. walking on the path is the real thing. make sure you don’t end up becoming a philosopher. practice your spiritual sadhana.
7. thirst to grow within
enlightened master can only inspire you to grow but he cannot force you to grow inwardly. one should have the inclination to grow within. no one can force or create spiritual thirst in you. either you have it or you don’t have it. its a journey of many life times and we all are on different steps of ladder. so how much one will grow in spirituality is also big time influenced by their thirst to grow. at the end, we all like to quench our thirst whether it is for spirituality or for worldly matters. the quality of thirst determine the direction in which we put our energy. someone is thirsty for fame, someone for money, someone for power and someone for moksha. higher the quality of your thirst, better it is for you.
according to me, three things which are most important in spiritual search are sincerity, persistence and innocence.