walking on a spiritual path is not easy. the journey is long and pitfalls are many. only very genuine and sincere seeker are able to reach to the goal, that is to find their true nature.
there are some traits which has helped many seekers on the path. here is list of top 8 qualities which a spiritual seeker must have.
8 qualities of a genuine spiritual seeker:
1. thirst for knowing oneself – one of the most important and basic quality is the thrist for knowing your true nature. if you are really thirsty then you will find the water sooner or later.
2. truth – seeker should be after knowing the truth. many times the truth can be bitter but he should still choose the truth over other things. because truth liberates. according to hindus, truth is the another name for god. they have defined god as ‘sat-chit-anand’. that is sat (truth), chit (consciousness) and anand (bliss). so practice speaking truth and strive to attain the inner truth (that is realizing your true nature).
3. sincerity – a genuine seeker should be sincere in his path. half-hearted effort will not do. one has to be total in his search. sincerity should not be confused with seriousness. one should be sincere in the path but not serious. seriousness burdens you. whereas sense of humor makes your lighter and more fresh. laughter definitely makes the journey lighter.
4. non-violence – a sincere seeker should be sensitive to others and should not try to hurt or injure any body. he should practice non-violence in his actions, words and thoughts. vegetarian food is a good help on the path. almost all religious guru has given emphasis on vegetarian food and on practicing non-violence. one should not only be loving towards oneself but towards every living being on the earth. so be loving to practice non-violence in true sense.
5. non-identification – seeker should have a open mind. he should not be identified with caste, color, religion, nation or any such thing. he should be detach from within and should be open for all experiences. higher the consciousness, more detached and free you will be from within. so seeker should always try to raise his consciousness.
6. trust – a sincere seeker should have trust on himself as well as on the justice of existence or god. he should trust his inner voice or gut feeling or intuition. because the journey is long and there is no map. the only guide is the inner guru which send hints via inner voice. so one should learn to trust and follow his inner voice. at the same time, one can lose hope at times. so one should have trust in god. remember, when you walk one step towards god, then god takes 1000 steps towards you. so seeker should do whatever is possible from his end and rest leave it on god. he will take care of his part in the form of grace or divine help.
7. patience – many times people give up in between. they don’t wait. in spiritual search one needs infinite patience. the more patience you have, quicker will be the progress. its works opposite way. if you are in a hurry then journey becomes longer and if you are ready to wait infinitely then you have almost arrived.
8. innocence – you can cheat in the outer world and succeed but thats not true in the inner journey. if being smart works in the outer world then in the inner world you have to innocent and pure. this quality of innocence cannot be cultivated because you are born with it. so if you want to walk on spiritual path then make sure you don’t lose your innocence and child like quality.