Page 14 - NAMAH-Jan-2018

Namah Vol. 28, Issue 4, 15th January 2021

A stage of transition from the mental to develops in us a morbid cynicism which
the spiritual can lead us to the verge of despair. Life and
everything around us may seem strange and
In other words, human evolution is not yet meaningless, a vanity of vanities, an illusion
over. Yoga teaches us to evolve consciously that traps us inside desire’s many-hued
rather than unconsciously through millennia bubble. We experience then the celebrated
and in a rather complicated way of learning vairagya of the ascetic and start turning away
through each and every kind of life experiences. from life as a thing that is meaningless and
However there is a stage that often intervenes futile.
between the actual taking up of conscious yoga
and the urge to go beyond human aspirations, Though this state of vairagya or disenchantment
and which begins to start and stir within us. and disillusionment with life may come due
This preparatory or transitional stage can often to recoil from difficulties or else owing to
be quite painful. It is sometimes marked some temporary failures, it is only when it
with hypersensitivity; or else by a feeling of arises naturally, spontaneously as a result of
being disconnected with everything around; or our evolution that it has a true spiritual value.
feeling like a stranger amidst familiar people; As long as we are satisfied with life as it is,
or the wish to be alone when one spends as long as we are happy with ourselves, our
time reflecting upon life quite spontaneously. outer achievements, our success stories, we
Sometimes one just has an insatiable urge are not yet ready for the true spiritual life. It
to know or a drive towards perfection. At is rather difficult for such people to take to an
other times there is an abundance of energy, authentic spiritual life. They may believe in a
of love or even mental intelligence, trying to Higher Power but only in a religious sense.
burst forth. The Higher Power or God is there only to
satisfy their hungers, to assure them success,
People in this stage or phase undergo a lot to satiate their endless desires and ambitions.
of internal suffering which is not necessarily
connected to any significant outer events. True spiritual life however begins only when,
Outer crisis which nature uses to awaken in spite of all that we can or have achieved,
us to the need of evolution begins to change we are not fully satisfied with the human
into an inner crisis, what is sometimes called formula. We seek something else, a qualitative
an existential crisis or a spiritual emergency. something that we cannot name and yet we
It is a stage when our ego-self, which was feel it is there. It may come either negatively
thick-skinned and therefore indifferent to by developing disillusionment, having seen
everything except its own selfish interests, through the neat masks and façade of life, or
begins to develop a hypersensitivity to else positively by searching for something
everything. It begins to become a sensitive still greater and higher, having sounded the
instrument that responds to the slightest last limit of possibilities that human life can
touch. Sometimes this hypersensitivity offer. While both these states can be useful for
takes an unhealthy route of feeling the need our spiritual evolution, the latter is certainly
to suffer and be a martyr at the altar of the superior and has a far greater power to propel
world-forces. But this helps no one. It only us high beyond the last human limits. Those

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