Spiritual Journey: Tips For The Keen-Seekers

Charity begins from home, so spiritual journey begins from self. To explore self, one has to organise and prepare himself, as we do for any journey of life. As we decide our destination, before starting any journey, so is the case here. To begin with, there should be goal clarity. Any spiritual-seeker should ask himself—why he wants to pursue this journey. We may learn from the books or register from the teachings of accomplished spiritual teachers that spiritual elevation is essential for the lasting happiness and bliss. It also earns mystical powers which may benefit others or so. One may also feel that spiritual elevation makes one more care-free and so absolves the seeker from the day-to-day worldly duties and responsibilities, which is the cause of most of the stress and discomfort, experienced in our life, in present age. Attaining positive health (exceptional physical, physiological and psychological fitness) could be another goal, for the spiritual seekers, anywhere. Therefore, goal clarity and defining destination are essential before embarking on this unique journey of mankind, on this earth.

Next is the preparation for the journey. Like any other journey, one should develop a checklist for this journey. It may include ensuring physical fitness, knowledge of the journey path, mode of transport, difficulties, which may come while taking this journey, likely time to reach the chosen destination, listing and assembling various requirements essential for the successful completion of this journey, co-travellers, and so on. Many more things may still be added to this checklist of proposed spiritual journey.

It is also important to know the right resources for collecting all the information, mentioned in the checklist. Most authentic resource could be people, who have traversed this path, before. Here begins the search for such experienced people, who have traversed this path, earlier and so could be right guide/mentor to inform about this unique journey. Technically, this is the search for an accomplished guru. This is a real challenge in planning and starting this journey. Neither every such seeker is equipped to identify right guru nor such gurus are available, in plenty. Therefore, one should explore “self” for finding required answers.

By Dipak Shukla