The objective of spiritual advancement is to free from
physical -awareness ,which is present in the form of waking experience. If the seeker has great things to his credit, which he
has claimed as his, his ego fastens itself upon these achievements and
constitutes a formidable hindrance to realization of the non-dual truth.
It is, therefore, most necessary for the seeker to keep
free from the idea authorship of doer ship because self is not physical but it
is formless. This does not mean to keep
clear of all activity through fear of developing this form of the ego. He may
have to take to the life of action to wear out the ego that he has developed.
So he is caught up in the dilemma that if he keeps inactive he does nothing
towards breaking through the prison of his ego-life, and if he takes to a life
of action, he is faced with the possibility of his ego being transferred to
these new acts.
Treading the spiritual path is not like riding a saddled
horse. It requires the utmost attention since the path affords no halting
places or room for expansion of the physical -life. He who enters the path can
neither remain where he is not afford to lose his balance, but is like one who
attempts to walk on the edge of a sword.
The seeker must realize the fact that, he and his
experience of the world are part and parcel of the illusion and the formless
substance and witness of the illusion is the spirit, which is the true self.
The spirit is real and all else is mere illusion.
By learning to reason on the base of the soul as self, he
will be able to overcome all the obstacle, doubts and confusion in pursuit of
truth.
The
beginning of spiritual advancement is conditioned by the quest for that goal
for which seeker strives for. it may take a long time before he arrives at the
mountain top of truth-realization; and the path is beset by pitfalls and
precipices. Those who attempt to reach this mountain top have to climb, and
even one who has succeeded in scaling great heights may by a slight mistake
fall from them. Therefore, the seeker is never safe unless he has the help and
guidance to overcome all the obstacles. Seeker has to safeguards himself from a
possible fall, and leads himself to the goal.
The seeker carries with him the samskara or conditioning, which he has inherited and accumulated in
the past, and in the intensity of his spiritual longing he remains ineffective
for the time being. But when there is a slackening of spiritual effort, the conditioning gather fresh strength,
and arraying themselves in a new formation constitutes formidable obstacles to
spiritual advancement.
