Lost Your Initial Enthusiasm for Spiritual Life?

The spiritual life, especially in the beginning, can be a very emotional experience. We can have an emotional reaction to a particular spiritual encounter, to a teaching or to a teacher --- our hearts are filled with enthusiasm, and nothing seems to be more important to us than the spiritual life. It may seem to be so important that we may even leave our previous life and enter into a new life where we can spend more time in spiritual practices. 

After some time, however, we may find that or enthusiasm begins to wane. We may get diverted into other activities; some of our old interests may re-appear. This is the time when, in Gurudev's words, we should do a stocktaking; we should see where we really stand. What is our actual attitude to the spiritual life? How important is ti to us? How important is it compared to some of the other things in our life, such as the desire to be recognised, to be well thought of, to have power, to have money? These are all competitors to our spiritual life. 

If we discover that they are there, we should not be too shocked. Why shouldn't they be there? They were there before we took a real interest in the spiritual life. They were just submerged by our initial enthusiasm, they simple haven't been dealt with yet. 

One by one, we should examine these competitors, compare them to our spiritual aspirations, and ask if they are worth fulfilling. Is it important for us to have more money? Is it important for us to have power? Is it important to us to have recognition? It may be important, but how important is to compared to the goal of life: God-realisation? We should frankly assess this and ask what is to be gained by having more money or power or recognition. Is it really important to us, or is it just something that we are caught up in ? Through own own analysis, we can discover that these things have no ultimate meaning. 

However, we should never underestimate the desire for these competitors or any others that we may discover. They are each one of us. They are part of being a human being. They are nothing to be ashamed of unless we refuse to recognise them and to deal with them. But recognise them and deal with them we must, or, one way or another, they will sneak back into our life, and they will constantly undermine our spiritual aspirations. 


Source: pgs. 124-125, Trust God by Swami Atmaswarupananda 

Swami Atmaswarupananda, Canadian born in 1925, moved to Sivananda Ashram Rishikesh, India  in 1974. He started giving short talks at the end of the daily morning meditation in 1995. He is a disciple of the great saint Swami Chidananda, the spiritual successor of the illustrious founder of The Divine Life Society and Sivananda Ashram, Swami Sivananda.

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