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Spiritual evolution

CHENNAI: Spiritual evolution of a bonded soul culminating in liberation from rebirth does not happen in a single lifetime as this is a long process involving several lives. Of the countless living beings, birth as a human being itself is difficult to get and hence the reiteration that it should be utilised for realising the spiritual goal. It is one in a million who will make sustained effort in this direction after understanding its rarity. But the doubt that often nags a sincere seeker is whether he would be liberated during this birth and if not what his predicament will be should there be some obstacle to it. Will that not be a fall for him after all the effort he has made?

This was Arjuna’s dilemma after listening to Lord Krishna’s exposition on the Yoga of meditation, said Swami Omkarananda in his discourse. Arjuna’s contention was that after one has committed oneself totally to the goal of liberation, if he was not successful, he would be a loser of both the material and spiritual ends human beings aspire for. He would enjoy neither worldly and heavenly pleasures by performing rituals nor liberation for which he has to develop total detachment by performing all actions with the attitude of surrender to God and leading a life of contemplation. “Strayed from the path leading to God-realisation and without anything to stand upon, is he not lost like the torn cloud, deprived of both God-realisation and heavenly enjoyment?”

Krishna’s assurance in this context that there is no fall whatsoever for one who has adopted the spiritual path, either in this world or in the next, is one of His inspiring declarations in the Bhagavad Gita. There are ups and downs only in material life while in the spiritual path there is only evolution to higher levels.

On an earlier occasion also He had clarified to Arjuna, “There is no loss of effort here, there is no harm…” After reaching the world of the righteous and enjoying the fruit of his Punya, such a Yogi is reborn in the house of the pious and wealthy or in a family of wise Yogins, which would be conducive to his further spiritual growth. By dint of his latent tendencies (Vasanas) he takes up from wherever he has left and strives again for liberation.

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