Life Changing Stages Of Spiritual Awakening
What is spiritual awakening? How do you get spiritually awakened? Every human being thinks that ‘I’ am ‘I’. The first life changing stage towards spiritual awakening is 'Self-realisation', to realise that ‘I’ am not ‘I’. The way to realise this is to go on a quest, with the question, ‘Who am I?’ When we go on a quest of ‘who am I’, the realisation that comes is, ‘Neti Neti, Tat Twam Asi’ - Not This, Not This, Thou Art That. In the journey of self-realisation, the first step is ‘Neti, Neti’ – Not this, not this. I am not the mind. Where is the mind, I cannot find. I am not this body. I was born nine months before the body was formed as a Spark Of Unique Life, the Soul.
One day, this body will die and the soul will leave. The moment we realise that we are not this body and we are not this mind, but we know that we are, we exist, then we get the spiritual realisation of who we truly are. We are the Atman, the soul or the spirit. We realise that we are the Divine Soul. If we want to reach the realisation of ‘Tat Twam Asi’ – Thou Art That, that we are the Divine Soul, we must first realise what we are not. This is the first stage of awakening, the stage of self-realisation.
After the first stage of self-realisation, comes the next stage of 'God-realisation'. God-realisation occurs in the stage of Aham Brahmasmi. We realise Shivoham or ‘I am the very God that I pray to. I am not this body that I wear, I am the one who wears this body. I am not the mind that seems to be constantly thinking, although I experience thoughts. I am none of these but I exist. I am that, the Divine Soul, a God particle, a manifestation of the Divine.’
We realise that God is not God, who lives in the heaven. God living in the skies, is a pack of lies. God is birthless and deathless, not a he or a she, formless. God is not made of bone and skin but a Power that manifests in every creation, whether living or non-living. God does not live far away in heaven but in the temple of our heart. This is the second stage of God-realisation.
The third and the ultimate stage of realisation after self-realisation and God-realisation is 'Life-realisation'. Though there are several simple realisations but some of the profound realisations of life are that whatever happens in life, happens because of the Law of Karma. Just like there are scientific laws that govern science like the Law of Gravity, there are certain natural laws that govern the universe. They are also called the universal laws. Nature follows these laws.
Law of Karma is one such universal law. It is the Law of Action and Reaction. Understanding what happens and why it happens, why we take birth, who will be our parents, how will we be born and several questions like these are answered by understanding the Law of Karma. Everything happens because of our Karma, our actions, it may be past, maybe present or a combination of both actions.
Life-realisation also includes that we realise that people and possessions, wealth and power give us only temporary pleasure. All these are achievements that is just the first peak of happiness. The second peak of happiness is fulfilment, where we exit the highway of achievement and seek peace and contentment. But the third peak is the most important peak of happiness. It is enlightenment, where we realise the true purpose of our life and work towards it.
Thus, the three life changing stages of spiritual awakening are self-realisation, where we realise that we are not the body, mind and ego, but the soul of the Atman; God-realisation, where we realise that God is not God, God is SIP, the Supreme Immortal Power that manifests in every creation in this universe, whether animate or inanimate; and life-realisation, where we realise that whatever happens in this world is governed by universal laws and Law of Karma and that the three peaks of happiness are achievement, fulfilment and ultimately, enlightenment, where we experience eternal bliss, everlasting peace and divine love and at the moment of death, attain Liberation or Moksha from the cycle of death and rebirth and unification with the Divine.
