THE FOUR PHASES OF SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION

Spiritual evolution is such a common term in the healing spectrum, come lets understand the steps towards it.

The First stage

Spirituality means to know God

This stage people are the pure laymen type, God fearing and totally immersed in their own world. Going to temples, celebrating festivals with complete dedication, etc . In this zone, people go on the same way until something drastic happens and it shatters or breaks their programming mode. All in this zone have a principal fear which is very dominant- Fear of God. They feel God is punishing and will punish us for our negative deeds and we will suffer due to this. There is also fear and they feel everything that happens is due to the past karma and that cannot be changed. They will be amongst the first to queue up in temple lines, will celebrate festivals with great devotion and lead a life in their own worlds. Desire fulfillment is their motto, of course many do a lot of good deeds too in the bargain. They might help people through donations, would feed birds, dogs, etc. Spirituality means prayer and God to them, they feel the whole story is about knowing God. For some whatever happens outside to other people will hardly matter to them in the sense that they will not involve into any such activities fearing a risk on themselves. They will be indifferent with whatever goes on in the external world, be it corruption or disasters or fire or anything till it does not affect them directly. Many are in this zone. They might go in for a healing expecting immediate results. Change does not happen in their lives, whatever is pre written is played. They continue to be in this domain till one incident shakes them up rigorously for their betterment. 

It might be a major turnaround like losing a job, or incurring a loss in business or a major health issue encountered by self or any family member, its basically something which tears open their thick layer of belief system / thought process and brings them towards believing that’s there is more to it than just knowing God.

The Second stage

Spirituality means mind control

The second stage is when they start facing issues which do not get solved by known traditional ways and methods. They feel they should get something, maybe a catalyst product to help our cause. They start realizing and believing in the theory of the mind and the law of attraction. They even attend programs related to this. Its here they get more into things and look to get out of the challenge/ prevalent issue with the help of some alternative methods. Some of them might get attracted to a product or go to some astrologer or a therapist and get into some sessions or might even fall prey to the fake Gurus. They feel these Gurus are agents of the Divine and start depending on them for their life solutions and guidance. Others get into reading motivational books and start understanding about the mind concept. They try to read books and try to emulate things shared in it. This is a stepping stone into higher and deeper things. The dependency is on astrologers, healers, products, other sources, etc where they are on the lookout for solutions through external sources. The aim here is to come out of their issues/ problems and the search is always for that sole purpose. These people are the ones who will send you motivational videos, audios, images, etc from time to time as they too stay motivated and in the positive domain through such ways. For them if they are able to overcome a certain issue they feel The Change has happened. They might start healings or readings, etc part time and will help out relatives, friends, family through whatever they have learnt. The quest to know more is always there.

The Third stage

Spirituality means healing

The third stage is where people gain a lot of knowledge about how the spiritual domain works and get the connections to so many issues through various sources. They start to learn the art of troubleshooting, become a kind of healer and know about the functioning of systems like chakras, aura, human mind, etc. They know and learn guidance cards like tarot, angel, etc to do predictions and keep learning different healing modalities to enhance their knowledge. They start practicing these modalities too on people and many report good results to them, so the success factor is also existing. Its like they have got a good solid footing in the healing world. Their intuition levels increase, they start understanding about the larger aspect of things and are able to counsel and educate other people they interact with. Some in this zone do get good powers like a good third eye / intuition, mediumship, channeling, etc.

These people talk a lot about the inner journey but only a few of them really go inside, as so many are satisfied being where they are. They are in an illusion that they have seen themselves and are happy as they feel they are out of the bondages ordinary people are. But deep down inside their soul knows it has to start the inward journey some day. There was a very known preacher in a western country who once had come for the Darshans of the founders of the Oneness university. He had a lot of followers in his country and used to give teachings and healings, when he happened to speak to the founders he asked How am I and how is my spiritual; progress? He expected a cozy rosy reply as he was doing a lot of spiritual work and had thousands of followers. Sri Bhagavan looked up to him and said- Don’t ask me that, you wont be able to hear? But still he insisted. On this Sri Bhagavan replied ‘you are a septic tank’ On this he got hurt and asked why is it so? Sri Bhagavan said you have not yet looked into yourself and hence don’t agree with what I said, when you start looking in you will find ego, fear, anger, dominance, revenge, all inside and since you insisted I shared. The man went from there a wiser man, this encounter triggered the last phase of his journey. That’s exactly for many in this zone, a trigger is all that’s need to dive in the self and reach the fourth stage. This trigger can be a hurt of ego or a relationship issue or some financial trouble or a pressing health challenge or even a difficult situation for a family member.

The Fourth stage

Spirituality means knowing thyself

This is the last and most important stage before enlightenment. People in this zone have started their inward journey full fledged and are completely immersed into their internal worlds. Its not that they are away from their regular duties or responsibilities, its like they are all the while into inner introspection. In is the only way out for them, release is the only path they know now.They have lost faith in everything and they know, realize and see that everything is inside in the truest sense. They are in a state where every incident teaches or opens them up to a newer dimension of themselves. They experience everything and do not run away from as they know that running away is escaping and its gonna come up at some time later if not attended. These people become human engineers where they get into the deeper aspects of everything which is not proper or not working for them. There will be major challenges for them in the money world or health domain or relationship front or all of them and in a quest to correct these things, they will open up each of their inner layers and peel off the karmic baggage slowly and steadily. Desires would be there but not as strong as in the other 3 stages, the focus will be more on becoming deserving than being desiring. It will lead them to a so called oblivion and they would want to be alone at least for some hours of the day to be with themselves, to continue their journey. Each challenge clears their karmic residue and would take them to the next layer for clearing. Its the dark night of the soul, sometimes its too intense for some people. Some might go through extreme mood swings, some through separations in relationships, some through money issues everything leading to learning, clearing and raising consciousness levels. Its the final frontier and as its said its always darkest before sunrise. Its getting down into the unconscious mind totally. Its in this darkness, where there is no support, no material happiness, no way to come out, that life lessons are learnt and dealt with and deep rooted karmas carried over so many lifetimes are burnt and released. Each realization takes them more towards themselves, more towards the Divine, more in sync with nature/ universe, more tuned to the laws of universe. Its like a lotus flower blooming from the most muddy areas in the pond. Faith and surrender on the Divine is itself a challenge in this stage, a point might come where they might even doubt the presence of the Divine. They even lose interest in rituals and also stop visiting temples for they know its all in them. It’s a state of self realization.

This stage is all about self discovery, all questions in spirituality start getting answered like who am I, what is my life purpose, etc

Once they have worked on a considerable / critical part of it, there is a Divine intervention and they are bestowed with the state of enlightenment.

We are today exactly where we were meant to be, everyone by and large will go through the above mentioned process, time spans in each stage might differ though, depending on various factors. Every stage is a part of the process or the journey and we have to cross each of it to attain the state of enlightenment.

Its not a race, it’s a journey, some one in the first stage does not mean he is less progressed or less spiritual, its just that his time for diving into the deeper waters is a bit later. Someone might spend 5 or 10 years in the fourth stage, some might cover stage 3 & 4 in 4 years, so there is no definite time spans, its on how quickly you learn and move ahead. The primary thing which can take you further is always purity of heart, thats the very basic as a master once remarked –You cannot fool the universe.

So, get going friends start these internal journeys, the first milestone is about reaching stage 4 as its from here that the countdown to enlightenment begins. Don’t stop, the energies now are very supportive for this change and shift in consciousness. There is light visible now at the end of the tunnel. It was never so easy, every layman can now dream of this state and can attain it too, as the energies are conducive for it. Its only Enlightenment that can set man free, for without it we are merely surviving and not living. As is said – ‘Enlightenment is the ultimate goal’