What are the phases of spiritual awakening I Mohanji
Elevation in spiritual awakening
Elevation or growing up in spirituality (spiritual awakening) means you are becoming subtler. Subtler means softer, more vulnerable, and more sensitive. Imagine a pyramid; the bottom, the heavy part is the tamas, the inertia. We all have it in abundance.
Somehow we come out of it, and then we move into the action mode. This is the practising time – practising mode, a mode where we are intensely practising, intensely doing something. So, there are two ways; one is that we really want to get out of the inertia, and secondly, we need to find some space where this is permanent, where there is a permanent level of peace.
Basic step in spiritual awakening
Where have you started from? Inaction, laziness, lethargy, it’s okay to smoke, drink, coffee, sleep, worry, emotion. This is the level we are starting from. Then we are moving into action – action for the sake of something higher. It could be material; it could be spiritual; it could be anything that is higher. We are moving towards that. And then we are putting all our effort, and that’s beating the inertia, going higher for the sake of stability.
So, from inaction to extreme action. Inaction to action, action to extreme action. This is the centre of the pyramid. Where does that take you? To inaction, but in a different way. That inaction is beingness where you’re not forced into action. Do you understand the difference?
Witnesshood
From lethargy, inaction, tiredness, you move to action to a level of inaction where that inaction also means to be stable; non-doership. It’s freedom, you take a step to the witnesshood. That space – until you actually settle down in that space, it’s not yours. You can always drop back.
Total Inaction
You need a lot of action to reach the state of total inaction. Total inaction means inaction where you’re not karmically pushed at all because karma ended there; karmically, you are free. This is the state of freedom at the top of the pyramid, that stillness. In that stillness, nobody can disturb you. Nothing outside can disturb you because you are already settled into yourself. You are fully settled into yourself.
If you look at the whole tapestry, even when we are crossing the inertia, when we are moved into the field of action, we will feel great. Because where were you sitting? In tedium, in a place where you were completely helpless, and you were kind of a victim of your internal weight. From that state, you’re moving into a state of lightness, not exactly that you are light, but this is lighter than your previous state. In that lightness, what you’ll feel is that you’ll feel great. That’s the time when we go out and interact with people.
Freedom
You are not stable as yet. That’s why you are suffering. Do you understand the point? Once you reach the top of the ladder, you cannot suffer anymore because whatever happens outside is outside. Whatever happens inside is nothing. You are free there. And that state remains forever.
Silence
But the state in between is always a tricky state. We feel that we are ready to deliver, but are we stable to deliver? Mostly not because we are still trying to reach there. This is the time when people say you must be quiet. Settle down in silence. Take your time; settle down in silence. Go to the level of silence where you can’t be disturbed because silence is the truth. Silence is the language of God. Settle down there permanently; stabilise. Then you go to the world; then the world cannot touch you.
Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt
Proofread by Yogesh Pandit