Here are some common and basic questions about spirituality that almost each seeker asks at the beginning of the spiritual journey.
Q1. What is Spirituality?
Spirituality is finding the essence, the innermost core, the most fundamental, that One element by finding which all desires are fulfilled, all longing/seeking is satiated, all running stops, forever and eternally. This is your essence; this is the essence of the world and the Existence. Once you know this essence, there is nothing else left to know.
Q2: How to know this Essence?
You ARE this essence, but because of tons of ignorance gathered through misguided conditioning and indoctrination, you do not see it. A teacher established in own essence can show it to you. However, only a purified mind can see it and specific practices are thus required to purify the mind.
Q3: Why should one take a Spiritual Path?
There are tons of practices under some very popular spiritual paths that prepare one for that moment when Essence is revealed effortlessly in the presence of one who knows. One needs to explore different paths and select one that appeals both to the intellect and heart. After that it all depends on one’s dedication and discipline.
Q4: What is wrong in being worldly?
There is nothing wrong at all. World has its charm, beauty and energy. It is part of the essence too. The only drawback here is that it is based in polarity/duality. There is an opposite for everything. Day and night, hot and cold, success and failure, birth and death, happiness and sorrow; and so on. One cannot exist without the other. The entire life human being runs after the positive and from the negative, not realizing that both are sides of the same coin. Nobody can have one side without the other. It is completely cyclic in nature. Happiness ends in sorrow and sorrow in happiness, failure in success and success in failure, and so on. An ordinary human being keeps running from one state to another like a puppet with extremely few things under control. And that leads to another powerful desire to be in control, which is impossible. A little control one experiences bossing over others or through powerful positions and money is also temporary and illusory. Even when one gets what one wanted, there is always the fear of losing it. Death for sure any which ways takes away everything. That is why a worldly person is very afraid of death.
However, a person who knows the essence, can float on this illusory and duality filled world with ease. Success, failure, happiness, sorrow, birth, death are all states that come and go, but do not touch, do not influence or impact. Yes, there could be pain because of the instrument of the body, but there is never any suffering.
Q5: Is spiritual path easy or difficult?
It depends on how fast you will let go of the old. The sooner you let go of your old conditioning, beliefs, thoughts the easier it will get. At the same time your dedication and discipline in doing your practice will play a major role, which is largely dependant on how badly you want to achieve your spiritual goal. And all of this is assuming that you have the right Path and a Teacher. If you have all these, the path will be easy. Without any of these it will be difficult.
Q6: Does following spiritual path involve complete renunciation? How can we balance spiritual and personal life?
Firstly, complete renunciation is a misnomer. You cannot renounce your body, breathing, thoughts, feelings, eating, sleeping, memory etc. so how can it be complete? What one can renounce physically is the family only (but most cannot do it mentally so what is the point), lifestyle (highly recommended).
And if you cannot do that initially, all that is expected of you on the spiritual path is to be disciplined in following your practices, which do not require more than 1-2 hours every day. Anyone keen on walking this path can easily take out that much time. If you cannot then you need to wait until you are ready. Your lifestyle and priorities will change automatically when the fruits of your practice appear.
Second option is to become a Karma Yogi. You need not do any specific practice as such. All that is required is that you do all your daily chores and meet your responsibilities as a service to highest power, without expecting anything in return. Whatever you face daily, convert the same situation into your spiritual practice, by simply completing it with full involvement and dedication, as if you have been chosen to do that service.
Q7: What changes will spiritual path bring in me?
If one is on the right path and doing their practice correctly, spiritual path will bring in clarity, peace, joy, and ability to accept situations. It will also make the seeker more sensitive to negativity, which can create problems. Eating stale food or meeting negative people or visiting low energy places disturbs them much more than a normal person. Sometimes people think that if they are spiritual they should be stronger but they may actually find they are more vulnerable. Here either people become afraid and leave spiritual practices or they change their lifestyle and become more conscious of avoiding such people and situations.