A Podcast Featuring Sri Aurobindo Studies
Dec. 13, 2022

Signs of Entering the Spiritual Path

Signs of Entering the Spiritual Path
This episode is also available as a blog post: https://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com/2022/12/10/signs-of-entering-the-spiritual-path/
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Most children focus on their
need for food, emotional comfort

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and play which is a means of
gaining knowledge and power of

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action for them.
As they move into the later

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stages of Life, they can get
fixated on attaining.

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Good grades in school.
Making friends, hobbies and

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sports.
As they reach puberty thoughts

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and focus, may turn to relations
with the opposite sex along with

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determining an academic or a
career path.

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Then comes generally a time in
life when an individual may be

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focused on Career a home,
accumulation of wealth and

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family.
Life some wind up seeking after

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power or influence, Some devote
themselves to careers of

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compassion in the fields of
healing, or charitable work of

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some sort.
Some devote themselves to

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science or religion, or learning
various Advanced, disciplines

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some focus on sensual enjoyment
of the basic experiences of

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life.
This generally encompasses the

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vast majority of individuals.
As long as they are fixated on

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these external matters of the
body, the life and the mind,

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they do not tend to pay
attention to the larger context

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within which they live.
Their lives.

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The purpose, the big picture so
to speak as per the proverb,

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they cannot see the forest for
the trees.

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At a certain point something may
intervene and change the nature

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and direction of their focus and
attention.

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It may be a peak experience of
some sort.

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It may be a tragedy that
intervenes it may be a natural

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and growing sense of
dissatisfaction with the rewards

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offered by the world for their
actions, one way or the other.

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They begin to recognize that all
of these activities are

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transitory and ephemeral.
It is at this stage that

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individuals begin to seek for
and refocus their attention on

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their spiritual path.
A disciple asks, when can one

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say that one is truly entered
the spiritual path.

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The mother answers, quote, the
first sign, it is not the same

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for everybody, but in a
chronological order, I believe,

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is that everything else appears
to you?

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Absolutely, without importance
your entire life, all your

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activities, all your movements
continue if circumstances, so

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arrange things.
But they all seem to you utterly

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unimportant.
This is no longer the meaning of

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your existence.
Existence, I believe this is the

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first sign.
There may be another, for

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example, the feeling that
everything is different of

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living differently of a light in
the mind, which was not there

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before of a piece in the heart,
which was not there before, that

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does make a change.
But the positive change usually

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comes later.
Very rarely, does it come at

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first, except in a Flash at the
time of conversion.

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When one has decided to take up
the spiritual life, Sometimes it

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begins like a great
illumination, the Deep Joy

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enters into you.
But generally afterwards, this

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goes into the background for
there are too many imperfections

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till persisting in.
You, it is not discussed, it is

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not contempt, but everything
appears to you.

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So uninteresting that it is
truly not worth the trouble of

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attending to it.
For instance, when you are in

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the midst of certain physical
conditions, Pleasant or

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unpleasant, the two extremes
meet you say to yourself, it was

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so important to me all that, but
it has no importance at all.

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You have the impression that you
have truly turned over to the

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other side and quote, reference
SRI aurobindo, and the mother

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growing within the psychology of
inner development.

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Chapter 2, Awakening of
Consciousness Pages, 27 to 28,