You Yourself are the Barrier

 

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You Yourself are the Barrier

Some of us have spiritual inclinations since childhood, some develop it later and some are literally pulled into the spiritual vortex as if by an unknown force. But once the individual embarks on the spiritual path, he/she finds his/her Master or spiritual guide who has attained a state of liberation and wishes to bestow his state to his disciples. During this process he instils the seed of spirituality within his disciples and teaches them how to meditate and go within.

Once the Satguru or Master does this, it is upto the disciple to practice meditation, turn inwards and find his/her own inner peace. The whole universe lies within us but we are ignorant of it. The journey within begins with the Satguru and ends with no ‘self’.

The biggest barrier to this state of void is our own self. Once our Master tells us that liberation is possible in this birth and He will ensure that we will get it while He is living, gives us the feeling – why bother, the Master will do everything, we just have to hold His hand.

This is just partially true – remember the Master is testing us at every moment in our life, He can see deep within us and He knows more than anyone else on earth about each of his disciples than the disciple or his closest family members know about him/her. When a Master says He will ensure that each disciple will be liberated, He only means to encourage you to do your spiritual practice, connect with His energy body and use His energy body to reach deep states of meditation and self-discovery. Once He moves on this will not be possible.

Our own expectations of being liberated in this birth become our barrier, we have to let go of our expectations and our ego to reach that free state known as liberation. It is very difficult to get rid of the ego as it keeps changing form to more subtle levels till finally it disappears. We get rid of our expectations through complete, unconditional surrender to the Guru-energies.

There are two ways to about this – become a witness and through selfless love. Swamiji before going into Anushthan wrote a series of daily messages on ‘love’ and how love is the easier path to liberation. Becoming a witness requires a spiritual state wherein you can step back and just watch and observe life as it happens. One does not get emotionally attached or connected to either events or people. One just observes life as it goes on – there is nothing good or bad, everything just ‘is’.

The other way is selfless love – develop the heart to such an extent that love naturally starts just flowing from within you – this love is unconditional and is towards each and every being on earth. Both these paths ultimately converge – once a state of liberation attained as a witness, unconditional love becomes that person’s true nature and when attains to liberation through unconditional love one becomes a witness to life!