Going the Distance in Spiritual Life – Part 5
Five Causes for Lack of Spiritual Success
- Attachment
- Delusion
- Failure to awaken spiritually
- Refuge in spouse, wealth, offspring
- Obsession with work/activity
These points can be found and/or inferred in verses 4 – 7 of the Vivekachudamani.
We are continuing on in our study of the first 50 verses of the Vivekachudamani using Babaji Bob Kindler’s chart, “The Eight Strata of Attainment to Spirituality According to Shankara.” (scroll to bottom to view this chart.)
Sri Ramakrishna has a pointed analogy for failure to progress in spiritual life. He likens the situation to a farmer trying to irrigate his fields. He has made channels for the water to flow, but the water does not reach its destination because it leaks out of holes dug by various kinds of creatures, or left by inadvertence. The water has the power to ensure the harvest, but these holes prevent it. This list of five causes for lack of spiritual success can be considered major holes.
Attachment:
In verse 4, Shankara expresses the idea of the spiritual suicide. This is someone who has the rare human birth, bodily and mental strength, and an understanding of the scriptures, yet does not strive for spiritual liberation. Instead of striving, this person clings to the unreal, to the changing: the body, mind, emotions, relationships, wealth, sensual gratifications, fame, and so forth. If one has even a basic understanding of the scriptures, one then knows the importance of discriminating between the Real and the unreal, the Eternal and the ephemeral. But merely knowing about discrimination does not lead to detachment from the noneternal. In the absence of discriminating wisdom, ignorance persists, as Sri Ramachandra has stated in the Adhyatma Ramayana. The mind must be reasoned with and convinced about the impermanence of everything other than the Self; and with that, of the inherent, blissful, deathless nature of the Self. If one is still habitually turning to the world for fulfillment without remembering it is like a rainbow sheen on the surface of the water, then discrimination has not culminated. So long as these ideas are only superficially entertained in the mind, untested via practice, and without self-surrender to God, attachment will continue.
Delusion:
Delusion results from taking the unreal to be the Real and the Real to be unreal. This oft-heard statement of the Vedanta encapsulates all the many ways we misread ourselves and the world. Our first misreading is to think, “I” refers to the body instead of the Self – birthless, deathless, blissful Awareness (the Real). The body is insentient. Even if we think “I” refers to prana, mind, intellect, or ego – all these are insentient too and shine only by the light of the Self. Once we are operating under the false superimposition of “I” on insentient coverings, then we take the unreal to be the Real. The Real is Existence, Awareness, and Bliss absolute (Sat Chit Ananda). These three shine through body, prana, mind, etc., and all of nature, imparting the appearance of existence, a sense of sentiency, and bits of bliss (masquerading as pleasure). We think bodies and minds are Sentient in and of themselves. We think all of nature exists, but it exists only temporarily, whereas the Real is Existence Itself. Thus, by imitating others not versed in Truth and following the ways of the body, we, the deathless Self, forget and even deny the true Self (take the Real for the unreal), thinking we die and are born, that we are male or female, mothers, fathers, children, skilled professionals or laborers, victims and perpetrators, rich and poor, and so forth. Sri Ramakrishna describes this misperception as being a snake in fear of a frog. The frog should be his lunch! Or like the tiger raised by sheep who runs away from another tiger, bleating in fear and hoping to live another day to eat more grass (more delusion, please!).
Failure to Awaken Spiritually:
Many people enter religious and spiritual life and still do not wake up. Shankara sets a very high bar for awakening spiritually, which includes mastery of the mind and the ability to meditate on the Atman and enter samadhi. Failure to attain these hallmarks in the sincerely striving person can be a matter of auspicious timing. Spiritual life is subtle. Overcoming the knots of ignorance in the heart-mind can be the work of lifetimes. Those who steadily strive throughout their life with self-surrender and enthusiasm but do not “reach the goal,” are to be admired, like the yogi who danced ecstatically when Narada told him that the Lord Vishnu said his liberation would come at the end of as many lifetimes as there were leaves on the tree under which he sat for meditation.
But the failure spoken of in this scripture is connected to weakness, specifically. Certainly, attachment and delusion based in desire are at work here. There can also be arrogance in the way of hearing the teachings from one’s teacher. It is common in the West that a student finds fault with one point and then throws it all away. Often, aspirants enter spiritual life and get blindsided by their karma rising up to resist the liberating trajectory of dharma in the forms of sickness, loss of job, death of loved ones, criticism of family, friends and coworkers, a new relationship, and so forth. It takes sincerity and perseverance to not crumple under the ferocious winds of the world and maintain one’s practice. Sri Ramakrishna has a story for this too: The sailor sets out to sea, and once past the safety of the harbor a fierce storm arises. She must fight for her very life, trimming the sail, bailing water, and holding on to the ship with all her might. She perseveres through the long night, nearly capsizing a dozen times, then the clouds part and reveal the peaceful, starry sky. She lets the sail down to catch the steady breeze, checks her course, and rests as the ship now travels swiftly and surely. Sri Sarada Devi also noted that some seekers come to spiritual life out of unhappiness and unfulfilled desires, but they really want the world, and not Peace or God. So when the cycle shifts and pleasures come again to them, they get happy and give up the path and practice. “How kind God is,” she quotes them saying, then adds, “But where is their devotion?”
In the next blog we will examine the final two “causes for lack of spiritual success.”
