The Spiritual Seeker and the Challenges of Spiritual Growth and Development

People believe generally that taking up the spiritual life involves a form of escapism from the daily obstacles, difficulties and pressures of living an active life in society. Some people in fact take up the spiritual path as an escape, but that is neither the primary motivation nor does it represent the majority of spiritual seekers. Spirituality, in its essence, involves a change of consciousness that is challenged at each step by the habits, instincts and trained responses that the seeker brings with him, as well as millennia of human evolution embedded in his being, the challenges he faces with his physical, vital and mental nature, and then, on top of that, the interaction with others and living in the world in some form or another.

When the seeker becomes aware of the difficulties, when the amazing experiences and insights recede, it is quite common for a period of dullness, dissatisfaction or depression to enter. The play of the 3 Gunas, the qualities of Nature, Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas, continues for the spiritual seeker and thus, he goes through periods when one or another of these is predominant. When Sattwa comes to the fore, he feels that there is light, harmony, beauty and the advent of knowledge. When Rajas rules, he may experience periods of desire or ambition that can overpower his spiritual aspiration with demands and vital seeking. When Tamas takes the predominant position, particularly when the rajasic element has been frustrated or denied, he can experience doubt, despair, depression. The phenomenon of the ‘dark night of the soul’ is something that arises, at some point, for every seeker as they navigate through all of the issues they face during the spiritual development.

Sri Aurobindo makes an important point for the spiritual aspiration when he says “He who chooses the Infinite, has been chosen by the Infinite.” We continue to think that our body-life-mind nexus, the ego-personality, the exte
al person, is in charge and makes its own decisions, without recognising that the universal manifestation is driving the entire process forward and those who are ready, those who are receptive, are the ones who come to the spiritual transformative process. All things in Nature await their time. Gestation and birth takes time. The transformation from the caterpillar to the butterfly takes time. None of this is consciously controlled by the individual being, but rather, there is a process of Nature, as manifested by the Divine, that carries out these transformations. Similarly, we see that children grow at their own pace, first focusing primarily on physical development, then vital development and later, mental development. When the individual is called to the spiritual path, it means that he has reached the stage in his development when that is the inevitable next step. He can try to avoid it. He can attempt to misuse it, but if the calling is true, he will eventually gain the focus and receptivity and develop the active aspirataion within him to grow into the spiritual life in all its fullness.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “All who enter the spiritual path have to face the difficulties and ordeals of the path, those which rise from their own nature and those which come in from outside. The difficulties in the nature always rise again and again till you overcome them; they must be faced with both strength and patience. But the vital part is prone to depression when ordeals and difficulties rise. This is not peculiar to you, but comes to all sadhaks — it does not imply an unfitness for the sadhana or justify a sense of helplessness. But you must train yourself to overcome this reaction of depression….”

“All who cleave to the path steadfastly can be sure of their spiritual destiny. If anyone fails to reach it, it can only be for one of the two reasons, either because they leave the path or because for some lure of ambition, vanity, desire, etc. they go astray from the sincere dependence on the Divine.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 4, Ordeals and Difficulties, pp.93-94