The Many Stages Of Our Spiritual Evolution

Spiritual development and its evolution is a slow process. It goes through some distinct stages. And in each stage, the world appears different. How life appears to us depends on where we are placed. The view is dependent on where we stand. Management will always look at things from a particular perspective, labour from another. Man from one, woman from another. The way we look at things gives them their meaning. At different levels of spiritual development the world will inevitably appear different. Broadly speaking these would be influenced by the major experiences on the path. The Age of Innocence is a stage when we believe that everything will be perfect. When you are a child, you take it for granted that everybody exists only to fulfil your needs, whims and fancies. A child takes it as a right that when he cries at night somebody will come and attend to the problem. Many adults have not outgrown this stage. They expect to be taken care of and loved. They are always expecting somebody to do something. The government should do this, the teachers should do that, the neighbours should be thus. Everybody should do everything so that they will live happy lives. When such persons come to spirituality, they have the same relationship with God. They look upon Him as some kind of Santa Claus whose primary function is to grant wishes. The Age of Disillusionment is when we find out that life is not perfect and things are inherently flawed. The child grows up and faces the reality that he is not the centre of the universe and for the most part the universe doesn’t know he exists or is indifferent to his existence. This is the pain of adolescence. People in this stage say there is no God or there is no use believing in Him. They may become cynical or atheistic. The Age of Responsibility is a stage when we start taking responsibility for our life. No more will others look after us. We will operate within the realm of cause and effect. We will get just rewards of our actions. Nobody is looking out for me and i must look out for myself says a person in the age of responsibility. He takes responsibility for his life. Many materialistic achievers fall in this category. The Age of Keeperhood is when a person starts really growing spiritually. It dawns on him that he is ‘his brother’s keeper’. Far from the world being there to take care of him, he is there to take care of the world. Instead of wanting others to share his pain, he wishes to relieve the pain of others. These are the noble people, the Mahatma Gandhis or Abraham Lincolns. Who fight to serve the world they came to and leave it a better place for their service. The Age of Enlightenment extends far beyond that of ‘keeperhood’. When love becomes universal, when there is complete identification, people are no more my brothers. They are me. I and they are one. My self is the Self in all. Even to love somebody there must be two. Enlightenment sees only the One, the non-dual. It is the culmination of spiritual growth, the state of a Krishna or Rama, a Buddha or Christ, a Mahavir or a Mohammed. It is the blessed state of Selfrealisation or moksha, the zenith of spiritual growth, the state of complete knowledge