When i was working on the second Bhagavat Commune property
with my godbrother Radharadhya Prabhu and his family, i noticed something that
gave me an important insight on life in general that i think most people who
have ever been on a spiritual journey can relate to.
The 180-acre property that we purchased for our project
comprised of about 120 acres of forest and 60 acres of thickly overgrown brushy
pastures on rolling hills. Mixed in the
brush were various types of small trees and wild blackberry bushes making the
land virtually impassable and unusable for farming/pasture land. Those who have read our blog entry from October2012 may recall the photos of our tractor and bush hog clearing out the 9-foot
tall brush in the back end of our property, transforming the area from a
treacherous mess to a usable field with a lot of potential.
When we first started clearing the various areas around the
property, there was a huge noticeable difference and a major sense of
achievement as well as a more tangible and clarified vision of our goals for
the space and for the project as a whole.
As we cleared more and more of the previously neglected overgrown
pastures, however, the feeling of accomplishment no longer accompanied our long
days of work. Since we now knew exactly
what the areas could potentially look like, every time we cleared a few more acres,
instead of appearing like progress as it did in the beginning, it just seemed
like that was the way that it was “supposed to look”. In fact, eventually it started feeling like
the more we cleared, the less we actually accomplished because instead of
seeing the progress, we saw how much further we had to go before we had all 60
acres cleared.
We wanted to skip the rest of the first step and start the
next (assembling the fences for the pasture areas, building barns for our
prospective animals, planting fruit trees in the orchard area, etc.). The problem with that idea was that if we had
done it that way, the other overgrown areas, which were already neglected for
nearly a decade, would have transformed from very difficult to manage to nearly
impossible. The wise and responsible choice was to
continue our bush hogging until all 60 acres were cut down before we began the
second phase of the fields’ transformations.
When we set off on our spiritual journey, several things
happen. One of the things that happens
is we immediately notice a substantial amount of personal growth and
transformation. We tangibly experience
the results of our spiritual endeavors and notice the progress that we have
made compared to that of our previous lifestyles. In this way we feel validated and we
enthusiastically continue our progressive march toward transcendence.
Unfortunately, after some time this sense of accomplishment can
seem to slowly fade away causing many to question the effectiveness of the
spiritual process. This is because, as
in the example above, when we begin a long process we not only see the immediate results, but we also get a
glimpse of the ultimate results of
that particular step.
Having seen said future results, we feel as if we have
already achieved them and therefore we begin to desire the results of the next step before we even finish the
first one. Thus, when we fail to attain
the secondary results we essentially place
the blame on the process for not
working instead of rightfully keeping the blame on ourselves for not completing
the prerequisite step.
Although it is naturally tempting to jump ahead on the
blissful and illuminating spiritual path, if we attempt to do so without first
addressing our base material attachments we are doing the equivalent of
grabbing on to a passing train with one hand while firmly anchoring ourselves
to a tree with the other.
Material life and spiritual life are like oil and
water… although they can superficially mix
for some time, they naturally oppose one another and therefore they
automatically separate. There is a
period of transition where we dovetail our material desires with spiritual
life, but it is imperative that during this process we let go of our material
tendencies and latch onto spiritual ones. When we practice spiritual life in the
material world we must carefully follow the guidance of a legitimate spiritual
authority so that we can successfully transfer our consciousness from material
to spiritual without getting lost in the mix. If we maintain attachments to both matter and spirit we will naturally be torn
apart. This is why it important for us
to finish the first step before we move onto the next.
This is also why we sometimes feel helpless in our
pursuits. Although we have made ample
progress, we have also seen a clear picture of what we will attain if we continue the process. Knowing that we must continue our efforts in
order to gain said progress before we can move on to the next level can be
daunting… it can feel like a tease. And so some people just give up.
Of course, when obstacles are thrown in front of us while we
are pursuing our material goals we do
not give up. On the contrary, we tend to
conjure up super-human strength and abilities to rise up against the odds to
conquer all of the adversity keeping us from our enjoyment. If we showed that much enthusiasm and vigor
on our spiritual endeavors we would be in much better shape than we are currently.
So don’t give up on your spiritual pursuit, just take a
closer look at what is really happening. The progress hasn’t halted, we
have.
