Spiritual Search

By Swami Arul Jyothi Ananda

Spirituality is an inner experience of an individual person. It is never experienced as a collective. When the spiritual experience of a person gets formulated or institutionalized, it may become a collective exercise, but still, each participant has their own personal experience, according to their personal and social situation.

Human life is a search. All living beings are searching to fulfill their needs. Any search is marked by a point to reach. Where we aim to reach is a crucial question. The spiritual search is also marked by where the seeker aims to reach.

The spiritual search is moved by the Divine force. The desire to attain self-realization is one of the most important impulses of a human person. Humanity, from its very beginning till to our times, is in search of realization.

Search Through Creatures

Although this search is a positive need, the experience of it is challenging. It is a process of maturation, in which the seeker realizes that created things can manifest the gracefulness of God. This happens because God is moving the seeker for a deeper realization through the creation. The grace of God has passed through the creation to manifest God’s Supreme Graceful light. In the same way, spiritual seekers have to pass through the creation and its natural drives in this spiritual journey, which is initiated by the desire to attain self-realization.

The cosmic realities have a positive role in the spiritual search. To an extent, they manifest the beauty of God and speak of His graceful presence. The knowledge received through the cosmic realities—joy, happiness, pain, suffering, death—intensify the desire for self-consciousness. Through the cosmic realities, the seeker is constantly moved to attain the fullness and to possess God more completely. But the intensity of the love of the seeker cannot be satisfied with this cosmic limited gracefulness. To seek beyond the cosmic realities, he has to surrender totally to the Divine grace.

Religious spirituality is the collected formulation of inner experiences of various persons to help the spiritual seekers in their search. In various spiritual experiences, there may be some common elements in the process of interiorization: for example, the stages, the ways, the paths, etc. The attainment of self-realization or union with God is the major concern of all the spiritual paths, but the process differs according to the psycho-spiritual needs and situation of the person.

Search is Being and Becoming

Human life is a ‘being’ constantly urged to ‘become’. Being moved continuously toward ultimate humanness, the person is climbing up the steps of becoming and growing.

The process of moment-to moment growth in itself is intrinsically rewarding and delightful in an absolute sense. Being and Becoming are not contradictory or exclusive. Approaching and arriving are both in themselves rewarding.

The seeking of growth and self-actualization is personal as each person is different and unique. The desire of growth of the person is more determined from within. The ongoing actualization of a person’s potentials, capacities and talents as fulfillment of human life, as a fuller knowledge and acceptance of a person’s own intrinsic nature, helps to integrate the person within.

Religious Vision of the Search

The light of God is a hidden power at the depth of the person, and so, the seeker has to seek God with the inner light. For this, the seeker has to leave all things and enter within, himself in deepest concentration. In order to find the Divine within, the seeker should forget all sensual and psychological possessions and hide in the secret space of the inner light. Remaining hidden within, the seeker experiences the Divine bliss. This experience transcends all language.

God is the inner and hidden reality; in the same way, God’s power is felt in the inner and hidden depths of the person. The deeper the search, in which God leads the seeker in to Divine union, the more the seeker is moved to acknowledge that God totally transcends all that he knows and experiences of Him. The movement of the Spirit surpasses all human powers of understanding.

Man approaches God at first according to his psychological nature and his capacity for deeper experience. The level of Truth consciousness that he can reach is determined by his inner evolutionary stage. The Spiritual Masters from various religious backgrounds experienced the inner illumination of the Supreme Graceful Light. This spiritual experience is also identified as the Cosmic Light experience. This experience motivates humanity to lead a meaningful righteous life, of justice, love and peace. God-consciousness, enlightenment, renunciation, and total surrender are realities of this experience. Values like simplicity, hospitality, silence, sense of the sacred, contemplation, honesty, and family spirit etc. are expressions of this experience.

Choose God Alone

The spiritual search is a journey of confidence. It is not only the search after self-consciousness but is also the way to be lived. The life of one who seeks spiritual growth is challenging. It leads the seeker to experience passive purification and illumination. This passive purification leads to the consciousness of self as impure, weak and wretched in comparison with the greatness of divine Self. The seekers may be moved to think that God is for away from them, as if God has rejected them. They feel that they are unworthy for any Divine relationship.

In the process of search, the seeker is moved to choose God as his way and goal. In the mystical language, it is known as the state of solitude. In this solitude, away from all things, the seeker is alone with God, and God guides, moves, and raises the seeker to divine experiences. Basing on the deeper experiences of the power of God, the seeker has to walk, leaving everything until he finds God.

According to the mystics, the human desire for God is basically a seeking to open oneself to the grace of God. It is the inner force of spiritual evolution of an individual to participate in Divine love. The seeker (soul) is moved to be receptive, and to yield to the transforming actions of God; because, God drives from the depths of eternity. When God grants His graces, the seeker has nothing to speak on it. He is in the domain of the love of God.

In short, spiritual seeking is an inner move within the person when he is able to realize the physical, psychological and spiritual needs and to transcend them, having God as the ultimate Goal of his life. It is rootedness in Divine power. It leads to the integration all faculties and drives, words, thoughts and actions. This integration leads one to attain the transformative vision of the Spiritual Masters. The search animated by the move of the inner light is the very experience of God Himself. At its culmination, we attain the Divine consciousness. It is Self Consciousness because God is our inner Self. This consciousness is encountered at the most intimate core of the person.

(Swami Arul Jyothi Ananda is the founder and director of Arul Jyothi Peedam, a spiritual centre near Pondicherry, South India. He holds a doctoral degree in inter-religious spiritual studies. He is author of some books and articles in Tamil and in English)