The divine call makes us seek, sooner or later, a spiritual Path and a spiritual Guide
The need for spirituality triggers inside the human being an authentic inner search that allows access to the spiritual Path and in finding the spiritual Guide
by Justina Cojan
Life is a fantastic passage of each of us through time. We live consciously or not, we dream, we fight in our specific way when we encounter an obstacle, we complain about our miseries in our own way, we enjoy everything we fulfill or grieve for all we leave unfulfilled. In general, consciously or not, by all they do, human beings seek to find their purpose or mission, searching for this knowledge usually within the exterior universe. But the infinite of the manifestation cannot be covered and measured by logic, reason and instruments, therefore, at a given time, a certain vibration, an inner impulse can occur inside the human being and cause a sincere need for a different type of knowledge.
Then the human beings begin their search and they become more aware that they are much more than their physical bodies, otherwise their whole existence would be an awkward pointless automatism. This search will help us discover what at first we just intuited: unknown dimensions and hidden potentialities of our being. Thus, we can develop forces, aptitudes and abilities latent in our being, practically transforming the way we are and our existence.
If we are not fully convinced of the necessity of this transformation, then the painful experiences of life will be the ones forcing us to consider our transformation necessary. We will understand that the true fulfillment of everything we desire leads to a long lasting balance in our being, based on an increased social balance and a genuine freedom of thought that directs the human being towards spirituality, towards the fact that our existence actually follows a natural order of development of our consciousness, that at any moment harmony, balance and order make up the universe of our being. Thus, life will “force” us to use our mind and when it cannot serve us we will turn to prayer as a means of salvation offered to man.
And, above all, we will try to spend as much time possible close to those endowed with a high level of spirituality, because such beings lead our souls and our will towards the truth and the essence of all things. We will join these highly realized spiritual beings; we will seek that necessary path in life that fits us best and accurately corresponds to our inner ideals. This path will be our spiritual Path.
We are different, differently gifted, educated, and trained in different areas, each with our own fate. The teaching of a spiritual Path differs almost radically from the subjects taught in schools and universities, which focus on providing knowledge, ultimately directed towards learning a profession designed to help us integrate in a given social system. Under the impact of regular education, we transform, we change, but any systematic spiritual development is triggered only through a constant and direct approach of a teaching that is the foundation of a spiritual Path.
Questions that any human being can face at some point: who am I?, Why was I born?, What do I live for?, Where do I come from?, What happens to me after death?, will get an answer when we integrate on a genuine spiritual Path under the guidance of competent persons and through appropriate methods belonging to a spiritual school. Superficiality, semidoctism (or severe lack of education), the rush to label everything around, will make it impossible for the human being to understand correctly and to practice the spiritual teaching efficiently.
We also need to understand that everything we experience and feel, all the issues and events that we deal with have a generating source whose wisdom and conscience are endless. This supreme and inexhaustible source, which includes in its endless embrace all the things and beings in the Universe, is called differently in each religion, being globally perceived as the Supreme Deity or God. In Creation, the man integrates according to his level of understanding or in other words according to his level of consciousness.
The human being, consciously or not, seeks to reach a certain state of welfare. It is therefore obvious that the best of these states and the highest level of consciousness are represented by this Ultimate Perfect Source itself that is God. Different schools of philosophy and various religious beliefs were formed based on the explanations given by philosophers on this subject. People have different temperaments and different skills. Therefore it is only natural that there are different philosophical schools meant to meet the spiritual needs of all human beings.
The practice of a genuine spiritual system is more and more required as a necessity and every human being who wishes to evolve spiritually has to walk on their own spiritual Path that suits them best. One of the possible authentic spiritual Paths worth following is the Yoga System, as well as Integral Yoga taught by yoga teacher Gregorian Bivolaru, whom I will take the liberty to call Grieg, as the spiritual guide of MISA School in Romania.
For a true yogi, the proximity to God is not only achieved through faith but mostly through direct experience. Thus, one can say that integral yoga as an extraordinarily simple royal path of the spirit makes possible for all who are ready and perseverance the experience of the ineffable fusion with the Divine Absolute. The Spiritual Path of Yoga is a discipline of the soul and aims, amongst others, to awaken the soul towards the infinite universal love in and through which we all exist. The multitude of ancient and modern mysteries that this spiritual school, through its mentor Gregorian Bivolaru as a Spiritual Guide, reveals to all the people on this planet underlines its undeniable characteristic of uniqueness.
One of the great advantages of the yoga system practiced in this spiritual school is that it harmoniously combines the achievement of a perfect physical body with the mainly spiritual achievements of the human being, all these forming a unitary level of consciousness. Through their own experience, each person will find their own form of balance, harmony and happiness that fits them.
Yoga is known to be one of the most effective spiritual paths followed by spiritual seekers since time immemorial. Due to the unexpected authenticity and depth that it implies, the practice of yoga is difficult to reach by common human intelligence, especially if we consider that all that is received will be acknowledged or reflected according to the nature of the recipient. Integral Yoga is a set of ancient yoga techniques and systems that aim to a perfect Self knowledge, meant to provide to the human being a harmonious development of body, mind and soul.
He who diligently practices the techniques revealed in this spiritual school can achieve moral perfection, perfect concentration of the mind and awakening of different psychic abilities. The yoga system taught in this school can be considered a true course of applied psychology, but it is much more than that. Yoga without knowledge doesn’t offer perfection. Only yoga and knowledge applied together can guide the perseverant practitioner towards perfection.
The mere knowledge of yogic techniques without the awakening of the spiritual intuition doesn’t bring progress. At a superficial level, yoga practiced in this spiritual school might seem a sequence of physical and mental exercises diligently practiced only by beings that perform all kinds of penances. For the initiated, however, yoga is the only path that can offer the elimination of disturbing factors, both physical and mental, in order to achieve a perfect state of inner calm, quiet mind and deep introspection. At a level higher than the physical body is the mind, which must become a real tool used for spiritual development: “The quality of an action depends heavily on the mental attitude of the human being that performs it.”
A truly spiritual man must admit that there also exist other spiritual paths that lead to the Ultimate Truth. We must maintain a respectful attitude towards all spiritual paths. In this respect Grieg tells us that: “All genuine spiritual Paths express the Truth in various ways specific to them. We can choose from every spiritual Path everything we think that can help us. Generally speaking they are the same.”
Even though there are more authentic spiritual Paths and they all lead us to the Ultimate Truth, only one will suit us best, the one which will lead us the fastest to the revelation of our essence.
A spiritual Guide can be recognized from the beginning or at some point later, as the founder of a spiritual school, the man who founded a teaching that we can assimilate through study and actual practice. Right from the beginning, when he can be regarded as such, the spiritual guide does another special thing and that is, he can guide the aspirant, if he is asked to do this, to decipher the mysteries of his teaching. In order to assimilate a spiritual teaching an aspirant needs an attitude of total trust in its message and a state of openness to the person who gives this teaching. Highly achieved spiritual beings, saints, great sages are always in God’s light and God is always mirrored in them. The closer you get to your spiritual guide, the more his infinite nature will reveal to you, and eventually, when being one with him, you will gain the supreme wisdom. It is not enough to know that he exists; even meeting him is not the height of your spiritual life. You must get close to him and succeed in having an intimate spiritual communication with your spiritual Guide.
Many of us have heard stories about the spiritual Guide of our school; there are many people who even saw him but few who truly received him forever in their hearts. They alone will succeed. Many people consider the spiritual guide only as the founder of a spiritual school. Although he is considered a man of value, he remains just a teacher, a guide through the twists and turns of the teaching he founded. Between the aspirant and his spiritual Guide there has to be a relationship of sincere friendship in which you always feel his guidance and support like a father-son relationship. If we really want to become better, purer, then we are ready and God will send us the spiritual guide and it will always be necessary to maintain this aspiration. When the aspirant is ready, the spiritual Guide appears. Although one can have more spiritual guides, one guide is sufficient as long as we get his blessing. He will watch over us and support us all the way, revealing what our true essence is.
Meeting our Spiritual Guide coincides with the manifestation of the Divine Grace and then we are truly awakened spiritually. When a highly realized spiritual being is considered more than the mere founder of a spiritual school, he will be our spiritual guide. From that moment, the guide will grant any teaching that the spiritual aspirant needs, and thus he will lead him with love to the ultimate realization of the self. In order to achieve this we need to maintain a constant need for spirituality so we can enjoy the benefits of a truly spiritual life. The spiritual Guide shows us the path we have to follow, but we have to travel it alone. We will be able to achieve this if we integrate into our everyday life the helpful advice and luminous incentives offered by our Spiritual Guide:
“Almost incessantly keep yourselves in the continuous and wonderful moment of the beginning, because in this way every step will come DIFFERENTLY one after another. Do not ever let yourselves buried in doubts, suspicion and pessimism. Do not ever look down on others, unsympathetically and with cold hearts. Do not become heartless to those who love you. Every day pursue to learn something new, both about yourself and about the beings you love. Every day focus, even occasionally, your attention intensely and become aware of everything that is beautiful, both in the loved ones around you and in everything good and beautiful in your inner universe.”
yogaesoteric
February 2013
