Exams in worldly life and in spiritual practice
H. H. Dr. Athavale
Other than spiritual practice, all other subjects have their respective final exams. It is enough to study for 2-3 months just before these exams in order to pass. In spiritual practice however we have an exam at every moment. And in order to reach a spiritual level of 60% and more, we have to pass all these exams.
-H.H. Dr. Athavale (2.1.2012)
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What happens after 60%? Or do we not have any exams in spiritual practice then?
And if an exam is going on how can I come to know about it?
How would I come to know whether I have passed or failed
Please help me with this
Thank you
Dear Praveen, your questions are interesting.
In fact exams in spiritual practice go on until we reach Sainthood and later, the Final Liberation. This is because in Spirituality we are incomplete until we achieve 100%.
Knowing whether an exam is going on will depend on our learning attitude. When we have sincere desire to learn something, we will know from within, that God is teaching us.
One sign of passing an exam in spiritual practice is the Bliss we experience after learning something. Also, when we have learnt something, we often don’t have to face subsequent similar situations.
Thank you for your answer. From your one of the books i have gone through I understood that “It is not necessary for the Guru to take an exam, He knows how his disciple is, Guru only shows that he is taking the exam, He takes exam and passes the disciple”. Then should a disciple worry about the result of exam?
If he is a good disciple then he has nothing to worry about. One may wonder how many such disciples there are…
I am getting confused. How is a disciple good or bad? If a Guru makes a person His disciple it means the disciple has something in him. Some thing called “Desire for Liberation”. Regrads, Praveen
Dear Praveen, apart from a desire for Liberation from the cycle of birth and death, many other qualities are required in a disciple such as obedience, humility, etc. We are not all born with these qualities. The Guru teaches us to inculcate them, and through this process He tests us too. This is so that we become aware of our shortcomings and consciously make further efforts. Hope this clarifies your question.
Thank you for your answer
Dear SSRF,
I want to know my spiritual level. I have gone through your website mentioning various factors determining spiritual level, I feel difficulty in assessing myself based on the factors given.
Example: one is at 55% level if one wants to serve absolute truth and begins to qualify for Guru’s grace and 60% if willing to sacrifice mind, body and wealth. I am a disciple of YSS-ranchi founded by Paramahamsa Yogananda. Also I was initiated to Kriya long back. What is my level how do I know?
This question is important to me because, I want to introspect on my shortcomings
Regards
Ramdas
Dear Ramdas, it’s nice to see your desire for introspection.
It is natural that you are having difficulty assessing your spiritual level as spiritual level cannot really be self-assessed. The parameters we have given in the article on spiritual level are mainly for basic orientation. Only a spiritually evolved person or Saint can tell with certainty what our current spiritual level is.
However even if we are unable to know our spiritual level, rather than worrying about it, we suggest you ask someone who is guiding you, how you can improve your spiritual practice, or how you can increase its quality. Putting this in practice will help your spiritual progress. If you are unsure whom to ask, you can read more about progressive steps in spiritual practice as advised by SSRF.
We hope this helps
Dear SSRF,
I want to ask you that whether the spiritual level of a person is equal to the sattva component present in a person’s body?
And whether different places (i.e. cities, countries) also have their respective spiritual levels. E.g. Mumbai’s spiritual level would be different in comparison to the spiritual level of a hilly area like shimla.
Regards,
Ashish
Dear Ashish,
The answer to your question can be found in our article on Sattva, raja and tama.
Places or cities do not have a spiritual level, however they can be more or less Raja-Tama predominant.
We hope these answers help you. We also encourage you to start or increase your spiritual practice.
You have written in your website that highly spiritually evolved beings live in upper subtle planes, and for helping people they take birth. I am devotee of Swami Vivekananda’s thoughts and I consider him as Guru.
So please can you tell me who was he, I mean his life before and after, where he came from and where he went after death
Dear Raj, we have not done any research on this subject.
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