Spiritual growth with 3 yogic paths
What are the 3 paths available to you for spiritual growth? Which path you'll choose depends on your natural orientation to the world around you.
Intellectual Predominant:
If you're more of a thinker type,
You see the world more in terms of logic and rationality.
Then you're intellect predominant.
If Divine has to speak to you, it will take the shape of truth.
The intellectual approach creates the window of truth to understand the foundation & content of the divine.
When the hungry mind can find logic in the divine, then only it can transcend beyond the hunger for knowledge.
EMOTIONAL PREDOMINANT:
If you're more of a feeling type,
You see the world more in terms of beauty and connections.
The emotional approach to the Divine creates a way for you to experience reality not through the head but through the heart. You start seeing the world more poetically.
What can not be explained with logic finds a home in the abstract beauty of the Divine. One has to merge & madden in Love to see the Omnipresent Oneness of the Divine.
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Senses Predominant:
If you're an action type,
You see the world more from your senses and the result that the use of these senses brings about in your life.
This sensual approach to the Divine helps you to consciously maneuver your reality in terms of both good and bad actions - understanding that every action produces a reaction. If there is a cause then there must be an effect as well.
The more goodness you have in your actions, the more Godliness becomes accessible to you.
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In Yogic tradition, each of these paths has a particular sub-tradition of its own.
Intellectual predominant find it easier to start their spiritual journey with Gyana yoga.
Emotional predominant find Bhakti yoga more compatible.
Sensual predominant find Karma and Hatha yoga more in alignment with their natural strengths.
Even though each of these paths starts individually, they all slowly merge at one stage as they're interdependent. The completion of one path is naturally open to the wisdom of another path.
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Spiritual growth happens in a non-linear order. Your growth will adapt faster to the Divine if you play by your strength but still remain open & flexible to other paths.
When you'll play by your strength, after a certain time, you will realize that these 'strengths' become limitations at one point.
You start realizing the depth of your own ignorance. No matter which path you choose, before you can find your genius, you stumble across your own fool.
Shattering these layers upon layers of ignorance is what Spiritual Growth does in its earlier stages no matter which path you choose.
Realizing your limitations and respecting them as is, is a unique kind of wisdom. It makes you less inclined towards your predominant nature but at the same time, you realize that it's the predominant nature only that you choose to start the journey of spiritual growth.
There are no shortcuts - no bypassing - no bargains when it comes to true spiritual growth.
Spiritual growth first and foremost makes us aware of our own limitations.
To become truly stronger, we first have to realize how shallow we truly are.
Shallowness can only survive in the confidence of ignorance. And, when ego death occurs, we suffer hard because there is nothing to hold onto this shallowness.
When we choose our predominant spiritual path, the first block that appears in front of us is usually this shallowness only.
With our regular practice, we fill up this shallowness of ignorance drop by drop with our lessons, wisdom, and good actions that transmute karma - not contribute to it.
It's a bittersweet journey but in the end, there is nothing sweeter than the embrace of the Divine and experiencing oneness with everything that is in existence. 😊🙏
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Originally published 6 June 2023.
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