one considers the many spiritual practices in this world, the very first step in any of them is for a person to become aware of their own flaws. As one progresses in spiritual practice, their faults and shortcomings appear more and more distinctly, until eventually, they seem like an enormous mountain. One begins to feel — “O Lord! When I am so filled with these countless defects, how can I ever hope to experience Your presence? In the face of such a towering heap of vices, is it even possible for me to have Your vision, even across all of time?”
Before beginning any spiritual discipline, an angry person rarely regrets his anger — in fact, he doesn’t even recognize it as a fault. He believes, “In dealing with people, one must maintain a certain authority; without it, nothing will work.”
Once, a spiritual seeker told me, “Lately I find myself getting angry quite often.” In truth, the anger wasn’t new — it had always been there. But ever since he began his practice, he had started becoming aware of it, or rather, he had begun to realize that anger is harmful. That’s the only difference.
There was once a young man of marriageable age. He saw many potential brides, but none of them pleased him. Tired of this, his parents told him, “Choose a girl you like, and then we’ll take things forward.” They stopped accompanying him, leaving the task to his elder sister. After one such visit, his sister asked him, “So, how did you find the girl?” He replied, “No, I didn’t like her.”
His elder sister was clever. She simply held a mirror in front of him and asked, “And what do you think of this reflection in front of you?” At that moment, he realized the truth — both his and the girl’s appearance — and admitted, “She’s actually quite nice.”
The essence is this — unless a person truly sees themselves, they continue to notice faults only in others. Whatever flaws we notice in others are, in some form, present within us too. One must firmly accept this truth. Therefore, the tendency to look for others’ faults should be discarded first.
To find faults in others is ordinary, worldly behavior — it is not the path of spiritual wisdom. A true seeker is always engaged in self-examination. They are so immersed in recognizing their own flaws that they no longer see any in others. In fact, in comparison to themselves, others begin to appear as manifestations of the Divine. That alone is the true spiritual state.
Through constant self-reflection and by uprooting the seeds of our flaws, one moves ahead on this path. And for this, there is no tool greater or simpler than the remembrance of the Divine Name.
Electtechknownews 
Leave a comment