The four qualities essential to a spiritual seeker

[Bhaskar]

In Vivekachoodamani (The crest-jewel of discrimination), Sri Adi Shankaracharya sets out the qualities that a seeker must cultivate. These are four:

1. Viveka - This means discrimination. Discrimination not among people and things, what Shankaracharya refers to is discrimination between real and unreal, discrimination between that which brings happiness and that which doesnt, discrimination in which actions are divine and which are demonic. Understanding dharma and knowing how to conduct yourself in any situation is also a part of this viveka.

2. Vairagya - Vairagya means dispassion. Again dispassion only from worldly things, not from the divine. When it comes to worship, satsang, meditation, etc there vairagya must step aside, but in terms of pursuit of material comforts, wealth and worldly pleasures, there must be a strict dispassion or detachment from them.
This is more than just self restraint. Often people may not actually indulge in something, but yet their thoughts constantly run in that direction. This is not vairagya. When a person's nature becomes such that there is no desire for such things, where these pleasures have little meaning to them, that person has true vairagya.

3. Shat sampatti - This literally means the six forms of wealth. The six forms of spiritual wealth are:

i. Shama - Concentration, and mental silence is called sama. The ability to focus attention exclusively on one thing and not have any other chainso f thought is called Shama.

ii. Dama - Sense control. Mastery over the sense organs is called dama. This involves the ability to deny the body of sense pleasures, not being a slave to the whims of the senses.

iii. Uparati - Independance from external objects and situations.

iv. Titiksha - Titiksha is the ability to bear discomfort, hardships and rough times without complaining or feeling victimized. To handle even the toughest situations with grace and dignity, without losing the control over the mind and disturning your inner peace, that is titiksha.

v. Shraddha - There is no single word for shraddha in english. Trust, faith, belief, etc are words that come close. Shraddha is a firm and unshakng conviction in the truth. To approach a teacher this is one of the very essential qualities. It does not mean blind faith in the words of the teacher. Constant reflection and analysis of the teaching is always encouraged, even insisted upon. However, having found a teacher of fuller vision than us, we need to trust them to guide us correctly, therefore shraddha is required.

vi. Samadhana - This is the highest of the shat sampatti. Samadhana is an increasing inner peace until it becomes a firm and eternal abidance in the pure eternal divinity within.

4. Mumukshutva - Mumukshutva is a very rare quality in full measure. It is a burning desire for liberation, come what may. We all have the desire to seek out the inner divinity, but we also have other desires, we have fears and mental blocks that keep us back. A true mumukshu has no such fear, no other desire except the one insatiable yearning for union with the universe.

[SvgGrdnBeauty]

Thank you for sharing this Bhaskar... :)

[Varuna]

Ap achha admi hei, mera Bhaya.

[Bhaskar]

You're most welcome. Shukriya.

[philuk]

yes nice find again Bhaskar, certainly a few of those qualities I could do with developing such as Titiksha.

[BlackBillBlake]

A 5th essential quality, and maybe the most essential is sincerity.

[SvgGrdnBeauty]

A 5th essential quality, and maybe the most essential is sincerity.
I agree with you...I think sincerity is very important...

[BlackBillBlake]

This is from 'Questions and Answers' given by Sweet Mother of Pondicherry.


The question is to be sincere. If you are not sincere, do not begin Yoga.


Sincerity is perhaps the most difficult of all things and perhaps it is also the most effective.

If you have perfect sincerity, you are sure of victory. It is infinitely difficult. Sincerity consists in making all the elements of the being, all the movements (whether outer or inner), all the parts of the being, all of them, have one single will to belong to the Divine, to live only for the Divine, to will only what the Divine wills, to express only the divine Will, to have no other source of energy than that of the Divine.

And you find that there is not a day, not an hour, not a minute when you do not need to intensify, rectify your sincerity a - total refusal to deceive the Divine. The first thing is not to deceive oneself. One knows one cannot deceive the Divine; even the cleverest of the Asuras cannot deceive the Divine. But even when one has understood that, one sees that quite often in one’s life, in the course of the day, one tries to deceive oneself without even knowing it, spontaneously and almost automatically. One always gives favourable explanations for all that one does, for one’s words, for one’s acts. That is what happens first. I am not speaking of obvious things like quarrelling and saying, “It is the other one’s fault”, I am speaking of the very tiny things of daily life.

I know a child who knocked against a door and he gave a good kick to the door! It is the same thing. It is always the other one who is in the wrong, who has committed the mistake. Even when you have passed the stage of the child, when you have a little reason, you still give the stupidest of all excuses: “If he had not done that, I wouldn’t have done this.” But it should be just the other way round!

This is what I call being sincere. When you are with someone, if you are sincere, instantaneously your way of reacting should be to do the right thing, even when you are with someone who does not do it. Take the most common example of someone who gets angry: instead of saying things that hurt, you say nothing, you keep calm and quiet, you do not catch the contagion of the anger. You have only to look at yourself to see if this is easy. It is quite an elementary thing, a very small beginning to know whether you are sincere. And I am not speaking of those who catch every contagion, even that of coarse joking nor of those who commit the same stupidity as the others.

I tell you: if you look at yourself with sharp eyes, you will catch in yourself insincerities by the hundred, even though you are trying to be sincere in your general attitude. You will see how difficult it is.

I tell you: If you are sincere in all the elements of your being, to the very cells of your body and if your whole being integrally wants the Divine, you are sure of victory but for nothing less than that. That is what I call being sincere.

I am not speaking of glaring things like obeying your impulses, your caprices and then saying: “I do not belong to myself any more, I belong to the Divine; it is the Divine who is doing everything in me, who is acting in me”, that indeed is crude enough. I am speaking of more refined people, a little more noble, who put on a pretty cloak to cover their desires.

How many things in the course of the day, how many thoughts, sensations, gestures are turned exclusively towards the Divine in an aspiration? How many? I believe if you have a single one in the whole day, you may mark that in red letters.

When I say, “If you are sincere, you are sure of victory”, I mean true sincerity: to be constantly the true flame that burns like an offering. That intense joy of existing only by the Divine and for the Divine and feeling that without Him nothing exists, that life has no longer any meaning, nothing has any purpose, nothing has any value, nothing has any interest, unless it is this call, this aspiration, this opening to the supreme Truth, to all that we call the Divine (because you must use some word or other), the only reason for the existence of the universe. Remove that and everything disappears.

[Bhaskar]

Sincerity is a part of mumukshutva. Beautiful article, the mother is bright with divinity.

[BlackBillBlake]

Mother is Indeed a radiant being http://www.hipforums.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif here She is aged about 90.


http://img259.echo.cx/img259/7096/doucemere1kw.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us/)

[Kharakov]

I was just thinking about how I tell God things that I want, but in my heart I recognize that I do not truly want anything that God does not give me.

Active passivity.

[Bhaskar]

prasad buddhi.

[spook13]

To add to the discussion regarding the qualities of a seeker:

Quote from Bhagavad-gita As It Is, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Chapter 16, Texts 1-3:

"The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Fearlessness; purification of one's existence; cultivation of spiritual knowledge; charity; self-control; performance of sacrifice; study of the Vedas; austerity; simplicity; nonviolence; truthfulness; freedom from anger; renunciation; tranquillity; aversion to faultfinding; compassion for all living entities; freedom from covetousness; gentleness; modesty; steady determination; vigor; forgiveness; fortitude; cleanliness; and freedom from envy and from the passion for honor — these transcendental qualities, O son of Bharata, belong to godly men endowed with divine nature."

[gdkumar]

"I was just thinking about how I tell God things that I want, but in my heart I recognize that I do not truly want anything that God does not give me."
.............From Kharakov


Hare Krishna,

Dear Kharakov,
That gives a lot of pleasure, thank you.
Thinking like that really tells us that ' As we desire, so we get.' He gives us only that what we truly want from Him. And yes, it goes to imply that we can get Him if we truly want Him.

Love,

Kumar.

[BlackBillBlake]

"I was just thinking about how I tell God things that I want, but in my heart I recognize that I do not truly want anything that God does not give me."
.............From Kharakov


Hare Krishna,

Dear Kharakov,
That gives a lot of pleasure, thank you.
Thinking like that really tells us that ' As we desire, so we get.' He gives us only that what we truly want from Him. And yes, it goes to imply that we can get Him if we truly want Him.

Love,

Kumar.
It is as if at each moment each one gets what is really needed. Perhaps to some degree, wisdom consists in being able to see this, and see what it is we really want.
When we see That, we know we have all we need.
But God is so genourous - He may want to give us more - more than we can concieve, let alone desire.

[BlackBillBlake]

To add to the discussion regarding the qualities of a seeker:

Quote from Bhagavad-gita As It Is, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Chapter 16, Texts 1-3:

"The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Fearlessness; purification of one's existence; cultivation of spiritual knowledge; charity; self-control; performance of sacrifice; study of the Vedas; austerity; simplicity; nonviolence; truthfulness; freedom from anger; renunciation; tranquillity; aversion to faultfinding; compassion for all living entities; freedom from covetousness; gentleness; modesty; steady determination; vigor; forgiveness; fortitude; cleanliness; and freedom from envy and from the passion for honor — these transcendental qualities, O son of Bharata, belong to godly men endowed with divine nature."
Nice quote spook13.

Just one thing - where Krishna says 'study of the Vedas' - I think we can actually assume that study of any genuine spiritual texts, aimed at leading us to God is the spirit of what is meant here.

Jai Govinda!

[Varuna]

Let me paraphrase a Muslim idea, you may have heard this before -

"If you take one step toward God, God will take two steps toward you."

[spook13]

Nice quote spook13.

Just one thing - where Krishna says 'study of the Vedas' - I think we can actually assume that study of any genuine spiritual texts, aimed at leading us to God is the spirit of what is meant here.

Jai Govinda!Definitely agree; I take this verse as a universal description of genuine spiritual qualities.