In my previous post I said that spiritual ignorance is related to the Self, i.e. to what you really are. As you don’t know your true nature, you are always in trouble whether you are a beggar or the king of the world.
This spiritual ignorance is very powerful and will NOT be removed just like that. First of all, you need to know how it works in order to succeed in your mission of getting rid of it forever. Let us start to study it then:
Spiritual ignorance is divided into two aspects:
- Ignorance about the scriptures (the great treatises) dealing with the subject of achieving spiritual enlightenment.
- Lack of direct experience.
Going deeper into these two aspects now:
Ignorance about the scriptures dealing with the subject of achieving spiritual enlightenment
To study this type of scriptures is absolutely fundamental. Why? Just like a handbook comes with a product in order for you to be able to learn how to handle it, so these great spiritual treatises are indispensable, if you want to handle the processes pertaining to enlightenment or liberation. The presence of these scriptures in some way in your existence is crucial, if you want to accomplish this difficult mission. It is not only because these scriptures contain detailed explanations about how to escape spiritual ignorance, but there are other more mysterious reasons. Let me explain to you this with an example:
Imagine that the great spiritual treatises are formidable magnets. Well, now listen… every time you advance in the spiritual path, you gather a little iron (symbolically speaking, obviously). Now, you have these powerful magnets here and you with a little iron. The consequence is the magnets giving you a slight pull due to the presence of that tiny quantity of iron in you. Imagine that you keep gathering more and more iron with every effort you make in your spiritual path. One day, because of the huge amount of iron you have accumulated, the magnets will give you a good hard pull. There will be this constant feedback between your accumulating iron and experiencing tugs or pulls from the magnets. This process will finally culminate in your achieving spiritual enlightenment (Freedom!).
That is the right way to do it. Anyway, if someone attains spiritual experiences without knowing the great scriptures, he won’t be able to understand what is happening to him and therefore won’t make the most of such experiences. In fact, even in the case of someone who can manage to achieve spiritual enlightenment by direct experience of the Self, i.e. by directly experiencing his spiritual essence, without dissolving his ignorance about the scriptures, he will not be able to enjoy his enlightenment till his body passes away. I am speaking the truth. For now, just trust me. In due course, I will explain everything in detail to you. Therefore, my objective was to show that the great spiritual scriptures are indispensable so that the process of final liberation (enlightenment) may proceed properly. As I stated above, you can take a shortcut, but the final results will not be the right ones. Step by step then!
As I am assuming that the reader came to my blog because he or she cannot cope with the study of the great spiritual scriptures, I will give you the essence of them in the future. This way, the first aspect of spiritual ignorance will leave you like a ghost abandoning a haunted house.
In my next post I will speak about “Lack of direct experience” (the second aspect of spiritual ignorance).