In simple words of Swami Chetanananda
It is extraordinarily simple, and really important and powerful for each of us to understand that we are in this world to grow. That growth does not happen from any circumstance that we desire. It happens when we understand that there is no circumstance that we require and that only the awareness of the vibrancy of life itself circulating within us is needed. As that grows and transforms the entire field of our awareness, the vibration in us will bless us in ways that are unimaginable, with better things than we could ever want. But as long as we’re chasing things outside ourselves, we’re screwed, to put it bluntly.
Our bodies and our minds have to be aligned in this understanding, so that the spirit, the vibrancy that is the soul of our life has a clear pathway to express itself in the field of our experience. Otherwise, as it wakes up it gets entangled in a whole ton of ego complication which has nothing to do with anything and takes us decades to work through. Decades.
The fact of the matter is that most people don’t understand what spiritual practice is. Some energy comes into their existence and activates all of their desires and ambitions and egotism, none of which have anything to do with spirituality at all. Cutting through that is the whole work of any kind of spiritual growth, so that we can continuously and quickly come back to stillness and endure in the awareness of the vibrancy of life itself from within. That’s what growth is about.
Thanks Swamiji….really needed that. You’re appreciated. ~ Chels