Feeling better or healing better?

When we are trying to grow spiritually, it’s important to be clear about the parameters for growth. Frequently, we understandably associate spiritual growth with feeling better. Indeed, most people turn toward spirituality because of negative feelings—because they don’t feel good, because they have an excess of negative feelings within themselves, and are unable to find effective and constructive ways of dealing with those negative feelings. And yes, it is true that spiritual growth eventually leads us to feel better.

Becoming peaceful and, indeed, even becoming joyful are widely understood to be characteristics of individuals who are spiritually evolved. The Gita speaks of peacefulness in 2.7 and joyfulness in 5.21. Simultaneously, the Gita 18.37 also emphasizes that the path of wholesome happiness, or happiness in the mode of goodness, is not immediately or entirely filled with happiness.

Phrased in terms of a poetic metaphor, the Gita emphasizes that we may have to endure a phase that feels like poison before we can reach the state that feels like nectar. The state that feels like nectar is where we become peaceful and joyful. And yet, to reach that stage, we need to go through a process of inner disciplining and cleansing, whereby the underlying, often deep-rooted conditionings that are the actual source of agitating and distressing feelings are addressed.

Such inner exploration often forces us to confront the dark sides of our psyche—skeletons in our inner cupboard, ghosts from our past—that have been hiding inside and tormenting us from within. Confronting such ghosts and dealing with them appropriately is a process that can feel like poison.

The more we understand and accept this reality, and commit ourselves to the process that brings about inner cleansing and healing, the more we will actually grow spiritually and progress toward the state of peacefulness and joyfulness. To sustain ourselves on this journey, we need to remember that the defining parameter we use for gauging progress should not be our present feeling, but our overall healing.

Are we appreciating and addressing the deeper underlying issues that are the causes of our emotional upheavals? Nurturing deeper divine connections can purify and satisfy us, thereby restructuring drives that often lead us down paths resulting in negative emotions. When we focus on healing rather than feeling, we will steadily and swiftly progress toward spiritual growth.

Summary:

  • Spiritual growth does eventually and certainly lead to positive feelings of peacefulness and joyfulness. That state is often preceded by inner excavation, which can be discomforting.
  • Acknowledging and addressing the ghosts from our past and the skeletons in our inner closet is the necessary “poison” that leads to the cleansing within by which we become connected with the Divine.
  • Focusing more on our overall healing and less on our present feeling enables us to steadily and swiftly progress toward spiritual growth.

Think It Over:

  • Why do we often associate spiritual growth with feeling better?
  • What is healthy with such an association, and what is wrong with it?
  • What shift of focus do we need to progress steadily and swiftly in our spiritual journey?

***

18.37 That which in the beginning may be just like poison but at the end is just like nectar and which awakens one to self-realization is said to be happiness in the mode of goodness.