We live in a world where we’re constrained by all sorts of identities and associations that limit our potential and freedom. While our job titles, political dispositions, club, and group affiliations may provide a way of organizing our lives and establishing order in it, these end up defining who we are, shaping our views and how we lead our lives. Instead, shouldn’t we have that control of molding ourselves and our lifestyle the way we want?

And then a time comes when we are subject to polarized alignments and statuses of our existence because of our choices and for our convenience. Someone is an Online shopper, a “power user” or something. Another is a Republican but centrist and not liberal. Yet another is a “yogi” and even a “meditator”. The problem is that we collect all these labels all the time based on what we do, what we believe in or even what others think we do. Yet, none of these can really define the outcomes we want to achieve in our lives.

What we’ve all been missing is that the only way to enjoy life to the fullest extent is to de-identify and dissociate ourselves from all these bindings by finding a superior form of existence. Knowing, feeling and living by the guidance of our innermost being helps realize the full potential and meaning of our lives.

We still retain our other affiliations or associations, but we control them to the extent they contribute to the outcomes we want in life.

Prayer vs Meditation? They’re more similar than we realize. Do you want to know the difference between prayer and meditation? For most people, the two are the same or at least similar. Nearly everyone realizes that both are ways to connect to a higher power or consciousness.

But in Sahaja meditation, we’re clear about how they’re different. More importantly, how to tangibly achieve and experience the results of both.

As we’ve always maintained, one of the biggest obstacles the world has is to understand the real meaning of Spirituality and not confuse it with related concepts like religion or other philosophies.

Spirituality is important because our meditation is centered around discovering your inner self through an inner subtle instrument within us. This means that meditation and spirituality are part of the same concept and truth and inseparable.

Over my two decades of practice of meditation, if there’s one technique or strategy I can single out as the most effective, it’s this one. It comes highly recommended by those practitioners who like to go very deep into the practice and discover new levels inside them and abilities they did not know existed.

Personally, I’ve used it to make radical changes in my life when I felt the need. Equally well, when I was hitting a low in my spiritual journey, this is the technique that helps most by being a wake-up call and quickly getting me back to balance.

Intellectual and Spiritual Evolution are Not The Same

How does one measure spiritual evolution? If someone asked you “How spiritually evolved are you?”, what will your answer be? And how do you justify your answer?

Tough questions, hardly any doubt. More than that, these are very subtle and very much subject to an individual’s interpretation of their his or her goal in life and also interests and passion.

Those who think they are spiritually evolved and mature can very easily fall into the trap of confusing spiritual evolution with intellectual evolution. The latter is straightforward. Human civilization has made amazing advances in every area, especially in the last 100 years. Our lives and living standards have been transformed compared to our ancestors. It feels like technology modernization is running away from us, so fast that we cannot even catch up.

In many ways, the collective worldview is also a lot more mature. For the most part, people agree on many fundamental tenets without any dispute or disagreements – for instance, racism is not a good thing. Nor is sexual harassment. Peace and negotiations are always better than any kind of war. Basic human rights and freedom of speech should not be denied to anyone.

A few centuries ago, or even a few decades ago, all these weren’t a given. We were still trying to find a mature and acceptable view of these topics.

But could one say that we have spiritually evolved and are much better off than we were decades or centuries ago?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. In fact, the bad news is that we may even be worse off than we were decades or centuries ago. Why is it so?