Why should we choose the spiritual path?

In short – 

• To find out what we are and to be free from desire-based happiness, which is momentary, full of friction, stress, and misery.

In detail – actually, we don’t choose the spiritual path. It gets chosen for us. 

It is difficult to explain how, why, and when a spiritual journey takes off.

So, there cannot be a straight answer to the question – why should we bother to know the consciousness?

If someone says, “ I got into spirituality because of this or that.”, he is showing only a tip of an iceberg that he is holding within – which he can’t tell you, even if he wants to.

Whatever may seem to make him interested in only a nimitt ( incidental cause ), but his inclination for spirituality he has been carrying since birth, or even multiple lives, which even he may not know.

So, what is one supposed to do?

That will be the main question from everyone.

All we can do is study life with curiosity and keep our eyes and ears and mind ( most important ) open.

He always leaves clues for us to grab to reach him.

Who knows, it may take a fallen leaf, a raindrop or wrinkles on your face, or a transient rainbow to open up the ocean of consciousness in your life.

One thing is for sure, efforts keep you ready for Him, but when self-realization happens, it shows the futility of your efforts, but at the same time,

it is these efforts themselves that bring you to this point.

Only looking back makes one realize the right decisions they made to reach where they are.

It almost always starts in a mysterious way.

Some unforeseeable events occur in one’s life, and the path gets laid out.

I’m not trying to create a mystery here, but it does happen.

For a specific single thought to arise at the right time at the right place can define the rest of your life.

Of course, the journey never starts for the people who are deeply embedded in Sansar.

People who are happy in Sansar will never venture beyond Sansar because Sansar has already provided what they have come here for. ( Eat, drink, be merry, make money and enjoy life ).

People who are unhappy with the Sansar will also never go beyond the Sansar because it is a priority for them to find a solution for their unhappiness. They will still stay in Sansar and try to find a solution because Sansar is all they know.

Their quest only takes them to temples and churches set up by man to satisfy them that something or someone is listening to their grievances – but nothing happens beyond that.

Only the people who are happy and have gotten everything they wanted and still are restless are the ones who will seek spirituality.

( Geeta arose from the vishad ( restlessness ) of Arjun ).

So, it is difficult to explain why such people would seek ( maybe a call from the abyss of Shunyata ).

When Buddha was leaving, his charioteer was puzzled and asked, “ Why are you leaving? You have everything going well for you.”

How would he know the mental state of Buddha?

So, it does happen, and there are seekers and many.

Not all seekers are genuine, though.

Some seek because they have been told that there is something like God.

Many seek, of course, to relieve their suffering.

These people will never reach because they carry a purpose – which ruins the path.

Only a genuine curiosity, an innate desire ( not the desire at the mind level ), will give birth to the spiritual path in your life.

Curiosity alone is not enough.

It has to be associated with fairness, honesty, and courage within you – to accept whatever seems to be the truth and drop whatever appears to be the untruth ( even though it may be your truth at that time ).

All these requirements make the spiritual path gruesome at every step.

Naturally, the mind does not like it because it needs comfort, even at the cost of accepting something wrong, false, or untruthful.

And it does.

That’s why we see the Sansar as it is – full of deception, trickery, lies, and herd mentality ( because they haven’t seen the light ).

So, the answer is tricky.

Why should one even seek consciousness?

It depends on who you ask.

To a non-seeker, it is a puzzle. He will ask why bother?

But to a seeker, it is his life. He will say – what kind of question is it?