What are the 8 stages of Spiritual Awakening? When one is ready to go on a quest, then that is just the beginning of the journey of Enlightenment. Just wishing to be awakened will not give Enlightenment, for Enlightenment is all about our sincere pursuit of overcoming ignorance and realizing the truth. The journey of Enlightenment evolves through 8 specific stages. Thereafter, we must live in complete surrender. We must also go beyond the 8 Stages to attain Moksha, union with the Divine. But, very few people, one in millions, will reach that state of Spiritual Evolution.
We must be relentless in our effort to move on forward, onward, inward, upward and Godward. This journey is the most blissful journey, but it is like cooking. Unless we complete cooking the meal, we cannot eat and enjoy it. Every stage will give us some peace and bliss. But the ultimate happiness comes when we reach the pinnacle, the peak after crossing the 8 Stages.
So, what are the 8 stages of Spiritual Awakening?
The first stage is Mumukshu, one who yearns for the Divine and Liberation. We all want to be happy. We seek pleasure and we do not want pain. Many of us pray to God, but our passion is not strong enough either to attain the ultimate peak of happiness or to pass through Self-Realization and reach God-Realization. To be Spiritually awakened, one must not just desire God. One must yearn for God. It is said that the Mumukshu develops the triple yearning for the Divine — a yearning that is more than a miser’s yearning for gold, more than a lover’s love for his beloved, and more intense than a child’s cries for its mother who is lost. Unless we develop this triple yearning, we cannot reach that state of Mumukshutva.
Most of us are passionate and obsessed, but it is not for God. We are attached to possession, pleasures and people. So, we just live, and we die. We believe the lie that God lives in the sky. We chase achievement and success to be happy. Our life remains a roller coaster of pleasure and pain, of loss and gain. Unless we are a Mumukshu, one who deeply yearns for the Divine and one who makes Liberation his only priority, we will go on a quest, but our quest will not be intense. We will acquire knowledge from a college and from different books and sources, but we will not realize the truth. We will not be Spiritually Awakened.
The second stage of Spiritual Awakening is Jigyasu. It is when one is deep in the quest to realize the truth. It is seeking knowledge and spending time with a Spiritual Master, a Guru, to overcome ignorance. Unless one has Jigyas or that thirst for Enlightenment, one will not be Spiritually Awakened. Therefore, both Mumukshu and Jigyasu are like two pillars, like our two feet on which we stand. When we are seeking the truth, we start to question everything. We do not accept the myth that we have grown up with. We do not just follow the herd. We set aside questions to which we seek answers, and nothing can stop us if we have that combined force of yearning and seeking. It is with Mumukshutva and Jigyas that one will cross the two stages and reach the third. Because these two stages are not easy, less than 1 in a 100 are able to yearn and seek Spiritual Awakening. So, these become the basic stages before one actually starts becoming enlightened.
The third stage of Spiritual Awakening is when one has accumulated a lot of knowledge. Some of this knowledge has become Realization. There is a lot of difference between the two. The person who goes through the third stage, does not just read and understand what is in a book, but goes through the process of contemplation and Realization.
Without the third stage of becoming a Gyani, one will be imprisoned in the lies. Most of us remain fools, even though we have been to the biggest or best schools because we have not put our beliefs to the test. We have not advanced in our quest. If there is a deep yearning and seeking, then one will succeed in the third stage and become a Gyani, a wise one. However, it is very difficult to pass this stage without the help of an enlightened Guru, a Spiritual Master. It is unfortunate that our mind makes us blind. Because in thought we are caught, we have many a knot and we in ignorance, we are locked. We even believe that it is blasphemous to question our religion. So, our life is full of superstitions, rituals and dogmas. In the third stage, one reaches the launch pad of Spiritual Awakening. One now has enough tools to take that Spiritual jump forward. However, without these three stages, we will be weak in our effort for Enlightenment. Many people think that they are Gyanis. What they do not realize is that they have not overcome ignorance. They have not opened their real eyes. Therefore, they live with their proud ego, thinking that they know everything, when in reality, they know nothing. The majority of the world lacks the yearning and the seeking to make them a Gyani. But once we realize the truth, even in small bits, we are ready to be awakened.
If we want to be Spiritually awakened, we must evolve to the fourth stage of living like a Yogi, one who lives in Yoga. Such a Yogi is ever united with the Divine. Unfortunately, the whole world is fascinated by Yoga, but the majority does not understand what it means. We just think that Yoga is about some physical exercises or Asanas, or it involves breathing techniques, Pranayama. These are just preliminary steps of Yoga and one who thinks, ‘I am doing Yoga’, does not realize that we cannot do Yoga. We have to be in Yoga. The world is full of Yoga studios and institutes teaching what is said to be Yoga, when they are nothing more than a gym. Such people who are doing Yoga have jumped into the fourth stage, without going through the first three stages. Therefore, their Yoga cannot lead them to Spiritual Awakening. One has to live as a Yogi, and this means, one must not sink in Bhoga, desires of the material world. One must elevate themselves to live in Yoga. One must be free from the thoughts of the mind, and one must live in Consciousness, ever united with the Supreme. This stage will be covered in detail so that we understand and realize what it is to be a true Yogi.
The fifth stage of Spiritual Awakening is what people think is the ultimate or final stage. It is Buddh. Buddh is being enlightened, being awakened. But it is not the final stage. Will a doctor, who has finished his theory exams, be allowed to perform a heart or brain surgery? That would be a disaster! Medical science ensures practical tests before one is certified. We may reach the fifth stage or Buddh, and we may have realized the truth about life, but this is just the beginning of being awakened.
Spiritual Awakening has two sparks. The first spark is reaching the fifth stage of Buddh. It is a stage commonly called as Self-Realization. Now, one has to get into the subject more intensively as in this stage there is an essential need of a Spiritual Master or Guru. When one experiences that spark that I am not the body, mind and ego, I am the Divine Soul, then, it is time for one to even more intensely, yearn and seek till one evolves from that state of Realization to Liberation.
The sixth stage of Spiritual Awakening is beyond Self-Realization. Now, one has realized who I truly am. But unless one transcends their mind and ego, which insists I am ME, the Mind and Ego in a body, one will not flip over to that state of Consciousness in which the intellect is activated. We human beings are the only ones who are blessed with an intellect. Only a human being can discriminate and realize the truth. But every time we use our intellect, the mind will intercept us and stop us from going to a stage beyond. Therefore, we have to live as a Sthitpragya, one who lives with a steady intellect, one who is no more a slave of the mind, but rather a master. When a Mumukshu becomes a Jigyasu and then a Gyani who lives as a Yogi, then one can become a Buddh. Without these stages, one cannot arrive to this, the sixth stage of Sthitpragya.
The next stage is a stage popularly known as Mukti or freedom. People presume that with spiritual knowledge, they will be liberated and attain God. But this is a myth. Unless we live with a stead intellect, Sthitpragya, in that state of Buddh, one who has realized the truth, one cannot attain Jivanmutki or Liberation. The seventh stage of Jivanmukta, is one who has successfully attained Enlightenment and is awakened. Now he faces the final test – is he going to live as the Divine Soul or will he let his mind take control and make him think and blink and sink! We know of many wise saints who speak with a lot of wisdom, but their actions do not match their being enlightened beings. Either they are slaves of intoxicants, drugs and the likes or they are trapped by their ego which makes them believe that they are God, and they try to perform magic to keep their follows spellbound. Such people may have attained Realization but surely, they will not go beyond the 8 Stges of Spiritual Awakening. A truly awakened Spirit will be free and liberated from the body, mind and ego, and living as a Jivanmukta, will climb to the ultimate step of Spiritual Awakening.
The eighth and ultimate step of Spiritual Awakening is, living as a liberated Soul, in the Consciousness of the truth. This living as a SatChitAnandaAtman makes one live in eternal bliss that comes from living in Truth Consciousness. The SatChitAnandaAtman cannot slip back into the material world in most cases. But even a person who has evolved to this eighth stage needs to live as a Divine Spirit to achieve the ultimate goal of Liberation from this world and Unification with the Divine. The world understands this state as Moksha, Nirvana or Salvation, as it is popularly known. One can reach this state only in that moment of death of the body. Therefore, it is not part of the 8 Stages of Spiritual Awakening. However, if one has sincerely passed through the 8 Stages, one who is genuinely realized as a Buddh, one who is free from the clutches of the body, mind and ego, as a Jivanmukta, only such a Soul, who lives as a SatChitAnanda Atman can become one with the Divine.