The root of this discussion was during a session we had on spiritual leadership. I am surprised ...... Why have we come to the point that we think ethical leadership is innovative or radical? Isn't it something that should come naturally? Weren't we born to be ethical? Why should we have a lecture on this? And besides .... what is the new fad that "I have guru" and "my life changed after I met my guru"?
I believe these gurus are doing a decent job of at least getting people aware of the essence of life. One could agrue that most of these spiritual teachings are more about day to day living and really do not lead to moksha. Then what is so spiritual about these teachings? But then remember all humans (or for that matter creatures) are in different stages of spiritual evolution.
As I see it there are 3 stages of spiritual evolution -
1. Regular dialogue between two atmas - Here you accept that you are the soul and not the body. This awareness is essential before u emabark on the path to self realization. The dialogue happens between two people.
2. Dialogue between the atma and the perceived parmatma - Now you find a guru whom you look upon as parmatma. You get closer to the "Truth" if you would like to call. But according to me at this point too, the guru is an atma who probably is closer to the parmatma.
3. The last and the most diffcult part is realization that atma and parmatma are the same. Now the dialogue is more internal and you are well on the path to self realization. I do not know where it ends.....
These are purely my thoughts and I consider myself very low on the spiritual evolution path. It may also seem to be an oversimplified path to self realization. Again I am no expert. And of course I do not subscribe to any school of thought. I am after all a free spirit in this vast universe that was created just for me to question and find answers naturally!
