Going on a Quest
“It's not enough to do our Best, And then to rest.
If we want God, we must Go on a Quest.”
While climbing the Ladder to the Divine, we must remember that steps one to seven won't take us to heaven. These are only the basic steps that form the prerequisites for realizing God.
Most people do not realize the truth about God because they get stuck in the kindergarten of religion. All religions are good, but they only teach us the basics about God. They teach us to pray, to believe. We follow the scriptures, but we go round and round in circles till our journey of life is over. Very few people climb the 8th step on the Ladder to Heaven. Those who go on a Spiritual Quest, evolve from the kindergarten of religion and graduate in the university of Spirituality. It is these people who ultimately realize God as they go forward climbing the Ladder and reach destination heaven.
What is this quest all about? When I was 46 years old, my Guru and Spiritual Master advised me to go on a Talaash, a search for the Divine. He told me that my life was filled with pleasure and peace, but there was no purpose. He asked me to evolve from the peaks of achievement and fulfillment to the ultimate peak of Enlightenment. He provoked me to search for the Truth, to overcome ignorance, and to achieve the state of self-realization. To me, all this was Greek and Latin. But just as I had love for God, I had great respect and reverence for my Guru. I set out on a quest to find the ultimate purpose of life. I put together 9 questions that I wanted to find answers to, as I attempted to realize the truth.
The 9 questions were:
As I wanted to climb the Ladder to Heaven, the 8th step called for me to find answers. I took a sabbatical from my work and went into the mountains on a Spiritual retreat to realize the truth. I carried books from every possible religion and along with the scriptures took with me the philosophy of the sages and saints known to the world.
My quest inspired me to find answers to the 9 questions because this would not only make me realize the true purpose of life, but it would also lead me to self-realization and God-realization. My Master also explained to me that it was the realization of the truth that would help me overcome ignorance and liberate me from all suffering that I experienced. Inspired to find the secret of ultimate happiness, and the true meaning and purpose of life, I continued my search, although I was not getting anywhere.
I did not want to be amongst those who just lived with faith but did not realize the truth about God. I knew that 'God is not a statue, God is not a saint, God is not a picture that anyone can paint'. God is a Power, a Power beyond human comprehension and I wanted to discover this Power.
I was determined to get answers to these 9 questions because my Guru told me that this was the way to go forward and towards God. He used to always inspire me to go onward, forward, upward, inward and Godward. As I went on the quest, I was attacked by my biggest enemy – my own Mind and Ego – ME. It stopped me from realizing the Truth of who I was and why I was here. Later in life, I realized why the Mind and Ego – the ME fights so much and resists and prevents the realization of the truth. Once the Truth is realized, it destroys the very existence of the Mind and the Ego! It was my Guru, my mentor who guided me to climb the next step, the 9th step that helped me to realize the Truth.
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A quest starts our real Journey to God.
It challenges all the myths and helps us to
realize the truth that takes us to our Lord.
Going on a Quest
TAKEAWAYS