In the aim of personal transformation and journey of spiritual growth, most tend to follow a teacher or two, sometimes the quest turns into becoming an ideal disciple as well. However, know that one’s power is derived from one’s inner self, not from a teacher.
A follower or an inquisitive enquirer?
If the quest is to progress and evolve, then this comes from within, by way of self-enquiry and self-study (swadhyaya or study of the self).
If there’s fire within, then a teacher’s help is ideal to fuel the fire, gain relevant guidance, and get a route, a pathway to work through their transformation/ change.
Follow a teacher, but enquire; someone else’s experiential truth can’t be yours; it can best serve as guidance to awaken your own light.
If you’ve got to follow, follow the truth/the principles of life and the ideals with which you’d like to live by. Other person’s version of truth may not satisfy your queries. Know that you don’t need to subscribe to it if it doesn’t ring true to you. So, go within and enquire, find your own answers. Following a teacher, a guru blindly, without examination, investigation or experimentation of his/her teachings, will still keep you hungry and ‘looking’.
Great masters, teachers have encouraged self-enquiry. With self-enquiry comes the answers that is meant for you. Enquiry opens up doors of one’s consciousness. Self-enquiry leads to self-realisation as you dig deeper in your own being-ness.
Healing through self-enquiry
Self-enquiry is a method of healing. It is resonance of the heart, that allows peace in the true sense. The more you enquire, the more doors of query and questions will open up, the more you open up those doors the more you get closer to the point of where your answers sit. You will innately know them, for satisfaction will dawn and restlessness will settle.
Allow yourself this process, this chance. Follow your inner guidance, what isn’t meant for you will not sit well with you.
In following others blindly, you lose your own sense of power. You may feel others are writing destinies for you or they are driving your life. It is like giving the charge of your life to others and seeing your life pass by. That need not be the case. Listen to your teacher’s guidance/s to mull, churn, reflect, enquire, investigate further. Isn’t this a freedom you should be thankful for, instead of squandering this gift? Freedom that you can do all these, to reach where you want to reach.
Why is self-enquiry therapeutic and progressive?
Self- enquiry allows one to move forward in their growth quest. How is that so? The knowledge you bring, working with available knowledge, and adding new knowledge through your enquiry, unleashes a new body of knowledge for humanity to benefit. In this process, the future (of humanity) benefits. In being a follower, none of this happens. Your wisdom remains unutilised.
On the contrary, you may start doubting your own wisdom and inner guidance, thus descending on the emotional scale. When you force yourself to believe what other/s believe without resonating with that thought/ belief, you are not doing justice to your innate wisdom. This pulls down the energy.
When an enquirer makes own mistakes while adjusting to the guidance/s, s/he is perfecting self-inner guidance system. Results flow, realisations happen and path for growth opens up. Beautiful journey of life, isn’t it?
Disclaimer: Urmila Rao is an emotional healer and a forgiveness teacher. All the ideas expressed herein are her own, and not professional advice or medical prescription. Her website is: www.karmicwellness.in Email: hellokarmicwellness@gmail.com
