By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

What is it about YOU that brings you to the doorstep of Self-Realization?  Here you are, knocking on the door, wanting in.  Something propels you forward, something powerful, maybe even uncomfortable sometimes, something undeniable, a question that must be answered or a quest that must be fulfilled.  Other people around you don’t seem to be moved by this unnameable force.  What is it? 

Yoga’s sages speak very highly of it, “mumuk.sutva” in Sanskrit – the longing for liberation, also described as the yearning for God.  In his text, Patanjali honors this yearning as the most important factor in the pace of your spiritual progress. 

Tiivra-sa.mvegaanaan aasanna.h. — Yoga Sutras 1.21

The inner depth is closest to those who desire it most strongly.

This yearning makes you unable to bear the inner emptiness, yet paradoxically it is that which fills you up.  For myself, this yearning was the theme of their my since before I could explain it.  I remember feeling it from before the age of 5.  Yet I know that it’s been there longer, it’s been a theme for lifetimes.  You are here because you yearn to know, just like I did.

This yearning is a great blessing, one you have earned from doing deep spiritual practices in previous lifetimes.  You have meritorious spiritual karma.  Yet, even more than this, it is your life’s purpose to seek and to find.  This what makes you different, even when you don’t want to be.

This is the subject of my new Telecourse, Enlightenment:  Stages & Steps. Join me in this great inner exploration!