After spending a few years on this path of self exploration, I have come up with 3 most important qualities of a seeker. There can be many, but these are what the most important/appealing from my point of view.
1. Authenticity: If we want to seek higher spiritual values in life the 1st and foremost condition is to be authentic, true and not have any deceptions. The more we try to hide, the more we go away from our center. Usually people tend to believe in rituals and customs and forget these are just peripheral things that need not be given much importance. When I say not much importance I do not mean to ignore them, but what I want to say is not to make them the center of your being/existence. The more we get involved in lies, the more it poisons our being and the opposite is also true i.e. the more authentic you are, greater is the clarity in mind. I remember one of my aunt she is literally paranoid about rituals. She wakes up at 5 am, goes to temple, gives food to the pujari, does here mala (3 - 5 times a day), reads the scriptures etc etc. But when I talk with her there is so much anger, frustration that is pent up and you can litrelly feel it. God does not care if you offer him food or if you chant the mantras. What God is looking for is an authentic being.
THE Chhandogya Upanishad has a beautiful story.
Satyakam asked his mother, Jabala, "Mother, I want to live the life of a student of supreme knowledge. What is my family name? Who is my father?"
"My son," replied the mother, "I don't know. In my youth I slept with a lot of different people and I conceived you. I do not know who is your father. I am Jabala and you are Satyakam, so call yourself Satyakam Jabal."
Then the boy went to Gautama, a great seer of those days, and asked to be accepted as a student. "Of what family are you, my dear?" inquired the sage.
Satyakam replied, "I asked my mother what my family name was, and she answered, 'I don't know. In my youth when I slept with a lot of different people I conceived you. I am Jabala and you are Satyakam, so call yourself Satyakam Jabal'. Sir, I am therefore Satyakam Jabal." The sage then said to him, "None but a true brahmin, a true seeker of truth, would have spoken thus. You have not swerved from the truth, my dear. I will teach you that supreme knowledge."
The first quality of the seeker is to be authentic, not to swerve from truth, not to deceive in any way. Because if you deceive others, eventually you are deceived by your own deceptions.
To be Contd....
...Am
This is a continuation of the previous post. The 2 nd quality of a seeker is to be free of EGO or expand it so much that it includes the entire world. What is EGO?? There are a number of definitions that exists, them most simple for me is EGO comes when the "EASE GOES". If we do not feel natural in a situation or in front of people then somehow we are not able to bring forth what we actually are and it complicates things. EGO is something that has been a part of everyone's life, even the sages, maharishis had it. But what made them graet was the fact that they recognized their EGO and took corrective measures.
