by Sean M.Clarke

Created on: March 25, 2009

Study of Spirituality

Importance of the study of Spirituality

Study of Spiritual science is integral to help us understand the importance of why we should do spiritual practice. Only when the intellect is convinced about the importance of practicing Spirituality can we make concerted efforts to do spiritual practice regularly.

What should we study?

Ideally the books we read should give clear instructions on the way forward in spiritual practice. The guidance given in the books should conform to the six basic principles of spirituality.

From the perspective of reading spiritual texts for our spiritual growth, we should preferably read literature written by Saints or Guru. There is 100% Divine Consciousness in texts written by Saints of the highest order as compared to 0-2% in case of spiritual texts written by other authors of lower spiritual level. Thus by reading spiritual books by authors of lower spiritual level, at the most we can obtain some knowledge at the intellectual level. But when reading spiritual texts written by Saints, even when reading we get Divine Consciousness (Chaitanya), which is the objective behind doing spiritual practice.
When reading Holy texts we should take care not to limit our understanding to a myopic sectarian viewpoint. We should try to reconcile it with the all encompassing science of Spirituality.
When reading Holy Scriptures we must understand that there is an implied meaning to the text. It is important that we understand the implied meaning and put it into practice. Else no matter how many hundreds of periodic readings of Holy Scriptures we undertake it has little benefit with regards to our spiritual growth.

How should we study?

We should begin by reading the preface of the spiritual text, so as to understand the author's or compiler's intention behind putting together the text. This would also help us in understanding the context in which the author or the compiler is explaining spiritual principles.
We should ask ourselves questions at every step to check whether we have understood every line of the text. If we are not clear on any point, then we should get it clarified from our spiritual guide or the conductor of the satsang (spiritual meeting) we attend.
Once a particular section of the text is clear, we should explain it to someone in our own words. Explaining a concept to another person and encouraging him to ask questions is a good way to know how well we have understood the particular concept.
We should check whether we have

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