Everyone is Enlightened

Everyone is Enlightened

The Carrot of Enlightenment

Enlightenment - the carrot every spiritual seeker chases.

Seekers put in years of practice (sādhanā) - meditation, studying scriptures, reflecting, practicing stillness.

And yet, very few actually get enlightened.

But what if I told you that you are already enlightened!

We all are Spiritual

Only those who are spiritual can get enlightened.

We all are practicing Spirituality - whether consciously, subconsciously or unconsciously.

Our level of practice decides our level of enlightenment.

• Unconscious spirituality: living outwardly, unaware of any deeper truth.
• Subconscious spirituality: partially aware of deeper truth, but spirituality is limited to rituals or beliefs.
• Conscious spirituality: active inner enquiry, diving deep towards truth.

And yet, all three are practising spirituality, because spirituality is essentially about existence itself.

• Existence is Truth - Truth is eternal. It is unchanging. And only something that is eternal and unchanging can be existing.
• Existence is Conscious - our awareness of our existence is consciousness itself.
• Existence is Blissful - Bliss is highest form of peace. Peace follows satisfaction. And Satisfaction comes from awareness of existence.

And that is our true nature - Truth-Consciousness-Bliss (Sat-Cit-Ānand)

What is Enlightenment

Traditional spiritual practices and scriptures speak of enlightenment as the highest realisation – the end of ignorance and the knowing of the Self as Brahman. 

While this remains true, enlightenment from this perspective feels like a distant dream even for the most sincere spiritual seekers. Many seekers even give up the path after years of spiritual practice.

Enlightenment through the lens of traditional wisdom feels glorified and placed high up on a pedestal. Reserved and accessible only for few.

What I share here does not negate the traditional wisdom. It simply offers a way to understand enlightenment as a continuum of self-awareness, helping us walk towards that ultimate realisation.

Because enlightenment is not a destination. It is not to be achieved in future. 

Enlightenment is right here, right now.

Let’s try to simplify enlightenment.

Enlightenment essentially is effortless self-awareness.

Whether that awareness is of worldly existence, or spiritual presence or true self, that decides the level of enlightenment.

This self-awareness is not passive. It is active and rooted deep into the belief of our existence. This self-awareness decides how we see the world, self and truth. It is our lived reality.

Let’s understand this with examples.

A worldly person introduces themselves with their name, family, achievements, etc.

It does not take them any effort or thinking to answer these questions about ‘themselves’.

This is unconscious enlightenment, where they may not speak of their true self but their material existence.

A seeker introduces themselves similarly, but inside they know that these are just  material identities and not their true self.

This is subconscious enlightenment where they are conscious and aware about true self, but have not been able to drop the material identities.

An enlightened one does not introduce themselves, for truth needs no introduction.

They simply live the truth and that is the conscious enlightenment.

So are we truly Enlightened?

The goal of human life is to realise our true nature - Truth-Consciousness-Bliss.

And we can achieve our goals only when we shift our spiritual level from unconscious to conscious.

During my spiritual practice, I too chased the carrot. But the deeper I dwelled into truth, the more I realised that seeking would never bring it closer.

It is only during this seeking I realised, that perhaps enlightenment was never meant to be attained, but lived - here and now.

That enlightenment is not a destination but the journey itself.

So am I enlightened?

I would say I am still walking on the inner journey.