How to Measure Spiritual Growth

‘Spiritual level’ denotes a person’s spiritual maturity or spiritual capacity. It acts as a scale to define spiritual growth and gives perspective on where we are in our spiritual journey. The higher one’s spiritual level, the greater is the amount of God principle manifest in the individual.

Let us see the importance of spiritual level. If we were to say that someone is at 100% spiritual level, it would mean that this person is one with God, whereas 1% would refer to the spiritual level of an inanimate object. The majority of people in the current era, which is Kaliyuga, also known as the Era of Strife, fall in the 20% spiritual level category. According to the science of Spirituality, a person who is above the 70% spiritual level is known as a Saint. Just as we have people who are at the top of their fields in the material world, so also, in Spirituality, the Saints who live on Earth are the authorities. They are not just scholars, but practitioners of the science of Spirituality in day-to-day life and are God-realised souls. Spiritual level cannot be measured by any modern scientific equipment, nor can it be ascertained intellectually by any person.

Spiritual level is defined by a number of contributing factors. In the following points we have discussed some of the more important parameters that contribute to a person’s spiritual level and how they vary with spiritual growth.

1. One of the important parameters of the spiritual level of a person is the amount of ego or darkness around the Soul that has been removed and how much he identifies himself, with the Soul within. By darkness around the Soul or ego, we mean the tendency of man to perceive himself only as his five senses, mind and intellect.

2. A clear sign of a higher spiritual level than the average person is a reduced attention to one’s own happiness. Paradoxically even though we attend less to our happiness as we grow spiritually, one of the benefits of growing spiritually is that we get access to greater amounts of happiness in our lives.

3. As our spiritual level increases, our capacity to do spiritual practice both qualitatively and quantitatively increases. Our capacity to do more spiritual practice is like growing ‘spiritual muscles’. The more we stretch ourselves to do spiritual practice, the more we grow our ‘spiritual muscles’.

4. As one grows spiritually, one achieves a more balanced state of mind and no longer does one oscillate between highs and lows due to events around us. 

5. Spiritual emotion towards God is experiencing an intense awareness of the existence of God in everything that is feeling God’s presence while carrying out day-to-day life activities and experiencing life based on this awareness. As one’s spiritual emotion increases one is more and more able to experience God’s hand in every aspect of life and hence is able to surrender more to God. A person at the 20% spiritual level may be full of himself and his intellectual skills after sealing a big and prestigious deal. A person at a 50% spiritual level in similar circumstances will be overwhelmed with spiritual emotion and full of gratitude to God for His kindness in gracing him with the deal.

The spiritual level that we are at is a key function in how we live our life and how we are impacted by life’s situations and destiny. We are all born at a certain spiritual level. This is based on the spiritual level achieved in the previous life time. When one does spiritual practice and grows to the 50% spiritual level, then in the next lifetime he will be born at the 50% spiritual level. This is unlike worldly knowledge where we have to start all over again once we are born. 

The safest way to ensure our rapid spiritual growth in this birth is to undertake spiritual practice according to the 5 basic principles of Spirituality.  

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