Everything around us is moving in the evolutionary flow. All living beings are passing the way from imperfection to perfection, the mind is getting subtler, and primitive intellect becomes evolved.

What does a person usually answer to the question about the purpose of life? He/she usually cannot give an answer to this question or says that there is no any purpose. This is a totally incorrect approach. There is an answer to this question and it has been known to people since ancient times. At that very moment when a person realizes that his/her unit mind is identical to Cosmic Mind, his/her individual “I” merges with the Cosmic “I”, and then the individual consciousness dissolves in the Cosmic Consciousness, the main purpose of life is reached.

Along with the development of the intellect, there appears a bigger responsibility. More challenges come, and they are of higher order. A spiritual person will be moving forward and would not want to get back to his previous life-style.

The movement from imperfection to perfection presupposes struggle and overcoming the power of ignorance. The struggle and overcoming the ignorance is an effort, sadhana, spiritual process, intuitive practice.

Some people get scared when there appears the opportunity to learn the intuitive practice, they do not want to go ahead. It is important to figure out:

Any fear appears due to attachment. In this case this is an attachment to the mundane objects, which give pleasure. Precisely the attachment appears to be a trigger of the fear of the intuitive practice. Why?

There is a common delusion that the spiritual practice presupposes the path of asceticism, which means renouncing from the social life, pleasures and living as a hermit somewhere in the mountains or in the forest. Obviously, this might scare almost anyone who is seriously considering taking up the path of spirituality. Do you think it is worth figuring out, whether we need to leave the society and go to the forest or a cave in order to follow the spiritual path?

They say the hermits have two advantages.

The first: solitude and quietness, if a person is living far away from people. It is thought that in such conditions it is easier to make progress in meditation. Although it is a matter of habit. If someone is living in a very noisy city, they have organically assimilated with such environment and already do not notice the hustle and bustle. Spiritual practice might be more effective for a city-dweller precisely in a common environment. The external objects might distract those, who have begun meditating recently, but eventually, they learn to detach themselves and ignore the outside noise.
Thus, the first advantage turns out to be kind of controversial and useless.

The second: avoiding temptations. It is definitely much easier to satisfy one’s physical desires when living in a city among people. In this way a person develops a delusion that if he/she escapes to live in the wood, or a cave, the desires will disappear. However, this is an absolutely groundless expectation. The desires will not leave until the force of ignorance dominates person’s mind.

For example, living in a city, you overindulge in food and you think that you can overcome this tendency by going to live in the forest. But sitting there in the lotus posture your mind is going to be occupied by the scenes of pear and plump trees and their fruit which your neighbor-hermit might pick first. Thus, the objects of desires change, but the extroversive tendency of the mind remains.

Undoubtedly, sitting in a bar it is difficult to quit alcohol. It would be reasonable to avoid such places or companies of people drinking alcohol. But isn’t it better to change internally so that when you happen to be in such a company or in a bar, you remain committed to your principles.

External isolation from the objects of desires helps to some extent to get rid of them, but does not cure completely. There is a firm belief that drug and alcohol addictions are incurable diseases. By means of self-restraint a person allegedly gets rid of harmful dependencies, but any time he/she is running a risk of renewing the past habits. The desire is tearing a person up inside, but he/she is applying his/her willpower to keep control of him/herself. Thus, anything may happen, if this pain is not healed completely.

Sadhana is the remedy able to treat these wounds.

So, it is impossible to get rid of the desires by trying to escape from them to seclusion. The force of ignorance provokes the desires and the only thing that can help is the spiritual practice. One may live a common life among the people and at the same time do spiritual practices. There is one more thing regarding living in seclusion – it is the fact that in this case a person is deprived of the possibility of doing service.

The fact that one is living observing the moral principles and doing the spiritual practice is already a type of service, because in this way a person is setting an example for the others. People see him and think, “Oh, what a beautiful, effulgent personality! I would like to be like him!” Is there such a possibility of service in the forest? Who is there to set an example for? Hares or foxes?

People often think, “So, now I’m starting to meditate and all my desires are going to disappear and I am going to become impotent towards life”.

A person definitely is not going to become impotent towards life. But all his/her propensities will be healthy. The body is healthy when there is vital force within it. In this case, the nervous system, glands, and hormones – everything is going to work effectively. But the nature of their desires is going to change. For example, if an alcohol-addicted person is told about the perspective of living without alcohol, he will perceive it as a threat and will suffer. But if a teetotaler is said: “Listen, there is a condition – you cannot consume alcohol during a year.” He will answer, “No problem, I anyway don’t drink it”.

If some desires disappear, it is not going to be any suffering for a person. One is going through suffering when there is a desire, but there is no possibility of satisfying it. Besides it is impossible that all the desires disappear. It is more like a process of transformation, when crude desires become subtle.

Forceful suppression of desires leads to person’s fall, or they acquire the qualities, which form “difficult” personality. In any case, suppression does not lead to positive result. But what can be done about a desire if not suppression? What if I desire something, which is bad, and don’t want something, which is good? Spiritual practice and inner work on self-improvement appears to be the only solution to this problem. There is no other way. When the vibration of the mind is crude, naturally a person is attracted to crude objects. Once the vibration of the mind becomes subtle, a person would get attracted to the objects with subtle vibration.

When you are constantly thinking about the higher idea, this idea gradually remolds, transforms you. It is important to realize that spiritual development is a gradual process and sadhana is necessary for everyone.

If people did sadhana, nobody would misuse their power, steal or kill. All evil actions are committed due to extroversive propensities of mind. However, when the mind is internally satisfied, the person is incapable of a villain deed. Besides there is such a characteristic of the mind as mobility. And if the mind is not moving forward, it will be moving backwards.

We are told, “This is good, and that is bad”. But nobody explains what should be done in order to have it always good, not bad. Certainly, there are external suppressive leverages, like “you will be punished”, “you will be deprived of this or that”. But nobody suggests the way of internal transformation. The most effective way to internal transformation is sadhana.

The force of ignorance is not resting idle. It has a significant impact. How does it happen that people leave the spiritual path? A person gradually starts to meditate less. The light within him or her is dying gradually, and the person eventually drowns bound by the web of desires, which is impossible to break through.

When such a person sees bright and effulgent people, he/she says, “You’re so fanatic, you’d better know your measure”. Recalling the “Star Wars” film, we may say, that at this moment Anakin Skywalker has already become Darth Vader and joined the dark side of the force. He is already feeling negatively towards the people on the light side of the force. As Master Yoda said, “Is the dark side stronger? No, not stronger. Easier and more seductive, but not better or happier”.