Spiritual Maturity: Growing Into Wisdom
Seeds of Insight
By Hari Sakti
When Yoga Becomes Performance
In today’s world, much of yoga and spirituality risks becoming a performance. Yoga is sold as an image; carefully staged clothing, settings, and voices designed to look serene or appealing. The new age scene often chases after “high vibes” and ecstatic experiences, promising instant breakthroughs and quick fixes.
But the ancient teachings, such as the Bhagavad Gita, remind us that yoga is not a spectacle. It is consistent work of our inner instrument, a discipline of aligning our actions, speech, and thought with dharma. Real transformation is not packaged in a weekend retreat, nor marketed through appearances. It is the quiet fruit of continuous effort, silent work behind the platforms, humility, and devotion.
When spirituality is reduced to chasing experiences – whether bliss, flow, or the constant promise of transcendence – it easily becomes very shallow and rarely sustainable. Experience itself is not wrong, but without grounding in sādhana, it easily fades. The essence of yoga and bhakti is not in chasing what feels good, but in walking through whatever arises with awareness, offering even our struggles as part of the path.
Spiritual maturity means refusing the temptation of performance and returning to the core of the practice. It is not about “good vibes only” – it is about becoming real and authentic.
What Maturity in Spirit Really Means
Maturity in spirit is not measured by eloquent words, big following on social media or polished appearances. It’s measured by the depth of our honesty. As in the most important text on yoga, the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra; yoga is about standing in truth, not fleeing from it.
To grow in maturity means we no longer confuse numbness with peace, or avoidance with surrender. We learn to see even our struggles as part of the journey, as material to be purified and transformed. An important sage in the Bhakti tradition, Rupa Goswami, describes how spirituality ripens step by step – moving from faith to steadiness, to taste, and finally to deep attachment toward the Source. None of these stages can be rushed. They ripen only through time, sincerity, and grace.
Self-Awareness as Sacred Study
Yoga offers a powerful gateway inward: svādhyāya – self-study. While it can mean the study of sacred texts, its deeper meaning is more intimate: the study of the self.
Not just through scriptures, but through our reactions, patterns, habits, wounds, and wisdom. To observe the lived pages of our very being, not with judgement but with reverence. Self-study means reading both the written texts and the unwritten ones; our own lives as well. To see clearly where our ego clings, where the fear still hides, and where devotion already shines.
True self-study is not meant to replace emotional honesty with philosophy, nor to bypass pain with elevated words. It is meant to hold both – wisely, and with care.
Viveka – The Sword of Discernment
Spiritual life asks for clarity – viveka. This discernment cuts through illusion; not only the illusions outside us, but the ones we quietly weave within.
It invites us to ask: Am I avoiding responsibility and calling it detachment? Am I covering pain with spiritual words instead of meeting it? Am I performing humility while secretly longing for praise?
This kind of inquiry is not harsh but actually purifying. Discernment is not about judgment, but about aligning with what is real. As Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a famous messenger of Bhakti Yoga, taught; maturity begins with humility (tṛṇād api sunīcena) and then ripens into real compassion.
The Pitfall of Bypassing
A common danger in spiritual life is bypassing – using philosophy to escape reality. It can look like peace but is often only repression. Sometimes mantras and concepts are used not to heal but to silence, and not to uplift but to avoid.
The Gita’s teaching is the opposite: Arjuna is not asked to renounce his struggle, but to meet it fully; anchored in truth and offered in service.
The Maturity of Meeting Pain
In the bhakti tradition, even suffering is seen as a teacher, it’s like a hidden form of grace. But that doesn’t mean pretending pain isn’t there. Real maturity acknowledges pain, feels it and meets it with curiosity and acceptance, travels through it, and offers it. The prayer is not “Please remove this difficulty,” but “Please let this difficulty deepen my remembrance of what is eternal.”
To mature spiritually is not to avoid struggle, but to be shaped by it, so that even our tears become prayers.
Signs of Ripening
Spiritual maturity doesn’t arrive suddenly. It grows slowly and we may notice things such as more patience in difficulty, more compassion for others’ struggles, a quieter trust in the timing of life, and a steadier commitment to practice, regardless of circumstances. These are the fruits of yoga when it takes root – not an external show, but quiet, ripened qualities of inner flexibility, awareness, acceptance and steadiness.
Slow, Honest, Rooted in Practice
Spiritual maturity is not a stage to be displayed. It is a way of walking, with humility and sincerity.
The spiritual text Bhagavatam describes the spiritual practitioner as steady as the ocean – not disturbed by floods of happiness or droughts of sorrow. That steadiness comes not from denial, but from faith. Faith that everything can be offered. Faith that guidance is present in every chapter.
Real growth is not quick, easy nor glamorous. It’s slow, honest, sometimes hard and messy, and always rooted in practice. And in that process, real spirituality ripens. Not as performance, but as love that endures and carries us through all seasons.
From my heart to yours,
Hari Śakti