How you can reach enlightenment and live an enlightened lifeThroughout history, there have been human beings who lived very powerfully. We call them the spiritually enlightened. They had a special kind of wisdom, insight and deep awareness about life. Many were unknown, they just simply lived and some were known to the point where religions were formed around them. Others became a doorway for others to achieve enlightenment, while some became a simply an inspiration and testament to spiritual enlightenment. The way they lived showed others that spiritual enlightenment is possible.If you are reading this, you must be curious about how to achieve enlightenment. Perhaps you are not able to define spiritual enlightenment yourself, but you may be wondering, what is enlightenment, who am I? why am I here? where did I come from and where am I going?Question: How to reach enlightenment? Is there a specific path to reach spiritual enlightenment?Sadhguru answers: In India, enlightened beings have been referred to as Dwijas. Dwija means twice-born. Once, you were born out of your mothers womb; it happened unconsciously. You did not make it happen nature did it for you. When you were born, you came with a certain innocence and blissfulness. A child is innocent and blissful by himself. But since this blissfulness did not happen consciously, anybody can corrupt it in no time. In no time, they will take it away For some of you, it was taken away by the time you were 12 or 13 years of age; for many it was already taken away when they were 5 to 6. Children are becoming tense at 5 to 6 years of age today because their innocence gets corrupted in no time, depending upon the volume of influence that people around have on them.Now, if you have to be born once again, you must die first. If you are not willing to die, the question of being reborn doesnt arise. This does not mean dying physically. If you leave this body, some other nonsense will be waiting for you. But if you die the way you are, if you destroy everything that you called myself, then you are born once again. This kind of birth happens 100% consciously. Once again you become blissful and innocent, but fully aware. Now, this blissfulness cannot be taken away by anybody. So, what you call enlightenment means a conscious self-annihilation.

Seeking physical well-being is one thing. Seeking enlightenment is something else.Seeking physical well-being is one thing. Seeking enlightenment is something else. To enhance physical well-being, you need to learn different techniques of self-preservation. Enlightenment means a conscious annihilation of yourself. For most people, it will take a certain amount of time and maturing to understand that whatever you make yourself to be, in the end, it is frustrating and not enough. However wonderful you make yourself, still it is not enough. Only when you disappear, everything becomes wonderful.So, if right now all someone wants is to be peaceful and happy, and do better in the activities they are doing lets have that, its okay. That doesnt mean enlightenment is ruled out, but such a longing has not come yet. Still, the basic longing is to live better. You are not yet finished with life you want to live well. When you have lived enough and you know that living better is not going to get you anywhere, then you want to go beyond life. So this desire to go beyond life is the beginning of walking the path to spiritual enlightenment. India is home to traditions which have produced paths for people to walk towards becoming enlightened. For thousands of years and up until today, there is a direct transmission of the knowledge of how to reach enlightenment from teacher to student. This is a deep relationship based on one goal: reaching spiritual enlightenment.There is a popular saying, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. The seekers sincerity will surely guide them on becoming enlightened by walking the path to spiritual enlightenment. This is the case, for when the curiosity of a seeker reaches its zenith and one looks for a path to spiritual enlightenment. It is also the responsibility and privilege of the tradition to provide a path to spiritual enlightenment for future generationsto protect and safeguard the teachings, methods and instructions. This creates a deep sense of authenticity and therefore, trust in the seeker on the path to spiritual enlightenment.

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Path to Spiritual Enlightenment - Inner Engineering