Indicators of Progress

Swami Sivananda Saraswati

The experience of peace, cheerfulness, contentment, dispassion, fearlessness and an unperturbed state of mind under all conditions indicates that you are advancing on the spiritual path.

Spiritual progress is not measured by siddhis or psychic powers but by the depth of your bliss in meditation. These are sure tests of your spiritual progress:

• Is your interest in inner spiritual activity and outer sadhana increasing day by day?
• Is spiritual life a matter of great delight to your consciousness, a delight far transcending the happiness that the world of material pleasures offers?
• Has your personal awareness come to possess a sense of peace and strength which non-aspirants do not find in their everyday lives?
• Do you feel certain that your power of discrimination and light of thought have been steadily growing?
• Is your life being gradually led to such experiences which reveal to you the operation of a will and intelligence other than your own, the will and intelligence of the Omnipotent Presence?
• Has there come into the conscious activities of your everyday life the active function of a new delightful angle of vision, a new perspective, a strong sense of self-possession, a steadily growing conviction of your dependence on and intimate relationship with the all-pervading Divinity?

If your answer to all or any of these questions is in the affirmative, be absolutely sure that you are progressing, and speedily, on the spiritual path.

Sadhana or spiritual practice should make you ever cheerful, more concentrated, balanced, peaceful, contented, dispassionate, fearless, compassionate, desireless and 'I' less. Sadhana should give you a rich inner life, introspective inner vision and an unruffled state of mind under all conditions of life. These are the signs of your spiritual growth.