I have had several friends and even family members ask me this question, "What is enlightenment? Why is it important to us?". Let me explain enlightenment from my perspective. To me, enlightenment is discovering your true essence and then living in fulfillment of it. Enlightenment cannot be thought, it can only be felt. It is not a destination, it is every moment. An enlightened person is simply one who understands his/her true essence as is completely at peace with it. It is really that simple. Imagine a world where everyone is at peace with themselves. This is how true world peace can arise. It is not through an external pursuit of policies and principles, but rather through internal love and acceptance of your essence.
Every single thing in this world, including all humans,animals, plants, objects, technologies, metals etc. are pure energy. We are all made up of essentially the same building blocks. We are only existing in different forms. The basic rule of Physics applies here in which Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only shift forms. If you take this into account, this simply means that if we are essentially energy forms, we can never be "destroyed" or "die". And we were never "created" or "born". When we cease to exist in the human form, which is what we commonly refer to as death, that is, when we die, we are not destroyed. We are simply transformed from one energy form into another energy form. In essence, you are timeless, ageless, and infinite. Each and everyone of us are. Every mother, child, man, woman, saint, criminal, from every race, ethnicity, from every corner of the world. We are all actually infinite beings of energy in human forms.
And there is a greater energy form than our human form which is influencing us in ways that is beyond our understanding and comprehension. You may call it God, the Universe, the Alpha and Omega, the Paramatman, or however you wish to call it. And everyone's purpose is to simply truly accept themselves in their essence, and allow God, energy or the Supreme being to flow into you and allow its purpose to unfold. You do not even have to resist it, it will happen so naturally and with such ease that it is effortless. Life then become effortless. There is no resistance, no judgments, no struggles, just pure inner bliss being in the state that you are.
The concept of Enlightenment is actually so simple. But people make it difficult because of existing belief systems. There is too much "mental noise" in the world for someone to get to a point of "mental silence". Becoming free of the current belief systems is the hard part. Why is it hard? Because it is habitual! You have been educated as a child to think excessively and you have been doing it for as long as you can remember. Once you are free of thinking, then you can start to see yourself for the true essence that you are, the endless power and beauty that is you, and allow the Supreme to move through you as you surrender to the Supreme. It is just pure bliss and ecstasy. Fears will dissolve, suffering will be removed and everything in your life will start to fall in place. You are able to accept any situation for what it is and act in the moment. You will start to emanate a different vibrational frequency of energy, which will affect your surrounding and people around you. You can then even use thoughts carefully to carry out your Spiritual purpose.
Why is spirituality important? It is the end of suffering. It is the end of "rebirth". Rebirth is simply the cycle of thoughts. Anger, jealousy, worries, sadness are all generated by thoughts that are "born" in our thoughts and also "die" in our thoughts and this cycle is endless until you "die" of your human form and transform into another form of energy. How do you then make the most out of the wonderful human form that you are in right NOW? Find your essence. Find out for yourself that pure energy form that you are that is truly infinite and boundless. Once you find this, you can then allow life to flow through you. It will flow through you without thoughts or "efforts" you need to take by thinking. It will happen. There are many moments that all of you have already experienced which is like that. Think back on moments where you had so much of joy or had fun...were you thinking at that time? Or was it simply felt without thoughts or words? Or it could even be when you are so focused in doing something that you did not even realize the time passing by, it felt effortless. Your physical body may have felt tired but you actually felt deeply fulfilled inside. Now, can you imagine being like this on a daily basis in every waking moment? This is enlightenment.
The enlightened one can sit back and watch the universe or God unfold through them and around them without taking any efforts. The enlightened one becomes the observer and the observed. The enlightened one is free from the "rebirth" of thoughts and emotions. And once this happens, the world becomes different. The world becomes different only through the shift of your perception. This is enlightenment. There is then only one desire for the enlightened one: to simply exist as the instrument of the Supreme.
I hope this helps you on your Spiritual journey.
