Get Experiences

Get Experiences

by Swami Sivananda

Of course much depends upon the practice. You know that practice makes the man perfect. Feel the thrill of extreme joy that dawns when you are nearing the goal. You will experience a wonderful calm now. Drink the nectar in the deep silence. In the profound silence the mysterious Atman will be revealed unto you like an Amalaka fruit in the palm of your hand. Avidya and Maya and their effects Moha, fear, etc., will take to their heels. There will be light, knowledge, purity and bliss only everywhere. Some experience glimpses of the transcendent wonders of Atman. Some are on the borderland of the vast dominion of Atman. Some like Dattatreya, Jada Bharata, Vama Deva and Sadasiva Brahman had plunged deep in the ocean of bliss. The more the thinning of the Vasanas, egoism, Moha and Adhyasa, the greater the bliss of the Self. The more the Sadhana, the more the experience of joy of the soul.

Get Experiences – Learning, Awareness, and Inner Growth

Get Experiences is a meaningful call to learn from life directly. Human beings do not grow only through books, words, theories, or imagination. They grow through experience. Every joy, sorrow, success, failure, relationship, duty, struggle, and mistake can become a teacher when it is understood properly. Life itself becomes a school for the sincere seeker.

In ordinary life, people want only pleasant experiences and try to avoid painful ones. They want praise, comfort, success, affection, and pleasure, but they reject criticism, hardship, loss, and failure. Yet both kinds of experience have value. Pleasant experiences may give encouragement, while difficult experiences often give depth, strength, patience, and wisdom. A person who learns from both becomes mature.

Get Experiences does not mean running after every pleasure or living carelessly. It means observing life with awareness and learning from what comes. Experience without reflection may not bring wisdom. A person may repeat the same mistake many times if they do not examine it. But when experience is joined with self-study, it becomes a doorway to knowledge.

Every experience reveals something about the mind. When someone praises us, we may discover pride. When someone criticizes us, we may discover ego and sensitivity. When desire is fulfilled, we may see attachment. When desire is blocked, anger may appear. When difficulty comes, fear or courage is revealed. Thus, outer events expose inner tendencies.

Get Experiences is especially important in spiritual life. A seeker may read that the world is temporary, but the truth becomes clearer when they see change directly. They may hear that desire causes restlessness, but they understand it deeply when they observe their own desires. They may study detachment, but real detachment grows through facing gain and loss with awareness.

Life gives repeated lessons. If a person ignores one lesson, it may return in another form. Anger may create conflict again and again until patience is learned. Attachment may bring pain again and again until wisdom grows. Ego may be hurt repeatedly until humility is developed. Therefore, experience should not be wasted in complaint. It should be used for awakening.

Get Experiences also teaches courage. Some people fear mistakes so much that they avoid action. They want perfect conditions before beginning anything. But growth requires participation. A person must work, serve, study, love, attempt, fail, correct, and continue. Without experience, understanding remains weak and theoretical. Practical life tests and strengthens inner qualities.

However, experience must be guided by discrimination. Not every experience should be deliberately sought. Harmful habits, immoral actions, and destructive pleasures should not be justified in the name of learning. Wisdom does not require falling into every pit. One should learn also from the experiences of others, from scripture, from teachers, and from careful observation.

Get Experiences in the right way means living consciously. Before acting, use reason and conscience. During action, remain alert. After action, reflect on the result. Ask, “What did this teach me? Did it purify my mind or disturb it? Did it strengthen ego or humility? Did it bring lasting peace or temporary excitement?” Such reflection turns experience into wisdom.

In Karma Yoga, every action becomes experience and every experience becomes purification. Work done selflessly teaches humility. Service teaches compassion. Failure teaches detachment. Success teaches responsibility. Criticism teaches patience. Duty teaches discipline. When all experiences are offered to a higher purpose, life becomes spiritual practice.

Meditation helps one understand experience more deeply. In meditation, the seeker observes thoughts, emotions, sensations, and memories as they arise and pass away. This teaches that experiences are changing, but the witness remains. Slowly the seeker realizes, “I am not every passing experience. I am the awareness in which experiences appear.” This insight brings freedom.

Get Experiences also helps overcome blind belief. A teaching becomes firm when it is tested in life. If truthfulness gives courage, if self-control gives strength, if service gives peace, and if meditation brings clarity, then spiritual principles become living realities. Experience confirms what theory explains.

The wise person does not cling to experience. Experiences are useful as teachers, but they are not the final truth. Pleasant experiences should not create attachment, and painful experiences should not create bitterness. Both should be observed, understood, and allowed to pass. The witness behind experience is deeper than experience itself.

This teaching also brings humility. Life is vast, and every person has something to learn. No one becomes wise by merely claiming knowledge. Even mistakes can become blessings when they lead to self-correction. Even suffering can become meaningful when it awakens compassion and detachment. Even ordinary duties can reveal hidden strength.

Get Experiences should finally lead to self-knowledge. After passing through many experiences, the seeker begins to ask, “Who is the experiencer? What remains when experiences change? Am I the body that feels, the mind that reacts, or the awareness that knows all?” This question turns experience into enquiry and enquiry into realization.

In the end, Get Experiences is a call to live, observe, learn, and grow. Life gives countless lessons through action, relationship, success, failure, pleasure, and pain. When these are faced with awareness, discrimination, courage, and reflection, they purify the mind and deepen wisdom. Experiences come and go, but the knowledge gained from them can guide the seeker toward inner freedom and spiritual awakening.

Purity