Spiritual Growth, by Sri Bhagavan

adapted from a broadcast to Verbania, Italy December 6, 2009

Is it OK to follow my natural tendencies to avoid or reject things or people that I don't like? Or do I have to confront them even though I think it is useless?

Sri Bhagavan: The whole process of spiritual growth is confronting oneself. If you do not confront yourself, you are not going to grow. It's only when you confront yourself, you know who you are. And unless you know who you are, you cannot accept yourself, and if you cannot accept yourself you cannot love yourself, and if you cannot love yourself you're not going to love the other, and all spiritual growth stops so in this case you should not follow your natural tendencies. You have to learn to confront the darker side of yourself. You are trying to avoid the darker side of yourself. You have to get in touch with the darker side. Getting in touch with the positive side is not of much use, but what is important is the darker side the negative side. Each one of us has got an inauthentic side, a darker side, a negative side, a side of which you are very frightened. Unless you hold it like a baby, you examine it carefully, and you look at it non-judgmentally, there is going to be no growth. But if you keep avoiding it things will move from bad to worse. Your life could very well become miserable.