Joy or Suffering: Why We Turn Toward Spiritual Practice

Each of us must ask, with honesty and humility: Why do I engage in spiritual practice?
Is it to escape pain — or to awaken to joy?

For most seekers, the journey begins in suffering. We are pushed by life’s pressures such as loss, confusion, or loneliness and start to search for peace. Yet as practice deepens, something shifts within us. We realize that the path is not about running from pain but about discovering the joy that has always been our true nature.

In the beginning, pain can seem like an obstacle needing to be removed. But in truth, pain is a doorway. It reveals our longing for something beyond what the senses and intellect can satisfy. This desire to know the deeper Self is the Divine calling Itself back home, within our own awareness.

Pain can be seen as Grace wearing a disguise. It invites us to stop searching outside ourselves and to rest in the awareness that is already whole. Suffering is not punishment but the Divine Self reminding us: You have forgotten who you are. When we listen deeply, we see that every ache, every loss, is an invitation to remember.

The Descent of Grace

In nondual teachings, this moment of remembrance is known as śaktipata, the “descent of Grace.” Grace is not something we earn by effort, but is the movement of the Divine within us, awakening Itself from sleep.

Grace descends like rain, softening the hardness of our resistance. It touches the places within us that have grown numb from fear or habit, and it whispers: There’s more to life than this.

In that moment, the divine awareness in us begins to descend into our daily consciousness. It doesn’t remove the challenges of life, but it changes our relationship to them. We begin to live from the understanding that pain can be a teacher rather than an enemy.

The Subtle Trap: Looking Outside for Peace

One of the greatest illusions we face is the belief that our happiness depends on the conditions of our life. We tell ourselves, “If I had more money,” or “If I could fix this relationship,” then I would finally be at peace. But life continually proves otherwise, and we know that even those who seem to “have it all” often live in quiet misery.

As long as we believe that joy is conditional, we remain bound. In truth, joy is our natural state when we stop identifying with conditions altogether. In other words, our suffering doesn’t come from the world, but from our relationship to it. We can care deeply, take compassionate action, and still rest in the joy of being.

Liberation does not make us indifferent; it makes us profoundly alive. The freer we are inwardly, the more naturally love expresses itself through our words, actions, and presence.

We often imagine displaying love and service to others as outward action. But true service can only arise from clarity, not confusion. When we are bound by our own suffering, we cannot serve others freely. Ramana Maharshi once said, “The greatest service you can render the world is your own liberation.”

Devotion Strengthened by Difficulty

It is natural to hope that spiritual practice will dissolve all of life’s challenges. Yet, as my Satguru Nityananda said, "true devotion does not eliminate difficulty." Rather, it deepens the strength of our surrender as we navigate through whatever we encounter and learn to rest in joy, despite conditions.

The same energy that once powered our suffering becomes the force of inner transformation. Rudi once said, “Pain is God loving you,” meaning that pain is what we feel when we have turned away from our inner source. It’s a call to return home to the inner fullness that can never be diminished.

The Divine offers us freedom in every instant. But when we recognize that we have failed to open in response to the dynamics of life, we may feel regret. Dwelling on regret is one of the most subtle forms of suffering because it binds us to what no longer exists. The mind says, I should have done better, I wasted time, or I hurt others.

Yet every breath is an invitation to begin again. The past cannot imprison us unless we cling to it. Whether you are twenty or seventy, it is this moment that matters. It’s the willingness to stop fighting, to surrender, and to rediscover the joy that has been quietly waiting underneath the noise.

Living from Joy

Spiritual maturity comes when our intent shifts from getting rid of pain to living from joy.

This joy is not emotional excitement or temporary pleasure. It is the quiet radiance of our Self: unchanging, unconditional, ever-present. Pain can open the door, but joy invites us to stay. The work, then, is not to chase one and avoid the other, but to awaken to the deeper Consciousness that underlies all experience. 

When you rest in this awareness, life does not exactly become easier, but it becomes truer. You still feel and act, but you are no longer doing so from a sense of constriction. Life becomes a celebration of God’s intent, which is to expand the joy of freedom.

Make sure that you’re looking to truly discover why you’re alive. The miracle and the gift of spiritual practice is that Grace that has chosen for us the possibility of living in that unconditional joy. Know that this possibility is already waiting withing you, waiting to be remembered.