In spirituality, the Soul (Athman) that exists within every human being becomes Brahman (Self) and the transformation process is called the spiritual journey.

Most people are ignorant about spirituality and hence they do not begin their spiritual journey. This mental condition is called ignorance (ajnana). Ignorance does not let people experience the real Self as the unending human transactions in this world blocks the truth. All of us know that encountering difficulties in life cannot be avoided as we do not create difficulties. Then there is no reason for us to worry about difficulties? It means that people who worry about difficulties in life are ignorant. Ignorance does not reduce the negative qualities and tendencies in us. On the contrary, ignorance creates sufferings in human life and people tend to approach God to reduce sufferings. The fact is that God (the spirit or the Brahman) exists within every human being. Therefore, when we become positive by destroying our mental negativities, we get to realize God within!

In case, we start the spiritual journey with the help of a Jnani or Shivaguru our ignorance will not only be reduced but also our negativity will be destroyed. Once we start becoming positive through the spiritual journey, our concept of God gradually becomes clear and our dependence on materialistic world reduces. When we begin our travel to realize the spirit, our negativity gets reduced because of the spiritual knowledge attained from the Jnani. The spiritual knowledge derived from books and scriptures will not be of much help to us because it cannot provide clarifications when required. Spiritual knowledge should therefore be received directly from a Gnani who could help us with the purity gained by him through arduous sadhana. This will also enable us to get the help based on the updated wisdom of the Jnanis.

The spiritual journey that begins from the ignorance of ‘Who am I?’ and ends with the wisdom of ‘Shivoham’ (the secret of who am I will be known only to the seeker and not to others). Thereby, the perceptions of the seekers will be different from that of the others. There will be clarity on the concept of God once we become aware of the real Self in us. In addition, we begin experiencing the truth rather than knowing about it. Thereby, we never worry about the happenings in this world but enjoy whatever available to us in life. Due to the perceptional changes in us, our thoughts, communications, values and approach to the worldly matters differ from that of the common people. However, we may not be able to convince the common people about our way of perceiving in spiritual life. We, then begin to ignore the perceptions of the common people completely as their values are totally different. Ignoring the perceptions of others would not affect our lives because our lives are taken care of by Brahman, the Self within. The spiritual journey, therefore, is said to be "Going from ignorance to complete ignorance".