When one reads the biographies of renowned spiritual masters one fact that uniformly stands out is that even though they have made great strides regarding spiritual growth uniformly everyone has been unavoidably drawn towards spirituality due to various circumstances. Pursuing a spiritual path was the natural choice and there was no need to force it on them. This is generally true of any spiritual aspirant. Spirituality is always a natural choice and can never be forced on anyone. One is either naturally inclined or one is not. But in the early stages of a seeker due to the weight of one’s responsibilities or social influence one very often struggles with the dilemma of deciding when the right time is to start taking spirituality seriously. The scriptures unequivocally say one should immediately start the moment one feels an inclination towards spiritual knowledge. Because one never knows when the next opportunity will present itself and that could either be in this lifetime or even later. The opening up of the very opportunity itself is a huge blessing as not everyone is so fortunate to get one. Hence it should be deemed a privilege and one should grab it as and when the opportunity presents itself. It is ideal if one starts pursuing Self-knowledge seriously in the 20s. This is because spirituality educates and gives one the right priorities in life and helps one make the right choices. One does not waste most of one’s precious life on just material pursuits, craving recognition, appreciation, praise etc. from others, without understanding the real purpose of human life. The ancient Indian education system took care of this problem and a spiritual outlook was inculcated even while growing up. But the modern education system completely ignores this aspect even though it takes care of one’s survival needs in a material sense. If one postpones starting the pursuit of Self-knowledge to much later then one could forget the importance of devoting time exclusively to spirituality due to the weight of one’s responsibilities or because one gets sucked well and truly into the rat race. By the time one realizes the worthlessness of all of it, it will be too late. If one starts early then there is also the advantage of having a young, energetic, and agile intellect. Hence, it is better not to postpone it too much because the later one starts, it is increasingly difficult to give up old habits, conclusions, and opinions. Assimilating Vedanta takes time and hence it requires one to look at oneself differently from much earlier in life. If one starts late then one’s energy is also already burnt out in life’s frustrations and disappointments because it has been spent in pursuit of material success without any spiritual outlook.
There is a very prevalent tendency, especially in India, to think that spirituality is meant to be pushed to old age or to after one retires from active professional life. This is extremely silly and dangerous because Self-knowledge should not be that unimportant that one thinks it should be pursued only after one becomes worthless for everything else. If society tends to influence a person in that manner, then respect for society should only be as much as it deserves. It is also a residue of a colonial mindset because we are all products of a colonial era education system which gives disproportionate importance to the physical world unlike the ancient Indian education system which is far more spiritual in outlook.
The earlier one starts looking at and living life the way Vedānta inspires us, the longer I can enjoy myself before passing on. Vedānta is like a manual to have the right attitude towards myself and the world around and postponing looking into it for too long is like attempting to understand the manual after almost destroying the equipment (body/mind)!
The other advantage is that one can pass on a spiritual outlook to one’s children too in terms of leading and showing them how to live life by example because many a time we find that the older generation tries to force spirituality into the younger generation after having wasted their own lives in material pursuits. Then such advice falls flat because it is not backed up with conviction.
Spirituality is the best gift we can give to ourselves and the earlier the better. The constructs of societal obligations (like wanting to be successful, wealthy etc. in the sense of seeking approval from others) are a hindrance to spiritual growth. Because at least if society had a solution to the fundamental problem of being an incomplete, insecure, wanting person, there is some point in the following. Everyone is struggling in these aspects irrespective of age, qualification, intelligence etc.! But this must be done carefully with the guidance of the śāstra, with zero compromise to dharma (broadly ethics and morality). What we are doing is really rejecting certain attitudes/behaviors/mindsets (towards success, wealth, power, attachment etc.) because of a myopic outlook.