How to wake up the pious spiritual hunger?

A seeker went to the Saint and asked, “Dear Sir, when we are here with you, when we listen to your talks, we are at peace with ourselves and we realize the importance of spirituality. But, when we go back to the world, once again we get dissolved into the world. We know that you talk about the importance of spiritual hunger, but how can we worldly people invoke that pious hunger?”

The Saint closed his eyes, and then after a moment of silence, he said, “Dear son, a patient was suffering from a taste disorder wherein he lost sweet taste buds because of which he couldn’t taste anything sweet. When he approached a wise Ayurvedic doctor, the doctor advised him to keep sugar candy (mishri) in the mouth and continue to lick it. He took the advice and did as recommended. Initially, he didn’t get any taste from licking the sugar candy. But finally one day the patient regained the taste buds and began to enjoy the sweetness once again.  Similarly, the Saints also advice to keep listening to the discourses, keep chanting the holy name, keep doing meditation and continue the company of pious seekers even though you don’t enjoy it; even though you don’t have that hunger for knowing the Truth. A day will come soon when you will begin to enjoy the sweetness associated with the seeking of the divine Truth.”

After a brief pause, the Saint continued, “Those who realize the importance of true spirituality in life, are really the fortunate ones. Invoking the spiritual inquisitiveness is the fruit of many virtues or selfless service that a being has performed in this birth or in previous births. Only a pure heart gets filled with a craving to know the Truth or realize the God. Worldly people mostly waste their lives with the cravings for worldly happiness in the form of objects, relations, wealth or power.”

“There are two important factors that help in invoking that pious spiritual hunger: firstly the company of Saints or true seekers (Satsang) and secondly pure discrimination (viveka).  Those who continue to take the benefit of the company of Saints, listen to their talks or read their holy scriptures, slowly begin to realize the importance of true spirituality.  Also, the seekers who give importance to their own experiences in life, who give deep thought to Life itself, who begins to ask questions like “who am I”, “where did this world come from”, “is this all a reality or just a dream like illusion”, “what is the Truth”, “what is the purpose of life”, “is it possible for man to reach a state of persistent happiness”, etc; such seekers give rise to pure discrimination (viveka) and slowly begins to seek the company of Self realized Saints to can satisfy their inquisitiveness. So, you can say that with the help of Satsang (company of Saints and holy seekers) and viveka (pure discrimination), one can surely realize the importance of inner wisdom that can lead to inner peace and inner happiness; and one can surely wake up the pious spiritual hunger.”