A seeker once went to a sage and said, "Master, I've been practicing devotion for years, reading scripture — but it feels like I'm not moving forward. There's some invisible wall stopping me."
The sage smiled. "The wall isn't invisible. You're just not calling it a wall — you're calling it 'I.'"
That's the biggest obstacle on the path of devotion and knowledge — the sense of "I." Alongside it come illusion, ego, attachment, and craving. The scriptures describe all of these in detail — and they describe the remedies too.
What the Texts Actually Say
1. Bhagwat Puran — Maya and Ignorance: The First and Deepest Obstacle
O Lord! When a soul, deluded by illusion, takes on ignorance, its innate qualities of bliss and the like become veiled. It becomes entangled in the tendencies born of nature, the senses, and the body, and begins to identify with and serve these as its own self.
Shrimad Bhagwat Puran, Tenth Canto, Hymn of the Vedas
This verse makes a crucial point — "begins to identify with and serve these as its own self." The body isn't "mine" in the deepest sense, yet we settle into calling it "I." The mind isn't "I" either, yet we settle into calling it that too.
And once that confusion sets in, how can devotion actually happen? When "I" itself has been misidentified, "my devotion" becomes devotion offered by that same mistaken "I." That's illusion's cleverest move.
2. Bhagwat Puran — Illusion Performs the Three Qualities of Nature
Your illusion dances in the courtyard of your own vision, displaying countless moods of purity, passion, and inertia through time and nature.
Shrimad Bhagwat Puran, Tenth Canto, Hymn of the Vedas
"Illusion is dancing" — that's a remarkably precise image. When a dancer performs, the audience gets lost in the performance. Illusion dances the same way — and we keep watching, forgetting entirely that it's a performance.
The three gunas — sattva, rajas, tamas — are the three moods of that dance. In sattva comes pride in one's own knowledge. In rajas, anger and ambition. In tamas, laziness and confusion. All three are obstacles, and all three are illusion's game.
3. Yogavasishtha — Attachment: The Snare of the Senses and Intellect
When the organs of action and the intellect-driven senses dissolve, and when pleasure and pain themselves fade away, what remains — called by names like "That" and "Being" — is the soul in its nature as pure consciousness.
Yogavasishtha, Nirvana Prakarana Purvardha, Sarga 41
The Yogavasishtha makes an almost inverted claim here — the soul becomes visible only when the senses and the experience of pleasure and pain "dissolve." In other words, as long as the senses stay active and pleasure and pain keep being felt, the soul stays hidden behind them.
This obstacle runs deep — because we don't consider pleasure itself a problem. But the text is saying: attachment to pleasure is itself an obstacle. As long as the wish "let this pleasure come to me" persists, self-knowledge stays out of reach.
4. Bhagwat Puran — Indra's Ego: When "I" Slips Into Practice Itself
Indra, to protect himself, took on a deceptive guise that creates the illusion of righteousness within unrighteousness itself — a guise behind which even a sinful man can appear virtuous.
Shrimad Bhagwat Puran, Fourth Canto, King Prithu's Hundred Horse Sacrifices
This episode is worth sitting with. Indra — king of the gods — went, out of jealousy, to disrupt Prithu's sacrifice. And how did he disrupt it? "By adopting the guise of piety" — by performing righteousness as a mask.
This is the most dangerous obstacle on the spiritual path — when ego itself puts on the clothing of virtue. When "I" slips into practice itself and starts saying "my devotion, my knowledge, my discipline" — that's when the disruption begins from the inside.
5. Bhagwat Puran — The Earth's Hunger: The Restlessness of Craving
The Earth was afflicted by hunger and thirst, and out of that affliction, she committed injustice.
Shrimad Bhagwat Puran, Tenth Canto, The Lord's Assurance to the Earth
This is a metaphor, but a deep one. The Earth was hungry — and hunger produced injustice. That's exactly how cravings work — when they intensify, discernment disappears. And when discernment disappears, practice loses its way.
Sensory cravings — for food, for pleasure, for recognition — when these intensify, going deeper into devotion and knowledge becomes difficult. The story of the Earth is a reminder of exactly this.
6. Yogavasishtha — Illusion's Dance: Making Truth Look False
Just as an object covered in fog isn't known in its true form but appears as something else entirely, in the same way, the soul veiled by ignorance — which covers its true nature like a mist — isn't known as it truly is; what appears instead, that distorted perception, is what constitutes a person's apparent self.
Yogavasishtha, Upashama Prakarana, Sarga 2
"An object wrapped in fog" is a beautiful image. In fog, the sun isn't visible — but it's there. Trees look blurred in fog — but they're there. In the same way, the soul isn't visible through the fog of ignorance — but it's there.
And "distorted perception" means: what isn't actually there appears to be there. Taking the body to be "I" is distorted perception. Taking the world to be ultimately real is distorted perception. That's the true shape of this obstacle.
7. The Remedy — Skanda Purana: Happiness Through Dharma, and Dharma as the Remedy Itself
A person who wishes for happiness should see others exactly as he wishes to see himself — happy. Happiness is attained only through dharma. Therefore, people of all four social orders should diligently follow their own dharma.
Skanda Mahapurana, Brahma Khanda, Dharmaranya Mahatmya, Chapter 95
The first formula for the remedy — "see others the way you see yourself." This is a genuinely practical tool. When we start seeing our own joy and sorrow reflected in others, both ego and attachment loosen their grip. Because the divide between "I" and "the other" starts dissolving.
And following one's dharma — carrying out one's actual responsibilities — is itself a major remedy. Someone who fulfills their duty honestly carries less inner conflict. And where conflict is less, practice goes deeper.
Bringing It Together
Obstacles on the path of devotion and knowledge don't come from outside — they come from within. Illusion confuses us, ego stops us, attachment binds us, craving pulls us off course, and the three gunas tangle us up.
And the remedy is also internal. Good company, which clears ignorance's fog. Discernment, which reveals the difference between the real and the unreal. Dispassion, which loosens the grip. Surrender, which dissolves "I" into the Divine. And following one's dharma, which gives life a solid footing.