In the ninth chapter of the Satsang series Rutugandha recounts the day when the master spoke of an individual’s spiritual quotient. Often times, our ability to stay contented and happy in life depends on our spiritual quotient. But what is the spiritual quotient comprised of? How can we develop our spiritual quotient? What are the advantages of a high spiritual quotient? Listen to the following audio snippet to find the answers.
Perception is Reality…or is it? In this episode of the Conquer It! series we question our perceptions thus. Often we find that the greatest obstacles that stand in our way to achieve enduring success are the illusions that we bear about life. Often when we fail to get a correct overview of situations that we are in, we encounter persisting failure. Thus many times, our inability to accept reality the way it is, results in our downfall. How can we change this? How can we uplift ourselves from our deluded perceptions? How can we conquer the illusions that forever cloud our discerning intellect? Listen to the following audio snippet to find the answers…
Many people accuse spirituality to be too idealistic and impractical in nature. Many feel that spirituality is essentially something that leads man away from the “real” thing in life; that it teaches an escapist way of life wherein the human being is not expected to stay pro-active at all. This deluded perception essentially leads them to shun the spiritual way of life at every point in time. However the fact that they fail to realize is that true spirituality is always practical in nature and it always advocates a prudent way of life.
25-Apr-2006 04:05, Canon Canon EOS 20D, 5.0, 45.0mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 400
Prudence necessarily means a sense of understanding of the worldly ways of life. The reason why I say that spirituality advocates prudence is owing to the fact that an individual can never gain salvation from the recursive human existence, unless he is absolved of all his karmic ties. These karmic ties are the ones that bind him to the worldly existence and the only way to absolve them is through prudence. To put it simply, prudence is knowing what to do; when to do it and how to do it.
An individual can start exercising prudence in his life by imbibing certain simple steps. Often the individual is caught in a paradoxical situation wherein he is forced to make a choice between idealism and practicality. In such situation it is always best to dispassionately judge both lines of action to determine what way is in the best interest of yourself and those around you. Herein your prudence comes pretty handy. Imagine a scenario wherin you need to lie to someone. Now you know that lying is essentially a “bad” thing to do; and yet you realize that if you lie just this once, that one lie would be influencing many lives in a positive way. In such a situation it is always best to go ahead and take the practical choice; but at the same, you should be completely prepared for all the backlash that you would receive if that one lie is to be discovered. Such is life. Most of the times, it is a great gamble of sorts; wherein unbeknowst of the results, an indiviudal is forced to take a leap of faith and hope that he lands soft. Such is life…
Many times spiritual seekers, who are in the early stages of development consider worldly life and worldly individuals to be redundant maggots. Often the seeker, intoxicated in the ecstatic bliss of his spiritual escapades, forgets that he too is a part of the worldly equation. Often this delusion leads him to adopt a solitary lifestyle, wherein he stops interacting with people whom he considers to be ‘un-spiritual’. The seeker herein, fails to realize that he is indeed making a grave mistake in acting so. Every seeker must realize that the reason to his physical existence are the karmic ties that he has with his physical body. He has to realize that the karmic ties that he has with other individuals also contribute to further extending the misery of his physical existence. The only way to aboslve those karmic debts is to be a pro-active part of the worldly life that he considers to be an illusion. In such a situation it would prudent for the spiritual seeker to reamin humble and centered in life. Once the seeker realizes that he need not go out of his way to truly make a spiritual effort; that spirituality is something to practised in the daily walks of life, only then will he come out of that deluded way of life.
Ultimately it is important to realize that in order to be successful spiritually, you need to satisfy all your worldly reponsibilities. Only then will the doors to the spirit world open for you. Thus in the worldly way of life as a seeker strives to achieve his goals, exercising prudence and discretion would go a long way in ensuring success.
In the following audio epistle, Rutugandha recounts the day when the master spoke of the importance of prudence in daily life. Prudence essentially means discretion in practical situations. In this worldly life, one has to choose his battles wisely. He has to fight in places where he knows that he can win; and try and elude the traps wherein he knows that he cannot hope to win. In the worldly rat race, prudence is indeed a great factor that determines whether an individual becomes successful or not. How can we effectively implement such prudence in our daily life? Listen to the following audio snippet to find the answers…
Our life is often comprised of endless streaks of action and reaction. Incidentally, most of human karma takes place owing to the incessant need to give a reaction to every action that comes our way. In the seventh chapter of the Satsang series, Rutugandha recounts the day, when the master spoke of this destructive karmic cycle. Shree Milindji Moghe also elucidates on the ways in which we can get out of this incessant streak of action and reaction.
Many times, as the spiritual seeker lives through his mundane life, he starts to feel that there exists a great disparity between the spiritual world and the mundane world. As he lives through his daily life, he starts to acclimatize with the worldly equations. All through this, the seeker also tries his best to see to it that his spiritual ideals and his spiritual goals are in no way compromised. However the real world is a hard place to live in; and if one has to thrive in it, one has to actively participate in life’s rat race. The seeker who wishes to strike a fine balance between his spiritual and worldly pursuits thus has to be extremely efficient at handling both aspects of life equally well.
In the real world, every individual is expected to put on a mask. Every individual is expected to be someone who he is not. Thus in a world that relentlessly admires illusions and admonishes reality, the spiritual seeker is faced with a tough task of balancing the facts against the myths. Where the spiritual path necessarily leads him to absolve his identity into the almighty, the worldly path expects him to vociferously defend his interests. Thus the seeker is caught in a paradox as he languishes amidst the diametrically opposite polarities of the spiritual and worldly way of life.
When the seeker tries to find the answers to the question that concerns his very existence in this perilous paradox, he comes to the conclusion that neither can he completely regard the worldly life to be illusory; nor can he let his spiritual motives be compromised. While living through the mundane life, the seeker learns one of life’s great lessons. He learns that the mundane world is not as illusory as it is made out to be in the spiritual dictums. He realizes that as long as he himself is a humble seeker, the relativity of this world will continue to affect him. He realizes that he cannot disregard the mundane world to be an illusion as long as he is living in it, because for him the illusion is just as real as he is. Thus through this realization, he learns to pro-actively lead his life in a way in which he can absolve his unrequited karmas through conscious acts.
The true spiritualist always leads an ideal way of life. He is aware of his worldly duties and responsibilities. He does not regard the spiritual path as a way of escaping them. On the contrary, his spiritual bearing helps him to fulfill his duties all the more diligently. The seeker always knows that even though the worldly life is not as illusory as it is made out to be, it is indeed pointless to run behind the many temptations that it showcases. The seeker is always aware of his objectives; and he only seeks to fulfill them through the opportunities that he gets. In the end, the seeker knows that he has a greater loftier purpose in his existence and thus always seeks ways in which he can truly get to a point where he could pursue his spiritual journey with no worldly interruptions. This is necessarily accomplished when the seeker is completely liberated from his worldly responsibilities; and he does not wish to willfully indulge in the temptations of worldly life.
After that point in his life, the master then takes over, as he leads the seeker further on in the journey that leads to the absolution of all his qualms; the journey that finally leads to the emancipation of the soul from the recursive cycle of misery, despair and regret that the human existence represents…
The spiritual journey is one that finally leads the seeker towards emancipation. It is a journey that ultimately leads the seeker beyond the recursive cycle of life and death; so he can finally be free from the perpetual sentiments of despair and regret that epitomize the human existence. While many know this fact to be true, few are indeed aware of the fact that spirituality does not promote escapism. Few are indeed aware of the fact that spirituality inherently teaches an individual to be exceedingly pro-active in his life. Thus this falsified perception of spirituality that is lodged into the minds of many people dissuades them from walking on this path. Conversely owing to this falsified common perception, many people come to this path only after encountering failure and rejection in all walks of life. Many people look to the spiritual activities as nothing but counseling sessions that in the end leave them with a happy and contented feeling. While the spiritual path proves to be exceedingly effective in instilling that sense of peace and contentment in these individuals, the fact remains that in the end, the spiritual path is not meant to do that.
The spiritual path is not a momentary fix that you can take as an aspirin when you come home with a headache. It is not something that you turn to owing to circumstances; it is something that you adopt after making a conscious choice. True spirituality is a way of life; it has to be. If you are to truly progress significantly on the spiritual path, you have to be devoted in it mind, body and soul. Only then will you end up making a substantial difference in your life and in the lives of those around yourself. Only after you walk the path with complete devotion and dedication in your heart, will you truly realize what it is really meant for.
The spiritual path is a ultimately a journey of evolution. Evolution itself is a vast and expansive subject that incorporates within itself every single thing in the world. Thus the spiritual path, being a path of evolution essentially encompassed every single thing in this world. As a seeker walks further ahead on the spiritual path, he realizes that there is indeed that can be truly separated from his spirituality. Ultimately he realizes that true spirituality provides him with a solution to all the problems that he faces in life. Ultimately he realizes that as he walks further ahead on the spiritual path, the path itself transforms him completely. He becomes more capable and more responsible in his life. This makes it all the more easier for him to dispense his worldly duties. He starts becoming more and more productive in life, which ensures that he is successful in all walks of life. He starts developing a wholesome and creative approach to life; which results in him deriving nothing but unhindered joy and ecstasy from it. The spiritual seeker slowly starts to lose his self-centered nature as he starts becoming more and more benevolent. This essentially means that he starts becoming an asset for the society.
With all these transformations that the spiritual path brings in an individual, he slowly starts becoming a perfectionist. Ultimately he becomes a source of inspiration for those around him; as he intuitively ignites the light of spiritual excellence within himself. Ultimately the spiritual path completely transforms an individual and ensures that he comes out of this worldly strife as a winner.
Man is necessarily a complex entity with multiple layers to his identity. As man lives through in this world, he accumulates a different identitiy for himself. He no longer remains the same person that he once was. This is necessarily owing to the fact that the worldly strife completely transforms an individual. It renders him into an entity that is completely suited for the worldly needs; whilst erasing the original identity with which he came into this world. Thus we often see that whenever we meet anyone after a lapse of many years, we find that the person has indeed changed so remarkably that he no longer resembles the individual that he once was. This is essentially owing to the fact that the human being evolves with his surroundings and adapts to the ever-changing world outside.
Evolution, even though a relative term in itself is defined precisely. Evolution is a journey of self-enrichment; it is a journey of progress. Progress is once again a relative term. What I may term as progress might not sound so great to another person; for ever person values different kinds of achievements. The worldly strife is but a means to turn some of our dreams into reality. However in this process of apparent progress; in this process of self-enrichment, many times it occurs to us that we indeed forget our true identities in the pursuit of new ones. We forget who we truly are as we go on incessantly seeking more and more. In a bid to find the perfect way of living in this world, we forget that within ourselves, our spirit dies a silent death.
The world is essentially a hostile place. It is a place where every decision is taken based on shrewd intellect. It is a place that demands you to be as hostile as itself; for in order to survive in the jungle, you have to be an animal. Thus man is slowly transformed into a ruthless, self-centered beast; and the noble and benevolent spirit, which once rested in regality within, now finds itself to be a prisoner of greed and lust. Thus man on his own accord kills the noble child that resides within him; to surivive in the world outside; he voluntarily murders the innocence within himself as he prepares a new identity to help him survive the worldly strife.
However, the key factor that man overlooks is the fact that the worldly identity cannot provide him with any peace and satisfaction; for inherently it is a personality that is based upon incessant desire, greed and self-centered aspirations. Thus the derived personality in itself has subtle undertones of perpetual dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction is a desirable aspect in worldly life, for it enable a person to go ahead and strive for excellence. Yet when the moment comes to finally sit back and enjoy the benefits of the hard labor that the individual accomplished through the years, he can hardly do so. The derived worldly persona does not know what it means to be at peace; for it is always at war in the world outside. Thus the individual himself can get little satisfaction even after working his whole life to gain the comforts and luxuries that he so desired. In the end, the individual realizes that he was much happy when he had none of those luxuries; atleast at that point in time, he had himself; he had his spirit; he could experience the joy of the simple things in life;
Thus the point of the matter remains, that even though the world expects you to be someone else, never forget who you truly are. For in the end, that inner self is going to be your lasting mate in this journey of life…
The human life is a continuous struggle for enrichment. May it be personal achievement or professional success, we all in one way or the other yearn to enrich ourselves in this world. The spiritual path is a path that essentially leads the seeker to evolve through the multiple cycles of rebirth, enriching him in the process. However many people feel that the spiritual path teaches inaction. Many feel that spiritualists are nothing but perpetual losers, who turn to spirituality because they are incapable of doing anything else. This common perception is entirely in contradiction to the reality pertaining to true spirituality.
True spirituality always teaches a person new and innovative ways to continually remain pro-active in his life. A true spiritualist is always creative and productive, no matter where he goes in life. This is essentially owing to the great insight that his spiritual journey provides him into his own life. He is completely detached from all the usual disturbances and insecurities that accompany the human life; owing to the fact that he realizes the true worth of life in its entirety. Such an individual is thus completely centered and capable of completely utilizing all the resources that he has in his life. This enables him to always stay productive, no matter what the circumstances may be.
Producitivity is the single greatest trait that truly enriches and embellishes a person with all the good things in life; not just in life but in the life beyond it as well. This happens owing to the fact that it is only the pro-active person who can make the most efficient use of the resources that God gives him. The spiritual journey is not only a journey of the enrichment of the spirit; but it is also a journey that involves the complete absolution of human karma. To even facilitate such a great process of karmic dissolution, the human being himself needs to be pro-actively involved in the different facets of worldly life. Ultimately it is through his worldly persona, that his karmas are completely exhumed. To gain liberation from the worldly strife, a person has to first be a part of that worldly strife. Thus the individual is required to be pro-actively involved in life, whilst remaining completely detached from within. This stage is one that is surprisingly difficult to attain for a seeker. Even after he attains it, the seeker needs to remian in the same state for the rest of his life, pro-active detachment; what others may consider as an oxymoronic concept is a way of life for the advanced seeker.
Ultimately, one has to realize that the worth of one’s life is realized in the difference that he makes in the lives of those around him. Ultimately the true worth of a spiritualist can be gauged by the lives that are blessed through his work. For indeed that is the ultimate stage of spiritual evolution; to remain pro-actively involved in the strife of life, not for your own self; but for others. That is where true spirituality ultimately takes you. It gives an expression to your inner sense of benevolence through creativity and productivity that it instills in you…
Be creative…be productive and God shall always bless thee with his grace…
Many times, when the spiritualist tries to get an overview of life, he finds that there is indeed little that he can cognize through the scope of his puny intellect. When the seeker tries to get grasp of his own karmic alliances in order to get a greater insight into his own life, he indeed comes to a complete blank. Many pseudo-intellectuals feel that spirituality teaches a person cowardice; that it preaches inaction. The point of the matter is that the truth could not more opposite to the aforementioned perception. Spirituality is a way of life that necessarily imbibes the realization in the seeker’s heart; that all that he does in the life, in one or the other comes back to him. Spirituality teaches an individual that each and every thing that he experiences in life is owing to some past karma; that every effect is owing to some cause that was responsible in triggering it. Spirituality in the end, gives the seeker a complete overview of his own journey, as the soul traverses through countless incarnations; through multiple instances of life and death to come to a point where it can truly move on from that recursive grind.
However the knowledge that accompanies that realization comes to the seeker at a very advanced stage of his spiritual journey. In that one moment of blinding realization, all the veils of illusion are laid bare before the seeker’s eyes as he cognizes the complete scope of his wondrous journey. All his previous incarnations instantly manifest before his own eyes and thus he receives the entire knowledge that he once gained in each of those lives. That stage of realization however is a very advanced stage. The problem arises when the seeker, in contemplation of his previous karmas, starts to lose his bearing in the present moment. It is a state of much confusion and contemplation on part of the seeker, for he indeed sees himself in a delicate position. On one hand, through the intuitive glimpses that provide him a spiritual insight into his own life, he starts to realize that there indeed is more to life that what meets the eye. However on the other hand, the seeker is not yet matured enough to truly gain the cognition of the knowledge that resides in his past. Thus in that tricky part of the spiritual journey, the seeker spends much time contemplating on his own journey.
The master in these circumstances admonishes the seeker as he tells him to always remain in the present. The seeker on his part is always attracted to the past, but he does not realize that the past is long gone and dead. The knowledge that he would gain from that past, would not salvage his ship in the torrential seas of life. It is only in the present moment that he can truly make a genuine effort to evolve and to proceed further ahead on the path. The seeker must always realize that whatever has transpired in his life is the result of his own karma; he cannot change the past; but he can definitely secure for himself the hope of a better future. The seeker can only accomplish this through the present; by keeping his acts chaste and his heart pure.
The spiritual journey is a process of evolution. It is a process that occurs with every single breath that the individual takes. As the seeker proceeds through life, learning through his mistakes, adapting with the circumstances, succeeding with steadfast efforts, a great spiritual change takes place within him. Unknown to him, his own spirit undergoes many transformations, each of which brings him ever closer to realizing the final truth; towards attaining the zenith of evolution.In the end the seeker, must realize that his karma is like a catalyst that adds fuel to the fire. How the fire burns and to what end does it burn is a question that I shall leave to you…
A Spiritual Revolution added to Articles. Embracing Reality added to Articles. Rebellion added to Articles. The State of Liberation added to Articles. Hypocrisy in Spirituality added to Articles. Pointless Spirituality added to Articles. Two Bytes of Life added to Articles. Change, Consistency & Success added to Articles.
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February 16, 2010 10:37 am | 
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