Are We Spiritually Growing?

[Guest guest]

Namaste:

 

Happy Holidays to all. This is a season of giving and caring for

needy families and children who need help. In the United States

there is greater awareness on the needs of fellow citizens and those

who have open their heart and share a portion of their wealth to the

poor. As spiritual seekers, we should adopt this great tradition of

sharing and giving without any hesitation. The upcoming holidays are

quite suitable for contemplation and soul searching and let us focus

our attention on the following questions:

 

Who am I?

What is my role and obligation?

Am I spiritually maturing?

What are the indicators of spiritual maturity?

Does age a factor in measuring spiritual maturity?

What are my obligations for spiritual maturity?

Is spiritual maturity necessary for human liberation?

How can I help others to grow spiritually?

How can this list contribute towards spiritual maturity?

What is the role of intellectual discussions towards spiritual

maturity?

Why should I believe in God? Does it really matter whether I believe

in God or not?

How should the list proceed during the upcoming New-year?

 

I earnestly request all members to discuss questions outlined above.

Please feel free to add more such questions and we can all help each

other by posing and answering them. The list has currently over 610

members coming from different parts of this universe with different

ethnic, religious and language background. This is a great

opportunity for all of us because we believe unity in the diversity

and we all have the same common goal!

 

Warmest regards,

 

Ram Chandran

 

Note: This list can't operate without members' contribution in the

form of questions, discussions and articles. Lately, everyone seems

to think that someone will do it and waits for that someone! As Swami

Chinmayanada once said, that someone is YOU!

[Guest guest]

Namaste.

Ram Chandranji writes:

....... This list can't operate without members' contribution in

the form of questions, discussions and articles. Lately,

everyone seems to think that someone will do it and waits for

that someone! As Swami Chinmayanada once said, that someone is

YOU

----------------------------

 

 

Ram Chandranji. Your clarion call is very appropriate and

timely. I want to supplement your call by quoting an anecdote

in the form of a personal experience, just to remind ourselves

that ‘even a little effort in this direction can be of great

help’ (cf. svalpam-apy-asya dharmasya trAyate mahato bhayAt -

Gita II – 40).

 

It was the year 1980. I had just returned from the U.S.(after

one year of sabbatical) back to my BITS Pilani. Very soon, the

Secretary of the newly formed association called Vivekananda

Samithi, at BITS, contacted me and invited me to talk in their

association. I chose a title: Can a good scientist be a true

Hindu?. The lecture went off very well because first of all

there was a large audience (probably 250 or so) and secondly

there were, after the 40 minutes of my monologue, 90 minutes of

varied questions and my answers. At the end of the day I felt

happy about the curiosity of the students and decided to do

something more substantial to satisfy the curiosity of the

students. So I posted a notice on my office door saying that

since there seemed to be many questions (on spirituality and

Hinduism) lurking in the minds of the students, I was willing

to meet them formally every Saturday afternoon for about two

hours, provided enough students showed interest. I asked them to

sign below my notice to express their interest. By the evening

there were around 150 signatures. So that Saturday we met for my

first meeting with them. Around 200 (all in the age group 17 –

22) were present, in spite of the fact that day happened to be a

One-day Cricket match day. Actually the meetings continued for

several Saturdays thereafter. But what happened on that first

Saturday to one of my student-listeners is what is relevant now.

I naturally started by giving an overview of Hinduism, because

the questions they had been asking at the previous lecture of

mine had clearly indicated to me that they had to know the

essential basics of the religion first, before they could

participate in a meaningful dialogue. I don’t remember what

exactly I said on that first Saturday meeting, but very possibly

I should have, among other things, also mentioned the concept of

‘Atman’ and its permanence among all the other transient things

like body, mind and intellect.

At the end of the lecture, this particular student who must have

been in the hall listening to me raptly, came to me and

congratulated me (!) for what he thought was an original idea

from me. When I probed further, he said:

‘Sir, that is a tremendous idea – the idea of the Atman. That it

is the only reality behind every person and that it is

unaffected by anything that happens to the body – Oh, this is a

wonderful idea, Sir. ....’

When he went on like this, I probed about his background, where

he came from and so on. He said he came from a brahmin family in

Madras, he was just in his second year at BITS. When I probed

further, I discovered that he had never heard of the word

‘Atman’ , nobody had ever hinted to him that when the body dies

there is an Atman which does not die and so on.

 

It was all a great surprise to me that someone who had lived and

grown up in the traditional atmosphere of Madras brahmin

background would not have ever heard about even this simple fact

that behind the perishable body there was an imperishable soul!

What was more funny was that he thought that all that was an

original idea of mine!!

 

Well, I come to our point now. This student, I later learnt, has

gone deep into spirituality after that incident. The point of

this all is to tell ourselves that EVEN SIMPLE THINGS WHICH

EVERYBODY TAKES FOR GRANTED CAN SPARK OFF THE URGE AND CURIOSITY

OF SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, SOME TIME, SOMEHOW.

 

So let us all open up and take the questions of Ram Chandranji

and similar questions seriously and seek the Truth, not just for

ourselves, but for the whole group.

 

praNAms to all advaitins

profvk

 

 

 

 

=====

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

My website on Science and Spirituality is http://www.geocities.com/profvk/

You can access my book on Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought Vision and

Practice, and my father R. Visvanatha Sastri's manuscripts from the site.

 

 

 

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