What is Spirituality?

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omnipresent Spirit is called sthitapragya (a person of steadfast wisdom)â€.

Here the meaning of soul is one’s own real self, which is eternal, pure and

indestructible. The essence of spirituality is atmagyana- to realize that our

true self is the spark of the Cosmic Self-Spirit. To remain unshakably poised

in this awareness means spiritual living. It is the ultimate aim of human life.

Scriptures and philosophical treatises explain this truth by giving the example

of an empty pot and the ether. An empty pot has nothing in it. The ether is

also limitless empty space. Therefore the empty space within the pot can be

considered as limited ether. If the pot is broken, the space contained in it

merges back into the

limitless space. Reality becomes apparent when the pot is broken.

Similarly all apparently separate entities are mere bubbles over the limitless

ocean of Being. We do not experience this truth because of our false sense of

ego. In the example discussed, the pot represents our ego and the ether the

universal Being. When the separative illusory ego vanishes, the individual soul

unites with God- the universal Being. This realization has been referred to in

the Bhagvad Gita (13/11), “The universe has no existence apart from the one

Cosmic Conscious Realityâ€. A shift in the perception reveals that we are all

the same consciousness, manifesting in different bodies, the way leaves are

part of the same tree. Conventional knowledge tells us that we are separate;

higher wisdom informs us that we are

One. The following extract from Evelyn Underhill’s book titled “

What is spiritual life?†gives wonderfully inspiring description in poetic

prose of ‘ What spirituality is all about?’. Most of our

conflicts and difficulties come from trying to deal with the spiritual and

practical aspects of our life separately instead of realizing them as part of

one whole. If our practical life is centered on our own interests, cluttered up

by possessions, distracted by ambitions, passions, wants and worries, beset by a

sense of our own rights and importance or anxieties for our own future, or

longings for our own success, we need not

expect that our spiritual life will be a contrast to all this. The soul’s

house is not built on such a convenient plan; there are a few soundproof

partitions in it. Only when the conviction- not merely the idea- that the

demand of the Spirit, however inconvenient, comes first and IS first, rules the

whole of it, will those objectionable noises die down which have a way of

penetrating into the nicely furnished little oratory, and drowning all the

quieter voices by their din. Yet there is no real occasion for the

tumult, strain, conflict, anxiety, once we have reached the living conviction

that God is ALL. All takes place with Him, He alone matters, He alone is. Our

spiritual life is His affair; because whatever we may think to the contrary is

really produced by his steady attractions, and our humble and self-forgetful

response to it. It consists in being drawn, at His pace and in His way, to the

place where He wants us to be; and not the place we fancied for ourselves.

source : www.awgp.org , http://www.akhand-jyoti.org

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