Spiritual life beyond ashes

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Spiritual life beyond ashes

January 25, 2006

>From South Africa's Post & Independent Online

The letter, "Ashes serve a holy need,", and responses thereto, refer.

Please do not be offended. Sometimes the truth can be painful.

People of different cultures will always have practices that differ

from those of others, hence the need for tolerance.

 

Tolerance is, however, no excuse to promote a culture that is bereft

of spiritual knowledge. We live in a global society experiencing an

explosion of knowledge.

 

Is there need to deprive oneself from the merit of spiritual

knowledge? Should one's practices merely hinge upon tradition and

custom?

 

Many an acquaintance has over the years cast off his/ her affection

for, and faith in, the power of holy ashes, when confronted with

knowledge of God from preachers of other faiths.

 

How is, for example, the Christian faith blooming in leaps and bounds

within one's very own families? Is their offering greater? The

potency lies in spiritual knowledge. Do we not have anything to offer?

 

The Vedic literature offers incomparable knowledge, vast volumes of

nectar to thrill the hearts of all persons. Lord Krishna confirms in

the Bhagavad-gita (Bg4.37): "As a blazing fire turns firewood to

ashes, O Arjuna, so does the fire of knowledge burn to ashes all

reactions to material activities."

 

There is urgency in our understanding our true spiritual nature that

goes beyond the restrictive realms of bodily identification.

 

 

Brotherly love will abound across the planet only when we understand

that we are pure spiritual beings, emanating from that one Supreme

Lord. No amount of political manoeuvring can establish the world

peace and happiness that we all desire.

 

Such harmony can only stem from re-establishing our spiritual

relationship with God, and fully perceiving that we all, every one of

us, are His children, irrespective of the particular faith one may be

following.

 

Religion is meant to teach us to develop pure love of God, and within

that process will be an accompanying love for our fellow man. But

everything depends on the spiritual knowledge that brings a person to

the platform of loving God.

 

The perfection of knowledge is to understand God, hence the

availability of scriptures. My opinion is that we need to get beyond

our small fires of mental speculation and mystic yoga, and latch on

to pure devotional service rendered in love to the Supreme Lord.

 

Devotional service is so powerful that it burns to ashes any obstacle

encountered on the path of progress.

 

Let the ashes issue rest. Spiritual life goes beyond ashes. Dear

brothers and sisters, let us ignite the blazing fire of loving

service to the Lord and burn to ashes the network of material

illusion.

 

 

Vijay Ramdas

Isipingo

http://www.thepost.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=742&fArticleId=3079969