What is Spirituality?

[Guest guest]

People use the word “spirituality†without understanding its true import.

Only those who have developed a calm and clear-sighted intellect and are leading

a life of self-discipline understand its true meaning. The Sanskrit word for

“spirituality†is “adhyatmamâ€, which means, “centered and established

in the atma â€. Lord Krishna says in Srimad Bhagvad Gita(2/55):

“ A person who voluntarily gives up all his desires, lusts and ambitions and

whose individual soul remains poised in the 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

 

 

 

Mail

Use Photomail to share photos without annoying attachments.