I am a lesser mortal unlike all the enlightened and the wise men my country has produced but with my limited exposure and experiences I have been trying to take the path of spiritual growth while traversing my life on earth.
I read somewhere that the life of a hermit is the easiest path one can choose to attain spirituality, such a life is not ridden with any responsibility and the true test of our faith and spirituality is when one learns to lead a spiritual life in this samsara. I dont support any of the views staunchly but it was a fair indicator that I need not be some saint or gnani to at least try being spiritual.
In the past three months I have picked up books like Mahabharata, a pocket Gita (Chapter 4 is something I have bookmarked permanently as I haven't still been able to pull out a conclusive meaning to whats being told to Arjuna on how to lead one's life) and tried deducing what life really is. Haven't answered that yet, no regrets if I dont have an answer to it when I turn old as well but it does sound deep and profound at times.
Words like do your duty and dont desire much or do not expect any fruits for your actions but do it with dedication or have faith in god and words like transcendental knowledge that will carry you through this ocean of life are concepts beyond my ability to fathom and grasp. I feel like a small child who was being taught concepts of gravity and space and time, unable to fathom it i sat in amusement of what a wonder physics was and what did all the people behind it do to discover such things. In fact I am sure some of it I will never be able to even practice no matter how hard I try to decipher it.
To have respect for the minutest of the things living or non living is what it asks you to to. To believe that there is action in inaction and inaction in action (This one took me a lot of time to reflect) is a 360 degree change in my perspective. To accept things/people/life as it is and to do your best and leave everything up to god has somehow lowered my frustration levels. One thing that it helped me with was to have firm faith in my values, values like help others when you can, forgiveness (which i still try to practice every night as a prayer), acceptance of situations with a calm contentedness than getting over anxious or fearful, believing that no harm will befall on you if you do something with good intentions and value for human life regardless of caste, creed, status, country or sex. I had often times wanted to give up these values that I imbibed watching people who influenced me in various ways when I endured distress while I practiced them but isn't it obvious that values are those that stand the test of time and faith.
When I was young, my aunt taught me early on that the poor are the ones who actually strive very hard in life so one shouldn't be arrogant but be humble and kind towards them for they aren't as privileged as we have been and they work very hard to stay alive when compared to us, in fact they will survive better during crisis than us. I truly believe it to be true. Its not about how well read she is but her life experiences with both extreme riches and abject poverty has made her who she is. From sitting in cars and singing in radio channels to loosing her voice and living on a daily feed of a handful of chana I think she has far lived her life beyond what anyone around me could experience. Till about sometime I couldn't understand what she meant but as I grew up and had experiences of my own I released the significance of her words.
Here I was panicking because I couldn't get that job I wanted and thinking that it was the biggest loss of my life and in contrast right across the street was a wage worker living on no more than 30 bucks per day looking content with the life he had. Not that I would become one sooner or later but I felt happy and sad at the same time when I noticed that. Happy because I am better off than him any day and probably will never see such days. Sad because how is it that I am not content with whatever I have? How can I be upset about stupid things like a job or some savings or some goal that went underachieved when the quality of life had not dipped so bad, in fact it never stooped so low as that of the wage worker. The profoundity of my Aunt's statement hit me because that's when I realized that I am so well protected and privileged that I might not survive if I had to live that life tomorrow.
It brought in an immense respect for that worker, for the poor and hungry, for the striving and the ambitious and profound gratitude for what I have today, for where I am not today and for where millions are when compared to me. To hell with the minor disappointments in life, to hell with the minor problems in life and to hell with this self sympathetic why is god so unfair. God is unfair to a lot of people below me, he has been very kind to me compared to some people and this is the first step towards my spiritual advancement. I dont think I would have got a white aura by the time I turn 60 but with this realization I hope to be much kinder and helpful towards the underprivileged and more content with where my life is heading. I think for an unenlightened person like me its a first step towards spiritual progress and enlightenment.....
I read somewhere that the life of a hermit is the easiest path one can choose to attain spirituality, such a life is not ridden with any responsibility and the true test of our faith and spirituality is when one learns to lead a spiritual life in this samsara. I dont support any of the views staunchly but it was a fair indicator that I need not be some saint or gnani to at least try being spiritual.
In the past three months I have picked up books like Mahabharata, a pocket Gita (Chapter 4 is something I have bookmarked permanently as I haven't still been able to pull out a conclusive meaning to whats being told to Arjuna on how to lead one's life) and tried deducing what life really is. Haven't answered that yet, no regrets if I dont have an answer to it when I turn old as well but it does sound deep and profound at times.
Words like do your duty and dont desire much or do not expect any fruits for your actions but do it with dedication or have faith in god and words like transcendental knowledge that will carry you through this ocean of life are concepts beyond my ability to fathom and grasp. I feel like a small child who was being taught concepts of gravity and space and time, unable to fathom it i sat in amusement of what a wonder physics was and what did all the people behind it do to discover such things. In fact I am sure some of it I will never be able to even practice no matter how hard I try to decipher it.
To have respect for the minutest of the things living or non living is what it asks you to to. To believe that there is action in inaction and inaction in action (This one took me a lot of time to reflect) is a 360 degree change in my perspective. To accept things/people/life as it is and to do your best and leave everything up to god has somehow lowered my frustration levels. One thing that it helped me with was to have firm faith in my values, values like help others when you can, forgiveness (which i still try to practice every night as a prayer), acceptance of situations with a calm contentedness than getting over anxious or fearful, believing that no harm will befall on you if you do something with good intentions and value for human life regardless of caste, creed, status, country or sex. I had often times wanted to give up these values that I imbibed watching people who influenced me in various ways when I endured distress while I practiced them but isn't it obvious that values are those that stand the test of time and faith.
When I was young, my aunt taught me early on that the poor are the ones who actually strive very hard in life so one shouldn't be arrogant but be humble and kind towards them for they aren't as privileged as we have been and they work very hard to stay alive when compared to us, in fact they will survive better during crisis than us. I truly believe it to be true. Its not about how well read she is but her life experiences with both extreme riches and abject poverty has made her who she is. From sitting in cars and singing in radio channels to loosing her voice and living on a daily feed of a handful of chana I think she has far lived her life beyond what anyone around me could experience. Till about sometime I couldn't understand what she meant but as I grew up and had experiences of my own I released the significance of her words.
Here I was panicking because I couldn't get that job I wanted and thinking that it was the biggest loss of my life and in contrast right across the street was a wage worker living on no more than 30 bucks per day looking content with the life he had. Not that I would become one sooner or later but I felt happy and sad at the same time when I noticed that. Happy because I am better off than him any day and probably will never see such days. Sad because how is it that I am not content with whatever I have? How can I be upset about stupid things like a job or some savings or some goal that went underachieved when the quality of life had not dipped so bad, in fact it never stooped so low as that of the wage worker. The profoundity of my Aunt's statement hit me because that's when I realized that I am so well protected and privileged that I might not survive if I had to live that life tomorrow.
It brought in an immense respect for that worker, for the poor and hungry, for the striving and the ambitious and profound gratitude for what I have today, for where I am not today and for where millions are when compared to me. To hell with the minor disappointments in life, to hell with the minor problems in life and to hell with this self sympathetic why is god so unfair. God is unfair to a lot of people below me, he has been very kind to me compared to some people and this is the first step towards my spiritual advancement. I dont think I would have got a white aura by the time I turn 60 but with this realization I hope to be much kinder and helpful towards the underprivileged and more content with where my life is heading. I think for an unenlightened person like me its a first step towards spiritual progress and enlightenment.....
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