Spiritual insight

                                                         

                          According to one of the Siddhas I met along my spiritual journey, life is a constant struggle and full of compromises. A constant struggle because, to buy happiness one must struggle. One has to slug and pay for everything one receives in life. Everyone has to toil and slug hard to sustain the wheel of life with their partner and provide for their children. Full of compromises, because, one cannot fulfill each and every desire one has in life. One does not achieve everything one desires in life. In the material life, a life of satisfaction cannot be met without the constant chugging of the law of Karma(Action). Likewise, in the spiritual life, a state of no-suffering cannot be contacted without undergoing a rigorous spiritual exercise with the dormant human soul. The constant gold rush by exercising the human physical body and the brain five days a week, exhausting oneself out completely, to earn the gold or currency one wants to buy satisfaction and happiness to one’s soulmate and family is the material life. On the other hand, the constant trial and challenges along one’s spiritual journey for exercising and trying to rejuvenate one’s dormant human soul and restoring it with full awareness to ultimately lead one to the state of no-suffering is the spiritual life. No pain no gain. Either one slugs or one does not get the desired fruit. You need to exercise your physical body and the brain for the Worldy life and for the spiritual life, it is in exercising the asleep human soul.

                           How can we cope with the challenges, difficulties, sorrow and tragedies of human life? There are no problems with a spiritual seeker the moment one transcends desires or reaches the state of Self-Knowledge. The spiritual aspirant who has transcended the fifth plane is without a single problem in life because he is a man of no desires. When there are no desires in one’s life, how can there be any problems? On the other hand, in the material World, there is a  need for a realistically trained and weather beaten human brain to take the highs and lows of one’s life with great equanimity.

“If you live on the knife-edge reality of things, the mind becomes a beautifully tuned instrument”

                                                                                                                   -Louis Lamour

                         The other way to adapt and evolute along the various trials of human life would be to be spiritually wise enough to transcend the various challenging and difficult situations.

                                              “Wisdom is the principle thing”

                                                                                         -Buddha

                            Superficial material wisdom can help, but a person filled with spiritual insight can guide one’s life through troubled waters like a lighthouse that guide’s ships to their respective ports. Surface level material wisdom can only go as far as solving problems the inefficient and temporary way but the human intellect equipped with Universal and spiritual insights can make a person wise enough to apply the principles and everlasting solutions to the concerned human crisis and live a life of great peace and harmony. The various storehouses of spiritual wisdom is through metaphysical studies, through spiritual communions or satsangs, the medium of Infinite source of knowledge gained by transcending the higher spiritual planes or by getting ourselves acquainted with the laws of life along our gradual spiritual awakening process.

                            Metaphysical studies has the power to convert a life of darkness to one of vibrant light. A life without a single ray of hope can radiate with the visionary insights of an Enlightened Being if one is a reader of spiritual wisdom. The most incurable of human ailments like an onset of the most dangerous form of psychosis can be healed by being an ardent follower of Gyan Yog or by reading the profound spiritual knowledge conveyed to us by God realized beings who have visited planet earth down the ages. All great leaders and statesman have been voracious readers, but the wisest insights one can get to disperse the heavy dark clouds or sufferings in one’s life is through spiritual reading. Solutions to all kinds of Worldly problems can be found through Universal and spiritual laws dictated in spiritual books.

“When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagavad Gita and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately  begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming  sorrow. Those who meditate on the Gita will derive fresh joy and new meanings from it every day.”

                                                                                                                  -Mahatma Gandhi

                       Some recommended saints who have written spiritual classics are Sri Sathya Sai Baba, J.Krishnamurti, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda, Paramhansa Yogananda, Nisargadatta  Maharaj, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo, Buddha, Shivapuri Baba, Kripaluji, Sri Chinmoy, Mr.Eckhart Tolle, Mr.Dipak Chopra, Dr,Wayne. W. Dyer, Sri Sri Ravishanker etc.

                         Being a regular participant of spiritual communions and spiritual television shows can boost your spirit and morale to great heights. The sum and substance of spiritual television shows, spiritual communions or satsangs and reading metaphysical literature is just about the same. All of these spiritual sources gets one tuned with Universal and spiritual laws which can compose and collect oneself to give one great spiritual highs or a great peace of mind. Getting close to God  natured beings and devotees of God, seeking deep, profound insights on valid spiritual doctrines from them, making spiritual friends and participating in spiritual dialogues, listening to spiritual and devotional songs, living a balanced life based on moral and spiritual values, going to temples, mosques and churches with overpowering spiritual energy, and if you don’t want to be spiritual , by being religious enough to participate in daily worship, prayer to your respective man-made Gods which can fill yourself with an overpowering strength, devotion and the faith needed to carry on with your life are some of the things which can make us extremely positive, make us realize that human life is a boon and something more than we deserve and give us great glimpses,  hope and optimism that mortal life is  worth living to the fullest and not to be taken for granted.

                           All the Divine theories you read in spiritual books are the knowledge realized by highly evolved spiritual beings by transcending  the higher spiritual planes. Somewhere in the spiritual capital, India, a Sri Sathya Sai Baba, a Ramana Maharshi, a Paramhansa Yogananda, a Sri Sri Ravishanker, a Sri Aurobindo, a Swami Vivekananda, a Kripaluji is born and spread spiritual knowledge to people in order to help them from their hopeless plight. In the Western countries and in the U.S.A., God sees the need to help the completely stressed out Westerners and Americans and when God sees the need to curb down the atheistic values spreading and propogating within the Western boundaries, He create’s great saints in the form of a Dr.Wayne.W.Dyer., Mr.Dipak Chopra and Mr.Eckhart Tolle to help a God abiding country like U.S.A. and the surrounding countries with spiritual wisdom and spiritual exercises to de-stress them.  But, all of this is happening to fulfill the demands of the consciousness revolution that is going on in the World right now. The vast source of spiritual knowledge present in books dictated by these saints is a must read, both for the material and spiritual seekers. To maneuver one’s life with a level headed approach for the materialists  and to guide ones  spiritual life to the appointed spiritual destiny for the spiritualists.

                         Among the four sources of spiritual wisdom mentioned above the only source of insight to establish oneself in spiritual perfection of permanent bliss would be to get acquainted with the Divine laws of life by restoring ones Self with full awareness. Until that moment when one does not transcend the human ego and emotions by getting established in Self-Knowledge and realizing the Divine laws of life, tackling material issues with spiritual knowledge will be like taking an Aspirin  to treat your Migraine.  Until one does not get to realize the Divine laws of life, and does not dissolve one’s ego and emotions by transcending them totally  by getting to the superconscious planes one cannot stumble upon permanent and everlasting solutions to human problems. The individual human ego and emotions is bound to make you falter time and again and make you suffer no matter how wise you are. In other words, finding everlasting solutions to all individual human suffering is by transcending the superconscious states or more better, by reaching the Nirvanic state  and getting oneself well acquainted with the Divine laws of life.

                          Let me give you a few examples of how powerful spiritual knowledge and insights are. Several years ago, I dreaded the thought of being around meditators, Siddhas and spiritually evolved Beings. I would be filled with anxiety, fear and be a bundle of nerves just being around them and while communing with them, because I knew they could read my anxious  thoughts. Suddenly, one day, I came across this spiritual line-“You are not your mind”. I stopped getting scared after getting to imbibe this spiritual teaching no matter what obscene and profane thoughts crossed my mind while interacting with these spiritual Beings.

                       I am a lover of strong tea and cigarettes. I am a chain smoker. A few years ago, I pondered that this habit would soon take a toll on my health and that I had to be careful. Just about that time, I came across the following lines in Power,Freedom and Grace, a book by Mr.Dipak Chopra.

“With each breath we inhale billions of atoms that ultimately end up as heart cells, kidney cells, brain cells, and so on. With each breath we exhale bits and pieces of our tissues and organs and exchange them with the atmosphere of this planet. Radioactive isotope studies show that the body replaces 98 percent of all its atoms in less than one year. The body makes a new stomach lining every five days, a new skin once every month, a new liver every six weeks, and a new skeleton every three months. Even our DNA, the genetic material that holds memories of billion of years of evolution, wasn’t the same six weeks ago”.

                                                                                            -Dipak Chopra
                                                                                             (Book:Power Freedom and Grace)

                        If I thought I would die of colon cancer by the harmful chemicals of strong tea deposited on it,  I had gotten myself wrong because the cells and walls of my colon is renewed every few days. If I perceived I would be a lunger, contract Asthma or die of lung cancer, the truth is that I get a new lung every few weeks. We don’t die young or untimely because of the various unnatural conditions we are exposed to but  we shed our mortal bodies and pass away into other realms only after our evolutionary  process and mission on planet earth is over. This does not mean you can do anything you want. Have fun the responsible way. For example, if I have a habit of taking cigarettes I should sweat my body out through exercises, take a rich diet, eat more vegetables and fruits and things like taking lots of green tea if I want to beat off the threats of contracting cancer.

                       I had the habit of getting identified with the opposite sex and the transient and unreal along my spiritual journey. There came a moment when I was at the spiritual threshold and got into a face-to-face confrontation with the unknown because I got so much drawn by sex that I was terrified of the onset of the dawn of Samadhi and started feeling repulsive about the Nirvanic state. I sought the advise of my T.M. instructor and he told me to go through Power, Freedom and Grace. I purchased the book and by the turn of the second chapter got to realize that which clings us to the transient and unreal, the human senses, is what causes suffering. I, then further realised that until one does not transcend the human senses one is forever into the field of suffering, restricted from the permanent field of happiness and the doors to higher states of consciousness closed forever. I moved on to the third  chapter and got to realize that social conditioning conditions and blinds us into believing that relationships, sex and the conjugal life are the greatest sources of fulfillment in human life whereas the only source of fulfillment lies in being a spiritually awakened being . After being Enlightened enough by Mr.Dipak Chopra’s book, Power Freedom and Grace, I immediately took a U-Turn, bade a farewell to transient and unreal aspects, the physical body, sex, relationships, the thoughts of getting married and here I am today, blackmailing all of you to start your spiritual endeavours  and reach the Kingdom of God.

                           If  we find the material World fascinating, fine !,but let us not forget to stack the small shelves of our bedroom with spiritually rich books, pouring through a few lines everyday before going to sleep so that great spiritual insights shall come to us as solutions to unburden the vast suffering and challenges in our lives. The more wiser option would be to inquire into the real meaning and goal of human existence, get to realize that the only worthwhile objective is to awaken to our deepest Self, never while away a single moment and start our eternal quest not one, five or ten years from now but right now and this very instant. It is in striving to reach perfection, the state of the highest Eternal Bliss, the state of Sat-Chit-Anand, the Ultimate goal of us human beings and not in whiling  away our entire lives tending to petty material matters. May we all abide in the Kingdom of God in one or many of our lives in the Cosmos. 
                                                (This article is the copyright of Ashwas Thapa)