The spirituality

The objective of our life is to form a contact with God and the process through which we unite is called the spiritual process.

Spirituality should not be misunderstood. Many of us do not know that there is a difference between religion and spirituality and it is essential to grown up with  realize the difference. All of us have grown up with one religion or the other. Religion has no doubt established God in our lives. We have become aware of God through our parents and have accompanied them to temples. Religion was never started by the original saint; it was turned into religion by the devotees later on and then as time passed the message, which was originally spiritual, got lost and we got involved in the surface part of religion which is as it stands today—full of rites and rituals without much substance. However, religion has played a role but the time has come to go beyond religion and reach the Spirit. Spiritualty is related to the Spiriti.e. the soul. In other words, the individual soul is a part of the universal soul. God is absolute and total perfection, a perfect force which permeates this world and guides its destiny.

The question, therefore, arises is that if God is total perfection and He resides within us then why are we not perfect. The reason is that we are not even aware of our soul. Our involvement today is more with th surface life which is governed by three levels of consciousness—the mental, emotional and the physical. We have mind which observes, thinks, analyses, remembers and is the best instrument available to us today on which we rely heavily. Secondly, we live on an emotional level and it is through the heart tht we feel emotions such as love, hate, envy etc. lastly there is the physical consciousness which governs the body. To most of us the body is perhaps the most important thing. This is something which all our five senses are aware of –touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing. We are so involved in these three levels that we are completely unaware most of the time of our soul which lives within us and is not reachable by the five senses. Because we are not aware of the Spirit within we are cut off from perfection and that is why our lives are so imperfect. It is because of this reason that since time immemorial effort is being made to find our soul, unite with it, so that our lives can become perfect.

Living at these levels of consciousness we find that our lives are full od friction and struggle. There is no peace in any relationship—individual, community or nations. The reason is that the mind, the emotional being and the body are not in harmony with each other. Mind pulls in one direction, the heart in another and the body has its own demands. If an individual is not at peace with himself he cannot have a harmonious relationship with others. This is the crux of the problem. It is also clear that it is not possible for the mind, the heart and the body to come to a peaceful arrangement. It seems that they are like fighting children who cannot get along. The only way is that they come under the control of the Spirit within. As the Spirit comes forward and begins to influence more and more it unifies the mind, heart and the body. As the three levels of consciousness come under the light of the Spirit we will find that there is harmony within us leading to a progressive harmonyoutside.