A very interesting question was posed by someone who came seeking guidance last week. “Sir, I am deeply spiritual. My day doesn’t begin without an hour-long dedicated puja in service to our family deity. Yet, I am not at peace. My restlessness and anger don’t go away. I am not able to perform well even at my works. Why? And what is the way out?”
Had you been spiritual, by now you would have been able to be in better control of yourself, as your thought process should have registered considerable improvement. Remember, perception drives a being — what you aspire in life or the way you react and respond to the issues confronting you. This is primarily guided by the defining principle of each individual mind, coming as it may as Karmic carryover from the past. It, thus, becomes incumbent upon us to be conscious about setting right our thought process, if at all we wish to improve our quality of life. Evidently, the process adopted should be such as could reach out the inner realms of mind and modify our thought process. Spirituality is the way forward.
You rather seem to be a religious person emotionally committed to a set belief. You have been offering puja to your dedicated God on the belief that you may benefit out of the boon granted to you. But nothing of the sort happens. Remember, you are bound by a cause-effect chain. In this scheme of things, a cause predates every happening, which becomes the cause for future happening. So, you happen to be a beneficiary or victim of how you look at life and the way you conduct on day-to-day basis. It works almost in a self-automated process. There is no external agency that would be overseeing our Karma and accordingly rewarding or punishing us. Even following religious practice, your thought process could have undergone change if you could imbibe the attributes identified with the deity you worship.
“You mean spirituality and religion are different?” the man countered. Yes of course. A spiritual person may or may not be religious. Spirituality in fact, is a way of life, which is neither moralistic, idealistic, nor ritualistic. It rather takes you through awareness route. The purpose is to evolve into a good human being having full human potential unfolded with all its humane sense and virtues. Following which, you may lay down the ground to live as a dynamic being in peace and harmony with the self as well as the world around, and with relative ease and comfort. The world may then turn into a beautiful place to live.
The process as such begins with self-reflection upon one’s own true-nature. You, thus, get to know your own mirror-image, with all its seed-potential and fault-lines. It, thus, offers you with the opportunity to purify your mind of its limitations and hone your potentials. A purified mind makes accessible its full landscape with its limitless powers. With such an expanded vision, you look at issues in hand with an open mind, free from any preconditioning whatsoever, and so get to know them in the right perspective due. Accordingly, you pick up the right lead. Also, true humane spirit and virtues, intrinsic to a being, which otherwise remained dormant because of clouded vision, comes into full play.
Towards the next step, you explore what life is about, individually and collectively. With an already purified mind, you get to understand the existential realities holistically exactly as it is made out. You then get to know that though individually we may be under limitations but in togetherness we make out a wholesome self-supporting world. You thus realise that the world is a unified organism where no individual holds a reality independent of the totality. Consequently, you give up your assumed sense of perfection, and start looking at things realistically. You no longer live under any self-delusion. Also, you begin to engage with the world around with a sense of equanimity. You, thus, understand not only your own self, but also how you fit into the larger game-plan of life. That makes you conduct in life as an informed being with relative ease and comfort. This is not to underrate the role that religiosity can play in life. All that is needed is to give a spiritual turn to the religious process. Here comes the role of a Guru. He may intuitively figure out your fault lines and accordingly, put you through such practices as would help modify your thought process.
The writer is an astrologer, vastu consultant and spiritual counsellor. Write to him atG-102, Bharat Nagar, New Friends Colony, New Delhi – 110 025
Tel: 91-11-49848475/9818037273
Email: pioneerqueries@bharatastro.com
Website: www.bharatastro.com
