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Human race has one religion- it is the quest for happiness. Each of our activity is motivated consciously or unconsciously to get better feeling. Even a thief and a murderer rationalize their actions in term of seeking 'happiness'. We have many beliefs to achieve it; wealth, power, knowledge, truth and so on. Among them, it is amazing that power and wealth have never failed to confuse human race as a synonym of happiness. And, this chaos of struggle to achieve more, makes a person machine depleting much of his life energy. However, in this world of discord, there are still few people who believe and seek happiness primarily in recognizing IT within. They may not be 'religious' but are 'spiritual'.
Here is another aspect which always fascinates me. There is no single person in human history who could have ever become happy by searching it outside. Alexander to Einstein, Russel to Shaw, all found emptiness within during their death. One the contrary, there is no single person in human race who ever have tried honestly to seek peace within and failed to achieve so. In spite of this marvelous fact, why the wealth and power always entice us as synonym of happiness? In great extent, so-called religious activities are also aimed to generate more coin and influence.
Why it is so? There are five delusions about spirituality since ages..
1) Spiritual quest is for few excluded person who are gifted and destined to achieve self- realization.
2) How can we do meditation when the world around us is filled with chaos? There was never perfect peace in world nor will be. In this dialectic world new controversies and disputes, physical or mental form, come and go. A sick person is arguing, " I will not take medicine until i will be healthy".
3) Spiritual activities are for older age and retired life. Phew! we lose all our creative energy in other things and hope to happen good thing with exhausted body and mind. Importantly, who knows we will live until our old age.
4) We have no time for meditation.
It is matter of priority. We never say- we have no time to eat, bath and sleep. We don't say-we have no time for busying in nonsense task, spending hours in TV, seeking something in internet to kill our boring. . We somehow manage. See our priority list, spirituality is probably at the last of the menu.
5) Spiritual practice is for elite and wealthy people.
In the medieval time bathing, shaving and tooth-brushing were termed as activities of elite class. It is a cleaning process and in reach to anybody whoever like to do so.
Very inspiring one. I also think that Spiritual activities are not for older age and retired life.
ReplyDeleteI also belong to the group, who blames 'time' to hide laziness for not separating few moments for regular meditation, but yes...deep inside I also can't lie myself.
Nice post!
I really liked this post, especially the delusions about spirituality. I love the fact that you remind your readers that being spiritual is for everyone at any time in their lives.
ReplyDeleteSara B. Healy
www.sarahealy.com
Hi Netra! This is a great reminder for us all! We are all spiritual beings and connection with our "higher self" and the universe is so important. Age, wealth, and status does not limit our abilities, only our mind.
ReplyDeleteThank you for adding me to your blog roll...you have been added to mine :)
Dilip jee, Sara and Caroline
ReplyDeleteThank you for your visit and sharing your ideas. We have to remind and watch ourselves frequently. Together we grow.
Ps. Thank you Caroline for including me in your BlogRoll.
ReplyDeleteNice post Netra jee!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the human race has only one religion: the quest for happiness! people always try to rationalize the things and justify their evil activities. But, I wonder if one can fool himself/herself. so, people try to learn from their past and accordingly modify their doings. However, most of them simply have a very 'wrong' idea of the 'right'! thus, people tend to think that 'wealth & power' have a potential to provide them with 'happiness'. But, people are no happier than they were 50 years ago, even though incomes have multiplied many times since then. In fact, the more we acquire it, the more insecure we become about our future! However, to be able to understand/ realize this 'phenomenon' better, it takes a lot of time & energy as such people are exhausted. people tend to turn to 'spirituality' and we often associate 'spirituality' with old age. The point of fact is that at times, donating to charities does help to generate more happiness as such people claim to feel a "warm glow" after their contributions!
Regarding your point that we have no time for meditation, I agree that it's a matter of prioritizing our life. Most of the people believe in doing things that impact/ affect their life immediately (short term objectives). Like you have mentioned that we never say- we have no time to eat, bath and sleep; because we know these necessities through our respective body organs. But, to perceive that meditation is too very important and impacts our life in a positive way, we need to analyze/ think a bit which is not very common in the world where 'objectivity' rules!
Once again, a big 'thumbs-up' for this inspiring post!
Deependraji,
ReplyDeleteHow wondefully you fulfil the lack of explanation in the post! Thank you for your insight :).
Sumiran, I really enjoyed this article. When I am in chaos is when I need to meditate, get quiet and listen, the most. For those who are knowingly on a spiritual quest, getting back to who we are is our ultimate goal rather than happiness. Of course, who we truly are is love so we would be happy. I believe that we are all on a spiritual journey. Some of us are awake to that journey and others are still asleep. They will wake up eventually.
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