Spirituality - the question of free will and personal choice!
Spirit and Soul: But as a toddler, teenager or youth, we don't have much idea about this spirit. We just have a feeling something greater may be at play here. Many times, even adults have no clue about this realm of spirit world. I also don't have much clue except some intuition and inklings. This unawareness of that greater essence I consider as spirit. The personality of the person has no idea, what this essence that gives life is or does it play a part in the person's life. A deep non-awareness. This non-awareness is the Maya of the person about themselves. I have to differentiate here.
There is the personal Maya as well as the collective Maya or illusion. The personal Maya is when a person is deeply non-aware of themselves. The person may definitely know who they are from their logical mind. This is the family, education, the relatives, career and all other factors that decide who they are for this life. For example, from eighteen years I knew I was pursuing Biology and by twenty-five, I definitely knew I was a scientist following a path of research. This is the logical mind. But the same I had zero clue about a spiritual underground that was sitting beneath this logical structure. Such a person who is deeply non-aware of many parts of themselves, that greater essence, I consider as a spirit.
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| Awareness that brings out our Soul out of a spiritual practice Image credits - Pixabay.com |
When this person through inner contemplation, self-study and mindfulness deeply knows and understands themselves, such a person's higher essence becomes his/her Soul. Because till the person is non-aware of themselves, the spirit cannot guide the person. Due to the non-awareness, the person won't listen to his/her own feelings. So, even if the spirit has its wisdom, the person has no way to access this or the spirit has no way to impart this. The person as well as the higher essence sits on either side of a huge barrier. It is only when the person with deepest inner thought process and contemplation makes a bridge, Antahkaranah, and becomes aware of this higher aspect, works with it and starts to listen to it, the spirit gets transformed to the Soul. Now the person can walk the path of the spirit or more properly the Soul.
Take for example, Sun in astrology. Sun is self-illuminating and is considered the truth of the person. But this truth sits within the chart veiled by layers of aspect the person has. The Sun behaves very differently according to the mind and mindset of the person whose chart it is. In a lower vibratory level of energy, the Sun is the ego, arrogance and dominance. But in the chart of a person who is Self-aware and truthful, the same Sun comes out as truth, light and wisdom. Sun with same energy, but very different manifestations. All of that is decided by the tool the human is fitted with - their mind.
This can be elaborated with a concept. Take the king of Lanka who comes in Hindu mythology. Ravana! He was a scholar and highly educated person. Terrific in astrology, Vedas/ Sastras and in music. In astrology, he has written a treatise called RavanaSamhita (No, I have not read it.) and was a terrific Veena player. There is a story of him making Shiva happy with his Veena playing and getting boons from the lord. To depict his amazing knowledge, he was shown with ten heads. But the arrogance and ego of those ten heads brought him and his kingdom down. Being such a knowledgeable person shouldn't he have realized it was morally and ethically wrong to kidnap another's wife, keep her a prisoner and insisting her to marry him? Did all the knowledge help him to make the best decision for himself and his kingdom? No!
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| Ravana with his ten heads Image credits -Scan/photo by: User:Henryart (who is owner of the original painting/object/photo), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
Modern life: That was the difference between the heads. One even though brimming with knowledge, was full of arrogance, ego and selfishness. The second one with abundant knowledge but having a heart to help another in the time of need. We can extrapolate all these stories into our current reality of modern world. Both Ravana and Sri Krishna were kings of their own countries, but the behavior that came out was very different. Same way, today countries, cities and communities have leaders. The question is what is the mind and mindsets of those leaders? Ravana with ten heads full of ego or Viswaroopa, having thousand heads but having a mind to be everywhere helping and supporting others.
Both of these personalities, as they were kings, can be signified by Sun in the horoscope. Sun is considered the king as well as the truth of the chart. But how is the Sun coming into manifestation? As a dictator or a people's leader? We can see this difference in the case of our physical star called the Sun also. Think about the early morning Sun in a temperate country during the spring- mild, refreshing and inspirational. Think about the same Sun in the middle of the day in the Sahara Desert among the sand dunes. Very different, isn't it? One gives life and Vitamin D as early morning Sun and the other would take away life, if we found ourselves with no place to rest in shade or a bottle of water. Same energy, but very different realities and manifestation.
Let us take this concept further. Think about two leaders, one, Ravana beating down as hate, anger, arrogance and selfishness. By the way, Ravana was a great king to his own people of Lanka, the rakshasas. His anger and evil deeds were towards others who were humans or kings of other places. We can relate this aspect to leaders who only help or encourage their own party or political group and use every evil and immoral deeds to choke the air out of the opposition through vulgar words, poisonous deeds (sometimes literal poison of words or needle). What kind of a leadership is it to bring oneself up by dragging the opposition through mud and dirt? What kind of a leader is that? Is that even leadership?
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| Krishna showing Arjuna, his Universal form, Viswaroopa Image credits - Konddiah Raja, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
Knowledge and wisdom: This also show it is not enough to have abundant amounts of knowledge or information. Above that it is necessary to know how to use this knowledge towards our own upliftment or and of others. Let me, take an example from my own life. I have three Masters in Biology. A nice amount of knowledge and information about a subject area. But these degrees even though gave me knowledge, didn't much work towards my career. I actually wasted around twenty years trying to find a position in Biotechnology. If I hadn't changed my mindset, I could have very well wasted another thirty more years in this area.
But I realized that I had another option of going a very different direction where above spirituality, philosophy, astrology and mythology, I can even use my science and biotechnology knowledge to guide, mentor and inspire others. This blog post is about spiritual Hinduism, for that matter any religion or spiritual practice. Let me come back to that. Krishna, Ravana, Jesus or Allah, the stories and mythology happened thousands of years back. In this twenty first century modern world humans are still wasting their life in the name of religion and fights.
Don't mistake me. I am every bit of a Hindu. But my practice of Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma is very confident to stand on its own two legs with integrity and character, and it doesn't need the crutch of bringing down, devaluing or putting down another person, religion or spiritual practice or any way of life, for that matter. When I have deepest confidence in my own way of life or practice, why should I be afraid of another's way of life or practice? When one is confident, how can be they fearful of another and their practice, right?
So, what is actually the driving force of Hindutva or any fundamentalist movements for that matter, whether it is Islamic or another one? It is the fear that is the driving force. Fear that their way of life or religion would be destroyed or decimated. But if we are confident, very confident in our own practice, who can really topple us? For example, I have a very personal connection with the God Ganesha, Goddess Lalitha Tripurasundari and God Vishnu in the form of my manasaguru, Poornathrayeesa. A personal connection.
No amount of any one saying or debating with me is going to change that. No! Because my faith comes from my own personal experiences. I don't need any stories or mythology or boasting for that. I know these energies from my own personal experiences. But these experiences are mine and I cannot go and paste it on another. But to stand confidently in my spiritual practice, I need to know deeply these concepts and should have the intention of making it work for my life, career and creativity. Instead of taking these concepts whether from Hinduism, Christianity or Islam for oneself, whichever religion they are from, and making it work for one's life and bringing it out brilliantly for ourselves, what are humans doing? We are blindly believing our own personal religion/concepts and fighting with others for it. For myself, I will very much use any concept from any religion, if it works for me ethically, for my Dharma and my life. But I have zero intention of making another do what I am doing.
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| Co-existence of world religions Image credits - Pixabay.com |
Spiritual Hinduism-not Hindutva: My personal Gods within my heart, Krishna, Vishnu, Lalitha or Ganesha are not afraid that if I say a prayer to Mother Mary or Jesus Christ or to a Sufi Master, they would vanish into thin air. I have discussed this concept before of faith and belief. Belief as a concept is given to us by a book or religion or someone and we blindly take it. But faith is to have our own personal experiences where we are given a first-hand experience with that particular energy.
So, in such a case if we truly understand all the help, we can get to traverse this journey of life, why just keep it only with Hindu Gods. If at any juncture Mother Mary, Jesus or Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer, Rajastan, India can extend their help, why not? Right? That is the difference between spiritual Hinduism and Hindutva or Hinduism as a religion. Spiritual Hinduism or for that matter any true spiritual practice is open and deeply accepting of another. This concept is not for Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma alone. But for any religion with deep spiritual practice where the spirit or Soul comes as energy to lead the person.
This Soul or the Soul guidance come as the Gods we choose from whichever religion or practice we choose. For example, being a Hindu I know the energies of the Hindu Gods deeply. But as a spiritual person I would visit with as much reverence and respect, whether it is the Mahalakshmi temple of Kolhapure, Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai, India or St.Patrick's Cathedral in NewYork, USA. Because from my perspective, the religion or spiritual practice should and must work for the human and not the other way around.
Take any fundamentalist movements for religion, power or politics, killing or hurting another human in the name of God or religion or politics is not okay. But removing every concept and becoming a person who just embraces the logical mind also is not okay. My question, then would be if I remove every experience, pooja, festival, rituals or get together my family or my group celebrated and stopped it, who am I? What is my identity? See, the difficulty people are having when they are asked to throw away everything because some leader decided to write some thoughts down in a book or a dairy.
This is where the concept of free will and personal choice comes into the picture. The freedom of will and choice for a person to choose how they want to live and lead their life as long as they are not hurting, killing or obstructing anyone. So, in my thoughts a Hindu has as much right to practice their religion, as a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew, a Sikh or an atheist or an agnostic to practice their concepts. Then, nobody is wrong and everyone is right.
It is when standing in our religion or concepts and telling another is wrong, we also become wrong. Because we are choosing to embrace our own concepts and asking another to drop theirs? So, in such a case, we can have our free will and personal choice and another cannot have theirs? From this standpoint if we look at the world, anything that is not being allowed because another group thought it is not okay is totally wrong - whether it is Uighurs in China, Rohingya in Burma, Yezidis in Syria or Hindus or Muslims in many places of India. Because due to regional conflicts people are not allowed to live and thrive as they are and they want to be.
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| Co-existence of religions and humans Image credits - Pixabay.com |
In between those fights we would glaze over real global issues like climate change, world hunger and poverty, disappearing resources and increasing population. The fights we are having now for religion and politics then would transform into fights for resources like Earth, water and air! And those fights would be much more bitter and violent! So, let humanity try to find common grounds to work together to negate our issues and problems. My thoughts - Better late than never!
Thank you for reading! Hope all of you are keeping yourself hale and healthy. The appearance of yet another variant of the virus called O-Micron doesn't help a bit this scenario though. But when the Universe gives us surf waves of life, it is better to keep a surf board handy and surf through the waves of life, rather than getting bogged down by the small details of life. Any way all of us have to live. So, why not live joyfully surfing with a tune on our lips rather than carrying life as a heavy burden on our backs. Humming a tune is better than a load too heavy to carry, right?
I have another announcement to make. From 2022 onwards, I am planning to write the blog once every two weeks. My intuition and spiritual guides are insisting it is high time I put more attention to my business and store. I am not stopping the blog, but instead of every week, I will be publishing a blog every other week. That way, I get ample time to concentrate on my business as well as the blog. Of course, life as Self, kids, parents, spouse, siblings, family, home, pets, friends, acquaintances and all the other aspects of living are always there. Just slightly shifting my focus to bring a newer aspect to the front and center. Definitely, I am continuing the blog and would write more concepts. For sure!