What is Spirituality?

03-08-2006, 01:08 AM

omnipresent Spirit is called sthitapragya (a person of steadfast wisdom)”.
Here the meaning of soul is one’s own real self, which is eternal, pure and
indestructible. The essence of spirituality is atmagyana- to realize that our
true self is the spark of the Cosmic Self-Spirit. To remain unshakably poised
in this awareness means spiritual living. It is the ultimate aim of human life.
Scriptures and philosophical treatises explain this truth by giving the example
of an empty pot and the ether. An empty pot has nothing in it. The ether is
also limitless empty space. Therefore the empty space within the pot can be
considered as limited ether. If the pot is broken, the space contained in it
merges back into the
limitless space. Reality becomes apparent when the pot is broken.
Similarly all apparently separate entities are mere bubbles over the limitless
ocean of Being. We do not experience this truth because of our false sense of
ego. In the example discussed, the pot represents our ego and the ether the
universal Being. When the separative illusory ego vanishes, the individual soul
unites with God- the universal Being. This realization has been referred to in
the Bhagvad Gita (13/11), “The universe has no existence apart from the one
Cosmic Conscious Reality”. A shift in the perception reveals that we are all
the same consciousness, manifesting in different bodies, the way leaves are
part of the same tree. Conventional knowledge tells us that we are separate;
higher wisdom informs us that we are
One. The following extract from Evelyn Underhill’s book titled “
What is spiritual life?” gives wonderfully inspiring description in poetic
prose of ‘ What spirituality is all about?’. Most of our
conflicts and difficulties come from trying to deal with the spiritual and
practical aspects of our life separately instead of realizing them as part of
one whole. If our practical life is centered on our own interests, cluttered up
by possessions, distracted by ambitions, passions, wants and worries, beset by a
sense of our own rights and importance or anxieties for our own future, or
longings for our own success, we need not
expect that our spiritual life will be a contrast to all this. The soul’s
house is not built on such a convenient plan; there are a few soundproof
partitions in it. Only when the conviction- not merely the idea- that the
demand of the Spirit, however inconvenient, comes first and IS first, rules the
whole of it, will those objectionable noises die down which have a way of
penetrating into the nicely furnished little oratory, and drowning all the
quieter voices by their din. Yet there is no real occasion for the
tumult, strain, conflict, anxiety, once we have reached the living conviction
that God is ALL. All takes place with Him, He alone matters, He alone is. Our
spiritual life is His affair; because whatever we may think to the contrary is
really produced by his steady attractions, and our humble and self-forgetful
response to it. It consists in being drawn, at His pace and in His way, to the
place where He wants us to be; and not the place we fancied for ourselves.
source : www.awgp.org , http://www.akhand-jyoti.org
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