Can't afford to say no for this discipline!!

gtam · January 2, 2001

Hi,

The nature of human beings is to always question when it comes to spirituality.This is done essentially because of the discipline involved in it.

Man from the time of his birth has been disciplined in one way or another.The newborn gets used to waking,eating,diaper changes,sleeping according to day and night.Eventually as the baby becomes a toddler every naughty deed is accordingly disciplined.The growing up years are all disciplined and after a point the child realises that it is very rewarding to be disciplined."Teenage" comes the phase when again the processes go on and then now becoming an adult the individual subjects himself to specific channels of education were discipline is involved.Marriage,Raising kids again of your own,retiring,end of earthly life has all along been through discipline as we notice.

It is tough no doubt like on a Monday morning we have that very sad feeling as one knows "schedule" begins again.Nevertheless we have to do it and we know if we stray away we end up in more trouble.Worshipping God in whose creation we have been following all this discipline also involves some discipline.Why is it sometimes we do everything like our showering,cleaning,eating,working,sleeping but put our appointment with GOD to the last or if even skip it.

Sometimes when we are tired we even think "oh everything needs to be done in a orderly fashion,can't we afford to miss our time with God (taking for granted) there is always a tommorow".It is for this reason perhaps spirituality has always had discipline.

In folllowing this we notice that differences are united making the saying "In God we are one".The difficulties of day to day life and the associatted stress with it is easened.The realisation that none of them affect the soul,the constant striving we do for love,the quest for peace is achieved.

The reward for this discipline is far more than the sum result of all the disciplines mankind follows that the testimonies for this is found in religion.Some of them are beyond the perception of our material senses that we find it hard to believe.The discipline of spirituality is so pwerful that it makes us perfect ,so we understand the testimonies and achieve the ultimate service of God( the creator of all disciplines).

Gauracandra · January 2, 2001

Hi Gtam,

That was very well said. Often the discipline of religion is meant to keep us from being whimsical in our pursuits. These regulative principles are not meant to cause us distress, rather they will prevent much needless suffering from occuring.

Gauracandra

Dasha · January 3, 2001

Dear gtam,

I agree with all of what you are saying, nevertheless whatever you say is much more easy to say than to practice.

Of course you have to do your duty (= follow a kind of discipline) as well materialy that spiritualy. But there is a great difference which is that if you don't perform your material duty you will get an immediate result, whereas if you don't perform your spiritual duty the result is not comming as quickly.

In fact maya (illusion) is so strong that if you have any doubt in your mind about performing your whoshiping of God, It will give you all good reasons not to do it.

So unless you are very fixed up in your mind or you are in a very good association of devotees, a steady performance of spiritual discipline is not so evident even if you are convince of it's necessity.

Your servant

gtam · January 3, 2001

Hi,

It is indeed a very agreed fact that putting it to practice is unbeievebly hard.

However it can be compared to that of a shot when we go to get one the doctor knows its painful,you know its painful but both know its for your good so you go ahead and get it.

Similiarly we have go through it in this life which is just a fraction of a second like that of a shot.

As we all know that the time factor is completely different in the elevated planets above earthly time factors. We recieve the benefit only in the life after but thats like the benefit we get for being vaccinated for life.I hope the point made is clear.

Its very hard,really hard but than not taking it and facing ugly consequences lets just go ahead and take a shot at it like the "SHOT" mentioned above with just only the aspiration of being freed for the rest of lifetime.

The effect of Maya is very immediate and it can be spotted early by those who had taken up this spiritual discipline and just fell out of it and noticed that they only fell into Maya's hands.The realization is so immediate that one runs back to God pleading to be aplologised and helped out of the clutches od Maya immediately.

Its harsh to put it this way but its like"with God or without"more like "do or die".What was mean't here is that an individual gets to gradually sense that either you follow the discipline or you suffer the burning consequences.

Even as saying this I am not sure how we are going to do it but for now we know this is the truth,may be every day we have to attempt at it a little by little.

May be this is the stage when we stop asking all the other needs of ours from GOd and just ask for the ability to do unhindered service.We don't have to leave our material duties and become a recluse but instead submit and surrender the results to God.If you write ,write for him,if you paint,paint for him,if work on the computer,discuss withother devotees.One can figure it out over a point of time.

Thanks

Dasha · January 4, 2001

Hi,

I am not sure to anderstand what you mean when you say:

--As we all know that the time factor is completely different in the elevated planets above earthly time factors. We recieve the benefit only in the life after but thats like the benefit we get for being vaccinated for life.I hope the point made is clear.--

I am not so sure that spiritual activites have to be perform to get result only in our next lifetime. In fact the results are practically speaking immediate otherwise nobody would be able to maintain a strict and austere way of life without getting any joy in is heart. Even yogis can perform great austerites only because they get satisfaction by executing these austerites.

You cannot give up a pleasure if you don't feel a greater pleasure by this abandon.

The only thing is that we all have a different level for this capacity to give up material attachements. We are just ready to give it up to some level. When our "breaking point" is reach, the tendancy to go back to temporary gratification manifest very urgely.

Of course nothing is loose, but we have to again suffer in order to be push again to spiritual practices. And little by little we will progress on the path up to the point where we will get a true realisation and never come back to material sense gratification.

At that time maya will become more and more subtle, but this is an other story.

Haribol