The Spirit Of Spirituality: Preparations For A Spiritual Journey

Friday, March 29, 2013

Preparations For A Spiritual Journey

This is one of the articles in a book I have written on spirituality. The book is available on Amazon.com.

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Spiritual knowledge is the ultimate knowledge and nothing can give the eternal bliss that spiritual knowledge can lead to. However, just as it is not easy to get into a college level course without adequate preparation and foundation, trying to attain spiritual knowledge without adequate preparation is a futile exercise.

Once a beggar came to a charitable person’s house and asked for food and spread out his his cloth to take the food. The charitable person looked at the beggar and said that he would give him enough food, but on a condition. He had to go to the nearby river and get him water. The beggar did not have anything but the cloth. So, off he went to the river. He dipped the cloth in the river, collected water and started walking back. The walk was long and it being summer, the water quickly evaporated and there was nothing to give to the charitable man. So, the man asked the beggar to go again and try to get water. So, off the beggar went and the same story repeated. This went on for couple of rounds till the beggar got frustrated and shouted, “How can I get water in this cloth? Give me food or I will move on”. The charitable man smilingly asked the beggar to now look at the cloth. It was now spotlessly clean due to repeated dipping in the water. So, even though the beggar was not intending to clean the cloth, his act of getting water had made the cloth absolutely clean and ready to accept food.

In the same way, on our journey to gain the “food” of spiritual knowledge, we have to ensure that the “dirty cloth” of our mind is cleaned up. It did not matter to the cloth that the beggar did not intend to clean it. But the very act of multiple washing in quest of food cleaned up the cloth and prepared it for food. Similarly, there can be several routine acts that we can do or are told to do by religion/spiritual leaders. Even if we follow some of them blindly, they have the advantage of cleaning up the mind and opening it to spiritual knowledge.

Now, what is this impurity of the mind? Our minds are full of desires, hatred, jealousy, greed, ego to name a few. Owing to all this, the mind is always restless and looking to the world of objects to get what it desires, be angry if someone takes away the objects it has , jealous if someone else gets the objects it desires or fearful that someone will take away its objects. Due to this excessive focus on meeting its own needs, the mind is restless and is unable to focus on the higher thing and is not ready to be able to take the spiritual knowledge.

In the Indian tradition, there are several rote methods to engage the mind and keep it away from the impurities. Each of us has to find our own way of these "rotes" to enable cleansing of our minds. I thought of listing some of the activities that I have been following and I hope that like the beggar who unknowingly made his cloth clean for food, these daily activities that I do will make my mind ready for spiritual knowledge. In the morning when we wake up, the first thought is “I exist” and only then the other thoughts start. I try to take the Lord’s name as I get up. I tell one of my favorite prayers. I pray that the Lord protect everyone and make life beautiful and put my foot down. Before I step on the floor, I follow another routine. For most of us from India, earth is called as mother earth. So, the floor in effect is mother earth and what is the first thing I am doing as I get up. I am stepping on my mother. So, I request forgiveness and permission to step on the floor. As I shower, rather than sing in my horrendous voice and scare away all the donkeys, I tell the various prayers that I can remember. I definitely do my daily prayers after my shower. As I touch my first bite of breakfast, I thank the Lord for having given me my food for the day. As I drive to office, rather than listening to depressing news or the mindless songs that pass off as music these days, I listen to spiritual lectures. As I climb the stairs to go to my block, for each step I climb, I tell the Lord’s name. As I log on to my system, the first site I go to is a charitable site which provides free food/books etc so long as I click on a sponsor.

I have noticed that I start my day with a positive thought. At work, in-spite of various tensions, I keep a positive outlook normally. The above activities are just a sub-set of the various activities prescribed by religion/tradition which I have customized so that I can do without any major effort and integrated into my life. I encourage readers to try and customize such activities in their own life. Whether it opens up the mind for spiritual knowledge or not, it has the great advantage of building a positive outlook in life. Try it and give me your feedback.

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.

1. My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality