How do I balance both spiritual and material life?
Written by DadaBhagwan
Lord Krishna knew that Arjuna’s battlefield existed in his life, which could not be avoided. Similarly, material desires exist in your life, which cannot be resisted.
Therefore, Lord Krishna gifted The Bhagwad Gita to the world, which is useful to the worldly people, as much as it is to the monks. Whether married or unmarried, both benefit from the Holy Gita! This means it is very much possible to balance both our spiritual life and material life. So, do not feel confused over it.
A general belief prevails in society that if one wants to pursue spirituality, one has to forsake all worldly desires and luxuries, retire from all worldly duties and obligations, renounce the worldly ties and engage ourselves into activities such as meditating, chanting, praying, penance, etc.; only then can one progress on the path of spirituality and attain liberation of the Soul.
However, Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, the Enlightened being, says,
“Renunciation should be natural. That which is to be renounced should fall off on its own.”
Various Enlightened beings like Shrimad Rajchandra, Lord Krishna, Arjuna, Lord Rama, etc. have attained Self-Realization, while living a regular material life and rendering all their worldly duties and obligations with utmost sincerity and classic perfection.
How did they manage to do that?...
Param Pujya Dadashri explains,
“No one can live without the support from the material world.
But, after getting the support from one’s own Soul, one doesn’t need the support from the material world. He then becomes independent. True independence is the prevalence of ‘I am certainly free’ amidst any kind of effects (be it that of a material life or material desires).”
Such independence is termed as moksha!
Once we realize our real Self i.e. the Pure Soul, we are on the path of moksha!
And can we realize the Soul without forsaking our desires, our material life?
Yes! Param Pujya Dadashri says,
“To live a worldly life and at the same time be on the path of moksha is not just a possibility, but it is something that you can yourself experience. You will understand it when You experience it. You may think it’s not possible, but it is something that you can experience. This is because the two things are separate, and it is possible to experience each one separately.”
For moksha, it is not the worldly life that gets in the way; it is the ignorance of the Self. The Gnani Purush (the Enlightened One) gives us such a precise and unfailing knowledge of Self that it immediately comes into our experience. The knowledge that gives results is real knowledge!
On the Akram path, we directly attai
Self-Realization with Gnani’s grace!!! Here, in just two hours time, we attain the experiential knowledge of the Self.
This process is known as Gnanvidhi, wherei
Gnani puts in a line of demarcation between the Self (Aatma - the Soul) and the non-Self (Anatma - everything besides the Soul that we identify with)! In Gnanvidhi, we get the knowledge of how ‘I am really a pure Soul, separate from the worldly self and its desires.’
And following Gnani’s words thereafter, we are able to strike an excellent balance between the spiritual and material life. So come, attai
Self-Realisation!
To know more: https://www.dadabhagwan.org/self-realization/
Article author
About the Author
Ambalal M. Patel was a civil contractor by profession. In June 1958, spontaneous Self-Realization occurred withi
Ambalal M. Patel. From this point on, Ambalal became a Gnani Purush, and the Lord that manifest within him became known as Dada Bhagwan. A Gnani Purush is One who has realized the Self and is able help others do the same. Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan used to go from town to town and country-to-country to give satsang (spiritual discourse) and impart the knowledge of the Self, as well as knowledge of harmonious worldly interactions to everyone who came to meet him. This spiritual science, known as Akram Vignan, is the step-less path to Self-realization.
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