Spiritual Growth Articles

We are all familiar with the artificial type of cheerfulness of the vital nature, which puts on a happy face, and glad hands everyone in a show of bubbly cheer. We are also familiar with the artificial type of cheerfulness that arises through the use of intoxicating beverages and immersion in an atmosphere if vital excitement.

Dr. Deepak Chopra told an interesting anecdote from his own experience at a talk he gave in Chicago some years ago. Some of the details may have escaped me, so the gist of it was that he was visiting his birth home area at one point and it was recommended to him to visit a famous Vedic astrologer in the area. When he visited without advance warning to the astrologer, the astrologer apparently knew about him and had a scroll which he located that explained many of the highlights, past, present and future in Deepak Chopra’s life.

Seekers throughout the ages have struggled with the issue of how to deal with the pressures and circumstances of the exte al world. They recognise the swing of emotions, feelings and thoughts that occur as they receive input from people and events. They recognise that sometimes this causes them to lose control and do things that are counter-productive, or which create enormous internal stresses and disturb the calm of the mind and emotions, the nervous and vital framework and even the operations of their physical bodies.

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If one practices a simple exercise, even just for a short time, one becomes aware of the numerous forces that are acting upon us, shaping our thoughts, emotions, feelings and reactions. The practice is to sit quietly and observe the various thoughts and feelings that arise while one is sitting there, and then trace back where that thought or feeling came from and how it arose within one’s awareness.

Power is disconcerting. Humanity is attracted to it, while at the same time, it fears raw power. It is often said “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” What is then to be done with our vital nature that expresses power and provides the motive force for our lives? Those inclined to asceticism respond that power needs to be avoided, rejected, disregarded. The only thing that matters from that viewpoint is knowledge based in Oneness. If powers arise they are considered to be temptations and should not be developed or followed.

We tend to equate strength with outward expressions whether it be through physical power, emotional pressure, bullying, or the use of mental will force to achieve one’s intended results. We talk about “strong man” dictators who, in particular, use threats, bullying and police power to pressure people (and countries) to comply with their demands. The fact, however, that they have to use such outward manifestations of strength to convince others to carry out their wishes makes it clear that they are actually hiding their weaknesses, insecurities and fears.

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We could say that it is almost a universal experience. A child expresses some sentiment, some idea about what he or she would like to do, something that soars beyond the mundane daily existence, something that makes things better, increases the beauty and harmony of life, cherishes life, and then the elders, parents, relatives, teachers, make it clear to the child that their dreams are not ‘practical’ and they should instead focus on their studies and preparing for a career or job that will provide them a stable livelihood in their adult lives.

A teenager was observed as she was deeply absorbed in reading the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo. This novel spans some 1000 pages and encompasses themes of deep and abiding interest, but does so in a captivating story line. It so happened that this teenager was reading the book during an extended road trip across the USA including visits to national parks and the Hopi Reservation of the First Nations’ people.

If we run a small current through a wire to a light bulb, but below the capacity of the bulb, it will light up, although it may flicker. If we increase the current the light bulb brightens and the illumination becomes constant. If we put too much current through the bulb, we may start a fire or burst the bulb. This image provides us a way to appreciate the opening of the chakras.

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The Mother provides simple, yet powerful guidance about the connection between one’s attitude and his digestive system. If we consider for a moment the times when we are ‘out of sorts’, feeling angry, or bitter, or somewhat sharp and biting in our reactions to others, we can see that in many cases, there is a reaction that knots up the digestive system, we experience various disturbances of the digestion and we feel generally out of sorts. Many people who suffer chronic digestive upsets have a generally negative attitude towards life.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna explains to Arjuna, at some length, the process of the universal manifestation and how individuals are essentially driven by their nature in relation to the larger forces of the manifestation itself to act in certain ways. For most of these individuals, the action takes place as a result of the forces of the exte al vital nature. They are essentially subject to the machinery of Nature through the operation of the three Gunas.

Human beings are not all at the same stage of evolutionary development. We can see this clearly when we observe the different interests, ways of responding and directions that people take as they grow and begin to participate in the life of the society and the world at large. We see some people are very rooted in their physical nature and are conce ed primarily with food, drink, comfort and physical satisfactions. Others appear to be very reserved and thoughtful, as if living in a world of mental development, possibly a realm of science or mathematics.

For most people, the experience of losing the sense of the ego is unplanned, fleeting and even, unappreciated as it occurs. They simply shift their identification elsewhere without recognising what exactly is taking place with respect to the seat and focus of their conscious awareness. For the spiritual seeker, however, these glimpses provide an insight to the eventual process of loosening the grip of the ego and widening the individual ego-consciousness to join the universal consciousness with all of the liberating effects and powers of knowledge and action that accompany that shift.r

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There is an art to management of people within a company, department or section. Those who are tasked with undertaking this responsibility frequently find it challenging to get the exact right balance to both motivate their team members and keep things moving smoothly forward. If they are too severe or demanding, they breed a sullen and obstinate form of either active or passive resistance, a layer of negativity that permeates the workplace, makes people unhappy and thereby reduces both attentiveness and efficiency in the use of time.

There is an apocryphal story involving the Mother, a sadhak and a bullock. The sadhak complained that the bullock was being obstinate and not cooperating. The Mother asked the sadhak to bring the bullock so she could observe it. After doing so, she indicated there was nothing wrong with the bullock. She advised the sadhak that the bullock’s obstinacy was related to something inward the sadhak needed to address, and she counseled patience, understanding and goodwill. The sadhak and the bullock both benefited.

How easy it is, and how comforting, to look at someone who opposes us, or who is creating some form of havoc in the world at large and simply label that individual as pure evil, as a Rakshasa, an Asura, a Demon, or some other form of hostile being. And yet, those individuals are actually part of the creation and apparently have some role to play, even if that role appears to be highly destructive. In the economy of the universal manifestation, there are forces that create and build, but also forces that tear apart and destroy.

People are always asking about the difference between spirituality and religion, as well as the difference between the mind and the spirit. The term ‘spirit’ has been used in so many different ways and contexts, that it is hard to comprehend exactly what is meant by it. When ‘spiritual awakening’ is discussed, many people have no idea what that actually is.

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In the West, the existence of the soul has been mainly perceived either as a matter of religious belief or scientific skepticism, neither necessarily based in actual experience. At one point, scientists decided that if the belief that the soul departs at the time of death is to be considered as factual, then they should be able to weigh the body at the moment before death, and the moment after death and thereby know the weight of the soul that has now departed! This is the ultimate attempt by the exte al, physical mind to try to grapple with the reality of a more subtle aspect of existence.

We are educated and habituated to focus on our differences. We see different gender, different class, different racial characteristics, different religious backgrounds, different temperaments, different interests and focus, different value sets, different philosophies of life and living, different levels of education, different capacities, from one individual to the next, and we thus begin to evaluate and judge everything through this lens of our differences.

Being a spiritual seeker, and a manager of a business, or a unit or department or program, are not incompatible activities. The question that seekers raise is how to find the proper balance that allows the work, including the management work, that they do, be part of their spiritual sadhana. If they are interpreting that work according to a fixed guideline of “right or wrong”, they frequently opt toward a more severe and less forgiving form of management.

What makes the human consciousness different from the animal consciousness? A primary factor is the possibility that a human being has for detaching himself from total involvement in the exte al life, and along with that, the opportunity for evolutionary growth.

Many people express the idea that simply living life without any form of planning or care about organizing one’s activities is the ideal ‘worry-free’ way of living. This conflates reasonable planning in the outer life with the internal process of worrying.

The individual in the surface ego-personality, measures everything that happens from his own unique individual perspective. This includes judgments based on perceived benefit to the individual. He wants to achieve certain results, obtain positive responses, and minimize or eliminate pain, suffering, disappointment and other signs that the ego is not getting what it needs or expects.

When we want to help alleviate the suffering in the world, or help solve the general conce s, or the more specific individual needs and wants, we come up with an endless number of ideas about ‘how to help’. From an outward perspective these may be highly valuable and useful activities. Spiritual and religious organisations, in particular, tend to focus on feeding the hungry, healing and caring for the sick, providing shelter. These things help to mitigate some of the worst dislocations and imbalances in the world and how society functions.

As the mental consciousness awakens, particularly if there is an influence coming from the psychic being or from the spiritual planes pressing down on the mental being, we become aware of virtually endless problems, issues, difficulties, imbalances, disharmonies and outright conflicts in the world and how we interact with each other and our environment. Those with a positive attitude and energy naturally want to “do” something to help straighten this out. They try many things.

While we live and act from the standpoint of the individual ego-personality, we measure and respond to everything based on how it impacts us personally and directly, and judge things based on that impact. This leads us to treat as positive, those events and interactions that satisfy our desires, meet our physical needs, or support our ambitions. Conversely, those things which create obstacles to what we desire, or which undermine our ambitions, or create physical or vital difficulties as we navigate our way through our lives, we treat as negative events.

When an individual takes up spiritual practice, he naturally will try to find a space that is calm and quiet to aid his contemplation, aspiration or devotion. The hustle and bustle of the exte al life is distracting to the concentration and all of the noise, and all of the pressures of that exte al life can make it difficult for the seeker to achieve the needed steady, calm aspiration on a consistent basis. Many seekers believe that they cannot make spiritual progress unless the exte al environment is calm and quiet.

The development of the human being takes place in several successive stages and as individuals mature they begin to manifest and express the powers of the nature as they successively come to the fore. Not every individual develops and expresses all the powers fully in a particular lifetime.

With the advent of modern society, the instantaneous technological experience, and an exte al life that puts a value on being active, being productive, we see the increased pressure for people to stay in motion without taking into account the factor of fatigue and the need for rest. People tend to brag about how many hours they work, how little sleep they get, and how active they are at every moment. It is almost as if any time spent in quiet reflection, simply breathing, daydreaming, sleeping or otherwise engaging in ‘quiet time’ is considered to be time ‘wasted’.

Exte al impressions, sensations, impulsions, events all traverse the nervous pathways from the sense organs to the mind, which tends to react to these sensations and thereby remains in a constant state of disturbance. In the modern world, with our addiction to social media, mobile phones, television and radio, and the constant bombardment of stimulation from the exte al world, we generally find it hard to stay focused and concentrate on a specific thought, or project or even just to sit quietly and be receptive in a state of meditative awareness.

In the Taittiriya Upanishad, Sri Aurobindo translates the term tapasya variously as ‘concentration in thought’ or ‘concentration of force’. Elsewhere he aligns the terms chit-shakti as ‘consciousness-force’, co-equal with the principles of sat, existence and ananda, bliss as the supreme existence, Sat-Chit-Ananda. The Upanishad equates this concentration of conscious force, tapasya, as the Ete al.

When we look back on our lives, with the benefit of hindsight, we frequently can identify a change in direction that took an individual from a normal path of societal acceptance, career, marriage, family, social interactions and entertainment, to a life that is dedicated to some cause or purpose or inner growth. For some this change comes somewhat naturally as they mature and reflect on what they are here on earth to do.

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When we read in the Puranas of India, we find that there are a host of beings who are essentially non-evolutionary, static beings. They may be gods, demons or animals, or occupy any number of other positions in the scale of the manifested existence. An interesting note, however, is that if they want to participate in the evolutionary cycle for any reason, they have to take human birth. The human birth is considered to be the key to the dynamic development of consciousness, and that is why the human birth is treasured in virtually all religious and spiritual traditions.

When the spiritual aspiration awakens in an individual, he often feels like he has to leave his employment and take up some work that is more ‘spiritual’. He tends to equate the type of work with some ill-defined spiritual nature. Thus, we frequently see spiritual people, and organizations, take up work to feed the hungry, heal the sick, etc. This of course is very positive and needed work and we honor those who make that commitment.

Both panic and inertia are responses to situations that arise in the life of individuals. They come about when something new or unexpected comes forward to challenge the individual. In the case of panic, there is clearly a perception of danger, and the rising of fear in the being. This drives the individual into what is generally regarded to be a manifestation of the “fight or flight” reaction. There is no ‘thought’ involved. It is a reaction of the vital being that drives the individual’s response to the situation.

As long as we focus on outer circumstances and involve ourselves in them, we are participating in what some have called the “illusory” life of the world. The world is not illusory in an ultimate sense, since it is a manifestation of the Divine consciousness, but it is illusory in the sense that achievement of specific societal goals or objectives is an end in itself.

For most people the impulsion to action comes from a need, desire or ambition of some sort. If these are removed, the individual can become depressed and fall into a state that lacks motivation and thereby reduces their energy when it comes to doing anything. We frequently see people, (or experience within ourselves), states of being that have essentially ‘given up’, with the sense that all this action is meaningless, or destined to fail, or else, a sense of deep fatigue takes over and one can barely get up out of bed and go through the normal chores of the day.

Without even thinking about it, we are programmed to bargain with the Divine. We carry expectations, we want our desires to be fulfilled. We care about immediate and positive feedback for the efforts we are making and the sacrifices we are undergoing for the Divine. We will agree to devote ourselves to the Divine as long as the Divine is giving us back what we want. We want experiences, we want progress, we want support, we want consolation, we want to see noticeable results. When these disappear, our faith also may disappear!

Whenever we act in the world, whether it is a job, or any kind of activity that involves the expression of energy in the exte al world, whether physical, vital, mental, etc. we generally do so with a particular ambition, motivation, desire or need. It could be based on physical needs for food, clothing and shelter; it could be based on vital desires or some form of ambition, a seeking for some physical, vital, emotional or mental satisfaction. It could be a form of vanity, or a seeking after fame or glory, wealth or other forms of recognition.