Generally, people believe that worldly life and spiritual life are two contradictory matters poles apart from each other. It is a common belief that spiritual living is not possible for a normal person leading a worldly life and worldly life inhibits one from leading a spiritual life. But this is a wrong belief. Spirituality is not something which one gets only by living in a cave or a dense forest. One can lead a spiritual life by remaining in the material world also. It is a mistake to believe that spiritual living is something which is reserved for only ascetics or monks who have renounced the world. Spirituality is science of the sciences and this world is an ideal laboratory for its practical application.
Unfortunately, most people ignore spirituality in their day to day living. In their opinion, whatever little charity or worship they do, is also a thing to be kept separate from their material life. The separation of the spirituality from our daily life is the root cause of diminishing values and erosion of ethical standards in society. Anarchy, corruption, war, disharmony, absence of law and order, tyranny, materialism, selfishness and consumerism are rampant today and due to our failure to synthesise the material life with spirituality. The world and the society is nothing but a group of individuals. When an individual lives his or her life bereft of spirituality, many vices like anger, violence, fear, hatred, greed, selfishness, envy, and enmity breed in him. Individual vices collectively surface on the stage called society and becomes the cause of society’s downfall. If we want to transform the world, establish high standards of ethics and remove vices from society, then we shall have to start with the inner transformation of the individual and only spirituality has the power of transforming that an individual.
Man is by nature self-centered and is interested in only those acts which benefit him. Even from this angle spirituality should be adopted by every individual because it is in the self interest and of immense benefit to persons who adopt it.
Every person is in pursuit of happiness and tries to find it in material wealth, fame and power. This erroneous pursuit for happiness ultimately robs him of peace and happiness and gives restlessness and pain. Many times, these material possessions become the cause of unhappiness.
This physical world is governed by some subtle universal and natural laws established by the Supreme Power whom we call God. Not having the awareness and understanding of these laws, man tries to seek happiness in their breach. These subtle laws are unchanging and autonomous. These laws are:-
1. As you sow, so you reap.
2. You receive what you give.
3. The fruit of the action is according to the intention behind it.
4. What you do unto others shall be done unto you.
5. Every action has a reaction.
6. Every sin shall be punished and every good deed shall be rewarded.
Everyone has heard of the simple laws described above. However, what is important is living these laws. Our universe is governed by these laws but we do not understand this due to our shortsightedness and impatience. Today, we find many persons achieving material success by unethical and dishonest ways. This results in our not believing in the importance of purity of means for material success.
In fact, one gets peace and joy only by living in harmony with these laws. Every material success can be attained by living according to these subtle laws. Spiritual living means practicing ethics and values and living in harmony with the voice of our conscience.
A question naturally arises to us – what about our life hitherto lived in disharmony with these laws? Let us accept that man is imperfect. It is natural for him to commit mistakes. The issue is, is there no respite for the mistakes committed? The answer is “better late than never”. These laws are meant for aspiring us to move towards perfection from imperfection and not to punish us.
I would like to end by quoting Swami Vivekananda, who always advocated practice more than theory. He has said, “Hindu religion does not consist in struggles and attempts to believe in certain doctrine or dogma, but in realising; not in believing, but in being and becoming.”
