Spiritualism and its basic tools

The way you talk and the action you take reflect the progress you have made/unmade as a human being who has a definite purpose of life. In fact, the life you enjoy is itself a product of your accumulated actions.

The way you talk and the action you take reflect the progress you have made/unmade as a human being who has a definite purpose of life. In fact, the life you enjoy is itself a product of your accumulated actions. The spiritualism you have cultivated has led to the pilgrim's progress inside you.

HT Image

The other day someone got into a heated argument with me. His point was that spiritualism was too vague, and if one could "break" it into a few simple elements, then things would be clearer for those lost in soul search.

I could not think of a better way than what Yash Pal, who evolved Anand Yoga from Raj Yoga, has outlined in Anand Yoga, Volume II. He has categorized three kinds of activities that mould one's character:
# Action of the body — sensual enjoyment
# Action of the mind — intellectual pleasure
# Soul current — Atmic Anand (bliss)

The idea is to draw a clear picture of these forces. One can say the misuse of the fist two actions hamper one's progress towards the fulfillment of soul search. The more you hanker after these actions, the more you are deviated from your soul.

One does not say the physical and the intellectual aspects have to be deprived of their role in life; what one needs to press upon is the need to integrate all the three actions into a single, powerful force to exhibit enlightened action.

The pursuit of atmic action necessarily involves one into spiritual actions. One can say one's spiritual behaviour is called into action the moment one turns towards atmic action. Your spiritual actions convert your physical and intellectual pursuits into self-awareness pursuit.

That is why our gurus stressed on a virtuous life. And the greatest theatre for virtue is conscience, as Roman philosopher Cicere had said. When one listens to one's conscience, one is in an earnest search for virtuous action. One must reach a stage where one is able to feel what Alexander Pope had said, "Teach me to feel others' woes/ to hide the faults I see.”