E-Paper
Growing up to be a master
Born and brought-up in a religious family, Megha Shah feels that puja is becoming a formality for her. Veena Minocha answers her query.
Megha Shah from Surat asks:
I have been brought up very religiously, with every puja and ceremonuy being done properly. As a result I know everything about my religion, and perform each and every custom at the right time and with full faith in God. Yet recently, I notice that my pujas are becoming formalities, as my heart and soul does not seem to be in the performance. It is so mechanical that I wonder what has happened to my faith in God. You say that in the New Age we are turning more and more to God, but I seem to be doing the opposite. I do not feel like going through all the formalities of pujas, but I seem to have taken a greater interest in social service, and I try to help every poor person of my community that needs help. I find that I can cry over their troubles also, as if they were happening to me. In fact, I always seem to be crying over other people’s troubles, forgetting my own, and going out of my way to help them. Please tell me, where am I wrong?
Veena Minocha answers:
Dear Megha, you are not wrong at all, my dear, you are absolutely on the right course of action, as a New Age Spiritual being should be.
Let me give you an example. If you are in the kitchen trying to cook a splendid meal for the family, you will make a lot of effort towards it. You will go out to shop for the finest ingredients, then follow the best recipes to cook that amazing meal. Once you have mastered the art of cooking a certain recipe, then you turn towards more difficult culinary adventures, and soon forget about those first grounding steps. Now it is time for you to sit back and enjoy the meals, which have been effortlessly prepared through rigorous training and practice.
Similarly, your training in religion was through ritual and ceremonies, which you have mastered. Once that is done, you have to now move on towards deeper understandings of the Oneness and Love web that is the basis of the Universe. Now is the time to enjoy the fruits of all your practices, and you find that these first steps have made you a wonderfully compassionate person, filled with Love.
For is it not love for your fellow brethren that brings tears to your eyes each
Time you see any of them suffering? Do you not feel that you have grown into a spiritual master of Love, through all the religious training that you went through?
As we evolve spiritually, we resurrect ourselves from formal faith and beliefs. They are those which have, given you satisfaction, served their purpose, but which you have now outgrown. For the soul must move on to be one with the Great Oneness, expressed in every living creature, as a small part of itself. It must be released from the bondage of the littleness of formal religion, to evolve into a master soul, filled with love and Light!
