By Dr. J Das
All of us know the value of a guidebook when you travel to an unknown place. If you read the guidebook and then ignore it, you will most likely miss your destination. In spiritual life we read the “guide books”, then ignore the instructions. We hear the instructions from the “guide”, then we go our own way and we get lost. How are we going to rectify the situation?
Let us read the guidebook, let us listen to the guide, then let us follow the instructions. Follow the map to reach your destination. Unfortunately, in spiritual life many people do not follow the road map laid down by great saints and saviours of the world.
How are we going to correct it in order to prevent tragedies that are happening all around us?
Violence is everywhere and it is the opposite to what God expects of us. People will reap what they sow. God gave us free will and discriminative knowledge. We can choose between good and evil. Just as we take the better of two roads when driving, we need the better “road” of life. Do not let your discriminative ability go to sleep. Use it skill-fully. Always use your God given intelligence to decide the right from the wrong – what will be beneficial and what will be harmful.
All of us know in our own hearts that we don’t want to be hurt. We also know in that other people don’t want to be hurt. Animals don’t want to be hurt, but yet they are being hurt all the time because we are forgetting a fundamental principle in life – the life of spirituality, which is purity itself – purity in thought, word and deed.
If we have this purity, and see divinity in all beings, how are we going to commit criminal acts? How are we going to hold hard feelings towards others when we know that they are all children of God.?
That does not make them perfect human beings. They identify with the body, driven by desires and passions like everyone else. These are adjuncts that go along with the soul. But there is a “superior being” in us also. Allow it to shine forth as it is the master of the rest of the adjuncts of this body.
But we are forgetting that. We say “me” “I am a body”, “I am a person with such and such a name.” And we limit our understanding of our self to this physical frame and name. But the saints tell you that that is a false identity. Your body will leave you. What will be permanent is that divinity within you. So why do we grasp at the straw that will rot and decay, and not grasp the diamond that can last forever? We are going after the chaff and leaving the grain. The “precious diamond” that is within is permanent.
Satguru Kabir said, “man mast hua toh kyon bole.” (When you are intoxicated with the divinity within, what need is there to speak of it.) The soul – that precious diamond – that is within each one us is without defect. It’s pure spiritual light. The defect comes because of the mind, ego, passions and emotions. The defect is not in the soul, but in the coverings of the soul. If we can recognize that we are all soul beings, then we are able to overlook the defects that are attached to the temporary parts of us. Let us look for the purity and the goodness that is in the permanent diamond – the soul within us. If we can think and live along these lines then certainly our lives will become supremely happy and peaceful. That is the bliss, the peace and the joy we want in life.
Dr. J. Das is a Surrey-based activist and spiritualist.
