The practicality of spirituality

Many have complained that spirituality is a weird path that goes against the workings of normal world and life, and is a bid to run away from society, wear ochre garbs, and spend the rest of your life meditating in the mountains. Others simply state that working for a tangible goal is more practical, whereas spending all your efforts on something abstract is just not normal.

Spirituality, I would like to clear these thoughts, is not really a physical change, or an external show. It is a state where you yourself are enquiring into the basic goals of life. It is rather a state of mind in a human being, who seems to be dissatisfied with the answers given by the material world, and asks, there must be something beyond all this. If there is, the person is willing to work towards it. In fact, in Bhagavad Gita, the main scripture of the Hindus, it is clearly stated that the working person who deals with the world chin up, while strictly keeping spiritual goals in mind, and adhering to tenets of religious principles is preferred to a monk who renounces everything and goes away. Work and renunciation once again, are not physical characteristics but states of the mind.

Firstly - what is spirituality? Spirituality comes from the word “spirit”; and the Indian scriptures say that our essential nature is that we are spirit souls, who were serving God. Due to our own desires to rule the world, we obtained a gross body on this earth, and go through different species where we have the false illusion that we are controlling things, but we have to get back to where we came from to be truly happy, the “Kingdom of God”. An electron is happiest in its rest state, and agitated otherwise, an infant is happiest at the hands of its mother, and cries otherwise, and we would finally be happy when we are back in this place. A far fetched hypothesis? Perhaps. Let us examine why it may be viable.

In normal life, what are the few things we have observed?

Sometimes we worry. We don’t know what is going to happen in the future. But somehow things turn out fine. Although we have the illusion that we are making things happen, things really happen on their own. We provide the input, the process takes place somehow automatically, and the output is brought back to us. Since we are so used to it, we get the idea that we may be controllers. Also people have often quoted “Life has a way of sorting itself out.” Initially things may seem bleak and there may be a dead end, but somehow everything ends up working out fine. Isn’t there an external phenomenon controlling the process? Most of the time, as is clearly seen, we live in an illusion of controlling things when we actually don’t. It is externally controlled and maintained.

Let us examine the relationship between parents and children. Toddlers and small children hold on to their mothers and naturally go to their mothers. But as they grow up, these kids become interested in many other things. As they further grow up, they want to pursue many further goals. Their parents retain their love for the children but the reciprocating amount of love is not there. Yes, the children may still be affectionate to parents, and very grateful, but their natural desire and focus lies in living their own lives, and pursuing their own goals. However, for parents, children are still all in all. Isn’t this not fair? The usual goal of the materialistic man is to live for the family, earn for the family, and make the family the sum and substratum, the basic goal of life. But your own children are not going to live their lives for you. It is not that they are bad people, it is just a natural way of things. As children you were like that, and as parents, you see your children like that. Is it practical to focus your entire attention on those who are naturally not going to reciprocate?

Money and ambition are things some people are driven by. They are completely motivated by it, and place their joys and sorrows in acquiring and losing it. I shall use my own experience as an example. As an undergraduate, there was nothing more that I wanted more than doing a PhD in US, and for about seven months in my final year of undergraduate study, every single thing that favored this goal, were things that made me happy, and everything that didn’t favor this goal were things that made me depressed. I ate, slept and dreamt this goal. Right now, beyond my expectations, I am doing a PhD with a full scholarship in the US. Am I completely satisfied? Initially I was very happy. Now, well, life goes on. I have many more goals, many other things to eat, sleep and live by. Now what is the point in being completely focused on the goal you are going to achieve, and invest all your time in a goal, when that goal is going to give you nothing but momentary emotional satisfaction?

I used to have this thought when I was about seven. We used to go on vacations, and I had a very nice time with my cousins. When I came back, I was slightly sad, and was looking forward to the next vacation. In a few days, when I got into my usual routine, this thought went away, and I went back to my usual routine. I noticed two things: firstly, the happiness and sorrow is context dependent, rather than object dependant. Time and not the vacation itself decided if I was going to be happy or sad. So, happiness does not come from objects of happiness but our reaction to them. So, to achieve happiness, can we not control our reactions? Or better still concentrate on an object that may give true happiness?

So it seems true that the normal way of life, as mentioned above does not seem to be too practical; we want happiness, but seek it in the wrong places, placing hopes on wrong objects, and living in an illusion. So what may be practical?

Suppose we are lost in a cave, and someone seems to know something about getting out, don’t we follow that person? Sure we do. Similarly, when we don’t know the way to true and eternal happiness, our scriptures claim to know the way, and seems to be right in some ways, why not follow it a bit further? And, how does one live ‘practically’ in the material life, with spiritual notions?

The idea, as once again given in the Bhagavad Gita, is very simple, make God the object of your activities, and life. I have seen this practically in many of the ISKCON devotees. They are mostly married. But the reason why they are working is not for their family, children, spouse, and so on. They are working because they are in this material world, and the nature of this world is to keep working for survival, and this is why they work. But this does not mean they are not successful. I have seen top notch lawyers, and extremely bright PhD students who are devotees. When one is emotionally detached the results of his work, he is thinking less of the consequences of his work, and can therefore concentrate more on the work alone. Giving it their best shot, and using it as an offering to God is the essence of karma yoga, as espoused in the Indian scriptures, and this is essentially what they do. Another question which has come up is how a spiritually inclined person can be married. Rather than being an abominable enemy to spiritual goals, having the right partner can actually be beneficial to spirituality. We are all imperfect people here, and marriage provides a guard against the biggest enemy of spirituality, lust. One is much more controlled when one is able to express his desires in a controlled manner with a wife, and focusing mainly on higher goals. Having children once again, is not a way of enjoying material prosperity, but is merely a way of increasing God conscious people in the world, once again a service for the Lord.

We are not perfect beings; we all have our material desires. However, focusing on the fact that spirituality is the one that can truly bring about happiness, while actually pursuing these desires in a controlled fashion would probably work very well in eventually relinquishing them. One would find out and be convinced gradually that these desires never really brought about happiness, and this would bring a higher sense of renunciation, an emotional detachment from these objects.

In this manner, one works in a practical manner to pursue goals that would bring about true happiness. Now isn’t that much more practical?