How to grow spiritually

How to grow spiritually | Spiritual awakening & Enlightenment |  Understanding Spiritual path | Understanding concept of spirituality | Understanding God and His universe| Understanding path of spirituality | Understanding creater and His creation| Understanding law of Karmas| How to get rid of  cycle of Birth and death | How to liberate from bondage of rebirths

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Who am I ? How to know my trueself ? Am I a body or a soul ? What is the purpose of our soul ? How to find God ? Who is God ? Is God one or many ? What is the purpose of my life ? When such questions start arising in our mind understand that you are growing spiritually. But such questions dont arise in everyone’s mind. The first rule to walk on spiritual path or bhakti marg ( devotional path ) is jigyasa ( curiosity ) . Inquisitiveness is the first step required to walk on devotional or spiritual path. That’s how a journey of a soul is started . The moment one starts to ask questions. Question to know about his/her existence/ true identity/ whereabouts. He/she wants to know why is he/she born? What’s His/her life purpose ? What is his/her true identity? Why am I or few people are in miserable condition while others are so happy and enjoying their lives? What is the meaning of this life? Why is this life given to me ? Who has given me life ? What will happen after death ? Why does everyone die ? What is the reason behind life and death? Few are being born , few are dying , few are suffering , few are enjoying? Where is the remote control of the controller of our lives? Who is that power ? Who is running and controlling this whole world? Every planet is placed in its orbit e.g Sun , earth , moon etc. Mother nature , trees , rivers , seas etc all are doing their work systematically whereas things made by man requires to be handled by someone. They require instructions. Then whose instructions is this nature following? And why is there sorrow and sufferings when none wants those for them ? Everyone wants to remain happy then why distress comes in our life? It means we are not the controller of our lives , it is someone else who is controlling our lives. Who is that power ? What is that lively thing or lively energy called ” life ” in every living thing which once gone make things lifeless? Why is that one person named e.g John talking and laughing a minute before becomes lifeless after a minute? A person full of energy becomes too still to move a bit. People addressing him with his name a minute before are now addressing him as body. A same person with name and life status turned into a mere body? Why is it so ? Was he not the body a minute before? Ofcourse he was. So what is missing now ?

The person who was concious a minute before has now become unconcious . The person who was taking breath a minute before is now breathless. The person full of life and energy has now become lifeless . So that conciousness , that energy , that life , that lively thing , that breath , that prana energy , that soul , that spirit was the thing which kept the body alive. There is this soul which is present in every particle of this universe. This same soul exists in humans as well as in animals , birds etc. Soul is a micro form of energy just like an atom found out by scientists. Everything in this universe is made up of atoms. Some people consider this whole universe to be made of energy , some by atoms , some by light , some by soul, some by conciousness. And the source of this energy , this soul , this power is known as the reservoir of energy ,  light , power , soul also known as Supreme soul, supreme light , supreme power and also known as God , Allah , Jesus , Yesu, Christ , Rab , Vahe Guru , Krishna , Ram , Vishnu , Shiva and the list goes on. You know it is just like a situation where we address something with different names in different languages and in different regions .

You can understand that your body is like a car and your soul is like fuel. Without fuel , without power , without energy car can’t move. Our basic identity actually is a soul. We all are souls. But as we are born we have been given a tag of a religion , caste, region , country , society , etc etc. And we started judging book by its cover only. We started focusing on this body only and missed the basis of our whole existence without which we all are lifeless objects. We started identifying ourselves as countrywise, religionwise, castewise, regionwise, namewise . Just as the formula of water remains the same whether its sea water or river water or pond water or rain water or pot water or tap water or filter water , in the same way same soul is present in every body but we don’t see the formula we see the outer appearance. The day we realise that we all are the drops of same ocean our all doubts will be solved. Like all rivers flow in to the sea and become one with ocean losing their own existence , we all souls have to be immersed in that one and only supreme soul one day. Right now we are enjoying our individuality , our individual status like a river and flowing on our own paths , making our own way only to find out our way one day to Godhead or higher conciousness or supreme energy or supreme soul or God or Krishna.

God is an ocean of love , compassion , forgiveness , knowledege , empathy , power , energy and all the possible virtues . He is the power station. Right now we are not connected with that power station . That is why we are so powerless. Unless there is connection to the power house how will electricity or energy will come to unit. That’s how things work everywhere , everytime. When basics are clear, fundamentals are clear , formulas are clear problem is easily solved . People take literal meaning of everything without understanding the logic behind it. Faith comes after logic. We believe something when we see ” Hence proved ” . That higher conciousness has been proved many times but still if doubt remains then lets assume for a moment that this is true as we do to solve maths problems ; whatever is missing and to be find out in maths is assumed first . lets assume the number is x , y ,z like that. So here God is missing , we are finding Him . So lets assume first He is there. Believe on the theories, thesis , researches done on Him by our duly respected ancestors , saints , monks , devotees etc. Like when a child believes her mother when told about his father.

So there are two ways to find anything. One is by logic and other is by faith. When both comes together it is easier to find anything. To find god there are two ways one is corporeal way where we assume God has a certain form , shape , appearance , name etc. and the other way is incorporeal , formless , abstract way where we assume God has no form or shape . He is Brahma swaroop . Both ways are right in their own way . Its just a question of you faith. If you have to a destination there is always more than one ways to reach there . You can go by walking, by any conveyance, public or private transport, by water , by air , by road or by any other means. You reach there one day but depends which mode of transport you followed . few reach early , few reach late , few reach never as they might get lost their ways , few reach following others . So mostly people follow others . Follow their paths to reach somewhere if they themselves don’t know the way. There are different types of beliefs and sects , culture and religions following their own way to attain God. It is upto you which mode of transport you want to follow. What your inner belief system says.

Like a deer always runs behind the fragrance of musk which is coming from it only. He is unaware of this fact and always in search of that musk from where the fragrance is coming. Same is the case with us . God is residing in our heart or mind in form of soul we just dont know that. Our soul / energy / light / conciousness is a part and parcel of that supreme soul / energy / light / conciousness. That is why Yogi jan ( enlightened soul ) say ” Aham Brahmasmi ” i.e ” I am the Brahma “. or ” Soham / So aham ” i.e ” I am what you are ” . ” I am the same as You are ” . So qualitatively we are same as God not quantitatively. a drop of ocean can never be equal to ocean. But belonging the same origin we definitely a part of that brahm that enlightened supreme soul. Somehow we got lost our space and fell from our origin like a raindrop mixes with impurities as soon as it drops on the mud and loses its existence. We all lost our basic virtues of soul same as God and our souls mixed with so many impurities like desires , attachments , greed , anger, revenge , grudges , ego etc.

Our soul inspite of being pure divine soul got mixed with these disorders of mind and became impure as well. We being an independent and free soul became dependent and slaves to these vices. We are born on this planet earth to fulfill our incomplete desires , to enjoy or suffer the fruits of one’s actions etc. Every soul has different journey. Every soul has different motive to be born. Our journeys can’t be compared. Everyone is born with a different purpose. This material world is like a prison. In prison also many prisoners are enjoying , making their gangs there , they have no regrets of their actions. But there are few who are repenting on their actions, doing introspection of their actions, what they did right or wrong , why have they come here , they want to be free and return to their place and never coming back in prison . A pig is always happy in that muddy swamp. His conciousness is too low to understand that he is living in filth. A person with higher conciousness can’t live there in that condition. Same is the case with us. Out of us few souls who have been enlightened and have been able to know their true selves don’t want to come again this material world of bondages and try to liberate other souls who genuinely want to get rid of their baggages of desires and karmas .

We all will keep coming back and forth as per our karmas until and unless we get rid of them . There are several ways to do that. When we do wrong or when being punished or penalised we either pay the fine and swear not to repeat that mistake again or we seek for forgiveness , we sincerely apologize , we regret and repent our actions and swear not to repeat that mistake again. So Yogis follow the path of penance, austerity to repent their actions by paying penalties for their actions. They meditate for several hours, starve themselves , do hath yoga and all . But this is not possible for all . Every one is not that determined and strong soul. So for them the other way is found that they seek for forgiveness for their actions. The reverence and devotion for some abstract and incorporeal form is not possible for every one. So for them there is that forms of God in the form of Krishna or Rama or Others. One should worship the form of God in which one feels reverence. For the welfare of souls that formless God has descended on earth from time to time taking some form and doing His leelas and pastimes for the sake of His devotees. Though He is formless He takes form, Though He is nameless , He has countless attributive names according to His leelas , incarnations , qualities. Though He is endless and infinite , He comes in a body of a being with limitations. He is the creator of this and countless universes . So He comes from time to time in His own universe to enjoy , to establish righteousness and truth over evil , to bless his devotees , to free His devotees from this world of bondages and this repititive cycle of birth and death.

For the age of Kali or Kaliyug where human has short lifespan , has low conciousness , very few enlightened Gurus, He has put all His powers in His name. Ram se bada Ram ka nama meaning Name of Rama is more powerful than Rama Himself. As Rama when being on earth liberated few people but His name has liberated innumerable people. Chanting His name makes you realise the truth one day. You come across His true devotees , a true guide in the form of genuine Guru , your soul starts awakening that has been unconcious for a while. You statrt realising Brahma tatva residing in your soul . By chanting His name , singing His glories in the form of bhajan and kirtan , reading scriptures mentioning Him , reading His leelas and pastimes in company of His devotees , doing daily deity darshan of His enchanting form all these activities make you fall for Him. You start developing a relation with Him . You start recognizing your true relation with Him . You start realizing your true abode. You understand that it is Him who you belong to. It is His abode where you belong to . You finally realise your journey and destination. You come over the state of confusion of where to start from and where to go? So first build a relationship with Him. Consider Him yours. Consider Him your true friend. Consider Him your everything. Consider that He is your only wellwisher. That is why in our scriptures there are so many stories about Him to help the human being creating a bond with Him.

Understand that God is only one . That supreme power is only one. I may call Him Krishna . You may address Him with some different name. Even normal people have different nick names. Every friend  of yours can address you with different name , Each family member address you with different names. That’s the case with God. One is addressing Him with different name and calling Him differently from the other but it doesn’t mean that God is different. He is the same. People from every religion and region have different styles of addressing Him but He is the same. We all are same. We all belong to God. 

In every religion there has been mentioned ways to attain God. In sanatan dharma also various ways have been mentioned to reach Him. In Bhagavadgita many ways or Yogas have been mentioned to attain God as Sankhya yog, ashtang yog, kriya yog, Karm yog , gyan Yog , Bhakti yog etc. Yog means connection and not some physical activity. Today as sson as we hear the word Yoga some physical poses and asans come to our mind. But one of the valuable meanings of Yog is connection with that supreme conciousness. Out of all the marga ( paths ) / yogas bhakti yog is the simplest and easiest to be followed by humans of kaliyug. As in kaliyug there is lack of knowledge / conciousness / wisdom / true spiritual gurus who can decode our complex vedas and scriptures. Thats’s why for the people of this age of Kali God Himself has suggested path of bhakti or devotion. Where by doing Namajap/ bhajan – kirtan ( singing devotional songs in His glory ) / saying earnest prayers one can get connected to that power and feel love for Him. For the ease of bhakti there are many forms of God. You can get connected with any of the form you love. If we talk about love and connection it feels most with the Krishna form. As in His Krishna Avatar , He has showed us various emotions through His leelas. When I talk about Krishna I am talking about both His sakaar ( corporeal ) and nirakaar ( incorporeal ) form . You can do bhakti in every religion . As God is one only. So you remember him as Krishna or any other form it doesn’t matter to Him at all. Directly or indirectly you are remembring that supreme power. Bhakti needs love and surrendrance. So feel that love and connection.

Our saints have mentioned that It’s not us who love Krishna (God ) ,  it is Him who love us. It is Him who has developed these emotions of love and devotion in us for Himself. It is Him who is paving a road of our spiritual journey. We are just blindly following His way of action. Without His grace no one can do His bhakti. If in any lifetime there is an earnest desire by the jeeva or soul to get liberated and find God , He blesses that soul with His bhakti. People might be able to do His bhakti due to some good virtues done in their previous life. It is well mentioned in our scriptures and also told by saints that no one can perfom bhakti of God without His will . It is Him who chooses people to do His bhakti because bhakti eradicates your karmas and results of your lifetime karmas and He gives this chance to few choosen souls by Him who deserve it due to their pastlife good karmas or virtues or because of the result of their earnest prayer ever done by someone to Him to get liberated because His bhakti and namajap liberates souls from their pastime karmas. Ofcourse this love for Him generates either by His grace, or some saint grace, or by doing bhajan kirtan , reading scriptures about Him, reading about His leelas or pastimes of Him or His incarnations.

There are two types of love. One is love at first sight and the other is to get to know the other person to fall for him/her eventually after knowing him/her better . Same case is with bhakti of Krishna. Either you fall for Him at first sight as He is too attractive to ignore or you get to know Him through saints , through scriptures, devotees , namajap. So for me He is my true friend , my guide, I have surrendered myself fully at His feet. I feel a strong connection with Him. He is formless or with form doesn’t matter to me. I feel He is always with me guiding my lifepath. I am not the same person as I used to be like. He and His bhakti completely transformed me. I love Him as my own . I can’t live without Him. He is just like my family member. This love for Him is growing more and more day by day by name chanting , by meditating upon Him , By reading His pastimes, Reading Bhagawad Gita , Bhagavatam , Ramayana. Earlier I was religious now I am spiritual . I have come to know about these aspects only by His grace. I assume He has chosen me for His bhakti. Now I am getting to know His wider form , the incorporeal form as well beyond His corporeal form. I am just following the path He is showing. Article got much longer but to define infinte , words can never be enough.