Life and Spirituality

Happy New Year 2017 M ost humans aspire for a long life and wish the same for loved ones. Yet many mystics and spiritual persons have come to the realization that life is in fact immortal. The soul survives death and it is only the body that is discarded as a soul moves on to acquire yet newer bodies, just as a man discards worn out clothes and acquires a new dress. The source of our likes and dislikes, inner habits, emotions, joys and sorrows i.e. the essence of our personality is our soul and it survives death. The mind and body are only temporary acquisitions. The soul uses the mind to store and process information in some ways similar to the manner in which a person uses a computer. While computers may work with a windows or android operating system, the mind works on a God designed operating system. Yet not all are mystics or spiritual persons. Many are not convinced of the immortality of the soul. It is these latter who fear death and aspire for a long life.

I n a companion blog, I described the story of a friend from college – Alok Sagar – who after a great education, a doctorate in Engineering from Rice University in USA and a faculty job suddenly dropped it all, to take to the forests as a hermit and began service to forest Tribals, wild life and forests of Central India. He is now known as Maharishi Alok a title of great respect for the spiritual and the educated. In the comments to that post a family friend expressed disappointment and said the family had tried to convince him not to take that road. Good men and women of the world strive to succeed in their worldly careers and serve their families through that success while reserving a portion of their time, effort and money to serve the world, others in need, quietly, anonymously whenever possible for a deed of compassion does not emerge from a desire for worldly rewards. However, the saintly serve the world instead. Buddha and Jesus abandoned their families (although a

E ven a casual observer would not have failed to note how varied life of humans on Earth is. There are times, places and individuals for which it is utter misery or even worse while there are other times, places and persons for whom it is filled with peace, happiness and joy. Mystics and spiritually inclined persons have pondered over the question since the beginning of civilization and arrived at the conclusion that it is our thoughts and choices we make every moment of our lives that determines our life. Those who are doing well in life often assume it is because they are so very smart and talented or hardworking while those who are having a difficult time say it is because of bad luck. Mystics say it is neither but simply a result of ones deeds emerging from one’s thoughts and choices that is showing up. Some say it is fate but then mystics say those are just past actions and the link has been forgotten. Some modern scientific persons say it is also due to random happ