Nurturing Spiritual Well-Being
In today’s modern world, our lives are on the run. Everyone is part of a rat race. Some are chasing material wealth, accumulating money, land, gold and properties and some are running behind relationships. We can say that in today’s modern life, we are prisoners of pleasure, people and possessions. Momentary pleasure is mistaken to be eternal happiness and success is rapidly becoming one of the biggest means to measure happiness. People have mistaken success to be happiness. They don’t realize - Happiness is Success! How can one realize it? Why are people unable to realize that Happiness is Success? They are unable to realize this simple truth because they are not inclined toward Spirituality. What is Spirituality? Spirituality is the science of the spirit. We can say that in today’s modern world, in such demanding circumstances, the spiritual well-being of an individual is equally important as physical and mental well-being.
What is a lifestyle? A lifestyle is a behaviour. It is a choice of how one wants to lead their life. In order to make a healthy lifestyle choice, one has to have overall physical, mental and spiritual well-being. In today’s fast-paced modern times, people face many mental and psychological issues. Physical issues or bodily pain can be diagnosed and treated accurately but mental and psychological issues are on a subtle level that need expertise for diagnosis as well as treatment. When we are unwell and go to a doctor, if there is an irregularity in our body, the doctor would ask what we would have eaten for the discomfort to be caused. But if there is no bodily irregularity, then a good doctor would ask what is eating us for this condition to occur. Mental health issues include stress, worry, anxiety, depression and even suicidal tendencies. These are caused by the mind. Little do people understand that our mind is our enemy. It constantly bombards us with thoughts. Thoughts pour in like rain, overwhelm us and push us down the drain. The mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts. Spirituality makes us understand that we are not this body, mind and ego. This body is formed after our life is born and at death, we have to eventually, leave the body on earth and depart. We can touch every organ of our body and even see the scans and images of the internal organs but have we seen our mind? No, we haven’t because there is no existence of the mind. The mind appears when the cluster of thoughts hits us and disappears the moment the thoughts stop bombarding us. So, are we the ego, then? What is ego? The ego is a product of the mind that makes us think, ‘I, me and myself.’ When the mind does not exist, then how can the ego exist? Hence, there is no ego. So, once we realize that we are not the body, mind and ego, we will realize that we were the life energy that came into existence when the zygote was formed. That life energy is the Soul that gave birth to us. We are a Soul. This Soul is a part of the higher energy that is birthless, deathless, formless, omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient, called the SIP or the Supreme Immortal Power, that we call God. Therefore, we are a part of God. We are the Divine Soul. Spirituality helps us realize this, the truth of our life. Spirituality helps us realize the purpose of our life and also the realization that success is just the first peak of happiness. The ultimate peak of happiness is SatChitAnanda – Eternal Bliss in the Consciousness of the Truth.
So how do we inculcate Spirituality in today’s modern and demanding lifestyle where everyone is running at a fast pace towards an imaginary finishing line of the race that is like a horizon, the more we chase it, the further it gets from us? Nurturing Spiritual well-being is as important as nurturing physical, mental and emotional well-being. The best way is to kill the mind. For that, we have to still the mind. Our mind can be stilled by various methods like silence, meditation, chanting or simply focusing. When we observe or watch the mind, catch it and ultimately, latch it, it becomes still. When we still the mind, we kill the mind. We tame the monkey mind, cut its ever-yelling and ever-yearning tail and make it into a monk who is in silence, in peace and contentment. We should strive to reach the state of Consciousness because it is in that state that our intellect is activated and we are able to use our power of discrimination. Once we are able to attain a state of Consciousness from the state of mind, we will be able to observe all the negative thoughts and flip them into positive thoughts creating positive energy and spiritual well-being.
No doubt, today’s modern lifestyle is busy, hectic and demanding. People don’t get a chance to nurture anything. But just as physical health is important, overall well-being and health can be attained only when we are mentally, emotionally and spiritually nurtured and taken care of.
