Some people ask spiritualists, “You go through the same problems as we do – what do you gain by your spiritual practices?”

To understand, consider two patients who are both sick and in pain. But one of them has been diagnosed and is being treated, whereas the other is undiagnosed and untreated. Though both of them are in pain, their future is dramatically different: the patient being treated will soon return to health, whereas the undiagnosed patient will stay sick or may even become sicker. 

Similar is the difference between spiritualists and materialists. The world we live in is a place of misery; it’s like a hospital. Everyone in this world has to, sooner or later, bear the brunt of the world’s distressful nature. 

But spiritualists have perceived life’s spiritual dimension and are pursuing it purposefully. That spiritual level of consciousness, which is free from mortality and misery, is our supremely healthy state. And those who are practicing spiritual processes such as bhakti-yoga are progressing towards that sublime level of consciousness. 

Gita wisdom explains that the fundamental problem of life is not the specific problems of life we are encountering – these will come and they will go. The fundamental problem is the materialistic level of consciousness where we are trapped because of our worldly attachments. And our spiritual practices are meant to raise our consciousness to the spiritual level – not to cover our pain temporarily which is what most material solutions do and which is what we ignorantly expect spiritual solutions to do.

To the extent we become absorbed in the supreme spiritual reality, Krishna, we can experience joy (09.02) – even in this world, what to speak of the next.  

 

Think it over:

  • How are spiritualists like the patient who has been diagnosed and treated?
  • How do spiritual solutions and material solutions differ?
  • How do spiritual solutions help us even in this material world?

 

***

09.02 This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.


To know more about this verse, please click on the image
Explanation of article:

Podcast:

Download by “right-click and save”