Taking spiritual studies is feared more than entering a jungle. The first reason is, it was completely hidden from us in our educational institutions. The second reason is, there is enough of mocking, negativity thrown at spirituality in our daily media content.
"Oh my God !! You will become a runaway from facing life", "You will become inert, insensitive, heartless, weak towards facing problems." These are just a few of the common accusations thrown on those people aspiring to take up spiritual studies. Are they true? Here are my answers to these questions. I sincerely hope by the end of this article, all your doubts regarding undertaking of spiritual studies is clarified.
1. Will Spiritual Studies make me a runaway from Life?
Absolutely Not. The main goal of spirituality is to improve your efficiency in any field of work you do. If you are a doctor, spirituality will make you a better
doctor. If you are a sportsman, spirituality will make you a better sportsman. Ranging from the physical labour profession to the highly thinking scientist profession, Spirituality only improves your efficiency.
2. How does Spirituality improve our efficiency?
When our body is weak, our mind becomes dull. When our mind is disturbed and stressed, our body also becomes weak. Thus our body and mind are highly integrated
with one another. The importance we give to our body is not given to our mind. Great people of history are known by their personality that lived in their mind and not their physical body. Scientists, Social Reformers, Leaders are all
well known not by their physical strength or appearance, but by their mental characteristics. Even sportsmen whose profession is physical body oriented, requires a highly stable and calm mind during the game.
We employ our mind in every work we do whether it is physical labour or intellectual thinking. Our mind is the vehicle that drives this body. Wait a minute. Did i tell you that we employ our mind during physical labour too? Yes, of course. Imagine a carpenter cutting a piece of wood. If his mind is concentrating on something else, he might end up cutting the wood at the wrong mark.
Spirituality acts upon our existing mind. All it does is just a few adjustments in our mind's machinery. The adjustments are done by bringing changes in our thought patterns. Spirituality explains these adjustments with scientific logics that will be appreciated by any thinking man. Once these adjustments are consciously adopted by us in our day-to-day life, we will begin to experience the changes immediately.
3. Are Spiritual Ashrams a kind of Quicksand?
This is the fear of any Hindu parent. They refuse to send their children to a Guru because they think that their children will never come back once they get used
to the peaceful environment of the ashrams. This is also one of the important accusations thrown on spirituality. No Genuine Spiritual organization will induct a disciple without the permission of his parents. Even if the parents
permit, the disciple will be tested by the Spiritual Gurus before inducting them. During this testing period, the Guru will test if the disciple really has the burning fire for this spiritual quest. Does the disciple have enough
perseverance to put the necessary hardwork? When a disciple passes this test, only then he is inducted into the Spiritual Ashram.
The beautiful forests and serene landscapes in this world are also filled with enough dangers in the form of animals. As much there are Genuine Spiritual Ashrams, there are also few organisations which dangerously exploit sincere spiritual seekers. Such bogus organisations which use spirituality to exploit innocent seeker is called a CULT. A spiritual seeker must definitely learn about what a CULT means inorder to stay away from such organisations. Here is an article about CULTs and how to detect them.
4. Does a Bhagavad Gita book create problems with your cousins?
This is a funny accusation made on the Bhagavad Gita by people who have no clue on its contents. The main reason why this funny comment arose is because, Bhagavad
Gita was lectured to Arjuna by Lord Krishna in the battlefield of the war waged against their cousins. Please ignore such baseless and funny accusations. One famous Spiritual Guru asked such people to remove the Bhagavad Gita book from
their home and check if they lived with their cousins peacefully thereafter. Problems might arise between individuals due to N number of reasons and it is absolutely illogical to point the source of problem to this great book.
5. Which path should i choose? Intellectual (Logic) oriented or Devotional (Bhakti) oriented?
This is the beauty of Vedic scriptures. We all know that, in general a human can be classified into 2 types, either
Vedic Scriptures shows us 2 paths for the above 2 categories. It says, if you are heart oriented and believe in the existence of God, then take the devotional path or
6. I don't want to become a monk. Can i still undertake spiritual studies?
Yes, Spiritual studies is like the sun's rays. Its always available to us. As explained in the first question's answer, spiritual studies can be taken by anyone to
improve their efficiency in that field of work. Apart from efficiency, spiritual studies develops calmness in you which is a mighty weapon to fight the disease called