Stay connected to your soul

CHENNAI: God does not recognise our intelligence, sharpness, educational qualifications, skills, talents, wealth, fame or profession as much as we expect. This is because these qualities are basically the fruits of our own karma. He recognises only the divine qualities and characteristics in us. The amount of attention we give to the materialistic, divine and spiritual aspects decide the quality of our lives and the strength of our will power. To give a simple example, when we cook a dish, we must add salt, spices and seasoning in the right proportions to make it tasty. If there is an excess of even one of the ingredients, the dish is spoilt. Likewise, when all three aspects of our lives are balanced, our life is filled with love, peace, bliss and success. If we are not enjoying contentment, happiness and success, it means that we have not learnt to balance these three aspects of our lives harmoniously. If we observe ourselves carefully, we will find that there is one great difference between gratifying the senses and satisfying the soul. When we seek happiness only through worldly pleasures, the more we try to gratify the mind and senses, the more their craving increases and it is impossible to satisfy them. However, our Soul is very easily pleased. It derives great joy from listening to a spiritual discourse, reading a spiritual book or meditating. For instance, if somebody gives us a loving smile, the soul savours the sweetness of their love and feels content without expecting anything more. This is the difference. That is why staying connected to the soul is so crucial to our sense of well being. How do we integrate the materialistic, divine and spiritual aspects of our lives? We have to pay equal attention to them every day by meditating with awareness and resolution in order to balance them. For example, when we make a hemp rope, the tighter we intertwine the strands, the stronger it becomes. When we interweave the strands perfectly, this rope can even tether an elephant or pull a truck. Likewise, when we intertwine the materialistic, divine and spiritual aspects of our lives by allocating enough time to all three aspects every day, we are fashioning the rope of our will power. Now that our power of discrimination has been triggered by the changes in our lifestyle and the breathing technique that we have started practising, we will be able to assess how balanced our life is. If we have been giving more attention to our materialistic life, this has to be corrected. All of us would like our materialistic lives to be comfortable. We want to fulfil our desires and ambitions. There is nothing wrong in setting such material goals for ourselves. Shri Shri Nimishananda Guruji