India is a great country with its spiritual roots penetrating thousands of years in the historical timeline of this world. Almost all of us have grown up reciting mantras, hearing scriptures, visiting temples and places of worship of multiple religions, participating in kirtans, and not to forget reading up on philosophers, thinkers, and spiritual practitioners.
Spirituality and meditative practices facilitate a deeper connection with oneself leading to more and more discoveries about oneself and the ambient surroundings, external factors, relationships, people, work, and the normal worldly life.
It’s not very uncommon for us to get affected strongly by the surroundings, upheavals, jolts, and distractions in life but if the spiritual beliefs are held high, one can overcome all difficulties in life.
Let’s look at the famous story of Bhakta Prahalad, whose father Hiranya Kashyap considered himself as God, and would kill anyone worshipping any other God. Prahalad was fully devoted to Lord Vishnu, remained committed to his spiritual belief. He survived the fire, and his aunt Holika died as she misused her boon, and later Lord Vishnu appeared as Narasimha Avatar and killed Hiranya Kashyap. The lesson is that despite the imminent fear of his life, Prahalad did not give up his spiritual belief and he came out of the toughest situation concerning his life and death.
Motivation, coming from within, is fortified by spiritual practices making it forceful, determined, and strong. Spirituality is a trigger for getting our perspectives right, understanding the situations better, holding on to our convictions stronger, and sustaining the chosen path longer.
Many a time, unexpected events in our life make us spend time thinking, and over-thinking. This is something that often increases our mental fight against situations beyond our control, and we end up wasting our peace of mind, continuing to struggle. Spirituality, in such cases, helps us in making decisions that help us progress and facilitate progressive movement in our life.
Spirituality simply increases our ability to cope, our ability to accept things, and change the course of the direction our life can take. It can help achieve the impossible and push new vigour into us. It provides a larger vision of life to us opening joy in our minds.
One of the stories is about sage Markandeya, who was a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva. He was destined to live only for 16 years, and when he became aware of his short life span, he started to meditate non-stop. He continued his prayers and glued himself to Shivalinga, as Yama came to take away his life. At that time Lord Shiva himself appeared by splitting the Shivalinga and gave him blessings to become immortal and remain youthful forever. He won over death. The moral here is that for everything we need blessings, and by taking shelter from the superior personality we can achieve the impossible.
Spiritual practice gives us a holistic view of things around us. It takes us away from being self-centred and attempts to make us world-centred, where we associate, relate, and connect ourselves with others also being a part of us. When we only look at our problems, we see limited things and do not get the big picture but when we see others and empathise with every human being our perspective changes.
It is very normal for people where situations around them control them. Often people get bogged down with their pressures, they try to control the situations, and they often fail to lead to further negativity in their life. The more they try to seek control, the more the situation goes out of their control making them worse mentally, creating sadness, unhappiness, and sometimes even depression.
Often people, when shaken by the tumultuous events of life, are unable to come to terms with accepting the reality. They tend to be overwhelmed by the past and develop a negative outlook for the future, while completely ignoring their present. In such situations, spirituality can blossom balanced thinking, thereby fulfilling our minds with motivation and positivity.
Buddhism believes in pursuing happiness by using knowledge and practice to achieve mental equanimity. Even Bhagwat Geeta attaches a lot of value to equanimity and advocates not losing patience during either favourable or unfavourable circumstances.
As has been often shared by evolved and enlightened souls, spirituality is related to our mind, our consciousness, and our deep consciousness. Looking inwards through meditation has been suggested in all forms of spiritual practices and methodologies, whether Vedic, Buddhist, or transcendental for that matter.
Spirituality helps us see that we all are connected, and in an essence, we all are part of the same one form, which we call God. We start finding pleasure and happiness beyond ourselves. It is self-motivating for us and enables us to motivate others in due course.
The author is the Festival Director of KidzCINEMA and CultureCinema, who also writes on spirituality and culture.
Twitter: @praveennagda