Spirituality encourages us to experience all that our heart can desire and mind can conjure. It guides us in how to take care of our loved ones and provide for them without taking away from others experiences. Soulful living helps us to live a life of comfort and at the same time to be soulful in our thoughts and acts.
You don’t have to sell your Ferrari to be a Monk!
Why should giving up something like a Ferrari (or your life’s comforts) resonate with spiritual providence in your modern-day living? When the modern-day (material) world is created through your hard work and is meritoriously well deserved by you, then how can any religious beliefs or blind faith suggest that the only way to your happiness and peace (excellence in the spiritual world) is by renouncing your life’s achievements? The myth that soulful living can be achieved only by negation of the modern amenities gets busted when you walk a few steps on the path of awakening.
Material World vs. Spiritual World
The material world versus the spiritual world debate seems entwined in all religious discourses. On the one hand, we are told that if we are to tread the spiritual path of an ascetic, then we will surely earn a ticket to heaven. On the other hand, all religions have their own description of this Promise Land, or Inderlok or Heaven, which entails all the comforts and luxuries known to man ranging from palace-like abodes and beautiful angels as caretakers. Some religious leaders propagate the theory of seven heavens in the spiritual realm with special privileges just like a privilege Amex card. According to them, a person’s saintly conduct in the material world determines their access to the level of privileges in heaven after their death. So, a million-realisation question is (as there are no dollars in the spiritual realm!) if you were to renounce all the material comforts, only to aspire for them in the afterlife, then why not enjoy them now, right here in this lifetime? Also apart from selling the idea of a better afterlife, what is so wrong about choosing material comforts today for your near and dear ones prior to seeking such fulfilment and happiness for yourself? Isn’t protecting your loved ones from the uncertainties an important purpose of your being?
Unbalanced World
We are born in two worlds but are made to live in only one. Modern education system teaches us to deal only with the outer (material) world and how to be its masters. In fact, since our childhood we have been taught on how to fend for ourselves and increase only our material wealth. From the ways to earn and save money, to learning life’s existential skills, all have helped us to increase our physical footprint. This one-sided outward evolution causes an imbalance between our living objectives and our life goals. In this imbalance state, we have a lot of friends on Facebook but no meaningful relationships. We find ourselves popular without doing anything constructive for the community. We buy all the things that our heart desires but do not feel satisfied! In essence, our material world sprawls and our spiritual world falters.
Soulful Living
Awakening is the first step in balancing your two worlds. You start not only to be aware but also to focus on your inner space of soulfulness. Lost in the outer rat race you had forgotten to spend time on your most important relationship—the relationship with self. If we don’t spend time with ourselves then who will? It’s only when we nurture the relationship with self that we can take it to a happy and peaceful place. Whatever we are filled with inside will only spill over outside, thus by going within we reach a happy state and spread happiness. It strengthens our thoughts which make our actions more effective in the world outside.So when you awaken to the soulful connection to yourself, you see the universe that you never knew existed before. Just as we wake up in the morning to the material world and work in making it richer, similarly when we awaken to the spiritual world we enrich it. Material world aligns your physical hardware with your surroundings whereas the spiritual world aligns your soulprint, that is, your software with the energy flows in your ecosystem.
A Complete Life
When you realise that your soulful self is a reality and your existential necessity, you seek to live your life in awakening. You see the possibility that you can enjoy your modern-day living mindfully and at the same time lead your eternal life soulfully. In this higher level of existence you work not only in increasing the width and variety of your experiences in the form of material wealth but also the depth and sparkle of them in your spiritual domain.In life we find what we truly seek. When you seek success, you taste it and similarly when you seek happiness you will surely experience it. Life’s true purpose is to seek both inner and outer beauty, to seek peace and success, to experience happiness and pleasures, that is, to live a complete happy successful life! Happiness is a journey and not a destination. Enjoy the soulful drive, albeit in your Ferrari!
Aditya Nath is a writer and a life coach