Refocus on who You really are

Spiritual life is not just about not being bad to others or even being good to others. It's about disentangling one's consciousness from day to day petty affairs or even from apparently important affairs of this world. And importantly, it is about practicing to enhance one's awareness of who we truly are - the spiritual being, soul, who is eternal. Unless we restrain our eyes, ears, tongue, hands, legs, mind, intelligence, etc., from engaging in mundane subjects, we cannot effectively focus on and practice genuine spiritual life; we will just not get the time, spare energy, and even the intelligence to do so. Since people in general are not even aware of their soul, it's difficult for them to appreciate talks about God, the Supreme Soul.

The Identity and the Goal

A genuine spiritualist is never impressed by material accomplishments of anyone. Of course, the spiritualist does not despise or envy material accomplishments, just that they are irrelevant for him. They are just ordinary, no matter how extraordinary they are in the eyes of the general public.

Instead a spiritualist is impressed by genuine spiritual advancement of others. He considers such persons extraordinary irrespective of their material aspects like wealth, education, beauty, fame, power, skills, and so on.

Spiritual advancement means recognizing that the body is temporary and the soul is eternal. Due to the influence of ignorance, the soul identifies with the body and things related with it. Then the soul thinks in terms of I and Mine, even though nothing around him, including his body, is under his control. It thinks that to live the way he wants is the best way of life. Due to the influence of ego, it does not think that there can be higher truths than he can currently perceive by his limited senses. And he is proud of this attitude.

The spiritualist tries to reduce his identification with things related to the body. Of course he continues to do his duties responsibly and maintain affectionate relationships with people of this world, but he cultivates the conviction that he is not of this world of temporariness.

The soul belongs to a realm of eternal bliss and knowledge and to attain that realm is the goal of the genuine spiritualist.

https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/69

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ
tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī
yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni
sā niśā paśyato muneḥ

Translation: 

What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage.

Begin Your Journey of Joy

As long as we think, even mildly, that material situations are important, we are in the trap of deadly illusion. This illusion causes us to mistake the unimportant as important, the inessential as essential, the temporary as permanent. It makes us despair in unfortunate times; it makes us fearful about losing the good ones. It makes us struggle to accumulate more and even to just maintain status quo.

Unfortunately the world situation today forces us to struggle even for basic necessities and securities even if we are unattached to material situations. Gone are the days where one could lead a peaceful spiritual life away from the rigmarole of the general life of the masses. Life has become a struggle for all.

Most seek respite in the shallow entertainment of this world which leads them into denser fogs of illusion. But the wise seek respite in focussing on the essential ingredients of happy living even while the world conspires to allure them away into the sinister fogs of illusion.

Focussing on unchanging universal wisdom principles leads to a peaceful and fulfilled heart. Break the shackles of materialistic life, stop being impressed by material accomplishments.

When the mundane stops interesting you, your journey of joy begins.

It's Now Time to Enquire

Atheists write volumes of books explaining how or why God does not exist. But they cannot even explain why or how things that they believe exist exist; unless of course you consider chance as a logical, reasonable, and convincing explanation.

Due to some reason the atheists have got estranged from God. So much so that they are willing to be dogmatic about their chance explanation rather than allowing even a possibility of God.

Science was initially hailed as the search for truth but now it has become more of a rigid institution that is stifling free enquiry into the nature of truth. If trying to prove that there is nothing beyond matter is encouraged, then trying to prove otherwise should be equally encouraged.

What is the goal of humanity? To spread happiness and joy by harmonizing with the truth or to stop further fundamental enquiries about truth and try to be happy in potential ignorance?

The whole world is more or less is ignorant of the spiritual dimension of life. More research into matter is not bringing any fundamentally new knowledge to mankind.

It is now time to enquire into the spiritual dimension of life, individually and collectively. 

The Fuss over Conversions

The term conversion is typically used in the context of people changing or forced to change their allegiance from one religion to another. Religion in this context is one of Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and so on. The reason for such conversions is always material.

Some forceful converters consider it their right and duty to convert others by force to their religion because they have dogmatically decided that all other religions are demoniac. Others who share such beliefs try to convert not by force, but by alluring the backward classes by providing material relief. Some try to convert by blaspheming other religions. Other converters want to reconvert those who were forcefully converted in the past. Of course there is a lot of political strategy behind the conversions too.

Some people convert to another religion by choice. In some cases, this is in order to escape the oppression that the current religious system inflicts upon them. Some convert because they find another religion more amenable to their personal world view.

Thus, whether forced or voluntary, no one seems to convert to another religion because of spiritual reasons. No one seems to convert because the other religion provides a higher spiritual goal, a deeper understanding of life, a more scientific and systematic way of life, a richer canon of spiritual literature, a more refined set of spiritual principles, a more powerful explanatory power, and so on.

Real conversion is from materialism to spiritualism. Changing one's religion while still holding fast to the material conception of life is like changing the outer dress; it is superficial and useless. As long as one does not realize that within each body is the spiritual living spark, the soul, which is different from the body, which is eternal and does not die with the body, one's activities will continue to hover on the material plane. Both the converters and the converted need to understand this fundamental spiritual principle. Once the soul is acknowledged, the futility of materialistic conversion will become apparent and the need for uplifting the soul will become self evident.

To uplift the soul means to reestablish its relationship of love and service to God - the Absolute Truth. This is the very essence of religion. Bereft of this essence, a religion becomes lifeless, and converting from one such religion to another is inconsequential. A sincere seeker of any religion will seek spiritual perfection - love for God, and all its concomitant virtues. If the seeker is convinced that the opportunities for spiritual perfection are better in another religion, and if the seeker is courageous enough, the seeker will willingly take up the practices of another religion. But such a decision must not be looked upon as a conversion; it's just a continuation of the seeker's spiritual journey.

Forced conversions do create unnecessary turmoils in society; they are undesirable and should be discouraged. But conversion, either forced or voluntary, if characterized by a disregard for the eternal soul's loving relationship with God, is merely yet another product of materialistic life - mundane and of limited value. Real conversion is from materialism to spiritualism.