VAGDEVI SPIRITUAL PROCESS [#15004]

It is time now that we revisit and review the last three chapters of this series. The three stories more or less relate to our day to day life.

The first picks up the issue of our ‘future’ that we are often negligent about; the second chapter deals with our ‘past’ that does not bother us (unlike the case of ‘RPS’ who was much bothered about his past); and the third story draws our attention towards the dilemmas that we are, from time to time, compelled to resolve with no time available to us for pondering over the alternatives.

We cannot prove that we lived before our birth; we cannot prove that we shall live after our deaths; and we do not know what would happen after the present moment get transformed into our past. Perhaps, when we are still thinking about the last sentence, we may be having a few glimpses of our ignorance. Come next moment calling upon us to attend to some routine of our life, all our ‘immature’ realizations of ignorance vanish immediately and we rise like a man knowing everything to handle the routine.

The three stories given in the last three chapters of this series were short enough not to demand much time to read; but, they were not as short as not to convey a thought about the eternal life  that exists in the universe. We do not know if we lived before our birth, but that our forefathers lived then, is known to us. We do not know if we will live after our deaths, but that our future generations will be living in the future is also known to us. These are matters of common knowledge. We are living at this moment is also a matter of common knowledge.

We all know that we being intelligent living beings have invested much time and energy to prove or disprove the theory of rebirths of living beings. 

Maybe exploring about the physical nature of things is natural for us, thanks to our superior intelligence. But, our common knowledge also accepts things that cannot be conveniently classified as purely physical. I say, I am living today, but I was not there in 1948. I also say that my father was there in 1948 but he was not aware of me then because I did not exist at that time. By making these two statements I connect myself with a man who lived in 1948 but was not aware of me. We became known to each other later. Emotionally, we do not treat ‘my father’ or ‘my son’ as purely physical connections. There is definitely something more to it than ‘my table’ or ‘my pen’. If we extend ‘not a purely physical’ aspect of connection we become aware of something that we ordinarily overlook. My grandfather died before I was born. He was connected to my father just as I am connected to my father. My grandfather can’t be treated as a stranger to me.

What is ‘not a purely physical’ aspect, we have referred to. Is it not a strange mix of our physical, emotional, intellectual, egoistic and spiritual existence? And, maybe, a few things unknown and inexplicable are also added to it. Our connection and mutual dependence with living things is very different from those of lifeless things; perhaps the former is continuous over an open interval of time.

We can go on extending the theory of ‘not a purely physical connection’. Individually, I was not there before I was born and I will not be there after my death; but, if I dissolve my individuality in the plurality of the mankind, we can say we were there in the past and we shall exist in the future also. From this viewpoint, the theory of continuity of life follows the laws of logical thinking and is valid. Just as the earth had been orbiting about the sun since ages and would continue to do so in the future for a time period that this beyond our comprehension; we also have existed in the past and shall continue to exist in future. If we say that we, individually, are an infinitesimal part of the “Supreme” or “universal” soul that cannot be destroyed, we make a valid statement from the point of view of our being ‘universally connected’.

I do not find anything mystical, miraculous or religious about spirituality. And, if spirituality has something to do with things we do not know about, but believe in, let them be, as long as they make our lives meaningful for us and purposeful for the others.

If and when we find spirituality being considered as the cause of any harm, it would be because of the universal connection of ‘not a purely physical’ nature existing between the living beings having been snapped somewhere due to misinterpretation of spirituality.

There is more to learn from the three stories, but we do not intend to present lengthy articles in the series. We shall continue our discussion in the next chapter.

[This series is being written and presented by Promod Kumar Sharma, the author of “Mahatma A Scientist of the Intuitively Obvious” & “In Search of Our Wonderful Words”. This series shall be published only on this site.]