
Varanasi, India, the Luminous City
Harmony in Relationships
Speak always with a conscious control and only
what is necessary and helpful.
Purity
Purity of spirit is a beautiful state of being.
It comes when we are
willing to open our soul completely to the pure
energy of God and let
all the vestiges of negativity with us be
gradually washed away. As
purity increases, thoughts become simpler, fewer
and infused with love
and compassion for everyone we meet. Pure
thoughts have remarkable
power. Plans made in such a state of benevolence
are blessed with
success.
Experiencing Spiritual Growth Through Group
Interactions
Anyone who is inclined towards growing
spiritually will sooner or later feel the need
to taking up a particular spiritual path, which
provides him/her with an assigned code of
leading a spiritual life and helps him/her to
incorporate it in his/her life. This also means
becoming a part of a spiritual group or
gathering or community and participating in
spiritual study, practice like meditation or
prayer and perform service along with the group.
But, on the other hand, there are also many
spiritually motivated people who are not very
interested in groups and communities and keep a
distance from them. They are of the opinion that
it is easier to work it out alone by collecting
information from other alternate sources by
books, the internet, the television, videos,
etc. and progress spiritually. But the
relationship between spiritual growth and being
a part of or participating in a group is clear.
For the isolated and solitary person, growth is
limited, since the personality is not activated
to the same extent as when it interacts with
others. In relationships and in living
together, the various forms of hidden ego and
the different shades of the personality,
positive as well as negative, are stimulated,
creating the possibility of being more aware and
conscious about them, bringing about greater
growth and spiritual development. After all,
one of the main objectives of spiritual
development is achieving victory over the ego
and becoming soul conscious, getting rid of the
negative shades of the personality and further
enhancing the positive traits and skills, so
that they can be used for benefiting the self
and others.
Tomorrow we shall explain the various powers
that are required to experience success in
groups, which as a result, get enhanced in group
activities and interactions.
Soul Sustenance
Karmas In Spiritual Consciousness (Part 1)
The soul creates its destiny according to the karmas or
actions it performs. Vikarmas or
negative actions are those actions performed in
body-consciousness. Sukarmas or
positive actions are those actions performed in
soul and Supreme Soul-consciousness. Given below
is a list of differences between the two:
Body Consciousness: The soul is
influenced by any of the vices; principally
anger, greed, ego, lust or attachment.
Spiritual Consciousness: The soul brings
its original qualities of peace, power, purity,
love and bliss into action.
Body Consciousness: The soul is unable to
settle its past karmic accounts and so karmic
debts accumulate.
Spiritual Consciousness: The soul
balances out its karmic debt and actually begins
to accumulate or store credit.
Body Consciousness: Actions cause sorrow
and loss for the self and others in contact.
Spiritual Consciousness: Actions fill the
self and others with happiness and peace.
(To be continued tomorrow ….)
Message for the day
True effort lies in maintaining inner
self-respect.
Expression:
When there is no self-respect
it becomes difficult to recognise and use one's
own potentials. So whatever little effort is put
is only to show off to others and to seek their
approval. So this further increases such
dependency on others. Slowly all effort put in
is only to prove to others and hardly any effort
is put in for the self. So such effort doesn't
contribute to real progress.
Experience:
When there is an awareness of
my inner potentials and capabilities, and I am
in my state of self-respect, I am able to use
them for my own progress. As there is the
satisfaction of my progress, there is no
dependency on the others for approval or
encouragement. I can make effort with my inner
freedom. There is lightness and enjoyment in
whatever I set out to do, and I find quick and
easy change.