The Break of a Rosy Dawn-V

Sri Ramakrishna

oi-Staff

By Staff

Friday, July 31, 2009, 14:47

Now, if be so uncommon, and if it comes only when one has undergone a lot of experience, what is the way out for those who are intellectually convinced but feel no deep urge to take to spiritual life? The wise counsel given by spiritual masters in this matter is to live a life of moral discipline and integrity, alongside doing one's chosen spiritual disciplines with regularity and devotion. As one religiously follows this counsel, one's mind slowly gets freed from deep-rooted habits of cravings for the goodies that the world offers. This sets the stage for awakening.

Holy company, i.e. associating oneself with those who are spiritually inclined, is also a great and effective aid to quicken the process. When, once asked by a devotee that how one can develop love for God, Sri Ramakrishna replied, 'By being in holy company.' Holy men think of God. To them God is real, a something that they live with, aim at and commune with. Their life indicates a sense of 'reality' that they have as regards God. When one lives with them, one as well gains a taste for spiritual life that slowly works its way through the inner world of our being.

When we wake up in the morning, we naturally ask ourselves, 'What is my today's schedule of things that I have to attend to?' And having asked thus, we plan up and start our day. A man who is spiritually woken up also asks himself, 'What are the steps I should take to reach the spiritual goal that has dawned upon my mind?' He thus begins his spiritual strivings. When one wants to plant a tree in a soil, one has to first make it suitably clear and ready. One may have to remove a lot of weeds that may have been growing there. In spiritual life too, a lot of de-weeding of inner life takes place before the plant of spirituality can take firm roots. Many of our pet notions and attachments will have to be 'de-weeded' before our spiritual efforts start bearing any result. All this begins only when one has woken up.