You have started a very nice and interesting topic. I would like to share my thoughts on it with you and with everyone else here. To be honest with you, I didn’t know what spirituality meant even two years back. Well, it’s not that I didn’t know the definition of "spirituality" as is given in the dictionary, but I didn’t know what it really meant. I didn’t know what it was about, and why it was necessary to become spiritual. It’s true that I had heard about salvation and knew that being spiritual had something to do with that, maybe even knew that salvation was the goal of spirituality, but still then, it was not that clear to me, and as like you, I was not interested in it at all till 2008—the posts here in the discussion board upto that time is evidence of that. Well, I don’t know how much I am interested in it even now, but then, my reading books on this subject shows that I take some interest in it, to be doing that.
When I started reading posts on spirituality here on the discussion board, I kept thinking what it meant—it just went over my head, all the discussions that used to take place here—not that some of them doesn’t go over my head even now, but then, I understand it better now and can proudly claim to have been a part of some of the discussions on it in recent times.
I was told by Anupamji that I would take to spirituality one day, and I used to tell him that the sun can rise from the west, but me getting into spirituality is just impossible. Well, I won’t say that I have got into spirituality, as in leading a spiritual life, but I have got into it surely, or else why the major chunk of books I have read in the last two years have been on spirituality?
When Anupamji used to tell me that I would become spiritual, I used to find it difficult to believe. After all, I was not interested in it at all. But then, being the big believer in destiny, and knowing how it can turn around people’s lives, I was not so sure from within that I would not get into it as I was showing it to everyone here.
In the month of September, or maybe October, in 2008, destiny made me take a small dip in the water of spirituality. I bought K.N. Rao’s book, “Yogis, Destiny and The Wheel of Timeâ€. I remember debating in my mind about whether to buy the book or not because I was not in anyway interested in spirituality and that book was about “yogisâ€, but then, as the book was about “destiny†too and also about “the wheel of timeâ€, and those being topics of my interest, I decided to buy it. And then, I will not lie, I also wanted to know the life yogis led, and what they had to say about life.
So I bought the book, read it and loved it very much. And the main thing—I got to understand what spirituality was all about. I remember telling an online friend, who was into spirituality and who knew, I was not into that at all, that I finally knew what spirituality means. He was a bit surprised by my comment, I guess, but then, I explained, and he understood what I meant when I said that.
That was that. Now that I had known what spirituality was all about, I turned my focus back to astrology. I was happy that at least then I would be able to follow the discussions on spirituality on the board and write a few lines if I wished to participate in the discussion—though I had no wish to do that at that time. But destiny, it seemed, had other plans for me—as Anupamji had said. I had to get more into spirituality.
A lady sent me a pm here during that time. She said she thought she knew me, and she didn’t know why, but she thought that she had to write to me and help me out!! At that time I was going through health problems and was really down, and the timing of the mail from that lady surprised me. It was like God had sent her to guide me. It was indeed like that.
She told me about spirituality and kept on asking me to get into it. I didn’t want to get into it at any cost. At last she told me that I should read the book “Autobiography of a Yogiâ€. I didn’t want to read it, and I kept on making excuses to not read the book. After that I finally bought the book and read it and loved it so much, I can’t say. I have thanked her many times for asking me to read the book. That was the second book I read on spirituality—and one of the best I have read so far. She stopped writing to me after that! It was like she had just come to get me into spirituality, and once done with her job, she didn't want to keep in touch. She doesn’t write to me at all since then!
I know you must be thinking what this story has to do with spirituality; well, I will come to it slowly. Now, I read many spiritual books since then, and honestly speaking, I have been reading spiritual books only, since the last 2 years.
Now who is spiritual? Well, a person who seeks God—nothing else, but God—is spiritual. He doesn’t find interest in anything material so much attracted he is to God. That person is spiritual. That is what I understood about spirituality.
There are three kinds of people who take to spirituality—the first type is the one who is born with spiritual traits, like Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and many others. The second type is the one whose desire for material enjoyment has been satiated, and he doesn’t want it anymore—that is when the interest in understanding the truth of life dawns in him and he starts walking in that direction. There is the third kind—those who have suffered so much in life that they either grow a hatred for material life or wants to escape it. They also turn to spirituality.
It is true that material things can’t give us eternal happiness and so not running after them is the best course of action, but the point is, even though I know it, even though I believe in it heart and soul, I still run after material things. It is true that detaching oneself from material things and thinking about God can find you happiness for eternity, but then, I feel that if I don’t get the chance to fulfill my wish, I will regret about it all my life. So as material pleasures can’t give happiness, detaching oneself from it, for spirituality, can’t also give you happiness, if you don’t willingly walk towards it.
Now, I have talked about the three kinds of spiritual people. The first two kinds willingly walks towards spirituality, but the third kind, who is driven by difficult circumstances into spirituality, is he really inclined towards it, or is he walking towards it because he has no other choice? I fall in the third kind. I feel if I wasn't knocked again and again by life, I would not have taken one bit of interest in spirituality. I don’t know what others feel, but I feel that way.
I relish every book I read on spirituality, and I think it to be the ultimate truth. It has helped me understand life better, and I would definitely have regretted if I had not read about it, understood it, but then, I find it difficult to follow it.
Now that’s what I think now—God knows what I will think tomorrow. I think it would be foolish on my part to show this confidence about never becoming completely spiritual, just like I had made the mistake of showing two years back—when I had said that the sun can rise in the west, but I can’t be spiritual. Destiny is such a power that it can, I feel, even make the sun rise from the west, and then make the next impossible, me getting spiritual, possible. That’s the kind of power destiny holds! Now, here I will get back to the story of that lady getting me into spirituality. I feel it was all destined—all timed perfectly. She kept on talking to me about spirituality, and I remember, we used to argue on this point, of why one should become spiritual, which she was finding it difficult to convince me, and it continued for quite a few months and some 60-70 mails exchanged in that period between us, talking and arguing and discussing, and finally, her asking me to read the book, "Autobiography of a Yogi" and my refusing, till at last I bought it and read it. I kept on talking at that time about my belief in destiny and my believing in accepting it, to her, but I didn’t know then that I was going against the will of destiny—not accepting what the lady said as destiny had chosen her as an instrument, to convince me to get into spirituality. I bought the book, read it and was interested in spirituality and liking it even! I was just going to start the sub-period of Saturn then, and Saturn is the 5th lord in my chart—5th house being one of the spiritual houses in a birth chart. I have been running the sub-period of Saturn since the last 1.5 years, and I have been reading most books on spirituality since then—Anupamji's predictions came true as you can see.
So, I feel, if you are destined to be spiritual, you will end up being that one day—whether you like it or not. It’s not a choice that one makes.
TO BE CONTINUED...
