21 August 2008
10:53 p.m. IST

A seed of a tree has all the knowledge of the tree. It grows naturally into a tree like its mother. We have no idea where the spirit of the tree lies. No matter how many generations pass by, a banana plant still remains a banana plant. It grows to be as useful as its ancestor.

Likewise, we are born from a single seed of our mother and grow to be youthful in a set pattern, generations after generations. We learn, we play, and we mature into adolescents. Until the age of about fourteen our energies seem focused on growing our body. We have a vague idea of the existence of a mind but everyone is aware of the physical body that seem to carry the being as a vehicle. We know our thoughts and face the consequences of our actions but know we not the existence of a spirit within. We haven't seen it. We haven't heard it. We haven't felt it. Time goes by and we have fun growing. We miss our childhood once we grow. When we see a child we remember the spirit within. Yet we don't feel our own spirits. Then shouldn't we wonder what is this spirit all about? Greater people and wiser adults have failed to understand the true nature of this spirit. Even the few who had understood the nature of life force more or less failed to explain it in such a way that we can understand it clearly. That rare knowledge of a saint somewhere who has both realized and explained it in a simple language hasn't reached us all. We, as students of modern scientific knowledge, must question certain basis of spiritualism. For this, we must approach science from spiritualism and spiritualism from science.

If spiritualism can explain simple miracles that we see happen around us every day then science will evolve further to unravel mysteries. We must ask some simple questions. Let us take, for instance, four questions below:

1. We go to sleep feeling tired. Yet we wake up feeling fresh. Two of the best known sources of energy; namely water and food, are cut off when we sleep. Even though we don't work as much as we do during the day we do not feed ourselves. How can we wake up feeling fresh in the morning? How is that we feel tired if we oversleep? Are there other forms of energy? Is the Body then a mere battery that receives some invisible spiritual energy from celestial bodies? Or is Santa visiting us every night and leaving a bag of goodies inside?

2. Why do dreams come? Why does it not come when one is in deep sleep? What is the connection between sleep, dreams and spiritual energy in us?

3. Why does one Jelabi tastes sweet? And if we eat more than three or four continuously it turns bitter? Does taste exist in the sweet or is it some physical transformation of magnetic energy in our spirit?

4. What is pain? What is pleasure? Why does the same pleasure turns into a pain if, for instance, we indulge more or in wrong way - for example, when we eat five masala dosas instead of one or two at a stretch?

Even a child will acknowledge the presence of spiritual energy inside us when these questions are posed. While exact answers are neither known to scientists nor can philosophers explain the spiritual phenomenon in and around us clearly well, we can easily perceive the presence of a spirit inside us.

Developing the knowledge about the invisible spirit inside us and performing further magic as magicians or wizards in our adult lives is what growing up is all about. Let us assume that no one knows about God exactly - whether it exists or not, whether it lives in human or animal form. Still, everyone will acknowledge two things; presence of a power beyond us and the presence of goodness in every human being. Even a convicted criminal has some goodness in him. When we think of this goodness there is hope for humanity. When we can see a human in his eyes and feel only the goodness in him, isn't it the best form of worship?

If we forget the goodness in us, we turn bitter and cause pain to others and to ourselves. Seeing goodness is spiritualism then, is it not? Developing that consciousness is the spiritual path, is it not?

When one has faith in the goodness in oneself and others then goodness shines all around us. Can't it save the world? Imagine a world where every human being sees only good in other beings. Will it not be wonderful to live in? What use is ritual then, if it cannot develop goodness?

We must remember that goodness exists in us and in all others when we go to sleep each night. If we do, then, we shall wake up with happiness in our hearts every morning.

In the end, Goodness prevails. Be aware of your goodness always. Have a good time, moment to moment.

--
Be the change,
k.m.e.
"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. Gandhiji."