Few challenges along the spiritual path

 Since childhood, we are taught to live a life centered around our desires. Desire to be a doctor or an engineer or an IAS. Desire to get a good pay package or to float a big start-up or to go abroad or to marry the person we like to become famous or to get powerful positions. There is a presumption in all these pursuits that we do not have something and we will get that thing if we can achieve these outcomes. The moment one of these goalposts is reached, we realize its futility and move to the other.

Spirituality is all about the realization of the temporariness of all these desires. To realize that none of the goalposts is going to keep us happy for long. The moment we become a doctor or an engineer or an IAS, the goalpost loses its charm. It is taken over by some other goal post such as getting a particular position or job profile. This so happens with each of these goalposts.

When a person moves along the spiritual path and realizes the temporariness of these goalposts, a big conflict arises. The society is driven by these goalposts. On the other hand, a person moving along the path of spirituality realizes the futility of these goalposts. This gives rise to the first conflict as to what should be the motivation for living. What is the motivation to reach the office in time, do hard work, have a family, take care of the kids, earn money, and accumulate wealth? Such questions also came to the mind of Rama, which were answered beautifully by Guru Vashistrha and Vishvamitra and well documented in Yoga Vashistha. 

Probably it's not that difficult to understand. The best inventions have been carried out by those scientists who were not driven by the goalposts to become wealthy or famous or powerful, but rather who were driven by the fun of research and inventions. The best of the music is performed by those scientists who are not playing the music for money or fame, but rather who love music. The best of the singers love singing more than any other reward. This is what Krishna calls in Geeta "Swadharma". If we focus on the work we like, work itself becomes the reward and we do not need ancillaries such as money, power, and fame. They come naturally, without any specific effort to achieve them.

The next conflict that arises on the path of spirituality is that since human beings are social animals and fellow human beings are deep into the material world, they become very demanding. Relatives demand to attend social functions, festivals, and ceremonies. Organizations demand devoting more and more time to the office. Friends demand time to socialize. Colleagues demand partying and entertainment. Kids demand taking them to different places and have fun. Since the person moving along the path of spirituality realizes the temporariness of these sensations as a result of these activities, he is not much inclined to invest time in these activities. He tries to explain that friends and family members are obsessed with the materialistic life. Such efforts fail miserably. Then he tries to keep himself away from these activities and since he has to stay in the same society, in one or the other form, he has to participate in such activities which makes him cry at the sheer waste of time and energy.

I feel that observation of nature and human beings both offer us immense insights. Observation of nature has given us the best of the scientists in the history of humanity. All the scientists have keenly observed different phenomena of nature right from the apple falling from the tree inspiring the discovery of "laws of gravity" to the water coming out of the bathtub inspiring the discovery of the principles by Archimedes to flight of the birds inspiring the making of an airplane. Similarly, observation of human nature gives us deep insights into the temporariness of the pleasures resulting from the satisfaction of different desires. It gives us deep insights into the psyche of human beings.

A spiritual person can face this conflict effectively by remaining grounded in the observation. The moment he observes rather than reacting to the behavior of fellow human beings, life appears magical. Each event in the material world reveals so many truths to such human beings. Observation of the behavior of fellow human beings reveals many wonders of human life. With observation, all such behavioral eccentricities appear to be more like a wonderful play of nature rather than an irritant.