Spirituality and Empowerment: Encouraging Human Potential and Self-Realisation

Spirituality is the science of the spirit, the Soul, the Atman. It helps us to realise the truth. What exactly is the truth? We are not who we think we are — we are not the body, mind and ego — we are the Soul, a Spark Of Unique Life. The Soul is a part of the Supreme Immortal Power we call God. In other words, we are a part of Divinity itself. We are, in reality, ‘spiritual beings having a human experience.’ Our greatest sin is that we live as men and women when we are Divine. We limit ourselves and our potential because we think we are people. We are a particle of the Divine energy that we call God. God is a Power, not a person or saint. God is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient. Everyone and everything is a manifestation of the Divine.

It is important to realise the truth because the truth empowers us. It sets us free; it liberates us from all suffering on earth - the triple suffering of the body, mind and ego, and the Karmic cycle of death and rebirth. It changes our paradigm of life because we realise we are all one. Thus, we let go of our differences; we stop harbouring hate, anger, jealousy, and vengefulness. We live with positive emotions, trust, faith, acceptance, surrender, love, compassion, a sense of universal brotherhood and unconditional love for humanity and all of creation.

The realisation of the truth is what being enlightened is all about. Enlightenment is to bring in the light of the fact by dispelling the darkness of ignorance. Unfortunately, most of us live in ignorance, avidya. We are so busy and lost in this world, chasing pleasures, success and wealth, that we have little time to contemplate life. Why are we born? What is our purpose? What happens after we die? Not only are we ignorant about the purpose of life, we do not even know who we are. Isn’t it ironic that we are knowledgeable about so many things that we have taken innumerable journeys to explore the universe and dived into the depths of oceans. Still, we have never undertaken a voyage of self-discovery.

Spirituality takes us on a quest which leads us to self-realisation and God-realisation. One may ask — why should we turn to spirituality? Why is self-realisation important? The answers are fairly simple. To begin with, this is the purpose of life. If we think that making money, being successful and being an achiever is the purpose of life, we must reflect and contemplate. When we are born, do we bring anything with us? Even our name is given by our parents or our family. And when we depart, do we take anything with us? Keep aside our riches, even if our body is left behind. People say, ‘He has gone. He has departed. He has moved on.’ Who has? We are that. When we cannot even take a pin with us, why are we hoarding wealth, claiming this is mine, that is mine? Nothing belongs to us. Even our relationships are transient. We come alone, and we will go alone.

Consider man’s search for happiness. Some may say that life is about having fun and enjoying each day. While we must make the most of each day, does having fun bring us enduring happiness? Not really. And despite having fun, don’t many of us still feel something is missing? Spirituality helps us solve the puzzle of life. We all want to be happy. But are we really happy? We equate money with happiness. However, if wealth made us happy, then the rich and affluent would always be happy. But that’s not true. Money can only bring moments of pleasure, which is temporary happiness. Peace is the foundation of happiness. And true bliss can only be attained by the realisation of the truth. We are caught in Maya, mistakenly believing this world is real when it’s only a projection, an illusion. The only truth is God — Prabhu Satya; Jagat Mithya.