Career, Political field and Spiritual knowledge

How should society be organised, if at all?

Moderators: AMod, iMod

Post Reply
dattaswami
Posts: 653
Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2010 11:42 am

Career, Political field and Spiritual knowledge

Post by dattaswami »

Can You please answer my questions related to education, career, happiness, righteousness and emotional balance?

Swami replied:
First of all, you must build the foundation for the house. Education is the foundation and the house consists of your worldly life and spiritual life. Worldly life is the ground floor of the house. Spiritual knowledge is the first floor that is built on top of the ground floor. You must first complete your professional education, find a job and get married to the girl chosen by you, with guidance from your parents.

Then, you would have built the foundation and the ground floor of the house. With it you can live with peace of mind and happiness. It provides the necessary stability in life. While leading a worldly life with your family, in the course of time, you should build the first floor of the house, which is your spiritual life. You cannot directly jump to the first floor. The ground floor of the house and the foundation, which is beneath the ground, are necessary. The successful completion of your education is the foundation, which you have to focus on right now. Then you have to get a job and find a suitable life-partner who will help you in all your efforts.

You and I are not Ādi Śaṅkara, the Incarnation of God, who was born to set right human society. Śaṅkara directly ascended to the first floor of spiritual life, without passing through the ground floor of worldly life and its foundation, which is conventional education. He could do so because He was an Incarnation of God. By the age of 8 years, He had mastered all branches of knowledge and He took saṃnyāsa. By His 16th year, He had completed writing scholarly commentaries on the three divine scriptures of Hinduism.

After His 16th year, He travelled on foot all over the country for another 16 years to establish the correct spiritual knowledge. By the age of 32, His divine mission on Earth was completed and He even left His physical body! Is this possible for us? Despite some special talents that we may have, we are only ordinary souls, after all. With those talents, we do not become Incarnations of God like Krishna or Śaṅkara. Therefore, we should only follow the normal routine path, which is followed by all other people. While following that routine path, we can try to do God’s work, as much as possible.

You are interested in politics, but today, politics is a highly polluted field. Also, there are too many uncertainties in a political career. If you are very rich and if you are in a position to support your family and children without any difficulty, you can enter into politics to set society right. But understand that in order to keep society on the right path, spiritual knowledge is most essential. It is only due to the lack of spiritual knowledge that today’s politicians are following the wrong path of corruption. Hence, establishing true spiritual knowledge in society alone will set society right.

Spiritual knowledge reforms individuals and makes them perfect.

When individuals are reformed, society is reformed. This is also the main essence of the Gita. Krishna gave spiritual knowledge which established the existence of God. The concepts of the existence of God and of His divine adminstration are essential for establishing justice in society (Dharma saṃsthāpanārthāya…). When individuals in society learn spiritual knowledge, they begin to firmly believe in the existence of God and in God’s unimaginable omnipotence. They are certain that every sinner will face inevitable punishment. This firm belief causes them to avoid sin and do righteous deeds. Thus, when spiritual knowledge is established in society, society always runs on the perfect track.

You must actually see the other side of the coin. Instead of asking how one can be happy in life, you must ask how the happiness can continue forever. If you take the case of worldly pleasures, the happiness is not continuous and moreover, it ultimately ends in unhappiness alone. Temporary happiness, which finally ends up in sorrow, is not desirable at all! On the other hand, the Gita describes eternal happiness. It says that the happiness which comes after some initial unhappiness during the stage when one makes efforts, alone is eternal (Yattadagre viṣamiva…).

You must not only see your need of happiness in the present but also in the future. Some people give importance to their happiness in their old age. They work hard earn and save enough money for their old age. They also take care of their health through good exercise and food habits. These people accept some discomfort in the present, so that they can be happy during their old age. But it is not enough. It is even more important to make efforts to ensure your happiness after death. Merely focusing on your happiness during the temporary period of this life, is not wise.

If you concentrate on God, you will be happy now, you will be happy in your old age and you will be happy even after death. God is the best and only way for getting eternal happiness. His grace can be attained through spiritual knowledge and devotion. You can realize this perfectly once you study spiritual knowledge completely. You must be very careful in choosing the means of getting temporary happiness or the means of getting permanent happiness. It is most important to analyze your own goal very very carefully. You must decide whether you are seeking temporary happiness or permanent happiness.

===============
-By Shri Datta Swami
(Visit our website: www.universal-spirituality.org)
Universal Spirituality for World Peace
Post Reply